Like The Martian Chronicles, it is well to remember that each section was composed separately and can still be read rewarding on its own. “Fiat Homo” is clearly the strongest part of the work, which suffers to some degree as a novel from the very long time spans which separate each of its sections. Richly detailed characterization and real wit are both unusual in SF, and have helped to make this work a classic. The other most memorable feature of the books is the delightful portrait of the feckless brother Francis. Miller obviously could not have anticipated Vatican II’s movement away from the use of Latin, and he imagines its revival in the new Dark Age, with the English of our age functioning only as an archaic ceremonial language. Most SF is highly critical of religion when it touches on the subject at all but Canticle is distinguished by its serious consideration of religious issues, even though it sometimes departs from orthodoxy. Miller remained a Catholic through much his life, though in tension with the Church, (he turned bitterly against it toward the end, as is evident in Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horsewoman). There have been scores of novels set after a nuclear war in a neo-Medieval setting, but none so lovingly developed on the basis of a detailed study of the original Middle Ages. The novel takes for granted familiarity with the idea that after the fall of the Roman Empire, knowledge was preserved in Western Europe almost exclusively in small, isolated communities of priests and monks during a centuries-long dark age, recopied by men who often understood little of the ancient manuscripts of which they were the custodians. Part of the novel’s success derives from its richly realized setting, a post-holocaust America where scraps of pre-war knowledge are gathered and preserved by a Catholic Church which no longer understands that knowledge. Written during the height of 50s concern over the danger of nuclear war, Canticle was the most literarily successful science fiction novel written on the subject until Russell Hoban’s Riddley Walker (1980). Canticle is widely considered a classic, has never been out of print, and is widely taught in science fiction courses. The sequel, Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman was almost finished when he committed suicide, and was completed by Terry Bisson and published in 1997.
Although he published a few stories before and after, and wrote most of a sequel to Canticle, at his death this remained his only successful work. When he reworked the material for the novel, Miller made substantial changes and additions. The first section, also entitled “A Canticle for Leibowitz” (now “Fiat Homo” ) appeared in 1955, the second section appeared as “And the Light Is Risen” (“Fiat Lux” ) the next year, and the conclusion appeared in 1957 as “The Last Canticle” (“Fiat Voluntas Tua” ), all in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Although A Canticle for Leibowitz was published as a book in 1959, one version of it was written earlier.
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