A Field Guide to Saints

Saints have been revered and depicted by countless artists for two millennia. Where once their stories were familiar to many and their iconography common knowledge, today most of us are only able to identify a few saints. This book enables readers to understand the stories, symbols, and histories of saints through the centuries.

This pocketbook-sized identification guide presents iconic artworks depicting seventy Christian saints—all of which can be seen in a church, gallery, or museum—and identifies their key attributes in close-up detail. Alongside each image is a concise biography of the saint’s life and martyrdom together with a listing of the saint’s key facts: birth and death dates, role, feast day, date of canonization, what they are a patron of, and a list of their possible visual attributes.

With the aid of this field guide, readers will be able to identify each of the saints and find the incredible artworks depicting them. The book indicates where there is a relic of the saint on display, such as the jawbone of St. Anthony; illustrates examples of the life of the saint on an altarpiece or casket; and provides the location of both the main image and relics, enabling readers to see them in situ. At the end of the book there is a global city-by-city listing of key artworks depicting saints that are open for viewing by the public.