Books Published by Ignatius Press

Introducing Saint Thomas More of London: the authoritative biography of a man who raised the bar for moral integrity and personal courage. This remarkable book brings to life one of England’s most celebrated saints and martyrs, St. Thomas More, in an engaging, easy-to-read style. Those curious to learn more or relive his story will be captivated by the vivid characterization and honest historical detail. This incredible book offers a comprehensive overview of St. Thomas More’s life from his o...

The Song of Bernadette is a remarkable literary masterpiece by Austrian-Jewish author Franz Werfel, offering a powerful testament to the transcending power of faith. It follows the true story of Bernadette Soubirous and her miraculous visions at Lourdes in 1858, depicting how the simple peasant girl’s faith changed a town - and indeed history - forever. Inspired by his experience hiding from the Nazis in Lourdes much later, Werfel crafted this passionate masterwork to show the deep spiritual ...

Ignatius Press is proud to bring you The Shadow of His Wings, the must-have book this season. It is an incredible true story from Father Gereon Goldmann, a young German seminarian drafted into Hitler's dreaded SS during World War II. Despite being surrounded by evil, Father Goldmann persevered without compromising his Christian ideals and values. The Shadow of His Wings details all of Father Goldmann’s harrowing experiences – family life during wartime, the trials of war and his many near-dea...

Father Elijah: An Apocalypse by Michael O'Brien is a thrilling, fast-paced novel that takes readers into the world of an apocalyptic future, and explores the strengths and weaknesses of the contemporary religious scene and the state of the modern world.The protagonist in this suspenseful tale is Father Elijah Schafer, a Carmelite priest sent on a secret mission for the Vatican. He must navigate through crisis after crisis, all while trying to determine what effect his actions may have towards...

Eclipse of the Sun by Michael O'Brien tells the gripping story of a family caught in the grip of a totalitarian government. Set in a near future North American society that is infected with deceit and dysfunctional cultural norms, the Delaney's must grapple with their father's arrest by the Office of Internal Security. The fast-paced plot takes us on an emotional journey as the family struggles to remain faithful to the truth in order to overcome fear and dread. This reflective novel follows ...

Many of us are intimidated or overwhelmed by the complexity of the Bible. But with You Can Understand the Bible, you'll be well equiped to explore God's Word with greater clarity and appreciation. Written by popular author and Boston University professor Peter Kreeft, this best-selling guide is designed to provide readers with a clear roadmap of the Bible. A must-have for any spiritual journeyman, this book takes an intelligent, yet lighthearted approach to understanding scripture. Filled wit...

For the first time in 400 years the Catholic Church has authorized an official universal catechism which instantly became an international best-seller, the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Using this official Catechism, the highly-regarded author and professor Peter Kreeft presents a complete compendium of all the major beliefs of Catholicism written in his readable and concise style. Since the Catechism of the Catholic Church was written for the express purpose of grounding and fostering ca...

The Catholic Gentleman is the definitive guide to being an upstanding and virtuous man. In a world where traditional gender roles are constantly being questioned and, in some cases, discarded, it can be difficult to know how to remain dignified and noble in your actions. The Catholic Gentleman offers you the timeless wisdom of the Catholic Church for modern men looking for practical behavior guidance in their everyday lives. This book consists of succinct chapters that provide pithy insights ...

Clear, precise and inspiring, Theology for Beginners has been acclaimed as one of the outstanding modern introductions to theology. More than a compendium of the central doctrines of Catholicism, however, the book is designed to equip you with the information you need to understand key doctrines and to explain them to others. Along the way, you will find yourself falling more deeply in love with your faith and more confident of your ability to bring healing and hope to what Frank Sheed called...

From May to October, 1917, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared six times to three shepherd children in the tiny village of Fatima, Portugal. What started as a private matter was soon known all over town, throughout the country, and around the world. These apparitions are fascinating, and have gripped the imagination of people all over the world, from simple believers to academic theologians; from skeptics to the curious; from scientists to popes. Fatima: 100 Questions and Answers on the Marian A...

Introducing In Defense of Sanity, a book featuring the best selected essays of G.K. Chesterton, one of the greatest 20th century man of letters! Whether you are exploring GKC's works for the first time, or you are a seasoned student, this book contains an immense variety of timeless truths that will make your reading experience unforgettable. In Defense of Sanity is edited by three world-renowned authorities on Chesterton - Dale Ahlquist, Joseph Pearce, and Aidan Mackey - who have joined forc...

Very few people know that Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) wrote a major work on Joan of Arc. Still fewer know that he considered it not only his most important but also his best work. He spent twelve years in research and many months in France doing archival work and then made several attempts until he felt he finally had the story he wanted to tell. He reached his conclusion about Joan's unique place in history only after studying in detail accounts written by both sides, the French and the Engl...

