Continuing his popular series of novels about saints of the Church, de Wohl devotes his considerable talents to an interpretation of one of the most unusual women of all time, Saint Catherine of Siena. The daughter of a prosperous dyer in fourteenth- century Siena, Catherine never forgot the mystical experience of her extreme youth; at that time she devoted herself to Christ. It was, however, a shock to her family when, refusing marriage, she insisted on giving her life totally to God. Her career was extraordinary. In that confused and dangerous era of history, the Pope was living at Avignon: Catherine persuaded him to return to Rome. The City-States of Italy were at war with each other: Catherine subdued them. There was pestilence: Catherine served and saved. She performed miracles, she received the stigmata, she drew about her a crowd of devoted men and women. A saint who would not let the Lord God alone, she really did lay siege to heaven-and changed the face of her world. This novel, which is also a vivid biography, brings Catherine of Siena to life in a remarkable way. She lives on every page.

Don Juan of Austria, one of history's most triumphant and inspiring heroes, is reborn in this opulent novel by Louis de Wohl. Because of the circumstances of his birth, this last son of Emperor Charles the Fifth spent his childhood in a Spanish peasant's hut. Acknowledged by King Philip as his half-brother, the attractive youth quickly became a central figure in a Court where intrigues and romances abounded. Don Juan's intelligence, kindness and devout attachment to the Church enabled him to live unscathed in an environment of luxury, violence and treachery. De Wohl paints in brilliant color the vivid scenes and characters at the Court of King Philip, Juan's campaign against rebel Moriscos in Andalusia, and the amazing climactic victory at Lepanto where he saved the Christian world from Islamic dominance. Here is a novel of high adventure which brings to life the turbulence of the sixteenth century with its conflicts of wickedness and piety, its sins of pride and conquest, its seething heresies and its great faith.

"The glorious Folly is a colorful and exciting novel built around the amazing career of St. Paul. It follows him from the period during which he was a devout and fiery Hebrew scholar who persecuted Christians because he considered it his duty to God, through his miraculous conversion on the road to Damascus, to his magnificent achievements as missionary, church builder, and expounder of Christian doctrine, to his imprisonment and triumphant death as a martyr in Rome. In addition to tracing the adventures of St. Paul, The glorious Folly is about that epochal period in history when a mere handful of devoted and inspired Christians set out to give a living faith to a dying pagan world. Here is presented, through fictional characters who come vividly to life, the family and community life of the little group of fervent Christians who faced terrible persecutions and martyrdom because of their love for Christ and for each other. Against the background of the stupendous evil of Nero's Rome, its cruelty, treachery, and corruption, St. Paul and the early Christians are shown in all the radiance, glory, and adventure of their exemplary and devout lives"--

Magistral historia de la Iglesia,con la amenidad habitual de este autor, imprescindible tanto para el estudioso como para el lector que desee una visión básica de lo que hoy es Europa y todo occidente. «El Papa Pío XII me animó a escribir un libro sobre l