This is not your usual collection of saints. God’s creative genius peopled the fresh terrain of the United States with remarkable men and women. With the fears, hopes, frustrations, longings, and failures of ordinary humans, the people featured in When the Saints Came Marching In explored new frontiers in holiness. Like those who floated the Mississippi River for the first time, scaled Pike’s Peak, or settled the unknown regions of Kentucky, they tried something new in health care, science, education, and race or labor relations. Kathy Coffey celebrates the remarkable lives and experience of holy explorers of faith whose stories continue to inspire today’s pioneers to discover new paths to welcome the North American saints of tomorrow.

With her well-known insight and unique style, Coffey draws us closer to Junípero Serra, Elizabeth Ann Seton, Pierre Toussaint, John Neumann, Julia Greeley, Marianne Cope, Katharine Drexel, Rachel Carson, Dorothy Day, Thea Bowman, Ruma Martyrs, Cesar Chavez, Mychal Judge, and Dorothy Stang.