The Holy Mark: The Tragedy of a Fallen Priest

In The Holy Mark, a disgraced and exiled Catholic priest from a powerful New Orleans family ponders his future and reflects on his twenty-five years in the priesthood. Father Tony probably should have never been a priest. With his family’s money, courtesy of ties to the New Orleans mob, he could have pursued his interest in literature or even worked with young boys—only free of all those silly Church strictures. But there was no priest in the Miggliore family, much to the shame of his immigrant Italian grandmother. So at his birth, when the old woman beheld a peculiar mark on his head and declared it to be a sign from God—a “segno sacro” in the only language she knew—this grandson’s destiny was set. Those marked by God, though, are often marked by men as well: Father Tony’s jealous uncle will never forgive him for finding favor with the Miggliore matriarch. And with his ties to the city’s Catholic hierarchy, he’ll plot to destroy his nephew if it takes the rest of his life. Meanwhile Father Tony is determined to outwit his uncle and the Church, even if he has to conceal his identity and prowl the streets of New Orleans by night to do it. A shocking novel of family, power, and revenge, The Holy Mark is the story of one reluctant priest caught between the cynicism of his own Southern upbringing and the political machinations of the Roman Catholic Church.