The John Gilmary
Shea Prize

The Shea Prize at a Glance

Please be sure to consult the submission rules and the rest of the information on this page for the full award requirements.
What it is:

The Shea Prize honors a book that has made the most “original and distinguished contribution” to the history of the Catholic Church.

What works are eligible:

Any book with a 2021 imprint date.

Awarded:

Annually

Purse:

$1,500

Winner announced:

Fall 2022

Submission instructions:

Complete the online form and have three hard-copy versions of your work available for postal mailing.

Submit →

Submission deadline: extended to May 23, 2022

About the Shea Prize

The John Gilmary Shea Prize is given annually to the author of a book, published during a preceding twelve-month period, which is judged by a committee of experts to have made the most original and distinguished contribution to knowledge of the history of the Catholic Church.

Any author who is a citizen or permanent resident of the United States or Canada is eligible. The award consists of $1,500.

Prize Committee

Chair

Massimo Faggioli
Villanova University

massimo.faggioli@villanova.edu

Judge

John C. Seitz
Fordham University

jseitz@fordham.edu

Judge

Karin Vélez
Macalester College

kvelez@macalester.edu

Submission Rules

The general rules for submission are:

  1. The book must have been published in 2020.
  2. The author must be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States or Canada.
  3. The submitter must send three hard copies of the book as indicated on the submission form.
Submit →

Submission deadline: extended to May 23, 2022

Past Winners

Year Awardee Work Publisher
2020 Elizabeth Foster African Catholic: Decolonization and the Transformation of the Church Harvard University Press buy
2019 Karin Vélez The Miraculous Flying House of Loreto: Spreading Catholicism in the Early Modern World Princeton University Press buy
2018 Michelle Armstrong-Partida Defiant Priests Domestic Unions, Violence, and Clerical Masculinity in Fourteenth-Century Catalunya Cornell University Press buy
2017 William B. Taylor Theater of a Thousand Wonders: History of Miraculous Images and Shrines in New Spain Cambridge University Press buy
2016 Katrina B. Olds Forging the Past: Invented Histories in Counter-Reformation Spain Yale University Press buy
2015 Maureen C. Miller Clothing the Clergy: Virtue and Power in Medieval Europe, c. 800-1200 Cornell University Press buy
2014 John W. O’Malley Trent: What Happened at the Council Belknap Press buy
2013 Charles Keith Catholic Vietnam: A Church from Empire to Nation University of California Press buy
2012 John Connelly From Enemy to Brother: The Revolution in Catholic Teaching on the Jews, 1933-1965 Harvard University Press buy
2011 Ulrich L. Lehner Enlightened Monks: The German Benedictines, 1740-1803 Oxford University Press buy
2010 Neal Pease Rome’s Most Faithful Daughter: The Catholic Church and Independent Poland 1914 – 1939 Ohio University Press buy