Around 1147 the bishop of Chartres directed Geoffrey Grossus, a monk of Tiron Abbey, to write the life of its founder Bernard of Abbeville (ca. 1050-1116) in an effort to further his canonization. Although Geoffrey Grossus blithely borrowed from other writings on saints' lives to further his hagiographical purpose, he presented an erudite, ......
Abbo of Fleury was a prominent churchman of late tenth-century France - abbot of a major monastery, leader in the revival of learning in France and England, and the subject of a serious work of hagiography. Elizabeth Dachowski's study presents a coherent picture of this multifaceted man with an emphasis on his political alliances and the political ......
Angela Merici and the Company of St. Ursula (1474-1540)
Angela Merici (1474-1540), like other mystic women such as Catherine of Siena, was considered a ""santa viva"" - a living saint - by virtue of her mysticism, sacred knowledge, human qualities, and participation in civic life. However, Angela's originality and genius reside above all in the foundation of the Company of St. Ursula. It is there that ......
This book tells the fascinating story of Robert of Arbrissel (ca. 1045-1116). Robert was a parish priest, longtime student, reformer, hermit, wandering preacher, and, most famously, founder of the abbey of Fontevraud. There men and women joined together in a monastic life organized so that women ruled men and men served women, according to the ......
Catherine McAuley (1778-1841) founded the Sisters of Mercy in Dublin in 1831. Her letters are essential primary sources for readers interested in the life and works of this remarkable Irish churchwoman and in women's history and Irish church history more broadly. Whether McAuley is writing to family members, bishops, her solicitor, priests, lay ......
St Joseph's Church and the Evolution of an Urban Faith Community, 1829-2002
Jay Dolan transformed the writing of American Catholic history a quarter-century ago by telling the story from the bottom up instead of from the top down. In recent years a number of parish histories have appeared that reflect and expand this new methodology. They successfully relate the life of a local faith community to the larger religious and ......
The author brings the insights of Benedict's Rule to the wisdom tradition. Desiring Life is the third book in her series on Benedictine spirituality for people living in the world today.
Pope Boniface VIII (1294-1303) published a decree in 1298 that transformed long-standing attitudes toward nuns into universal Church law. Referred to as Periculoso, the first word of the Latin text, this decree announced that all nuns, no matter what rule they observed and no matter where their monasteries were located, were to be perpetually ......
The book is composed of 49 short chapters that develop classical monastic themes of hospitality, poverty, celibacy, and obedience, exploring what these might mean to men and women living at the end of the millennium.
