The United “Saints” of America has arrived at the perfect time — it’s a travel book for Catholics to celebrate the 250th anniversary of our country, chronicling from the time when Catholics had to live in the shadows to becoming the largest single Christian body in the United States. Offering an “armchair tour,” the book hints at how the Church has grown not just in population but also in the numbers of shrines and religious sites.

This book is beautifully done and loaded with gorgeous pictures throughout to help readers “visit” these blessed stops in all 50 states. Some may be familiar, but many are not.

Author Peggy Stanton is well-versed to guide this Americana pilgrimage. She is the author of From the White House to the White Cross: Confessions of a TV News Correspondent, among other works. She was ABC TV’s first female news correspondent in Washington and has traveled the world with her husband, U.S. Rep. Bill Stanton, R-Ohio, and converted from “a cultural Catholic to a committed Catholic” after a trip to Medjugorje.

The book is not just a tour from shrine to shrine and church to church. There’s no rigorous travel-agency schedule inside. This is a tour that brings the faith to life — enlightening the eye and the mind. And the soul.

“The distinctiveness of Peggy Stanton’s book is that she seeks to let our travel nourish our souls, too. Her recommendations are not for tourism but for faith-nourishing pilgrimages to the Catholic shrines found in each of the 50 states,” writes Father Mitch Pacwa, host of EWTN Live, in his foreword. “At the outset she reminds us American Catholics that our national Patroness is the Blessed Virgin Mary under her title of the Immaculate Conception. … That refocus on the Blessed Virgin as our national Patroness sets the stage for understanding the wide variety of shrines dedicated to the Blessed Mother throughout each of the states.”

“In addition,” he adds, “she points out the Catholic history of the United States by describing and recommending the many shrines of the growing number of canonized and beatified Americans, both natives to our land and naturalized citizens.”

Mary’s America

Stanton takes readers through the states alphabetically, from Alabama to Wyoming, with the District of Columbia as a coda.

She begins by setting the tone: “Since our nation’s founding, Mary has been a very popular lady in the country.”

The many Marian churches and shrines highlight how Our Lady’s presence began in the country, even before the United States was founded. One tradition holds that Christopher Columbus dedicated the New World he discovered to Mary under the title Immaculate Conception. In 1792, John Carroll, the first Catholic bishop in America, consecrated the new nation to the Blessed Mother under the title of the Immaculate Conception.

Stanton writes that “in an informal way, we could say the Mother of God is the Mother of America.”

“Embark on a search of the Mother’s land and discover her famous and not so famous shrines, those least recognized, but with wonderful, intriguing backstories,” the author encourages. These stories never stop fascinating us as we move from state to state.

Of course, Alabama is first. There, the first stop is Mother Angelica and EWTN, where Stanton was a guest on the network’s shows in 2023. Our Lady of the Gulf Church — and its nearly miraculous building — is also featured.

This very Marian travel book explains how the legendary California missions celebrated Our Lady of Refuge and most every mission church has a painting of Mary under this title. We learn which mission has the oldest Bible in California that might have been in Father (now St.) Junípero Serra’s possession.

On to Colorado, we learn that the first church in the state was named Our Lady of Guadalupe and the first in Denver was named after our Blessed Mother — St. Mary’s. Stanton includes the Mother Cabrini Shrine in Golden, honoring the first U.S. citizen to be canonized, and explains how the shrine sits on land Mother Frances Cabrini purchased for a summer camp for an orphanage — and then discovered a spring in a fascinating way. Eventually, the spring and prayers answered through it led to creation of a Lourdes grotto.

Many of the first Catholic parishes across the country were consecrated to the Blessed Mother.

There are wonderful stories throughout. For example, in Delaware, the faithful wanted a 33-foot-tall stainless-steel statue of the Blessed Mother that resembled the Lady in Medjugorje. They could not afford the cost. So they pledged to pray 500,000 Rosaries to obtain it. Readers will have to get the book to find out what happened.

Stopping in Florida, Stanton has a lovely description of the town of Ave Maria and how it came to be. Naturally, she visits Our Lady of La Leche Shrine in St. Augustine and notes Orlando’s real crown jewel, the Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe.

