New City Press Franciscan Studies Collection (14 vols.)

by Regis J. Armstrong; Gianluigi Pasquale; Thomas of Celano; Regis J. Armstrong

and

10 more

Publisher:

New City Press

, 2000–2020

Overview

It has been said that no individual in history has come closer than St. Francis of Assisi to completely and authentically living out the radical poverty of Jesus Christ as laid out in the gospels. Beloved by many of all and even no religious affiliations, Francis remains in our day a towering figure in history for the simple fact that he practiced what he preached: love for Christ and love for the poor. The New City Press Franciscan Studies Collection brings together a treasure trove of primary resources on the Poverello of Assisi. Pulling together important early biographies and the writings of Francis himself—with fresh English translations and scholarly annotations—these texts provide a comprehensive portrait of the man who was called by his contemporaries “the saintliest of saints.” Anyone looking to get to know this great saint and historical figure will find in this collection the resources to do so and, further, to find in Francis’ way of life a roadmap for living out the Christian life in today’s world.

Key Features

• Provides modern English translations of important historical sources on Francis of Assisi
• Contains notes and introductions from some of today’s leading Franciscan scholars
• Includes resources on other important figures in the life of Francis and the early Franciscans: Clare of Assisi and Bonaventure

Clare of Assisi: The Lady

• Editor: Regis J. Armstrong, OFM
• Translator: Regis J. Armstrong, OFM
• Edition: 3rd
• Publisher: New City Press
• Publication Date: 2006
• Pages: 461

This third edition of Clare of Assisi: Early Documents offers evidence of a greater sophistication in interpreting and presenting the texts emerging from a new wave of scholarship. Unlike the earlier editions, the writings of Clare appear in two separate sections: the first, entitled “May You Live Blessed Poverty,” presents Clare’s letters to Agnes of Prague, her Testament, and her Blessing; the second, “Together with My Sisters,” brings together the earlier documents of Pope Honorius III, Cardinal Hugolino, later Pope Gregory IX, and Pope Innocent IV that affected and eventually culminated in Clare’s Form of Life. The editor and his collaborators hope that, in this way, the depth of Clare’s Gospel spirituality will underscore her struggle to articulate her vision of the daily life of her sisters. The third section of this edition of Clare of Assisi: Early Documents presents another dimension of the scholarly work done on these texts. Entitled “The Brilliance of Her Life,” the critical apparatus accompanying the hagiographical texts affords the reader and the student of Clare’s life more user-friendly cross-references. Clare of Assisi: Early Documents provides new translations of Clare’s writings and related primary sources, revised and new introductions from earlier editions, as well as previously unpublished documents to chronicle the life of Saint Clare.

If Francis was the external manifestation of a new Gospel spirituality, Clare was its perfect internal manifestation. She lived secretly what he lived openly. Now some of the secrets are being revealed in this wonderful collection. What a gift to history!

—Fr. Richard Rohr, O.F.M.

Regis John Armstrong is a Capuchin Friar Minor and a world renowned expert on Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Clare of Assisi. He has authored nine books and many journal and encyclopedia articles as well as edited a number of other books related to his research. Fr. Armstrong earned a PhD in Historical Theology and Spirituality from Fordham University, and served his confreres in various positions of formation and administration. In addition to translating and editing Francis and Clare: The Complete Works, and three editions of Clare of Assisi: Early Documents, he was Editor-in-Chief of the four volume Francis of Assisi: Early Documents.

Day by Day with Saint Francis: 365 Meditations

• Author: Gianluigi Pasquale, OFM
• Publisher: New City Press
• Publication Date: 2011
• Pages: 367

The infectious love of God that made Saint Francis into “God’s jester” leaps out from every page of this book. It entices the reader to change profoundly. Looking at Francis who lived in poverty and was utterly in love with Jesus Christ, Christian believers, followers of other religions and even those who declare they have no faith find they have something in common with him, something that stirs their sympathy.

Passages taken from Saint Francis’s own writings and from the writings of others about him outline his spirit and make it possible to meet the saint as if he were standing next to you. His life, which re-founded a whole civilization, can do the same to anyone who meets him.

After eight hundred years there is profound similarity between the people of Francis’s time and the people we meet along our streets: they have a hunger for something ‘more’–an unease in the heart that the emptiness of pleasure cannot fill.

These 365 days of meditations sing Francis’s example that living the Gospel in poverty of spirit is the most wonderful and the simplest adventure a person can embark upon in order to be happy.

Gianluigi Pasquale holds doctorates in philosophy and theology and is a professor at the Lateran Pontifical University in Rome, as well as president and professor at the Theological Study Center in Venice. He has published books on the letters of Padre Pio and on Saint Francis of Assisi.

