While traipsing around St. Joseph’s Benedictine Abbey searching for Walker Percy’s headstone with Chick B, I suddenly realized what a truly “southern catholic” moment I was having.

For those of you who don’t know Walker Percy, here is a little bio info that may help explain why two Southern Catholic women would haul four kids 60 miles out of the way on a trip home from New Orleans to an abbey outside the small town of Covington, Louisiana.

Born May 28, 1916 in Birmingham, AL, Walker Alexander Percy was an American Southern author whose interests included philosophy and semiotics.  He is best known for his novels including The Moviegoer, The Last Gentleman, Love in the Ruins, and The Second Coming among others.  His work displays a unique combination of existential questioning, Southern sensibility and deep Catholic faith.  Not only was he a prolific writer but he was instrumental in getting John Kennedy Toole’s Pulitzer Prize- winning novel  A Confederacy of Dunces published after Toole’s death.  He also was a great encourager of his fellow Southern writers and along with 21 other authors founded the Fellowship of Southern Writers.  In 1989 the University of Notre Dame awarded Percy its Laetare Medal, which is awarded annually to a Catholic “whose genius has ennobled the arts and sciences, illustrated the ideals of the Church and enriched the heritage of humanity.”

Both Chick B and I share a love for reading books by Southern writers.  And, I had been a Walker Percy fan back in my Protestant days.  So, imagine my delight when we discovered that Walker Percy was a Catholic convert as well.  (This explains the trip to a remote abbey outside Covington, Louisiana.)

Chick B finally located the simple headstone. We paid our respects to the great Southern writer and loaded up back in the car for the 8 hour drive home — a little richer from the “southern catholic moment” we had just had.

Chick A