Saints of the Anglican Calendar

The Saints of the Anglican Calendar introduces us to the 232 men and women who are commemorated in the Common Worship Calendar. Nearly five hundred years after the Reformation, the Church of England is coming to a fuller appreciation of the saints, and their contribution to our spiritual heritage. Medieval accounts of saints' lives were often marred by confitsion and contradictory oral traditions, the writers' desire to tell an edifying story, and the exploitation of the commercial opportunities of pilgrim shrines. Embellished with improbable miracles and unlikely legends, these accounts made the saints seem remote and unbelievable figures, but recent theological scholarship has cleared away the accretions of centuries, enabling us to see the saints as real people who faced up to the challenge of living out the Christian faith, often in conditions of great difficulty or danger - and who made mistakes like everyone else. This lively and informative volume presents the experience of men and women from the days of the early Church to modern times - people from many walks of life, including some from other Christian traditions. They represent the 'great cloud of witnesses' who enrich our understanding of the Christian faith, endow us with a legacy of two thousand years of Christian values in action, and inspire us to walk faithfully in the way of Christ.