Scattered Leaves

Most Protestants assume Catholic priest Martin Luther inspired the Reformation by posting objections to church dogma on the doors of the Cathedral in Wittenberg, Germany, (1513), even though at the end of the twelfth century, three-hundred years before Luther’s revolt, a humble merchant’s son in Lyon, France, was excommunicated for inspiring Christian practitioners to live and act more faithfully to the words of Jesus and his disciples. That man was Peter Waldo. His followers, the Waldensian’s, were mostly poor folk persecuted by a Roman church and nearly exterminated; however, by faith, tenacity and good fortune, endure unto this day. Their story into the twenty-first century, like many oppressed people of faith, isn’t merely happenstance, but ‘A Distant Mirror’ into the horror and heroics of survival.
About the Author
Richard Mitchell’s ancestors were Waldensian, but he didn’t realize it until he explored his lost heritage in the complexity of America’s melting pot. Born in Los Angeles, California, at the beginning of World War Two to an Irish mother and French-Italian father, Rich grew up in an idyllic seaside village north of Santa Monica. He struggled with school until inspired by faculty at the University of Oregon, finishing his formal education at Cornell. He administered and taught school in Oregon, California, New York, and Switzerland. He and his wife Renee share three sons and spend their retirement producing theatrical plays in Oxford, England.