WChayey Moharan Hebrew: חיי מוהר"ן) is the biography of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, written by his disciple and scribe Rabbi Nathan of Breslov. As the tzaddik is of central importance in Judaism and especially Breslov, and as the book is about Rabbi Nachman's life and Rabbi Nachman and his followers held himself to be the tzaddik hador, Chayey Moharan is an extremely important Jewish book. It became more widely known to Anglophones with the publication of its translation, titled Tzaddik, by Breslov Research Institute, in 1987. MOHaRaN is acrostic for Moreinu V'Rabeinu Harav Rabbi Nachman meaning "Our Master and Teacher, Rabbi Nachman."
WThe Essential Shinran: A Buddhist Path of True Entrusting is a compilation of passages from the writings and life story of Shinran Shonin. Shinran, who wrote during the Kamakura Period, was a Japanese monk who founded Jodo Shinshu Buddhism, which eventually became the largest Buddhist sect in Japan.
WLafayette Ronald Hubbard was an American author of science fiction and fantasy stories who founded the Church of Scientology. In 1950, Hubbard authored Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health and established a series of organizations to promote Dianetics. In 1952, Hubbard lost the rights to Dianetics in bankruptcy proceedings, and he subsequently founded Scientology. Thereafter, Hubbard oversaw the growth of the Church of Scientology into a worldwide organization.
WThe Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy and the History of Christian Science (1909) is a highly critical account of the life of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, and the early history of the Christian Science church in 19th-century New England. It was published as a book in November 1909 in New York by Doubleday, Page & Company. The original byline was that of a journalist, Georgine Milmine, but a 1993 printing of the book declared that novelist Willa Cather was the principal author; however, this assessment has been questioned by more recent scholarship which again identifies Milmine as the primary author, although Cather and others did significant editing. Cather herself usually wrote that she did nothing more than standard copy-editing, but sometimes that she was the primary author.
WThe Life of Oyasama, Foundress of Tenrikyo, or The Life of Oyasama, is the biography of Nakayama Miki published and authorized by Tenrikyo Church Headquarters. The Life of Oyasama is one of the supplemental texts to the Tenrikyo scriptures, along with The Doctrine of Tenrikyo and Anecdotes of Oyasama.
WMaking of a Godol: A Study of Episodes in the Lives of Great Torah Personalities is a two-volume book written and published in 2002, with an improved edition published in 2005, by Rabbi Nathan Kamenetsky (1930-2019), son of Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky, about the lives of his father and of various other Jewish sages of the 19th and 20th centuries, who are revered by Orthodox Jews. The word Godol means "great [one]" in Hebrew, and refers to exceptional Talmudic scholars who are often prominent Roshei Yeshiva.
WMani Madhaveeyam is a biographical book written on the life of Guru Māni Mādhava Chākyār (1989-1991), who was the greatest Kutiyattam-Chakyar Koothu exponent and Rasa-abhinaya maestro of modern times. The book is published by the Department of Cultural Affairs of Government of Kerala, India on May 1991. The author of the book is Das Bhargavinilayam
WReb Yaakov: The Life and Times of HaGaon Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky is a biography on Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky, written by Yonasan Rosenblum and based on the research of Rabbi Noson Kamenetsky. It was published by Artscroll-Mesorah in 1993 as part of the Artscroll History Series.
WA Spirit of Tolerance: The Inspiring Life of Tierno Bokar is the only English translation of Amadou Hampate Ba’s book Vie en enseignement de Tierno Bokar, le sage de Bandiagara, originally written in French. This book describes the life of Tierno Bokar, a Malian Sufi who preached a message of religious tolerance. It was adapted into a play directed by Peter Brook titled Tierno Bokar.
WSwami Vivekananda in the West: New Discoveries is a series of biographical books on Swami Vivekananda written by Marie Louise Burke, who is popularly known as Sister Gargi. There are six volumes in the series. This series of books was first published in two volumes in 1957. In 1983-87 these series was republished in six volumes. The book is high acclaimed not just in India but also in the Vedanta circles around the world.
WSwami Vivekananda: Messiah of Resurgent India (2003) is a book written by Pranaba Ranjan Bhuyan. This book is a comprehensive biography of Swami Vivekananda. The book was published by Atlantic Publishers & Dist, New Delhi.
WThe Vita Germani is a hagiographic text written by Constantius of Lyon in the 5th century AD. It is one of the first hagiographic texts written in Western Europe, and is an important resource for historians studying the origins of saintly veneration and the "cult of saints." It recounts the life and acts of bishop Germanus of Auxerre, who travelled to Britain c. 429 AD, and is the principal source of details about his life. It is one of the few surviving texts from the 5th century with information about Britain and the Pelagian controversy, and is also one of the first texts to identify and promote the cult of Saint Alban.
WThe Vita Sancti Wilfrithi or Life of St Wilfrid is an early 8th-century hagiographic text recounting the life of the Northumbrian bishop, Wilfrid. Although a hagiography, it has few miracles, while its main concerns are with the politics of the Northumbrian church and the history of the monasteries of Ripon and Hexham. It is one of a collection of historical sources from the late 7th- and early 8th-centuries, along with the anonymous Vita Sancti Cuthberti, the works of Bede and Adomnán's Vita Sancti Columbae, that detail the Christianisation of Great Britain and make the period the best documented period in English history before the age of Alfred the Great.
WThe Vitae Patrum is an encyclopedia of hagiographical writings on the Desert Fathers and Desert Mothers of early Christianity. The bulk of the original texts date from the third and fourth centuries. The Lives that were originally written in Greek were translated into Latin between the fourth and the seventh century. An Italian vernacular translation was made by Dominican friar Domenico Cavalca from Pisa at the beginning of the fourteenth century.
WThe Voice of Human Justice (ISBN 978-964-438-158-4) is an English translation of Sautu'l 'Adālati'l Insaniyah, a book written in Arabic by George Jordac, a Christian author from Lebanon. The book is a biography of Ali ibn Abi Talib. The contents of the book were drawn from the Nahj al-Balagha of Ali.