The Anglo Peruvian Society is very pleased to announce a ZOOM lecture on Tuesday November 10th at 6pm by Father Michael Garnett.
“Whilst I have my faithful wife... priestly vocation – I also enjoy having a mistress... being an author.”
Thus Michael Garnett introduces us to the topic of his talk. As well as his most recent novel – Tamborín y el architecto – Michael has just finished writing a memoir of his experiences as an author in Peru. This will be the topic of his talk to the APS: why did he become a writer? What does he write about?
Michael Garnett is a Roman Catholic priest from England, who has lived in Peru – mainly in the northern Andean city of Cajamarca – for more than 50 years. He has been a parish priest; a teacher; an inveterate walker of the mountain regions where he lives, bringing communion to isolated communities; a painter of Andean life and scenery; a poet, playwright, critic and novelist; a polemical writer and advocate on environmental and human rights issues – and, a black belt in karate.
Michael will tell us about his life as a writer in the Peru he loves: a country that has changed beyond recognition over the lifetime he has spent there – although the cell where the conquistadores imprisoned the Inca Atahualpa still stands yards from Michael’s home in Cajamarca. His home contains a shrine to Cardinal Newman: a unique meeting of cultures brought together in one exceptional Anglo-Peruvian man.
His talk is not to be missed!
Biography of Father Michael Garnett
Born in London in 1935, Michael went to school in England. After secondary education at Ellesmere College in Shropshire, he did National Service as an infantry subaltern in the British Army before going to Oriel College Oxford to read Theology. Oriel, founded by Edward II in 1326, is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Michael graduated from Oxford in 1958 and went from there to study Philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he completed his studies in 1961 and was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest four years later in the Diocese of Westminster.
After working for two years in a London parish, Michael was sent to Peru by the then Cardinal of Westminster in 1967. For five years, he worked with La Sociedad de los Padres de San Columbano in the parish of Santa Cruz in San Martin de Porres, Lima.
From 1972, Michael came under the Diocese of Cajamarca in the northern Andes of Peru and worked in the Province of Hualgayoc; in 1974, he took Peruvian nationality and in 1976, became the parish priest of Cajabamba.
In 1982, Michael became Spiritual Director of the San Jose seminary in Cajamarca, where he stayed until 1994, latterly as Rector. For the first six years of that period, he was also President of the Human Rights Commission of Cajamarca. For the remainder of the ‘90s, Michael was parish priest of Huamachuco Cathedral, then took the same role in the town of Celendin.
In 2001, Michael became Chaplain to the Monastery of San Jose and Santa Teresita back in Cajamarca and was also appointed Honorary Fellow of St Mary’s Twickenham, London’s only Roman Catholic university.
RPP the Peruvian broadcaster named him Cajamarca Personality of the Year in 2010, the same year the National University of Cajamarca bestowed a doctorate honoris causa.
More recently, Father Michael has continued to help out at Cajamarca Cathedral, has been chaplain in the Cristo Ramos chapel in the city, and is now chaplain of San Martin de Porres church – thus circling back to the patron saint of the barriowhere he first worked in Lima half a century before!
El Cura Karateka
During his university years, Michael was an accomplished oarsman and captain of college boats. At the age of 55, he began to practise karate, Shorin-Ryu style in the School of Miyazato. Since then, he has continued his karate and taken part in many regional and national championships. He is Black Belt, Fourth Dan – and well into his 70s, Michael was teaching self defence to Cajamarca police cadets a third his age and less!
We look forward to welcoming you all to Zoom. Login details to be sent closer to event date.
Ticket prices to join the event: £7 for members / £10 for non-members.
