Classic Wisdom Collection (7 vols.)

Jean Pierre de Caussade (1675–1751) was a French priest and a Jesuit, known for writing The Sacrament of the Present Moment.

John Henry Newman (1801–1890) was a priest and Cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church. His father was a banker and his mother’s family was French Huguenot. Newman was raised in a strict Calvinist home and received his primary education at the famous Ealing School. John Henry Newman graduated from Trinity College, Oxford in 1821 and was elected to a fellowship at Oriel College, Oxford in the following year. On June 13, 1824 he was ordained into the Anglican priesthood. From the early 1830’s until 1845, Newman was a leading figure in the Oxford Movement, a group of Anglican priests and scholars from Oxford who sought to restore the rites of the Anglican church to their Apostolic roots in the Early Church. Between 1842 and 1845, during a time of solitude and the completion of Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, Newman underwent a process conversion to Roman Catholicism. Newman also published the Oxford Conservative Journal during this time period as a platform for retracting any negative remarks he previously assailed towards the Roman Church.

He was officially received into the Catholic Church on October 9, 1845. The conversion of John Henry Newman to Catholicism was the result of a life’s long struggle to reconcile the historic faith handed down from the Apostles with his own Anglican tradition. Frustrated with the errors inherent in both Protestantism and Roman Catholicism, Newman abandoned his search for the via media (or, middle way) of Anglicanism and converted to the Roman Catholic Church. In 1848, Newman founded the Birmingham Oratory at Maryvale and began ministering to the Catholic population of the city. In 1851, the Bishops of Ireland elected to start a Catholic university in Dublin and they appointed Newman to be the founder and first rector of the institution. Maintaining his ministry at the Birmingham Oratory, Newman established what would become University College, Dublin. His Idea of a University was prepared for founding faculty of the university at Dublin. On May 12, 1879 Pope Leo XIII appointed Newman to the college of Cardinals. Cardinal Newman died on August 11, 1890. Cardinal Newman is currently under consideration by the Vatican for sainthood.

Catherine of Siena (1347–1380) was a philosopher, theologian, and a Doctor of the Church. Her major works include The Dialogue of Divine Providence and Treatise on Consummate Perfection.

Thomas à Kempis (1380–1471) is the author of The Imitation of Christ, a classic in Christian literature. As he traveled with his brother to the Netherlands to attend school, he was introduced to the Brethren of the Common Life, followers of Gerard Groote’s Modern Devotion movement. After finishing school, Thomas joined the Mount St. Agnes monastery, where he spent the rest of his life in devotion and prayer. Thomas’ sermons, meditations, and prayers, compiled in The Works of Thomas à Kempis (7 vols), have influenced many Christian writers.

Jane Frances de Chantal (1572–1641) was a mother, widow, administrator, foundress, teacher, contemplative, and spiritual director. With Francis de Sales, she founded the Congregation of the Visitation in 1610.

Luis Maria Martinez (1881–1956), the former Archbishop of Mexico City and a gifted orator and writer, was admired for his intense dedication to the needs of his people during turbulent years of persecution of the church in Mexico. Today he is perhaps best known as the author of The Sanctifier.

Francis de Sales (1567–1622) devoted much of his life to healing religious divisions and is known to have endured extreme conditions while preaching. He was a bishop of Geneva, Switzerland, and his writings about spiritual direction and spiritual formation have earned him recognition in the Roman Catholic Church as a Doctor of the Church.