Within two years after the death of Francis of Assisi, Thomas of Celano composed The Life of Saint Francis of Assisi, a portrait of the newly canonized Umbrian: a saint who easily met all the criteria needed for canonization and walked in the footsteps of Martin, Benedict, Bernard, Malachy, and so many others. Less than twenty years later, Thomas used his literary skills once more. In many ways, The Remembrance of the Desire of a Soul, his second portrait of Francis, exceeded his first as the friar unleashed his poetic powers to capture the wonder and especially the uniqueness of the saint’s life and vision. Hardly had this work become known, when Thomas composed a comprehensive, orderly view of Francis’s miracles, The Treatise on the Miracles. The three classic works appear here for the first time in one volume. “Thomas of Celano's early literary portraits of Francis bring us into intimate contact with the Poor Man of Assisi. These works exhibit that rare combination of charm and profundity. Every lover of Francis will treasure this volume.” Lawrence S. Cunningham John A. O'Brien Professor of Theology The University of Notre Dame

A translation of the First Life of St Francis or Vita Prima of 1228, this text is in three parts. The first is devoted to the purity of St Francis's life and his teaching; the second relates the events of the last year of his life; and the third deals with his canonization and miracles. There is a full introduction with background information about Thomas of Celano and his relationship with St Francis as well as a survey of other biographical writings about St Francis.

The nature of mendicancy as it developed among various religious orders during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries is the subject of considerable debate. In spite of this, little in the way of a comprehensive review of the phenomenon as a whole has been undertaken. What has been done has either been order-specific (with an emphasis on the Friars Minor) or has focused on points of special conflict regarding the mendicant ideal (University debates, Spiritual Franciscans). Little work exists on the roots of mendicancy, or on the creative ways in which mendicancy was understood (and deprecated) in various quarters. Few studies try to bring together both the theory and practice of religious mendicancy. The effect that events had in molding and changing the mendicant ideal is also often neglected, as are the ways in which it was independently and creatively appropriated by individuals and groups. Needless to say, all of this is strange for a movement that most are content to label “Mendicant.” Perhaps it may even be the case that “mendicancy” is not useful as a descriptive concept. The purpose and intention of this handbook is to offer an analysis of the term and to present an up-to-date and comprehensive introduction to the phenomenon of religious mendicancy in the central and later middle ages. It provides a contextualized guide that will introduce the central issues in contemporary scholarship regarding the mendicant orders. This project approaches the controversies from a multitude of angles and unites in one volume the insights of different disciplines such as social and intellectual history, literary analysis, and theology. The present work is divided into three main sections, I) The origins and foundations of medieval mendicancy, II) The development and articulation of mendicant ideals, III) The reception and appropriation of mendicancy in the middle ages. The chapters herein serve as a solid point of departure for advanced students and scholars.

The Prophet is the third volume in this extraordinary series of "the writings of Saint Francis and those of the early Franciscan witnesses" and it will "be of estimable value to scholars, students, and lovers of Il Poverello as well...a scholarly achievement done in the service of history, theology and spirituality." (Lawrence Cunningham)