State by State

From state to state, beautiful, very colorful photos fill page after page to supplement the verbal descriptions and stories.

Being so well-traveled, Stanton lends a further personal touch as she shares her own memories along the way. She becomes a custom tour guide, pointing out the highlights and connecting all these wonderful churches, shrines, holy places and saintly people to an American theme. For example, she writes, “One of my favorite stops while en route to one island or another was St. Mary’s, Georgia, where friends and I would attend Mass in a tiny white chapel. History lover that I am, I would have even been more charmed by the chapel had I known about its unique birth as a church.”

In New Mexico, she mentions the miraculous staircase attributed to St. Joseph. “The conclusion is that St. Joseph did the job himself, which I also concluded when I toured the chapel,” writes Stanton of Santa Fe’s Loretto Chapel.

Beautiful stories form connections to specific places. The National Shrine of the Infant Jesus of Prague in Oklahoma comes with a thumbnail history of this shrine, and includes a brief explanation of the Infant of Prague devotion. Then Stanton shares a moving story about the Infant Jesus of Prague connected with her husband Bill and his service in World War II.

These topical vignettes whet the appetite for the next stop. For example, in the Texas chapter, Stanton shares a priceless story of being in the Lone Star State with a friend, recounting divine intervention concerning a daily Mass perfectly timed by heaven. It’s well worth reading the story in her own words. These reminiscences add extra life to an already lively book.

New York’s top stop, of course, is St. Patrick’s Cathedral. “That international landmark became my adopted parish,” Stanton explains of her time broadcasting in the Big Apple. She recounts “moments greatly treasured by the walks to the cathedral for 7 a.m. Mass.” She shares a touching story of its Lady Chapel, where the life of a fallen-away Catholic ABC executive was changed when he was “directed” there, picked up a pamphlet about Our Lady of Medjugorje, went on pilgrimage to the mountain village of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and “re-embraced his Catholic faith.”

Across the Hudson in New Jersey, the National Blue Army Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima inspires Stanton to discuss Our Lady of Fatima. Earlier, she recounts the story of how the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima near St. Germanus Church in Arapahoe, Nebraska, came to be through the efforts of a Marian-hearted priest who emigrated from Germany. She brings in the importance of the First Saturday Devotions and quotes what the Blessed Mother asked for. The Marian request is conveyed by Stanton’s candor : “That’s the chance of a direct flight to paradise, folks.”

Throughout the book are welcome teaching moments, including what relics are and why they are important. Such “extras” really flesh out each new place as well as offer inspiration, uplifting and explaining parts of the faith we might have forgotten or allowed to grow “dusty.”

The Kansas portion includes Venerable Father Emil Kapaun. Stanton explains the holy heroism as an Army chaplain and how in the Korean War his “bravery and service to others inspired and raised the morale of his men. He prayed with soldiers in foxholes, celebrated Mass on the battlefield — sometimes using the hood of his Jeep as an altar.” She goes on to detail how he encouraged the men when they were prisoners of war and how he saved many lives before his own death in a POW camp in Korea in 1951.

Fascinating Facts

How many armchair travelers know the wonderful story of Father Jean-Louis Lefebvre de Cheverus, who came from France to Massachusetts in 1796, countered anti-Catholicism and then became the first bishop of Boston and a friend of President John Adams? Or know that Boston’s Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help was sometimes known as the Lourdes of the East?

And what is the oldest still-standing Catholic church in New England? (It’s St. Patrick’s in Newcastle, Maine.) Did you know that Maryland’s Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the first Catholic cathedral built in the United States, was where one of Paul Revere’s grandsons, Gen. Joseph Revere, converted to Catholicism, was baptized and made his first holy Communion — during the Civil War?

Each new page and each new state offers new revelations, such as the fascinating display of 4,000 rosaries from around the world in Washington state, which includes one set of prayer beads from Venerable Sister Lucia of Fatima.

In a word, recommended. The United “Saints” of America is one of the best, most beautiful religious travel books ever to hit bookshelves.

The United ‘Saints’ of America By Peggy Stanton Marian Press 288 Top of Form pages; $24.95 To order: ShopMercy.org or call (800) 462-7426