Historians, writers and editors gathered at the Church History Library to celebrate the release of the fourth and final volume of “Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days” on Tuesday, Oct. 29.
“Saints, Volume 4: Sounded in Every Ear,” is available in 14 languages and chronicles the history of the Church from 1955 to 2020, a period marked by rapid global growth in membership and temple building.
Elder Hugo E. Martinez, a General Authority Seventy who serves as assistant executive director of the Church History Department, spoke at the event, as did historian Matthew J. Grow, the managing director of the Church History Department. They were joined by Jed Woodworth, managing historian for “Saints”; Scott Hales, a historian and literary editor; and Lisa Olsen Tait, a historian and general editor, along with others who worked on the project.
Now complete, Elder Martinez said studying the series can help readers to gain a deeper understanding of historic events and the growth of the Church. The stories demonstrate the faith of the members over generations as they follow the Savior and highlight the importance of the gospel in spiritual growth and overcoming challenges.
“It’s a wonderful volume and speaks to the worldwide Church,” he said. “Those who read it will find our Savior, Jesus Christ, within the stories and how His gospel impacts lives.”
“Saints” tells the story of what the Saints did, why they did it and what they believed, Elder Kyle S. McKay, a General Authority Seventy who serves as Church historian and recorder, said in a news release.
“We read about how they followed the Lord’s commandments, moving forward in faith and turning to their Savior,” he said. “In the final volume, we see historic revelation and a dramatic expansion of temple building throughout the earth, giving God’s children increased opportunities to make and keep covenants that will strengthen them against the commotion and uncertainty of the world around them.”
‘Saints,’ Volume 4: A global narrative for global interests
The new volume features true stories about how the Church and its members utilize new technologies, opportunities in education, innovative changes in Church organization and leadership, as well as widespread temple construction to spread the gospel.
“It’s very moving for me,” Elder Martinez said of Volume 4, particularly because he knows several of the people featured. “Volume 4 is filled with individual stories, faith-promoting stories, inspiring stories. ... So, our invitation today is for you to have ‘Saints’ and study and find what we have found there — stories of people who follow Jesus Christ and find Him. We will find our Savior, Jesus Christ, in the pages and the devotion and the lives that are there.”
Much of the history covered in Volume 4 includes events that many readers have experienced and remember. Readers will learn more about the beginnings of priesthood correlation and FamilySearch; the blessings of the Perpetual Education Fund; the establishment of Latter-day Saint stakes in South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Pacific; the Church’s building program; the rapid construction of temples all over the world; and the revelation on priesthood ending race-based priesthood and temple restrictions.
“One of the most fulfilling aspects of ‘Saints’ is seeing how individuals from all walks of life continue to choose to serve the Lord, sometimes at considerable personal expense and inconvenience,” said James Perry, a general editor of the volume. “I find it incredibly inspiring to see the great work of proclaiming the gospel taking place in Peru, Ghana, Hong Kong, Germany and across the world.”
When Volume 4 opens in 1955, the Church has been organized in only a few countries. By the end, the Church has spread to 150 countries, but not every country with Church members could be represented in the book. Editors said they did their best to include stories from countries that could represent regions of the world.
Grow said those working on the project had three main goals. First, the history had to be impeccable, meticulously researched and totally accurate. Second, the series had to be a page-turner, driven forward by a narrative of individual Latter-day Saints seeking to understand the will of God for their own lives and making history in the process. And third, the volumes had to meet the needs of all members worldwide, particularly among youth, young adults and those relatively new to the Church.
“This Volume 4 tells an increasingly global story,” Grow said. “It’s the story of continuing revelation that helps the Church offer the full blessings of the gospel, including temple covenants to millions of people around the globe. ... It’s our deepest hope that Latter-day Saints around the world will be able to see themselves in the story and ponder how they can carry on the legacy of faith and serve as exemplified in our history.”
