By Helen C. White

Dust on the King’s Highway tells of Francisco Garcés, the Spanish Franciscan friar whose missionary efforts brought the Catholic faith to the peoples of the Pápago, Yuma, Pima, and Apache tribes. In the summer of 1771, Fray Garcés concludes his offering of Holy Mass and is met by a delegate of four men of the Yuma nation. Having heard of the generosity and good deeds of the “Old Man,” they request his presence among their people, the Yumas of the great rivers, that they might give him welcome and hear his words. These words are the words of the Good News, the gospel of Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the earth and all its fullness, the world and all its peoples. “Going therefore, teach ye all nations”—this was the vocation which Fray Garcés had received, the vocation which set the blood in his veins racing wildly at the chance to live it fully, and the vocation for which that same blood will be shed.

First published in 1947, Dust on the King’s Highway captures the fierce vivacity of the New World and the devoted courage of those who preached and those who received the Word of God with open hearts amidst the vast lucidity of the North American desert. 

“High above the dusty brush of the river bottom, he saw the shining highway stretch, and he saw a host of men, women, and children down the broad way, white and brown, Indian and Spanish, the living and the dead alike, and they were singing the triumphant words to the measured sweetness of the bell.”

Helen C. White (1896–1967) was an American Catholic author, scholar, and professor. In a career spanning nearly five decades, she wrote six novels, including A Watch in the Night (1933) and Not Built with Hands (1935), and studies of poetry and devotional literature. White’s many awards include twenty-three honorary doctorates, two Guggenheim fellowships, and Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal, awarded to a Catholic “whose genius has ennobled the arts and sciences, illustrated the ideals of the Church, and enriched the heritage of humanity.”

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Paperback: 412pp.

ISBN: 978-1685953447