The Standish Library's holdings on Franciscan history are extensive. The books on this page are just a selection from those available. To locate additional titles and Franciscan subjects, check CYRIL, the Standish Library's catalog and/or consult a reference librarian.
The Cambridge Companion to Francis of Assisi by 
Francis by 
Francis and His Brothers: a popular history of the Franciscan friars by To celebrate the 800th anniversary of the founding of the Franciscan Order, Franciscan scholar and historian Dominic Monti tells us the beautiful and inspirational story of Francis of Assisi and his followers--the Order of Friars Minor, or the Lesser Brothers--from its beginnings to current times. This history emphasizes not only the medieval developments of the world's most beloved band of men but also the internal evolution and mission efforts of the friars during the modern period, from the sixteenth century to the present. Monti gives particular emphasis to the history of the order in the English-speaking world: first England and Ireland and then North America and the twentieth-century expansion of the order to other English-speaking countries. Chapter topics include: medieval Christian society; the First Lesser Brothers; expansion and transformation of the Order; the Franciscan mission; internal crisis in the Order; Observants and Conventuals; friars during the Reformation and Baroque Eras; mission to the world; the challenges of modernity; Franciscans in the United States, Canada and Australia; rebuilding the Order in Europe; and recovering a charism.
Reluctant Saint: the life of Francis of Assisi by 
Saint Francis and the Sultan by In September, 1219, Francis of Assisi went to Egypt to preach to Sultan al-Malik al-Kâmil. Although we in fact know very little about this event, artists and writers from the thirteenth century to the twentieth have portrayed Francis alternatively as a new apostle preaching to the infidels, a theologian proving the truth of Christianity, a champion of the crusading ideal, a naive and quixotic wanderer, a crazed religious fanatic, or a medieval Gandhi.Al-Kâmil, on the other hand, is variously presented as an enlightened pagan monarch hungry for evangelical teaching, a cruel oriental despot, or a worldly libertine. Saint Francis and the Sultan takes a detailed look at these richly varied artisitc responses to this meeting. It throws into relief the changingfears and hopes that Muslim-Christian encounters have inspired in European artists and writers in the centuries since to give a uniquely broad but precise vision of the evolution of Western attitudes towards Islam and the Arab world over the last eight hundred years.
Such Is the Power of Love by A collection that contains Saint Bonaventure's Major and Minor Legends of Saint Francis as well as his Sermons about Saint Francis.
Creating Clare of Assisi by 
The Cult of St Clare of Assisi in Early Modern Italy by 
The First Franciscan Woman by 
The Rule of the Friars Minor, 1209-2009 by 
The Preacher's Demons by "When the city was filled with these bonfires, he then combed the city, and whenever he received notice of some public sodomite, he had him immediately seized and thrown into the nearest bonfire at hand and had him burned immediately." This story, of an anonymous individual who sought to cleanse medieval Paris, was part of a sermon delivered in Siena, Italy, in 1427. The speaker, the friar Bernardino (1380-1444), was one of the most important public figures of the time, and he spent forty years combing the towns of Italy, instructing, admonishing, and entertaining the crowds that gathered in prodigious numbers to hear his sermons. His story of the Parisian vigilante was a recommendation. Sexual deviants were the objects of relentless, unconditional persecution in Bernardino's sermons. Other targets of the preacher's venom were witches, Jews, and heretics. Mormando takes us into the social underworld of early Renaissance Italy to discover how one enormously influential figure helped to dramatically increase fear, hatred, and intolerance for those on society's margins. This book is the first on Bernardino to appear in thirty-five years, and the first ever to consider the preacher's inflammatory role in Renaissance social issues.The titles listed below are representative general histories.
The Rule of the Friars Minor, 1209-2009 by 
