Among the characters you'll find in this collection of twelve stories by Tobias Wolff are a teenage boy who tells morbid lies about his home life, a timid professor who, in the first genuine outburst of her life, pours out her opinions in spite of a protesting audience, a prudish loner who gives an obnoxious hitchhiker a ride, and an elderly couple on a golden anniversary cruise who endure the offensive conviviality of the ship's social director. Fondly yet sharply drawn, Wolff's characters stumble over each other in their baffled yet resolute search for the "right path."

Includes bibliographical references (pages 361-363) and index.

In the 1640s--a decade of epidemic and warfare across colonial North America--eight Jesuit missionaries met their deaths at the hands of native antagonists. With their collective canonization in 1930, these men, known to the devout as the North American martyrs, would become the continent's first official Catholic saints. In The Death and Afterlife of the North American Martyrs, Emma Anderson untangles the complexities of these seminal acts of violence and their ever-changing legacy across the centuries. While exploring how Jesuit missionaries perceived their terrifying final hours, the work also seeks to comprehend the motivations of the those who confronted them from the other side of the axe, musket, or caldron of boiling water, and to illuminate the experiences of those native Catholics who, though they died alongside their missionary mentors, have yet to receive comparable recognition as martyrs by the Catholic Church. In tracing the creation and evolution of the cult of the martyrs across the centuries, Anderson reveals the ways in which both believers and detractors have honored and preserved the memory of the martyrs in this "afterlife," and how their powerful story has been continually reinterpreted in the collective imagination over the centuries. As rival shrines rose to honor the martyrs on either side of the U.S.-Canadian border, these figures would both unite and deeply divide natives and non-natives, francophones and anglophones, Protestants and Catholics, Canadians and Americans, forging a legacy as controversial as it has been enduring.

A brief history of the Immaculate Conception Church of Pittsfield, Illinois.

Mohawk Saint is the story of Catherine Tekakwitha, a Mohawk woman born at a time of cataclysmic change, as Native Americans of the northeast experienced the effects of European contact and colonization. A convert to Catholicism in the 1670s, she embarked on a physically and mentally grueling program of self-denial, aiming to capture the spiritual power of the newcomers from across the sea. Her story intersects with that of Claude Chauchetiere, a French Jesuit who became convinced that Tekakwitha was a genuine saint. Today Tekakwitha is considered the first Native American saint and has a wide following in the Americas.

Mother. Nun. Bishop. Healer. Teacher. Brother. Businesswoman. Mystic. Convert. These are titles worn by six holy Canadian men and women, now also known by the title of saint. From Canada's first teachers in the 1600s, to a simple religious brother whose prayer effected amazing miracles in the 1900s, these saints remain an example of faith and love today. St. Kateri Tekakwitha, St. Andre Bessette, St. Marie of the Incarnation, St. Marguerite Bourgeoys, St. Francois de Laval, and St. Marguerite d'Youville lived ordinary lives of great service and love to those around them. Filled with stories, word puzzles, colouring pages and more, kids will have fun exploring the lives of these holy men and women. While learning about these six saints, children will also learn about other aspects of the Catholic faith such as spiritual communion, sacramentals, mystics, the corporal works of mercy, and more. Canadian Saints Kids Activity Book is suitable for homeschools, Catholic schools, parish catechsism classes or kids clubs, and more.