By Jay Sorgi • Posted August 18, 2026

Its title comes from the name of a Catholic church in University City. Its plot starts and ends in New York, but many of the book’s critical moments unfold through the lens of Catholic Philadelphia.

Agatha’s Angel, written by Villanova graduate Michael Vassallo, tells the story of a man who loses his mother and fiancée and finds healing through an inspirational relationship that helps bring him closer to God.

“I want you to know that God loves you and has a plan for you,” Vassallo said describing the words of Amy, a faith-filled young woman of mixed race whom the main character, John, meets on a train during the early 2000s, when the book is set.

“If you want to be with me, you have to understand Jesus is a very important part of my life. I want him to be important in yours. Not just for my benefit, but also for your own,” Vassallo said, describing Amy’s evangelization of John later in their relationship.

Vassallo said he experienced a similar conversation with a woman on a train early in his career.

“I see a mysterious woman, and she’s telling me all these things like Your eyes are the gateway to your soul. I could tell you have a beautiful soul. You’re very real. You’re very special to God. Did you know that?’” Vassallo  recalled.

“She wrote me a beautiful note in a little prayer book, and I still have that note and prayer book.”

The journey of Agatha’s Angel explores themes of grief, sin, forgiveness, racism, healing and more within John’s life and family.

“When you first meet him, he’s raw, immature and broken through tragedy. But as the story unfolds through his blossoming relationship with Amy, he experiences and encounters things and life lessons he never knew before.”

The novel also explores much of Philadelphia, near where Vassallo went to college and where he still feels at home.

Characters experience a moment of healing at St. Agatha-St. James Church in West Philadelphia through the intercession of St. Agatha.

The book takes readers to St. John the Evangelist Church near City Hall, St. Patrick’s Church in Rittenhouse, and the Cathedral Basilica of.SS. Peter and Paul located at 18^th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.  They experience Logan Circle at night when skyscrapers are lit up in pink for a marathon raising money for breast cancer, which Amy and John both run.

That’s just a small part of Philadelphia that readers experience.

“I could visualize in my head what it looks like because of all the times I’ve been down there, and that inspiration infused into my story,” Vassallo said.

“They go to Moriarty’s Pub to have dinner,” he said. “They also visit the National Museum of American Jewish History [and the] African-American Museum. They go on the Delaware River and visit Chinatown and so many South Philly spots. They go to see a Flyers game one night while they’re down there.”

Vassallo said they also see God’s handiwork in many moments throughout the story, including a vision they shared.

“It’s November, which is the month we commemorate All Souls. John and Amy are back home and they’re praying in church for the souls in purgatory,” he said.

“They see certain souls of people that were affiliated with them in their past that have gone on before them. They get to witness them being released from purgatory.”

Vassallo said that much of the book includes aspects of his own life journey, including not only an encounter on a train, but also the fact that he and his main character both attended Villanova.

“The story is fictitious, but the main character lost his job. I also, at around that same time, lost mine,” he said.

“I went through growth, questioning and soul searching, just like John did. I had a new girlfriend at the time, like John did, and she tried to help me. I’m now married to her.”

He said the reader gets the chance to see how God has plans for us that we easily fail to fathom.

“We go about our business and we say, ‘We’re going to do this. We’re going to do that.’ Sometimes, we get curveballs thrown in our path,” Vassallo said.

“God doesn’t expect us to like the curveballs, but what he wants us to do, which we don’t always do because we’re not good listeners, is he wants us to trust that he’ll get us through the storm. There’ll be a rainbow at the end.”

Vassallo said plenty of encounters with God’s grace happen throughout the book in ways that may not reveal when the “rainbow” will appear, but he said God wants us to trust.

“He wants us to know that he’s got our backs,” Vassallo said. “He’s got surprises for us. We just have to trust.”

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For more information or to purchase Michael Vassallo’s novel, Agatha’s Angel, visit Amazon.