Our Glorious Popes

by Catherine Goddard Clarke

"I could not put it down." Such enthusiastic responses as this are typical upon reading this powerfully written history of the Church as illustrated in the challenging pontificates of ten of her more illustrious champions of orthodoxy. As one reads through the first forty-two pages, one is virtually taken on a journey through some four hundred years of tempus ecclesiae, from the momentous entrance of Saint Peter into the fearsome capitol of Satan s doomed empire, to the triumph of the last Christological Council, Chalcedon, held under the pastoral eye of Leo I, the first Pope that Catholic posterity dared to call the Great. Sister Catherine vividly brings to life the painful and virile maturation of the Church Militant from its infancy in Jerusalem to its full manhood as expressed by the Toma of Leo solemnly read at Chalcedon in 451. The remaining bulk of information dovetails into the major periods of religious crises and tells of those heroic Popes who steered the Church through these gravest trials. For example, see how the little known Greek Pope Saint Zachary fought the Moslem influence which generated eastern Iconoclasm; see the Gregorys form the temporal city of God into the vibrant and monolithic power that Jesus intended; and see how the two Pius s re-establish orthodoxy with one sword and humiliate the brazenly open anti-Christian forces with the other burying them for a time. This is a book that can restore hope and confidence in the might of the papacy.

Genres: Catholic

263 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Julia]

This was a fabulous book! I love reading biographies, and especially Catholics. Reading about the Popes and the history of their times was fascinating. I have a much better appreciation of what was going on in the world as well and how the difficulties that the Popes had to deal with and address. She covers St. Peter through St. Leo the Great in one chapter and then devotes entire chapters to the 9 popes following. This is a compelling read.

The author was a nun who died in 1968. Cardinal William O'Connell of Boston told her to "teach the Faith without compromise." She has done a commendable job in this book. I just wish there were more like this by her.

[Evan Simpkins]

A completely unscholarly work that yet seems to fill some wholes that scholars have left unfilled and which are necessary for understanding the history of Rome.

[Joann Glasser]

have this book on cassette tapes but was just as good if not better to read