Sister Wendy's Book of Saints - Hardcover

Sister Wendy Beckett is a member of the Notre Dame order, a teaching order of nuns. She studied for her degree in English at St. Anne's College, Oxford where she graduated with highest honors. After teaching in South Africa, she returned to England in 1970 to live a fully contemplative life under the protection of a Carmelite monastery in Norfolk, where she lives in seclusion to this day. A lifelong art lover and recognized art historian, Sister Wendy began serious study of the subject in 1980. She writes for many art magazines and her wildly popular BBC television series, Sister Wendy's Odyssey, Sister Wendy's Grand Tour, and Sister Wendy's Story of Painting are seen on PBS.

Widely known since 1991 for her BBC/PBS specials on great world art, 67-year-old Sr. Wendy, an Oxford-educated sister of Notre Dame, lives a solitary, contemplative life in a trailer on the grounds of a Carmelite monastery in East Anglia and has published more than 15 books. "Delightful" describes both the author and her newest book, which offers her unique way of "seeing" saints. Rarely viewed miniatures and illuminations, drawn from Italian library manuscripts that will be on view in 1998-99, depict 35 selected saints, from St. Peter to St. Catherine of Sienna. Most have two pages each, with one or more well-done reproductions in color and Sr. Wendy's commentary on each, which flows from her own joyful vision of truth. The reader feels guided by a wise friend reintroducing other old friends and their legends. Her unique contemporary spin, often expressed in the present tense, includes deceptively simple minilessons. A born storyteller, Sr. Wendy intelligently introduces such issues as separation of church and state and the status of women. She speaks to everyone, removing art from the province of the eclectic and offering an enriching experience. Recommended for circulating collections in most libraries.AAnna M. Donnelly, St. John's Univ. Lib., Jamaica, NY
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