Description
Book SynopsisThe Bread of the Strong investigates the origins, development, and migration of a Roman Catholic retreat movement founded by Onésime Lacouture, SJ. Although suppressed in its original host region of Québec, it migrated to the United States, thanks largely to John Hugo’s advocacy, and critically influenced Dorothy Day’s spiritual development.
Trade Review"The Bread of the Strong is a thrilling spiritual adventure story. Jack Downey brilliantly tracks the origins and flourishing of the controversial, mysterious, and extremely influential retreat movement most prominently associated with Dorothy Day and the Catholic Workers. 'The retreat' blended passionately mystical Quebecois spirituality with the hard-nosed militancy of Catholic labor movement advocacy of Industrial Era Pittsburgh. The result was a paradoxical-and most potent-form of Catholic spiritual radicalism that fulfilled Dorothy Day's lifelong search for authentic communion with Jesus and her fellows." -- -Jim Fisher author of On the Irish Waterfront: The Crusader, the Movie, and the Soul of the Port of New York "To my knowledge, no other work pulls together so much transnational, bilingual,cultural and historical background on the three main figures, Onesime Lacouture, John Hugo, and Dorothy Day, in the context of the controversial retreat with which they were all involved. The book is impressive in its transnational focus and bilingual sources" -- -Una Cadegan University of Dayton "Downey has written a very good book of historical and cultural analysis based on extensive archival research. It offers the first critical examination of a profound theological and spiritual resource for a figure who - as Pope Francis reminded us in his speech to Congress - remains one of the most significant Catholics in U.S. history. It is an important book for anyone who not only wants to understand Day better, but also to appreciate the often forgotten or ignored theological diversity that existed in early twentieth-century American Catholicism." -- -Benjamin Peters American Catholic Studies "The Bread of the Strong is a remarkable contribution to the literature on the history of American Catholicism and will long be an indispensable resource for gaining a deeper understanding of the Catholic Worker movement as a notable spiritual phenomenon that emerged within an American context." -- -James McCartin Director, Fordham Center on Religion and Culture "... The Bread of the Strong offers a rich and often provocative interpretation of the entire world of French Canadian (Quebecois) Catholicism from which Lacouturism emerged." -Journal of Jesuit Studies "This contribution to American Catholic scholarship rightfully deserves a place in every university library and on the shelves of all those who wish to more deeply understand Dorothy Day's life and the movement she launched, which continues its works of mercy throughout the country today." -Catholic Library World
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction: Conversion and Catholic Pacifism 1 1 Canadien Identity, Nationalism, and Muscular Catholicism 20 2 Onesime Lacouture and Conversion in the White Desert 53 3 Onesime Lacouture and the "Return to the Gospel" 80 4 Mackerel Snappers in the US Industrial Era 117 5 John Hugo and the Retreat's Southward Migration 139 6 Dorothy Day, Anti- triumphalism, and a Personalist Approach to Voluntary Poverty 169 Epilogue: To Afflict the Comfortable and Comfort the Afflicted: Catholic Worker Pacifism as a Form- of- Life 201 Notes 211 Bibliography 247 Index 263
