La Bella Brigatta: A Pictorial History of the Kentucky Dominicans," a new book by Sr. Paschala Noonan, OP has been honored by the Catholic Press association with a Third Place award in the "Best Book by Small Publisher" category for 2009.  Literature describing the award winners notes the following about Sr. Paschala's book: "Without prior association with the Kentucky Dominicans, readers will feel like they have come to know them and their charism after having sojourned through the pages of this fascinating pictorial history.  It is clearly and engagingly written, and a beautifully designed book hat traverses a wide swath of regional history in a visually interesting manner.

The La Bella Brigatta or The Beautiful Circle of Friends.  From where does the title come?  In the introduction to Catherine of Siena: The Dialogue, Sr. Suzanne Noffke, OP, wrote, “She (St. Catherine) was the center of a group (la bella brigata, she called them) drawn from many levels of society and many religious traditions…”   Sr. Paschala says, “I chose the phrase because it is descriptive of the Dominican Sisters of Kentucky united with associates, friends, partners in mission, and all those sharing our Dominican charism.  This book follows another book about the Dominicans of St. Catharine, Kentucky, namely Signadou ~ a sign from God.

When she finished Signadou her dream was to tell the story in pictures.  A pictorial history uses minimum script and relies on pictures to capture the essence of the story.

Sr. Paschala felt this book would add another dimension to the story of the Kentucky Dominicans. “Have you ever observed someone picking up a new book?” she asked. “If the book has pictures the person turns immediately to look at the pictures. History is sometimes considered boring, but pictures bring the story to life.”

It wasn’t easy choosing which photos were best suited to use in telling the Kentucky Dominicans’ story. At times she was working with 5,000 photos derived from many sources: archives, submitted photos from sisters, friends, former students, newspaper articles and sometimes anonymous sources who just dropped photos off at her door.

“I regret that I could not use every one of them,” she said. “Each picture has a story, but space and reproduction costs limited what I could do.”
There are over 300 photos in the book, and Sr. Paschala hopes that they give at least a “smidgen of our story.”

“It is a companion piece to Signadou, which contains the essence of our story. The intent of the second book is to embellish that,” Sr. Paschala said. “The two books really go together.” While she couldn’t possibly begin to show all the sisters involved in each ministry, she randomly chose pictures to represent a field of ministry. It is her hope that the pictures will evoke fond memories of what brought the sisters to this place in time.

“For some there will be glaring omissions,” she said. “That is good. You will probably bring that up in conversations with your companions. You will be supplying what is missing in this little book. You will be remembering and broadening our story.”

The book took “too long” coming together, Sr. Paschala said. When she first had the idea and discussed it with the publisher, he suggested that it follow Signadou as soon as possible. Because of the interest generated by Signadou, he thought the new book would be a success.

“At the time, I had other commitments and personal situations which slowed me down,” Sr. Paschala said. “In fact, at age 90, my speed is limited to a tortoise’s pace.”

Delivery of the final product is expected sometime in October. “For me writing this book was a joy and confirmed my idea that we are true daughters of St. Dominic,” Sr. Paschala said.

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