Saints Behaving Badly by Thomas J. Craughwell

• Saints Behaving Badly: The Cutthroats, Crooks, Trollops, Con Men, & Devil-Worshippers Who Became Saints
• Learn about favorite saints in a whole new way
• Perfect proof that God can bring ANYONE to the sanctity
• A delightful, hard-to-put-down read

Saints are not born, they are made. And many, as Saints Behaving Badly reveals, were made of very rough materials indeed. The first book to lay bare the less than saintly behavior of thirty-two venerated holy men and women, it presents the scandalous, spicy, and sleazy detours they took on the road to sainthood.

In nineteenth- and twentieth-century writings about the lives of the saints, authors tended to go out of their way to sanitize their stories, often glossing over the more embarrassing cases with phrases such as, “he/she was once a great sinner.” In the early centuries of the Church and throughout the Middle Ages, however, writers took a more candid and spirited approach to portraying the saints. Exploring sources from a wide range of periods and places, Thomas Craughwell discovered a veritable rogues gallery of sinners-turned-saint.

There’s St. Olga, who unleashed a bloodbath on her husband’s assassins; St. Mary of Egypt, who trolled the streets looking for new sexual conquests; and Thomas Becket, who despite his vast riches refused to give his cloak to a man freezing to death in the street.

Written with wit and respect (each profile ends with what inspired the saint to give up his or her wicked ways) and illustrated with amusing caricatures, Saints Behaving Badly will entertain, inform, and even inspire Catholic readers across America.

About the Author

Thomas J. Craughwell has written more than 20 books on religion, history, and popular culture, including Saints Behaving Badly, Stealing Lincoln s Body, and How the Barbarian Invasions Shaped the Modern World. He writes a monthly column about patron saints for Catholic diocesan newspapers, and he has written about saints for The Wall Street Journal, The American Spectator, Columbia, St. Anthony Messenger, Catholic Digest, and many other publications. Tom has also appeared as a guest on EWTN, CNN, FOX, and the History Channel.

Dimensions & Specifications

• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 208
• 7.50 X 5.00 (inches)