Selectae Sanctorum Vitae

The lives of the saints who first carried the Gospel and first peopled the desert: the Apostles Peter, Paul, Andrew and John, the Evangelist Luke, Paul the First Hermit, Hilarion, and the monks of Egypt.

Jean-Joseph Gaume's Selectae sanctorum vitae (1852) gathers them for students from the oldest Latin sources: Saint Jerome's lives of Paul and Hilarion, the deeds and sayings of the desert fathers, and stories from the Dialogues of Saint Gregory the Great. In keeping with the natural method, every long vowel is marked, and the notes in the margin are entirely in Latin. Harder words are explained by the words they come from, by words of like meaning, or by a short sentence from the Vulgate or another classic text.

With ten engravings by Hendrick Goltzius, Johann Sadeler and others, an index of names and an index of words.

For readers who have finished their first Latin reader and want more comprehensible input, for homeschool and classroom use, and for Catholics who wish to read the Church's Latin with ease.