![]() Francis of Assisi and his early followers.Īs I skimmed over the contents of this little book, I was captivated by the picture of a man who tried faithfully, as the author put it, to be “conformed to Christ in all the acts of his life.” I read about how Francis kissed a leper and afterward abandoned the affluent life of his parents to live in poverty and serve the sick. Francis, a classic collection of legends about St. After revealing his identity and declaring himself a Christian, Alban was condemned to accept the priest’s fate-to be flogged and beheaded.īy the time I was in high school I longed to know that there were saints like that-maybe not the kind that you met in lanes or in shops or at tea, but who truly exemplified what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called “the cost of discipleship.” Then one day, while perusing the shelves of my school library, I happened upon an old edition of The Little Flowers of St. ![]() As soldiers approached, Alban exchanged clothes with the priest and sent him on his way, so that when the soldiers arrived they seized Alban, mistaking him for the priest, and brought him before a judge. Although Alban was not a Christian, he was moved by the faith of his guest, and after several days he asked to be baptized. One day he gave shelter to a priest who was fleeing persecution. ![]() Only much later did I learn that Alban was the first martyr of the English church, a prominent citizen who lived in Roman-occupied Britain sometime in the third century. Alban, who I figured was some sort of notable English bishop. I don’t recall ever being told anything about St. ![]() In the Episcopal Church in which I was raised, my knowledge was largely formed by stained-glass windows and a hymn that declared: “One was a doctor, and one was a queen,/ And one was a shepherdess on the green:/ They were all of them saints of God, and I mean,/ God helping, to be one too.” The list of these occupations did not lead me to think that saints were the kind of people you might meet every day, despite the assurance of the closing verse that there were hundreds and thousands more where they came from: “You can meet them in school, or in lanes, or at sea/ in church, or in trains, or in shops, or at tea.” I didn’t grow up knowing much about saints. ![]()
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