Following up his international best-selling book, An Exorcist Tells His Story, Fr. Gabriele Amorth, the renowned chief exorcist of Rome, expands on some of the key topics of his previous book, covering important details about demonic or occult issues. He uses concrete examples from his own experiences and those of other exorcists to illustrate and substantiate his points. Since satanic sects, occultism, seances, fortune-tellers and astrologers are so widespread today, Father Amorth asks the q...

Make Better Decisions with the Desert Fathers Father Augustine Wetta reaches back into monastic history to answer one of the most critical questions facing young people today: "How do I make up my mind?" With his characteristic wit and novel approach to classical art, Father Augustine looks to the wisdom of the Desert Fathers to unearth an ancient and highly efficient method for resolving life's most pressing dilemmas--even in the midst of distractions, temptations, and disruptions. Profoundl...

Ethan McQuarry is a young lighthouse keeper on a tiny island, the rugged outcropping of easternmost Cape Breton Island on the Atlantic Ocean. A man without any family, he sees himself as a silent vigilant, performing his duties courageously year after year, with an admirable sense of responsibility. He cherishes his solitude and is grateful that his interactions with human beings are rare. Even so, he is haunted by his aloneness in the world and by a feeling that his life is meaningless. His ...

"What Is Christianity?: The Last Writings" by Pope Benedict XVI, edited by Elio Guerriero and Georg Gänswein, presents a comprehensive exploration of Christian faith's essence, its relationship with other religions, and its foundational beliefs. This posthumous work encapsulates Benedict XVI's profound theological insights on topics ranging from the liturgy and the priesthood to the challenges of modernity and the beauty of creation. It serves as a spiritual testament from one of the leading ...

"Theology in Practice: A Beginner's Guide to the Spiritual Life" by Roch Kereszty and Denis Farkasfalvy is a profound exploration into the essence of theology as the study of God, emphasizing its integral role in the spiritual life of believers. This work serves as a bridge between the academic study of theology and the practical application of its truths in daily living. Drawing upon the rich heritage of Cistercian spirituality and the wisdom of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, the authors guide ...

"Confession of a Catholic Worker: Our Moment of Christian Witness" by Larry Chapp is a profound reflection on the modern crises facing both the Church and the world. Drawing from the lives and teachings of Hans Urs von Balthasar, Dorothy Day, and Peter Maurin, Chapp presents a compelling vision of radical Christian living rooted in the Sermon on the Mount. Through personal narrative and theological exploration, he advocates for a life of radical love and fidelity to Christ, challenging believ...

"The Moral Wisdom of the Catholic Church: A Defense of Her Controversial Moral Teachings Volume 3" by Robert Spitzer, S.J., Ph.D., offers a robust defense of the Catholic Church's teachings on moral issues. As part of the trilogy "Called Out of Darkness: Contending with Evil Through the Church, Virtue, and Prayer," this volume tackles the foundations of the Church's moral teachings, engaging both theological and philosophical perspectives. Spitzer enriches his defense with empirical evidence ...

"Mysteries Made Visible: Praying the Rosary with Sacred Art" by Lawrence Lew, O.P., offers a unique devotional experience that combines sacred art with the contemplation of the Rosary's Mysteries. With a foreword by the Master of the Order, Fr. Gerard Francisco Timoner III, O.P., this book invites readers to deepen their prayer life through the visual and spiritual meditation on sacred images. Fr. Lew, a Dominican friar known for his photography, captures the essence of each Mystery with stun...

"Women Mystics" by Louis Bouyer explores the lives and contributions of five women mystics who have significantly influenced Christianity. Through the stories of Hadewijch of Antwerp, Teresa of Avila, Thérèse of Lisieux, Elizabeth of the Trinity, and Edith Stein, Bouyer illustrates the unique and creative spiritual missions of these women, emphasizing their role in shaping and steering Christianity. Highlighting the continuity and individuality of their experiences, Bouyer presents these myst...

For over two decades, Eugenio Pacelli, Pope Pius XII, has been blasted in the public square as "Hitler's Pope", accused by bestselling authors of cowardice in the face of the Nazi regime. Some have even said that the pope was complicit in Hitler's grab for power, privately fueled by a hatred for the Jewish people. And if they are right, who would not join in condemning a leader like this, especially one who claims to represent all Christians?But what if this image of Pius XII is completely ba...

One day, philosopher Peter Kreeft reads an open letter published by a friend, Nat Whilk. He's Catholic, but he sees the Church as unsteady, outdated, obsessive. As a challenge to the "True Believers", Nat pens a twenty-point manifesto for "cafeteria Catholics", who pass up certain Church teachings and scoop up others like a diner in a buffet line."I find in [Catholicism] both much to accept and even love and also much to refuse and even despise", he asserts. "If you insist on tying God to the...

