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    The Franciscan Conspiracy
    Ebook series1 title

    The Duecento Novels Series

    By John Richard Sack

    ()

    About this series

    On the nights of the full moon, fra Angelo Lorenzini crawls into the darkest part of his dungeon and pulls his blanket over him. He stays away from stray moonbeams, those stairways to the edge of his senses that start his skin prickling and the blood raging through his veins. He lifts his ears to better hear the howling of the moon, but is careful not to reply.
    Angelo bears the mark of the wolf. Since the discovery of this strange inheritance from his grandfather, he has sought the reason for the curse — why was he singled out? His search leads him on a long and tortuous spiritual pilgrimage. In contrast to the legendary King Midas, he destroys everything and everyone he touches, including the two women he truly loves. His soul is divided, torn among his human, animal and angelic natures.
    The novel is set against the backdrop of 13th-century Italy, a period profoundly tarnished by conflicts between ecclesiastical and imperial powers, a time when the extreme poverty of religious zealots challenged the prosperity of merchants, monastic orders, and high church officials. Angelo’s personal feud with pope Boniface VIII goes back fifty years to their childhoods, when the pope was the boy Benedetto Gaetani.
    Angel’s Passage is a companion work to the international best-seller, The Franciscan Conspiracy. It offers engaging historical fiction, with a supernatural turn and a surprising conclusion.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJohn Richard Sack
    Release dateApr 18, 2007
    The Franciscan Conspiracy

    Titles in the series (1)

    • The Franciscan Conspiracy
      The Franciscan Conspiracy

      The Franciscan Conspiracy

      John Richard Sack
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      "The Franciscan Conspiracy," a history mystery set in medieval Italy, has been published in 16 languages and has been a top-10 bestseller in Brazil (for five months) and throughout Europe. On his death, Fra Leo, the closest companion of Francis of Assisi during the saint’s life, leaves a cryptic message for a younger friar. He launches the young hermit Fra Conrad into a labyrinth whose every passage confronts his deepest fears—there to make sense of the bizarre and puzzling events that followed Francis’ death in 1226. Why was the saint’s body kidnapped and hidden at the instigation of the head of the Franciscan Order? Why did the Order insist that the earliest biographies of Francis be destroyed? In addition, Conrad is left to fathom the most mysterious event of Francis’ life—the wounds of Christ imprinted on the saint’s body on Monte LaVerna. The novel is set against the chaotic backdrop of 13th-century Italy, an era when the extreme poverty of religious zealots clashed with the burgeoning prosperity of merchants, the monastic orders and high-ranking Church officials. This chasm also divided the Franciscan Order after Francis’ death into the Spiritual and Conventual actions. The Spirituals wished to live by St. Francis' Rule, the Conventuals to live more like cloistered monks with their attendant comforts.

      "The Franciscan Conspiracy," a history mystery set in medieval Italy, has been published in 16 languages and has been a top-10 bestseller in Brazil (for five months) and throughout Europe. On his death, Fra Leo, the closest companion of Francis of Assisi during the saint’s life, leaves a cryptic message for a younger friar. He launches the young hermit Fra Conrad into a labyrinth whose every passage confronts his deepest fears—there to make sense of the bizarre and puzzling events that followed Francis’ death in 1226. Why was the saint’s body kidnapped and hidden at the instigation of the head of the Franciscan Order? Why did the Order insist that the earliest biographies of Francis be destroyed? In addition, Conrad is left to fathom the most mysterious event of Francis’ life—the wounds of Christ imprinted on the saint’s body on Monte LaVerna. The novel is set against the chaotic backdrop of 13th-century Italy, an era when the extreme poverty of religious zealots clashed with the burgeoning prosperity of merchants, the monastic orders and high-ranking Church officials. This chasm also divided the Franciscan Order after Francis’ death into the Spiritual and Conventual actions. The Spirituals wished to live by St. Francis' Rule, the Conventuals to live more like cloistered monks with their attendant comforts.

    Author

    John Richard Sack

    John Richard Sack was born in Springfield, Ohio. He earned a BA in English from Yale University and an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Washington.As a young man, John spent two years as a Trappist monk under the tutelage of Thomas Merton, his novice master at Our Lady of Gethsemane Abbey in Kentucky. In the 1970s, he trained in a Hindu ashram in Ganeshpuri, India. Spiritual transformation is a common theme in both his fiction and nonfiction books.He is the author of the internationally acclaimed novel: "The Franciscan Conspiracy" and a companion work, "Angel's Passage." "The Wolf in Winter" is a fictional tale of the early career of Francis of Assisi. His nonfiction "Yearning for the Father," "Mystic Mountain," "Views of the Moon" and "Lao-Tzu at the Border" are guides to contemplative prayer, the culmination of years of research and reflection and his exploration of numerous spiritual traditions. "Trappist Tales" is a collection of short stories loosely based on his years at Gethsemane Abbey.He now lives in southern Oregon with his wife, Christin Lore Weber, author of many books related to spiritual growth. Their blended family includes Bjorn Kristian, Jeff & Karen, and Bryana & Patrick.

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