The World's Great Catholic Literature edited by George N. Shuster

(City: Publisher, YYYY), PPP

1942

"literature that combines artistic excellence with spiritual beauty" (introduction ix)

  • discussion of how things are dead, but this is living
    'Every Christian and many others who read these pages will be happier for the experience" (xii)

preface references biographical sketches, which I wish were provided in this printing
purpose is to encourage further reading

periods: just before fall of Rome; Dante; Renaissance; mid-19th century

just prose, some non-Catholic

the need for more Catholic Literature today (Michael O'Brien, etc.)

The World's Great Catholic Literature edited by George N. Shuster

just over 200 excerpts

started August 10
finished

I. THE EARLY CHURCH

  • The Nativity by St. Luke
  • The Eight Beatitudes by St. Matthew
  • I Am the True Vine by St. John
  • The Crucifixion by St. Mark
  • The Mission of Saint Paul, Acts of the Apostles
  • The Greatest of These by St. Paul
  • Before the Throne, Revelation
  • From the Canon of the Mass, Missale Romanum
  • Petition to the God of Saints, The Litany of the Saints
  • Prophecy by Justin Martyr
  • The Fire of Love, Epistle to Diognetus
  • To The Romans by St. Ignatius
  • The Presbyters by St. Polycarp
  • The Martyrdom of St. Polycarp by Eusebius
  • In Testimony of the Christian Soul by Tertullian
  • In Memory of Nepotian by St. Jerome
  • St. Augustine and his Mother by St. Augustine
  • The Shadow of Things to Come by St. Augustine
  • To the Mother of God by St. Cyril

II. THE MIDDLE AGES

  • The Abbot from the Rule of St. Benedict
  • The Cellarer from the Rule of St. Benedict
  • Prayer to the Virgin Mary by St. Bernard
  • The Glory of the Body by St. Bernard
  • Consolatrix Afflictorum by St. Bernard
  • The Conversion of Abelard by Peter the Venerable
  • St. Bernard by Alan of Auxerre
  • Charlemagne by Eginhard
  • King Otto is Victorious by Luitprand of Cremona
  • St. Louis by Joinville
  • Of the Blessed Man Paul the Simple from The Paradise of the Fathers
  • If the Blessed Woman Thais from The Paradise of the Fathers
  • The Fall of Eutropius by St. John Crysostom
  • A Mother's Demand from Liber Exemplorum
  • The Jackdaw of Rheims from Patrologia Latina
  • A Storm at Matins by Guibert, Abbot of Nogent Sous Coucy
  • Give that ye may receive by Caesarius of Heisterbach
  • The Virgin of Chartres by Abbot Haimon
  • Wisdom and the Church of God by King Alfred
  • The Life of Man by Venerable Bede
  • The Death of Caedmon by Venerable Bede
  • King Canute Passes by Thomas of Ely
  • The Cross by Richard Rolle
  • Meditation from The Cloud of Unknowing
  • Testimony of St. Jeanne D'Arc from the Trial of Jeanne D'Arc
  • St. Francis and the Stigmata from the "Little Flowers of St. Francis"
  • A Parable by Thomas of Eccleston
  • Of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ by St. Bonaventure
  • The Hail Mary by St. Bonaventure
  • Pope Benedict XII by Thomas de Burton
  • Husband and Wife by St. Bernardine of Siena
  • Saint Martin by Jacobus de Voragine
  • Saint Elizabeth by Jacobus de Voragine
  • Saint Marcellinus by Jacobus de Voragine
  • The Just War by St. Thomas Aquinas
  • The Evil Men Do by Roger Bacon
  • Science by Roger Bacon

III. THE EARLY RENAISSANCE

  • Sermon Preached Against Tyrants by Girolamo Savonarola
  • The Meeting With Beatrice by Dante Alighieri
  • Dante by Giovanni Boccaccio
  • O Stelliferi Conditor Orbis by Geoffrey Chaucer