One Latter-day Saint featured in Volume 4, Isabel Santana, of Sonora, Mexico, attended the event with her husband, Juan Antonio Machuca. Santana was 14 years old in 1966 when she enrolled at Mexico City’s Centro Escolar Benemérito de las Américas, one of many Church-owned secondary schools around the world. There she studied several subjects and gained religious education through the Church’s seminary program. She was honored to be mentioned in “Saints.”
“For me, it was a privilege,” she said in Spanish. “I grew up at Benemérito and in the Church. My grandparents were among the first members in our area. So this was a blessing, something very special.”
Visitors at the Church History Library can see historic artifacts presented in Volume 4, including a 1967 photo of Santana.
‘We have an amazing history’
In producing “Saints,” Grow said, the Church has done its best to tell accurate stories from the viewpoint of individuals with the belief that Latter-day Saints can draw inspiration from the real, authentic struggles of those in the past.
“People don’t want a history that just tells the good. They want to know about the struggles and messiness of the past. We have tried to accurately tell those stories. ... When we face a challenging issue in history, we try to address it, talk about it, explain it as best as we know how from the records we have,” he said.
“As Latter-day Saints, we don’t need to be afraid of our past. We have an amazing history. It’s a history full of faith. It’s a history full of devoted people doing their best to follow the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it’s a history full of people, so there’s messiness and there’s confusion at times as well, but our history can withstand scrutiny.”
Where is ‘Saints’ Volume 4 available?
A hard copy of “Saints, Volume 4″ is available for purchase from the Church’s online store and at retail outlets.
The digital version is available for free on the Church website and in the Church History section of the Gospel Library app.
Volume 4 is available digitally in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Cebuano, Tagalog, Samoan, Tongan, Italian, German and Russian. Print editions in these languages will be available over the next four months.
An option to listen to the “Saints” volumes is available on Gospel Library in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese.
The ‘Saints’ series
The Church released “Saints: The Standard of Truth, Volume 1, 1815-1846″ in September 2018, and “Saints, Volume 2, No Unhallowed Hand, 1846-1893″ was released in February 2020. The first two volumes of “Saints” focus on the early Restoration as the Latter-day Saints gathered to build temples in Kirtland, Ohio; Nauvoo, Illinois; and Utah.
“Saints, Volume 3, Boldly, Nobly, and Independent, 1893-1955″ was released in April 2022. Volume 3 shares stories of Saints worldwide as they experienced the thrills of modern changes and faced the challenges of war, a pandemic and economic hardship.
The four-volume “Saints” series is the third multivolume official history produced by the Church. Joseph Smith commissioned and oversaw the writing of the first Church history in the 1830s, which was published beginning in 1842. The second history was published in 1930 by assistant Church historian B.H. Roberts before Church membership had reached 1 million.
“We have only done this three times in the Church’s history,” Grow said. “It’s exciting to have this series done a few years before the Church’s bicentennial.”
The series has sold nearly 1.2 million printed volumes and reached another 1.5 million online readers and 500,000 audiobook listeners. More than a thousand reviewers, translators, editors, historians and writers have contributed to the work over the past decade and a half.
While there are no current plans for a fifth volume of Saints, historians hope to expand the Saints brand and storytelling style through other Church history projects.
Digging deeper
For readers who want to dig deeper into Church history, the Church has published dozens of new Church History Topics in the Gospel Library, which provide additional insights into a variety of topics.
The Church is also launching a fourth season of the “Saints” podcast, which tells more about the people and events in the books. Previous seasons of the podcast have reached hundreds of thousands of listeners.
Grow hopes readers will find stories with which they can identify, as well as hope and faith in Jesus Christ.
“We hope they find reason for hope. We hope that they find stories that will build their faith in Jesus Christ,” he said. “We also hope that they understand the global nature of the Church. We want them to learn from stories of people in Brazil and Panama and Africa. We want them to feel a shared identity with Latter-day Saints everywhere.”