An amazing book and inspiring to anyone yearning to lead a Christ centered spiritual life.

I read this book in a matter of days. St. Catherine has always interested me, and this book put a new dimension to a very well-known and loved saint. Among other things, this book showed me how Catherine prayed. As she spoke to her Lord, she was filled with fire and persistence, saturated in love for her Lord. Truly a book that sheds light on the true strength of an incredible woman.

I first read this book in 1963 - as it was being serialised in Extension Magazine. I was drawn to Catherine Benincasa, the stubborn, forthright, reclusive young woman who refused to allow herself to be used for any reason by her mother or her city - or even the Church. Catherine was a woman of rare courage and spirit. She was spiritual - but that did not stop her from denouncing cardinals & bishops as "whoremongers" when she found them chasing after wealth and political advantage. Mr DeWohl's wonderful introduction to Catherine is a bit superficial, but if this is understood at the beginning the reader will not be disappointed. It must also be remembered that DeWohl wrote during a less critical age when the culture of the Faith was stronger and an effort to demean th subject of a biography was not the all-consuming sine qua non of such books as it is now. Because of this book I began to read as much of DeWohl as I could find. He was a straightforward wordsmith and his Faith shines through in every page. Mr DeWohl has many titles to his credit while also contributing to journals and articles to World Book Encyclopedia. I am very happy to see that his novels are being reprinted in time for another generation to discover him. DeWohl made saints much more real than their official hagiographies ever did. Teenagers especially will find the story of St Catherine eye-opening as they will find DeWohl's other saintly subjects were not made of plaster and synthetic feelings but were men and women of the world who overcame the carnality of life, but only through the help of Jesus Christ.

If you are a fan of Louis De Wohl's books or if you have a fond spot in your heart for St. Francis Xavier and have not read this book...

READ IT! You will love this book!

If you have not read any of De Wohl's works or would like to learn more about St. Francis Xavier...

DITTO!

I received this book as a gift recently. Once I picked it up, I could not put it down. The title of the book implies that it is a novel about St. Benedict, but he is actually just one of many characters in this historical novel. DeWohl does a wonderful job describing the Roman world at the time of St. Benedict, making it come to life.
If you are a fan of historical fiction, read this book. If you are a fan of Louis DeWohl, read this book.

Until I read this gem by de Wohl, all I knew about St Benedict was that he founded a Catholic order of priests now known at the Benedictines. He certainly was close to God, and God must have inspired him to write his rules for living together. After 1,500 years, the Order of St Benedict is still operating.

The book got me interested in Theodoric, the Ostrogoths, and Boethius, and it's been fun reading about them on the Internet and seeing how well de Wohl knew his history.

The novel Citadel of God is one of the finest works I have read about St.Benedict. While keeping St.Benedict as the main subject of the book, de Wohl also includes the chaotic war between the Goths and Byzantium. In doing this de Wohl unites the almost opposite "plots" through wicked Peter's visit to Monte Cassino and conversation with St.Benedict at Cassino while also remaining historically accurate.

In all this book is a must read for those who are interested in history and most importantly for a look at one man's journey to God.

This is another one of De Wohl's historical novels on the lives of the saints. The focus of this effort, St. Augustine, is in his youth arrogant, self-seeking and ambitious to a fault. And yet, the young Augustine has a thirst for truth; a thirst that would eventually lead him to the wellspring's of Catholic Christianity.

If you have read St. Augustines autobiography, Confessions, you will easily discern that the vast majority of De Wohl's research came from the pen of St. Augustine himself. If you are in the mood to learn about the conversion of one of the greatest doctors of the Church and to be edified by his conversion story, I recommend this book. It certainly leaves out the dry parts of St. Augustine's musings in Confessions, while retaining all the vibrancy of the saint's own conversion.

To that end, I highly recommend this book.