IV. RELIGIOUS HUMANISM

  • Of Books by Richard de Bury
  • Of Paradise by Sir John Mandeville
  • Of Morality from Innocent Morality
  • From The Morte D’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory
  • Holy Poverty from the Rule of St. Francis
  • The Customs of Chivalry by Sir John Froissart
  • All Work and No Play by Fitzstephen
  • At the Table by Erasmus
  • Faith and Comfort by St. Thomas More
  • Last Letter to his Daughter by St. Thomas More
  • The Farewell of Saint Thomas More by William Roper
  • The Death of Lady Margaret by John Fisher
  • The Lady Margaret by Robert Southwell
  • Mary Queen of Scots by Pierre de Bourdeille
  • Letter to Pope Gregory XI by St. Catherine of Siena
  • Letter to Sister Daniella of Orvieto by St. Catherine of Siena
  • Dialogue of the Heart by John Gerson
  • O Sweet and Savoury Word by Thomas À Kempis
  • Things That Bring Much Peace by Thomas À Kempis
  • A Prayer Against Evil Thoughts by Thomas À Kempis
  • A Prayer for Mental Illumination by Thomas À Kempis
  • True Comfort by Thomas À Kempis
  • How Great is the Abundance by Thomas À Kempis
  • Judgment Day by Blessed John Ruysbroeck
  • Address to the Beloved by Rámon Lull
  • Questions by Rámon Lull
  • Hope in the Mercy of God by St. Teresa of Avila
  • On the Distribution of Alms by St. Ignatius of Loyola
  • Michelangelo and Religious Art by Francisco de Hollanda
  • Leonardo da Vinci by Giorgio Vasari
  • Image and Reality by Baldesar Castiglione
  • One the Heights by Francesco Petrarca
  • Elizabethan Seminarians by Anthony Munday
  • A Popular Preacher by Joseph Francis Isla
  • The Adventure of the Windmills by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
  • The Business of Poetry by William Habington
  • Saladin and Rosader by Thomas Lodge

V. AN EXPANDING FAITH

  • The Divine Goodness by St. Francis de Sales
  • Courtesy by St. Francis de Sales
  • Brother Lawrence from The Practice of the Presence of God
  • Prayer by Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
  • At the Profession of Madame de la Vallière by Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
  • The Education of Girls by Fénelon
  • The Wager by Paschal
  • Patience by Lorenzo Scupoli
  • The Discovery of Divinity by John Tauler
  • The Missionary in Paraguay by Father Jerome Harran
  • De Soto at the Mississippi by Gonzalo de Oviedo
  • Witnessing a Morality Play from “A Penitential Sinner”
  • Religion and Art by Jean Baptiste du Bos
  • Upon Modernizing Chaucer by John Dryden
  • A Tragic Pastoral by Alexander Pope
  • The Death of Scotland’s Queen by John Lingered
  • The Judgment Day by Manus O’Donnell
  • The Church as an Institution by Thomas Babington Macaulay

