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The Book of Saints and Heroes - Voyage Classics
Immerse yourself in a collection of legendary stories where saints fought dragons, talked to centaurs and healed troubled beasts.
Medieval Christians were expert storytellers, illustrating profound spiritual truths through exciting legends that captured the imagination. They greatly admired the saints and heroes who walked among them and preserved their memory in tales that are difficult to forget.
In this book you will encounter not only St. George and the Dragon, but also St. Columba and the Loch Ness Monster, St. Francis and the Wolf and St. Jerome with his friendly lion.
You will also marvel at the holiness and extraordinary charity of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, St. Margaret of Scotland and St. Vincent de Paul.
Gather the whole family to read these remarkable legends and be inspired by saints who were not afraid to lead heroic lives.
Includes original illustrations and new typesetting!
Paperback
First published January 1, 1912
About the author
Andrew Lang
3,003 books585 followersTales of the Scottish writer and anthropologist Andrew Lang include
The Blue Fairy Book
(1889).
Andrew Gabriel Lang, a prolific Scotsman of letters, contributed poetry, novels, literary criticism, and collected now best folklore.
The Young Scholar and Journalist
Andrew Gabriel Lang, the son of the town clerk and the eldest of eight children, lived in Selkirk in the Scottish borderlands. The wild and beautiful landscape of childhood greatly affected the youth and inspired a lifelong love of the outdoors and a fascination with local folklore and history. Charles Edward Stuart and Robert I the Bruce surrounded him in the borders, a rich area in history. He later achieved his literary Short History of Scotland .
A gifted student and avid reader, Lang went to the prestigious Saint Andrews University, which now holds a lecture series in his honor every few years, and then to Balliol College, Oxford. He later published Oxford: Brief Historical and Descriptive Notes about the city in 1880.
Moving to London at the age of 31 years in 1875 as an already published poet, he started working as a journalist. His dry sense of humor, style, and huge array of interests made him a popular editor and columnist quickly for The Daily Post, Time magazine and Fortnightly Review. Whilst working in London, he met and married Leonora Blanche Alleyne Lang, his wife.
Interest in myths and folklore continued as he and Leonora traveled through France and Italy to hear local legends, from which came the most famous The Rainbow Fairy Books . In the late 19th century, interest in the native stories declined and very few persons recounting them for young readers. In fact, some educationalists attacked harmful magical stories in general to children. To challenge this notion, Lang first began collecting stories for the first of his colored volumes.
Lang gathered already recorded stories, while other folklorists collected stories directly from source. He used his time to collect a much greater breadth over the world from Jacob Grimm, his brother, Madame d'Aulnoy, and other less well sources.
Lang also worked as the editor, often credited as its sole creator for his work despite the essential support of his wife, who transcribed and organised the translation of the text, to the success.
He published to wide acclaim. The beautiful illustrations and magic captivated the minds of children and adults alike. The success first allowed Lang and Leonora to carry on their research and in 1890 to publish a much larger print run of The Red Fairy Book , which drew on even more sources. Between 1889 and 1910, they published twelve collections, which, each with a different colored binding, collected, edited and translated a total of 437 stories. Lang, credited with reviving interest in folklore, more importantly revolutionized the Victorian view and inspired generations of parents to begin reading them to children once more.
Last Works
Lang produced and at the same time continued a wide assortment of novels, literary criticism, articles, and poetry. As Anita Silvey, literary critic, however, noted, "The irony of Lang's life and work is that although he wrote for a profession... he is best recognized for the works he did not write," the folk stories that he collected.
He finished not the last Highways and Byways of the Border but died.
Andrew Gabriel Lang, a prolific Scotsman of letters, contributed poetry, novels, literary criticism, and collected now best folklore.
The Young Scholar and Journalist
Andrew Gabriel Lang, the son of the town clerk and the eldest of eight children, lived in Selkirk in the Scottish borderlands. The wild and beautiful landscape of childhood greatly affected the youth and inspired a lifelong love of the outdoors and a fascination with local folklore and history. Charles Edward Stuart and Robert I the Bruce surrounded him in the borders, a rich area in history. He later achieved his literary Short History of Scotland .
A gifted student and avid reader, Lang went to the prestigious Saint Andrews University, which now holds a lecture series in his honor every few years, and then to Balliol College, Oxford. He later published Oxford: Brief Historical and Descriptive Notes about the city in 1880.
