by Vincent R. Vasey, SM
355 pgs.
Father Vincent Vasey, SM, says in his introduction, “The purpose of this essay is not to write a biography in the strict sense of the term. That has been done, and ably.” Vasey searches instead “for Father Chaminade’s personality in the events of his life, what in them speaks to us to discover the light which reveals the lines of his character, his style. What was the center, the secret of his existence?” Vasey has undertaken this challenging task so that by gazing intently at the portrait we might know our spiritual father and so better incarnate his spirit.
Vasey, a gifted historian as well as an unabashed champion of Father Chaminade, organizes his text around roles that Father Chaminade had to play in the drama of his life and times. Chaminade, the Man; the Priest Hero; the Creative Missionary; and the Doctor of Marian Spirituality are a few of the titles he uses as chapter headings. The telling of Chaminade's story is frequently interspersed with references to classical literature and poetry, philosophy, Greek and Latin phrases, canon law, and parallel historical episodes. Although some may view this technique as interruptions to the narrative, others will say that it enlarges the canvas and intensifies the color of the portrait he is painting. In the preface, Bertrand Buby, SM, states "I can imagine Father Vasey standing before his portrait much as did Michelangelo who, standing before his just completed statue of Moses, took up a wooden mallet and shouted, 'Now, speak!' Father Vasey's portrait of Father Chaminade lives and speaks."
