This unique book by Michael Fuller gives the reader the interpretive skills to re-read the lives of the saint. In modern times, the medieval stories of the saints have been either simply ignored or have been interpreted as colorful examples of cultural history, all the while ignoring their central character and initial purpose: Christ. But the legends and stories of the saints were always told within and around the sacramental and liturgical life of the Church: in catechesis, in homilies, even in the names by which people were baptized. In other words, the saints were tools in preaching and promoting the Gospel of Christ. This clearly written book is a search for a way to read the medieval legends of the saints—all saints—through the stories of the Virgin Martyrs, so that that their original and powerful stories speak to us once again. The stories of all the saints were written by people who were immersed in the Scriptures and who lived and breathed not only the words of the sacred page, but its images, ideas, symbols, poetry—all the things that contribute to making an endless source of inspiration for the Christian imagination. It is out of that imagination that the writers of hagiography composed their lives of the saints.

Rev. Michael Fuller was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Rockford, Illinois in 1997. He holds a doctorate in Spiritual Theology from the Pontifical University of Saint Mary of the Lake and is teaching Theology and Spirituality at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary. He taught Medical Ethics at Saint Anthony College of Nursing in Rockford, Illinois.