This new concise Butler's provides an essay on one saint for each day of the month, using the twelve-volume full edition of Butler’s Lives of the Saints as a source. Selections are made from both categories of "Saint" and “Blessed”—canonized and beatified, allowing for the increasing proportion of women and of new- and third-world holy people.

Completely rewritten in a popular style, this volume also has more “spiritual” appeal than the full edition. A prayer and intercessory reflection is included after each entry, which lend themselves to family or small-group meditation as well as to individual devotion. The volume also suggests baptismal/confirmation names for the day’s commemorations or for inclusion in prayers.

Paul Burns is the general editor of the Butler’s Lives of the Saints series published by Liturgical Press.