Just ten days after Oscar Romero became Archbishop of San Salvador in 1977, Rutilio Grande, a close friend who was master of ceremonies at his episcopal ordination, was assassinated. A hail of bullets fired by a death squad killed him, his sacristan and his altar server as they drove to celebrate Mass in Grande’s home village of El Paisnal. Pope Francis seems set not only to beatify Romero; he has indicated that Grande, a prototypical Evangelii Gaudium “missionary disciple”, might well follow. No surprise therefore when the announcement came recently  that Grande’s beatification process is to begin. Thomas Kelly’s book is the first comprehensive analysis in English of Grande’s life. He carefully places Grande’s ministry and martyrdom in the c