The Life of the Fathers ...

By Gabriel Diefenbach

Why Another Butler's Lives ?

Most of the Butler's Lives of the Saints in print today are from the Thurston-Attwater edit, which leaned in close with a modern critical scalpel, resulting in an editorial decimation. (For examples, see the Caritas Publishing website.) The task of the hagiographer is not merely to record dates and places-which any secular chronicler might do-but to capture the aura sanctitatis, the "aura of holiness" that surrounds those who lived in intimate union with the Creator. To strip history of the most extraordinarily miraculous interventions of God-as the mid-20th-century critics often attempted-is to offer the faithful a stone when they ask for bread, omitting much that is luminous and salutary. In Butler's original 18th-century masterpiece, we are not reading lore; we are witnessing the reality of Christus regnat And contrary to modern misconceptions, the Magisterium of the Church-throughout history-has meticulously verified and documented the veracity of miracles and other supernatural phenomenon. Butler was a scrupulously prudent scholar, and he so carefully preserved both in his magnum opus. He understood that the pious beliefs of the faithful are a legitimate part of the Church's hagiographical heritage. To remove them is to lose the odor suavitatis (the odor of sweetness) that attracts the soul to the imitation of the Saints.

Butler's compilation is the fruit of over 30 years' research by a eminently qualified priest. First published as The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints between 1756-1759, it has undergone many revisions and editions in its centuries-long lifetime, and has become an enduring, authoritative source for information on the lives of the saints. Over 1,600 saints, with poignant, spiritual reflections on their examples and virtues, and extensively footnoted. These present volumes are from 1895, and not only include all of Fr. Butler's original pious reflections and notes, but the lives for saints canonized between 1759-1895, were added by P. J. Kenedy and Sons. Several fascinating and very useful indexes were also added by Kenedy, and included here. This current edition is also supplemented with engraved plates.

The work is organized according to the traditional, pre-conciliar liturgical calendar of the Roman Rite.

This is Volume Three, of Four.

4 Volumes:

HARDBACK ISBNS:

Vol 1: January-February-March: 978-1-945275-93-7

Vol 2: April-May-June: 978-1-945275-92-0

Vol 3: July-August-September: 978-1-945275-89-0

Vol 4: October-November-December: 978-1-945275-87-6

PAPERBACK ISBNS:

Vol 1: January-February-March: 978-1-945275-86-9

Vol 2: April-May-June: 978-1-945275-85-2

Vol 3: July-August-September: 978-1-945275-84-5

Vol 4: October-November-December: 978-1-945275-76-0

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1945275898
• ISBN13: 9781945275890
• Release Date: October 2021
• Publisher: Caritas Publishing
• Length: 822 Pages
• Weight: 2.86 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 6.1" x 9.2"