The Catholic Church has been a part of English history since the arrival of Christian missionaries to Roman Britain in the first century after Christ. England was evangelized in these early centuries to such an extent that, by the time the Romans withdrew in the fifth century, the Celtic population was largely Catholic.Anglo-Saxon England, prior to the Norman Conquest, was a land of saints. From St. Bede, with his history of the early Church, to the holy king St. Edward the Confessor, Saxon E...

This colorful memoir offers a rare, up-close glimpse of the life and personality of St. Pio of Pietrelcina, the beloved Italian monk who was blessed with extraordinary gifts. The late Fr. Amorth--well-known as an exorcist --enjoyed over two decades of a close friendship with the holy, quirky Padre Pio, whom he considered his spiritual father. Adding his own personal experience to a foundation of biographical research, Amorth gives an entertaining and illuminating account of perhaps one of the...

Thérèse of Lisieux is one of the most popular modern saints in the world, but the details of her life and spirituality are still not widely known and are somewhat of a mystery even to her devoted followers.With over 150 stunning photographs, in-depth text, and plentiful sidebars on history, geography, and themes, this gorgeous work helps us enter into the universe of the greatest saint of modern times to discover the simplicity, yet depth of her daily life and of her relationships, both human...

The Catholic deposit of faith and tradition is wide and deep! There are so many different devotions and ways to pray that it's impossible for anyone to ever use them all, let alone in a busy family. Fortunately, the liturgical calendar is here to help!In this companion to her bestselling book about liturgical living traditions in the home, The Catholic All Year Compendium, Kendra Tierney lays out hundreds of prayers, devotions, practices, blessings, indulgences, novenas, hymns, Bible readings...

Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism to the Transfiguration is an essential book for any student of faith, history, and philosophy. This book offers a rigorous scholarly approach and passionate insight into the life and legacy of Jesus Christ. Pope emeritus Benedict XVI weaves together faith with scholarship, offering meaningful truths about Jesus’ life, ministry and through his compassionate lens as a faithful pastor. This comprehensive guide will present a thoughtful investigation on who was...

Although many Catholics are familiar with the four Gospels and other writings of the New Testament, for most, reading the Old Testament is like walking into a foreign land. Who wrote these forty-six books? When were they written? Why were they written? What are we to make of their laws, stories, histories, and prophecies? Should the Old Testament be read by itself or in light of the New Testament? John Bergsma and Brant Pitre offer readable in-depth answers to these questions as they introduc...

Saint Benedict's Twelve-Step Guide to Genuine Self-Esteem Saint Benedict's fifth-century guide to humility offers the antidote to the epidemic of stress and depression overwhelming modern young adults. But the language of The Rule by Saint Benedict is medieval, and its most passionate advocates are cloistered monks and nuns. How then does this ancient wisdom translate into advice for ordinary people? With candor, humor, and a unique approach to classical art, Father Augustine, a high school t...

The newest addition to the internationally best-selling YOUCAT series, DOCAT: Catholic Social Teaching for Youth is an indispensable resource for young people who want to learn and live Catholic Social Teaching. With a combination of Scripture, YOUCAT, the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Compendium of Catholic Social Teaching, this book is sure to be an invaluable resource in helping advance a “civilization of love”.Lavishly illustrated with a bright colour palette and professionally...

This book provides a detailed, updated exposition and defense of five of the historically most important (but in recent years largely neglected) philosophical proofs of God's existence: the Aristotelian, the Neo-Platonic, the Augustinian, the Thomistic, and the Rationalist. It also offers a thorough treatment of each of the key divine attributes--unity, simplicity, eternity, omnipotence, omniscience, perfect goodness, and so forth--showing that they must be possessed by the God whose existenc...

God's love is the subject of Peter Kreeft's imaginative and thoughtful book (a revised and updated version of his book Knowing the Truth of God's Love). With unusual clarity, Kreeft points out that the man or woman who begins to glimpse the God who is Creator, Redeemer, and Lover of our souls, will never be the same. He describes Scripture as God's love story and then tells why divine love is the answer to our deepest problems and the fulfillment of our deepest desires. Posing the hard questi...

This volume in the Vision Books series of saints for youth combines a world famous Catholic novelist, Louis de Wohl, with one of the most thrilling and dramatic saint's lives in history, St. Joan of Arc. De Wohl uses his famed narrative skill to tell young people about the brave teenage French girl who had visions and led armies in battle, but also about how her entire life testifies to the amazing power of God's grace. It's all here: how Joan, a humble maiden in an insignificant town, was to...

