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.

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

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)

"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."