This book traces the story of the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, from the slums of Victorian Glasgow to the shanty towns of present-day Africa and among the ‘new poor’ at home. It is a colourful story, but it is more. In many ways it is an exemplar of the fortunes of all religious Congregations, and a microcosm of the Catholic Church itself, over the past century-and-a-half.

As well as being the first biography of this pivotal figure and an important landmark in the religious history of Scotland, this is also an exciting and moving story of a fascinating man in a time of persecution and disruption.