History of the Catholic Church in Spain who was active in many different modes of religion, including organizing convents and new congregations, and developing the theology of the Counter Reformation in Spain that permanently minimized the Protestant influence there. In the 1620s Spain debated who should be the nation's patron saint- the current patron Saint James Matamoros (Saint James the Moor-slayer) or a combination of him and the newly canonized Saint Teresa of Ávila. Teresa's promoters said Spain faced new challenges, especially the threat of Protestantism, and the declining society at home and needed a modern patron saint who understood these problems and could lead the Spanish
The Patron Saint of Butterflies a Golden Sower Award Nominee and a Grand Canyon Reader Award Nominee. In 2011, "The Patron Saint of Butterflies" was banned from a school in Minnesota. The effect of which was to increase the popularity and visibility of the novel. The story is a fictionalized account of the little-known religious commune run by Herbert T.(Thomas) Schwartz (1903-1980) at Mount Hope in New York in the mid-20th century. (Unlike the Mount Blessing community, the Mount Hope religious commune was quite mobile. Schwartz started the community by gathering laypeople around himself in Greenwich Village. The community was housed in Ridgewood, Queens, New