J. STEPHEN RUSSELL is professor emeritus of English at Hofstra University, where he taught for over thirty years. He is the author of The English Dream Vision (1988), Chaucer and the Trivium (1998) and more than thirty articles on medieval and monastic writers from Langland and Dante to Augustine, Aelred of Rievaulx, and Bernard of Clairvaux. Additionally, he is the author of The Cause (2009) and Some Catholic Words (2026). He has edited or translated works by Richard Challoner, John Gennings, OFM, and Albertanus of Brescia.
Most recently, he translated and compiled the writings of Marie-Eustelle Harpain in Angel of the Eucharist: The Life & Spiritual Writings of Marie-Eustelle Harpain, which Angelico Press had the pleasure of publishing. Here, he takes the time to answer some questions on his new work and his interest in this important Catholic figure.
Can you introduce yourself to our readers? Tell us a bit about your background and what led you to your interest in Marie-Eustelle Harpain?
I am a cradle Catholic born in Baltimore in 1951. After 12 years of Catholic education I attended Johns Hopkins University (BA 1973) and continued there for graduate school in English literature (MA 1976, PhD 1978), specializing in medieval literature. My dissertation, The English Dream Vision, would be published by Ohio State University Press in 1988. I’ve written other books in medieval and monastic studies and, since retirement, writings in Catholic studies and apologetics.
I discovered Marie-Eustelle Harpain—or rather she discovered me—one afternoon in 2023. Scrolling through the internet, I came upon a brief notice on New Advent, the Catholic web aggregator. It was a little article announcing that the French bishops had voted to renew the causa for “The Angel of the Eucharist.” I had never heard of such a person so I poked around and found her works online in French, never translated. I looked over the first couple of paragraphs and, two years later, there it was.
Who is this book for, and what do you hope readers will gain from it?
The book, I hope, is for hungry Catholic readers, for women and men who are realizing that the life of the faith has to be more than an hour on Sunday singing some happy songs and then being nice the rest of the week. This is far, far from the faith that set Eustelle on fire. Literally her greatest joy was to spend the night—the whole night—before the tabernacle, alone with the Lord.
What is the central message you most want readers to take away?
As a teenager Eustelle met Jesus in the Eucharist and He changed her life, utterly, completely. As she shows in her letters, Eustelle wishes for all of her correspondents—and thus all of her readers—to be transformed as she was.
Were there any surprising discoveries you made while writing?
The most gratifying and surprising thing about the book is how deep and wide and real Eustelle became as I worked through the letters. As I hope to reproduce for readers, this depth and breadth could be heard in her particular nuances of tone and expression with different correspondents.
What was the most challenging part of writing this book?
My biggest challenges were two. First, I needed to locate Eustelle in her own culture: what did she read? What did she think of the French Church in the 1840s? of her town? of France? When is she quoting Scripture? When is she half-remembering it? It was my goal that these life experiences rescue the translated voice from an artificial vacuum and place it in (something resembling) its own milieu.
The second challenge was “authenticity.” I put the word in quotes because no translation of another’s words can ever be truly authentic. The challenge was to not to “impersonate” who I thought Eustelle was but to let her words, as much as possible “personify” her themselves.
What was your research process like?
Joyous. Feeling no time pressure and fixed on getting it as right as I could, I could spend hours hunting down dingy pdfs of French books from the 1830, trying to figure out what Eustelle was talking about. I learned that black currants were a treatment for tuberculosis.
How long did completing this book from initial concept to publication take you?
About two years.
What themes do you find yourself repeatedly exploring in your work?
The mystery of holiness. How can an ordinary person come to manifest a true and luminous holiness that both gives glory to God and is absolutely, positively their own expression.
For example, in 1990 I wrote a novel called The Cause. It’s the story of a pro-life demonstrator who got shot in front of an abortion clinic and the reluctant, weary priest tasked with investigating her life of “heroic virtue.” Could Lucy possibly be a saint? Could Father Peter be a saint? It’s available as a Kindle paperback.
More recently I wrote a little book of short alphabetical essays called Some Catholic Words. The meditations were largely inspired by my work teaching Catholicism to adult converts (in the program called OCIA). The meditations were crafted to be gentle, joyous and orthodox: I’m pretty sure I got “orthodox” at least. Also on Kindle.
Also recently I worked to recreate The Life and Death of Edmund Gennings, Priest, the story of one of the martyrs arrested and executed in England at the close of the sixteenth century. The book is a diplomatic replica of the 1610 edition published in Flanders and smuggled into England. Kindle again.
What are you working on next?
I am beginning work on a biography of St John de Matha, probably translated from the French of Abbé Calixte de la Providence.
Where can readers follow your work or learn more?
My author page on Amazon lists my books. I can be reached at twinarch22@gmail.com.
Angel of the Eucharist: The Life and Spiritual Writings of Marie-Eustelle Harpain is now available from Angelico Press.