VI. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY AND LATER

  • A Catholic’s Faith by John Henry Cardinal Newman
  • Farewell to Oxford by John Henry Cardinal Newman
  • The Gentlemen by John Henry Cardinal Newman
  • Saint Pancratius by Nicholas Patrick Wiseman
  • Life Among the Convicts by William Ullathorne
  • Gossips by Henry Edward Manning
  • Moral Evil by William George Ward
  • Love Transfigured by Coventry Patmore
  • The Challenge of Divine Truth by Aubrey de Vere
  • Dom Joam by Kenelm Henry Digby
  • Epilogue to His Book by Kenelm Henry Digby
  • A View of London by Frederick William Faber
  • My Brothers by St. Thérèse of Lisieux
  • To the Rev. Dr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
  • Father Damien Reports by Damien de Veuster
  • Liberty and Law by James Cardinal Gibbons
  • Duelling by John England
  • The Quest for Truth by John Lancaster Spalding
  • Charge to the Priesthood by P.A. Sheehan
  • The Mystery of Pain by Friedrich von Hegel
  • Patriotism by Cardinal Mercier
  • From Sapientiae Christian Ae by Pope Leo XIII
  • To the Leaders of the Belligerent Peoples by Pope Benedict XV
  • Justice and Charity by Pope Prius XI
  • To the German People by Pope Pius XI
  • Thou Dost Smile by Peter Lippert
  • The Last Day by Léon Bloy
  • What is Science? by René Vallery-Radot
  • The Mystery of Simeon by Charles Péguy
  • Shall Berlin be Christian? by Carl Sonnenschein
  • The Commandment of Love by Max Scheler
  • Action by Peter Wust
  • The Catholic Claim by William Hurrell Mallock
  • Providence and History by Friedrich Schlegel
  • The Christian Age of Gold by Novalis
  • Monasticism and Mankind by François René de Chateaubriand
  • The Monks of the West by Charles Count de Montalembert
  • In Dark Days by Orestes A. Brownson
  • Government by Orestes A. Brownson
  • Columbus by Alphonse de Lamartine
  • The Catholic Idea of the State by Lord Acton
  • Christianity and the Church by Lord Acton
  • Liberty by Lord Acton
  • Marie Langlois: A Heroine of the Revolution by Pierre de la Gorce
  • Saint Bernard and the Blessed Virgin by Georges Goyau
  • A Jesuit Missionary by Francis Parkman
  • Fallen Among the Iroquois by Henry Longan Stuart
  • St. Joan at Orleans by Ferdinand Foch
  • Christian Humanism by Henri Brémond
  • When the Popes Left Rome by Ludwig Pastor
  • A Tribute by Anonymous

VII. MODERN CREATIVE AND CRITICAL WRITING

  • Lovers’ Departure by Alessandro Manzoni
  • A Peasant Dies by Joseph Roux
  • Abi! Anima Christiana by Walter Pater
  • Portrait of a Lady by Gerald Griffin
  • Portrait of a Transcendentalist by Isaac Thomas Hecker
  • A Protestant’s Confession by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • Days in Rome by Rose Hawthorne Lathrop
  • Père Fidelis by Charles Warren Stoddard
  • Madame Célestin by Kate Chopin
  • Marzio’s Crucifix by Francis Marion Crawford
  • In the Reign of Charles I by Robert Hugh Benson
  • Children in Midwinter by Alice Meynell
  • The Mamma of Sampietro by Frederick Baron Corvo
  • Remorse by Ladislas Reymont
  • Brother Simeon by Joris-Karl Huysmans
  • Man in Need by Paul Bourget
  • An Accident by François Coppée
  • The Gloomy Sunday by René Bazin
  • Paradise by Francis Jammes
  • The Charity Children by Francis Jammes
  • Pan Michael at Kamenyets by Henryk Sienkiewicz
  • Thick Weather by Joseph Conrad
  • Maria Visits Her Brother by Enrica von Handel-Mazzetti
  • The Art of Christmas Giving by Joyce Kilmer
  • Hunting a Hari Shirt by Aline Kilmer
  • Two Days by Gerard Manley Hopkins
  • My Convent School by Katherine Tynan Hinkson
  • Shelley by Francis Thompson
  • Pard-Like Spirit by Francis Thompson
  • The Personality of Newman by Wilfrid Ward
  • The Portrait of Hurrell Froude by Louise Imogen Guiney
  • Frederick Goes to a Literary Tea by Joseph von Eichendorff
  • The Ideal Poet by Antonio Fogazzaro
  • The Search for the Beautiful by Hermann Bahr
  • The Search for Truth by Hermann Bahr
  • Great Art by Lionel Johnson
  • Art and Truth by Ernest Hello*
  • The Stage Director by Richard Dana Skinner
  • The Hand of Herod by Heywood Broun
  • Conversion by Gilbert Keith Chesterton
  • Joy and the Christian by Gilbert Keith Chesterton

Source: 2015-02-08-Catholic Literary Giants by Joseph Pierce

Created: 2021-09-16
Updated: 2022-12-27-Tue