A Franciscan Troubadour

Father Larry Gosselin O.F.M. is not only a priest at the Santa Barbara Mission, but also a troubadour with his guitar and now an author. His latest tome is titled Landscapes, Ballad of a Franciscan Troubadour. This book chronicles his life through the world travels he has taken. As his longtime friend Brother Bill Short says, “Local boy makes good. We grew up looking at the same views of Mt. Rainier towering over the Cascade Range in Washington State. From Puyallup to Machu, via Calcutta to Cochabamba and on to Mescalero and Mexico, this autobiographical travelogue, part journal, part socio-geographic-ethnographic treatise, takes us along on a rollicking journey to meet figures both famous and obscure. Mother Teresa arrives, flanked by Arlo Guthrie and Dolly Parton, Saint Francis and a San Carlo Apache called Al.”

Father Larry said, “I have written Landscapes, Ballad of a Franciscan Troubadour as a personal memoir. I have not directly intended this book for any one person, or group of individuals. I have, first of all, written to myself, about myself, in remembering cherished landscapes that have crisscrossed the soul and soil of my life journey. I hope that your hearts may be ‘opened’ to these landscapes of the soul as mine has been.”

We heard from Father Larry at the Santa Barbara Club where Montecito Bank and Trust’s MClub was sponsoring a book signing for him and everyone received a signed book. His editor Miki Landside-Sanders said, “May this memoir of the landscapes of Father Larry’s life encourage your own desire to take the long and high road to that pinnacle of communion with all that God has in store for you.”

The book is for sale at the Old Mission Santa Barbara gift shop. Father Larry and MClub director Maria McCall will be leading a trip to the Shrines of Quebec on October 1-8, 2022. For MClub information, call (805) 564-7362.