Saints of the Bible by Theresa Doyle-Nelson

Since joining the Catholic Church, I’ve become fascinated by the lives of the saints. There are so many holy men and women who, throughout history, have stood for faith and truth and provide examples to Christians everywhere. These people go right back to the men and women of the Bible, the first people who received God’s word and lived it out. I was excited to pick up Theresa Doyle-Nelson’s books on saints of the Bible.

I received these books for review courtesy of the author; all opinions expressed are my own. This post contains affiliate links; as an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Saints of the Bible

Theresa Doyle-Nelson’s slender book Saints of the Bible: Exploring Scripture with Holy Men and Women examines the lives of New Testament saints. Arranged in order by each saint’s feast day, the book begins with the Blessed Mother Mary (feast day January 1) and ends with the Blessed Innocents (feast day December 28). At the end of the book, there’s a chart that provides each saint feast day, patronage, Biblical reference, and the meaning of that saint’s name.

While I was familiar with many of these saints from their stories in the Bible, I enjoyed reading this book because it compiled the information about each saint in an easy-to-read manner. The chapters are each about two pages long and provide the saint’s feast day, patronage, one highlighted Scripture, and then other Scripture references about the saint.

The saints are beacons for us to learn to live a holy life more wholly. Theresa Doyle-Nelson has given me motivating stories to learn to live by. The short, informative, real-to-MY-life accounts help me to know following our Lord is a daily practice with many examples to follow. All of these saints come to us from the pages of scripture; several of them are names I might simply breeze over. Mrs. Nelson has researched and presented these saints in clear language, giving me a glimpse into their holy lives that I might follow their example. I am grateful for the scripture verses given for each saint and the chart to quickly locate the patronage and feast day of the saints in this book. ~ Amazon reviewer

More Saints of the Bible

More Saints of the Bible: Exploring Scripture with More Saints from the Old and New Testaments looks at Old Testament Saints and a few more New Testament saints, such as Saint Ananias (who healed Paul of blindness and is the patron of health workers) and Saint Cleopas (one of the men who met Jesus on the road to Emmaus). Arranged like Saints of the Bible, this book also includes some black and white drawings of various saints.

Together, these two volumes provide an excellent reference for any Catholic home.  Theresa makes the saints interesting and accessible.  Both books provide a bibliography for anyone wanting more information on the saints.  These books would be great to read throughout the year or to use as reference material for Biblical saints.

More about Theresa Doyle-Nelson

Theresa Doyle-Nelson is the wife of a retired marine and the mother of three boys and grandmother to five grandchildren. She has written for the Catholicism section of Suite 101.com (where we met), as well as other Catholic publications including St. Anthony Messenger, Liguorian, National Catholic Register, and Today’s Catholic. She has a master’s degree in educational administration.  Theresa currently lives in Texas. To find out more about Theresa, follow her on Amazon or drop by her blog.

If you enjoy these books, you might also like:

• Printable Bible Reference Sheets
• Names of God Bible
• There’s a Saint for That