Vergil: Father of the West

By Theodor Haecker || Translated by Anthony Giambrone, O.P. Vergil, Father of the West may best be classified as a work transcending classification. As its translator Anthony Giambrone, O.P., remarks in his Introduction: Haecker has written a book about a poet and his poetry which is also “a book about love and work, tragedy, piety, and providence.” To the question, “Vergil—Father of the West? Why Vergil?”—Haecker responds: “It is a title cum fundamento in re.… Vergil is princeps in every respect.” Vergil is both vision and voice for that order and power called “the West.” Haecker reveals civilization’s urgent need for that vision and voice in order to return to and rest upon its divine foundations. As Augustine said, this poeta nobilissimus did not speak simply by or for himself, non a se ipso; and if there is one thing Haecker teaches us about the West’s Father, it is this. Vergil points beyond himself with an overflowing fullness. (Anthony giambrone, O.P.) To the unabridged transl