Book Review: Saint Felix and the Spider

Throughout Christian history, an unusually friendly relationship between a person and an animal--especially a wild animal--is often considered a sign of sanctity. The affinity of St. Francis of Assisi for all of God's creatures is well known, but he is far from the only saint to have developed such friendships. Saint John Bosco had a mysterious large gray dog named "Grigio" that came to his aid. Saint Hugh of Lincoln tamed squirrels, sparrows, and even a wild swan who favored him alone and would not let anyone else approach.

Saint Felix and the Spider is the second children's book by Dessi Jackson about an obscure ancient saint who had a special friendship with faithful arthropods. Her first book, The Saint and His Bees, tells the charming story of Saint Modomnoc and the swarm of honey bees that followed him around.

In Saint Felix and the Spider, Dessi Jackson and illustrator Lydia Grace Kadar-Kallen relate the tale of Felix of Nola, a third century Italian saint who lived during the Decian persecutions. To escape from the Roman soldiers pursuing him, Felix hid in a cave. The soldiers failed to find him because a spider quickly wove a web over the entrance to the cave, making the soldiers think that no one had been in the cave for a long time.

This is a very engaging story for children (ages 4-9)  told in charmingly simple prose accompanied by vividly detailed illustrations. A brief biography of Saint Felix is helpfully included at the end. As solid Catholic books for children are often hard to come by, I recommend this one as dealing with a unusual subject in a particularly attractive way. My own children thoroughly enjoyed it.