Additional information
by Cheryl H. White (Author), Peter Bolton Mangum (Author), William Ryan Smith (Author)
Experience the brilliant mind of a man who sacrificed his life for the people of Shreveport.
From 1854 to 1873, Servant of God Father Louis Gergaud, native of Heric, France, served as a dedicated missionary priest in northeast Louisiana. These years, often fraught with hardships, culminated in his decision to offer his own life for the people of Shreveport during the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1873. The narrative of his life during these years, drawn from his own letters and papers, provide insightful commentary on issues as diverse as Catholic-Protestant relations in the nineteenth century South, the economics of commerce in an expanding nation, and the social impacts of the Civil War. Most importantly, these papers provide context to understand the character of a man whose heroic virtue led him to the sacrifice of his own life for strangers.
Author Biography
Very Reverend Peter B. Magnum, JCL, is the rector of the Cathedral of St. John Berchmans, judicial vicar and director of vocations for the Diocese of Shreveport. He has twice visited the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome to learn and assist in the advancement of its cause. William Ryan Smith serves as the director of hospital operations at Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport. He is the author of Sang Pour Sang, a historical fiction novel published by University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press, and this is his third nonfiction title with The History Press. Cheryl H. White, PhD, is a professor of history at Louisiana State University at Shreveport, where she has taught Medieval European and Christian Church history for twenty-five years. This is her seventh book title to be published with The History Press.
