Concise Edition (Butler's Lives of the Saints) - Softcover

Butler, Alban

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0860123405 ISBN 13: 9780860123408

Publisher: Burns & Oates Ltd, 2003

Synopsis

Saints belong to the whole history of the church but are especially visible today. One of the most visible legacies of the papacy of John Paul II has been the acceleration and multiplication of processes of beatification and canonization, mainly of figures from the recent past - martyrs under Nazism and Communism, for example. They also reflect the new universality of the Church, including more men and - increasingly, with belated justice - women from the New World and the Third World. These trends are reflected in this volume.It provides a fresh consideration of one saint or blessed for daily reading, selected mainly from among those in the new full edition of Butler's Lives of the Saints - with a few more recent examples. The aim is to give a simple, factual presentation of flesh and blood figures. This is also seen as the most truly 'devotional' approach, drawing on Alban Butler's original insight in presenting saints as examples rather than intercessors: "In the lives of the saints we see the most perfect maxims of the gospel reduced to practice". This is indeed true: if the saints and blessed collected here share one overarching characteristic it is to have put their love of

About this title

About the Author:

Paul Burns, educated at Ampleforth and Oxford, has worked mainly in religious publishing and as a translator, largely of liberation theology. He was Managing Editor of the 1995-2000 twelve-volume new edition of Butler's Lives and author of two volumes.

From the Inside Flap:

This new concise Butler?s provides an essay on one saint for each day of the month, using the twelve-volume full edition of Butler?s Lives of the Saints as a source. Selections are made from both categories of ?Saint? and ?Blessed??canonized and beatified, allowing for the increasing proportion of women and of new- and third-world holy people. Completely rewritten in a popular style, this volume also has more ?spiritual? appeal than the full edition. A prayer and intercessory reflection is included after each entry, which lend themselves to family or small-group meditation as well as to individual devotion. The volume also suggests baptismal/confirmation names for the day?s commemorations or for inclusion in prayers.?They surround us; walking alongside us. They have gone before us; calling us forward. A great cloud of witnesses: the saints, and those called ?blessed.? Pondering the new concise edition of Butler?s Lives of the Saints day by day, week by week, season by season, we participate more fully in the grand communion of these friends of God and prophets and, together with them, share in the divine life?even now.? Michael Downey, Editor The New Dictionary of Catholic Spirituality

About this edition

• Publisher: Burns & Oates Ltd
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0860123405
• ISBN 13: 9780860123408
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 548
• Editor: Burns Paul