Thank you so much for all your support, feedback, and great reviews!
One year ago, we released The Modern Saints: Portraits and Reflections on the Saints. But the journey started long before that!
In the spring of 2021, still very much in the middle of a pandemic, I got a message on a rainy afternoon that a book agent wanted to call me about a possible book of my work. As a recent college grad still working a full-time job and balancing this project on the side, I was skeptical, and honestly thought the message was some type of scam! But I took the call, "just to see", and was introduced to the lovely folks at The Bindery. Two agents, Estee Zandee (who approached me with the project), and Andrea Heineke, helped me through this process of deciding on a format (I have always loved saint dictionaries) and figuring out what else about the book could be new for our audiences. We decided on a collection of icons, with fast facts, a short bio, a prayer, and a reflection on the choices made in the art for each saint. At first, I was also going to write all of my own reflections on why the saints are still relevant today, and I did start that in earnest. I found out very quickly, though, that there were a good number of saints that, as much as I loved and admired them, I just could not connect with or come up with a personal story about.
Then, with the help of Estee, we decided on asking other voices to give their own reflections on the saints they love the most. If what we were trying to do with this project was show the often-hidden diversity of the backgrounds, interests, talents, and lives of these saints, what better way to do that than through diverse voices? And especially, the voices of folks that I believe are also continuing the work of these very saints today?
With a big, nervous, excited flurry of emails, I reached out to writers, artists, activists, and organization founders that I had always admired to ask if they'd be a part of this book - and I was beyond humbled that so many of them said yes!
After another 2.5 years of thousands more emails, rounds of edits, and logistical planning, we had a book. But these authors are just so fabulous that there was hardly any editing to be done, and, to my amazement and awe, not one of the reflections came back to me with a focus on the same topic as any other one - even though the assignment had been open to pick any saint and write about anything! I truly believe that this fact alone was proof that we'd been so right to get others in on this project with us - the wisdom, stories, revelations, and new ideas that they provide on these pages continues to astound me, and I could not be more honored to have their words accompany my work.
One year later, you all are still sending me such encouraging messages: that the design of the book is beautiful (thank you, Convergent!), that the reflections are just as meaningful to you, that you are learning about new saints (and new things about well-known saints), that the faith in these messages is an approachable one for any faith background, and that the collection of icons themselves are a wonderful gift. This is all we hoped to do, and more. We have heard from ministry groups using the book for discussion, schools giving out the book as a welcome gift, and individuals finding the book in serendipitous places without even hearing of our work previously (or the work of any of the authors... which quickly become their new favorites!)
Whether you have the book already or it is on your list; whether you raced through it in a day or used it all year as a weekly devotional; whether you found a new patron or favorite icon; I just want to say thank you, from the bottom of my heart. What an incredible thing to have this out in the world.
Much, much peace,
Gracie
P.S. If you send us a screenshot of your (honest!) review on the site you bought it from, or a platform like Goodreads, we'll send you a coupon code for a free print! gracie@themodernsaints.com
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