St Maria of Paris

I've previously drawn attention to Mother/Saint Maria of Paris (Maria Skobtsova) here on the 70th anniversary of her martyrdom, where I noted several important studies of her life in detail. She is certainly an extraordinary Orthodox figure of the twentieth century, so it is no surprise that she is featured now in a new book from a well-known author: Eric Metaxas, Seven Women: And the Secret of Their Greatness (Thomas Nelson, 2015), 256pp.

About this book we are told:

In his eagerly anticipated follow-up to the enormously successful Seven Men, New York Timesbest-selling author Eric Metaxas gives us seven captivating portraits of some of history’s greatest women, each of whom changed the course of history by following God’s call upon their lives—as women. Each of the world-changing figures who stride across these pages—Joan of Arc, Susanna Wesley, Hannah More, Maria Skobtsova, Corrie ten Boom, Mother Teresa, and Rosa Parks—is an exemplary model of true womanhood. Teenaged Joan of Arc followed God’s call and liberated her country, dying a heroic martyr’s death. Susanna Wesley had nineteen children and gave the world its most significant evangelist and its greatest hymn-writer, her sons John and Charles. Corrie ten Boom, arrested for hiding Dutch Jews from the Nazis, survived the horrors of a concentration camp to astonish the world by forgiving her tormentors. And Rosa Parks’ deep sense of justice and unshakeable dignity and faith helped launch the twentieth-century’s greatest social movement. Writing in his trademark conversational and engaging style, Eric Metaxas reveals how the other extraordinary women in this book achieved their greatness, inspiring readers to lives shaped by the truth of the gospel.