As his interview with Monseigneur Brugevin drew to a close in the primate’s vast book-lined Parisian study cluttered with African and Polynesian masks and other artefacts of diverse provenance, Dr Alexandre Sakaroff felt he had excellent grounds for optimism. Just three years after the hecatomb of the Great War with its tragic depletion of French manhood and the corresponding slump in natality, it was abundantly clear to the urbane and enlightened prelate sitting opposite him that while the Church alone could attend to the spiritual hunger fomented by so much suffering, only Science was in a position to find treatments to palliate the dreadful physical loss the nation had suffered. Indeed, this idealistic alliance between the forces of Faith and Progress, informed by a patriotism à toute épreuve, formed the well-springs of the Monseigneur’s world-view.

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