In the days long ago when stories were told and not written, when those who heard the stories told them to others, lived Saint Nicholas, Saint Christopher, Saint Dorothea. As their marvelous deeds came to pass, great was the wonder of the people, widespread the tales. The children listened and remembered, and grew up, and they, too, told the stories to their children. And so little scraps of the lives of these great people, and the great things that happened, have been sprinkled through the centuries, scattered like windblown seeds, to take root and grow into myth and legend.

Then with the discovery of printing, the tales took form, legend became history, stories grew into books, on through more centuries. So the legends of the Saints grew, in the telling and retelling, and out of the scattered bits Eleanor Farjeon has made these stories of ten Saints. They are beautiful stories, and the children of today may, perhaps some day, be reading them to their children. The years go on and some stories go on with the years. 

Helen Sewell, in the illustration for this book, has done some of her finest work. The paintings have distinction, beauty, and a lovely simplicity that so rightly belong to the stories of the Saints.

From the book