History is a chronological record of significant events (as affecting a nation or institution) often including an explanation of their causes or a branch of knowledge that records and explains past events. In this category you will find our history books - general surveys of history and books related to specific periods of history in the Church such as the Patristic Era or the Middle Ages.

"History is the witness that testifies to the passing of time; it illuminates reality, vitalizes memory, provides guidance in daily life, and brings us tidings of antiquity." Cicero

The Crusades were essentially a conflict between Christendom and Islam.  To be specific, they were a conflict between Christian civilization and Islam as adopted by "the Turk," those savage, destructive Mongol tribes from Asia.  After the terrible Christian defeat at Manzikert in Turkey (1071 A. D.), not only the ancient Christian civilization in the Holy Land, but Europe …

New Perspectives: The Crusades Thomas J. Craughwell New Perspectives: The Crusades gives an honest, factual explanation of what the Church did wrong -- and right -- laying bare the series of events while providing cultural context of the world and the Church at that time.

Now available in a quality paperback edition!

The cult of the saints is a phenomenon that expanded rapidly in the fourth century, and John Chrysostom’s homilies are important witnesses to its growth. Until now, the majority of John’s homilies on the saints and martyrs have been ignored. However, in this volume,Wendy Mayer investigates the liturgical, topographical, and pastoral aspects that marked the martyr cult at Antioch …

"So you've decided to give in to the Devil" said the priest. John started back in dismay. "Oh no, Father!" "But you just told me you were giving up your studies for the priesthood," responded Father Bailey. What was poor John Vianney to do? Having begun his schooling much older than the other boys, he had found it impossible to keep up with them, and a couple of …

Jose Maria Gironella Considered by many critics to be the greatest novel about the Spanish Civil War, this classic work by Spaniard José Maria Gironella is an unbiased account of the complicated events, movements and personalities that led up to the war. Beginning in 1931, Cypresses covers the next five years of political unrest, culminating in the explosion of the brutal war that wreaked such …

At the height of the tumultuous developments taking place in Central and Eastern Europe in the ninth century, two Byzantine missionaries and brothers from Thessalonica, Sts. Cyril and Methodius, came to the fore. Their work of acculturation among the Slavs had far-reaching and lasting changes upon European life. This book looks back over the life and work of these two …

In a clear and easy-to-read style, author Amy Welborn honestly and objectively lays out the facts about ancient Christian teaching and history, and points out the many surprising errors about religion, history, and art contained in The Da Vinci Code This is a great resource for parishes and book clubs. Please call for bulk pricing.

The Da Vinci Code , Dan Brown’s best selling novel, purports to be more than fiction: it claims to be based on fact and scholarly research. Brown wants his readers to believe that he is revealing the long-concealed truth about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and early Christianity, a truth that he says has been suppressed by the malevolent and conspiratorial forces of the Catholic Church. The novel …

Through a large cast of historical and fictional characters, A Danger to the State relates one of the outstanding though little known dramas of modern history. In 1773, surrendering at last to a 20 year long campaign of intrigue and calumny, Pope Clement XIV suppressed the famous Society of Jesus, founded 200 years earlier by St. Ignatius of Loyola. Just sixteen years before the French …

The New York Times best-seller The Da Vinci Code is all over the media. It's on the minds and in the conversations of many of your parishioners. Now there are two new resources to answer all their questions and help you understand the difference between fact and fiction. De-Coding Da Vinci: The Facts Behind the Fiction of The Da Vinci Code, a book by Amy Welborn, addresses the …

"Did anyone ever tell you folks that Mr. Brown’s novel is fiction? What do you fear so much that you would go to such lengths to allegedly protect the laity from this novel/movie? Why so much fear?" That's the first question I received when I published this book. Fortunately, I knew this question was coming. The response is on the back cover of the book:   'If you …

Never in history have 1,322 words held out such extraordinary determination to be free as those found in the "Declaration of Independence. In 1787, "We the people" were the three words that not only engendered a new and cohesive nation; they went on to change the face of the world as well. In 1791, the first ten Amendments to the "Constitution of the United States of America, known to us as the …

Eugenio Pacelli, Pius XII, was one of the few unalloyed heroes of World War II. At great personal risk, he saved some 800,000 Jews from extermination by the Nazis. Jewish refugees were given asylum in the Vatican, swelling the number of Swiss Guards. No Allied leader can match his glorious record. Golda Meir lauded Pius XII after the war, and the chief rabbi of Rome became a Roman Catholic, …

About this book - In 1831 Alexis de Tocqueville, a young French aristocrat and ambitious civil servant, made a nine-month journey throughout America. The result was Democracy in America , a monumental study of the life and institutions of the evolving nation. Tocqueville looked to the flourishing democratic system in America as a possible model for post-revolutionary France, believing that the …

A wonderful selection of the writings and biographies of the first monks and nuns of the Church. By the fourth century A.D., devout Christians - men and women alike - had begun to retreat from cities and villages to the deserts of North Africa and Asia Minor, where they sought liberation from their corrupt society and the confining shell of the social self. The Desert Fathers is the perfect …

Dialogue Concerning Heresies St. Thomas More Considered by C.S. Lewis as perhaps the best dialogue written in English, this friendly, spirited, and often merry exchange takes place at St. Thomas More’s peaceful and cultured home in Chelsea. Dialogue Concerning Heresies is a conversation between the experienced humanist and statesman More and an intelligent college student who has been …

An exhaustive and important reference work for every Catholic library! This first volume of the planned  Encyclopedia of Theology and Church from Heder & Herder publishing is the best one-volume reference work on the popes and the papacy. Part one covers every pope and anti-pope; part two discusses the institution of the Vatican and the papacy.    

Part of the acclaimed Ancient Christian Writers Series from Paulist Press. Volume 6.

Available Summer 2009 How did Catholics and Protestants come to be divided? What impact has their division had on Western culture? Historian Christopher Dawson answers these and other important questions in his classic study, The Dividing of Christendom . Based on Dawson’s Harvard lectures, this book provides a highly readable, masterful overview of the factors that led to one of the …