Pocket Dictionary of Saints: Revised Edition

by John J. Delaney

Book Overview

Identifies the approximately five thousand saints acknowledged by the Catholic Church and discusses their role as patrons and intercessors and their symbols in art. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385182740
• ISBN13: 9780385182744
• Release Date: March 1983
• Publisher: Image
• Length: 528 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 4.3" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

Good Springboard for Further Study

Before joining the Catholic Church through RCIA in 2000, I had quite the hunger to learn all things Catholic, so I scooped up a number of books to learn as much as I could. The "Pocket Dictionary of Saints(Abridged Edition)" by John J. Delaney, was one of the first books that I purchased. The stories of the saints have always intrigued me, even as a child growing up Protestant. This book is a brilliant reference for anyone, Catholic, Protestant or otherwise who is interested in the lives of the saints. It includes a brief history of about 1,500 saints, as well as lists of saints as intercessors, patrons, and their symbols found in art.Though it is sometimes too brief on certain saints, this book is the perfect starting point for someone to begin studying with. It introduced me to St. Athanasius, and lead me to investigate his life in more detail. It also helped me deepen the understanding of my newfound faith, since I came to appreciate these wonderful saints even more.Overall, a good beginning to studying the saints. Read about all of them briefly in this book, and then seek out more information on the lives, legend and faith of these great people.

Abridgement is A Misleading Term

Delaney's Pocket Dictionary of Saints has no fewer saints than the rival Penguin Dictionary of Saints or the Oxford Dictionary of Saints: it is a shorter version of a massive 5000 entry long dictionary and comes out to about the same length as the other two popular sources for hagiography.Delaney's work includes many saints who are not mentioned in the other works such as St. Christina the Astonishing. He also includes many individuals who have achieved only the designation of "Blessed". Where the Penguin and Oxford Dictionaries focus on those saints of importance to residents of the British isles, Delaney consciously selects (from his larger work) those who he feels have something to teach us by their lives (which is, after all, the primary reason for recognizing them as saints). He includes a few saints of the Orthodox tradition and some popular saints, too. (He is careful to debunk the legend of "Little Saint Hugh".)Delaney's faults include articles which are often too short and incomplete. The entry for St. Francis Solano, for example, fails to recount the story of the missionary's arrival in the New World (he, alone, of a party of Europeans remained with eighty African slaves on a sinking ship and helped them to safety). He often becomes too dry and this undermines his purpose of providing us with lives that will inspire. You should also know that this volume was last revised in 1983, which means that a small number of recent saints are not included.The strongest points in favor of Delaney are his appendices of patron saints and their symbols, which are the most complete of the three which I have mentioned in this article. I would not say that if you could only have a single dictionary of saints that this should be the one: I would, instead, advise owning it along with the Penguin and Oxford Dictionaries of Saints, to help add to the picture of those who the Christian Church has chosen to revere.