On October 14, 2018, Archbishop Óscar Romero was canonized by the Roman Catholic Church.  The ceremony made official what had long been recognized by many Christians: Romero, a holy man who defended the dignity of the poor and marginalized in El Salvador, became a martyr when a government assassin struck him down while he celebrated the Mass.  The path to Romero’s canonization was tumultuous, tied up with theological questions about liberation theology, the relationship between faith and politics, and the meaning of martyrdom itself.

Michael E. Lee’s new book on Romero, Revolutionary Saint, is an indispensable text for those who wish to better understand the archbishop.  Deftly combining academic rigor and accessible prose, it provides a theological analysis of Romero that builds on but goes beyond biography and political analysis.  Lee not only discusses the core questions around Romero’s conversion and martyrdom; he uses Romero’s homilies, pastoral letters, and diaries to present Romero’s theology of conversion and martyrdom in a way that provides new and deeper insight into the archbishop’s life, witness, and death.

The book’s argument is built around the question of memory.  Lee argues that the nearly forty years since Romero’s death and the various narratives that have arisen are competing efforts at “remembering” Romero.  The claim of sainthood is one example of such “dynamics of memory” (xvii), but so too are the efforts to paint Romero simply as a political dissident.  Lee builds on these narratives, but he pushes against any simple hagiographies or political dismissals by drawing on how Romero’s theological vision shaped his life as a disciple.

The text begins with a chapter on Romero’s theological formation, rooted in the neo-Scholastic manualist tradition.  He then tracks how this formation continued through Vatican II, the CELAM conferences at Medellin and Puebla, and the rise of liberation theology.  Lee next considers the question of conversion, using the lenses of continuity and discontinuity often applied to Vatican II to consider how Romero’s conversion was perhaps less of a rupture than sometimes portrayed.  However, Lee also ties Romero’s conversion to an expanded vision, which enabled Romero to see the structural realities of El Salvador and their impact on the people.  This leads Lee to an examination of faith and politics.  He argues that for Romero, to be a disciple meant one must denounce sin, be converted, and proclaim the reign of Christ (100).  Romero was deeply and consistently concerned with the problem of personal sin, but part of his own conversion was recognizing the extent and depths of systemic sin, which were a signal obstacle to proclaiming the kingdom.

Lee’s fourth chapter, on Romero and martyrdom, is perhaps the strongest and most theologically insightful of his excellent text.  He outlines the Catholic tradition’s core questions about martyrdom: was it a violent death, freely accepted by the victim, who was killed out of odium fidei, hatred for the faith?  Lee notes that the first two are not questioned with Romero, but the last had been the sticking point.  Lee then looks at Romero’s theology of martyrdom, developed through the homilies that Romero gave at the funerals of six priests murdered during his tenure as Archbishop of San Salvador.  Lee analyzes the texts and contexts of each of these murders, arguing that Romero had a developing understanding of martyrdom as a witness to love that challenges the injustice of the world.  Lee then creatively connects the theology of martyrdom to the theology of poverty expressed at Medellin.  Just as all ought to recognize their fundamental dependence on God, so too all are called to be martyrs of the spirit who live prayerfully and sacrificially for the Gospel.  Yet the church also must recognize those who are materially and socially poor and the “martyrs of reality” who suffer violence and injustice at the hands of others (and of discriminatory systems).  Finally, Lee describes those “martyrs of solidarity” who bear the brunt of injustice and are killed for it.  Lee argues that Romero is just such a paradigmatic martyr of solidarity, whose death also drew attention to the martyrdom of the crucified people of El Salvador.

Lee concludes by considering Romero’s place in liberation theology, arguing that the preferential option for the poor was the core of his theological vision.  His conversion was intimately tied to encounter with the poor, and his martyrdom was both the result of his witness and a further testament to his preferential option.

Revolutionary Saint is an invaluable text, required for any reader interested in liberation theology, conversion, martyrdom, or the Archbishop himself.  The book is an excellent resource for scholars and teachers of theology, especially those who wish to look at contemporary questions around holiness and discipleship.  Lee’s book would also be a useful resource at the parish level that could lead the faithful to reflect on what it means to be called to discipleship and to spiritual martyrdom in one’s own context.  Church reading groups should be able to have holy and insightful discussions stemming from it.