With the election of Pope Francis there seems to be a surge in wanting to know more about St. Francis of Assisi. There certainly is no lack of written material, scholarly, popular, and in between.  There is also a lot of marginal material out there.  Here is a list of readable and approachable books for the inquiring minds – and no it in no way approaches completeness.  Someone suggested that there is a new biography of St. Francis printed every year. I am not sure that is strictly true, but it sure seems like it.

• Francis of Assisi – A New Biography (Augustine Thompson, OP)
• Francis of Assisi: the life and afterlife of a medieval saint (Andre Vauchez, tr. Michael Cusato OFM)
• The Reluctant Saint: the life of St. Francis of Assisi (Donald Spoto)
• God’s Fool: the Life and TImes of St. Francis of Assisi (Julien Green)
• or just query your favorite book seller and see a much longer list – the ones above are just some of the more recent ones which I would suggest

And if you read all four recommendations, you are going to notice some differences in chronology, tone and tenor.  Welcome to the world of searching for the “real” Francis. You can read more about how that affects writers and readers alike.

Maybe you want to search that world for yourself.  You can always bypass these authors and go to the sources.  The Franciscan Institute has published the best English language source books on all the early writings by Francis and about Francis (available from Amazon):

• Francis of Assisi – The Saint: Early Documents, vol. 1
• Francis of Assisi – The Founder: Early Documents, vol. 2
• Francis of Assisi – The Prophet: Early Documents, vol. 3

You are going to notice some differences in chronology, tone and tenor in the sources. It is just part of the “world.”