St. Francis of Assisi: A Biography Paperback – 4 Mar. 2013

This book arrived safely packed and quickly. I have only just started to read it but can guarantee that it is a true and honest biography of this much-loved saint.

It's little, in depth, well researched, I love it, it will give you better than average knowledge on St Francis and the Friars minor my the end.

Well, I loved the previous copy which I inherited from a friend who went into a nursing home. But I lent it to a male friend who says he does not want to return it : ) plus it was old and split into two while in his care. So I ordered another one, but somehow that seller could not fulfill the order for some reason, and I now do not have a copy which I was in the middle of reading, while I ate my meals.Boohoo…Thereason I gave it four stars rather than five is because 1. it was in an old rather dense font format which I found tiring, Plus 2. it was not the most user friendly and one had to be well versed in the English language. which I am, but the font style slowed me down. Wish publishers would reprint old classics in modern user-friendly fonts.

Wish we could have ALL books 'kindle-ised'! Didn't think I'd be able to get this one in Kindle version, so am very happy. Thanks a lot

Just as seen on the page top marks fast and perfect 10 out of 10

arrived as described

I am happy with my purchase, would like the content to have a little more balance argument. But overall the book was extremely beneficial.

St. Francis of Assisi is one of those legendary characters whose life story is difficult to pin down and present to modern readers. Author Omer Englebert has mastered that task in this splendid biography.Beginning with a background on Francis' world, Englebert tells the story of his conversion, not from one religion to another but from a life of pleasure to one of spirituality, mysticism, and self-sacrifice. On the pages of this book we read of Francis' families, first biological and later religious, and his devotions to the Holy Eucharist, his Savior and the Church. The miracles, the legends and documentable facts are all presented for what they are. The reader comes to appreciate Francis' compelling sanctity, his simplicity and his love for all creatures. His patronage of environmentalists is derived from his sermon to the birds, his conversion of the Wolf of Gubbio and the recognition that all share a brotherhood derived from our status as creatures of God. The clash between Francis' humility and the desires of his followers to study and learn that they might better serve is skillfully related in the later chapters of this book.Some other biographies of St. Francis are almost fairy tales in their telling. Engelbert has done an excellent job of weaving the diverse sources of information into a work both biographical and inspirational. Of all my reading about St. Francis, this was the most interesting and informative. Among writings about saints in general, it ranks in the first tier.

This is the best biography of St. Francis I have found. Learned, informative, relying upon original sources, but avoiding a dry academic style, this book beautifully conveys the wonder, holiness and joy of the little poor man of Assisi!

I enjoyed this book. It is short and concise, yet gives a wonderful explanation of St. Francis and his life

I know I am not alone when I say that I love Francis; therefore, I love any study of il Poverello. Regarding the great question, "Who is Saint Francis", it seems to me that there are three approaches. The first two approaches involve sifting through the source material, and extracting the sources that seem to "make sense". Something in "Legend of the Three Companions" makes sense to you--yes, of course Francis would do something like that!--however something from the "Fioretti" doesn't quite fit. However, the "Fioretti's" story can also be found in the "Anonymous of Perguia", so you use that version in your biography, and forget the "Fioretti" altogether. From what I understand, this type of detective work will produce for you a biography either in the strain of Jorgensen (in which Francis is a supremely orthodox monk in love with the Church) or Sabatier (in which Francis is some romantic anti-establisher pushing against known institutions in the name of pacifism and ecology). I suppose one could also add a sub-approach to these first two approaches, which one could call the "fervorino"; in this approach, one simply writes a biography surrounding one's own enthusiasm for Francis. This approach will collect a pell-mell of random story and anecdotes from sources or later biographies, but the point is merely to speak of one's own "Franciscan enthusiasm"; as the Franciscan scholar Vauchez pointed out, all this approach really does for one is produce an autobiography wearing a Franciscan habit...The third approach--the approach which I have come to favor in recent times--is the approach of Manselli, Vauchez, Thompson, Dalarun, and other medieval scholars. This approach tries to collect the source materials, and then tries to tease from them actual events based on the rules of genre and the tropes of contemporary, thirteenth century hagiographic styles. So, for example, in Francis' Testament he meets lepers; in Celano's biography he meets one, specific leper whom he hugs; in Celano's second biography he meets one, specific leper whom he hugs and to whom he gives money; in the Fioretti he meets a leper whom he hugs and to whom he gives money, and then the leper vanishes in a charismatic experience which speaks of a Providential encounter with Christ. This third approach takes every version of the leper story, and tries to use literary techniques, archeology and more, to try and extract from this circle of witness "what actually happened".This biography, by Englebert, has been called "the jewel of the Jorgensen tradition". I would agree; there is here not much academic investigation; there is, however, a tendency to paint Francis as a charismatic poor man who does miracles, throws away money, imitates Jesus on a legendary level, and obeys the Church unflappably. This is a biography to which I would no longer turn, at this point in my own Franciscan investigations, but it is the biography upon which I grew up. It is a touching and sensitive story about a legendary figure we have all come to know and love.

Very good read. Good description of the life ofSt. Francis and the people around him

This book was first published in French in 1947 (the author is a Belgian-born priest), then published later on in English. It is highly readable, and not terribly long (about 250 pages, as I recall), yet the author -- who draws very much, to his credit, on the original sources -- covers all the important elements and events of St. Francis' life and work, in a way that is moving and uplifting (but not sentimental). He gives just enough detail without giving too much, so satisfies the reader's interest without bogging the reader down. This is not the first book I have read about St. Francis, but it is the first I would recommend to someone who is looking for an all-round excellent biography of the saint.