"An absolutely fascinating read! In a beautiful interweaving of theology, Mariology, history, poetry, and psychiatry, Patricia Santy's book, Prodigal Daughter: A Journey with Mary, kept me reading far into the night. It is the story of her exceptional career successes, her personal losses, joys and sorrows, and the poems and dreams that haunted her as she struggled to find their meaning. Reading this book made me smile, it made me cry, but mostly it made me joyful that her life, so far from God in the feminist, worldly realm, was brought back to Him by the patient nudging of Mary. This is one of those books you just can't put down."
—Carol G.
"Reading Prodigal Daughter: A Journey with Mary was a shot of encouragement for my own faith. The book describes a spiritual turnaround in a life that was spent questioning and denying God. It is about a yearning for Truth and the power of the Rosary. Dr. Santy’s transparency and openness about her life's biggest challenges, as well as her poetic honesty detailing her path to Christ through Mary, provide hope for all those struggling with the spiritual emptiness of the modern world."
—Josanne S.G.
B3460 Prodigal Daughter: A Journey With Mary
Prodigal Daughter: A Journey With Mary
By Patricia A. Santy, MD, OP. “My story is one of a serial sinner who was in denial about God and Truth, and who but for the grace of God and the intercession of Mary, would never have found either,” writes the author in the introduction to her story. Raised in a severely dysfunctional family, young Patricia Santy prayed rosaries begging God to prevent her parents’ divorce. When He didn’t, she angrily rejected Him and set out to become a self-directed, self-made woman—an “anti-Mary,” as she describes herself. Swallowing the culture’s lies about womanhood and motherhood, she worked for NASA and was even the flight doctor for the crew of the ill-fated Challenger.
Her personal life had its own share of disasters and failures along with the successes, and as she struggled with the burden of having had an abortion and as her marriage crumbled, she began to wonder whether the God she had rejected might actually exist. To whom else could she go? Through a series of mysterious dreams, she found herself slowly turning back to Him and to her mother Mary, eventually finding healing, love and deep joy by passing through the “garden” of the rosary.
Patricia is now a lay Dominican and works in a healing prayer ministry. A most heartening and very readable story, this account will take you by the hand and lead you on her amazing journey. Interwoven with the author’s story are powerful arguments for the existence of God and for the rightful place of Mary in the believer’s journey toward Him. An appendix offers suggestions for beginning or intensifying your practices of devotion to Mary.
Softcover. 165 pp. Contains photos.