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My Cousin the Saint: A Search for Faith, Family, and Miracles | 
 enlarge | Author: Justin Catanoso
Publisher: William Morrow
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $12.97
You Save: $12.98 (50%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 14698
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6 x 1.3
ISBN: 0061231029
Dewey Decimal Number: 282.092
EAN: 9780061231025
ASIN: 0061231029
Publication Date: June 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New. 100% money back guarantee. All books shipped from Strand Bookstore, New York City, USA.
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Product Description
An inspiring story of faith and family across two continents Like millions of other Italians in the early twentieth century, Justin Catanoso's grandfather immigrated to America to escape poverty and hardship. Nearly a hundred years later, Justin, born and raised in New Jersey, knows little of his family beyond the Garden State. That changes in 2001 when he discovers that his grandfather's cousin, Padre Gaetano Catanoso, is a Vatican-certified miracle worker. After a life of serving the poor and founding an order of nuns, Gaetano had been approved by Pope John Paul II to become a saint, the first priest from Calabria ever to be canonized. A typically lapsed American Catholic, Justin embarks on a quest to connect with his extended family in southern Italy and, ultimately, to awaken his slumbering faith. My Cousin the Saint charts the parallel history of two relatives—Justin's grandfather, Carmelo, and his sainted cousin, Gaetano. While Carmelo leaves his homeland to pursue New World prosperity, Gaetano stays behind to relieve Old World misery. Justin reunites the two halves of a sundered family by both exploring the life of the saint in Calabria and uncovering the untold story of his grandfather's family, raised in New Jersey between two world wars. Justin confronts his own tenuous spiritual moorings in the process. After meeting with Vatican officials in Rome, he is astonished by the complexity of saint-making. After hearing one miracle story after another, he struggles with the line between the mystical and the divine. After seeing his brother fall ill with terminal cancer, he questions the value of prayer. And after reveling in the charm and generosity of his newfound Italian relatives, he comes to learn what it means to have a saint in the family. A compelling narrative written with grace and honesty, My Cousin the Saint is a testament to the challenge of being Catholic in twenty-first-century America. More than a biography, more than an immigrant memoir, more than a chronicle of renewed faith, it is a love letter to a family now reunited across oceans and years.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
Not your ordinary spiritual wake up call June 30, 2008
I picked this book up because the premise was kind of interesting -- what's it like to find out you are related to a saint (close enough that the family resemblance to your father is obvious)? The writer is kind of sleep walking spiritually through life but awakens to find that he has a cousin who is in line to become a saint -- an honest-to-goodness, pope-approved, picture-on-the-Vatican-walls saint. The journey that opens to him takes him back to his family's roots in Italy and the contrast between his grandfather's decision to leave home for America and his grandfather's cousin's decision to become a humble priest in a land that everyone (and sometimes God) seems to have forgot. The present intrudes when an older brother develops terminal cancer and the search for the miracles that will lead to Father Gaetano's canonization becomes desperately personal. Ultimately, the journey reveals to the author the hold that faith and family have on him.
compelling June 16, 2008
This will be short and to the point. This accounting of Saint Gaetano Catanoso's life is a compelling read. It makes a wonderful gift to believers and unbelievers alike.
Pati Sparks
Welcome Pilgrim June 13, 2008
What is it like to have a saint in the family? Go on - you can answer that. If you don't know already, you will discover, after reading Justin Catanoso's book about his cousin, that our families are full of saints, and that we, too, are on the same path. It's just that Justin's cousin won an Academy Award - so to speak--for his journey.
You don't have to be Catholic to enjoy this book, it is not about religion, it is about God manifest in the family - Love, something common to us all. And, it's loaded with every-day miracles, prayers answered and petitions declined. Daniela, a Calabrese cousin and self-described miracle herself, has an answer to why not all requests for miracles are granted. I'll not reveal it here.
Take the book to the beach - it's not heavy reading--and about two thirds of the way through the book and the day, when you have an inexplicable hunger for swordfish, gather the family together for dinner and your own little communion of saints. Can it be any wonder why Jesus chose a meal to share Himself with us?
Reading My Cousin The Saint after finishing Passion on the Vine by Sergio Esposito, another satisfying book about family, food, love, and more than a little wine, I think these Italians are on to something. Or is it up to something? Either way we are no longer strangers but pilgrims heading for the same place. What a pleasure to encounter Justin and his family on this path.
Faith From the Ground Up June 11, 2008
The author is a most talented and engaging writer and he has quite a story to tell. He finds out that a deceased priest from Italy, who happens to be a cousin, is at the cusp of being declared a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. This leads the writer to explore his family roots in southern Italy and to delve into a faith that he has mostly set aside, all the while dealing with the emotional turmoil of losing a relatively young brother to cancer. While confronted with stories about the miracles attributed to the intercession of his cousin, St. Gaetano Catanoso, his own beloved brother appears to be beyond the aid of medical science or divine intervention. The author, however, never opts for the "cheap grace" that fails to question God's existence, purpose or goodness. Throughout this spiritual journey, this fine writer and reporter delves ever deeper into the meaning (if there is one) to his cousin's canonization, the impact of immigration on a family, and the role of faith in his own life. Mr. Catanoso provides a delightful picture of an extended, supportive Italian family that suggests that we pay a price for our independence, namely isolation. I read wistfully about a society that goes out for walks in the park in the evening rather than stays home to watch whatever is on television. This is not a book just for the devout, but for those questioning their faith, their priorities and values. Behind it all is the spirit of a remarkable priest whose death was not the end of his story.
Family, Faith and Miracles June 10, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
When a friend suggested that I read My Cousin The Saint, I hesitated for many reasons....I am not Catholic, I expected the book to be a boring tale of a religion that doesn't necessarily interest me and I was raised in a secular home. My friend persisted and I am so grateful to her.
By page 2 I was hooked.....and my interest continued all the way into the epilogue.
Justin Catanoso writes about a quest that could just as easily be mine..in another country with different characters.
He lovingly describes his family living at the Jersey Shore and the discovery that there are just as many Catanosos living in Southern Italy in Calabria....one of whom just happened to be canonized by the Pope in 2005. His story about his family's loss of their beloved Alan resounded within me, as I, too, lost a brother....but this story will impact on anyone who has suffered a family loss.
The history of Calabria, the family that Justin found there and, yes, the fascinating and detailed story of the Catholic religion and the life of a beloved Priest, Padre Gaetano Catanoso and the making of a Saint will intrigue every reader. The experience of Italian immigrants in this country will resonate with any reader whose family came to America for a better life.
I learned so much about why my Catholic friends believe as they do.
Justin's search for faith could just as easily be mine. His search for faith, family and miracles highlights his love for his wife and daughters, his loving parents who are in their eighties, his siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles and his discovery of a marvelous family in Calabria.
My family never searched for our relatives in Europe.....the Catanoso's are so blessed to have found theirs.
Justin Catanoso writes so beautifully...there is not a false note in the book....He questions himself throughout but the one thing he never questions is the love of family which is, perhaps, the best miracle of all.
I can't wait to read his next book.....whatever it's about.
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