St. Anthony, Abbot

The Father of community life led the life of a hermit from the age of eighteen, but later he instituted the monastic life in common. He died at the age of 105 years in 356.

More new entries to the Reading List: Saint John Fisher by Michael Davies (14 January); No Place for God: The Denial of the Transcendent in Modern Church Architecture by Moyra Doorly (16 January); The Last Crusade: Spain: 1936 by Warren Carroll (17 January).

"The fort is betrayed even of them that should have defended it" (John Fisher, from the Tower of London). "A much needed biography of this great saint, a saint for our time if ever there was one. St. John Fisher is one of the greatest Catholics who ever lived and his life certainly provides the perfect example of a truly Catholic bishop. This life of Fisher portrays in a vivid manner those most closely involved in his life and martyrdom - King Henry VIII; Lady Margaret Beaufort, Fisher's patron; the scheming Anne Boleyn; the saintly Queen Catherine; the cowardly Cardinal Wolsey; the uncompromising saint Thomas More; etc" (Neumann Press).

"Once modern science declared the emptiness and meaninglessness of a strictly material universe, it was only a matter of time before architects would adopt the new understanding of space, that is to say that no space is special because none is any different or better than any other.

In their quest to adapt to and speak to the present age, Catholics over the last forty years have unquestioningly allowed the trends in modern architecture to fashion their churches, and the outcome has been the construction of the ugliest and emptiest churches in history...

...Doorly traces the principles of modern architecture to the ideas of space that spread rapidly during the twentieth century. She sees a parallel between the desacralization of the heavens, and consequently of our churches, and the mass inward search for a god of one's own. This double movement - away from the transcendent God, who reveals himself to man through Scripture and tradition, and toward an inner truth relevant only to oneself - has emptied our churches, and the worship that takes place within them, of the majesty and beauty that once inspired reverence in both believers and unbelievers alike.

In non-technical language accompanied by photographs, Doorly explains what has gone wrong with our churches and suggests a simple way to begin rectifying it [Turn around again, Father!]." (From the back cover.)

"Crusade" means a war for the sake of the Cross, a war to protect Christian people from persecution and death on account of their faith in Jesus Christ. Everyone has heard of the crusades of the Middle Ages. But few know of the crusade in our own time, which living men still remember, fought for this same purpose only sixty years ago in Spain.

In just six months of the year 1936, thirteen bishops and nearly seven thousand priests, seminarians, monks, and nuns were martyred in Spain by enemies of Christianity. It was the greatest clerical bloodletting in so short a span of time since the persecutions of the Church by the ancient Roman emperors. Already Pope John Paul II has beatified some two hundred of these martyrs. Tens of thousands of churches, chapels, and shrines in Spain were pillaged or destroyed. In response, faithful Spanish Catholics proclaimed a crusade. Against all odds the crusaders triumphed, and the Church and the Faith in Spain were saved.

This is the story of that crusade, now honored in no other book in print in the English language. Most people who know of the Spanish Civil War do not understand why it was fought or how it was really won. This book will tell you. There is no story like it in the history of the twentieth century." (From the back cover.)