Patricia Appelbaum

St. Francis of America: How a Thirteenth-Century Friar Became America's Most Popular Saint Patricia Appelbaum

Commendation Quotes: In this outstanding book, Patricia Appelbaum explores the paradox of American devotion to Saint Francis: each generation has adapted Francis to its own cultural context, yet he has never lost the power to challenge prevailing norms of violence and consumerism. Everyone deserves to know the story of how the Catholic Francis became an American saint.--Dan McKanan, author of "Prophetic Encounters: Religion and the American Radical Tradition" Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index. Commendation Quotes: A fascinating trip through American cultural history. St. Francis is a wonderful way to see how popular and elite are deftly interwoven into the life-worlds of actual people. A welcome scrutiny of the literary and material culture surrounding a figure who is able to inspire reformers, moralists, and consumers alike. There is no other study of Francis like this one.--David Morgan, author of "The Embodied Eye: Religious Visual Culture and the Social Life of Feeling" "Commendation Quotes: St. Francis didn't much like books, but if he did he would bless this one, which follows the strange odyssey of this thirteenth-century Catholic saint into the homes and hearts of contemporary Americans. What is at stake here is not the historical Francis but the Francis of the American imagination, an all-purpose rebel and crossover saint beloved not only by Catholics but also by Protestants, Buddhists, and the 'spiritual but not religious.' Through careful historical research and interpretive panache, Applebaum deftly stalks this American saint from his rediscovery in the mid-nineteenth century to his more recent incarnations as pacifist, hippie, and environmentalist.--Stephen Prothero, author of "God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World" Review Quotes: "This well-researched biography is recommended as a case study of how the perceptions of historical individuals change over the course of time to fit and speak to contemporary issues.--"Library Journal" Publisher Marketing: How did a thirteenth-century Italian friar become one of the best-loved saints in America? Around the nation today, St. Francis of Assisi is embraced as the patron saint of animals, beneficently presiding over hundreds of Blessing of the Animals services on October 4, St. Francis's Catholic feast day. Not only Catholics, however, but Protestants and other Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, and nonreligious Americans commonly name him as one of their favorite spiritual figures. Drawing on a dazzling array of art, music, drama, film, hymns, and prayers, Patricia Appelbaum explains what happened to make St. Francis so familiar and meaningful to so many Americans. Appelbaum traces popular depictions and interpretations of St. Francis from the time when non-Catholic Americans "discovered" him in the nineteenth century to the present. From poet to activist, 1960s hippie to twenty-first-century messenger to Islam, St. Francis has been envisioned in ways that might have surprised the saint himself. Exploring how each vision of St. Francis has been shaped by its own era, Appelbaum reveals how St. Francis has played a sometimes countercultural but always aspirational role in American culture. St. Francis's American story also displays the zest with which Americans borrow, lend, and share elements of their religious lives in everyday practice. Review Citations:

Library Journal 08/01/2015 pg. 102 (EAN 9781469623740, Hardcover)