Brief Notices

Thimmesh, Hilary, O.S.B. (Ed.). Saint John’s at 150: A Portrait of This Place Called Collegeville, 1856–2006. (Collegeville, MN: Saint John’s University Press. 2006. Pp. 150. $39.95. ISBN 978-0-974-09921-7.)

As described in this commemorative volume, there is much that is unique and special about Minnesota’s Saint John’s Abbey and University. One could start with the Benedictine establishment’s role in anchoring central Minnesota’s extensive German Catholic cultural region and then move quickly to the influence of Virgil Michel and Godfrey Diekmann in the past century’s liturgical reform movement. Of course, it would be remiss not to mention Marcel Breuer’s magnificent abbey church, as the symbol and embodiment of Michel’s vision. It would be equally negligent to ignore Saint John’s leadership in both pre- and post-Second Vatican Council ecumenicalism, as well as its impact on both the Catholic Worker movement and the Catholic Rural Life Conference. It would be easy to continue along these lines and include the establishment of Minnesota Public Radio under Colman Barry, O.S.B., and finally the creation of the new Saint John’s Bible. All of these are included in this very readable history, a twelve-chapter collaborative effort of monks, university faculty, students, staff, alumni, and others.

Yet the book is not solely a celebration of Saint John’s myriad contributions to Catholic intellectual and cultural life; it also captures the effects of 150 years of change in the American Church and as experienced by a single institution. Thus, this is a story of creative faithfulness as the men and women of this now-extended community have sought to preserve the spirit of St. Benedict’s Rule through periods, especially in recent years, of tumultuous change, of the aging of the monastic community and its declining numbers, of the shock and shame of the sexual abuse crisis and to the university’s transition to—in the words of one contributor—a “Benedictine-sponsored . . . institution” (p. 41). Saint John’s at 150 is an important book, both for those who know and love Saint John’s and for others interested in the larger story of continuity and change within the Church.

Stephen Gross
University of Minnesota, Morris

Zanca, Kenneth J. The Catholics and Mrs. Mary Surratt: How They Responded to the Trial and Execution of the Lincoln Conspirator. (Lanham, MD: University Press of America. 2008. Pp. xiv, 183. $29.00 paperback. ISBN 978-0-761-84023-7.)

For nonspecialists Kenneth J. Zanca provides a useful introduction to the controversy surrounding Mary Surratt’s role in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The first three chapters discuss her conversion to Catholicism, the proceedings of her trial, and the continuing debate over her guilt or innocence. While not directly weighing in on the matter of her culpability, Zanca evidently believes, considering the subtitle of the book, that Surratt was guilty of conspiring against Lincoln in some way. In chapters 4, 5, and 7 Zanca gets to the heart of his subject: “the Catholics” and Surratt. Alas, here the book is disappointing. Zanca clearly has done his research, but the results are meager. The “Catholic response” to Surratt’s trial and execution was apparently quite muted. Citing seven prominent Catholic newspapers of the time, Zanca concludes that their opinion concerning the fairness of Surratt’s trial and execution was largely determined by whether they regarded Lincoln and the Civil War favorably. For example, James McMaster, an ardent Lincoln foe, asserted that Surratt’s trial was illegal and her condemnation was “political execution.” The reaction of non-Catholic papers to Surratt’s trial was also predetermined by their opinions of Lincoln. Interestingly, some of the non-Catholic papers singled Surratt out for special scorn as the supposed ringleader of the plot. Chapter 5 discusses “Pius IX and the Fate of the Lincoln Conspirators” only to conclude that if the reigning pope had said anything on the matter, there is no record of such an utterance. In the end, it seems that Catholics had the same range of...