Prayer, Spiritual Life, and Mysticism:
The Ascent of Mount Carmel and The Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross. The stages of a life of prayer, together with advice on how to deal with spiritual problems.
The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena
The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis
An Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales: Book 1, Book 2, Book 3, Book 4, and Book 5. Basic information and advice for all sorts of situations.
On Prayer by Origen
The Shepherd of Hermas. This early Christian bestseller was even included in some early canons of scripture.
The Story of a Soul by St. Therese of Lisieux (Therese Martin).
Scripture and Theology:
Against Heresies by St. Irenaeus of Lyons: Book I, Book II, Book III, Book IV, and Book V.
The Catechetical Lectures and Mystagogical Lectures by St. Cyril of Jerusalem. The secret teachings of the early Christians. Promise not to tell! 🙂
An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine by Bl. John Henry Newman (aka John, Cardinal Newman): Part 1 and Part 2.
On the Incarnation by St. Athanasius
On the Soul and the Resurrection by St. Gregory of Nyssa. On her deathbed, St. Macrina comforts her brother St. Gregory by countering his fears about death, through a discussion between the two of common objections of their time to the existence of the soul, eternal life, and bodily resurrection.
The Sacrifice of the Mass by M. Gavin, S.J. A textbook explaining the Mass to adult learners. Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
The Seven Words on the Cross by St. Robert Bellarmine. An examination of, and meditation upon, the seven sayings spoken by Jesus on the cross — aka “the seven last words” — as well as the associated total solar eclipse.
Pastoral and Life Advice:
The Art of Dying Well by St. Robert Bellarmine. Part I (the part available in the public domain in English) is about living well while still healthy and far from death.
The Banquet of the Ten Virgins by St. Methodius of Olympus. Praise of chastity and proper respect for the body in all states of life, and especial praise for vowed virginity.
A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation by St. Thomas More: Part 1 and Part 2. What do you do when bad stuff happens?
The Letters of St. Ignatius of Antioch. Letters of an extremely early Christian, as he is remanded to Rome for martyrdom.
On the Catechizing of the Unlearned by St. Augustine of Hippo. How do you teach Christianity? Or anything, for that matter? This book touches on all kinds of psychological, neurological, and linguistic stuff.
On Patience by Tertullian. Hey, he admits he’s not good at it!
Of Shows by Tertullian. When is entertainment immoral? Tertullian, once a big fan of gladiator games and other shows, argues that Christians shouldn’t support such things with their money and their hearts.
Pastoral Care by Pope St. Gregory the Great (aka The Book of Pastoral Rule). Shrewd psychological and management advice, mixed with deep religious insight.
History, Biography, and Hagiography:
Europe and the Faith by Hilaire Belloc. A look at the role of Christianity in Europe’s history.
The Life of Antony by St. Athanasius. All about St. Anthony of Egypt, aka St. Anthony the Abbot, who greatly influenced the development of monasticism.
The Life of Augustine by St. Possidius. A biography of St. Augustine by one of his North African friends and fellow bishops. Focuses on stuff that happened after Augustine’s own Confessions.
The Everlasting Man by G.K. Chesterton. Essays on history before Christ, how Christ’s claims were radically different from other gods and religious figures, and how the Christian era has been very different.
The Life of St. Macrina by St. Gregory of Nyssa. Biography of a saintly early Christian woman from a saintly family by her saintly brother. Surprisingly emotional, with many interesting details. (Make sure you also read the associated dialogue between them, “On the Soul and the Resurrection”.)
Of the Life of St. Martin of Tours by St. Sulpicius Severus
Of the Ruin of Britain by St. Gildas the Wise. From the days of King Arthur.
The Pilgrimage of Egeria by Egeria. In the year of Our Lord 381, a lady goes on pilgrimage to Sinai, the Holy Land, and other places, and writes back home to her friends about what she saw.
The Story of a Soul by St. Therese of Lisieux (Therese Martin). Autobiography. Also talks about her “Little Way”.
Maria Lectrix 
Hi,
Thank you for your rosary. They are most heartily recited. I’m using them everyday.
John fom the fareast/Hong Kong.
I’ve been working my way through St. Catherine. getting to the second section of files, it looks like the file labeled pt. 21 is not fully there. It’s only 14 seconds long, and it doesn’t even sound like you finish the first sentence. I thought you should know, and hopefully you can re-post that one without much trouble.
I, too, use your Rosary recordings every day, and would like to express my gratitude to you for making them available.
You may want to know, however–in your recording of the Joyful Mysteries, you erroneously announce the first Joyful Mystery as “the first Glorious Mystery.” Just in case you plan to update your recordings.
God bless you!
(P.S. I, too, am an anime otaku. Have you seen Death Note?)
The imitation of Christ Books 3-part 2 and Book 4 have an error and cannot be listened to. The recording is speeded up so you can’t make out the words.
Books 1 and 2 and fine.
Good translation.
Maria,
I’m so thankful that I found your page. Have you considered doing First Clement?
Lane
Thank you so much for taking the time to do this all. I really appreciate it. You choices have been excellent as well.
May I suggest that you do St. Francis de Sales’ Introduction to a Devout Life?
You are a star and I shall suggest you for canonisation at the first available opportunity. Your choice so far has been impeccable, but I still dare to suggest Augustine’s “On Christian Teaching”: it is short and quite the most profound book I’ve read (with the obvious exception).
But please: do what you want, because you seem to have everything in order!
Thank you thank you thank you.
Andrew.
