"Andrew Drenas has written the first significant academic study in English of Lawrence of Brindisi, nominated by Clement VIII in 1599 as leader of the first Capuchin mission to Central Europe. Based on archival research in five countries in addition to Lawrence's own writings, the book provides us with a sense of the obstacles the mission faced in a confessionally divided territory and of Lawrence's dynamic, theatrical, and confrontational style of preaching and polemic. This is an important contribution to our understanding of the Catholic response to the Protestant challenge in early-modern Europe."—Nicholas Davidson, University of Oxford
"Andrew Drenas has produced a wonderfully rich, scholarly account of a multifaceted life that has hitherto not received the attention it manifestly deserved. Based on careful archival research, Drenas places Lawrence of Brindisi in his rightful place amid the confessional battlegrounds of early-modern Europe, leaving us with a memorable account of a pivotal figure of the Catholic Reformation."—Elaine Fulton, University of Birmingham
"The Standard Bearer of the Roman Church—based on a great deal of thorough and punctilious research in the many European archives and monasteries where the Laurentian documentation is scattered—is a significant contribution to our understanding of St. Lawrence of Brindisi's thought in relation to his context and the time in which he lived. . . . Drenas's precise historical reconstruction, although limited to a single phase of St. Lawrence of Brindisi's apostolic activity, is, beyond being a pleasure to read, an exemplary, careful, and thorough investigation into the thought of the Apostolic Doctor."—Paolino Zilio, Professor Emeritus of Fundamental Theology at the Laurentianum, Venice
"In The Standard Bearer of the Roman Church, Andrew J. G. Drenas thoroughly introduces the Capuchin missionary Lawrence of Brindisi to the Anglophone historiography of Catholic reform in central Europe. With Lawrence as a vehicle, Drenas makes an excellent case for why historians need to continue to search for new perspectives on the Catholic Reformation, and he ensconces himself solidly within the cadre of modern central Europeanist scholars who are leading the search for novel insights on this topic."—Church History
