No Easy Road

The Augustinians, an order of friars whose history goes back to the thirteenth century, appeared as missionaries very early in the new American Republic. They were few in number, however, and their institutional growth was slow. This study concentrates therefore on outstanding individual friars, examining their life and achievement in the setting of their times. Thus, for example, Patrick Moriarty, a tempestuous Irish friar, is portrayed largely in the context of the nineteenth-century cultural and political conflict between Catholics and Nativists. This thoroughly researched book is an interesting and worthwhile contribution to the religious history of the United States, for it deals not only with the early development of the Augustinians, but also with a number of wider topics that are of interest to the American reader.