Dry spells and indifferent students, acrimonious meetings and recalcitrant colleagues, isolation and self-doubt--the stresses of the teaching profession are plentiful. In times of strain, many teachers draw on the wisdom of their mentors, the seasoned teachers who taught them classroom skills and became trusted models and friends. For Susan H. Swetnam, some of the best, most inspiring, and most insightful mentors she has are saints of the Catholic Church--and a remarkable number of these men and women were teachers themselves. In fact, many of the church''s heroes achieved their saintly stature by facing challenges identical to those that teachers face today. Some of the fifty-two saints described in My Best Teachers Were Saints give lessons on how to overcome the teaching profession''s unique problems; other show today''s teachers how to identify successes that are often quite difficult to discern. All of the saints in this book share one thing in common: they persevered in the educational work that God called them to do. Swetnam brings to life each story of perseverance and makes it easy for today''s educators to discover mentor-companions who can help them rekindle and fortify their passion in the classroom.