ADMIRAL LORD ST. VINCENT - SAINT OR TYRANT?: The Life of Sir John Jervis, Nelson's Patron
by James Davidson
from Pen and Sword
This biography of John Jervis, who became Admiral Lord Vincent, makes compelling reading. It throws an oblique light on Nelson's personality. St Vincent, who was born twenty-three years before Nelson, and survived for eighteen years after Trafalgar, fundamentally influenced the younger man's career despite the two men being diametrically different characters. Yet without him, Nelson's genius might have been submerged by professional jealousy or emotional fragility.
It was St Vincent's strategy and preparation which positioned Nelson to win his three famous victories, but St Vincent himself made vital contributions not only to the defeat of Napoleon but to the well-being of the Royal Navy. Before he became First Lord of the Admiralty, the Navy had been severely weakened by corruption in the dockyards, nepotism in appointments and the appalling conditions under which the seamen lived and worked.
St Vincent deserves the profound gratitude of the Nation; not only for enabling Nelson to exercise his tactical brilliance, but also for the role he played in preventing Napoleon from invading the British Isles.
He Hears the Cry of the Poor: On the Spirituality of Vincent De Paul
is based on conferences and talks Father Maloney gave to Vincentians and Daughters of Charity during the last two years. Drawing from the letters and conferences of Vincent de Paul he then makes the solid connection to contemporary issues. It touches on vital questions for religious communities today: the renewal of community and prayer life; the apostolate; the growing international character of communities and the related inter-cultural challenges; inculturation; and the shift in vocations from North to South. Father Maloney offers his many years of experience and expertise to relay an optimistic outlook for the future.
Coping With Poverty: Adaptive Strategies in a Caribbean Village (Westview Special Studies in Social, Political, and Economic Development)
St. Vincent and the Grenadines: Bequia, Mustique, Canouan, Mayreau, Tobago Cays, Palm, Union, Psv : A Plural Country
by Jill Bobrow
from W. W. Norton & Company
The Way of Vincent De Paul: A Contemporary Spirituality in the Service of the Poor
Vincent De Paul and Charity: A Contemporary Portrait of His Life and Apostolic Spirit
The name of Vincent de Paul is so inexorably connected with charity that we tend to forget the man behind the Society that bears his name. In this readable biography, Andre Dodin introduces us to an attractive and strong personality who lived at a difficult time in the history of his native France. Dodin has divided the book into three sections: the first recounts the life story of Vincent de Paul the man, the second examines the spirituality of Vincent de Paul the saint, and the third features excerpts from his writings.
Mission to America: A History of Saint Vincent Archabbey, the First Benedictine Monastery in the United States
by Jerome Oetgen
from Catholic University of America Press
Mission to America tells the fascinating story of the founding of the first Benedictine monastery in the United States and provides an account of the development of monastic life in America. Jerome Oetgen, author of An American Abbot: Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B., traces the history of Saint Vincent monastery, parish, seminary, college, prep school, and scholasticate in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, from the founding of the Sportsman's Hall parish in 1790 to the election of Rembert Weakland as the seventh archabbot in 1963. The book is an outstanding contribution not only to American Benedictine, but also to American Catholic history.
Using American and European archival sources, as well as documents and letters in Saint Vincent records, Oetgen covers the entire one-hundred-and-fifty-year history of the monastery, its missions and schools, in chronological order.
"A lasting contribution to American church history. . . . By investigating the differences in articulation that each successive (arch)abbot brought to Saint Vincent, Oetgen is able to show both historical progression and theoretical development. It is unusual for an institutional history to accomplish that pairing so seamlessly and successfully. This is an enormously insightful work, one that students-as well as those with a more casual interest-of American religious history will find compelling, informative, and instructive. The depth of Oetgen's understanding, both of how a monastery works and how it strives to work, keeps this story fascinating and current at all points in the narrative."-Dom Paschal Baumstein, O.S.B.
"Saint Vincent's has a unique history and deserves, by its pride of place and influence, a well-documented and scholarly study. This book fills a long-neglected void in American Catholic historiography."-Joseph P. Chinnici, O.F.M.
1797: Nelson's Year of Destiny
by Colin White
from Alan Sutton Publishing, Ltd.
It was at the Battle of Cape St Vincent on 14 February 1797, when the Royal Navy won a great victory over the Spanish, that Nelson first came to public fame. Five months later in the attack on Santa Cruz on 22-25 July he suffered a bloody defeat at the hands of the Spanish and lost an arm. These two events, one a success the other a humiliating failure, played a key role in shaping Nelson's character and style as a leader. Taken together they mark a significant turning point in his life.
In this new and provocative work, Colin White draws together recent research and new discoveries into a comprehensive and enthralling narrative account that places the two battles in their strategic and political contexts. He has uncovered previously overlooked contemporary accounts of both battles and has concluded that the traditional British accounts of both battles need careful reassessment. Specially drawn plans for both battles incorporate this new information.
The narrative is interspersed with more reflective sections in which new evidence is analysed and compared against the traditional accounts, and where the particular significance of the events for Nelson are highlighted.
Journeys to the Spiritual Lands: The Natural History of a West Indian Religion
by Wallace W. Zane
from Oxford University Press, USA
Although much has been written on the Afro-Catholic syncretic religions of Vodou, Candomble, and Santeria, the Spiritual Baptists--an Afro-Caribbean religion based on Protestant Christianity--have received little attention. This work offers the first detailed examination of the Spiritual Baptists or "Converted". Based on 18 months of fieldwork on the Island of St. Vincent (where the religion arose) and among Vincentian immigrants in Brooklyn, Zane's analysis makes a contribution to the literature on African-American and African Diaspora religion and the anthropology of religion more generally.
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