Anna M. Silvas

Pope Urban VIII and Pope Alexander VII: Selected Poetry

Arts & Literature

“Maffeo Barberini (1568–1644) and Fabio Chigi (1599–1667), Popes Urban VIII and Alexander VII respectively, embracing everything from a humorous poem on the gift of a cat to devout meditations on the Lord’s Passion, then let translator Dom Robert, a true master of English prosody of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, be your very able impresario.”

St. Benedict’s Bones

History & Biography

“Robert Nixon, experienced investigator of Latin church arcana, here translates two key documents in the long-running mystery of the (re)location of St. Benedict’s body (which unresolved controversy became a venerable part of the Benedictine heritage). He does not adjudicate the rival claims but offers us an illuminating glimpse into a remarkable and colorful world of medieval legend, marvel, and intrigue. One sighs for this enchanted realm, a conspiration of heavenly and cosmic realities.”

The Nightingale

Arts & Literature

“We are in the hands of a master here. Robert Nixon, a musician, a Latinist, and above all a praying, earnest monk, has mediated to us, with great sensitivity to rhythm, and to the transactions between Latin and English, the Bonaventuran Philomela, a conspiration of the song of a dying Nightingale, the passion of Jesus, and the journey of the soul to God. I applaud among other things Nixon’s exquisite evangelization of the English language.”

The Politics of Conjugal Love

Marriage, Family & Relationships

“I applaud Conor Sweeney's venture into a modern minefield, the enigmas of submission and rank, as they apply to the teaching on marriage in Ephesians 5. It begs us all to question our hearts deeply in the light of Christ's own headship and kenosis.”