Sacred Views Of Saint Francis

Overlooking Lago di Orta in the foothills of the Northern Italian Alps, the Renaissance-era Sacro Monte di Orta (a UNESCO World Heritage site) is spectacle and hagiography, theme park and treatise. Sacro Monte di Orta is a sacred mountain complex that extolls the life of St. Francis of Assisi through fresco, statuary, and built environment. Descending from the vision of the 16th-century Archbishop Carlo Borromeo, the design and execution of the chapels express the Catholic Church's desire to define, or, perhaps redefine itself for a transforming Christian diaspora. And in the struggle to provide a spiritual and geographical front against the spread of Protestantism into the Italian peninsula, the Catholic Church mustered the most powerful weapon it had: the widely popular native Italian saint, Francis of Assisi.Sacred Views of Saint Francis: The Sacro Monte di Orta examines this important pilgrimage site where Francis is embraced as a ne plus ultra saint. The book delves into a pivotal moment in the life of the Catholic Church as revealed through the artistic program of the Sacro Monte's twenty-one chapels, providing a nuanced understanding of the role the site played in the Counter-Reformation.The Sacro Monte di Orta was, in its way, a new hagiographical text vital to post-Tridentine Italy. Sacred Views provides research and analysis of this popular, yet critically neglected Franciscan devotional site. Sacred Views is the first significant scholarly work on the Sacro Monte di Orta in English and one of the very few full-length treatments in any language. It includes a catalogue of artists, over one hundred photographs, maps, short essays on each chapel, and longer essays that examine some of the most significant chapels in greater detail.

Saint Francis of Assisi was an Italian Catholic friar and preacher, as well as founder of the men's Order of Friars Minor, the women’s Order of Saint Clare, the Third Order of Saint Francis and the Custody of the Holy Land. He is also one of the most venerated religious figures in history. This book contains St. Francis' admonitions, rules, prayers, letters and more.

Saint Francis is considered the first Italian poet by some literary critics. He believed commoners should be able to pray to God in their own language, and he often wrote in the dialect of Umbria instead of Latin. Francis' writing fully reflects his personality and spirituality, making them at once formidably mystic and exquisitely human. They combine great elevation of thought with much picturesqueness of expression. Through his prayers, correspondence and regulas readers will connect and unite with one of the most beloved saints of the Catholic Church.

True devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus moves us to ponder the unrelenting love of Jesus, fully human and fully divine, as He poured Himself out for the world. In these pages, Fr. Thomas Dailey transports you beyond the prayers and liturgies and helps you to contemplate the Sacred Heart, which Pope Benedict XVI said “has irreplaceable importance.” Fr. Dailey shows you how to experience the way of prayer that formed St. Margaret Mary — the visionary to whom the devotion was revealed — in the religious order founded by St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane de Chantal. Fr. Dailey's brilliant combination of Salesian spirituality and meditative devotion will enable you to respond to Christ's “divine affection” and experience God's love as never before. Through a series of nine reflections on the Sacred Heart, Fr. Dailey will show you:

Saint Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) was an Italian Catholic friar, deacon and preacher. He founded the men's Order of Friars Minor, the women's Order of Saint Clare, the Third Order of Saint Francis and the Custody of the Holy Land. Francis is one of the most venerated religious figures in history. In Chesterton's portrayal St. Francis is a mysterious figure and a man of paradox. Putting him and his life into historical perspective, Chesterton describes why his asceticism was necessary for his cause and what drove him to his life.

Alongside St. Ignatius, who founded the Jesuits, St. Francis of Assisi is widely regarded as one of the most venerated saints in the Catholic Church due to his work establishing religious Orders that have done an incalculable amount of good and service for societies. Like St. Ignatius, St. Francis also got his start as a soldier who experienced a vision that put him on a more divine path. St. Francis eventually became a pillar of the Church, both living in poverty to assist those in greatest need and in establishing the Franciscan Order, the Order of Poor Clares, an enclosed order for women, and the Third Order of Brothers and Sisters of Penance. Near the end of his life, he became the first person recorded in history to bear the stigmata, the Passion wounds that Christ suffered in crucifixion, which only added to his ultimate aura and legacy. "To say that the writings of St. Francis reflect his personality and his spirit is but another way of saying that they are at once formidably mystic and exquisitely human; that they combine great elevation of thought with much picturesqueness of expression. This twofold element, which found its development later on in the prose of mystics like St. Bonaventure and in the verse of poets like Jacopone da Todi, and which has ever been a marked characteristic of Franciscan ascetic literature, leads back to the writings of the Founder as to the humble upper waters of a mighty stream. St. Francis had the soul of an ascetic and the heart of a poet. His unbounded faith had an almost lyric sweetness about it; his deep sense of the spiritual is often clothed with the character of romance. This intimate union of the supernatural and the natural is nowhere more strikingly manifested than in the writings of St. Francis."

This guidebook describes the Way of St Francis a 550km month-long pilgrimage trail from Florence through Assisi to Rome. Split into 28 day stages, the walk begins in Florence and finishes in the Vatican City. Stages range from 8km to 30km with plenty to see, including ancient ruins, picturesque towns, national treasures, and stunning churches. This comprehensive guidebook fits in a jacket pocket or rucksack, and contains information on everything from accommodation and transport in Italy, to securing your credential (pilgrim identity card), budgeting, what to take, and where to do laundry. Stories of Francis of Assisi's life are also included. Although the route includes climbs and descents of up to 1200m, no special equipment is required - although your hiking boots and socks definitely need to get along. Following the steps of heroes, conquerors and saints on this pilgrim trail is manageable all year round, but is best done from April to June and mid-August to October. Route maps are given for every stage, and basic Italian phrases are included in the guidebook.

The writings of St. Francis may, as is obvious, be considered from more than one point of view. Premising this, we are afforded a clue to the difficulty which has led students of Franciscan sources to divide themselves into two camps as to the objective value of these writings. Indeed, one writer goes so far as to compare the attitude of modern scholars toward them to that of the “Spiritual” and Conventual Friars respectively in the first century of Franciscan history. Aeterna Press