The new biography of Father McGivney, Parish Priest: Father Michael McGivney and American Catholicism (William Morrow, $24.95US/$32.95 CAN), has the potential to make him known beyond the boundaries of Catholicism and the brotherhood of the Knights. The authors, Douglas Brinkley and Julie M. Fenster, have done a marvelous job of bringing their subject’s world to light and bringing him to life. From the beginning of their project they consulted the Knights of Columbus Archives and the research done for Father McGivney’s canonization process to ensure the authenticity of their portrayal.

Brinkley and Fenster supply a fascinating setting for the life of this ordinary parish priest who lived his life in a most extraordinary way. The slim preserved historical record of Father McGivney’s life has been enriched by telling his story through the lens of the many relationships in his life. His family, his friends and, most of all, those who knew him as a priest and called him “Father,” form the backdrop for their account of a man with the unusual ability to touch the hearts of those around him. Quiet and shy by nature, Father McGivney was nonetheless a charismatic figure in 19th century Connecticut.

Brinkley and Fenster bring to life relationships that influenced Father McGivney and shaped his vision of the priesthood and of family life. Facts such as his father’s resistance to young Michael’s vocation to the priesthood, Michael’s academic and athletic success, and his desire to become a Jesuit help to form a more complete picture of the Servant of God as a young man and a seminarian.

The authors’ focus on Father McGivney’s priestly identity, his priestly heart and his manner of acting toward others jumps out at the reader. Part history, part biography and part religious anthropology, the book successfully captures the vision of Father McGivney.

This new volume makes clear the important place Father McGivney holds in the history of the Catholic Church in North America. As founder of what has become the largest Catholic fraternal benevolent organization of our time, Father McGivney must be recognized for his originality, his organizational genius and spiritual vision.

What this new biography cannot provide is what many of us most long for: an account of the interior life of Michael McGivney as a young seminarian or as a priest. Since none of Father McGivney’s personal papers, such as diaries or homilies he preached, have been preserved, we have no record of his intimate relationship with God or his family and friends. Gratefully, Brinkley and Fenster have been able to confirm all the positive accounts of his goodness, holiness and virtue.

This is not a book about the Knights of Columbus. It is a true biography that traces how the life of one man touches and changes the lives of others. It is about Father McGivney, but it also tells how the life of every man or woman affects the lives of those around them. It is a book that honors the dignity of human life, especially the lives of the poor and the marginalized, and celebrates the beauty and sacredness of Christian family life. This is less the outlook of the authors and more their faithful rendering of the vision and convictions of their subject, Father Michael McGivney.

By end of Parish Priest, it is clear to the reader that Father McGivney is the ideal of every parish priest. He is the perfect expression of what it means to be a priest of the people and to lay down one’s life for their salvation and temporal good. Father McGivney is an important link to yesterday. His vision is a light into tomorrow.

Solid devotion to Father McGivney can only be helped by this new account of his life and work. Our prayers for the successful progress of his cause must continue. Parish Priest is already a commercial success; our hope now is for a great spiritual impact.

Dominican Father Gabriel B. O’Donnell is postulator for the cause of sainthood of the Servant of God Father Michael J. McGivney.