Coady

Moses Coady (1882-1959), was a Roman Catholic Priest born in Margaree, Nova Scotia who famously inspired and led The Antigonish Movement: the co-operative education / economic movement that spread internationally during the mid-twentieth century. COADY explores Moses Coady’s personal triumphs and misgivings alongside a contemporary historian’s attempt to reconcile the spirit of Twentieth Century revolutionary economics with the vanishing political resistance of post-industrial Atlantic Canada. The Antigonish Movement blended adult education, cooperatives, microfinance and rural community development to help small, resource-based communities around Canada’s Maritimes to improve their economic and social circumstances. A group of priests and educators, including Coady, led this movement from a base at the Extension Department at St. Francis Xavier University (St. F.X.) in Antigonish, NS. The credit union systems of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and PEI owe their origins to the Antigonish Movement, which also had an important influence on other provincial systems across Canada.

Unlike other biographical work on Coady and the Antigonish Movement, Cape Breton native Calabrese uses archival material and the Coady papers to focus on private misgivings and personal struggles in addition to his contributions to the co-operative movement and social justice. It is also a metahistory that asks questions about how we mythologize our past and form our cultural identities.

“Calabrese gives a legend his due, someone who is lionized in saintly terms often enough, but is all the more compelling for his very human qualities and inner turmoil. A thoughtful and searching portrait of leadership and what it means to lift one another up in a community. An impressive debut from Donald Calabrese.”  — Kate Beaton (Ducks)

“I grew up in Cape Breton and Moses Coady was my father’s cousin and a revered figure in our house. I loved Calabrese’s graphic take on his life but it wasn’t at all what I expected. COADY is not a straight biography but rather a captivating look at one storyteller’s struggle to reconcile a legendary man with his no-nonsense, if revolutionary, message. How do you separate a scholarly account from the exuberant tales of Dr. Coady’s legendary strength, intellect and compassion? The deeper question at the heart of this book: Why would you want to?”  — Lynn Coady (Hellgoing, The Antagonist)

About the author

Donald Calabrese is a cartoonist, musician, academic and labour activist from Cape Breton. His work has appeared in Nova Graphica (Conundrum Press, 2020), The Dalhousie Review, Broken Pencil and Word Hoard. The graphic mytho-biography COADY is Calabrese’s first full-length comic. In his work, Calabrese thinks about identity and history, interiority and pain. He lives in Cape Breton and thinks about the place a lot.

Publication details

ISBN: 9781772621266
120 page, 6×9 inches
b&w, trade paper
October 2026