A Book of Quaker Saints

The book opens with young Lois, bewildered by a stained glass saint in a church, asking the question that animates the entire collection: what makes someone a saint? Through her searching questions and the stories that follow, L.V. Hodgkin constructs a luminous portrait of the early Quakers, people who believed in the "inner light" that dwells in every soul, and who paid dearly for that belief. These are not fairy tales. They are the true stories of George Fox wandering the English countryside in spiritual anguish, of women and men imprisoned and beaten for refusing to swear oaths or attend church, of quiet heroism in the face of persecution. Hodgkin writes with a child's sensibility but never condescends; she trusts her young readers with the full weight of history, the courage and the cost. Published in 1917, this book carries the urgency of a faith still alive, still defining itself against a hostile world.