Books of Romero's Own Words

Elsewhere on this website you can find the translation of all of Archbishop Romero’s homilies between his appointment in 1977 and his death in 1980. They are in both English and Spanish - and where it exists the audio recording of him delivering the homily.

  • A Prophetic Bishop Speaks to His People Volumes 1-6: The Complete Homilies of Oscar Romero’ translated by Joseph Owens SJ.

ISBN 978-1-934-996584
The Romero Trust in conjunction with Convivum Press has been working for more than two years to produce, publish and print a critical edition of the homilies, incorporating a completely new English translation done by Joseph Owens SJ. There are six volumes in all. They are a superb resource neatly covering the three year liturgical cycle. Published in the US by Convivium Press and available via online booksellers. 

There have been several publications which have offered a series of small extracts from Romero’s homilies which give a taste of the content of his teaching and preaching, paragraphs for prayer and reflection and sometimes simply memorable one-liners. There are two such books available in print today:

  • Through the Year with Oscar Romero – Daily Meditations.
    ISBN 978-0232526950
    This little volume, prepared originally in Spanish San Salvador soon after Romero’s death, contains a selection of texts from the homilies, one short reading for every day of the year. It’s also simply a great source for quotable quotes of Archbishop Romero in this era of Pope Francis and ‘a poor Church for the poor’. It is published in the US by St Anthony Messenger Press and in the UK by DLT.
     
  • The Violence of Love.
ISBN 978-1-57075-535-4
This volume, translated and compiled by Romero’s biographer, Jim Brockman, has slightly more substantial extracts of the homilies and they are grouped together in separate chapters under nine thematic heads. This volume also contains an introduction by Henri Nouwen. It is now published by Orbis Books in the US and is available via online booksellers.
 
For biographies on Archbishop Romero, click here.