Through the Year with Francis of Assisi contains 365 selections drawn from the sayings and writings of Francis as well as from stories about him. These excerpts constitute a personal "day book" for year-round reflection.

"I recommend this book strongly to anyone serious about understanding Francis of Assisi. I admire the clarity and brevity of the writing. With decisiveness, Thompson cuts through the conflicting medieval accounts of each event in Francis' life, adjusts for the hagiographers' spin and creates a credible chronology out of the blurry dates. His knowledge of medieval Italy allows him to provide insightful explanations of the legal, liturgical, and ecclesiastical practices of the time."—Paul Moses, America Among the most beloved saints in the Catholic tradition, Francis of Assisi (c. 1181–1226) is popularly remembered for his dedication to poverty, his love of animals and nature, and his desire to follow perfectly the teachings and example of Christ. During his lifetime and after his death, followers collected, for their own purposes, numerous stories, anecdotes, and reports about Francis. As a result, the man himself and his own concerns became lost in legend. In this authoritative and engaging new biography, Augustine Thompson, O.P., sifts through the surviving evidence for the life of Francis using modern historical methods. The result is a complex yet sympathetic portrait of the man and the saint. Francis emerges from this account as very much a typical thirteenth-century Italian layman, but one who, when faced with unexpected crises in his personal life, made decisions so radical that they challenge his own society—and ours. Unlike the saint of legend, this Francis never had a unique divine inspiration to provide him with rules for following the teachings of Jesus. Rather, he spent his life reacting to unexpected challenges, before which he often found himself unprepared and uncertain. The Francis who emerges here is both more complex and more conflicted than that of older biographies. His famed devotion to poverty is found to be more nuanced than expected, perhaps not even his principal spiritual concern. Thompson revisits events small and large in Francis's life, including his troubled relations with his father, his contacts with Clare of Assisi, his encounter with the Muslim sultan, and his receiving the Stigmata, to uncover the man behind the legends and popular images. A tour de force of historical research and biographical writing, Francis of Assisi: A New Biography is divided into two complementary parts—a stand alone biographical narrative and a close, annotated examination of the historical sources about Francis. Taken together, the narrative and the survey of the sources provide a much-needed fresh perspective on this iconic figure. "As I have worked on this biography," Thompson writes, "my respect for Francis and his vision has increased, and I hope that this book will speak to modern people, believers and unbelievers alike, and that the Francis I have come to know will have something to say to them today."

This wonderful introduction to the life and teachings of St. Francis offers daily inspiration and a dose of "peace and good"--a phrase often associated with Francis and his followers. Each month celebrates a Franciscan theme--such as peace, conversion, prayer, Mary, charity, and service to the poor. For each day, you will find a quote from Francis's teachings, a suggestion for living as Francis did, and a challenge for growing in faith and practice. Beautifully designed, it is the perfect Franciscan resource for personal use or for gift giving.

A biography of the saint as both mystic and man: “The single best book about Francis now available in English” (Commonweal). In this towering work, Andre Vauchez draws on the vast body of scholarship on Francis of Assisi, particularly the important research of recent decades, to create a complete and engaging portrait of the saint. He also explores how the memory of Francis was shaped by contemporaries who recollected him in their writings, and completes the book by setting “il Poverello” in the context of his time, bringing to light what was new, surprising, and even astonishing in the life and vision of this man. The first part of the book is a fascinating reconstruction of Francis’s life and work. The second and third parts deal with the texts—hagiographies, chronicles, sermons, personal testimonies, etc.—of writers who recorded aspects of Francis’s life and movement as they remembered them, and used those remembrances to construct a portrait of Francis relevant to their concerns. Finally, Vauchez explores those aspects of Francis’s life, personality, and spiritual vision that were unique to him, including his experience of God, his approach to nature, his understanding and use of Scripture, and his impact on culture as well as culture’s impact on him. “Considered one of the great spiritual leaders of humankind, Francis of Assisi was also a man of many faces and personas: ascetic, the founder of a religious order, a romantic hero, a mystic, a defender of the poor, a promoter of peace. But as Vauchez emphasizes—and this biography constantly reminds us—Francis was also a flesh-and-blood human being . . . A bracing, erudite account of a mystic’s life.” —Booklist

Conform your life to the teachings of Jesus by living the virtues taught by Christ and especially embraced by Saint Francis of Assisi. Franciscan Virtues Through the Year: 52 Steps to Conversion from Saint Francis of Assisi explores each virtue with a quote from Scripture, a quote from the writings of Saint Francis, and an incident from the life of Saint Francis. There follows a reflection on the virtue, then meditation and prayer on the virtue, and some delving back into Scripture regarding it. Each virtue calls for reflection on the virtue and practice of it for an entire week. If the reflections and practice are done weekly as suggested, the reader will be spiritually more in tune with God's ways at the end of reading the book than at the beginning. The book is designed to make one aware of the virtues which St. Francis especially loved and to help the reader implement those virtues in his or her life. The virtues discussed are: 1. Attentiveness 2. Confession 3. Courage 4. Courtesy 5. Detachment 6. Discernment 7. Eagerness 8. Empathy 9. Encouragement 10. Eucharistic Reverence 11. Evangelization 12. Example 13. Faith 14. Fraternity 15. Generosity 16. Gratitude 17. Honesty 18. Hope 19. Humility 20. Imitation of Jesus 21. Joy 22. Justice 23. Love of Enemy 24. Love of God 25. Love of Neighbor 26. Love of Self 27. Loyalty to Church 28. Marian Devotion 29. Minority 30. Obedience 31. Pardon 32. Patience 33. Peace 34. Perseverance 35. Poverty 36. Praise 37. Prayer 38. Presence 39. Purity 40. Respect for Creation 41. Sacrifice 42. Self- knowledge 43. Service 44. Silence 45. Simplicity 46. Surrender 47. Trust 48. Vigilance 49. Vulnerability 50. Wisdom 51. Witness 52. Work This book is an excellent formation book for Franciscan friars, nuns, sisters, and laity. The 52 week format can be adapted as the Order wishes. Few books are guaranteed to change a person's spiritual life if the pattern of study in the book is followed. This book will definitely make the reader into a stronger follower of Christ, through the example and teachings of Saint Francis. May God bless you through Saint Francis as you read through, meditate on, and put into practice the Franciscan Virtues!

All Christians know his name. Few truly know the man. Francis of Assisi was not even five feet tall. He was not well educated. And yet he is the one saint commonly recognized as Alter Christus, the “other Christ.” Francis is not just any saint—he’s a saint for everyone, whatever your place or position in life. But do we really know him? Who was this man at his core? What was it that thrust this little man from a little town to the heights of sanctity, into a place of high honor among the celestial court? In this riveting biography, author Bret Thoman accomplishes what few biographers have. He pierces the inner life of Francis, revealing his deepest passions, his unquenchable love for poverty, and his unshakable grip on the core of the Gospel. The life of Francis, so often festooned with spectacle and miracle, is in reality the story of a soul yearning for God in every moment and glimpsing His presence in all creation. If you want to see the hidden life of the greatest saint, if you want to hear his thoughts, if you want to feel the fervor that blazed within his soul, you must readSt. Francis of Assisi: Passion, Poverty, and the Man who Transformed the Catholic Church.