"Teilhard de Chardin: A Book of Hours," co-edited by Dr. Libby Osgood, CND, assistant professor in the UPEI Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering, and Dr. Kathleen Deignan, CND, Iona College, New York, will be launched on Wednesday, May 17, at 7:00 pm at the Charlottetown Library Rotary Room. 

The book is an edited volume of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s most inspirational work set by the editors in the format of liturgical hours. Osgood and Deignan, both sisters in the Congregation of Notre Dame, turned Teilhard de Chardin’s over 6,000 pages of writings into eight evolutive days of prayers for dawn, day, dusk, and dark.  

Born in Sarcenat, France, in 1881, Teilhard de Chardin was a Jesuit priest and an accomplished paleoanthropologist who researched human beginnings and wrote imaginative, mystical writings on the evolutionary nature of the world and the cosmos. His writings were rejected by ecclesiastical authorities and the Jesuit leadership who placed him under interdiction and refused to allow him to publish his writings or to teach in France. Despite the interdiction, he continued to write. He bequeathed his writing to his secretary, Jeanne Mortier, who ensured that they were published after his death in New York City in 1955. 

The launch will be a celebration of Teilhard’s life and work, and Osgood will read from the book during the launch. The book is available at the Bookmark in Charlottetown.