Life of St Dionysius

The Life of St Dionysius the Areopagite by Michael Syncellus, Anthony Pavoni, and Evangelos Nikitopoulos, 267 pages

The book of Acts records that St Paul, on his visit to Athens, converted one "Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus."  Tradition relates that this Dionysius, venerated as St Dionysius the Areopagite, would become the first bishop of the city, and was eventually martyred.  Halfway across the Roman Empire, the first bishop of what would become Paris, St Dionysius or Denis, was beheaded, his remains buried at the place where the church and abbey dedicated to him were eventually built, and it was sometimes claimed that this Dionysius was the Areopagite in exile from his native Greece.  In the early centuries of Christianity multiple works appeared which claimed to have been written by the Athenian bishop, among them foundational works on Christian mysticism and angelology, most of which seem to have been written by a single author.

Modern historians discount most of this, beyond the existence of two Dionysii, one in Athens and another, later one in Paris.  The writings are ascribed to a hypothetical pseudonymous author who is thought to have lived around 500 AD.  The Life of St Dionysius the Areopagite is a panegyric composed in the 9th century by the Greek scholar monk Michael Syncellus, a translation of which takes up about fifty pages of the present book.  Most of the rest is a scholarly attack on the historical consensus, arguing that the Dionysian corpus is actually the work of the Areopagite.  The authors argue that apparent seeming anachronisms are explicable in a 1st century context, and, more exhaustively, that what are assumed to be Pseudo-Dionysian borrowings from Proclus actually represent Proclean borrowings from Dionysius.  This last point is convincingly buttressed by what appear to be references to the corpus present in pre-fifth century writings.  

If the textual analysis is quite dense and sometimes baffling to a layman, it clearly deserves to be taken seriously and not dismissed with stale references to 19th century skepticism.

Life of Robert Southwell

The Life of Robert Southwell, Poet and Martyr by Christopher Devlin, 324 pages

Born into a well-connected family in England in the middle of the sixteenth century, as a teenager Robert Southwell, possibly under the influence of recusant relations, converted to Catholicism and departed to the Continent where he could practice his faith freely, beyond the reach of Protestant persecution.  Attracted, like many devout young men of the time, to the Society of Jesus, he entered the Jesuits after an initial rejection and became first a student and later a professor at the English College in Rome.  He left behind this position to become a missionary in his homeland, where he managed to minister to the Catholic community for several years before finally being cornered, captured, tortured, and executed.  Southwell's poetry, much of it written while in hiding, would serve as an inspiration to Shakespeare, Jonson, Donne, and Hopkins, among others, while his holy life and martyrdom led to his canonization in 1970, 14 years after this biography was published.

In the author's note that begins this biography, Christopher Devlin connects Southwell with St Edmund Campion, the illustrious Jesuit scholar and martyr of the preceding generation, and refers readers to the "brilliant study" of Campion by Evelyn Waugh.  Just as Southwell lived happily in the shadow of Campion, so Devlin writes in the shadow of Waugh.  While Devlin cannot match Waugh's literary genius, he compensates with thorough scholarship, something sorely needed when the historical record is so fragmentary.  

Leonie Martin

Leonie Martin: A Difficult Life by Marie Baudouin-Croix, translated by Mary Frances Mooney, 157 pages

Leonie was born in 1863 to Ss Louis and Zelie Martin, the third of their six children, all daughters, who survived into adulthood.  All six eventually became nuns, with five joining the Carmelite monastery at Lisieux.  Leonie alone entered the Visitandine order at Caen, finally persevering on her third attempt.  Then again, Leonie had always been the difficult one, a sickly child, struggling with disobedience at home and failing in her studies at school, a trial and a worry to the mother who died when she was 14.  How she overcame these shortcomings, not alone but through the grace of God and her saintly intercessors, is the great theme of this short book.

Although Leonie Martin has not been canonized, Marie Baudouin-Croix's biography is unmistakably a hagiography.  It elides difficult, complex issues, notably the mental illness that afflicted Louis Martin in his later days, simplifying them into hardships to be overcome with the holy serenity of faith.  The problems this presents are more than compensated for by the author's evident understanding of, and sympathy with, the religion and religious life of the Martin family.  This is undoubtedly her story as Leonie herself would have liked it told.

