The author of this book, Timothy Tierney—possibly better known to readers as the Carmelite friar Fr Tadgh, founder of Teresian Press and biographer of Hermann Cohen—spent many years in the UK before being sent, in 1993, to Perth, Australia, where he died in 2022. The current book tells the story of the outstanding Polish Carmelite saint, Raphael Kalinowski (1835–1907). As he is still relatively unknown in the English-speaking world, this work does a great service in offering a full-length, detailed biography which draws on such sources as the two volumes by Fr Jean-Baptiste Bouchaud, OCD, who knew St Raphael, and the saint’s own memoirs.

Born on 1st September 1835 into a Polish family living in Vilnius, the young Joseph Kalinowski lost his mother, Josephine, when he was only two months old. His father remarried, and Joseph’s stepmother, Victoria, passed on to him her deep Catholic faith before dying when Joseph was nine. Two years later, Joseph acquired a new stepmother, Sophie, who was deeply religious and to whom he was very close.

Joseph was an outstanding student, known already at school for his intellect, work ethic, friendliness, sensitivity and goodness. He studied engineering in St Petersburg, but also had a great love of literature and was a gifted linguist. Around this time, he abandoned religious practices; and, as we see throughout the biography, a cloud of witnesses met him along the way, as well as elements of faith that spoke most deeply to this future Carmelite.

Joseph began to read the Confessions of St Augustine, from which he drew ‘new life’ (p. 19), as he said. He attended some Lenten talks given by a Dominican priest; these made a particular impression on Joseph when he heard about charity as the giving of oneself rather than merely one’s resources (cf. p. 15). One day, passing a Dominican church, Joseph felt impelled to go inside. He knelt before the confessional, but no one was there, and he found himself bursting into tears, full of sadness.

The Lenten talks made another impact, and we see just how much a person of prayer, through his or her very being, can witness to the inner life. This is what Joseph would write of Catherine Narischkin, a lady also in the audience: ‘Just the sight of her raised the soul to God: her features gave evidence of interior silence and peace of heart, nobility joined with simplicity’ (p. 15). Another providential influence came about in the workplace—at a posting in Kursk, where Joseph had been sent to plan a railway line. A colleague gave him a small book of prayers to Our Lady, which caused Joseph to be struck by the efficacy of the Hail Mary and to develop, as he said, ‘a lively trust’ (p. 18) in the Blessed Virgin. As the biography explains, his devotion to Mary would be one of Joseph’s ‘key motivations in all he did’ (p. 276).

The greatest turning point took place on the feast of the Assumption in 1863: his family (almost certainly Sophie and her daughter Mary) agreed to send him a crucifix, which he wished to give to a friend—but on condition that Joseph should go to confession. This decisive event, in the church of the Vincentians in Vilnius, was also his conversion (cf. pp. 42–43), and he now attended Mass every day.

That same year, a Polish insurrection had broken out. Admiring the self-sacrifice of young people in the cause of Poland (which had been largely erased from the map at the end of the eighteenth century: cf. p. 3), Joseph joined the rebel government. He was not directly involved in the fighting but provided help to combatants. He was arrested, aged thirty, and sentenced to ten years’ hard labour in the Siberian salt mine of Usolye. Against the backdrop of this exhausting work, he nonetheless, whenever possible, devoted himself to educating some of the young men and to reading. One of the available books contained the next providential landmark, when it spoke of the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Due to the Order’s having been founded in the East and later established in the West, Joseph saw it as potentially having a future role in Christian unity (cf. p. 86). After a while, due to cramped conditions in the prison camp, he was allowed to live in the village. Here, we see Joseph’s total dedication and heroic generosity of spirit when, on receiving news of an amnesty before the end of his sentence, he postponed his departure because he was preparing the local children for their First Communion while the priest was away on a mission.

After eventually leaving Siberia, Joseph was at last reunited with his family. His youngest brother, Jerzy—a future priest—would later recall the impression Joseph made on him at this reunion: ‘in his face you could read recollection and constant union with God’ (p. 130). The Lord had been quietly at work in Joseph’s heart during the years of exile, and he now longed to be consecrated to God. To further this aim—since it was not possible, at the time, to become a priest in Poland—he moved to France, having been offered a post as private tutor to Prince August Czartoryski.

Once again, one cannot help but be struck by the way in which God leads souls through providential landmarks. It was through this family that Joseph discovered his vocation to Carmel. He met the young prince’s aunt, now a Discalced Carmelite nun, Sr Mary-Xavier; and her cousin, Princess Marcelina, who was establishing the Carmelite Secular Order in Poland, encouraged him to become a Carmelite. At the age of nearly forty-two, he entered Carmel, where he received the name Raphael of St Joseph.

The second part of this book offers a detailed and compelling account of St Raphael’s contributions to Carmel. A true contemplative, drawn to solitude and silence, he nonetheless worked tirelessly for the Order, carrying his prayer into every aspect of his activity. He brought about the renewal of the Carmelite friars in Poland; founded a Carmelite church, priory and school at Wadowice—the birthplace of the future Pope John Paul II, for whom St Raphael was a boyhood hero (cf. p. xiii); served as a sought-after spiritual director to the Carmelite nuns and the Secular Order; spent long hours in the confessional; spread devotion to the Carmelite scapular far and wide; and worked on publishing books that preserved and celebrated the Order’s heritage in Poland.

The Epilogue, entitled ‘Spiritual Legacy’, is a moving compilation of some of his reflections on various themes. He emphasised the ordinary activities of life as opportunities for holiness, when carried out with love and a desire to please God. We may perhaps conclude with these encouraging words of St Raphael: