Butler's Lives of the Saints: Concise, Modernized Edition

This is an updated version of Butler's Lives of the Saints, one of the great Catholic hagiographical resources. It is not, of course, complete-- no single book lists all the Saints of the Church, as it would be impossible: there are hundreds or perhaps thousands of saints officially recognized only with a certain diocese or dioceses, particularly saints who live and died the Middle Ages. Even the attempt to give a short biography of each of the saints recognized by the Church as a whole would by nigh onto impossible, as the biographies of some of those venerated since the time of the Church Fathers has too often been lost to history; now we have perhaps their names and the knowledge of their particular (and saintly) holiness, yet without any details claiming historical accuracy.Butler's remains one of the most complete works we have not merely listing the saints recognized by the whole of the Church but telling us their stories, the stories of the individuals whose lives reflect the rise and spread of Christianity from a small group of persecuted Christians in one backward corner of the Roman Empire to the majority religion in most of the world, and as such has a place of honor on every Christian=s bookshelves.

I have read this book every morning for the past three years. It provides a wonderful picture of who God desires us to become.Year four is about to begin tomorrow and I look forward to the continual learning it will bring to my life.

As a former protestant, I am now fascinated with the lives of the saints. This I rank a 4 for the following:1. It have good detail on their lives when appropriate.2. It clarified many distortions of the true about the lives of some saints (St. Nick).3. It did not try to make a story when little was known about a certain saint.4. It was just the right length for daily prayers before going to work.

This book has definitely been educational. What I liked about this book is that it not only included popular saint's but others that were not so well know to me. The book contained brief summaries of their lives and contributions as they lived their lives doing God work.

This was a great tool I used for my Grandson's Confirmation prep. The stories of the Saints were written in such a way that they provided inroads to explain certain values that enable people to live a more Christian life. A lot of the lives depicted showed man's ability to rise above defeat and to love and serve others throughout our lives. Great discussion tool!

Very nice and would give this out as a gift too.

I would have liked to have learned more about the personal grooming habits of the Saints and something about how they got on with relatives. Having lived with a saint, it's not always smooth sailing, lemme tell ya. Also, I wanted to find out more about whether any of them took vacations and where they went. Are there special resorts for saints? Maybe a chapel next to a private beach?

Sadly, the book claims to be concise, but there are large errors throughout. Example, updated saint Padre Pio: the book claims he received his stigmata in 1910, when he actually received them in 1918 (he died after 50 yrs of his stigmata in 1968). Then the book claims Padre Pio gave sight to a boy born without pupils. In fact, it was a girl named Gema.

This book is a nice introduction to the saints especially for someone like myself who had absolutely no idea about any of them.

This volume is a bit of a 'tease' really. You expect the thoughtful, in depth treatment of Butler's original Lives of the Saints - though obviously less extensive and dealing with less saints. But the book is really a sort of 'dictionary' of Saints.. cursory information about when & where born, main actions/events in the life, etc. Can't really blame the publishers, as it's described as "concise", but it's a bit too concise for me...

Very informative and interesting

Great old favourite with the convenience of being able to download thanks for the opportunity and for your innovation. his gives butlers new life

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