What are these once upon a time stories?

THEY ARE STORIES that are meant to show human and lovable people whose passion for God led them into preposterous escapades. Their lives are as unbelievable, as fantastic, as fairy tales of princesses with golden hair, princes on white stallions, blacker-than-hell witches, elves, pookahs, black ravens, white rabbits and smoke-belching dragons.

The lives of the saints, so filled with derringdo, gaiety, charm and courage, are all the more fantastic because the persons were real.

You will not find dates and statistics here, except where they seem necessary to explain how or why a saint got to his particular spot. And I have used the embroidery of legend because I feel that under its eye-catching trivia, there is the good homespun of fact. I have chosen lesser known saints because these are the ones to whom I am drawn, coaxing these hideaway saints out of the dusty pages of old reference books for one brief, if fanciful, moment in the sun.
-Ethel Pochocki