The Dialogue on Miracles - (Cistercian Fathers) by Caesarius of Heisterbach (Paperback)

About the Book

"A collection of 754 brief narratives, The Dialogue on Miracles is a translation of Caesarius of Heisterbach's Dialogus miraculorum. While these narratives, or exempla, were written primarily to pass on the moral teaching of the Bible and the Cistercian tradition to young monks, they provide modern readers a window into not only the lives of the first generations of Cistercian monks and nuns, but also of medieval German society and culture, secular and religious"--

Book Synopsis

Caesarius was a monk at the Cistercian monastery of Heisterbach in Germany, where he served as Master of novices. For their instruction and edification, he composed his lengthy Dialogue on Miracles in twelve sections between 1219 and 1223. The many surviving manuscripts of this and other works by Caesarius attest to his stature in the history of Cistercian letters.

This volume contains sections one through six of Caesarius of Heisterbach's Dialogue on Miracles, the first complete translation into English of an influential representation of exempla literature from the Middle Ages. Caesarius's stories provide a splendid index to monastic life, religious practices, and daily life in a tumultuous time.

Review Quotes

"Students, teachers and scholars will the two volumes a reliable English version of the Dialogus, preceded by a learned introduction and directions for further research. Ron Pepin's highly readable and accurate translation of Caesarius' Dialogus will no doubt remain for a long time the standard English reference for this famous and yet often overlooked medieval text."
American Benedictine Review-- (10/1/2024 12:00:00 AM)

"The mysterious presence and activity of grace, of transcendent compassion bestowed and received even without conscious awareness, not only in explicitly spiritual contexts but in the midst of the ordinary tasks of daily life, along with comparable lessons found in many other of these exemplary tales, still has power to edify and to instruct, to stimulate and to inspire, power that has now become more readily and more widely accessible through this sprightly new translation."
Catholic Books Review-- (7/1/2024 12:00:00 AM)

"This volume will be a good source of spiritual reading and insight into medieval (and especially Cistercian) spirituality and practice."
The Downside Review-- (1/11/2024 12:00:00 AM)

"Written in the first quarter of the thirteenth century, Caesarius of Heisterbach's Dialogus miraculorum is a major work of the Middle Ages. A treasure trove of Cistercian exemplary stories, the Dialogue offers many avenues to deepen our understanding of medieval life, both inside and outside of the cloister. Ronald Pepin deserves all our gratefulness for taking upon himself the daunting task to translate this long work: his lively and accurate new rendition finally makes the Dialogue available to a larger public. General readers, students and scholars alike will also greatly benefit from Hugh Feiss' highly readable and stimulating introduction. Together with Victoria Smirnova's recent volume on Medieval Exempla in Transition, this volume brings new and well-deserved attention to a master storyteller, Caesarius, and to the central role of narratives in the Medieval world."
Stefano Mula, Middlebury College
-- (2/1/2023 12:00:00 AM)

"At times, the working of the medieval mind seems very foreign and strange. Yet the very strangeness of these stories have illuminated my faith. As a working priest, I have found these sermon stories from Heisterbach slipping into my everyday conversations with parishioners. We talk about some illustration or notion found in the Dialogue on Miracles, and then fall into a contemplative silence for a moment, full of wonder and delight."
The Rev. Karl Stevens, Rector, St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Columbus, Ohio-- (2/1/2023 12:00:00 AM)

About the Author

Ronald E. Pepin received his PhD from Fordham University. In addition to The Lives of Monastic Reformers, 1 and 2 (in collaboration with Hugh Feiss and Maureen O'Brien), his published translations include The Vatican Mythographers (Fordham, 2008), Anselm & Becket (PIMS, 2009), and Sextus Amarcius: Satires (DOML: Harvard, 2011).

Hugh B. Feiss, OSB, is a monk of the Monastery of the Ascension in Jerome, Idaho. He earned MA and MDiv degrees from Mount Angel Seminary, licentiates in theology and philosophy from The Catholic University of America, and a doctorate in theology at Sant'Anselmo. He served as managing editor and contributor for the ten-volume series Victorine Texts in Translation (Brepols). For Cistercian Publications he has translated works of Peter of Celle and Achard of Saint Victor and collaborated on Saint Mary of Egypt: Three Medieval Lives in Verse, and The Lives of Monastic Reformers,1 and 2. He was co-editor and contributor of A Benedictine Reader, 530-1530 (Cistercian Publications, 2019).