By Tony Rossi,
Director of Communications
As Gary Jansen was preparing for Confirmation at age 13, his mother gifted him a book about the saints that she found at a garage sale. He quickly embraced this collection of the Church’s holiest figures because they reminded him of the comic books he enjoyed. Only in this case, the leading characters were not Batman or Green Lantern, but rather “the superheroes of my faith.” Gary grew up to become a Christopher Award-winning author and editor of spirituality books, often focusing on Catholicism. He also never forgot that childhood gift. So, when an opportunity arose for him to write a similar book for the modern era, he jumped at the chance. Featuring nearly 400 profiles, Gary’s book is titled “Saints, Angels, & Demons: An A-to-Z Guide to the Holy and the Damned.”
While Gary highlights the saints’ heroism and character, he also makes it clear they were “imperfect individuals.” During a “Christopher Closeup” interview, he observed, ”I loved seeing the trajectory of the saints’ lives because, in many ways, they’re just like you and me…They have foibles, they make mistakes. Sometimes they’re plagued with touches of arrogance…And through living life, they gain wisdom, they gain spiritual insight. As much as sometimes I could think of our canonized saints as the superheroes of the faith, it was important for me to try and get across the humanity of these folks…It helps us to think…we can be saints, too.”
The relationship between Catholics and the saints is often misunderstood by Protestants. As someone whose family has a devotion to St. Jude, Gary explained, ”We don’t worship saints. That gets all confused. It’s all propaganda. But we do venerate, we do set aside certain people to celebrate their lives and what they can do to inspire us…I think the lives of the saints are integral to the life of the home, so that was something I wanted to do with this book as well: to make it a family experience. The early feedback I’ve been getting…[shows] parents are reading it, their teenagers are sitting down with it, and their preteens are checking out the pictures. I wanted this book to be a family affair, something that you could keep on your shelf or your table, hopefully take it down and explore your faith.”
Among the saints Gary profiles is St. Ambrose of Milan, whose story is unusual because he was appointed a bishop before he was even a priest—and before he was even a Christian. While Ambrose served as governor of Milan, the local bishop died. The position needed to be filled, so Ambrose made a persuasive case to the citizens about nominating a worthy candidate. He did such a good job on his speech that the people demanded Ambrose be made bishop. He was quickly baptized and ordained a week later.
Ambrose took the position seriously and learned everything he could about Christianity. He left his pagan beliefs behind and came to embrace Jesus Christ. He became a proponent of the separation of church and state, combated heresies such as Arianism, and served as a mentor to St. Augustine. Gary noted, ”Essentially, a pagan is elected as bishop, and then from bishop, he does this crash course in Christianity to become one of the most important figures in early Christianity.”
Gary’s ultimate hope for “Saints, Angels, & Demons” is that it inspires and informs readers of all ages and sets them off on their journey of wanting to learn more about their faith.
For free copies of the Christopher News Note CREATED IN CHRIST JESUS FOR GOOD WORKS, write: The Christophers, 264 West 40th Street, Room 603, New York, NY 10018; or e-mail: mail@christophers.org
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