Description
That God’s Works Might Be Revealed: Stories of Saints, Sickness, and Disability
By Charlotte Riggle
Be encouraged by the example of faithful people with disabilities whose sanctity changed their worlds.
Enter the worlds of 14 saints who lived holy lives with disabilities in these immersive stories. Featuring rarely-heard tales of St. Luca Casali, St. Finian Lobhar, St. Hervé, St. Etheldreda, St. Cenydd of Wales, St. Pimen the Much-Ailing, St. Theodore of Tobolsk, St. Hermann of Reichenau, St. Gerald of Aurillac, St. Angadrisma of Beauvais, St. John the Little, St. Nicholas of Myra, St. Odilia of Alsace, and St. Thorlak of Iceland, this volume will inspire Christians to see God’s presence in the lives of people with disabilities.
About the Author
Charlotte Riggle has taught and shared stories of Orthodox Christian saints’ lives for years, and she is a beloved advocate for persons with disabilities in her professional life and in the Orthodox Christian church. Her children’s books Catherine’s Pascha and The Saint Nicholas Day Snow are perennial favorites; they are also among the few Orthodox children’s books that highlight characters with disabilities.
ISBN: 978-1-953427-25-0
Mimi Mewhinney-Angel –
St Paul says that we are all members of one body. Each of us brings our own talents and abilities and we are not to look down upon someone else if they don’t present the same way as we do, as we all work together. Throughout Christian history, those who have disabilities have used their gifts to contribute to the Body of Christ. Riggle writes short stories that tell of these Medieval Saints – ones with visual impairments, hearing impairments, mobilitiy issues, chronic illness, and more. Some were healed, some were not, but they all contributed. Through these entertaining and well-researched stories she challenges us to remember the end of St. Paul’s verse, “But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.(1 Corinthians 24-27.)
In the interest of full disclosure – I received a review copy from Park End Books for my honest review, know Charlotte, am in the acknowledgements, and will get her to sign my copy when I next see her.
Steve Robinson –
Charlotte Riggle has introduced me to twelve saints I have never heard of (I knew two, one only in name). She has stepped out beyond the normal sterile recounting of hagiographies of saints taken from the Menaion. These are little known saints often with scarce or conflicting information about them except that they bore an infirmity, disease or handicap that challenged and shaped their spiritual lives. Charlotte takes that information and gently weaves a somewhat fictional story about the saint that is historically accurate in time, place and culture both of the people and the Church as it existed in their country and era, from England, Ireland, Iceland and beyond. The stories are short and engaging giving the reader not just the story of a personal illness, but of the conflicts with family and sometimes the Church that it brought, and how it all shaped the life of the saint and those around them. Charlotte has obviously done her historical research to give us a sense of “real place” in her stories. Her brief summaries at the end of each story are wonderful. They give us the “bare bones” information and sometimes conflicting/contradictory history of the saint that she was working with and how it shaped her “fiction” in the story. These are “humanized hagiographies” and appropriate stories to tell to young children. Well done!