"Bestselling author Timothy M. Gallagher, OMV, assembles a remarkable biography of Father Bruno Lanteri, who while living within a context of exciting historical significance--with the French Revolution, the rise and fall of Napoleon, and the Bourbon Restoration reshaping France all around him--overcame great odds to become the foremost spiritual leader of the age, ultimately founding the Oblates of the Virgin Mary. Drawn from Lanteri's own journals, letters, and correspondence, Gallagher offers a detailed spiritual portrait of a man once limited by his own impatience and lack of charity, who evolved into a man of fierce spiritual courage, religious reformer, defender of the Pope against Napoleon's command, and a symbol of perseverance who coined the term "begin again"--the official motto of the Oblates. Complemented by a timeline of historical events, photographs, and maps, Gallagher's richly researched volume brings to light the ministry and legacy of a remarkable leader as never before"--

"Fr. Gallagher has written of the Founder of his religious order with a personal sense of the particular charism of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary and with a historian's sense of the context of its birth and development. Quite ordinary events in Lanteri's life are unified by his strong sense of spiritual purpose often obstructed by a body weakened with constant ill health; these same events are played out in the tension between Church and State in France and Piedmont in an age of revolution; they are reflected in the lives of his co-workers and companions in the various societies and communities he formed part of. A man who sought always to remain in the background is brought forward in this book so that all can begin again to discover his virtues and appreciate his influence today"--