Francis of Assisi, Early Documents: vol. 1, The Saint

• Editors: Regis J. Armstrong, OFM, J. A. Wayne Hellmann, OFM, and William J. Short, OFM
• Publisher: New City Press
• Publication Date: 2002
• Pages: 624

The Saint is the first volume of the long-awaited and best-selling project Francis of Assisi: Early Documents. It includes liturgical texts, related documents, a general introduction to the series by Regis Armstrong, helpful introductions to each section, colored maps, and an extensive annotation.

New City Press releases the first volume in its projected three-volume collection of the early writings of St. Francis of Assisi. Edited by Franciscan scholars, Francis of Assisi: Early Documents contains new translations of such well-known writings as The Canticle of the Creatures, biographies of Francis by his contemporaries, and The Versified Life of Saint Francis by Henri d’Avraches, translated here for the first time.

—Publishers Weekly

Regis John Armstrong is a Capuchin Friar Minor and a world renowned expert on Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Clare of Assisi. He has authored nine books and many journal and encyclopedia articles as well as edited a number of other books related to his research. Fr. Armstrong earned a PhD in Historical Theology and Spirituality from Fordham University, and served his confreres in various positions of formation and administration. In addition to translating and editing Francis and Clare: The Complete Works, and three editions of Clare of Assisi: Early Documents, he was Editor-in-Chief of the four volume Francis of Assisi: Early Documents.

Francis of Assisi, Early Documents: vol. 2, The Founder

• Editors: Regis J. Armstrong, OFM, J. A. Wayne Hellmann, OFM, and William J. Short, OFM
• Publisher: New City Press
• Publication Date: 2002
• Pages: 819

The Founder is the second volume of the long-awaited and best-selling project Francis of Assisi: Early Documents.

I am told that Francis of Assisi has the longest single biography of any person in history. This magnificent collection, both scholarly and complete, will show you why ‘the whole world runs after him.’ It might start you running too.

—Richard Rohr, O.F.M.

Regis John Armstrong is a Capuchin Friar Minor and a world renowned expert on Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Clare of Assisi. He has authored nine books and many journal and encyclopedia articles as well as edited a number of other books related to his research. Fr. Armstrong earned a PhD in Historical Theology and Spirituality from Fordham University, and served his confreres in various positions of formation and administration. In addition to translating and editing Francis and Clare: The Complete Works, and three editions of Clare of Assisi: Early Documents, he was Editor-in-Chief of the four volume Francis of Assisi: Early Documents.

Francis of Assisi, Early Documents: vol. 3, The Prophet

• Editors: Regis J. Armstrong, OFM, J. A. Wayne Hellmann, OFM, and William J. Short, OFM
• Publisher: New City Press
• Publication Date: 2002
• Pages: 892

The Prophet is the third volume of the long-awaited and best-selling project Francis of Assisi: Early Documents.

This is a magnificent collection of texts which illuminate the person of Saint Francis and the beginnings of the Franciscan Order. The translators provide a wonderful balance between fluent language and scholarly apparatus.

—Brian Patrick McGuire

Regis John Armstrong is a Capuchin Friar Minor and a world renowned expert on Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Clare of Assisi. He has authored nine books and many journal and encyclopedia articles as well as edited a number of other books related to his research. Fr. Armstrong earned a PhD in Historical Theology and Spirituality from Fordham University, and served his confreres in various positions of formation and administration. In addition to translating and editing Francis and Clare: The Complete Works, and three editions of Clare of Assisi: Early Documents, he was Editor-in-Chief of the four volume Francis of Assisi: Early Documents.

Francis of Assisi: History, Hagiography and Hermeneutics in the Early Documents

• Editor: Jay M. Hammond
• Publisher: New City Press
• Publication Date: 2004
• Pages: 290

The four volume publication of Francis of Assisi: Early Documents is an indispensable resource for all who study Saint Francis and the religious communities and traditions he engendered. To facilitate this study among scholars, students and those simply interested in learning more about Saint Francis, the present collection of essays serves as an invaluable guide for the fertile theological and spiritual terrain of the Franciscan early documents. To read these essays is to gain a deeper appreciation of Saint Francis, his medieval context, and the numerous stories written about this "poor and humble man of God."

This timely work, composed of essays by significant scholars in Franciscan theology, history, and hagiography, serves as a much needed beginner’s guide.

—Joseph Chinnici, O.F.M.

Jay M. Hammond, Ph.D., received his doctoral degree from Saint Louis University. He is currently assistant professor of historical theology at Quincy University where he serves as the Director of the Center for Franciscan Thought.

Francis of Assisi: Messenger for Today’s World

• Author: Robert Waldron
• Publisher: New City Press
• Publication Date: 2019
• Pages: 108

Robert Waldron’s new book serves as an introduction to the life of the world’s favorite saint. The author explores Francis from three perspectives: biographical, psychological and aesthetic. His book is innovative because he understands Francis through our new science of psychology and through the beauty of Bellini’s masterpiece St. Francis in the Desert, the painting shown on the cover of the book. For a psychological understanding Waldron employes Carl Jung’s theory of individuation: the steps taken by Francis to become his True Self. Waldron also employs Bellini’s painting to shed light on St. Francis the mystic, he who was gifted by God with the Stigmata. Waldron also addresses Francis’s poem The Canticle of the Creatures, offering an exegesis of the poem that also provides insights into the saint’s life as Christian and as a mystic. Waldron’s book provides a Study Guide that encourages the reader to go more deeply into understanding Francis's life; thus, it can be used in the classrooms of both high school and college.

Robert Waldron’s deeply contemplative book lets us meet a truly humble man who, as the light that suffuses Bellini’s portrait awakens something in us too, seems to be asking, “What are you waiting for?” Alongside the Poverello, we experience the crucial brilliance of his Master emptying Himself for us, just as Francis, for whom Love enscaped itself on his mind and body, came to understand—as we too, thanks to Waldron’s portrait, might come to understand.

—Paul Mariani, poet, biographer and critic, University Professor of English Emeritus at Boston College

Robert Waldron has been honored thrice with first place awards from the Catholic Press Association for his articles on modern spirituality and has received four grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is also the author of twenty books, three of them well-received novels.

Leading Like Francis: Building God’s House

• Author: Carl Kosh
• Publisher: New City Press
• Publication Date: 2014
• Pages: 126

Leading Like Francis: Building God’s House introduces the reader to the foundational principles of servant-leadership and how they are clearly manifested in the life of St. Francis of Assisi. The book clarifies the ten characteristics of servant-leaders as identified by Robert Greenleaf and seen in Francis, and now in Pope Francis.

The author of this valuable book wants to draw attention to the exercise of servant leadership as practiced by St. Francis.... This is a challenging book for those in church leadership. Books like this can help to create a whole new culture of leadership/followership.... This book can be an aid to that growth and to a healing process of renewal and reform.

—Frank Regan

Carl Koch was the first director of the MA in Servant Leadership Program at Viterbo University and program coordinator at the Franciscan Spirituality Center in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He has authored thirty-six books and continues to facilitate retreats and servant leadership seminars. This is his first book with New City Press.

Simply Bonaventure: An Introduction to His Life, Thought, and Writings, 2nd ed.

• Author: Ilia Delio, OSF
• Edition: 2nd
• Publisher: New City Press
• Publication Date: 2013
• Pages: 208

Simply Bonaventure provides an introduction to the life, thought and writings of the medieval Franciscan, Bonaventure of Bagnoregio. The majority of the work is devoted to Bonaventure’s theology, which is summarized according to his own metaphysical scheme of origin (God), purpose (creation), and destiny (goal of creation). His trinitarian, Christocentric theology is highly relevant to a global world and to the postmodern Christian experience. Sr. Delio’s work places his theology in the context of contemporary human experience.

Simply Bonaventure may very well become the standard English introduction to Bonaventure’s thought for college and graduate school teachers and students … Delio's work combines the adroit use of primary sources, the best of critical commentaries on Bonaventure’s thought, and contemporary questions to take the reader on an exciting journey into the heart of one of the medieval period’s most dynamic Franciscan thinkers.

—Joseph P. Chinnici, OFM

Sr. Ilia Delio, OSF holds a doctorate in Historical Theology from Fordham University and is currently a Senior Research Fellow at Woodstock Theological Center. She is the author of 11 books including, The Humility of God and Franciscan Prayer.

Studying the Life of Saint Clare of Assisi

• Authors: William Hugo, OFM Cap. and Joanne Schatzlein, OSF
• Publisher: New City Press
• Publication Date: 2019
• Pages: 320

This one-of-a-kind resource helps readers discover St. Clare through a series of crisp chapters that first teach them about the sources for St. Clare’s life and writings and then apply that knowledge to manageable topics from her life. The book provides also an important introduction to feminine spirituality and religious life options for Medieval women.

Recommended specifically for libraries supporting Franciscan studies, as well as for all academic libraries supporting studies in medieval history. The chapters on women religious and the political currents that influenced so much of Italian history make this inexpensive study guide to Franciscan history well worth the investment.

—Catholic Library World

William Hugo has ministered in initial formation and vocation promotion for thirty-eight years. He currently directs his province’s Office of International Collaboration and ministers in the Solanus Casey Center in Detroit. He is a member of the Midwest Capuchin Province of St. Joseph (USA).

Joanne Schatzlein, a member of the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi in Milwaukee, is liaison to congregationally sponsored ministries and leads pilgrimages to Rome and Assisi. She has served in congregational leadership.

Studying the Life of Saint Francis of Assisi: A Beginner’s Workbook, 2nd ed.

