Life of St. Stephen Harding; Abbot of Citeaux and Founder of the Cistercian Order
Westminster, Maryland: The Newman Bookshop, (1946). Original navy cloth, gilt spine, original dust jacket. Gentle bumping to upper corners, priest's ink stamp & signature (dated 1946) to blank flyleaf, modest toning to unclipped original jacket. Very good indeed. Item #1611
"ABBOT OF CITEAUX AND FOUNDER OF THE CISTERCIAN ORDER"
Newman Bookshop edition of J.B. Dalgairn's Life of St. Stephen Harding—an undated "New Edition" of the biography of the Sainted English Cistercian, originally edited by John Henry Newman and revised here by Herbert Thurston, S.J. in 1898. Complete with the original illustrated dust jacket.
The Life of St. Stephen Harding was originally published as The Cistercian Saints of England (No. 1 of the Lives of the Saints series, initially edited by John Henry Newman). The author, "John Dalgairns, whose family were from Guernsey and who could not be elected to a Fellowship at his Oxford College because of his Catholic views, was the first to attach himself to Newman at Littlemore" (Brian Martin). Received into the Catholic Church in 1845, "Dalgairns went to Rome with Newman and...he was connected with every house of the Oratorian body" (Bertram C.A. Windle).
The text was edited with the addition of Father Herbert Thurston's extensive footnotes and his valuable Preface (dated, "Feast of the Patronage of St. Joseph, 1898"). "The text of 1845 has been reprinted practically unchanged" and retains Newman's brief original Advertisement to the First Edition ("J. H. N. / Littlemore, January, 1844"). Writing as an Anglican on the English Church, Dalgairns "reflects the feelings of the Oxford Movement" and speaks for "a generation of earnest seekers after truth now almost passed away." Thurston observes that "hagiography in the English Church was practically unknown and the acceptance of medieval miracles by many of the writers seemed to constitute a denial of one of the fundamental principles of Anglicanism." Thurston stresses the importance of this "little biography" to the Cistercians themselves: "This Life, as I understand, is still made the basis of their sketch of the beginnings of the Order." With an Errata sheet (inserted at page 1) and Approbations from the Thurston edition ("Die 19 Maji, 1898"). Vincent Ferrer Blehl. John Henry Newman: A Bibliographical Catalogue of His Writings, C31a; Martin. John Henry Newman: His Life and Work; Bertram C.A. Windle. Who's Who in the Oxford Movement.
Price: $125.00