Francis Of Assisi: Early Documents: Volume II (The Founder)

The Founder is the second volume of the long-awaited and best-selling project Francis of Assisi: Early Documents.

All three volumes contain helpful introductions to each section, colored maps, cross references, and extensive annotation.

This volume contains the following documents:

1. The Beginning or the Founding of the Order and the Deeds of Those Lesser Brothers Who Were the First Companions of Blessed Francis in Religion;

2. The Legend of the Three Companions;

3. The Assisi Compilation;

4. The Remembrance of the Desire of a Soul;

5. The Treatise on the Miracles of Saint Francis;

6. An Umbrian Choir Legend;

7. A Letter on the Passing of Saint Francis;

8. The Legends and Sermons about Saint Francis; The Morning and Evening Sermons, October 4, 1255; The Major Legend of Saint Francis; The Minor Legend of Saint Francis; The Evening Sermon, October 4, 1262; A Sermon, October 4, 1266; A Sermon on the Feast of the Transferal of the Body of Saint Francis, May 25, 1267; The Morning and Evening Sermons, October 4, 1267; and 9. Related Documents.

Regis John Armstrong is a Capuchin Friar Minor and a world renowned expert on Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Clare of Assisi. He is Ordinary Professor of Spirituality, and The John C. and Gertrude P. Hubbard Professor of Religious Studies at the Catholic University of America. He has authored nine books and many journal and encyclopedia articles as well as edited a number of other books related to his research. Fr. Armstrong earned a PhD in Historical Theology and Spirituality from Fordham University, and served his confreres in various positions of formation and administration. In addition to translating and editing Francis and Clare: The Complete Works, and three editions of Clare of Assisi: Early Documents, he was Editor-in-Chief of the four volume Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, and has written “St. Francis of Assisi: Writings for a Gospel Life, True Joy”, along with a large number of articles. He taught at the Pontifical University Antonianum in Rome-where he was also Vice Rector, and at the Franciscan Institute of Saint Bonaventure University, Olean, New York, as well as, the Franciscan International Study Centre in Canterbury, England-where he served for ten years as a Governor. He is a co-founder of the Franciscan Institute of Asia, where he also taught. More recently, he has been a member of an international committee of eight Capuchins established to study and rewrite a proposed edition of the Capuchin Constitutions.

Friar J. A. Wayne Hellmann is Professor of Historical Theology at Saint Louis University, where he has also served as director of the PhD program in Historical Theology and as chair of the Department of Theological Studies. A Conventual Franciscan of the Midwestern Province of Our Lady of Consolation, he received his theological training at the Pontifical Faculty of St. Bonaventure in Rome and his doctorate from the Ludwigs-Maximilian-Universität in Munich, Germany. He served as co-editor of the three volume series, Francis of Assisi: Early Documents and also as co-editor for the first three volumes of Studies in Early Franciscan Sources (Franciscan Institute Press, St. Bonaventure University, 2011). These latter volumes offer scholarly essays on each of the writings of Francis and of Clare. In addition, he has written numerous articles and served as an editor for the Franciscan entries found in the new edition of the New Catholic Encyclopedia. For many summers over the last years, he taught early Franciscan sources at the Franciscan Institute at St. Bonaventure, New York. Additionally, he has often lectured or conducted retreats for Franciscans in Zambia, Africa and elsewhere at home and abroad.

William Short OFM, S.T.D., Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, and S.T.L. Pontifical Gregorian University. He is Professor of Spirituality at the Franciscan School of Theology, Oceanside CA. He has served as Dean and Professor of Christian Spirituality and Core Doctoral Faculty Member at GTU, Berkeley CA. Besides co-editor of Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, he has authored a number of books including Poverty and Joy: The Franciscan Tradition and The Franciscans. He provided the English translation of Thomas of Celano, Vita sancti Francisci, for Francis of Assisi: Early Documents.