Lives of the Saints?

[PilgrimMichelangelo]

Is there a Roman Rite equivalent to the Eastern Orthodox Prologue of Ohrid, or The Great Synaxarion: Lives of the Saints of the Orthodox Church in the traditional Roman Catholic Church? I was reading the Cure de Ars by Abbe Francis Trochu and he mentions how St. Jean Marie Vianney would frequently read the Lives of the Saints…is this a specific book, like say The Roman Martyrology?

I can’t read Latin nor Greek sadly, so an English translation would be nice if this book exists…

 

[Fauken]

The Lives of the Saints is the name of the book and it is translated into English.

 

[PilgrimMichelangelo]

The Lives of the Saints is the name of the book and it is translated into English.

Thank you!

Do you know the difference between Fr. Alban Butler’s 4 Volume Set and the two volume set available from the Catholic Company? (Apart from the obvious, that there are more saints in the four volumes than in the two volumes )

 

[Fauken]

Do you know the difference between Fr. Alban Butler’s 4 Volume Set and the two volume set available from the Catholic Company? (Apart from the obvious, that there are more saints in the four volumes than in the two volumes )

I do not, no. My guess, and this is only my guess, is that it was changed for the new OF calendar and the English changed to something more modern.

 

[Dovekin]

In the 13th century, an early Dominican produced a book with brief readings that told the story of the saints. This became known as The Golden Legend, from the Latin for readings. This became the basis for the word legends.

In the 17th century, early Jesuits started work on critical editions of the lives of the saints. The Bollandists are close to finishing that project, last I heard.

In the 18th century, Alban Butler produced12 volumes of The Lives of the Saints matched with prayers and moral lessons.

In the 20th century, Herbert Thurston sj and Donald Attwater produced a 12 vol. update to modern English in the 1920s and then a 4 vol. version in the 1950s. The focus in these was on historical accuracy rather than devotion.

I believe this is the 4 vol. set at the Catholic Co. The two volume set is described as one volume from Butler’s Lives and another vol. of updated info on new saints, etc. There are other updates of Butler’s available as well…

 

[PilgrimMichelangelo]

Thank you. That definitely answers my question.

 

[Dovekin]

One of my favorite topics, if you had not noticed.

I do not really know the Synaxarion, but It seems likely to me that they have a range of editions that roughly parallel the versions I described, from legendary to historical. They do not have a centralized saint naming operation like the Congregation for Saints, so I cannot imagine a standardized Synaxarion.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

There are dozens of books on the lives of the Latin Church saints. There are thousands of Latin Church saints (I’ve heard the number is something like 10,000) so, since that’s way too many to fit into a book, usually books are a bit focused on saints of a particular era or saints who did particular things. For example, a book with saints of the 20th century, a book with saints of the Reformation, a book with saints who were Doctors of the Church, or contemplatives etc. There are also books that have a saint for each day with a short biography of each.

One easy way to read about the saints, without a book, is to just follow the Saint of the Day on the liturgical calendars of CatholicCulture.org (US calendar) or Indcatholicnews.com (UK calendar). I’d say that together they probably cover 500 saints and you don’t have to buy a book.

 

[PilgrimMichelangelo]

Thank you. I will check those out.