When Saints Were Young
Blanche Jennings Thompson
John Lawn (Illustrator)
1960
This volume was originally published 1960 and it was volume 46 in the original Vision Books for Young Readers series. There are currently 40 titles in print from Ignatius that brought many of the original books back into print and has since expanding the series with new offerings. There were 72 original volumes released between 1955 and 1967 and Ignatius has added 9 new titles to the series since the year 2000. This however is not one of the books currently in print and it took some effort to track it down
I love the Vision Books for Young Readers, and this is another excellent offering in this great series.
The description of this book states:
“A rich collection of biographies for Catholic youngsters from 9 to 15. Written by well-known authors in sparkling, lively language, Vision Books are based upon careful research and historical fact.”
This particular Vision Book includes chapters about the lives of St. Patrick, St. Genevieve, St. Thomas of Canterbury, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Angela Merici, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Charles Borromeo, St. Stanislaus Kostka, St. Aloysius Gonzaga, St. Germaine, and St. Louise de Marillac.”
About the series in the first edition we are informed:
“Each new Vision Book adds another exciting life story to this rich collection of biographies for Catholic youngsters. Written by wellknown authors in sparkling, lively language, Vision Books are based upon careful research and historical fact. Imprimatur.”
The authors note states:
“What does it take to make a saint? Only God and a willing soul. Time and place do not seem to matter. The saints whose early life stories are told here lived in six different centuries from the fifth to the seventeenth. They came from all kinds of families. Four were born in medieval castles amid splendid surroundings; two girls herded sheep; one girl was the daughter of a dyer. The rest were of ordinary, middle-class stock. They could claim as homelands Ireland, England, Italy, France, Spain, and Poland. Nearly all of them heard the call of God quite early in life, and many had to fight for their vocations against social customs, family objections, and even against themselves. Teresa of Avila actually begged God not to ask her to enter the convent.
Although old records of ten disagree and spelling varies, the stories here presented are substantially true. Nearly all of the saints included were lively and interesting young people. All of them had character. As we read of what they accomplished in their early years, we can only marvel at the steadfastness and will power of which even a child is capable when he surrenders his will to God.”
The chapters in this volume are:
They Called Him Patrick - St. Patrick
Patron Saint of Paris - St. Genevieve
Betrayed by His King - St. Thomas of Canterbury
The Bells of Siena - St. Catherine of Siena
The Ladder of Light - St. Angela Merici
Adios, Teresita! - St. Teresa of Avila
Light Over the Castle - St. Charles Borromeo
A Man of Little Heart - St. Stanislaus Kostka
A Piece of Twisted Iron - St. Aloysius Gonzaga
A Rosary Made of String - St. Germaine
First of the Daughters of Charity - St. Louise de Marillac
Blanche Jennings Thompson contributed five volumes to this series, only one of which is still in print. She has written a number of other volumes as well. I have read about most of the saints presented in this volume, but the difference is this one mainly focuses on their youth. I can see that this would have been a very popular volume with young readers when it was easily accessible. I highlighted a few passages while reading this book, some of them are:
“But Patrick was not always great or saintly. When he was young he was stubborn and lazy. He studied unwillingly and drifted along with no plans for the future until a sudden and terrible event changed the whole course of his existence.”
“For many a year Patrick tramped the roads of Ireland. He founded churches, monasteries, and convents. He had great struggles with the Druids, but he was strong and fear less and trusted in God completely. He was patient and merciful in all his dealings and had an especial attraction for young people.”
“Genevieve lived long before people had the rosary to help them pray. She had to make up her own prayers. Very often she sat for hours with hands folded just thinking about God and wondering what she could do for Him. She did not know that she was meditating and that meditation is very pleasing to God.”
“The well near Nanterre eventually became known as the Well of St. Genevieve, and it was regarded by all as a holy well.”
“There was no convent near Nanterre, so Genevieve and the other girls had to live as nearly like nuns as they could in their own homes. They were allowed to wear their veils and crucifixes whenever they attended church services, and they were supposed to do whatever they could for the sick and poor.”
“It was not until the twentieth century that a great artist named Puvis de Chavannes painted on the walls a series of murals in warm, soft colors, depicting the life of St. Genevieve so that all the world might know the story of the little shepherdess who became the patron saint of Paris.”
“The story of St. Thomas of Canterbury is one of the most dramatic and exciting in all the history of the martyrs. Poems, plays, and books have been written about him and many a hesitant will has been strengthened by the thought of his heroism.”
“In appearance Thomas Becket was rather aristocratic. He was slim and pale, with dark hair and eyes and regular features. He had a very cheerful and pleasant disposition, and if he was a bit vain it might be forgiven one who brought home such good marks in his studies and managed to stay popular with his classmates even though he carried off most of the prizes.”
“He had an uncanny knack for explaining things so clearly that the least competent could understand. Many a slowwitted fellow-student had Thomas to thank for getting him through an examination.”
