First of all, I absolutely love the subject of this book. The saints are beloved by the Church. I could not get through one day without my heavenly Tribe. I thought the author was brave and wonderful and brilliant for taking the time to research and write this book. It was incredibly well done and informative. My only complaint...if one can even call it that...is that the writing has a tendency to jump or halt, forcing the reader to re-read a sentence or two to continue on. This alone though, would not prevent me from recommending the book nor from loving it!

“A Saint of Our Own” is a a scholar and fascinating work. The author’s scholarship shines through her writing as does the overwhelming amount of research invested in this work. The subject matter and the manner in which it is presented do not make recreational reading. However, because of its organization, this is not a book to buy for reference. I’d purchase the book, place it with the rest of my saint books, and dip into it every-so-often. The author’s premise is that Americans needed a Saint of their own to feel equal with Catholics in countries from which they immigranted, and of worth to the Vatican hierarchy. She hammers at this premise a bit much, but uses it to validate those who have been thought to be worthy of sainthood, but whose sponsors had a hard time getting them to sainthood.. In many ways the history of these good and holy men and women parallel the history of the U.S. Readers need to look elsewhere than this volume for the stories of these American saints for the author writes about them as though the reader was intimately acquainted with them. I offered to review an ARC of this book because I am Roman Catholic, and I do have above average knowledge about American saints. I also thought I had a decent grasp of the canonization process until I read “A Saint of Our Own.” Knowledgeable Roman Catholics might like the scholarship and depth of this book, but others would have a difficult grasp of the information presented without doing extraneous research.

The author most assuredly had her own agenda and hammered her point in every chapter. The message I got –repeatedly- was that because there had never been any American canonized by The Holy See, American Catholics felt like a step-child in the global reach of Catholicism. I read, repeatedly, that an American saint would bring American Catholics into a closer union with the Vatican, increasing American involvement (donations?) and increasing Vatican interest in American lives. It would give credence to Catholicism (which our author considered a minority religion) as significant in American life and politics. And it would give credence to American Catholicism to the Vatican. Her arguments in this vein went on and on and on, chapter after chapter.

She touted several people whom she thought should have been considered for sainthood the past 200 years. What I understood from the book was that those she nominated were simply good and God-fearing people, but not people to whom miracles had been ascribed nor confirmed. I kept reading to find out more about the people to whom she ascribed sainthood, but never really got an understanding there.

Since this book has been available for early reading and reviewing for several months, I was wondering why no one had reviewed it either on NetGalley nor GoodReads. I appreciate this ARC from NetGalley and the U of NC Press in exchange for an honest review.