When Saint Francis Saved The Church

Now in paperback, When Saint Francis Saved the Church offers a surprising new look at the world’s most popular saint, showing how this beloved, but often-mythologized character created a spiritual vision for the ages and may very well have rescued the Christian faith.  

In When Saint Francis Saved the Church, popular historian Jon Sweeney presents an intriguing portrait of Francis beyond the readily familiar stories and images. In the tradition of Thomas Cahill’s How the Irish Saved Civilization, Sweeney reveals how the saint became a hinge in the history of the Christian faith and shows how in just fourteen years—from 1205 to 1219—the unconventional and stumbling wisdom of a converted troubadour changed the Church. Sweeney outlines Francis’s revolutionary approach to friendship, “the other” (people at the margins), poverty, spirituality, care (for people, creatures, and the natural world), and death.  

This vibrant book presents the unsullied life and message of Francis in its essential details, offering a sweeping, informative, remarkable look at how Francis and his movement quite literally saved the Christian faith—and continues to offer a spiritual vision with contemporary relevance.

Features & Benefits

• Jon Sweeney’s eleven other books have combined sales of more than 150,000 copies.
• Sweeney has appeared on Fox News, CBS’s News in Chicago, CBS’s Saturday Morning, WGN-TV, WTTW in Chicago’s Chicago Tonight, and PBS television, as well as a wide variety of radio programs.
• Sweeney is an independent scholar, culture critic, and writer of popular history, best known as the author of The Pope Who Quit (a History Book Club selection, an audio book from Franciscan Media, and was optioned by HBO, Inc).

181 pages. Paperback.