The saints are “in” again, and it was a shrewd publishing idea to get Anne Fremantle to present “the lives of thirteen heroic saints,” from Paul to Frances Cabrini. Although not the stylistic equal of her Three-Cornered Hat, Saints Alive! is not only a pleasure to read, but bears witness to the author’s long-time study of world religions and her professional skills dealing with popular history and biography. Nevertheless, the book is a disappointment, especially if one considers the high possibilities of subject and author.
Probably the main problem derived from the restrictions of the editorial assignment: there were too many saints to cover in a small book, and too much emphasis on historical information to allow proper follow-through on the teasing line from the Introduction, “What is required of anyone who aspires to become a saint is to become what they were meant to be.” The reader will be newly challenged by Mrs. Fremantle’s treatment of Francis of Assisi, Thomas More, Francis de Sales, and Therese of Lisieux, but Helena was a vain attempt (no material to work with), Paul suffers from an uneasy blending of Acts and the historical research of Michael Grant, and poor Bridget of Sweden gets lost in an almost comically hurried parade of events and details.
What is more important and surprising in so practiced an author is a confusion of tone. Observations suggesting a keen sense both of psychology and the sovereignty of God’s grace are undercut by a surprising emphasis on saints as wonder-workers; an economical presentation of the historical context is frequently interrupted for snatches of pious legend, as if both are to be read in the same way. It is not that the legendary material is unimportant, often arising spontaneously during the saint’s lifetime or immediately afterwards, but Mrs. Fremantle seems strangely reluctant to comment on its underlying significance, as if that were to “explain away” the holy.
The result is that the subtly profound viewpoint of the author doesn’t adequately come through. The general Catholic reader to whom the book is ad- dressed could even be encouraged to a new version of pre-Vatican II triumphalism by some of the brief summaries of saintly relevance with which the chapters too neatly conclude, as well as by misdirected shots at “Women’s Lib,” or loaded comparisons between Christian and Eastern holy men. Saints Alive! should attract a wide audience and surely fulfills its purpose by drawing all but the most insensitive to reflect on the meaning of holiness. Nevertheless, I am impelled to sin against the First Commandment for book reviewers—Avoid talking about a different book than the one you’ve got before you—and ask the publisher to press Mrs. Fremantle to do a full-length study of any saint she chooses (my preference would be someone uncanonized). And let her write her own title this time!
Saints Alive!
Anne Freemantle
Doubleday
$7.95 | 183 pp.
