Folio I · A work of fiction

Provisional publication · November MMXXVI

From the archives of faith & language

The First
Silence

The Reliquary of Iona

A literary thriller of faith, forbidden language, and the secrets history was meant to keep.

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Concept cover of The First Silence: The Reliquary of Iona
Plate 01Concept jacket · final artwork in development

Michael J. Morris · Novelist

Trinity College Dublin · PhD

Biblical scholar · Author

Some languages are lost.
One was silenced.

Daniel, a graduate student at Trinity College Dublin, spends his days deciphering old languages under the mentorship of the enigmatic Professor Ashcroft. Then a letter arrives from a long-lost friend.

What begins as a scholarly pursuit draws Daniel from Dublin into the heart of Catholic power—and toward Iona, where a secret about language, faith, and human pride has waited in silence.

“Not a language that evolved—but one shattered by divine will.”

Testimony · No. 01

Samuel J. Aquila

Archbishop Emeritus
of Denver

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.

II · The author

Scholar / Teacher / Novelist

Michael J. Morris
Plate 02Michael J. Morris, PhD

The scholar
behind the mystery.

Michael J. Morris is a biblical scholar and novelist whose work explores the meeting place of faith, language, history, and the unseen spiritual realm. He earned his PhD in Biblical Studies from Trinity College Dublin and his MA in Scripture from the Augustine Institute.

He is the author of Warding Off Evil, has published in The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, and contributed to the Augustine Institute’s Bible in a Year and Word of Life curriculum projects.

01 · PhD
Trinity College Dublin
02 · Published
Catholic Biblical Quarterly
03 · Author
Warding Off Evil

III · The research

The archive beneath the fiction

Warding Off Evil book cover

Monograph · WUNT II 451

Warding Off Evil: Apotropaic Tradition in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Synoptic Gospels

Morris’s study of early Jewish and Christian responses to demonic evil supplies the historical and supernatural world of his fiction with its distinctive depth.

Published by Mohr Siebeck

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IV · The launch register

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silence.

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