C. Bernard Ruffin is a native of Washington, D.C., with a degree in history from Bowdoin College and an M.Div. from Yale. He taught history in the Fairfax County high schools for twenty-five years and is the pastor of the Lutheran Church of the Holy Comforter in Washington, D.C. He is the author of several books on Christian history and genealogy and the biographies of Padre Pio, Saint Andre Bessette, and Fanny Crosby.