“Here is a praiseworthy and useful book, simple yet difficult, light yet dark: the lives, passions and sorrows of the saints, known as the LIttle Passional.”

Klabund was the pseudonym of author Alfred Henschke (1890-1928), who died young. The name was formed by combining the words “Klabautermann” (hobgoblin) and “Vagabund” (vagabond). In this little book, he retells the legends of the saints with a deeper, hidden meaning, and casting them in an unaccustomed light. “Somebody holy is called Saint Somebody. Nobody holy is called Saint Nobody. God holds the scales in His hand: the scales of justice.” Poetry, whose originality and tenderness bears comparison with that of the “Knaben Wunderhorn”, flows from this Little Passional, which tells of the lives, passions and sorrows of the saints with plain, childlike simplicity and uses multi-faceted variations to express belief in the miracle, its power and majesty. “This is what the book of the saints lives and passions is: a mirror in which man can reflect on whether he is, or is becoming, like them. Because there is nothing that works towards and teaches more of virtue than their example: set up like a fiery beacon in the night of vice and lies, in which we can all share, sinners certainly, entangled in need and death and misery. May these holy women and men help us to a joyful ascent into heaven. For which, blessed be God in the highest. Amen.”