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American Saint: The Life Of Elizabeth Seton (2014)

by Joan Barthel(Favorite Author)

3.23 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0312571623 (ISBN13: 9780312571627)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Thomas Dunne Books

review 1: This wasn't a book I thought I'd want to read when I picked it up at the library, but when I read the first page of the introduction, I was hooked! After that, it was slow going and took me six months to finish, but well worth it. It was only slow because the language is proper, with lots of quotes from Elizabeth Seton's letters, during her lifetime in the 18th and 19th centuries. But, the story of Seton's amazing and tragic life is fascinating. I felt like I was looking through her eyes and seeing a first-hand account of life as a woman in the early days of America. She was not just any woman, but a brave, strong woman who's intense faith led her to be the founder of the first order of "women religious" in America, as well as it's first saint, even though she grew up as a... more Protestant, had five children and was a young widow. It was definitely engaging and felt personal.
review 2: Sorry, but using the words "riveting" and "mesmerizing" to describe this book are misleading. Not that I was expecting a thriller, but I did expect more time to be spent on the persecution she endured because of her decision to join Catholicism. The most interesting part was reading about her struggle with some beliefs and following her conscience and deciding to change faiths. I also enjoyed learning about the canonization process and how the first group of nuns began. Other than that, the book was pretty bland. less

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