|
It was midsummer, 1940. Paris had fallen. Brittania, that once proud ruler of the waves, had desperately launched anything and everything that would float to get the battered remnants of its armies off the Dunkirk beaches and safely home across the Channel. Old men and boys, the so called 'Home Guard,' patrolled the miles of rambling English coastline against an anticipated German invasion. Against that backdrop, the English Province of the Society of Jesuits, like their brothers throughout the world, sought an appropriate way to celebrate the 400th anniversary of hte birthday of the Society--its official approval by Pope Paull III in the Bull Regimini Militantis Ecclesiae on September 27, 1540. To mark the occasion, Father James Brodrick, S. J., an historian with a wry wit, had written a spirited account of the origins of the Jesuits and their founding fathers. Althought severely restricted by the wartime rationing of paper, printers Longmans, Green and Company proceeded with a limited run, and the first edition of Origin of the Jesuits was published. A classic in Jesuitica was born. Many reprints later, Loyola Press is proud to present this special edition of the original Brodrick text with a new foreword by Josephy N. Tylenda, S. J. A beautifully redesigned and historically significant new cover completes the update of this important Jesuit work.
|
