The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints. January,

Butler, Alban, 1711-1773Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.0

Word count: 2.7M words
Chapters: 273

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints. January,Author: Butler, Alban, 1711-1773,Language: English, Class: BX: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Christianity: Churches, Church movements, Release Date: Jan 26, 2007

Editor's review

This book is one of the January volumes of Alban Butler's 18th-century collection of saints' lives, arranged by day and covering the lives of early Fathers, martyrs, and other principal saints. As a devotional and historical compilation that has circulated for centuries, its value lies in systematizing hagiographic accounts scattered across ancient sources and offering readers a thread running through church history. The prose carries the solemnity of 18th-century English, combining extracts from historical sources with the editor's comments on virtue, and suits daily devotional reading. It need not be read for narrative continuity; instead, read day by day according to the calendar, taking each saint's witness as material for meditation. For readers studying church history, hagiographic literature, or early Christian devotional practice, it provides a foundational textual entry point; general readers can also sense from it how faith narratives have been repeatedly shaped over long transmission. Note that the original was compiled early, and some of its historical scholarship falls short of modern academic standards; it is best read as traditional narrative rather than strict historical criticism.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Christian readers seeking daily devotion who wish to read day by day according to the saints' calendar
Students and enthusiasts studying church history and the hagiographic literary tradition
General history readers interested in the lives of early Fathers and martyrs

Not a good fit for

Rigorous historians expecting modern scholarly criticism and annotation
Casual readers who want only short stories and have no patience for 18th-century English prose

Reading tips

Read one entry per calendar day, paired with that day's prayer or meditation; do not try to read too much at once.
For major saints, read the biography first, then consult related historical background for deeper understanding.
Separate the editor's comments from the narrative of deeds, and notice how faith is expressed in traditional accounts.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Must this book be read straight through from beginning to end?

No. The book is arranged by date, with one or several saints' lives for each day, and is best read day by day as devotional material. Reading it straight through tends to be tiring; following the calendar better reveals the purpose of its arrangement.

Can general readers understand 18th-century English?

The prose is solemn and the sentences tend to be long, but the main narrative line is clear, and patient readers can enter it. Start with entries on familiar saints, and expand your reading once you are used to the style; do not worry about every unfamiliar word.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Butler, Alban, 1711-1773 Author · British · 1711–1773

Alban Butler (1711–1773) was an English Catholic priest and hagiographer. He was educated at Catholic seminaries and later taught and ministered in France before returning to serve Catholic communities in England. Butler devoted his life to church history and the study of saints. His major work, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, is arranged by month and recounts, day by day, the lives and martyrdoms of the saints, drawing on published sources and church tradition in a plain, orderly style. First published in the eighteenth century, the book was reprinted many times and became an important reference for Catholic worship and devotional reading in the English-speaking world, influencing later hagiography. The library holds two volumes of this work, covering January and July respectively.