Lives of the Saints

Father Butler's famous Lives of the Saints ranks only after the Bible, the Missal and The Imitation of Christ as the all-time most popular and authoritative Catholic book. The material in this handy one-volume edition is taken from the tomes of the highly revered Father Alban Butler (1710-1763), an English Catholic priest and scholar who devoted almost 30 years of meticulous research to the lives of the Saints and whose work was originally published in the 1750s.

 

This present edition contains no editing by Donald Attwater or Fr. Herbert Thurston, S.J., as do many other editions; thus it conveys Fr. Butler's spirit of profound faith in and reverence for our saintly traditions. Additional saints have been added, however, who have lived since Fr. Butler's time - these include St. Thérèse the Little Flower, Pope St. Pius X, St. Catherine Labouré and others. Yet the book is still based on traditional Catholic calendar (as of 1955).

 

Giving approximately one page per Saint, plus a brief Reflection based on the virtues of the Saint of the day, Lives of the Saints is extremely valuable to read daily in order to put oneself in tune with our holy Catholic traditions and to develop a truly Catholic approach to life. Included here are the feast days of canonized Martyrs, Confessors, Virgins, Popes, Bishops, etc., plus holy days like the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (September 8), the Assumption (August 15), the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (September 14), and many other feasts.

 

This book fills a real need and is being published after numerous requests. It exemplifies many holy lessons that the Saints have to teach present generations of Catholics, showing the fruits of the Catholic Faith as borne out in the lives of its greatest adherents.