What most readers want are the interesting and colourful facts and historical settings of these lives, and they would like these given without solemnity and subjective reflections. It is mainly for this public that the present work has been written. Biographies and not homilies will be found in it. This is not because the admiration and respectful friendship due to the saints is denied them here; but on the sole occasion when the author meets them, he has chosen to speak of them rather than of anything else; he has preferred to show them at work, tell about their lives, and record their words...from the Preface to the English edition