Early History of Glastonbury

The Early History of Glastonbury by William of Malmesbury, translated by John Scott, 83 pages

The Early History of Glastonbury is a translation of William of Malmesbury's 12th century history De Antiquitate Glastonie Ecclesie, accompanied by the Latin text as well as commentary and notes. William undertook this project at the behest of the monks of Glastonbury, at least partially as a supplement to four Lives of Glastonbury saints he had written (of which only the Life of Saint Dunstan survives), but the primary aim seems to have been a catalogue of the various charters and bequests associated with the monastery.  Indeed, the short book is generally more of a legal record than a conventional history, as rights and privileges awarded to the abbot and monks are thoroughly documented - in the uncertain period following the Norman conquest, this was a necessity.

For a modern reader this focus proves something of an obstacle, as it does not make for particularly entertaining reading.  To the kind of reader who is likely to even consider reading a 12th century monastic history, however, the rewards will almost certainly be worth the price.

Song of Bernadette

The Song of Bernadette by Franz Werfel, translated by Ludwig Lewisohn, 575 pages

Poor Bernadette Soubirous, gathering firewood in the dump at Massabielle, has a vision of a beautiful lady praying the Rosary.  The mysterious Lady asks her to return regularly.  Despite her efforts to keep her visions a secret, word soon gets out, dividing the townsfolk into believers and skeptics.  More ominously, the local authorities move against her, fearing that the sophisticates of Paris will write them off as backwards and superstitious.  In time all resistance will be overcome by that gentle Power which will transform humble Lourdes into the Lady's kingdom and little Bernadette into a saint.

Franz Werfel wrote The Song of Bernadette to fulfill a vow he made while fleeing the fall of France.  It is a novel, not a biography, and is therefore obviously fictionalized, but Werfel's inventions are largely confined to reasonable extrapolations and the creation of ancillary characters as commentators on events.  These last rarely interact with the main characters, inhabiting a social and intellectual world far removed from that of the Soubirous family.  At the same time, their thoughts on the seemingly inexplicable events, their vain attempts to psychologize or mythologize the unexpected - and mostly unwelcome - irruption of the miraculous into their personal worlds, is perhaps the most profound part of the novel.  Perhaps this is because Werfel himself is amongst their company, attempting to more subtly smooth the sharp edges of reality.

Man For All Seasons

A Man For All Seasons by Robert Bolt, 163 pages

Sir Thomas More, councillor to King Henry VIII, stubbornly refuses to approve of the conduct of his king.  In return, the ministers of that king force him first into retirement and finally to the scaffold.  Sir Thomas alone, amid a crowd of vain, greedy, and ambitious men, remains true to himself and his principles, and this earns him persecution and death.  The story is a familiar one, but here beautifully and movingly told.

Part of the story's familiarity is due to the classic 1966 movie version of this very play, adapted by Bolt himself.  The play differs from the film primarily in the part of the Common Man, who plays various minor roles and offers sporadic commentary to the audience.  If this is a stagy artifice, there is a certain value in the character precisely as he represents our own practical natures against the very impractical sanctity of Sir Thomas.  Of course, Bolt hollows out that sanctity by presenting St Thomas as a martyr, not for the truth, but rather for what he believes.

Birgitta of Sweden

Birgitta of Sweden: Life and Selected Revelations by St Birgitta of Sweden and others, translated by Albert Ryle Kezel, 235 pages

St Birgitta (often referred to as St Bridget but here given the more Teutonic variant in order to distinguish her from her more popular Irish namesake) was born in Sweden around 1303 and died in Rome in 1373.  Such was her reputation that she was canonized less than two decades later.  Beginning in early girlhood, she experienced a series of mystical visions of varying nature and subject matter, all drawing her into an ever more passionate love for God, a consuming flame that demanded to be spread to others. 

