I knew almost nothing about the town, except that it had some vague connection with Joan of Arc.

There are so many mistaken notions about St. John of the Cross (1542-91) that we might do well to clarify some of them.

Not only did Fra Giovanni paint like an angel; he was, in his personal life, an angel himself. The friar’s “angelic” style and “rare and perfect talent,” Vasari informs us, were the result of a “simple and devout life.”

I had planned to stay a few months, but was pretty quickly hooked and remained for five years - the last five years of Dorothy’s life, as it turned out.

At the time of his violent death, Charles de Foucauld had had founded no congregation nor attracted any followers. And yet his witness endured.

I can’t imagine what led me to focus my childish desires on St. Jude and spend in excess of three weeks’ allowance on a plastic statue instead of, say, another Archie comic book.