On a quiet summer evening in June 1990, Pico Iyer sat in his family home in Santa Barbara, Calif., when suddenly, he was surrounded by walls of flames five stories high.

The Greek island of Crete has its own saint connected to love, namely Saint Yakinthos, comparable to St. Valentine.

Ron Schulz had his first encounter with bliss when he was in second grade. “I was preparing to receive my first Eucharist and I had such a burning in my heart for God and I didn’t know what ...