Dom Eugene Boylan

Book excerpt: In 1963 the world was rocked by the death of John F. Kennedy, president of the United States of America. One year later the world of Catholic spirituality was rocked by the death of Dom Eugene Boylan. The comparison is less than superficial: both men found favour with women, both were known as charming and capable entertainers, both became unexpected leaders who frequently challenged authority; both were gone before their time. In Dom Eugene Boylan Thomas J. Morrissey tells the untold story: the life of a prize-winning student, music-lover, ladies’ man and physicist who became the great spiritual writer of groundbreaking titles like This Tremendous Lover. Demonstrating that Boylan’s life shaped his familial spirituality of love, which for many pre-empted the innovations of the Second Vatican Council, Morrissey recovers the unique worldliness of Boylan’s spirituality by turning to the worldliness of his life: where he roamed from Austria to Australia, the USA to Ireland. Some say the jaw dropped feet not inches when the young Kevin Boylan announced his intention to join the Cistercians; in Dom Eugene Boylan jaw and mouth are gently reunited, as two worlds are joined in symbiosis: the world of man and of monk united by the greatest theme, God’s love.