Thomas A Kempis is well known for the Imitation/Following of Christ, the second best selling book of all time after the Holy Bible. His rich spiritual writings have been read by Catholics since the book was first written in 1418. What most readers don't know is that Thomas A Kempis wrote 27 books in all and most have been out of print for 100+ years. St Athanasius Press has spent the last 2 years searching for these rare spiritual classics in order to bring them back into print so today's Catholics can benefit from the spiritual richness found in Thomas A Kempis' books. For Passion Sunday is...

Excerpt: On July 3rd, 1907, the Holy Father prepared a list of errors which, later, were grouped together under the name of Modernism, and condemned. On the 8th of September following he addressed to the Catholic world an Encyclical of incomparable fulness, vigour, and clearness, in which he sets forth his reasons for condemning Modernism. Thank God these errors, which have so far invaded France and Italy, attract few followers in Belgium. You have been preserved by the vigilance of your pastors, by an impartial scientific spirit, and by the Christian submission that animates the...

An abridgement of Questions on Vocations approved by Cardinal Gibbons and Cardinal Satolli. CONTENTS I. Definition. - Every Person has some special vocation 5 II. Necessity of following a vocation 6 III. Matrimony - Is it a vocation? 9 IV. Mixed Marriages 12 V. Virginity 14 VI. The Three Evangelical Counsels 16 1. Poverty 17 2. Perpetual Chastity 18 3. Obedience 19 VII. The Religious State 20 VIII. Marks of a vocation to the religious state 23 IX. Doubts about a vocation to the religious state 27 X. Encouraging others to enter the religious state 29 XI. Means of preserving a vocation to the...

From the Preface: he Treatise of St Catherine of Genoa on Purgatory has never, it seems been as yet rendered into English. The present translation, therefore, which is both faithful and excellent in language, will be most acceptable to those whom this wonderful book has hitherto been closed. Although our Lord, by His apostle, has forbidden to women the public ministry of teaching in His Church, He has nevertheless reserved for them a great and resplendent office in the edification of His mystical Body. The lights and inspirations bestowed upon them, according to the words of the prophet Joel,...

A Short Catechism of Cardinal Robert Bellarmine Taken from the 1614 Edition Edited and Translated from Old English

St Athanasius Press is pleased to publish this rare work of St Alphonsus M Liguori. Excerpt: St. Gregory of Nyssa writes, "Blessed dart, which carries with it into the heart. God who casts it." By which the holy Father would say, that when God pierces the heart with a dart of love, that is, enables it by some special illumination to know His goodness and His love, and the desire which He has to be loved in return, He Himself enters the heart with love's dart, being Himself love, and He who casts its darts: "For," as St. John writes, "God is charity." 1 Ephess 4:8. And as the dart remains...

St Eucherius of Lyons is one of the great neglected spiritual writers of Western Orthodoxy. His ascetic mysticism is very much in the Eastern tradition; if there were a "Latin Philokalia," St Eucherius would doubtless have a place in it. At the same time, his proverbs and apothegms, some of which may be found near the end of the present work, speak directly to people living in the world as much as to monks.