"New City Press releases the first volume in its projected three-volume collection of the early writings of St. Francis of Assisi. Edited by Franciscan scholars, Francis of Assisi: Early Documents contains new translations of such well-known writings as The Canticle of the Creatures, biographies of Francis by his contemporaries, and The Versified Life of Saint Francis by Henri d'Avraches, translated here for the first time."

Publishers Weekly

"Although its painstaking introductions and annotations are intended for scholars, the readings themselves are as vibrant, accessible, instructive and charming as St. Francis himself must have been."

America

"This volume contains writings of Francis on such diverse subjects as Prayer Before the Crucifix, Exhortations to Clergy, Rule for Hermitages, and A Salutation of the Virtues. The writings afford wonderful insight into the theology and basic concerns of this important figure in church history."

Library Journal

"Francis of Assisi: Early Documents provides new and updated resources to help forge the human Francis from the struggles of this time and from our misunderstandings about his call and charism. The scholarly presentation of the writings and primitive biographies in this volume focus on the earliest writings about Francis as The Saint, unveiling the person of Francis and his first followers in their medieval context. In this volume we are given a new song of Francis for our time."

Ingrid Peterson, O.S.F.
Author of Praying with Clare of Assisi

"This is a magnificent collection of texts which illuminate the person of Saint Francis and the beginnings of the Franciscan Order. The translators provide a wonderful balance between fluent language and scholarly apparatus, thus making the result equally useful for students and anyone else interested in the meaning of the Franciscan experience. Francis emerges here as a man for all people, a Christ-like figure on fire with his message."

Brian Patrick McGuire
Roskilde University, Denmark

"I am told that Francis of Assisi has the longest single biography of any person in history. This magnificent collection, both scholarly and complete, will show you why 'the whole world runs after him.' It might start you running too."

Richard Rohr, O.F.M.