The Storks of La Caridad

By Florence Byham Weinberg

Father Ignaz (Ygnacio) Pfefferkorn, a missionary from the Sonora Desert region of northern Mexico, is caught in the expulsion of all Jesuits in 1767. After enduring eight years of prison and abuse, he is incarcerated in La Caridad Monastery where the abbot recruits him to help solve two murders. In the course of his investigations, Father Ignaz finds his own life in peril.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B09L3VWZ87
• ISBN13: 9798985025118
• Release Date: November 2021
• Publisher: Maywood House
• Length: 300 Pages
• Weight: 0.69 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A must -read!

"The Storks of La Caridad" is Professor Emerita Florence Weinberg's third historical mystery featuring Father Ygnacio Pfefferkorn, a detective priest character based on an actual historical Jesuit missionary who was forcibly removed from his Sonora Desert mission around 1767 to be imprisoned for 6 years near Cadiz, Spain before being sent to La Caridad and the Norbertines for two years. Weinberg's painstaking research and rich historical detail of an obscure but bloody epoch in church and secular Spanish American history provide a flawless framework for this intriguing tale of bloody survival and a martyr's forgiveness. All notes ring true in the world of Father Ygnacio, but how do they lead to the solution of two murders and the supposed theft of an ancient charter to the monastery in time to preserve Ygnacio's threatened mortal existence? The storks of L Caridad are the natural historians and observers of the intrigues of the abbey. Can Father Ygnacio possibly follow their example and find his way through the maze of danger, before his limited venue as endangered holy sleuth literally expires? "The Storks of La Caridad" is beautifully written, as well as meticulously researched. It will grip its readers, shock them, and confound them. Along the way, much valuable and accurate history will be painlessly assimilated. Perhaps this is the art of historical mystery writing at its best. "The Storks of La Caridad" is a must -read!

Only the Storks Know

The Storks of La Caridad by Dr. Florence B. Weinberg Twilight Times Books Kingsport, Tennessee, 2004 ______________ Book Review and Historical Commentary by Br. Terrence Lauerman, O. Praem. General Introduction: Not many historically based novels could be expected to have their setting in a Premonstratensian (Norbertine) abbey, particularly an abbey of the historically renegade and currently defunct Spanish Circary. However, that is precisely what Dr. Florence B. Weinberg of San Antonio has done in her new historically inspired novel, The Storks of La Caridad. Her novel deals with the period of the suppression of the Society of Jesus in the latter part of the eighteenth century and the trials and tribulations of a Jesuit priest who ended up in detention with the Norbertine community at Nuestra Señora de La Caridad in Spain. Author: Dr. Weinberg, who is a retired professor of Spanish and French, taught for twenty-two years at St. John Fisher College in New York and for ten years at Trinity University in Texas. Her expertise and insights into 18th-century Spain and ecclesiastical intrigue are surely evident in her skillful writing which reflects a scholarly view of the religious culture of Spain in that era. She convincingly depicts the daily common life of Norbertines as seen in their food, drink, prayer, architecture, governance, etc. Norbertine Context: The historical setting for the novel is the Premonstratensian abbey of Nuestra Señora de la Caridad, founded on a site four kilometers southeast of modern-day Ciudad Rodrigo in northwestern Spain. The abbey was founded between 1165-1168 by Fernando II of Leon in gratitude for his military success in a campaign in Extremadura and for the services lent by the Norbertines. Historically, La Caridad was one of the richest Norbertine foundations in Spain, which perhaps explains why there were some financial and jurisdictional conflicts with the local diocese. Avaricious glances were cast from time to time at attractive Norbertine resources and dependent entities. Due to a need for more space and some earthquake damage, La Caridad began to build an expanded church and living facilities in 1761, and construction continued for some years after that. By 1814, however, the abbey closed its doors as a functioning religious facility due to the ravages of the Napoleonic incursion. Nevertheless, the Norbertine community carried on in some fashion with triennial abbots being appointed until 1835. Unfortunately, by the mid 1830s, all religious communities were suppressed by the Liberal reform governments in Spain, inspired by the anticlerical thought flowing out of the French Revolution. By no later than 1842, the buildings and property of La Caridad were in private ownership. Yet its basic structure has remained intact to the present. The unused church, abbot's quarters, cloister garden, kitchen, and enclosing walls still stand; and they are maintained in good condition by

Before all the technology and forensics there was...

thinking. Jesuit Ignaz Pfefferkorn wants to life the life he has chosen, but he is good at solving murders. Without even fingerprinting Pfefferkorn must look at the evidence, talk with people, and come to an understanding of what really happened. The evidence is trampled and overlooked. People don't tell the whole truth. Yet Pfefferkorn is able, through much effort to learn the motives and solve the murder. Twists and turns and a final twist make this well worth reading. Ignaz Pfefferkorn really existed and really was rounded up by the Church and placed in prison. This makes the story more believable and complete. There are two other Pfefferkorn mysteries by Florence Weinberg that are set in northern Mexico rather than in Spain.

Oh, Brother!

We are used to amateur detectives who, between a cup o' tea at Scotland Yard and a glass of sherry on the Orient Express, find out that the butler did it in the pantry with a bronze statue. These detectives are classic, borderline conservative, without life of their own and, heaven forbid! sexuality. Enter Ignaz Pfefferkorn, a man bearing a name easier to sneeze than pronounce, who, prisoner of his story and History, solves a mystery in a Spanish monastery of the late 18th century. By the way, he is a (good looking) priest and a Jesuit. So, sexuality? Well, do not hold your breath but our man has feelings. On top of this, he really existed and most characters and events in the book are historical. Florence Weinberg respectfully has filled the voids to let Pfefferkorn live for us, guide us and interest us in the meanders of that era. You may still not solve the mystery of faith after reading this book, but you certainly will have faith in mystery.