Lately, I’ve had a weird problem: finding good books on saints at our Catholic bookstores. The bookstores are filled with all kinds of books, including dubious material (like on the late Princess Diana, who is not even a Catholic).

I was not satisfied with the range of material available. The shops don’t seem to go much further than the life of the usual suspects (like St. Francis of Assisi or St. Thérèse) and those dictionaries of saints with a one/two page summary only.

When I attend Mass or pray the office, commemorating this saint or that saint, it’s frustrating to be unable to unearth more details. Even the Internet can only give me a short write-up. I want the details.

The Cloud of Not Knowing (Saints)

It is a deeper problem that you might think. Take, for example, St. Patrick. Everybody knows St. Patrick is the patron of Ireland. When St. Patrick’s Day comes by, he’s celebrated (along with many other Irish traditions). How many of those celebrating St. Patrick’s Day know about St. Patrick’s life?

I mean, what else did St. Patrick do other than drive out all the snakes? What was St. Patrick like in person? How did he evangelise pagan Ireland? I want to know the miracles he worked, his love for the Irish people and vice versa. After all, what makes him so important?

I’m sure if we knew more about him, we would love him all the more, but try finding a book on that. There are other books now about Celtic-this or Celtic-that, but those good old-fashioned saints books—they don’t write or sell them anymore, it seems.

Another example: Novena Church. It’s the most popular Catholic Church in Singapore, a Redemptorist mission attracting crowds of about 15,000 every Saturday. However, how many of the Novena devotees know that the church’s real name is the Church of St. Alphonsus? And do many of those people know about the life of St. Alphonsus?

If the answer to those questions is negative, why is this so?