For adventure, suspense, and sheer drama, Evelyn Waugh's biography of St. Edmund Campion rivals Braveheart. And it's told with the grace and skill that won Waugh millions of fans for his Brideshead Revisited. High adventure and holiness: it's a sure winner with all readers.

In the autumn of 1873, one of the worst yellow fever epidemics in U.S. history swept through Shreveport. As the deadly scourge claimed a quarter of the town's population, the dedicated efforts of five missionary priests offered a call to hope, even as they laid down their own lives in the struggle. True martyrdom is vanishingly rare, extolled as the highest possible sacrifice, yet Shreveport bore abundant witness through these five saintly priests. Their heroism in the midst of this tragic chapter is captured here by a trio of authors, winding a narrative that transcends history to reveal complex themes of virtue, sacrifice and response in times of human crisis and suffering.

While dissolute bishops and priests around the world grab headlines for their untoward words and deeds, too many other unfruitful priests minister as little more than glad-handing bachelors doing social service work. Top and bottom, is this the Church that Christ intended? Are these the priests we need? “No!” cries author Kevin Wells in these compelling pages that showcase how heroic priests can faithfully tread the narrow path of holy self-sacrifice first blazed by the apostles themselves. From scores of insightful interviews with modern priests, exorcists, seminary formators, and even disillusioned laity, Wells here draws forth a blueprint for priestly holiness that can once again fill our Church with priests abounding with sincere, supernatural faith, on fire with God's love, and moved by the irresistible impulse to save souls, no matter the cost to themselves. Reading this book will deepen your own faith and help you understand what all priests, by their vocation, are consecrated and called to be. Giving a copy to your parish priest will help him – and encourage him – as he strives to become a member of the small but growing contingent of holy priests we need.

"The shepherd cannot run at the first sign of danger." -FATHER STANLEY FRANCIS ROTHER Father Stanley Rother was true to his word. He did not run. And he was martyred at the age of 46. Father Stanley arrived in Guatemala in 1968, and he immediately identified with his parishioners' simple, farming lifestyle. He learned their languages, prepared them for the sacraments, and cared for their needs. Father Stanley - or "Padre Francisco", as he was called by his beloved Tz'utujil Indians - had found his heart's calling. After nearly a decade, the violence of the Guatemalan civil war found its way into the peaceful village of Santiago Atitlán. Disappearances, killings, and danger became daily occurrences, but despite this unrest Father Stanley remained hard at work, building a farmers' co-op, a school, a hospital, and the first Catholic radio station, used for catechesis. In early 1981, his name was on a death list, so he returned to Oklahoma and was warned not to go back to Guatemala. But he could not abandon his people, so he went back, and made the ultimate sacrifice for his faith. "Pray for us that we may be a sign of the love of Christ for our people," said Father Stanley, "that our presence among them will fortify them to endure these su fferings in preparation for the coming of the Kingdom." Includes 16 pages of photos.