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Mathew Carey: Pamphleteer for Freedom

Semi-crippled and with a poor school record, Mathew Carey should never have succeeded in anything, especially as he was also a Catholic in the intolerant Ireland of 1775. But by the age of 15 he’d gotten himself apprenticed to a Dublin printer and bookseller. At 17, he had anonymously penned an...Read more

Priest, Patriot and Leader: The Story of Archbishop Carroll

Though independence had been won from England in 1783, and with it greater religious freedom, Catholics in the new United States of America still faced prejudice and fear engendered by decades of anti-Catholicism. Rome needed to find the right man to become the first Catholic bishop in the new...Read more
Charles Carroll and the American Revolution

Charles Carroll and the American Revolution

Charles Carroll was one of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. This wealthy young landowner not only played a key role in founding the United States of America, but a surprising one. He was Catholic. In Maryland, laws prohibited Catholics from all aspects of public life including...Read more
Alfred E. Smith

Alfred E. Smith: Sidewalk Statesman

In 1928 Al Smith, acclaimed Governor of New York Al Smith is running for president of the United States. His record of political reform and fearless integrity give him a strong chance at winning the presidency. That’s until the Ku Klux Klan and other anti-Catholic groups fan the flames of vague...Read more

John Hughes: Eagle of the Church

Fired with a dream of priesthood, John Hughes, a penniless Irish youth, arrives in Maryland in 1817 and soon finds work as a gardener at Mount St. Mary’s College and Seminary. When the Seminary president discovers how hard John is studying his Latin on the side, he allows John to start learning...Read more
Pierre Tousant: pioneer in Brotherhood

Pierre Toussaint: Pioneer in Brotherhood

In the French Caribbean colony of Santo Domingo, a young black slave, Pierre Toussaint, grows up on the eve of a violent revolution. Though Pierre has received a kindly upbringing with the Berard family, his observations of life have gained him painful insights. In 1787 the Berards, with 21-year-...Read more
The Door of Hope: The Story of Katherine Drexel

The Door of Hope: The Story of Katherine Drexel

Raised by a wise Philadelphia banker-papa and a loving, devout step-mother, Katharine Drexel is uniquely equipped to confront a distressing failing within the century-old nation of the United States. In the 1880’s, the lack of educational opportunities for Native and Black Americans is appalling,...Read more
The Hedge School

The Hedge School

It is perilous to be a Catholic in the Ireland of 1735, and almost more than can be borne for fifteen-year-old Padraic Fitzbrian. Nearly 100 years before, Lord Protector Cromwell of England had put down the Irish rebellion—confiscating lands, killing priests, outlawing the Mass and prohibiting...Read more
Betsy's Up-And-Down Year

Betsy's Up-and-Down Year

This is the fifth and final book in the Latsch Valley Farm series, recounting the lives of four generations of a Polish-American extended family, living in neighbouring homesteads in Wisconsin. A sequel to Willow Wind Farm, we follow Betsy Korb, now aged eight going on nine, as she learns the...Read more
Schoolroom in the Parlor

Schoolroom in the Parlor

School in the Kentucky hills goes from August to the last Friday before Christmas. After that the snows are too high, and later, the thawing rivers too full, for the Fairchild children, and their neighbors, the Wattersons, the Sawyers, and the Huffs to make it safely to the little school house in...Read more