Butler's Lives of the Saints: A Saint for Every Day of the Year

• COMPLETE FOUR-VOLUME EDITION – The full 1956 text revised by Herbert J. Thurston, S.J., and Donald Attwater: 2,565 saints.
• A SAINT FOR EVERY DAY – Arranged by feast day according to the traditional Roman calendar.
• TRUSTWORTHY AND DEVOTIONAL – Each life sets out the saint's virtues and the reliable facts, with a note on sources.
• A HANDSOME LIBRARY EDITION – Four sewn volumes in red cloth with gilt-lettered spines.

Every Catholic household once had a shelf for it, and many still do. Butler's Lives of the Saints has been the English-speaking Church's book of the saints for more than two hundred and fifty years, and no work since has replaced it.

Alban Butler

Alban Butler (1710–1773) was an English priest of the penal times, educated and for many years a teacher at the English College at Douai, where Catholics barred from the universities at home were trained for the priesthood. He spent some three decades on The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, which first appeared between 1756 and 1759. His aim was twofold: to tell only what could be trusted, sifting legend from history with a care unusual in his day, and to set before the reader the virtues of each saint as an example to imitate. The book won readers far beyond England, and has been reprinted ever since.

The Thurston and Attwater revision

In the twentieth century the work was revised from the ground up by the Jesuit historian Herbert Thurston and the writer and editor Donald Attwater. They corrected Butler where later scholarship required it, kept the charm and directness of his prose, and greatly enlarged the calendar. Their final complete edition, published in four volumes in 1956, contains 2,565 saints, against the 1,486 of the original. It is that text we reprint.

How to use it

The saints are arranged day by day according to the traditional Roman calendar, so the book can be read straight through the year: the saint of the day at breakfast, or before night prayers. Each life gives the facts, draws out the virtues, and closes with a note on the sources for those who want to go further. It is as useful to a preacher or a teacher as to a family looking for a saint to name a child after.

Our edition

The complete 1956 text in four volumes, sewn so that they open easily and survive years of daily use, and bound in red cloth with gilt-lettered spines. Butler's Lives is in stock now in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Order Butler's Lives of the Saints here.