"Fr. Gallagher has written of the Founder of his religious order with a personal sense of the particular charism of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary and with a historian's sense of the context of its birth and development. Quite ordinary events in Lanteri's life are unified by his strong sense of spiritual purpose often obstructed by a body weakened with constant ill health; these same events are played out in the tension between Church and State in France and Piedmont in an age of revolution; they are reflected in the lives of his co-workers and companions in the various societies and communities he formed part of. A man who sought always to remain in the background is brought forward in this book so that all can begin again to discover his virtues and apprpreciate his influence today"--