“When Henry II acceded to the throne of England, Thomas became his chancellor, his most trusted adviser, and for many years his closest friend. Now Thomas had money, position, and power. He entertained lavishly and traveled on the king's missions in great magnificence.”
“The strong friendship between the king and the archdeacon was interesting and rather surprising because the two men were so different and because Thomas was several years older than Henry. The king was powerfully built and full of energy, a tireless hunter of deer and wild boar. He was careless in dress as well as behavior, but he was a scholar and encouraged literary endeavors among his followers.”
“When Archbishop Theobald died in 1161, King Henry wanted to make Thomas archbishop of Canterbury, but Thomas refused.
"Should God permit me to be archbishop of Canterbury," he wrote to the king, "I should soon lose your majesty's favor, and the affection with which you now honor me would turn to hatred. For several things you do in prejudice to the rights of the Church, make me fear you would require of me what I could not agree to, and envious persons would not fail to make this the occasion of endless strife between us."”
“Now, as archbishop of Canterbury, the former lover of elegance began a life of austerity. He resigned his office as chancellor and started a new way of life. No more velvet and ermine, except to honor God on His altar. Thomas now wore a plain black cassock with a white linen surplice and a hair shirt underneath. He kept to a simple monastic program, fasted often, gave alms generously and personally, and watched over his young seminarians with anxious care. He was a true shepherd to his flock, and the common people loved him dearly. King”
“Within a space of only three years, in the year 1173, he was proclaimed both saint and martyr, and Canterbury became one of the most famous places of pilgrimage in the world.”
“If you had lived in Siena about the middle of the fourteenth century, you might have seen a very small fair-haired figure in a green dress climbing that staircase and stopping on each step for a minute before making a little hop to reach the next one. That would have been Catherine of Siena, one of the gre3;test saints of the Church, but no one suspected it then. Saints start out pretty much like other people.”
“The Church began to lose its power, and the influence of the Pope declined. All the best traditions of the medieval days lost their strength. There were fewer vocations and the Church was obliged to take unsuitable applicants. The discipline of community life was weakened. The Church itself became deeply involved in politics, and eventually the Holy See was moved from Rome to France. A period of bitter quarreling began. It was into this world of religious and political confusion that Catherine of Siena was born.”
“Catherine heard other stories, too. By the time she was five, Thomas della Fonte was old enough to tell long tales to the family sitting near the blazing fire on winter nights. He was planning to be a Dominican himself, and he knew many stories about St. Dominic and St. Thomas Aquinas. The church of San Domenico where they all went to Mass every morning had been built in the time of St. Dominic, and St. Thomas Aquinas had preached there. Catherine loved the black and white habits of the Dominican friars, and she loved very much the rosary. She used to pretend that the long staircase was a rosary and ran up and down saying a Hail Mary on each step.”
“The only way that she could get a little time to pray was to ask to visit Bonaventura, but she couldn't do that every day. She played hermit in the dark corners of the big house and said her prayers wherever she could find a quiet spot. When she tried to fast by not going to supper with the others, someone always missed her. She 1nanaged to abstain by putting her own meat on Stephen's plate or feeding it to the cats under the table, but she found that it wasn't easy to act like the saints when you belonged to a big family.”
“When Catherine was about fifteen she had a strange dream. She saw a great con1pany of saints who had been founders of religious orders. St. Benedict was there, and St. Francis, but the one she looked for especially was St. Dominic. He came right toward her, smiling, and handed her a black and white habit. Then he said, "Be of good heart, my daughter, and fear not. Assuredly, you will wear this habit."”
“For the next three years Catherine led a remarkable life. She ate very sparingly. She trained herself to get along with only an hour or two of sleep. She kept the Great Silence like the Trappists. She got a primer somewhere and started to teach herself to read, but she did not make much progress until she asked God's help. Then suddenly it seemed as if God read for her. She could even read Latin easily in the missal and the breviary, although she could hardly tell one letter from another.”
“Angela Merici had never been to school. She scarcely knew how to read or write when she began her work, yet she founded a teaching order that four hundred years later is still following her rule and using many of her original ideas of teaching in Ursuline schools the world over.”
“The parish priest, Father de Gondi, was the only one who could talk reason into Angela when she insisted on fasting too often, praying half the night, or going off to a near-by cave for the day to try to be a hermit. Even he was perplexed because Angela showed signs of unusual spiritual grace, and he was reluctant to do anything which might interfere with God's plans for her. She was healthy and gay and happy and everybody loved her-but she certainly could be trying to her mother.”
“By the time Teresa was in her middle teens, she had become a very interesting young person. She was imaginative, generous, and impulsive, loved to talk to people, and would give away anything she owned if someone expressed a liking for it. She was ambitious and wanted to be the best in everything, but she feared humiliation and could not bear criticism at all.”
“Poor Charles! He struggled through his university years pretty much alone, studied hard, and made only a few close friends. Other students laughed at him for going off to say his rosary or his breviary when they were planning a good time at some inn. He went hunting or fishing when he could, and when his father talked of selling his favorite horse, Charles wrote a very strong letter.”
