Called To Serve: The Untold Story of Father Irenaeus Herscher, OFM

by Kathy Cecala

In his classic and best-selling memoir of spiritual epiphany, The Seven Storey Mountain, Thomas Merton tells of a delightful and friendly Franciscan friar who freely lends him books and discusses matters of the spirit with him. This biography tells the full story of that man, Father Irenaeus Herscher OFM, describing not only his friendship with Merton and the poet Robert Lax, but also his own American-immigrant narrative: his early years as a young shipyard worker, his unlikely call to the Franciscan order and eventual career as academic librarian and historian. Against a backdrop of great 20th century events and cultural changes, Father Irenaeus managed to touch many lives. As 'pastor' of his library, he encountered US presidents, cardinals, bishops, famed writers and journalists, famous athletes, film stars and other cultural icons—as well as housewives, grade-schoolers, local businessmen and hospital patients he ministered to as chaplain. But perhaps his biggest influence was on the thousands of students, scholars and researchers he worked so hard to serve and help, following his own guiding spiritual principle: Do your best, let God do the rest. His legacy lives on through his beloved library at Saint Bonaventure University.

185 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 18, 2018

About the author

The Midwest Book Review calls Kathy Cecala an “original and entertaining storyteller.” Author of the Irish historical narrative, The Raven Girl, and a contemporary novel, The Novice Master, she lives with her family in Northern New Jersey, where she also teaches English as a second language. Find out more at www.kathycecala.com.

Reviews

[Amy Moritz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This came across my email -- not sure if it was from my friends at The Mountain or St. Bonaventure. (And despite what the author suggests at the end of the book, they are not one in the same, which, frankly, is my only criticism of the book). Regardless of how it came to my attention, my mom got it for me as a late Christmas present and I was eager to read about one of the friar's whose name I knew when I was a student at Bona in the 1990s, but whom I knew little about.

Overall, the book is a nice read. I learned plenty about Fr. Irenaeus that I didn't know, had some facts about Bona flushed out, including the mystery of who was Griff. The only thing I knew about him was that there was a portrait of him hanging in the RC Cafe with the tagline something like "A Bonaventure legend." Now I wish I paid more attention to it!

His relationship to Lax and Merton is fascinating. And his approach to life rather inspiring. "Do your best, let God do the rest," may sound a bit trite, but to me, it's a calming phrase that can help when I start to think I need to do it all, do it all perfectly, and do it all right now.

But the words of his I find most to my heart come at the end of the book, from a Christmas card he wrote to Naomi Burton Stone, Merton's agent:

"How often we seek great things to do for God and neglect the simple things close at hand that he has chosen for us."

Fr. Irenaeus believed in the power of coincidence, that things happen often because of Divine Providence. In that spirit, I believe that quote was meant to reach me now, as I start to learn (hopefully not too late) the importance of little things, of simple things, of things close to home. That playing "big" in my life doesn't require me to do what popular culture would consider "big" things, but rather that I don't shy away from what life presents me, what God puts in my path.

[Bernie Tomasso · Rating 5 out of 5]

I worked for Fr. Irenaeus while I attended St. Bonaventure. This is a true picture of a great man.