He is fascinated by Francis, but that does not stop him from see Francis as a real person.Ĭhesterton does, however, defend the traditional views of Francis, including the miracles. I want to read about the person, but I assume that the reality of the person is important (not just how great they are.) Chesterton is not writing hagiography. Honestly my main reluctance to read this was that I assumed it would be hagiography and I really do not like reading hagiography. It has biographical details, but not many of them. So if you are looking for a traditional biography, you will probably be disappointed by this book. Instead it is partially a biography and partially an exploration of the state of the Catholic church at the time of Francis and how Francis changed the Catholic church during his time and after. That and he is brilliant.Ĭhesterton’s biography of St Francis is not a traditional biography. He has a lot of asides and his fairly conversational writing style takes some getting used to. Chesterton is not the easiest author to read. I might have been better served by reading the kindle version instead of listening to the audio version.

So I picked this book up at the beginning of July when I had some promotional credits at Audible. I have started paying attention to the audiobook discounts when you first purchase kindle books. Both of which were good reasons to read (listen) to this book.

GK Chesterton’s biography of St Francis is one of the classic biographies of St Francis and Chesterton attributed his work on this book to his eventual conversion to Catholicism. Summary: A classic biography of St Francis from one of the great Christian authors of the 20th century.

St francis of assisi chesterton