A Flight of Saints

by Elizabeth Braithwaite

Northern Italy, 1179. Sister Lucia has had enough of cruelty and enforced silence. Along with four other novices, she mounts a daring escape from the northern Italian convent where they've lived for most of their young lives, and together they flee across the Alps to the German convent of their heroine Hildegard of Bingen. But abuse has left its mark, and soon Lucia despairs of ever reaching Bingen let alone getting her unruly tribe inside its doors. After all, what convent would admit a thief, a murderer, a sex-obsessive, or a stigmata fraud? In the meantime, she hasn't been exactly honest about knowing how to get to Bingen, nor has she considered how they will eat, and how they will evade the bounty hunters sent to capture and return them to St. Agatha's Convent. Let the bickering begin. They rescue a Templar from certain death, which buys them protection, but it’s not enough. As the terrors of the journey mount, everyone gets blood on their hands. Then things get worse.

A Flight of Saints pays homage to the medieval quest story. Darkly comic and at times violent, it confronts questions of faith, unlikely friendships, and buried trauma. It will appeal to fans of The Derry Girls and The Sisters Brothers.

374 pages, Paperback

Published March 11, 2025

Reviews

[Vanessa Shields · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jane Christmas seamlessly makes the leap from non-fiction (memoir) to fiction with her debut novel A Flight of Saints. Writing under the pseudonym Elizabeth Braithwaite, the choice to use this name was not “an attempt at subterfuge or trickery, but a genuine desire to be free from expectation and have new writing judged afresh.” Perhaps an even deeper-dive into ‘free from expectations’ and ‘writing judged anew’ includes the fact that this novel is self-published. In these regards, A Flight of Saints is truly an adventurous flight into new and exciting literary excellence for Christmas – and it’s already nominated for an award!

A Flight of Saints is a female-centric, feminist, spiritual journey-driven story about five nuns who escape an abuse-heavy convent, traveling the harsh forests and dangerous edges of the Alps towards a convent led by their heroine Hildegard of Bingen. Each nun comes with a unique set of ideals, commitments to the cloth, and shifting self-awareness that bounce and bang against the harried treacherousness of twelfth-century travel (sans electricity, tents, even a good pair of boots!), challenging leadership roles, friendship, and sisterhood. Led by a steadfast, dedicated, yet flawed main character Sister Lucia, the internal conscience of this quest-driven tale spins like a determined dreidel.

Layered with Braithwaite’s intelligent comedy, impressive knowledge of female saints, religious texts and well-researched settings in twelfth-century life, A Flight of Saints offers readers an adventure story that both frazzles and frees ideals and beliefs about religion, friendship, violence against women, motherhood, home, family, and the power of unconditional love – transcending time, and showing how antiquated experiences for women are comparable to contemporary realities, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

A Flight of Saints is a fast-read, as Christmas’ narrative-driven, vulnerable-yet-sassy memoirist’s voice translates beautifully into Braithwaite’s fictitious world of arrive-at-all-costs, coming-of-age, we-can-do-it plot points that hit beats both emotional and physical. You care about the nuns, some more than others, but certainly there is relate-ability, and her well-timed, revelatory, origin story developments for each woman lift the storytelling into the realm of literary brilliance.

It is a feminist move to self-publish, especially after being under the tar-feathered wings of a Big Five publisher. This active energy of perseverance, of self-preservation, of self-propulsion is a character in the story, for sure, and reflects Christmas’ personal experiences of reverence with nuns, navigating a sometimes dangerous literary landscape, Alp-like in its jaggedness, and a sexual assault that will forever resonate in her physical body…and her body of work.

It’s no secret I’m a major fan of Jane Christmas, the writer, the mentor, the woman, the mother, but with A Flight of Saints in the world as yet another extension of her bravery and storytelling prowess, I’m feeling more disciple than fan! There are many, many instances of outstanding writing throughout the story that stopped me in my reading tracks to gush and cheer. For example, this bit exemplifies the depth and the courage of not only the women, but of authorial voice:

“This was the true nature of our origins: We were all scourged by the loss of home and family. None of us belonged to any place or to anyone. And I realised that, broken as we were, they were all I had, and I was all they had. We were all saints because we had suffered.”


Kudos extend to the linocut artist who created the cover art was Haychley Webb, map and cover designer Stephanie Hofmann (yes, there’s a stunning map at the beginning of the book!), and book designer Dinah Drazin for adding visual beauty and fun to the book.

Find out more incredible info and writerly process sharing at www.janechristmas.ca!

[Mr J McN · Rating 5 out of 5]

You’re on the journey with them! Enough detail for the senses to fold into the time and space for you to be carried along. Very poignant and very funny. You grow to love the characters and their idiosyncrasies. Great ending, will have you on the edge of your seat.

[Darlene Foster · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the first page, I became fascinated by the story of five teenage twelfth-century nuns escaping the confines of an abbey run by a cruel Mother Superior. They travel from Italy to Germany, crossing the Alps. They face terrible hardships with fear and hunger as their constant companions. The story is told from the point of view of Sister Lucia, who has only known cloistered life. Braving the outside world, without a clear plan, proves to me more treacherous than she imagined. I loved all the characters, each with their own story and secrets. They are young girls, however, and "sibling" rivalry rears its ugly head. Does Lucia have the skills and heart to lead this group to their destiny?

The author has included some wonderful old words and phrases that bring the reader into the twelfth century. The terrain they traverse is well described. I closed the book and wanted to start reading it again. These five young women will stay with me for a long time.
"We are all saints, because we have suffered." page 229

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

[Stephanie MacKendrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up “A Flight of Saints” by Elizabeth Braithwaite with modest expectations as the subject matter is outside my usual genres - books based on religion or religious subject matter are definitely not in my wheelhouse, but I am a fan of Jane Christmas’s writing and when I saw that she is now writing fiction under the pen name Elizabeth Braithwaite, I took a chance and I’m very glad I did. From the first page, I was totally captivated.

The story follows five young nuns undertaking a brave and perilous journey to find freedom from the life of abuse and denigration they experience when their convent is taken over by a sadistic and unrelenting “Mother”. Their desination is a convent run by Hildegard of Bingen where they felt the positive and nurturing conditions they had previously enjoyed could be found. The vivid descriptions transported me into 12th century Italy with all the facets of life in that time. Braithwaite brings the characters to life – interesting, flawed, conflicted, brave, tough, wise in turns. There is no shortage of action as they are pursued by bounty hunters sent to return them to the convent. A great read that I would highly recommend.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF---I got bogged down in the Alps, just like the nuns. The beginning was super promising, but then five main characters meant that none of them were developed well---especially the protaganist!