CUTBERTO da BRIGHTHON. - Capuchin writer of the English province, born at Brighton on 27 Oct. 1866, died at Assisi on 22 March 1930. He entered the Order on 27 Oct. 1881, subsequently became superior of the convent for university students at Oxford (1911–30), provincial minister (1922–25), and from 1930 the first president of the Order’s Historical Institute at Assisi.
Among his esteemed writings on Franciscan history, of notable importance is the Life of st. Francis of Assisi (London 1912), repeatedly reprinted and translated. P. Sabatier praises its respect for critical scholarship and its profound spiritual interpretation, which opposed that of the heterodox Protestant Franciscanophile movement. The same qualities may be observed in the work The Capuchins. A Contribution to the History of the Counter Reformation (London 1929; Italian trans. Faenza 1930), which offers a vivid historical reconstruction of the Order’s first century and of the scenes of anti-Protestantism and Catholic restoration. In 1916 the University of Oxford conferred upon him the honorary degree of « Master of Arts ».