Dr. Michael W. Higgins

Documentarian; Biographer; Columnist; Distinguished Professor Emeritus; President and Vice-Chancellor Emeritus, St. Jerome’s University; Basilian Distinguished Fellow of Contemporary Catholic Thought

Dr. Higgins has been involved with investigating and expanding the Catholic Intellectual Tradition, particularly in Canada, for over forty years. As a teacher, a writer, a documentarian, a university president, a public speaker, an administrator and more, Higgins’ contributions to Catholic higher education have impacted the country from coast to coast. And as a past president of the International Thomas Merton Society, it even crosses the border.

He is the author and co-author of numerous books, including many bestsellers, and some of which have been translated into Italian, French, German and Norwegian. They number among them: Stalking the Holy: In Pursuit of Saint-Making, The Church Needs the Laity: the Wisdom of John Henry Newman, The Muted Voice: Religion and the Media, Genius Born of Anguish; the Life and Legacy of Henri J. M. Nouwen, The Jesuit Mystique, Heretic Blood: the Spiritual Geography of Thomas Merton, Faithful Visionary: Thomas Merton, The Unquiet Monk, My Father’s Business: the official biography of Gerald Emmett Cardinal Carter, as well as many others.  As a CBC documentarian, narrator and researcher, he has done many programs of theological and philosophical interest for Ideas, Celebration, Testament, and Man Alive. He is a regular contributor to The Globe and Mail, The Literary Review of Canada, Commonweal, and The Tablet of London. Dr. Higgins is the Basilian Distinguished Fellow of Contemporary Catholic Thought at the University of St. Michael’s College in Toronto, and the President and Vice-Chancellor Emeritus of St. Jerome’s University.

Dr. Higgins has been writing the Pontifex Minimus blog for over a decade. These weekly posts explore the Catholic educational presence in Canada and beyond.

NEW BOOK COMING SOON

The Jesuit Disruptor: A Personal Portrait of Pope Francis, by Dr. Michael W. Higgins

(House of Anansi, Sept. 2024)

Pre-order from: Bookshelf (Guelph) • Words Worth Books (Waterloo) • Westminster Books (Fredericton) • Indigo • Barnes & Noble • your local independent bookstore!

To learn more, visit Dr. Higgins’ Wikipedia page, his entry in Canadian Who’s Who, or view his full CV.

Pontifex Minimus is written on the ancestral territories of the Haudenosaunee, Anishinabewaki, Attiwonderonk and Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation peoples, who have stewarded these lands since time immemorial.