Louis De Wohl does an excellent job telling the story of the life of Saint Augustine. This novel is a wonderful book for any reader and if you are a catholic looking for an introduction to Saint Augustine you should read this book. The novel shows us the errors of Saint Augustine's youth and how he became one of the great doctors of the church. We can relate many of the issues Saint Augustine dealt with to issues we all deal with in the world today. I believe the strength of this novel is how well the author shows us how Augustine felt about his life and why he made the decisions he did. I would recommend this book to any catholic man and to anyone who would like to know more about Saint Augustine.
You will not want to put this novel down or want it to end.

As a home educator, I read this book with the intention of screening it for my teen for a school assignment. In no time at all, I found myself unable to put the book down. I read it in just three nights - quite an accomplishment for a mother of five. Louis de Wohl presents the life of Augustine in novel form and makes it very interesting. The reader participates in Augustine's transformation from pagan to Christian. I can't wait to share it with my teen, I think that he will like it as much I did. (note: Before his conversion, Augustine and his friends speak very poorly of women. If sharing this book with a teen, use the opportunity to discuss Augustine's error in treating women as inferior, having a child out of wedlock, etc.) I am glad that there are books such as this one available that make learning history exciting.

An excellent book about the life and times of a great saint. It would be hard to estimate the spiritual fruit which this man's intellect has produced. The Catholic Church as well as intellectual life in general has benifited much from his life and writings. This is a well written book and hard to put down. I gave it four stars, however, because it is a novel more about the historical situation of the saint than the saint himself. Although the book did try and speculate about the some of the motivations of the saint, it failed to tackle his philosophy. Nevertheless, the book is sure to inspire further readings, especially into Thomas' own writings.

I could not have been older than 12 when I first read Louis De Wohl's THE QUIET LIGHT.

It was certainly not a children's book. Instead, it was the passed-along gift of an aunt --fittingly, a Daughter of Charity who in those days sported the intimidating wings that Sally Field would later demystify for me-- and one of the many books on a wide range of genres and topics she carried on long train rides from El Paso to St. Louis.

THE QUIET LIGHT also was, I believe, instrumental in sparking my earliest desire to write my own novels.

And that is surprising, because De Wohl's narrative, character development, and spellbinding prose made THE QUIET LIGHT much more than the fictionalized biography of Thomas Aquinas I had expected. It was nothing less than a staggering example of compelling storytelling which, by the sheer enormity of talent displayed, should have intimidated any aspiring/wanna-be writer.

Be advised: you will come away from THE QUIET LIGHT with more than the pleasure of having read a masterly crafted novel of the Middle Ages. Rather, you will find yourself informed and educated on everything from the Crusades to the philosopical infighting then being waged throughout both Europe and the Saracen worlds to the intrigues of the Italian nobility and their Germanic, decidedly unholy Holy Roman Emperor. You will marvel at how De Wohl weaves all this into a story that is filled with richly drawn characters, both historical and fictional.

By the end of THE QUIET LIGHT, you may even discover you have learned something about how to tell a story in a way that makes the reader mourn that he or she has reached the end of the book.

THE QUIET LIGHT is that good. So is Louis De Wohl.

--Earl Merkel
(Author of FLU SEASON and LIKE DISTANT CITIES BURNING, Penguin/Putnam's New American Library; both books are due out in Summer 2001).

This edifying novel about the life of St. Thomas Aquinas actually focuses on the people who were all touched by his serene, cheerful, ascetic way of living. Carefully told through the eyes of the faithful knight-turned friar-turned knight again, his devoted sister, his protective mother, his arrogant brothers, and his fellow priests, the story reveals to us how a simple man brought spiritual strength and renewal to those around him, during a time of great political turmoil. The author does not tell the story through the lips of St. Thomas. At times, we may even feel cheated, thinking to ourselves that the story deviates too much from the simple life of the Dominican monk, to focus on the other characters. However, this ingenious manner of story-telling alludes fittingly to the way Thomas lived: quietly, doing the work of God, contemplating on mysteries only he shared with God, praying for those he loved, and discreetly staying away from all the attention he deserved.

The writing is excellent, the plot is well thought out and tied together, it's historically accurate. Overall, one of the best Christian fiction pieces I've read--right up until the end.... It would be a 5, if it weren't for the emphasis on Peter as the 'leader of the Apostles' and Mary at the end, which begins to smack of Catholic lore, rather than fiction wrapped around true events.

