Tongues of Fire

From the jacket: In this rich, magnificently researched, and beautifully illustrated book, one of the world's most widely read and celebrated authors has brought together dramatic inspiring stories of Christian missionaries, from St. Paul to the present. The selection is a personal one based on the author's lifelong interest in the Christian missionary service, and what emerges in the pages of her book is a tumultuous, monumental history marked by ordeal, challenge, and ultimate triumph. Appropriately, Mrs. Keyes opens her book with an account of the earliest Christian envoys, beginning with St. Paul, who is traditionally regarded as the first Christian missionary. She carries the stony through the lives of St. Peter and St. James. This section, called "Out from the Holy Land," includes a generous sampling of the great epistles of Peter, James, and Paul. In Part II, "Conquerors for Christ," Mrs. Keyes relates the stories of St. Patrick, the Roman who was forcibly carried away from his home and made a slave in Ireland where his missionary work became legendary; of Ramon Lull, the thirteenth-century Majorcan of noble birth who led a frivolous life until a series of visions converted him into a missionary of extraordinary organizational powers; of Francis of Assisi and his associates, Dominic de Guzman and Anthony of Padua; and of Ignatius, the "Knight of God," and Xavier, the "greatest missionary next to St. Paul."