Moving to London at the age of 31 years in 1875 as an already published poet, he started working as a journalist. His dry sense of humor, style, and huge array of interests made him a popular editor and columnist quickly for The Daily Post, Time magazine and Fortnightly Review. Whilst working in London, he met and married Leonora Blanche Alleyne Lang, his wife.
Interest in myths and folklore continued as he and Leonora traveled through France and Italy to hear local legends, from which came the most famous The Rainbow Fairy Books . In the late 19th century, interest in the native stories declined and very few persons recounting them for young readers. In fact, some educationalists attacked harmful magical stories in general to children. To challenge this notion, Lang first began collecting stories for the first of his colored volumes.
Lang gathered already recorded stories, while other folklorists collected stories directly from source. He used his time to collect a much greater breadth over the world from Jacob Grimm, his brother, Madame d'Aulnoy, and other less well sources.
Lang also worked as the editor, often credited as its sole creator for his work despite the essential support of his wife, who transcribed and organised the translation of the text, to the success.
He published to wide acclaim. The beautiful illustrations and magic captivated the minds of children and adults alike. The success first allowed Lang and Leonora to carry on their research and in 1890 to publish a much larger print run of The Red Fairy Book , which drew on even more sources. Between 1889 and 1910, they published twelve collections, which, each with a different colored binding, collected, edited and translated a total of 437 stories. Lang, credited with reviving interest in folklore, more importantly revolutionized the Victorian view and inspired generations of parents to begin reading them to children once more.
Last Works
Lang produced and at the same time continued a wide assortment of novels, literary criticism, articles, and poetry. As Anita Silvey, literary critic, however, noted, "The irony of Lang's life and work is that although he wrote for a profession... he is best recognized for the works he did not write," the folk stories that he collected.
He finished not the last Highways and Byways of the Border but died.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 10, 2026
When my youngest son received this book from his godparents, I absolutely did not appreciate it. I considered reading saint stories to my children something that I did so that we could share the experience so I never thought to suggest that he read the stories on his own. Unfortunately, I did not read the stories either, because with six children, I didn't feel like I had the time to read such long, fanciful tales. I cared much more about saints who were connected with our study of history. As usual, I see that my focus on efficiency and practicality cause me to miss a treasure in this book.
The Langs, especially Mrs. Lang who really should get the credit for any of their story books, believed in the value of stories, including the fanciful elements, believing that they revealed truths and faith among peoples. With this viewpoint and her Christian background, Mrs. Lang takes these stories of the saints with their fanciful or unknown elements and fleshes them out, helping the reader to imagine what life was like for each saint.
The Book of Saints & Heroes contains the stories of 23 saints. I base this review on having just read three of them: "The First of the Hermits: St. Paul and St. Anthony," "The Saint with the Lion: St. Jerome," and "Founder of Hospitals: St. Vincent de Paul." In each, I felt like I understood the saint better, had a better idea of how each would have felt, how each would have responded to the situation in their lives, and how the fanciful elements make sense in their story after reading their entry. In each I also learned new factual information that I had not read before.
For example, in the life of St. Jerome, I have never read in any other story that he had a companion from his youth named Bonosus who went with him to college, travelled with him, seems to have had a religious conversion with him, and in time, separated from Jerome and went to an island in the Adriatic to become a hermit. It seems odd that no one else thought that might be interesting or important, but then St. Jerome had such a full life. Maybe it's just easy to leave out. One of the unusual elements in the life of Jerome is that he was accompanied by a group of holy women in his journey to the Holy Land and that they lived in a convent near him and consulted with him on his translations. People of his time accused him of impropriety regarding this, and I, too, have found it unusual. In this fleshed out story, we can better imagine their beautiful friendship, Paula's financial help to his undertakings, and the love of God of the ladies, which leads them to want to hear and discuss St. Jerome's translations. In all stories, we hear of St. Jerome's irascible nature. In this story, it is pictured with the legend of the lion who was given a job by Jerome to look out for a donkey who made a trip each day to pick up wood for the monastery from a man who loaded the paniers he carried. One day the lion falls asleep and the donkey is stolen by people in a caravan who pass by. The picture shows the lion who has returned sheepishly home without the donkey, and Jerome sternly scolding him, assuming that he has eaten the donkey, so in this expanded story, including the fanciful elements, one truly feels like he has better met St. Jerome. I found this to be true for each of the stories that I read.