The core of St Birgitta's visions, as they are presented here, are of a dissolute monk (unnamed but known to the visionary) who interrogates God as to His nature and the nature of His creation.  This runs through an impressive catalogue of objections to God's existence, not only general questions about the existence of evil but also more specific inquiries into the cruelty of beasts, the economy of salvation, and the purpose of pleasure, all resolved with holy clarity and simplicity.  The collection of texts is rounded off with the rather dry Life prepared for her canonization and a selection of moving prayers to Christ and His Mother.

Blessed Charles of Austria

 Blessed Charles of Austria: A Holy Emperor and His Legacy by Charles Coulombe, 374 pages

The subtitle of this biography of the last of the Habsburg monarchs is certain to raise a few eyebrows.  At best, Charles was helpless as Austria-Hungary went down in defeat in the last years of World War I, ultimately being dissolved by the victorious Allies into a handful of feuding ethno-states.  What kind of legacy could he have?  More generally, how is it possible for an emperor to be "holy"?  Did not the high priests of Enlightenment indelibly write their verdict that "no one can reign innocently" across the pages of history in the blood of Louis XVI and his family?

As Charles Coulombe relates, the life of Blessed Charles was dominated by three great loves - his God, his family, and his people.  These were not competing, but complimentary, just as his love for his wife only reinforced his love of his children, and his children his love of his wife.  These were loves tested, proven, and refined through suffering, yet loves to which Charles remained faithful with his whole heart.  It is for this reason that he has been raised to the altars of the universal Church even as the men who supplanted and persecuted him are increasingly maligned or forgotten.

It is no doubt possible to construct a coherent biography of Charles of Austria, based entirely on his external acts, which portrays him as yet another incompetent Machiavel, interested only in power, badly exercising it when he had it and futilely attempting to regain it after he lost it.  This would seem superficially plausible, but would miss the inner life of the man and the self-sacrificial ideal of rulership he represents.  It would also do nothing to change the disastrous course the world has been on since at least 1914.

Tales of the Early Franks

 Tales of the Early Franks: Episodes from Merovingian History by Augustin Thierry, translated by MFO Jenkins, 166 pages

It is no less a commonplace of our time than of Augustin Thierry's that the so-called "Dark Ages" are a confusing, dull, and unprofitable era to study - indeed, the sometimes-equivalent term "Middle Ages" seems to imply an unedifying interlude between the more significant Classical and more important Modern periods.  If scholars and ideologues are divided on when the "darkness" fell, in what, precisely, it consisted, and when and how it lifted, it seems certain that Gaul in the late 6th century was deep beneath it.  

It should be a pleasant surprise, then, to discover Thierry's tales of love, war, religion, politics, and intrigue in the Merovingian era.  Based largely on the histories and memoirs of St Gregory of Tours, Thierry's work is divided into seven interrelated narrative episodes covering events ranging from the tragic life of Queen Galswinth to the rigged trial of Bishop Praetextatus to the happy friendship of Radegund and Venantius Fortunatus.  Thierry delightfully combines a contagious love for the period with a deep awareness of the importance of personalities and character.

Polyeuctus

Polyeuctus, from Polyeuctus/The Liar/Nicomedes by Pierre Corneille, translated by John Cairncross, 100 pages

Paulina, the daughter of Felix, the Roman governor of Armenia, was quite in love with the gallant Severus, but his lack of distinction prevented her father from consenting to their becoming wed.  Severus having been reported dead in battle after great feats of heroism, Paulina married instead her father's choice, Polyeuctus, a noble Armenian youth.  As it transpired, however, Severus survived, the Persian foe having honored his valor by nursing him back to health and returning him to the Romans with offers of lasting peace.  So Severus, now high in the esteem of the emperor, returns to Armenia to renew his suit, not knowing that the woman he loves is already married to another.  Polyeuctus, meanwhile, has secretly converted to Christianity, and his newfound faith will inevitably bring him into conflict with pagan Rome, ultimately costing him everything he loves in this world.