Thanks for the Catholic MP3 audio recordings. I did not know this existed until someone sent me a link to your page. Of course it is blocked from work, but from home, there is no problem. I especially recommend “Shepherd of Hermas”, I read that about 10 years ago and have long since lost the book and had totally forgotten about the story. I have now burned a copy on MP3 Cd for myself. I plan on downloading everything that you have done. Great job. Please keep at it. Do you have an MP3 CD of everything you’ve done?
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Kewl, but you need to spice it up with some Maxmus or Palamas.
here is a wonderful audio resource from ewtn’s website…
http://www.ewtn.com/vondemand/audio/series_index.asp?pgnu=
I have listened to The Ascent of Mount Carmel, The Story of a Soul and Imitation of Christ and I must say I am deeply grateful for your service. It is an added bonus that you do such a beautiful job in your reading that it touches the very depths of our souls . Thank you so much and without a doubt you will be rewarded abundantly for what you do.
[…] while on audio matters, for those who aren’t aware of her site, Maria Lectrix has some wonderful patristic audio resources. […]
Thank you for this website! I’ve been having some difficulty with reading St. John of the Cross, but he is wonderful to hear. 🙂
This is a much needed apostolate and I am profoundly grateful for the efforts that have made so many genuinely Catholic Audiobooks available!! Thank you!!
A Grateful sufferer of ADD and lover of audiobooks –
David Myers
[…] various works daily for a podcast, and as she finishes the religious ones, they get listed in the Completed Religious Books section. From there you can download the mp3s for your ipods.  There are some excellent works […]
[…] you enjoy Christian classics or the church fathers, you’ll find numerous free recordings of them here. A few random titles include The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis, On the […]
Thank you for all you do. I have downloaded a number of your recordings. Is it possible to post the St. Macrina reading as a ZIP file that can be downloaded and recorded to CDs, as well as the rest of On the Soul and Resurrection? Thanks
Thanks for your quick response. It was very helpful. I should have figured that out on my own.
Thanks,
Adam
Well, archive.org doesn’t say that “whole directory” is a zip file. It used to. Don’t know why they decided to be less descriptive.
[…] History in Other Podcasts Marialectrix and Libravox have recorded several public domain Church history books and other classic Catholic […]
[…] Here’s the link: https://marialectrix.wordpress.com/completed-religious-books/ […]
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For anyone that’s interested in it, Sam Stinson has posted a number of related audios at Librivox:
http://librivox.org/newcatalog/people_public.php?peopleid=908
You’ll find there some readings from the deuterocanonical books, epistles of Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, the Didache, and more.
Maria,
I noticed that you also have some works of Cyprian on archive.org that are not listed here.
Don’t stop!
You’ve done great with this list. Gotta bookmark this then.
Here are other Free Catholic Books for your sanctification and edification
http://catholic-books.blogspot.com/
Many thanx…….. I’m searching for Clavis Patrum Graecorum by Maurice Geerard, pdf…..could any one help me
Thank you so much for the time and effort you’ve put into these recordings. Originally, I downloaded a few for my husband, a cradle Catholic, to listen to after he had a series of strokes. Listening to them with him, praying the Rosary with him and being present when Communion to him weekly, I began to long for more and am now a new convert. Thank you so much!
Oh, how wonderful! Welcome home! And thank you for letting me know. It’s the best Christmas gift you and the Lorad could have given me.
I was here a couple of years back, and I just want to say thanks for all the hard work you’ve done,putting these things online. I’m sure you enjoyed it, but give recognition where it’s due!
I have always wanted to start recording some audio books, but never seem to have the time.
Don’t stop, keep them coming!
Hi. Love your narration of The Introduction to the Devout Life. Is there a book 5? Thanks & God bless.
Neophyte, Singapore.
Must say again, an amazing set of audiobooks you have compiled here. It is something I want to do, but never seem to find the time for with 6 young children.
Dave Kinsella
I can’t remember if I said thanks in the past. I am a priest of the diocese of Lincoln NE and have benefited both intellectually and spiritually from several of your audio books, especially those of the Fathers. I just got through listening to Newman’s Apologia (Ignatius press) and was wishing for his development of doctrine on audio. And, low and behold…
Thanks again. (Please don’t stop and know that God is pleased with your work!)
just thought if mention that if you download the dark night of the sould whole item you onle get six random chapters from book 2 other than that thank you , bless you.
though “un-named Narrator” tries and Im sure his heart is in the right place he often mispronounces crucial words dramatizes where inappropriate as do other Librivox readers Unfortunately with religious works that often brings a false representation of the translated text at hand.whenever following an audiobook you have to remember that is very easy for the narrator to completely change the message with just a pause or tone .Audiobooks provide a great service but just as a play the narrator who brings life to the words do add thier own flavor i pray the listener bears this in mind especially when many texts are well over a thousand years old and often difficult for the laity to discern. Its always a good idea to read for yourself whenever possible.
“Completed Religious Books « Maria Lectrix”
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If I’ve read The Everlasting Man countless times, I’ve listened to your recording of it countless times squared. It is after all the best book of Christian apologetics written in the past 100 years, so your gift to me in being able to listen to it over and over again these past 10 years has been a great blessing and gift! For this great gift you’ve given me i hope I can give you back a gift of my prayers and hope that God will pile upon you great treasure in heaven. I’m writing this now because after all this time I’ve just recently become aware of where and who the recording of The Everlasting Man that I was given was made by; Maria Lectrix, thank you, sincerely.