The Celebrant

by Charles Turner

In the summer of 1878 Memphis was a city of death. Yellow fever was devastating the city, driving thousands of panic-stricken inhabitants in the countryside, or up North by Mississippi steamboat. At most ports the overcrowded steamers were met by mobs armed with clubs and shotguns. They were forced to continue up and down the river, looking for a landing that wouldn't drive them away. There wasn't much hope of the fever letting up until the first frost. No one knew what caused it, and no one knew how to stop it. Every hour brought the thunderous clap of a canon--a desperate attempt on the part of some local expert to dispel the poisonous spores of the disease. Death stalked those who remained in Memphis. By midsummer, seventy corpses a day were being rushed by wagon to the city's outskirts for a hasty burial. Louis Schuyler, a young Episcopal priest, believed that God wanted him to leave his church in New Jersey and minister to the sick, dying, and terrified residents of this subtropical hell. THE CELEBRANT, a historical novel, is the story of Louis' response to God's call and his struggles with its fearful implications. Did God really call him to Memphis? Louis himself grappled with doubts Wasn't Wasn't there spiritual pride in Louis' determination to risk his life? And what could a young clergyman, a lover of books, music, and liturgy, do in a city that cried out for doctors and nurses? How indeed could Louis, a Christian, understand the horror that assaulted his mind and sense on the streets of Memphis? Could faith itself fall victim? Louis wondered

152 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.

Mississippian by birth, Charles Turner's short stories include “Shadow of Turning” (The Southern Review), “The Art Student” (Image), and “Ends of the Earth” (Image). Many of Turner’s stories take place in his American South, but the region that intrigues him the most is the frontier between physical and spiritual realities. Turner’s 1982 novel The Celebrant (an Episcopal Book Club selection) was based on a true story of a young priest who followed Christ into the hell that was Memphis in the plague year of 1878. Turner’s next novel, Sometimes it Causes Me to Tremble, tells the story of a pastor who finds himself fleshing out the gospel in ways he never dreamed. [https://www.imagejournal.org/artist/c...]

Reviews

[Joshua Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished this book after finding in our parish library. It covers a time in both the Anglican/Episcopal church of Catholic revival but also a precipitous time in our country right after the Civil War. You fall in love with the characters and especially for those of us with a more catholic bent, empathize with his desire to bring Christ in Word, Sacrament, and Action to the plague-riddled city of Memphis. You briefly meet Sr. Constance, a Saint if there ever was one, and many of her companions.