 Isaac Edward Leibowitz had been a Jewish electrical engineer working for the United States military . Surviving the war , he converted to Roman Catholicism and founded a monastic order , the " Albertian Order of Leibowitz " , dedicated to preserving knowledge by hiding books , smuggling them to safety ( <unk> ) , memorizing , and copying them . The Order 's abbey is located in the American southwestern desert , near the military base where Leibowitz had worked before the war , on an old road that may have been " a portion of the shortest route from the Great Salt Lake to Old El Paso . " Leibowitz was eventually betrayed and martyred . Later beatified by the Roman Catholic Church , he became a candidate for sainthood . 