“Luigi was only seven, but this incident was the beginning of what he always called his "conversion." From this early age, Luigi knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life, but he did not know how hard it would be for him to do it.”
“Aloysius Gonzaga did nothing great in his short life. He wrote no books, performed no n1iracles, founded no monasteries. He just conquered himself.”
“Aloysius was truly heroic, and modern boys would do well to imitate his courage, his sense of responsibility, his devotion to his studies, and his Christian charity as well as his constant care to keep his body fit to be the temple of his soul.”
“Germaine Cousin was the name she went by. Nobody seemed to know ·where she came from. Some said that she was an orphan, the child of a servant girl. Others said that she had been abandoned by her mother and taken into the Cousin home to be brought up as a servant. Still others insisted that she was the daughter of Laurent Cousin, born in 1579 in Pibrac, and that her mother was Marie Laroche, who died when the child was very s1nall. Nobody really cared.”
“After that night the people of the village began to regard Germaine as a remarkably holy person, perhaps even a saint. They noted how faithfully she attended early Mass, how great a devotion she had to the Blessed Virgin, how she seemed always to be saying her rosary (she had a real one now that the priest had given her when he saw the one she had made of string) and how devoutly she recited the Angelus. She always dropped to her knees at the very first sound of the bell no matter where she Was or who was watching her.”
“More than 400 accredited miracles were recorded during the course of Germaine's canonization, and most of them were performed on behalf of people who were hungry or sick as she had been most of her life”
“But Monsieur Vincent had his way, and the beautiful white cornet of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul (whom we usually now call Sisters of Charity) is probably the most distinctive and best known of all the headdresses worn by women in religion. It has become a symbol of mercy and compassion the world over.”
I hope those quotes give you a feel for this volume. It was truly a blessing to read, and now to be able to share with my children. It introduces you to some very diverse saints. But it does so through the eyes of starting with their youth. If you can track it down I can easily recommend it.
I find myself alternating between book in this series that are still available from Ignatius and the older out of print ones. I love this book and all I have read to date in the series! My two youngest both teenagers enjoy the Vision Books, I am in my fifties and I love them, those Ignatius brought back in print, the new expansions of the series, and the originals I can lay my hands on that Ignatius has not licensed. It would be an excellent volume for any home, school, or church library! A great pity it is out of print.
p.s. Sorry for the quality of the cover, could not find a good one online. If you have a better one please send me a copy.
Note: This book is part of a series of reviews: 2025 Catholic Reading Plan!
Books in the Vision Books Saints Biographies:
The Cure of Ars
Edmund Campion
Florence Nightingale's Nuns
Fr. Marquette and the Great Rivers
Francis and Clare, Saints of Assisi
Kateri Tekakwitha
Mother Cabrini, Missionary to the World
Mother Seton and the Sisters of Charity
Saint Anthony and the Christ Child
Saint Catherine Laboure and the Miraculous Medal
Saint Dominic and the Rosary
Saint Elizabeth's Three Crowns
Saint Francis of the Seven Seas
Saint Helena and the True Cross
Saint Ignatius and the Company of Jesus
Saint Isaac and the Indians
Saint Katherine Drexel
Saint Louis and the Last Crusade
Saint Philip of the Joyous Heart
Saint Therese and the Roses
Saint Thomas Aquinas and the Preaching Beggars
Saint Thomas More of London
Vincent De Paul: Saint of Charity
…
Out of Print books in the Series:
Catholic Campuses, Stories of American Catholic Colleges
Champions in Sports and Spirit
Children Welcome: Villages for Boys and Girls
Christmas and the Saints
Columbus and the New World
Dear Philippine: Mission of Mother Duchesne
Edel Quinn: Beneath the Southern Cross
Frances Warde and the First Sisters of Mercy
Good Pope John b
Governor Al Smith
In American Vineyards, Religious Orders in the United States
John Carroll Bishop and Patriot
John Neumann, The Children's Bishop
Kit Carson of the Old West
Lydia Longley, the First American Nun
Marguerite Bourgeoys, Pioneer Teacher
Martin de Porres, Saint of the New World
Modern Crusaders
More Champions in Sports and Spirit
Mother Barat's Vineyard
My Eskimos: A Priest in the Artic
Peter and Paul: The Rock and the Sword
Peter Claver, Saint Among Slaves
Pope Pius XII, the World's Shepherd
Rose Hawthorne: The Pilgramage of Nathaniel's Daughter
Saints of the Byzantine World
Sarah Peter: The Dream and the Harvest
St. Augustine and His Search for Faith
St. Francis de Sales
St. Gregory the Great, Consul of God
St. Jerome and the Bible
St. Margaret Mary, Apostle of the Sacred Heart
The Bible Story, The Promised Lord and His Coming
The Cross in the West
The Ursulines, Nuns of Adventure
…
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