Southwark Cathedral sits on the southern bank of the Thames in what is now the heart of London, but it did not begin in the heart of London. Though it is not as famous as Notre Dame of Paris, nor as tall as the Sagrada Família in Barcelona, nor as instantly recognizable as Saint Basil's Cathedral in Moscow (technically named "The Cathedral of the Protection of Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat"), Southwark Cathedral plays an important role in the Callahan Chronicles. Fortunatel

For those of you who have already doved—dove—dived—diven?—plunged headlong into Grayhound, the third book in the Callahan Chronicles, I doubt many of you expected to meet the Spanish Inquisition. No one ever expects the Spanish Inquisition, do they? As a Protestant Christian, I grew up reading stories of the first Reformers, many of whom were hunted, persecuted, or even murdered by the Catholic Church—men like Jan Hus, Martin Luther, William Tyndale, Ulrich Zwingli, and John

It is no surprise that the longest running hospital in the world was founded in honor of the Great Physician. Though Christian history is not without conflict, Christianity has a longstanding history of care for the sick, the poor, and the oppressed. The Hôtel Dieu is no exception to either, and has its own long history of both conflict and care. In fact, the Hôtel Dieu in Paris is but one of many French hospitals founded by the Catholic Church, created to offer Christian cha

In my last blog, I discussed Prefect Henri-Auguste Lozé and the Student Riots of 1893. My readers will be far more familiar with Lozé than Lépine, having seen Lozé several times in the Callahan Chronicles up to this point, and, if they have read Grayound , will at least know the name of Louis Lépine, who is briefly introduced. In reality, the opposite is true. Lozé is hardly known, and despite a long career of faithful service to France, is remembered mostly due to his bungl

The Prefect, The Model, and the Student During the summer of 1893, what started as a small protest in Paris nearly became a revolution. When I first learned of these facts—quite by accident, as it is rare to find them mentioned in any ordinary history book—they fascinated me so entirely that it became the primary nail on which I hung the starting date of the Callahan Chronicles . Though the story twisted in ways I never expected, the reason the Callahan Chronicles begin in 18