Bishop East of the Rockies: The Life and Letters of John Baptist Miege, S.J. by Herman J. Muller, S.J. (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 301 this work will be a stimulus for other historians ofreligious life as they continue in their efforts to retrieve the charism and community inspiration of their past. Joel Rippinger, O.S.B. MarmionAbbey Aurora, Illinois Bishop East ofthe Rockies: The Life and Letters ofJohn Baptist Miege, SJ. By Herman J. Müller, SJ. (Chicago: Loyola University Press. 1994. Pp. xvii, 198. $1395 paperback.) John Baptist Miege, SJ. (1815-1884), was a Savoyard priest who became one of the pioneer bishops ofthe American West. Leaving Europe in 1848 during an era of anticlericalism and revolution, Miege dedicated himself to missionary work on the Great Plains, soon being appointedVicarApostolic ofall Indian Territory east of the Rocky Mountains—from the Canadian border on the north to Texas on the south. There he ministered to scattered Indian tribes, and, as white civilization entered the area, witnessed "Bleeding Kansas," the Colorado Gold Rush, and the Civil War. His varied career included attendance at the First Vatican Council, a fund-raising tour of South America (needed to pay offthe debt incurred in the construction of his resplendent Leavenworth cathedral), and service as the first rector-president of Detroit College. Herman J. Müller, S.J., has written an engaging biography of this prelate whose life was a panorama of so much of nineteenth-century Catholicism. Muller's book, befitting its "life and letters" subtitle, includes copious quotations from the letters of Miege and other priests who worked with him. Perhaps the best aspect of the book is its presentation of slices of everyday life on the three continents of Europe, North America, and South America. The book has especially colorful descriptions of the dangers and fatigues of travel in the midnineteenth century—on everything from horses, mules, and stagecoaches to railroads, steamboats, and steamships. Miege was very observant, and was curious about all of the places to which he traveled. The reader of Muller's book can gain insights on European ChurchState relations, Native American customs, American ethnic politics, the inner workings of theVatican Council, the condition of the Church in Latin America, and many other matters. Miege's strictures on American materialism—made more poignant by his love for the people of his adopted country—pierced the outward appearance of Gilded Age prosperity, as they do of today's. In Muller's book, Miege is revealed as an "unwilling bishop" who felt himself unworthy of the responsibility, and had to be escorted weeping from his room to attend his consecration. In fact, Miege's continual attempts to resign from his bishopric constitute a rather comic theme throughout most of Muller's book. Yet in the end, he always asked that "God's will be done," and doggedly bore 302 BOOK REVIEWS whatever burdens were placed upon him. Muller has faithfully chronicled the life ofthis persevering, quite successful,and also rather representative nineteenthcentury "soldier of Christ." Davtd S.Bovée Kansas Newman College, Wichita A Contest of Faiths: Missionary Women and Pluralism in the American Southwest. By Susan M. Yohn. (Ithaca, NewYork: Cornell University Press. 1995. Pp. xiv, 266. $42.50 cloth; $16.95 paper.) In this interesting and informative book the author discusses the history of Presbyterian Church activities in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado , with emphasis on the role of women missionaries in the area under the direction of the Ladies Board of Home Missions, which later became the Women's Executive Committee of Home Missions, from the 1870's to the 1920's. The author has based her study on the extensive documentation she found in the original manuscript sources of the Presbyterian Church Archives (U.S.A.) in Philadelphia; the correspondence, papers, and reports of the Board of Home Missions; minutes of the annual meetings and office conferences of the Board; biographical files; correspondence and papers from women missionaries in the field to the Board; documents in the Menaul Historical Library in Albuquerque, and in the New Mexico State Records Center and Archives in Santa Fe, New Mexico; and the letters and reports of the women missionaries published in various Presbyterian periodicals, especially the Home Missions Monthly. The following statistics show the composition of the population of the...