St. Francis of Assisi: 800th Anniversary Illustrated Edition

by G.K. Chesterton

126 pages, Paperback

Published October 24, 2025

About the author

Gilbert Keith Chesterton was an English writer, philosopher, lay theologian, and literary and art critic.

He was educated at St. Paul’s, and went to art school at University College London. In 1900, he was asked to contribute a few magazine articles on art criticism, and went on to become one of the most prolific writers of all time. He wrote a hundred books, contributions to 200 more, hundreds of poems, including the epic Ballad of the White Horse, five plays, five novels, and some two hundred short stories, including a popular series featuring the priest-detective, Father Brown. In spite of his literary accomplishments, he considered himself primarily a journalist. He wrote over 4000 newspaper essays, including 30 years worth of weekly columns for the Illustrated London News, and 13 years of weekly columns for the Daily News. He also edited his own newspaper, G.K.’s Weekly.

Chesterton was equally at ease with literary and social criticism, history, politics, economics, philosophy, and theology.

Reviews

[Annette · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a difficult read. It was not a biography of St. Francis. Instead, it was G.K. Chesterton's take on how St. Francis's life affected both the medieval world and the world of today. It was a deep dive into the meaning behind the mysticism of St. Francis. It was obvious that G. K. Chesterton had a great reverence for the saint but he was not blind to the saint's darker side. Instead, he delved more deeply into the potential meaning behind the actions of St. Francis. To what seemed like madness to some, the author offered an explanation in light of the medieval world and the thought processes of St. Francis. If you already do not know about the life of St. Francis, I suggest you read an actual biography of the saint's life first. Without that context, you will find this very difficult to get through. However, despite this, it is still a worthy read. I learned a lot that I never knew and it made me do a lot of thinking.