Little Saint: the Hours of Saint Foy Book

As evidenced by her successful novel The Dead of the House, Hannah Green possessed an acute awareness of early adolescence, the time in life we call "coming of age." It is not any surprise that Green became entranced and eventually dedicated to a 12-year-old girl, who was known as Saint Foy. Betrayed by her father in the year 303 AD, the French girl called "Faith" was tortured and beheaded for her refusal to worship the pagan goddess Diana and renounce her devotion to Christ. Green narrates from the first person, recounting her reaction and fascination when she first traveled to Conques, France and saw the golden statue of Saint Foy (with the girl's bones embedded in the statue's heart). Although pilgrims from all centuries and all parts of the world have paid homage to Saint Foy's statue, Green had not anticipated the deep visceral reaction she would have when she first beheld the little saint. "It is a shrine," she writes. "And in some mystic way it suggests to the mind's eye more strongly than any imagined likeness could the presence of Saint Foy herself as she was, with her young fresh skin and the radiance, the life, in her face, the light, and as she is: bone and spirit come to God." This is a three-layered masterful piece where Green offers a biography of this young saint and the influence she's had over the centuries, as well as a profile of the highly unique village that hosts her statue, and finally a memoir of Green's own spiritual epiphanies as a result of this saintly encounter. --Gail HudsonRead More