How many Asian saints can you name? Saint Andrew Kim? Saint Paul Miki? Not bad.

We don't tend to learn much about Asian history today, much less about Catholic history in Asia. Did you know that the Catholic faith survived in India from the time of St. Thomas the Apostle? A number of saints in this collection were descended from families who were catechized by St. Thomas!

Saints of Asia is a great place to remedy this whole in today's history studies. It contains about a hundred short biographies of saints and candidates for sainthood who lived and worked in Asia after the year 1500. Also included are the stories of two church approved Marian apparitions that took place in Asia. This is a fascinating and inspiring collection of saints - so much perseverance in the face of terrible persecution! These countries - especially China, India, Japan and Korea - are represented by hundreds of canonized martyrs.

The book is organized according to the Church calendar and so could easily be incorporated into your daily devotions (particularly at a time when you're studying this period in history). For solo reading, it's probably best for teens and adults, though with a little discretion (and help in sorting out the various names and places, which are sometimes presented in a confusing order), it could be read aloud to children much younger.

Helpful appendices and extensive footnotes allow for delving deeper into stories of particular interest.

The Xavier: Missionary and Saint documentary, which is coming to PBS this spring, would make a great springboard for this book.