This resource is an online searchable database of information on saints and angels from a Catholic point of view. The site is a part of the much larger Catholic Online (COL) web site, a for‐profit business, whose self‐described mission is “to be the source for all things Catholic”. According to the About page, COL provides “over five million pages of content, including the largest online historical and biblical database about the Catholic Church”, information on “over 7,000 Catholic saints” and “comprehensive online scriptures from all books of the Old and New Testament”. In addition, COL includes the full‐text of the 1907‐1914 edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia.
Saints & Angels can be accessed directly at: www.catholic.org/saints/ or through the COL web site at: www.catholic.org/, where links to the various parts of the database are provided at the bottom of the COL homepage. Entering the site directly provides access to two A‐Z indexes: the main saint index, containing biographical information, and an index of patron saints and their intercessory affiliations. The homepage also includes links to several categorized resources, such as lists of popular, female, black, Japanese, Irish, and martyr saints. Other resources include a discussion of stigmata as it relates to specific saints, an index of Doctors of the Church, a feast day list, saint “fun facts” where you can learn “unusual facts” about select saints, a saint calendar, and an index of California missions and the saints for which they were named. A Google powered search engine is included on the homepage, allowing users to search for information on particular saints throughout the web site.
Information provided for angels, though less robust than that for saints, includes links to a discussion of angels within Catholicism, lists of angels mentioned in the Bible, prayers to specific angels, and an explanation of the “choirs of angels”. Also included is a devotional page where users can post information regarding their personal angel encounters.
Browsing either of the saint indexes is a straightforward affair. Clicking on a letter within the A‐Z biographical index, for example, provides a list of saint names starting with the letter chosen. Clicking on a name opens a page of biographical, feast day, and patron information, as well as images, when available. Biographies run anywhere from a few sentences to multiple paragraphs. Select words are hyperlinked to the Catholic Encyclopedia providing additional information on a variety of topics. Articles can be emailed, book marked, and reformatted for printing.
The patron saint index is also easy to use. Here, however, the index is organized alphabetically by intercessory affiliation, rather than by name. Clicking on any letter provides a two‐column list with affiliation topics on the left and the saint or saints associated with the topics on the right. Names within the patron saint index are hyperlinked to the articles about them. Not all articles, however, explain the reason for the patron affiliation(s).
Overall, the site is well organized. Navigation is straightforward via the categorized links or the indexes. The Google powered search engine works as expected. Links to black, female, Irish, Japanese, favourite and other categorized lists make it easy to find desired information within these groups. The calendar of saints and list of feast days are useful features, allowing quick access to information that would otherwise be difficult to find within the site.
Although Saints and Angels contains a wealth of information, a number of problems make it difficult to recommend. First, the site is riddled with commercial advertising. While the inclusion of advertisements for Catholic related books and jewellery is understandable, given the devotional purpose of the web site, the numerous pop‐ups for unrelated Catholic businesses detract from its overall utility, especially when some require the user to click through them before reaching the desired information. Even more frustrating is that very little of the information is cited, making it difficult to determine its accuracy. At least one article cites the source of its information as The Lives of the Saints by S. Baring‐Gould, published in 1914. Whether all of the information is taken from this source is difficult to determine as nothing is stated in the web site's documentation. In addition, duplicate entries exist for a number of saints within the biographical index. Some of these duplicate entries contain conflicting information, such as conflicting birth and death dates.
Because of these problems it is difficult to recommend Saints and Angels as a source of accurate information. While it may be useful for devotional purposes, the lack of consistent citations makes it extremely untrustworthy. This is unfortunate, as a reliable online source of this kind would be valuable for both academic and public libraries.
