In lively detail, Brian O'Neel tells the stories of these and more, a number of whom are our near-contemporaries and coped with such horrors as Nazism (Jakob Gapp, Maria Restituta Kafka), slavery (Josephine Bakhita) and the Spanish Civil War.

Amazing stories of ordinary human beings who demonstrate that holiness is not another word for boring, but a defining characteristic of those who threw themselves wholeheartedly into the adventure of life.