The conventional view on Polyeuctus, as represented by Cairncross' introduction, is that the drama of the thwarted romance of Paulina and Severus is far more interesting than that of Polyeuctus' zeal for his newfound faith.  This is sadly to be expected of conventional critics for whom such zeal is alien and frightening, of course, but even the summary above reflects it.  Although it is Polyeuctus with whom the play begins and it is his decisions which drive the main conflict, his character is not where our attention naturally rests.  The tale of Paulina and Severus is one of passion barely subjected to reason, that of Polyeuctus a story of the straightforward martyrdom of a fanatic.  Yet it is Polyeuctus' supreme devotion to the highest Good that demonstrates the goal to which the pagan virtues of the other characters aspire, a truth that is beautifully consummated at the conclusion of the play.

Before Church and State

 Before Church and State: A Study of Social Order in the Sacramental Kingdom of St Louis IX by Andrew Willard Jones, 454 pages

Post-enlightenment, the establishment narrative regards the thirteenth century as a chrysalis for the sovereign, secular state, when the irrational, theocratic pretensions of the papacy began to be overcome by the increasingly independent monarchs of the nations of Europe including, crucially, the pious, even saintly Louis IX of France.  As Andrew Jones convincingly demonstrates, however, this is a deformation of the actual history of the period, the product of the anachronistic imposition of modern concepts on medieval society.  For medieval Catholics, the natural state of man was not, as it would be for the "enlightened", a state of war against which the secular State must force a truce.  To the contrary, the natural state of man is peace, a peace broken by sin, but which grace restores and maintains.  It is the role of the secular as of the ecclesiastical authority to be a conduit for that grace, and they are partners rather than competitors.

Jones builds his remarkable book around the person of Gui Foucois, who served as an official in both the French church and state before becoming Pope Clement IV, but it is precisely Jones' point that Foucois saw his public service as a unified whole, not as divided into "religious" and "secular" but as part of the single "business of the peace and the faith".  It followed, then, that outlaws and heretics were equally "breakers of the peace", rebels against a sacramental order whose harmony was predicated upon difference rather than equality, being itself an expression of a Trinitarian rather than a Deist theology.

Life of Saint Teresa of Avila

The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila: A Biography by Carlos Eire, 223 pages

In the 16th century, as the fires of the Protestant Reformation swept across northern Europe, a remarkable woman rose to prominence in Spain.  A Carmelite nun from the Castilian city of Avila, Teresa of Jesus was a mystic and visionary, and also a tireless foundress and reformer.  Living at a time when the Church had a healthy suspicion of those who claimed to be in direct communication with the Almighty, Teresa's autobiography, the Life of Teresa of Avila, was written both as description and defence, her mystical locutions having drawn her deeper into the Church rather than leading her astray to preach a new gospel.

As Carlos Eire details in his biography of St Teresa's autobiography, this defence entailed a series of drafts and revisions over the course of decades as Teresa and her spiritual advisors took care to cross every theological "t".  Even so, it was not until after her death that the work was allowed to be widely circulated, and it continued to have its detractors.  Their voices were drowned out, however, by the rapid spread of her cult, and she was canonized a mere forty years after her death, with the Life providing vital testimony to her sanctity.  Nor does Eire's story stop there, for the following centuries saw the book become a defining text of early modern Catholicism, inspire great art (most famously Bernini's sculpture of the transverberation), influence religious movements including the Jansenists, Quakers, and Methodists, and finally be reimagined as a study in hysteria or proto-feminist tract.  As Eire notes, this enduring influence of the Life is itself an undeniable testament to the force of its authors personality as well as the Power that moved her.

Monastic Life at Cluny

Monastic Life at Cluny 910-1157 by Joan Evans, 130 pages

As Rome fell and the medieval world rose, Christian monasticism flourished.  As time passed, however, the same monasteries that served as fortresses of the faith fell into decadence and dissolution.  The Carolingian reform established the Rule of St Benedict throughout Western Europe, but the corruption was great and the workers few.  In 910 William of Aquitaine gifted a portion of his hunting preserve to the reforming abbot of Baume, St Berno, on which the monastery of Cluny was founded.  Adhering to strict interpretation of the Rule, dedicated to the celebration of the liturgy, and directly subject to the Pope, under a series of saintly abbots Cluny became the center of the 10th century monastic reform that ushered in the High Middle Ages.  

