These humble words belong to heroes – heroes of God. Their lives speak even more eloquently for their bravery and their holiness. Great Saints and Saintly Figures retells with simplicity and charm the stories of these men, women and children who brought heaven to earth. All the greatest saints are here -. Peter, Francis of Assisi. Teresa of Lisieux. But pictured here as well are saints, less well known perhaps, but vitally interesting to youth today: the founders of teaching orders, St Madeleine Sophie Barat and St John Baptist de la Salle; the friends of the poor, St Francis of Sales and St John Rosco: the Negro patron of inter-racial justice in the United States, the recently canonized St Martin de Porres; the child-saints, Maria Goretti and Dominic Savio; and finally those extraordinarv candidates for sainthood, Mother Cornelia Connelly, Charles de Foucauld and Frederic Ozanam, whose causes are now before the Holy See. From these very different lives emerges a single inspiration: the nature of holiness is in the complete sacrifice of self to the will of God. Our inspiration is renewed as we read. The book is beautifully illustrated with portraits of saints – line drawings, photographs and reproduction is renewed as we read.