“Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.”
~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was born into minor French nobility in the Château of Sarcenat at Orcines, close to Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne Region, in South Central France on May 15th 1881. He was the fourth of eleven children. His father was an avid amateur scientist and collected geological specimens and encouraged observation of the natural world in his son. From his mother Pierre inherited an intense, religious, even pious, nature. From his father he inherited a questioning inquisitive scientific mind that was to lead to trouble with his beloved Church.
It is my intention in this series of books to do no more than introduce the reader to some Catholic thinkers, Catholic doers, those whose Catholic faith was a work in progress and mystics; both converts and cradle Catholics. Very little of this work is original; it is mostly a distillation of the work of others who have devoted years of their lives to the lives of these women and men. It is not meant to be hagiography or the last word on the subject. Rather its simple goal is to make you want to delve further.
Over the past six decades, ever since a Salesian priest told me that in order to make sense of history read about the actors, I have read the biographies of a large number of men and women, both secular and religious. The five potted biographies in this first volume are of people I consider to be somewhat overlooked in the annals of Catholic writings, and all of whom are compelling in different ways – as I hope you will see.
~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was born into minor French nobility in the Château of Sarcenat at Orcines, close to Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne Region, in South Central France on May 15th 1881. He was the fourth of eleven children. His father was an avid amateur scientist and collected geological specimens and encouraged observation of the natural world in his son. From his mother Pierre inherited an intense, religious, even pious, nature. From his father he inherited a questioning inquisitive scientific mind that was to lead to trouble with his beloved Church.
About the Handful of Catholics series:
It is my intention in this series of books to do no more than introduce the reader to some Catholic thinkers, Catholic doers, those whose Catholic faith was a work in progress and mystics; both converts and cradle Catholics. Very little of this work is original; it is mostly a distillation of the work of others who have devoted years of their lives to the lives of these women and men. It is not meant to be hagiography or the last word on the subject. Rather its simple goal is to make you want to delve further.
Over the past six decades, ever since a Salesian priest told me that in order to make sense of history read about the actors, I have read the biographies of a large number of men and women, both secular and religious. The five potted biographies in this first volume are of people I consider to be somewhat overlooked in the annals of Catholic writings, and all of whom are compelling in different ways – as I hope you will see.
