This is a collection of six essays written by Sigrid Undset in the 1930's. The theme that is common to all is that each details how various ideas or attitudes that had been established by the Catholic Church and that helped shape Western culture were lost when the faith in which they originated was lost or adulterated--starting with the Reformation.
In the first four essays, she presents a Catholic idea or custom, how it disappeared or is disappearing, then shows how that idea was manifested through the life of a prominent Catholic, many of whom are now canonized as saints. I liked how she picked less well-known people because it gave me the opportunity to learn about them. The four are:
- Spanish mystic Ramon Lull de Palma, who established a monastery in North Africa to enable friars to study Hebrew and Arabic, and whose goal was to spread the faith through persuasion and argument as Christ had directed
- English martyrs St. Robert Southwell and St. Margaret Clitherow, victims of the state taking control of the church
- Italian founder of the Ursuline order, St. Angela Merici, whose life shows how women with unconventional callings were respected in Catholic societies
<I>To St. James</I> is about the harmfulness of the sin of gossip--one that is only all too neglected today.
The last, <I>Reply to a Parish Priest</I> deals with later developments in the Christian world that are controversial issues even today, such as changes in the definition of marriage, and euthanasia.
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