The Sculptor and the Saint

<p class=ql-align-center><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>One Woman's Sacrifice. One Man's Undoing.</strong></p><p class=ql-align-justify><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Daughter to an ancient Roman senator Cecilia is forced into a lonely marriage to a loathsome patrician and leaves behind her infatuation for the handsome Sebastian of Milan. With her husband often away on military duty however Cecilia seeks refuge through her clandestine meetings with a Christian congregation hiding in the catacombs beneath the Appian Way. When news of Sebastian's torture brings her to his aid and her involvement with Sebastian and the Christians is exposed Cecilia must face fatal consequences.  </span></p><p class=ql-align-justify></p><p class=ql-align-justify><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Thirteen hundred years after her death Saint Cecilia's body is exhumed from her grave and young artist Stefano Maderno is commissioned by the pope to sculpt her likeness. Seeking a big break in his career Stefano enthralls himself in his work and the romanticized accounts of Cecilia's virginity and martyrdom. However the more he immerses himself in carving her form the more he struggles against his sinful nature to be worthy of his subject's virtue. Stefano's dedication to Cecilia's legacy might just be what breaks him.</span></p><p class=ql-align-justify></p><p class=ql-align-justify><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>In this gripping tale of passion and agony two lives separated by centuries are united in their search for purity and purpose. Lori Joan Swick's </span><em style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The Sculptor and the Saint</em><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> speaks of a history only ever written in stone.</span></p><p></p>