The Cluniacs were eventually overshadowed by the rise of the Cistercians, an eclipse which was perpetuated by posterity.  Joan Evans' short book does nothing to reverse this, indeed, it is barely interested with Cluny's role in the broader reform movement.  Instead, Monastic Life at Cluny is a more modest description of the history of the particular monastery of Cluny and the daily life of the monks.  It is no less valuable for that - it was through this life and for the sake of this life that the world-historical work of reform was carried out.

Devotional Writings

The Tower Works: Devotional Writings by St Thomas More, 309 pages

This book collects a number of devotional works written by St Thomas while imprisoned in the Tower of London awaiting his trial and execution.  Not surprisingly given the author's circumstances, two of the three main treatises focus on the suffering Christ.  The first, the unfinished Treatise Upon the Passion, ends with the Last Supper, while another, The Sadness of Christ, meditates on Gethsemane.  Linking the two thematically as well as physically is the middle work, A Treatise to Receive the Blessed Body of Our Lord, on the Blessed Sacrament.  

St Thomas lives up to his reputation as a scholar, a lawyer, and a Christian, combining a breadth of learning with keen argumentation, all in the service of an ever-deepening love of God.  Although he does not refer to his personal situation, awareness of it makes the texts more poignant, particularly his warnings against the treachery of flatterers, the fragility of worldly esteem, and the Lord's human fear on the eve of His Passion.

Ecclesiastical History

Ecclesiastical History of the English People by St Bede the Venerable, translated by Leo Shirley-Price, 360 pages

From his busy eighth century monastery, St Bede famously surveyed the history of the Church in England from the Roman period down to his own times, chronicling its struggles, reverses, and triumphs, charting its long, painful journey from diversity into unity.  Bede's record remains the most important early record of English history, despite his deliberate exclusion of secular material when it does not serve his moralistic purposes.

The Penguin Classics edition includes a letter from the saint to Bishop Egbert, which provides a useful corrective to an overly rosy picture of the eighth century English church implied in the History, and a contemporary account of Bede's death by his brother monk Cuthbert.

Ecclesiastical History

Ecclesiastical History by Eusebius of Caesarea, translated by CF Cruse, 428 pages

Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History, written in the early fourth century, is the most complete early record of the first centuries of Christianity.  As the author's purpose was apologetic as much as historical, the interlinked central themes are the Holy Spirit's protection of the Church from heresy through the guidance of the apostolic succession of bishops, the divinely-inspired resilience of the faithful in the face of centuries of intermittent persecution, and the antiquity of the Church as the legitimate heir of the promises once made to Israel.  Eusebius is primarily concerned with personalities and events in his native Palestine, secondarily neighboring Egypt and Syria, beginning with the life of Christ and climaxing in the martyrs of the Diocletian persecution, many of whom were men and women personally known to the author.

The edition put out by Hendrickson Publishers, while set in an easily readable, large font, suffers from a number of minor editorial problems, primarily the misplacement of quotation marks.  The editors also chose to append a modern essay on the Council of Nicaea, presumably as the capstone of the early Church, although this seems to properly belong to the following era of Church history.

Man of the Beatitudes

A Man of the Beatitudes: Pier Giorgio Frassati by Luciana Frassati, translated by Dinah Livingstone, 179 pages

Bl Pier Giorgio Frassati was born in Turin in 1901, the only son of the wealthy publisher of Italy's largest newspaper, La Stampa.  Despite the religious indifference of his parents - and the outspoken hostility of their social circle - Frassati developed into a young man of deep piety, secretly praying the rosary late at night, sneaking out of the house in the early morning for Eucharistic adoration.  Even more frightening to his parents were his forays into the slums, offering help (and, more vitally, compassion) to those in need.  These excursions became even more dangerous after the fascists rose to power, as both Frassatis, father and son, were outspoken foes of Mussolini and potential targets of blackshirt violence, but in the end it was a less dramatic threat that claimed him, as on one of his charitable visits he contracted a fatal case of polio, from which he died at the age of 24.  His canonization cause was begun less than a decade later, and he was beatified in 1990 by St John Paul II, who extolled him as a "man of the eight beatitudes."