• Author: William Hugo, OFM
• Edition: 2nd
• Publisher: New City Press
• Publication Date: 2011
• Pages: 247

There has never been a richer time for Franciscan studies than now, thanks in great part to the publication of Francis of Assisi: Early Documents (FA:ED) in 2002. Hugo’s workbook is a proven resource that has guided people at all academic levels through a study of the life and writings of Saint Francis using primary sources in translation. This Second Edition is a thorough revision that is totally compatible with FA:ED. It also includes new scholarship and new bibliographic references. More than half the worksheets of the previous edition have been revised, and others have been added.

The worksheets can be done by individuals or in groups or seminars. General readers will enjoy learning about Saint Francis and how hagiography shaped the public stories of medieval saints. Formation directors who teach the life and writings of Saint Francis should not be without this extraordinary sourcebook with its readymade lesson plans and insightful commentaries. A Beginner’s Workbook is an invaluable guide … Br. Bill Hugo takes pains not to interject his own person between the voyager and St. Francis. Rather, he provides the tools and maps out a route for one to discover for her/himself the person of Francis.

Spanning more than a century (1220s to 1330s) this is a priceless “user’s manual” for engaging the abundant–and sometimes confusing–early literature about St. Francis. I have used the earlier edition of this book with great satisfaction, and look forward to using the “new and improved” version in the coming years. Studying the Life of St. Francis does for Franciscan sources what a good commentary does in helping us understand Biblical texts.

—William J. Short, OFM

William Hugo has ministered in initial formation since 1980 and taught the life of Francis of Assisi for over twenty-six years to Capuchins at various levels of formation and to Secular Franciscans. He was editor of The New Round Table, a journal of Capuchin spirituality and history, for seven years and is currently the Provincial Director of Initial Formation and Director of Postulants for the Midwest Capuchins.

Such is the Power of Love: Francis of Assisi as seen by Bonaventure

• Author: Wayne Hellman
• Publisher: New City Press
• Publication Date: 207
• Pages: 283

Taken from the acclaimed and best-selling Francis of Assisi: Early Documents set, this collection contains Saint Bonaventure’s Major and Minor Legends of Saint Francis as well as his Sermons about Saint Francis.

The Conformity: Manifestation, Proclamation, Exaltation (Francis of Assisi Early Documents)

• Author: Bartholomew of Pisa
• Publisher: New City Press
• Publication Date: 2020
• Pages: 1762

Renowned Franciscan scholar Paul Sabatier called it “the most important work that has been made on the life of Saint Francis.” The Book of the Conformity (often called The Conformities) represents the high­est point of medieval glorification of the figure of St. Francis. It contains a nearly complete record of the saint’s own writings, and a vast store of material from all the known hagiographical legends of the saint from the 13th through late 14th centuries. In addition, it has extensive lists of the places where Franciscan friars, Poor Clare nuns and Franciscan tertiaries lived and ministered, with personal details about many Franciscan personages, both famous and obscure.

The author, Bartholomew of Pisa, divided his large work into what he calls 3 “Books”. Part 1 concerns the Incarnation, the Nativity and the early life of Jesus, with corresponding similarities to be found in the early years of Francis's life. Part 2 concerns the years of the public ministry of Jesus, his preaching and healing, calling of disciples, travels from one place to another, with similar events in the life of Francis. Part 3 concerns the Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension/Glorification of Christ, and the events of Francis's last days, his illnesses and suffering, his receiving of the stigmata, his death, canonization, and the miracles attributed to him as a heavenly intercessor.

I am told that Francis of Assisi has the longest single bibliography of any person in history. This magnificent collection, both scholarly and complete, will show you why — ‘the whole world runs after him.’ — It might start you running too.

—Richard Rohr, O.F.M.

Bartholomew of Pisa is known to history as the author of Conformity. This three volume work, completed in 1399, was vital to the Christian communities that had been touched by the life of St. Francis and it represents the highest point of Medieval glorification of the figure of St. Francis. Many Reformers were highly critical of it and it is therefore an important text for scholars of the Reformation as well as the Medieval period.

The Francis Trilogy

• Author: Thomas of Celano
• Editors: Regis J. Armstrong, OFM Cap., J. A. Wayne Hellmann, OFM Conv., and William J. Short, OFM
• Publisher: New City Press
• Publication Date: 2014
• Pages: 387

Within two years after his mentor’s death, Thomas of Celano composed The Life of Saint Francis of Assisi, a portrait of the newly canonized Umbrian. Less than twenty years later, in The Remembrance of the Desire of a Soul, Thomas conveyed the wonder and uniqueness of the saint’s life and vision with poetic power. Hardly had this work become known when Thomas composed a comprehensive, orderly view of extraordinary events in Francis’ life, 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