Callista

By Saint John Henry Newman Callista: The Emperor Decius is brutally persecuting the Christians of Sicca Veneria. Callista, a beautiful Greek sculptress, is not herself a follower of the Christ—yet she is drawn into their world when Agellius, a Christian, seeks her hand in marriage. After a plague incites further persecution, Callista is mistakenly arrested and imprisoned. The sudden intervention of the mysterious Caecilius offers relief for Callista from the Emperor’s immolating demands—albeit in the form of a sacrifice of her own self, unto eternal life. Most famous for his cogent scholarship, persuasive apologetics, and profound sermons, St. John Henry Newman was also a gifted novelist. Writing in 1852, at the heights of the rise of the novel as a literary form, Newman offered this assessment of literature’s purpose: “Man is a being of genius, passion, intellect, conscience, power. He exercises these various gifts in various ways, in great deeds, in great thoughts, in heroic acts, in hateful crimes. He founds states, he fights battles, he builds cities, he ploughs the forest, he subdues the elements, he rules his kind. He creates vast ideas, and influences many generations. He takes a thousand shapes, and undergoes a thousand fortunes. Literature records them all to the life…”   John Henry Newman (1801–1890) had a notable career at Oxford University and was an Anglican priest before converting to Roman Catholicism in 1845 and becoming a Catholic priest in 1847. A prolific author and preacher, his written works include Apologia pro Vita Sua, A Grammar of Assent, and The Idea of a University; he also founded Oratory houses and served as rector of the Catholic University of Ireland. In 2019, he was canonized a saint of the Catholic Church. * * * Paperback: 284pp. ISBN: 978-1685953560