BOOK REVIEWS

Heroic Laborers

by John O’Connell

Laborers of the Harvest
The Indian Trader, Inc.
by Fr. Cormac Antram, OFM
pp. 198; $15.00 postpaid
order from:
Tekakwitha Indian Mission
P.O. Box 48
Houck, AZ 86506

    Over four hundred years ago, Spanish Franciscans first came to what we now call the Southwest to preach the Gospel. One hundred years ago (1898) Franciscans came to Navajoland to bring the Catholic Faith to the Navajos. Laborers of the Harvest tells the story of the priests, religious, and laity (Indian and Anglo) who have worked to bring Christ to the Navajos and other Indians of the Southwest.

    Fr. Cormac begins his popular history of the Catholic mission in the Southwest with the mysterious catechetical activity of Mother Maria de Jesus, a Spanish Poor Clare nun of the 17th century, who miraculously bi-located to catechize Indians in New Mexico. She is better known as the author of The Mystical City of God.

    The Franciscans eventually came to the Navajos—and the history of the two has since intertwined. The Navajo’s gave the name edneeshoodee (he who drags the garment) to the Franciscans, while the Franciscans bestowed the name of Navajo (probably a corruption of a Tewa word) to the Navajo people.
Fr. Cormac’s book is a series of vignettes recounting some of the heroes and heroines, and stories of the evangelization of the Southwest, especially Navajoland. These are true stories of the West, but largely unknown. Here are some of the stories the reader will find:

•    Geronimo, the great warrior, received the Sacrament of Baptism on his death bed.

•    Sister Blandina, S.C. (who was anything but bland) faced down a lynch mob in Trinidad, Colorado. She also nursed a critically wounded member of Billy the Kid’s gang, and persuaded (tricked) Billy the Kid into sparing the life of the doctors in Trinidad who had refused to treat the gang member.

•    Father Anselm Webber, OFM, the Apostle of the Navajos and one of three original Friars sent to the Navajos in 1898, worked tirelessly for years to bring the Gospel to the Navajos and to ensure justice for them.

Laborers of the Harvest includes as an Epilogue, “The Life and Times of Mother Katherine Drexel.” It presents a summary of the life of Blessed Katherine Drexel, the daughter of immensely wealthy but devout Catholic parents, who founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament to serve as missionaries and to care for the Black and Indian peoples. Blessed Katherine (and her congregation) played a significant role in the evangelization of the Indian people in the Southwest.

    Fr. Cormac is a modern day chronicler in the Franciscan tradition, i.e., he is also an active worker in the Lord’s vineyard. Father Cormac’s first assignment after his ordination to the priesthood in 1954 was to the Navajo Indian Mission—St. Michael’s, Arizona. Only a few years later, Fr. Cormac began a half-hour bi-lingual radio program to broadcast the Gospel that continues to this day. He has spent his priestly ministry working among the Navajos.

    This is a readable and enjoyable book that reveals what God’s grace accomplishes when He finds souls who willingly to submit to His will. It would (as the war-horse of an expression goes) make an excellent addition to the library of any Catholic family.

    © Copyright 1998 Inter Mirifica