By Megan Peterson | The Observer
(Observer photo / Gary Haughton)
The typical path of a seminarian involves years of study with fellow seminarians, growing in his faith and fellowship.
But although 1940s seminarian Gereon Goldmann is first shown reading from his Bible at a campfire alongside other young men, it becomes clear that Goldmann’s path to priesthood is far from typical.
In illustrated panels of somber blues and grays, Goldmann lays out his plight and that of his home, Germany: “The authorities rejected Christianity and the Catholic Church. They rejected their own humanity as well. When I was 22, and a seminarian, I was drafted into their ranks. I became a compulsory Nazi.”
The morning after this campfire, Goldmann and the company he serves as a medic are ordered into combat to protect the retreat of the German army.
“The Shadow of His Wings,” a graphic biographical novel adapted and illustrated by Max Temescu, tells the story of Father Gereon Goldmann, who is pulled into a horrible and harrowing situation. Yet the battles, bombings, arrest and imprisonment he endures only strengthen his faith – and even pave the way for his ordination during the war.
The book pulls from Father Goldmann’s much longer autobiography of the same name and includes 63 fully-illustrated pages followed by a short epilogue, historical photos, and reflections from Temescu. The story’s pace is quick and it makes for a few hours’ read.
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| (Photo / Wikimedia Commons) Gereon Goldmann |
Goldmann’s story also speaks to persistence in prayer, illustrating a verse he would have been familiar with in his studies: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matt. 7:7)
When a leave of absence during the war brings him back to his childhood home, he finds that a sister who helped raise him, along with her whole community, has been praying since his youth that he would be ordained a priest. But when she tells him that he will be ordained the next year, the seminarian protests that this is impossible; he still has four years of seminary to complete.
Yet on his way back to the front a year later, he passes through Rome and is granted an audience with Pope Pius XII, who dispenses of his remaining years of study.
Goldmann does push persistence too far when he asks the bishop of Patti, Italy, for a priest to bring the Eucharist to the injured and dying (since he is not yet ordained). Angered by the bishop’s attitude of moral superiority and refusal to help the wounded because “Germans commit atrocities,” he threatens the bishop at gunpoint.
The bishop relents and allows Goldmann to bring the Eucharist to the wounded himself, and Goldmann asks for forgiveness.
Moments like these keep the story grounded in the war and reveal God at work. Goldmann finds another purpose in his assignment as a medic: to “try to save both body and soul.”
As a medic, Goldmann cares for injured survivors after attacks. Fortunately for young readers, though, Max Temescu opts for show rather than realism in his violent scenes. Explosions and gunfire are bright and dynamic, but rely more on sound effects, jagged lines and smoke rather than injury.
The book does show death and critically wounded soldiers, but blood (where it does appear) is stylized and minimal. Readers won’t need to worry about seeing medical gore or bloody brutality.
Readers young and old will find gripping illustrations, powerful witnesses of faith, and examples of God’s protection of all those who take shelter in “the shadow of His wings.”
– “The Shadow of His Wings” by Max Temescu. Ignatius Press (Fort Collins, Colo, 2016), 126 pp., $14.95 (paperback).
