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The Brief, Astonishing Life of St. Catherine of Siena
by Shelley Emling
In Setting the World on Fire, Shelley Emling gives an intimate portrayal of the fascinating and revolutionary St. Catherine of Siena.
One of only two patron saints of Italy, the other being St. Francis of Assisi, St. Catherine was ahead of her time. As a political powerhouse in late 14th century Europe, a time of war, social unrest and one of the worst natural disasters of all time--the plague, she worked for peace between Christians while campaigning for a holy crusade against Muslims. She was illiterate but grew into a great writer by dictating to assistants. She was frail and punished herself mercilessly, often starving herself, while offering moral guidance and inspiration to kings, queens and popes.
It's easy to see why feminists through the years have sought to claim the patronage of St. Catherine. From her refusal to marry to her assertion that her physical appearance was of no importance, the famous Saint is ripe for modern interpretation. She was a peacemaker during Siena's revolution of 1368, sometimes addressing thousands of people in squares and streets; she convinced Pope Gregory XI to return the papacy to Rome at a time when the Catholic Church was unraveling.
How did this girl, the second-youngest of 25 children of a middle-class dyer, grow to become one of the most beloved spiritual figures of all time, a theological giant to rank alongside the likes of Thomas Aquinas?
"This first modern, secular biography of St. Catherine of Siena details the mystic's brief life from 1347-80, a time of 'tragedy, violence, and corruption' in church and state." - Library Journal
"There is no doubt that general readers will find the book fascinating in many ways: Catherine lived a remarkable life and left an interesting story. However, Emling relies on the work of prior writers and offers little new in terms of either original research or unique approach. A worthwhile read, but expect nothing new on this saint." - Kirkus Reviews
"Shelley Emling has given us a lively contemporary retelling of the life of one of the most amazing women ever...Emling rescues Catherine from the hagiographers but handles her subject tenderly and respectfully, in the process breathing new life into a remarkable figure." - Austen Ivereigh, author, The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope
"It's a pleasure to revisit the life of Catherine of Siena in Shelley Emling's fast paced but thorough biography of one of the Catholic Church's greatest saints." - Sarah Gallick, author, The Big Book of Women Saints
"Relying on meticulous research, a gift for storytelling and obvious admiration for her subject, Emling conveys the unique and often bizarre life of St Catherine across a seven hundred year span to 21st century readers who will find in her story important lessons for our own morally challenged world." - John Moody, author of Pope John Paul II (Biography)
This information about Setting the World on Fire was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Shelley Emling is a senior editor at The Huffington Post and her work has previously appeared in such outlets as The New York Times, Fortune, Slate, The Wall Street Journal, The Times, The Boston Globe, The Christian Science Monitor, and FoxNews.com. She covered Europe for six years for Cox Newspapers, a chain that includes The Atlanta Journal Constitution. She lives in Montclair, New Jersey.
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