Cuba experienced during the early 19th century an intellectual explosion whose impact has reverberated into the 20th century. It was sparked by a shabby, ascetic little priest with luminous eyes and an eloquent smile, who, while laboring for 25 years as a missionary in New York, kept the lines of contact open with his forward-looking followers. He believed in dignity, social justice, and freedom, under God and His Church, for every people, and he did not consider these obtainable for Cuba under Spanish rule. A Cuban scholar in our times has designated him, “Forger of the Conscience of Cuba.”