It is natural to be suspicious of hagiography, and equally suspicious of biographies written by loved ones.  Yet, oddly, in the case of Man of the Beatitudes these difficulties cancel each other out to a significant extent, as Luciana was too close to her brother to reimagine him as some plaster saint, yet too impressed by him to pretend to understand him fully.  The result is a book that is, fittingly, both intimate and mysterious.

Come Rack! Come Rope!

Come Rack!  Come Rope!  by Robert Hugh Benson, 377 pages

The only son of a proudly recusant Catholic family in the reign of Elizabeth, Robin is devastated when he learns that his father intends to recant and join the state church.  Perhaps even more surprisingly, his beloved Marjorie reveals to him her growing conviction, despite her own wishes to the contrary, that it is the will of God he should become a priest.  Robert Hugh Benson's classic novel follows the pair on their separate journeys of love from this initial sacrifice to the ultimate consummation.

Although the primary characters are fictional, a number of historical personages make appearances in Come Rack!  Come Rope!, including St Edmund Campion and Mary Stuart.  Benson evokes the historical period with a casual ease, conveying its peculiarities without belaboring them.  The novel focuses on the characters and lacks a strong central plot - the primary antagonists barely appear - and, unfortunately, those characters are not strong enough or interesting enough to carry the book.

Jerome

Jerome: His Life, Writings, and Controversies by JND Kelly, 339 pages

It sometimes seems as if the number of biographies of St Augustine of Hippo could fill a small library by themselves, with his own Confessions remaining the best.  By contrast, there are very few biographies of his interlocutor and rival St Jerome.  This is certainly not because he lived an uneventful life - to the contrary, wherever Jerome went, controversy swirled around him.  As Kelly ably reveals, this was the result of a character as passionately loyal to his friends as he was hostile to his enemies, "violently opinionated" with an "habitual tendency to exaggerate".  Jerome is best known as the translator who produced the bulk of the definitive Latin version of the Bible, the Vulgate, but in Kelly's biography this is secondary to Jerome's involvement in a range of contemporary disputes both theological and personal.  The result is a work which manages to be both lively and eminently scholarly.

This is not to say that Kelly lacks weaknesses - particularly troublesome is his consistent chronological snobbery that smirks at Jerome's sexual morality and airily waves about the latest word in biblical criticism as if it were the last word.  Throughout, it is clear that Kelly's own views are the yardstick by which he measures Jerome's successes and failures, and this colors somewhat his analysis of Jerome's mindset and motives.  Nonetheless, his solid scholarship compensates for these flaws, as the book is anchored solidly enough for the reader to dissent from Kelly's evaluations.

Murder in the Cathedral

Murder in the Cathedral by TS Eliot, 88 pages

Murder in the Cathedral is TS Eliot's dramatic retelling of the return of St Thomas Becket to Canterbury and his subsequent murder at the behest of King Henry II.  In examining its protagonist and his struggles with enemies both physical and spiritual, Eliot questions the relationship between Church and state, but also and more importantly, between God and man, for "the true martyr is he who has become the instrument of God, who has lost his will in the will of God, and who no longer desires anything for himself, not even the glory of being a martyr."

Murder in the Cathedral is perhaps the best example of a modern play in the classical style, which is to say a play which uses some of the elements and techniques of classical drama without attempting to be a classical drama.  This only heightens the effect when the knights break the fourth wall to appeal to, and implicate, the audience.  This is, in turn, no postmodern gimmick, but the consummation of the play as liturgical drama, existing in a no-time which is neither present nor past.

     We do not know very much of the future

     Except that from generation to generation

     The same things happen again and again.

Eliot powerfully makes the audience (or reader) and St Thomas into contemporaries - or reveals that we already were.  His struggles are our struggles, his temptations our temptations, and his fate our fate, even if we are sometimes lulled by superficialities and distracted by the illusion of the merely visible.

     You shall forget these things, toiling in the household,

     You shall remember them, droning by the fire,

     When age and forgetfulness sweeten memory

     Only like a dream that has often been told

     And often been changed in the telling.  They will seem unreal.

     Human kind cannot bear very much reality.