Así mueren los santos (Patmos nº 290)

by Antonio Maria Sicari, Miguel Martín Martín (Translator)

"He narrado la muerte de muchos santos, pero todos ellos me han confirmado la verdad de esta antigua intuición "Cuando muere un santo, es la muerte la que muere"". El autor presenta así una impresionante galería de santos, "fotografiados" en los últimos instantes de su vida. Para todos ellos, la muerte es la ternura de un abrazo, el encuentro con el Amado, largamente perseguido. Contemplaremos así la muerte de místicos y mártires, religiosos y laicos, ancianos y niños, que han aprendido el secreto del amor quizá en una vida breve pero enormemente intensa. Mediante estos sugerentes "retratos" el autor ayuda a descubrir la vida como un viaje hacia una felicidad más plena, la de la Casa del Padre.

Genres: Catholic, Biography

153 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 20, 2020

Reviews

[Bice · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book I will reread often I’m sure. Read as an ebook but definitely will acquire the hard copy. It is translated from Italian. Wish my reading Italian was better.
Many lovely quotes.
There are Saints who are well known and many Friends in Heaven that I met for first time.

Father Antonio Maria Sicari divides the Saints into categories.

1 Dying as Martyrs
2 Dying of Love
3 Dying of Ecclesial Passion
4 Dying of Maternal Charity
5 Dying of Paternal Charity
6 Dying of Apostolic Zeal
7 Dying Innocent
8 Dying as Saints

Highly recommend.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

November 29, 2021
A Review by Anthony T. Riggio of the Book How Saints Die by Antonio Maria Sicari, O.C.D, October 27, 2021
This book was purchase, from Ignatius Press, by my wife, but I picked it up, before she read it, from her library as I was in-between books to read. It looked interesting. The author is a Priest of the Carmelite Discalceate Order; and it was written originally in Italian and translated by Matthew Sherry.

This book is not an entire biography of the Saints life but ones selected by the author based on his research and categorization of the 100 Saints selected for following reasons that the Church used to declare them Saints:

1. Dying as Martyrs; 2. Dying of Love; 3. Dying of Ecclesial Passion; 4. Dying of Maternal Charity; 5. Dying of Paternal Charity; 6. Dying of Apostolic Toil; 7. Dying Innocent: 8. Dying as Saints.

Many of the Saints selected for each of the categories above, were well known to me, but there were several of which I was unaware. I believe the categories set out by Father Sicari were interesting and I am sure he did a lot of research to develop them, and placing them into the categories listed above. The namesake for the church I attend is presented here, namely, St. Rita of Cascia. She is one of many I was previously aware of and I was aware of her deep love of Jesus and bore a form of stigmata through out her religious life. Her story of love of family was very familiar to me but the biography was lacking in many details. I noted also significant details were not covered in other Saints I was aware of and whose biography I have previously read.

I suppose this idea was the reason I was a bit disappointed in the book also I believe a lot of the negative things were the consequence of translation from Italian to English. I did sense Sicari’s love of the Saints but I had a difficult time seeing and feeling them in most of the very brief biographical outlines.

The book was easy to read and some readers may be satisfied with the limited sketches and some may even be prompted to read more expansive biographies. While I did enjoy the book in its totality, I have some difficulties recommending the purchasing of this book, especially if you anticipate more specific details.

I rated this book three stars out of five.