Michael O'Brien (Canadian author)

Michael D. O'Brien (b. 1948) is a Roman Catholic author, artist, and frequent essayist and lecturer on faith and culture, living in Combermere, Ontario, Canada. Born in Ottawa, he is self-taught, without an academic background.

Fiction

Michael O'Brien is best known for his series of apocalyptic novels collectively entitled Children of the Last Days. The best-selling first novel in the series, Father Elijah: An Apocalyspe (Ignatius Press, 1996), tells the story of a Jewish Holocaust survivor named David Schäfer who converts to Catholicism, becomes a Carmelite priest, and takes the name Father Elijah. The novel includes controversial depictions of Cardinal Ratzinger and Pope John Paul II, who tasks Father Elijah with a secret mission: to confront the Antichrist, bring him to repentance, and thus postpone the Great Tribulation.

O'Brien's other fiction works include:

• The Small Angel (1996)
• Strangers and Sojourners (1997)
• Eclipse of the Sun (1998)
• Plague Journal (1999)
• A Cry of Stone (2003)
• Sophia House (2005)

Non-fiction

Michael O'Brien's articles and lectures tend to focus on his belief that Western civilization is in severe decline as well as heading towards a "New Totalitarianism."

O'Brien's best-known non-fiction work, A Landscape with Dragons: The Battle for Your Child's Mind (Ignatius Press, 1994) — described as controversial by its publisher — presents his concern that contemporary children's literature and culture has strayed from Christian ethics to a more pagan ideology where good and evil is not strongly defined. <ref>[1] Just a Fairy Story? excerpt from Chapter 2 of A Landscape with Dragons: The Battle for Your Child's Mind. The book features O'Brien's criticism of fantasy works ranging from C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia and J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings to Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern. (About one third of this 260-page book is a bibliography of recommended reading which was not penned by O'Brien.)

O'Brien's other non-fiction works include:

• Nazareth Journal magazine (he was founding editor and frequent contributor)
• The Family and the New Totalitarianism (essay collection)
• The Mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary (meditations and paintings)

Art

O'Brien is also an artist, painting in a neo-Byzantine style with a contemporary interpretation; his paintings often sell for upwards of $10,000 USD. (His paintings are featured on the covers of all of his books.)

See also

• Ignatius Press
• Harry Potter

External links

• studiObrien, Michael D. O'Brien's official website
• Transcript of the Vatican Radio program 105live on Thursday, July 14, 2005, the Vatican's official response to the "Pope Opposes Harry Potter" claims brought forth by Michael O'Brien through LifeSite.
• Book Review of Father Elijah: An Apocalypse, from Vivificat!
• Interview with Michael D. O'Brien in Gilbert! Magazine (1998)