Folio 001
Iona: An Island of Books, Relics, and Dangerous Memory
7 minute read↗
The first language, once spoken by all humanity, was lost at Babel.
Can it be recovered?
Daniel, a graduate student at Trinity College Dublin, has built his life around ancient languages and questions of faith. Under the guidance of the brilliant and enigmatic Professor Ashcroft, he uncovers traces of a primordial tongue: not a language that slowly disappeared as mankind evolved, but one that seems to have vanished in a moment.
The search leads from Trinity’s libraries to the hidden archives of the Vatican and, at last, to Iona, where the legacy of cryptic monks may hold the final clue. But studying evil offers no protection from it, or from those who may be hunting the same secrets.
The First Silence is a literary thriller about forbidden knowledge, hidden Vatican archives, and the perilous distance between seeking truth and trying to possess it.
Open the full case file →Advance testimony
Early praise for
The First Silence.
Testimony · No. 01
Michael Morris has written an engaging novel that beautifully unites faith, history, and the search for truth. The First Silence reminds us that authentic faith welcomes honest inquiry and that history, rightly understood, points beyond itself to the God who reveals Himself in Jesus Christ, the fullness of truth.
Most Reverend Samuel J. Aquila, S.T.L.
Archbishop Emeritus of Denver
Bishop of Fargo from 2002 to 2012 and first rector of St. John Vianney Theological Seminary.
Testimony · No. 02
Michael Morris has woven together a gripping mystery that pulls you in and pulls you along, from the cobblestones and academic halls of Dublin, to the lights and shadows of Rome, and the cold salt spray of Iona. The First Silence is a novel that forces questions about the pursuit of Truth over the mere pursuit of knowledge, the search for meaning and purpose, and the movements of grace. Morris' years of careful research and deep study make places and people come alive and leap off the page, and once you start reading, it's hard to put down.
Ann Brodeur, Ph.D.
Medieval historian and Chair of Liberal Arts & Education
Chair of the Academic Senate and Associate Professor at Catholic International University.
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