De Wohl's effort to portray the last days of our Lord's life through the eyes of a somewhat callous and hardened Roman centurian, Longinus, is wonderfully played out in this novel.

De Wohl does justice to many of our biblically familiar characters (i.e., Martha, Mary, Caiaphas). This novel is well researched and will take you back in time to get a glimpse of the social and political climate in which the Son of Man entered history and changed it forever.

The story of the crucifixion is compelling in and of itself. De Wohl's best credit is that he doesn't ruin it. He lets the story evolve and he does not indulge in the temptation that most, I gather, would have in writing about God. He doesn't purport to know the mind of Christ.

Buy the book. It is a clear and orthodox presentation of Our Lord which every person would benefit from reading. Christian, non-Christian, protestant, Catholic; all will enjoy this novel.

This is the best novel that deals with Christ's life, death, and Resurrection that I've ever read. It's solidly, unabashedly orthodox and pulls together the Gospel accounts in a brilliant weave of history and imagination. Unlike other novels of the genre, it doesn't try to "explain away" the supernatural... it simply presents it and invites the reader to believe. But it also does not attempt to enter into either the mind of the God-Man Jesus Christ or his immaculately conceived mother Mary. Although HIDDEN VICTORY by Fr. Herbert Smith, S. J., does an admirable job of trying to understand what God and the Blessed Virgin Mary may have thought and felt, I also appreciated De Wohl's implicit understanding that such a task is impossible. While the meditation might be fruitful, it is also something to approach cautiously.

This is why I think De Wohl's technique of presenting the story from St. Longinus' point of view, rather than Christ's or Mary's, works so well. Here is someone like ourselves, sinful as we are sinful, who tries to grasp the cosmic events swirling around him. When, by God's grace, he is brought to belief, we cheer and see our own struggles reflected in his while praying for the same triumph that he experienced.

All this sounds very lofty. I hope I haven't scared off people who are simply looking for an entertaining novel. Those people will find such a novel in THE SPEAR, but they will also find so much more!

I'm so happy that De Wohl's classic, historical fictions are back in print. In this adventure, De Wohl fleshes out the life of the Povarello (the "Poor Little Man"), St. Francis of Assissi.

As an admirer of St. Francis, I must comment that most media about the saint portrays him as quite sappy. While St. Francis' love of nature and mankind in general may easily lead to such treatment, De Wohl thankfully does not attend to that path. Furthermore, the detail we have on the historical Francis is such that De Wohl didn't really have to "add" a lot of detail to make this story compelling. Rather, the Saint speaks for himself.

If you have read other De Wohl novels, this effort is much the same. You can count on De Wohl to bring a consistent level of excellence and high quality historical fiction. This book is no disappointment.

If there is one criticism that I may levy against this particular book is that it was not enough of Francis. De Wohl expends at least 40% of the book on the intrigue involving the election of the Holy Roman Emperor and other such political intrigues. While certainly necessary to get an understanding for the times in which Francis lived, I would have liked Francis' struggles with his new found Order to be brought to life a bit more expansively.

Nonetheless, De Wohl hits the main points and expresses them quite well. I believe he has done justice to the story, to the man, and to Christianity as a whole by bringing this compelling story into print in a very accessible and readable way.

If you love St. Francis or have wondered what is all the fuss about this man in the first place, take this novel on as a first look.

Most stories and movies about St. Francis were unconvincing. I thought they made him seem kind of doltish or unstable. But this one really put flesh on the man and made me see him differently. The historical details of the times in which he lived helped to round out the story although it is hard to tell what is fiction and what is truth. St. Francis didn't steal from his father but he did give what he thought was his away in order to earn money to "rebuild" God's Church. It was quite simple, to him, "do what God tells you to do." There are very few of us who answer the call of God in quite the way St. Francis did, but that is why he's a saint and we are still working at it! It's a good book to find a reference point for your own journey - aim to be like St. Francis and don't worry what people think.