Priest and Beggar

The Heroic Life of Venerable Aloysius Schwartz

By: Kevin Wells

Narrated by: Scott Russell

In 1957, at 27 years old, Father Aloysius Schwartz of Washington, D.C. asked to be sent to one of the saddest places in the world: South Korea in the wake of the Korean War. Just a few months into his priesthood, he stepped off the train in Seoul into a dystopian film. Squatters with blank stares picked through hills of garbage. Paper-fleshed orphans lay on the streets like leftover war shrapnel. These scenes pierced him.

Within just 15 years, Father Schwartz had changed the course of Korean history, founding and reforming orphanages, hospitals, hospices, clinics, schools, and the Sisters of Mary, a Korean religious order dedicated to the sickest of the sick and the poorest of the poor. All the while, he himself—like the Sisters—lived the same hard poverty as the people he served and loved.

Biographer Kevin Wells tells the story of a different kind of American hero, an ordinary priest who stared down corruption, slander, persecution, and death for the sake of God's poor. "What Father Al managed to do is beyond the pale", said his longtime collaborator Monsignor James Golasinski. "He was the boldest man I ever knew. He feared nothing."

Known for his joy and his humor, even in the teeth of Lou Gehrig’s disease, Schwartz was declared a Servant of God by Pope Francis in 2015. By the time of his death in 1992, his work with the Sisters of Mary had spread to the Philippines and Mexico. Since then, the Sisters have founded Boystowns and Girlstowns across Central and South America, as well as in Tanzania. Father Schwartz died calling out to his beloved Mary, the Virgin of the Poor, saying, "All praise, honor, and glory for anything good accomplished in my life goes to her and to her alone."

©2021 Ignatius Press (P)2023 Ignatius Press

The Male version of St Terersa of Calcuta

This is the most moving and inspirational book. I have ever read. I absolutely loved it. I have a new hero. Father AL.

Touches the heart!

Very thought provoking and inspiring. I took several notes and have many things to ponder and reflect. As with stories of the saints, you can feel God working in your own heart as you listen to the life of a heart on fire for Christ and His church!

Modern day priest and saint!

Heroic supernatural and human virtues. Inspiring story. Riveting travelogue. One less star for narration due to the repetitious, bothersome and unnecessary “quote” / “end quote” by the narrator.

Great read!

Loved this book. The author is very detailed yet compact. Highly recommend it and his other works.

Great, modern day Saint

This book about vulnerable Fr. Al shows what a Saint is. Up there on par with Saint Theresa, mother of Calcutta.