“The saints are people like us. They, however – and herein lies the difference – took Christ’s words seriously. Imitating Christ, they became, according to the promise, like the Master. And, like the Master, they set out to perform miracles.”

The worship of saints goes back to the dawn of Christianity, to the time of persecutions and martyrs. Faith restores the certainty that they, close to God in heaven, somehow remain participants in the lives of people down here. Following four classic typologies (sickness and disease; marriage and motherhood; professions, arts, trades and vocations; complications and various troubles), the author reviews the saints whom popular devotion has chosen, because of facts inherent in their lives and beyond, as protectors or patrons to whom to turn in special circumstances. The saint does not ask anything in return from us; sure, he would like us, pardoned, to love God, but he will not force us and will still be willing to grant us again, because he knows human frailty. Filled with concrete examples, this book, also through the accuracy of the various thematic indexes, makes it possible to discover which saint to devote ourselves to in any situation, starting with the one we feel closest to because perhaps by profession he is our “colleague” or has had to face the same problem that besets us.