Rebel Bishop: Augustin Verot, Florida's Civil War Prelate

Rating:
Summary: Excellent biography
Review: This is a well-put-together biography of Augustin Verot, third Bishop of Savannah, Ga., and first Bishop of St. Augustine, Fla. The book shows Verot was a character, as the author says in the best sense of the word. One does not get the idea that he was episcopal timber from reading about his career as a teacher in Maryland, but from Apr 25, 1858, (when Archbishop Kenrick consecrated him as Vicar Apostolic of Florida) on, one cannot but be impressed with the self-sacrificing and devoted way he performed his arduous tasks. Putting up with what he did must have been what enabled him to play such a tough and outspoken role at the first Vatican Council, where, inter alia, he called for the rehabilitation of Galileo--which was finally accomplished during this pontificate. His discourses at the Council, which seem to have been quite numerous and frank, cannot have been very persuasive but contained a lot of common sense. One wonders how he could fail to be cowed by the scene, being, as he was, a very minor bishop from a poor diocese. It was during the Council that he was appointed Bishop of St. Augustine. This is great work on a great bishop.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent biography
Review: This is a well-put-together biography of Augustin Verot, third Bishop of Savannah, Ga., and first Bishop of St. Augustine, Fla. The book shows Verot was a character, as the author says in the best sense of the word. One does not get the idea that he was episcopal timber from reading about his career as a teacher in Maryland, but from Apr 25, 1858, (when Archbishop Kenrick consecrated him as Vicar Apostolic of Florida) on, one cannot but be impressed with the self-sacrificing and devoted way he performed his arduous tasks. Putting up with what he did must have been what enabled him to play such a tough and outspoken role at the first Vatican Council, where, inter alia, he called for the rehabilitation of Galileo--which was finally accomplished during this pontificate. His discourses at the Council, which seem to have been quite numerous and frank, cannot have been very persuasive but contained a lot of common sense. One wonders how he could fail to be cowed by the scene, being, as he was, a very minor bishop from a poor diocese. It was during the Council that he was appointed Bishop of St. Augustine. This is great work on a great bishop.