Cardinal Knowledge

This is the story of Shannon Lahey and the people whose lives become intertwined with hers. Her heroic journey is that of a 19th century woman with 21st century aspirations and sense of self. Her early struggles for professional recognition as mathematics professor of Cambridge University are rebuffed when her gender is discovered. She accepts a position at an abolitionist college in frontier Kentucky, directed by Father LeFonde, a Jesuit. This second effort is destroyed by the Friends of Dixie, abetted by a Vatican Bishop, who was behind her denial of a faculty position and publication of her work. In a raid on the school, by the Friends of Dixie, her students are killed and her sponsor and lover, Father LeFonde, vanishes. Shannon feels guilty because she was not able to defend her students. The faces of her now dead students haunt her. This traumatic event is transformative and instills in her a much more encompassing and urgent goal. She must obtain justice for her dead students. With the help of Queen Victoria, a trap involving a flaw in a mathematics proof is used to expose Vatican Bishop Isetta. In the end, the lives of Robert LeFonde, George Clay, and Lee Mitchell converge to bring about the downfall of Vatican Bishop Isetta. She is honored by the Queen by being installed as Dame Grand Cross in the Order of Bath. She turns down Cambridge faculty offers and returns to her family farm. Her dead students’ faces are smiling.