About: I will Not Pray in My Father's House

A compelling new book by Stephen Pierre Sainte-Martin. Available in paperback and hardback formats. Release date: July 1, 2026

This is my debut memoir regarding the lives of a family living in Roxbury, Massachusetts with nine children where the father is a minister and because of the brutality experienced in childhood by his mother, and therefore the memories of his past may have bled through to the present. This psychological thriller is about the human mind, about murder and kidnapping. The father's discipline crossed the line into obsession and were it not for the mother, the sanctuary of the home may have dissipated. She at the center of this storm stood with kindness and gentle persuasiveness holding fragments of the family together. While she articulated grace through the chaos, was forced into a heart wrenching balancing act trying to soften the blows of a man she is told by the Bible to obey, while shielding nine children from a darkness she did not fully understand. It whispered the question silently, does the trauma of the past travel through bloodlines and will the psychosis eventually appear in one or more of her children?

He punished 2 sons way past the normal expectation of a loving father. But he had a good reason because of something he saw. However, impractical, it centered on generational abuse, and the dichotomy of the sanctuary; the father supposing to be a symbol of safety with God. By questioning if he transferred memories unwittingly, the reader is left to speculate and explore epigenetics in the cycle of abuse; a man of God standing at the pulpit for the community with the best of intentions, becomes the source of unpredictability with his offspring.

I Will Not Pray In My Father's House is the harrowing tale of a family caught in the grips of a father's descent into suspected mental illness, scarred by the brutal abuse he suffered at the hands of his own mother. It appeared that the trauma of that may have traveled through the bloodline. The mother provided the crucial calming to the father's volatility. Her presence in the center of the storm, and her kind and gentle mannerisms held the fragments of the family together while she moved with grace deeper into her relationship with the Almighty.

It is a tale of how instability, religion, and fear boldly garnered the opportunity to unveil its quintuple devastation within the close-knit family whom most people thought would never have succumbed to such remedial disappointments and distortion.

Death stole the father in February of 1997, and the mother passed in her sleep four months later on Father's Day. Subsequently, and as a result of their frailties, the children individually unraveled tightly wound secrets like ribbons affixed to gift boxes, opened them cautiously and exposed hidden personalities and traits that had lain dormant for years. Now opened, they appeared as crumbled paper fallen to the floor; became discarded loyalties and repositioned affections and were soon picked up and tossed gently into the trash. Would the psychosis transmute to one or more of the children continuing generational epigenetics?

STEPHEN PIERRE SAINTE-MARTIN

AUTHOR OF: I WILL NOT PRAY IN MY FATHER'S HOUSE.

COPYRIGHT 2026

 

Meet Stephen Sainte-Martin

Stephen Pierre Sainte-Martin is an independently published author and community advocate based in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. A lifelong learner and dedicated community servant, he holds a Master's degree and brings a wealth of expertise to his writing as a licensed Real Estate Broker, Notary, and Minister. His debut memoir, I Will Not Pray in My Father's House, is a deeply personal and unflinching exploration of family, faith, trauma, and resilience — drawing from his experience growing up as one of nine children to explore the profound intersections of faith, family legacy, and the science of epigenetics. His narrative is deeply informed by his volunteer work supporting fathers navigating trauma, reflecting his commitment to breaking generational cycles and fostering healing within the community, while bringing an intimate and courageous voice to a story that resonates with anyone who has navigated the complexities of family, religion, and the lasting echoes of the past.