Today is the official publication date for my latest “baby,” Radical Saints: 21 Women for the 21st Century. It includes the stories of twenty-one women who walked the earth in the 20th century and were canonized this century. They ranged in age from nine to ninety-three when they died, and lived on every continent but Antarctica.
They’re a diverse bunch–a child. A mother. A former enslaved person. A former heiress. A laundress who became an invalid. A convert. A number of women religious who served in hospitals, among those on society’s margins, or 
by praying.
People didn’t always like them; in fact, one of them was briefly excommunicated. But people don’t always like radicals, especially radicals on fire for Christ who speak his truth and share his message of the hope for eternal salvation.
They challenge me, these twenty-one, each in a different way. So do the women living today whose stories I included in hopes of showing you don’t have to be canonized to be radical. All you have to do is follow.
If you’d like to read more about the women, my publisher’s offering a special deal for my friends. You can buy the book at Franciscan Media, and use the code Radical 25 for a 25 percent discount.
So happy “birthday” to the 21, from Dulce to Faustina. I hope I did all right by you.
