by Rev. Alban Butler

Lives of the Saints Volume One - Introduction, Prefaces, and January Saints

Original unrevised edition. Hardcover — Illustrated — 520 pages

Excerpt from the Preface to the Dublin Version:

...And what is the nature and character of this work, which is thus placed within the reach of almost every family in Ireland? We presume to say, that The Lives of Saints is an historical supplement to the Old and New Testaments; an illustration of all that God has revealed, and of all the sanctity which his divine grace has produced among the children of men. It is a history, not so much of men, as of all ages and nations; of their manners, customs, laws, usages, and creeds. It is a succinct, but most accurate and satisfactory account of all that the Church of God has done or suffered in this world from the creation to almost our own days: an account not extracted from authentic records only, but one which exhibits at every page the living examples, the speaking proofs, of whatever it sets forth or asserts. As drawings taken by an artist, and afterwards carved on plates of steel or copper, present to us views of a country, or of the productions of the earth and sea, so The Lives of the Saints exhibit to the reader images the most perfect of whatever the human race, in times past, has yielded to God in return for his countless mercies.