Adoration is love, and eucharistic adoration is love of Christ present in the Blessed Sacrament. In the Gospels there are few people who understand love for Jesus as well as Mary Magdalene, which is the reason she is a prophetess of eucharistic love. This work is an extended meditation on the life of Saint Mary Magdalene, known as the "Apostle to the Apostles" because the Risen Christ appeared to her first and then sent her to announce the Resurrection to the apostles. Based on the biblical t...

The Hidden Manna has become a classic on Eucharistic teaching. Now in a second edition, accompanied by a new introduction by Fr. Kenneth Baker, a new preface from the author, new material from John Paul II, and the original foreword by Cardinal John O'Connor, this in-depth study lets the breadth and richness of the Church's Tradition speak for itself. Fr. O'Connor presents and comments on substantial excerpts from the major sources of the Church's Tradition extending all the way back to apost...

With this concise anthology of Benedict XVI's lessons on the Christian life--on faith, hope, love, joy, youth, holiness, and freedom--readers find themselves walking side by side with a great spiritual father."Benedict XVI", as Pope Francis reflects in the book's foreword, "knew how to bring heart and mind, thought and feeling, rationality and emotion in concert with one another--a fruitful model of how one can tell the world about the shattering power of the Gospel."The crystallized excerpts...

"There are some people whom God takes and sets apart," observes Venerable Madeleine Delbrêl (1904-1964), but "there are others whom he leaves in the masses and whom he does not withdraw from the world. These are people who do ordinary jobs, who have an ordinary household or an ordinary single life. . . . We, the ordinary people of the streets, believe with all our might that this street, that this world where God has placed us, is, for us, the site of our holiness."French poet, social worker,...

"The world is too small," Saint Frances Cabrini (1850-1917) once declared. "I would like to embrace it all, to reach every corner." This compelling, authoritative biography chronicles the astounding life of a petite Italian-born religious sister who, with the heart of a missionary, conquered all odds to become the first American citizen canonized a saint.Theodore Maynard traces Cabrini's journey from her humble beginnings in northern Italy to her pioneering mission across the United States se...

A Harvard graduate, Rhodes Scholar, and devout Catholic tells you everything you need to know about keeping your faith at a modern university. Drawing on her recent experience, Aurora Griffin shares forty practical tips relating to academics, community, prayer, and service that helped her stay Catholic in college.She reminds us that keeping the faith is a conscious decision, reinforced by commitment to daily practices. Aurora's story illustrates that when you decide your faith matters to you,...

Celebrated author Mary Eberstadt continues her ground-breaking examination of the legacy of the sexual revolution. The book's predecessor, Adam and Eve after the Pill (2012), dissected the revolution's microcosmic fallout via its empirical effects on the lives of men, women, and children. This follow-on book investigates the revolution's macrocosmic transformations in three spheres: society, politics, and Christianity. It also includes an analysis of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision tha...

Ceremonies Explained for Servers may well be called the "mother of all servers' manuals". This is the most detailed guide available for servers and those who train and supervise them at the altar. In accessible language, Ceremonies covers the roles of servers in a wide range of Catholic liturgical celebrations. These are described in full, such as: the Mass in both the Ordinary and Extraordinary forms, the seven sacraments, the ceremonies of Holy Week, the Liturgy of the Hours, funeral rites,...

"The ecological movement discovered that 'nature' prescribes for us a moderation that we cannot ignore with impunity. Unfortunately, 'human ecology' has still not been made concrete. A human being, too, has a 'nature' that is prescribed for him, and violating or denying it leads to self-destruction."-- Benedict XVI, from the preface This collection of selected works is Benedict XVI's heartfelt call for Europe to rediscover its true origin and identity, in order to become once again a beacon o...

Father Christopher Hart, a young New York priest and classic film buff, is unwittingly drafted by the mob to hear the confession of a man slated for execution. This was not one of the duties he expected when he became a first-time pastor. Learning how to balance the books and safely navigate parish politics, yes; but playing a key role in the White Death--a mafia ritual in which a person condemned to death is allowed to confess his sins before he's killed--was not included on the Parish Leade...

With his characteristic eloquence and brilliance, Fulton J. Sheen presents a moving portrayal of the Blessed Virgin Mary that combines deep spirituality with history, philosophy and theology. All the major aspects and events of Mary's life are lovingly portrayed in this word portrait that is a never failing source of information, consolation and inspiration. Sheen also gives profound insights into all the Marian beliefs ranging from the Immaculate Conception to the Assumption to the miracle o...

In his raw and tender memoir, biographer Kevin Wells pulls readers into the unforgettable story of a parish priest turned hermit, Father Martin Flum, who orchestrated the slow resurrection of his wife, Krista, from the nightmare of her deep wounds and addiction. In gripping fashion, Kevin tells the story of his family's own long suffering, which culminated in the dark spring of 2020, as a strange fear pressed down upon the world and his wife spent most nights drinking away long-held shame. Wh...