Alexi Sargeant is a Catholic high school humanities teacher in Hyattsville, Maryland. He and his wife, writer Leah Libresco Sargeant, have three young children.
Mr. Sargeant, a former assistant editor at First Things, holds a B.A. in English and theater studies from Yale University. He is the author of the recent children’s book Saintly Creatures: 14 Tales of Animals and Their Holy Companions (Word on Fire Votive, 2023, recently renamed from Word on Fire Spark), featuring illustrations by the Italian artist Anita Barghigiani.
He recently spoke with Catholic World Report about his decision to write a children’s book on the animal companions of the saints, both wild and domestic.
CWR: What inspired you to write about “saintly creatures” for children?
Alexi Sargeant: I have always loved stories of saints and animals together. I recall giving a toast in college to St. Francis and the wolf of Gubbio. When I had the opportunity to pitch Word on Fire, a collection like this was my first proposal. Providentially, they had a book like this on their wish list and were looking for a writer to take it on. It all came together very gracefully.
CWR: What led you to feature the fourteen stories you selected for the book?
Alexi Sargeant: My editor and I spent a while brainstorming and researching stories for the book, then chose fourteen to focus on that included saints from around the world and throughout Church history.
We also aimed for a diversity of animals (meaning we had to choose one story with a lion between St. Jerome and St. Mary of Egypt!) and a mix of well-known stories alongside more obscure ones.
\All in all, I’m happy with this lineup, though there are more stories to tell and perhaps we’ll get to do that in the future.
CWR: What is your favorite animal in the book and why?
Alexi Sargeant: I’m really happy we got to include Bl. James Heo In-baek and the Tiger! It’s an amazing story of a small group of secret Korean Christians hiding from persecution in a mountain cave, only to find they’ve accidentally trespassed in the lair of a tiger.
Anita’s art for the tiger is just beautiful. The only accounts of this story about Bl. James until now were in Korean, and so I’m pleased to bring this miraculous story from the Church in Korea to a wider audience.
CWR: Unlike a simple picture book for small readers, your stories offer detailed descriptions of each saint and animal, suggesting they might be more for parents to read aloud or for school-aged children. What audience did you write for and how do you see Catholic families using this book?
Alexi Sargeant: You’re right; we intend this to be a read-aloud storybook for parents, grandparents, godparents, etc. to share with the children in their lives. The hope is also that the stories are written with enough depth that kids will come back to them later, when they are ready to read the book on their own, and that then they’ll discover even more to the saintly lives and miraculous moments than they could understand as younger children.
CWR: Anita Barghigiani’s full-color illustrations lend the book a warm and woodsy tone. How did you find her and settle on this design?
Alexi Sargeant: All credit to my editor, Haley Stewart, for finding Anita, who did such a wonderful job with this book. In our conversations about the art, we discussed drawing on the richness of medieval illuminated manuscript styles, but with a modern expressiveness to the designs of the saints and the animals.
Anita’s style ended up being perfect for it! I love that she created individualized borders, often featuring natural imagery, for each story in the book.
What do your wife and kids think of the book?
Alexi Sargeant: My wife has been my top supporter throughout the project. The kids are fans of hearing the stories. We get the most requests for “The Boar and St. Brigid” and “The Mice and St. Martin de Porres.” They are also pretty proud to point out my picture on the back cover.
CWR: What do you hope people take away from these stories?
Alexi Sargeant: I hope what people glean from the book is the love of the saints, a love for God that spills over into loving His Creation. In many of these stories, saints seem able to communicate with animals in a way that goes beyond the ordinary. This strikes me as a restoration of the friendship between humankind and the animal world in the Garden of Eden. Through their friendship with God, saints reach back to that original harmony. May we all aspire to live out such friendship!
CWR: Any final thoughts?
Alexi Sargeant: Folks who enjoy Saintly Creatures should stay tuned for news about the sequel, also from Word on Fire Votive—Saintly Adventures: 14 Tales of Daring and Danger from the Lives of the Saints.
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There’ll be a slew of adults reading these stories besides kids. Sargeant picked the right artist and fascinating stories.
That’s really a lovely idea & I think I’m going to be getting this for a grandchild’s birthday coming up. Thank you very much for letting us know about this book. St. Martin de Porres & the mice & St. John Bosco’s dog-guardian are two of my favorite stories about the saints.