I started this reading assuming that I would not like this book as I had decided that I didn't like it long ago. How mistaken I was! I am so thankful for Mrs. Lang for taking on this project.
There is no credit given to the illustrator, but the occasional illustrations are quite nice and fitting to the story, but not every story has an illustration. At first, I was puzzled why in this Goodreads entry for the Book of Saints and Heroes, Mrs. Lang's full name is given, and she is given first billing as that is not so on the physical copy of the book that I own. On my Sophia Institute Press copy Andrew Land is listed first in larger letters, and Lenora Lang listed below him. It is only in small print with the publishing information that we see that when the book was originally published Mrs. Lang was listed as the author and Andrew Lang as the editor. I'm glad whoever set up this entry knew to give Mrs. Lang the primary credit.
I recommend this book for those who like a good story and want to take the time to read a longer, sometimes fanciful story, in order to get to know a saint better.
The Langs, especially Mrs. Lang who really should get the credit for any of their story books, believed in the value of stories, including the fanciful elements, believing that they revealed truths and faith among peoples. With this viewpoint and her Christian background, Mrs. Lang takes these stories of the saints with their fanciful or unknown elements and fleshes them out, helping the reader to imagine what life was like for each saint.
The Book of Saints & Heroes contains the stories of 23 saints. I base this review on having just read three of them: "The First of the Hermits: St. Paul and St. Anthony," "The Saint with the Lion: St. Jerome," and "Founder of Hospitals: St. Vincent de Paul." In each, I felt like I understood the saint better, had a better idea of how each would have felt, how each would have responded to the situation in their lives, and how the fanciful elements make sense in their story after reading their entry. In each I also learned new factual information that I had not read before.
For example, in the life of St. Jerome, I have never read in any other story that he had a companion from his youth named Bonosus who went with him to college, travelled with him, seems to have had a religious conversion with him, and in time, separated from Jerome and went to an island in the Adriatic to become a hermit. It seems odd that no one else thought that might be interesting or important, but then St. Jerome had such a full life. Maybe it's just easy to leave out. One of the unusual elements in the life of Jerome is that he was accompanied by a group of holy women in his journey to the Holy Land and that they lived in a convent near him and consulted with him on his translations. People of his time accused him of impropriety regarding this, and I, too, have found it unusual. In this fleshed out story, we can better imagine their beautiful friendship, Paula's financial help to his undertakings, and the love of God of the ladies, which leads them to want to hear and discuss St. Jerome's translations. In all stories, we hear of St. Jerome's irascible nature. In this story, it is pictured with the legend of the lion who was given a job by Jerome to look out for a donkey who made a trip each day to pick up wood for the monastery from a man who loaded the paniers he carried. One day the lion falls asleep and the donkey is stolen by people in a caravan who pass by. The picture shows the lion who has returned sheepishly home without the donkey, and Jerome sternly scolding him, assuming that he has eaten the donkey, so in this expanded story, including the fanciful elements, one truly feels like he has better met St. Jerome. I found this to be true for each of the stories that I read.
I started this reading assuming that I would not like this book as I had decided that I didn't like it long ago. How mistaken I was! I am so thankful for Mrs. Lang for taking on this project.
There is no credit given to the illustrator, but the occasional illustrations are quite nice and fitting to the story, but not every story has an illustration. At first, I was puzzled why in this Goodreads entry for the Book of Saints and Heroes, Mrs. Lang's full name is given, and she is given first billing as that is not so on the physical copy of the book that I own. On my Sophia Institute Press copy Andrew Land is listed first in larger letters, and Lenora Lang listed below him. It is only in small print with the publishing information that we see that when the book was originally published Mrs. Lang was listed as the author and Andrew Lang as the editor. I'm glad whoever set up this entry knew to give Mrs. Lang the primary credit.
I recommend this book for those who like a good story and want to take the time to read a longer, sometimes fanciful story, in order to get to know a saint better.
December 22, 2018
This book about a variety of men and women of varying backgrounds and lives who became saints is a good introduction to the Catholic saints. As you read this book, you will get an idea of these people's faith walk. One criticism I have are that the writing is too factual at times and not as inspirational as it should be. The illustrations should also be in color.
January 18, 2019
Such a great book! I learned so much from this book! The historical stories of people defending their faith will always get me hype!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews