List of Catholic authors
Encyclopedia
The author
s listed on this page should be limited to those who identify as Catholic authors in some form. This does not mean they are necessarily orthodox in their beliefs. It does mean they identify as Catholic in a religious, cultural, or even aesthetic manner. The common denominator is that at least some (and preferably the majority) of their writing is imbued with a Catholic religious, cultural or aesthetic sensibility.
The most notable figures are Cardinal Newman, a convert, one of the leading prose writers of his time and also a substantial poet, and the priest-poet Gerard Manley Hopkins
, also a convert, although most the latter's works were only published many years after his death. In the early 20th century, G. K. Chesterton
, a convert, and Hilaire Belloc
, a French-born Catholic who became a British subject, promoted Roman Catholic views in direct apologetics as well as in popular, lighter genres, such as Chesterton's "Father Brown
" detective stories. From the 1930s on the "Catholic novel" became a force impossible to ignore, with leading novelists of the day, Evelyn Waugh
and Graham Greene
, converts both, dealing with distinctively Catholic themes in their work.
In America, Flannery O'Connor
wrote powerful short stories with a Catholic sensibility and focus, set in the American South where she was decidedly in the religious minority.
, Georges Bernanos
, François Mauriac
, and Julien Green
.
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
s listed on this page should be limited to those who identify as Catholic authors in some form. This does not mean they are necessarily orthodox in their beliefs. It does mean they identify as Catholic in a religious, cultural, or even aesthetic manner. The common denominator is that at least some (and preferably the majority) of their writing is imbued with a Catholic religious, cultural or aesthetic sensibility.
Croatian language
- Ivan GundulićIvan GundulicIvan Franov Gundulić is the most celebrated Croatian Baroque poet from the Republic of Ragusa. His work embodies central characteristics of Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation: religious fervor, insistence on "vanity of this world" and zeal in opposition to "infidels." Gundulić's major...
– His work embodies central characteristics of Catholic Counter-Reformation - Marko MarulićMarko MarulicMarko Marulić |Split]], 18 August 1450 – Split, 5 January 1524) was a Croatian national poet and Christian humanist, known as the Crown of the Croatian Medieval Age and the father of the Croatian Renaissance. He signed his works as Marko Marulić Splićanin , Marko Pečenić, Marcus Marulus ...
– Marulić was inspired by the Bible, Antique writers, and Christian hagiographies
Cymraeg (Welsh language)
- Dewi NantbrânDewi NantbrânDewi Nantbrân was a Welsh Franciscan. He wrote the "Catechism Byrr o'r Athrawiaeth Ghristnogol" , a short catechism of Christian doctrine in the Welsh language.-Links:* ] Wikipedia)]...
– A FranciscanFranciscanMost Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
who wrote a catechism in Cymraeg. - Dom William Pugh (Welsh author)William Pugh (Welsh author)Captain Gwilym Puw was a Welsh Catholic poet and Royalist officer and a member of a prominent Recusant family from the Creuddyn in north Wales....
- composed a Welsh poem in which loyalty to his king is combined with devotion to the Roman Catholic Church. - Gruffydd Robert – An ardent Catholic who wrote in exile during the Elizabethan era. (His article is a stub though).
- Saunders LewisSaunders LewisSaunders Lewis was a Welsh poet, dramatist, historian, literary critic, and political activist. He was a prominent Welsh nationalist and a founder of the Welsh National Party...
- poet, dramatist, historian and leading figure in modern Welsh nationalismWelsh nationalismWelsh nationalism emphasises the distinctiveness of Welsh language, culture, and history, and calls for more self-determination for Wales, which may include more Devolved powers for the Welsh Assembly or full independence from the United Kingdom.-Conquest:...
, a convert to Catholicism
Czech language
- Jindřich Šimon BaarJindrich Šimon BaarJindřich Šimon Baar was a Czech Catholic priest and writer, realist, author of the so-called country prose. He joined the Czech Catholic modern style, but later severed the ties with that movement...
– ordained as Catholic priest in 1892, wrote about church reform. - Jakub DemlJakub DemlJakub Deml was a Czech Catholic priest and writer.-Life:Deml was born in Tasov near Třebíč, then Austria-Hungary, now Czech Republic. In 1902 he was ordained Roman Catholic priest, but in 1907-1908 and after 1909 he was pensioned, partly due to conflicts with his superiors. He became one of the...
– between 1902 and 1909 he was a Catholic priest, suspended in 1912, publishing of his books was prohibited after the communist coup. - Ivan DivišIvan DivišIvan Diviš was a significant Czech poet and essayist of the 2nd half of the 20th century.- Biography :...
– in 1964 he converted to Catholicism, this was during their CommunistCommunismCommunism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
period and he left after the Prague SpringPrague SpringThe Prague Spring was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union after World War II...
ended. - Jaroslav DurychJaroslav DurychJaroslav Durych was a Czech prose writer, poet, playwright, journalist, and military surgeon.Durych was born in Hradec Králové...
– originally a physician; prolific essayist, also poet; presumably his greatest work is the trilogy Bloudění (from the Thirty Years War), translated into several languages, including English. - Tomáš HalíkTomáš HalíkTomáš Halík is a Czech public intellectual, Roman Catholic priest, and scholar.-Biography:He studied sociology and philosophy in Prague and in Bangor, UK. During Communist rule, he was banned from teaching and worked in various occupations, e.g. as a psychotherapist for drug addicts and alcoholics...
– priest in the underground church during Communism, in least five books. - Vladimír HolanVladimír HolanVladimír Holan was a Czech poet famous for employing obscure language, dark topics and pessimist views in his poems. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in the late 1960s. He was a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia....
– he left the Communist PartyCommunist Party of CzechoslovakiaThe Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, in Czech and in Slovak: Komunistická strana Československa was a Communist and Marxist-Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992....
and reentered the Catholic Church. - Bohuslav Hasištejnský z LobkovicBohuslav Hasištejnský z LobkovicBohuslav Hasištejnský z Lobkovic was a nobleman, writer and humanist of old Bohemian family of Lobkovic.He was born at Hasištejn Castle near Kadaň, Bohemia. He studied in Bologna and Ferrara and converted from Utraquism to Catholicism there...
– he was elected Bishop of OlomoucOlomoucOlomouc is a city in Moravia, in the east of the Czech Republic. The city is located on the Morava river and is the ecclesiastical metropolis and historical capital city of Moravia. Nowadays, it is an administrative centre of the Olomouc Region and sixth largest city in the Czech Republic...
, but he was refused by the pope. - Jan ZahradníčekJan ZahradnícekJan Zahradníček was a Czech poet of the early and mid-20th century. Because of his writings and Catholic orientation he was imprisoned as an enemy of Communists after their coup in 1948.From 1919 to 1926 he studied at Classical Grammar School in Třebíč...
– Catholic mystic poet of the early and mid-20th century; because of his writings he was imprisoned as an enemy of the Communists after their coup in 1948. - Jan LipšanskýJan LipšanskýJan Lipšanský is a Czech journalist, screenplay writer, writer and stage director.He studied at Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, screenplaywriting and dramaturgy...
– contemporary Czech writer of Catholic essays (some of them broadcasted by Radio Vaticana and some mystery stories with a modern monk solving them.
Dutch language
- Lambertus Jacobus Johannes Aafjes, also known as Bertus AafjesBertus Aafjes' , known as ', was a Dutch poet whose work is marked by his devout Catholicism. was born in Amsterdam. He wrote poems on the resistance to the German occupation during the World War II...
, 20th century poet; poems such as "Een Voetreis naar Rome" (1946) and "In den Beginne"(1949) show a strong Catholic faith. - Guido GezelleGuido GezelleGuido Pieter Theodorus Josephus Gezelle was an influential Flemish language writer and poet and a Roman Catholic priest from Belgium.- Life :...
(from the predominantly Catholic FlandersFlandersFlanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
) - Henri NouwenHenri NouwenHenri Jozef Machiel Nouwen , was a Dutch-born Catholic priest and writer who authored 40 books about spirituality.- Writing :...
- Joost van den VondelJoost van den VondelJoost van den Vondel was a Dutch writer and playwright. He is considered the most prominent Dutch poet and playwright of the 17th century. His plays are the ones from that period that are still most frequently performed, and his epic Joannes de Boetgezant , on the life of John the Baptist, has...
, leading dramatist and poet of the Dutch Golden AgeDutch Golden AgeThe Golden Age was a period in Dutch history, roughly spanning the 17th century, in which Dutch trade, science, military and art were among the most acclaimed in the world. The first half is characterised by the Eighty Years' War till 1648...
; he converted to Catholicism from a Mennonite background in 1640-1. His masterpieces are his dramas on religious and biblical themes, e.g. Lucifer, Noah and his short poems. - Gerard ReveGerard ReveGerard Kornelis van het Reve was a Dutch writer. He adopted a shortened version of his name, Gerard Reve in 1973, and that is how he is known today. Together with Willem Frederik Hermans and Harry Mulisch, he is considered one of the "Great Three" of Dutch post-war literature...
English language
As the anti-Catholic laws were lifted in the mid-19th century, there was a revival of Catholicism in the British Empire, there has been a distinct Catholic strain in English literature.The most notable figures are Cardinal Newman, a convert, one of the leading prose writers of his time and also a substantial poet, and the priest-poet Gerard Manley Hopkins
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. was an English poet, Roman Catholic convert, and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous 20th-century fame established him among the leading Victorian poets...
, also a convert, although most the latter's works were only published many years after his death. In the early 20th century, G. K. Chesterton
G. K. Chesterton
Gilbert Keith Chesterton, KC*SG was an English writer. His prolific and diverse output included philosophy, ontology, poetry, plays, journalism, public lectures and debates, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics, and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction....
, a convert, and Hilaire Belloc
Hilaire Belloc
Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc was an Anglo-French writer and historian who became a naturalised British subject in 1902. He was one of the most prolific writers in England during the early twentieth century. He was known as a writer, orator, poet, satirist, man of letters and political activist...
, a French-born Catholic who became a British subject, promoted Roman Catholic views in direct apologetics as well as in popular, lighter genres, such as Chesterton's "Father Brown
Father Brown
Father Brown is a fictional character created by English novelist G. K. Chesterton, who stars in 52 short stories, later compiled in five books. Chesterton based the character on Father John O'Connor , a parish priest in Bradford who was involved in Chesterton's conversion to Catholicism in 1922...
" detective stories. From the 1930s on the "Catholic novel" became a force impossible to ignore, with leading novelists of the day, Evelyn Waugh
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...
and Graham Greene
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
, converts both, dealing with distinctively Catholic themes in their work.
In America, Flannery O'Connor
Flannery O'Connor
Mary Flannery O'Connor was an American novelist, short-story writer and essayist. An important voice in American literature, O'Connor wrote two novels and 32 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries...
wrote powerful short stories with a Catholic sensibility and focus, set in the American South where she was decidedly in the religious minority.
- Lord ActonJohn Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron ActonJohn Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, KCVO, DL , known as Sir John Dalberg-Acton, 8th Bt from 1837 to 1869 and usually referred to simply as Lord Acton, was an English Catholic historian, politician, and writer...
– a 19th-century British historian from a Catholic RecusantRecusancyIn the history of England and Wales, the recusancy was the state of those who refused to attend Anglican services. The individuals were known as "recusants"...
family; disagreed with ultramontanismUltramontanismUltramontanism is a religious philosophy within the Roman Catholic community that places strong emphasis on the prerogatives and powers of the Pope...
and had Old Catholic ChurchOld Catholic ChurchThe term Old Catholic Church is commonly used to describe a number of Ultrajectine Christian churches that originated with groups that split from the Roman Catholic Church over certain doctrines, most importantly that of Papal Infallibility...
sympathies, but never left the Church; known best for the aphorism that "power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely". - John L. Allen, Jr.John L. Allen, Jr.John L. Allen, Jr. is an American journalist based in Rome who specializes in news about the Catholic Church. He is senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter and vaticanologist of CNN and NPR. Allen is also the author of several books about the Catholic Church...
– Journalist who has written on Opus DeiOpus DeiOpus Dei, formally known as The Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei , is an organization of the Catholic Church that teaches that everyone is called to holiness and that ordinary life is a path to sanctity. The majority of its membership are lay people, with secular priests under the...
and Pope Benedict XVIPope Benedict XVIBenedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
. - Elizabeth Anscombe, English philosopher
- Matt BarberMatt BarberMatt Barber is an English film, television and theatre actor.-Early life and education:He grew up in Hampshire, training classically as a chorister at Winchester Cathedral before receiving academic and music scholarships to Bradfield College, where he was head boy.Barber studied Classics and...
- dance professional and author - Maurice BaringMaurice BaringMaurice Baring was an English man of letters, known as a dramatist, poet, novelist, translator and essayist, and also as a travel writer and war correspondent...
- English man of letters, convert, friend of Belloc and Chesterton. - James K Baxter (1926–1972) a great New Zealand poet, also dramatist, literary critic and social commentator. He was a convert to Catholicism.
- Hilaire BellocHilaire BellocJoseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc was an Anglo-French writer and historian who became a naturalised British subject in 1902. He was one of the most prolific writers in England during the early twentieth century. He was known as a writer, orator, poet, satirist, man of letters and political activist...
– strongly-held, orthodox Catholic views; wrote apologetics, famous comic verse, historical, political and economic works and well-known account of a pilgrimage he took on foot, "The Path to Rome"; French-born but became a British subject and politician. - Robert Hugh BensonRobert Hugh BensonRobert Hugh Benson was the youngest son of Edward White Benson and his wife, Mary...
– convert and priest who wrote Lord of the WorldLord of the WorldLord of the World is a 1908 apocalyptic novel by Robert Hugh Benson. It is sometimes deemed one of the first modern dystopias. Michael D. O'Brien's Catholic apocalyptic series, Children of the Last Days follows a very similar theme as well....
and apologetics. - William Peter BlattyWilliam Peter BlattyWilliam Peter Blatty is an American writer and filmmaker. The novel The Exorcist, written in 1971, is his magnum opus; he also penned the subsequent screenplay version of the film, for which he won an Academy Award....
-- screenwriter and novelist. Best known for the novel The ExorcistThe ExorcistThe Exorcist is a novel of supernatural suspense by William Peter Blatty, published by Harper & Row in 1971. It was inspired by a 1949 case of demonic possession and exorcism that Blatty heard about while he was a student in the class of 1950 at Georgetown University, a Jesuit school...
and Oscar winning screenplay adapting same. - Giannina BraschiGiannina BraschiGiannina Braschi is a Puerto Rican writer. She is credited with writing the first Spanglish novel YO-YO BOING! and the poetry trilogy Empire of Dreams , which chronicles the Latin American immigrant's experiences in the United States...
, 21st century vanguard poet and novelist from Puerto Rico; author of Yo-Yo Boing! and Empire of Dreams. - Heywood BrounHeywood BrounHeywood Campbell Broun, Jr. was an American journalist. He worked as a sportswriter, newspaper columnist, and editor in New York City. He founded the American Newspaper Guild, now known as The Newspaper Guild. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he is best remembered for his writing on social issues and...
- convert - George Mackay BrownGeorge Mackay BrownGeorge Mackay Brown , was a Scottish poet, author and dramatist, whose work has a distinctly Orcadian character...
- Scottish poet and author - Orestes BrownsonOrestes BrownsonOrestes Augustus Brownson was a New England intellectual and activist, preacher, labor organizer, and noted Catholic convert and writer...
- 19th century American writer and convert. - Vincent BuckleyVincent BuckleyVincent Thomas Buckley was an Australian poet, teacher, editor, essayist and critic.-Life:He was born in 1925 in Romsey, Victoria and was educated at both the University of Melbourne and the :University of Cambridge, and died in Melbourne in 1988..Buckley edited the magazine, Prospect, from 1958...
- Australian poet - William F. Buckley, Jr.William F. Buckley, Jr.William Frank Buckley, Jr. was an American conservative author and commentator. He founded the political magazine National Review in 1955, hosted 1,429 episodes of the television show Firing Line from 1966 until 1999, and was a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist. His writing was noted for...
- American writer, journalist and conservative commenator, founder of National ReviewNational ReviewNational Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...
; author of God and Man at YaleGod and Man at YaleGod and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of “Academic Freedom” is a book published in 1951 by William F. Buckley, Jr., who eventually became a leading voice in the American conservative movement in the latter half of the twentieth century....
. - Anthony BurgessAnthony BurgessJohn Burgess Wilson – who published under the pen name Anthony Burgess – was an English author, poet, playwright, composer, linguist, translator and critic. The dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange is Burgess's most famous novel, though he dismissed it as one of his lesser works...
- English novelist, critic and composer. - Morley CallaghanMorley CallaghanMorley Callaghan, was a Canadian novelist, short story writer, playwright, TV and radio personality.-Biography:...
- Canadian novelist and short story writer - Roy CampbellRoy Campbell (poet)Ignatius Royston Dunnachie Campbell, better known as Roy Campbell, was an Anglo-African poet and satirist. He was considered by T. S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas and Edith Sitwell to have been one of the best poets of the period between the First and Second World Wars...
– convert, South African poet. - Geoffrey ChaucerGeoffrey ChaucerGeoffrey Chaucer , known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey...
- the greatest English poet of the Middle AgesMiddle AgesThe Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
and author of The Canterbury Tales, he mocks corrupt clergy, but also presents an ideal priest who teaches sound Catholic doctrine in "The Parson's Tale" - Brainard CheneyBrainard CheneyBrainard Cheney was a novelist, playwright and essayist from Georgia associated primarily with the literary movement known as the Agrarians.-Biography:...
- convert; novelist and playwright. - G. K. ChestertonG. K. ChestertonGilbert Keith Chesterton, KC*SG was an English writer. His prolific and diverse output included philosophy, ontology, poetry, plays, journalism, public lectures and debates, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics, and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction....
– English convert, wrote apologetics such as Orthodoxy (book)Orthodoxy (book)Orthodoxy is a book by G. K. Chesterton that has become a classic of Christian apologetics. Chesterton considered this book a companion to his other work, Heretics...
, novels such as The Man Who Was Thursday, poetry, biographies and literary studies, and lighter works like the "Father BrownFather BrownFather Brown is a fictional character created by English novelist G. K. Chesterton, who stars in 52 short stories, later compiled in five books. Chesterton based the character on Father John O'Connor , a parish priest in Bradford who was involved in Chesterton's conversion to Catholicism in 1922...
" detective stories. - Brian CoffeyBrian CoffeyBrian Coffey was an Irish poet and publisher. His work was informed by his Catholicism and by his background in science and philosophy, and his connection to surrealism. For these reasons, he is seen as being closer to an intellectual European Catholic tradition than to mainstream Irish Catholic...
– Irish writer of 'The Notion of Order According to St. Thomas Aquinas' and a Catholic poet. - Ronan CoghlanRonan CoghlanRonan Coghlan is an Irish writer living in Bangor, County Down in Northern Ireland.Coghlan was born Dublin in 1948. He graduated from Trinity College, Dublin ....
- Irish writer on mythology and author of a Sherlock Holmes pastiche. - Felicitas CorriganFelicitas CorriganDame Felicitas Corrigan OSB was an English Benedictine nun, author and humanitarian.She was born Kathleen Corrigan into a large Liverpool family, and developed a talent as an organist. In 1933, she entered Stanbrook Abbey in Worcestershire as a nun, and eventually became director of its choir...
– Nun and author. - Richard CrashawRichard CrashawRichard Crashaw , English poet, styled "the divine," was part of the Seventeenth-century Metaphysical School of poets.-Life:...
– 17th century metaphysical poet and convert to Catholicism; his religious poetry includes the famous "Hymn to St. Teresa". - Dorothy DayDorothy DayDorothy Day was an American journalist, social activist and devout Catholic convert; she advocated the Catholic economic theory of Distributism. She was also considered to be an anarchist, and did not hesitate to use the term...
– American convert, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement. - Christopher DawsonChristopher DawsonChristopher Henry Dawson was a British independent scholar, who wrote many books on cultural history and Christendom. Christopher H. Dawson has been called "the greatest English-speaking Catholic historian of the twentieth century".-Life:...
– British historian and convert who proposed that the medieval Catholic Church was an essential factor in the rise of European civilisation. - Christopher DerrickChristopher DerrickThis article is about Christopher Derrick the author. If you are looking for Christopher Derrick the runner please see Chris DerrickChristopher Hugh Derrick was an author, reviewer, publisher's reader and lecturer...
– an English non-fiction writer on contemporary issues. - Michael DerrickMichael DerrickJohn Michael Derrick was the son of the artist, illustrator and cartoonist Thomas Derrick, and older brother of the writer Christopher Derrick...
– an English journalist and pamphleteer. - E. J. DionneE. J. DionneEugene Joseph "E.J." Dionne, Jr. is an American journalist and political commentator, and a long-time op-ed columnist for The Washington Post...
– noted for coverage of Vatican CityVatican CityVatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
. - Anna Hanson DorseyAnna Hanson DorseyAnna Hanson Dorsey was an American novelist and writer...
- an American novelist and writer for young people - Maureen DowdMaureen DowdMaureen Bridgid Dowd is a Washington D.C.-based columnist for The New York Times and best-selling author. During the 1970s and the early 1980s, she worked for Time magazine and the Washington Star, where she covered news as well as sports and wrote feature articles...
– Graduate of The Catholic University of AmericaThe Catholic University of AmericaThe Catholic University of America is a private university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by the U.S. Catholic bishops...
and practicing, but holds positions at variance with the Church. http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2002/03/29/catholics/index.html - Ernest DowsonErnest DowsonErnest Christopher Dowson , born in Lee, London, was an English poet, novelist and writer of short stories, associated with the Decadent movement.- Biography :...
- decadent poet who converted to Catholicism - John DrydenJohn DrydenJohn Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.Walter Scott called him "Glorious John." He was made Poet...
– the leading poet of RestorationEnglish RestorationThe Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...
England, who converted to Catholicism in his fifties. His long poem The Hind and the PantherThe Hind and the PantherThe Hind and the Panther: A Poem, in Three Parts is an allegory in heroic couplets by John Dryden. At some 2600 lines it is much the longest of Dryden's poems, translations excepted, and perhaps the most controversial...
, written in 1687, explains the reasons for his conversion to the Church from Anglicanism. - Alice Thomas Ellis – a novelist and convert from PositivismPositivismPositivism is a a view of scientific methods and a philosophical approach, theory, or system based on the view that, in the social as well as natural sciences, sensory experiences and their logical and mathematical treatment are together the exclusive source of all worthwhile information....
who became a conservative Roman Catholic critic of the Second Vatican Council and a regular columnist at the Catholic Herald newspaper. - Mitch FinleyMitch FinleyMitch Finley is an American author who writes on religious and Catholic subjects. He has written over thirty books and has won eleven Catholic Press Awards, and an Excellence in Writing Award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors.-Biography:Finley was born in La Grande, Oregon...
- contemporary American author of more than 30 nonfiction books on Catholic topics. - F. Scott FitzgeraldF. Scott FitzgeraldFrancis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost...
– Raised Catholic, married in a Catholic church, and categorised as Catholic, though he was not a practicing one for most of his life. - Joseph FitzmyerJoseph FitzmyerRev. Joseph Augustine Fitzmyer, S.J., is a priest of the Society of Jesus and a New Testament scholar.He entered the Maryland Province, made his novitiate in Wernersville, PA, and was ordained on July 30, 1938. His academic studies were done at Loyola University of Chicago; Facultes St-Albert de...
– Priest and writer. - Robert J. Fox (priest)Robert J. Fox (priest)Robert J. Fox was an American priest and a prolific author of Roman Catholic religious books. As well as his writings, Fox worked as a priest in a number of rural towns in South Dakota...
– He writes religious works, director and founder of the Fatima Family Apostolate. - Sinéad Flanagan – writer/poet (husband was Éamon de ValeraÉamon de ValeraÉamon de Valera was one of the dominant political figures in twentieth century Ireland, serving as head of government of the Irish Free State and head of government and head of state of Ireland...
) - Lady Antonia FraserAntonia FraserLady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser, DBE , née Pakenham, is an Anglo-Irish author of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction, best known as Antonia Fraser...
– A Roman Catholic (converted with her parents as a child), Lady Antonia caused a public scandal in 1977 by leaving her Catholic husband for Harold PinterHarold PinterHarold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
. - Brian FrielBrian FrielBrian Friel is an Irish dramatist, author and director of the Field Day Theatre Company. He is considered to be the greatest living English-language dramatist, hailed by the English-speaking world as an "Irish Chekhov" and "the universally accented voice of Ireland"...
– Some pre-Christian Celtic elements are in his writing too though. - Maggie GallagherMaggie GallagherMargaret Gallagher Srivastav , better known by her working name Maggie Gallagher, is an American writer, commentator, and opponent of same-sex marriage. She has written a syndicated column for Universal Press Syndicate since 1995, and has published five books...
– socially conservative writer and commentator who has campaigned against abortion and gay marriage. - Robert GirardiRobert GirardiRobert Girardi is an American author, writing on the themes of mystery or detective fiction, and religion, like an American Graham Greene, and loser narrator, like Sam Lipsyte....
- His novels, but especially A Vaudeville of Devils: Seven Moral TalesA Vaudeville of Devils: Seven Moral TalesA Vaudeville of Devils: 7 Moral Tales is a collection of short stories and novellas by Robert Girardi.-"The Dinner Party":The short story, loosely set in Portugal, is a synthesis between "The Masque of the Red Death", Our Man in Havana, and Shikasta.First published in TriQuarterly Review, Issue 99...
examine ethical and religious themes. - Rumer GoddenRumer GoddenMargaret Rumer Godden OBE was an English author of over 60 fiction and nonfiction books written under the name of Rumer Godden. A few of her works were co-written by her sister, Jon Godden, who wrote several novels on her own...
– After her conversion she wrote about the mystical aspects of the faith. - Caroline GordonCaroline GordonCaroline Ferguson Gordon was a notable American novelist and literary critic who, while still in her thirties, was the recipient of two prestigious literary awards, a 1932 Guggenheim Fellowship and a 1934 O...
- Convert; novelist and short story writer. - Andrew GreeleyAndrew GreeleyFather Andrew M. Greeley is an Irish-American Roman Catholic priest, sociologist, journalist and fiction writer....
– Irish-American Roman Catholic priest and novelist. - Graham GreeneGraham GreeneHenry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
– the English novelist, a convert who wrote The Power and the GloryThe Power and the GloryThe Power and the Glory is a novel by British author Graham Greene. The title is an allusion to the doxology often added to the end of the Lord's Prayer: "For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, now and forever , amen." This novel has also been published in the US under the name The...
and focussed on themes of human sin and divine mercy. Other of his books in which Catholicism plays a central role are Brighton Rock, The Heart of the MatterThe Heart of the MatterThe Heart of the Matter , a novel by the English author Graham Greene, won the 1948 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. During World War II, Greene worked for the Secret Intelligence Service in Sierra Leone, the setting for his novel...
and The End of the AffairThe End of the AffairThe End of the Affair is a novel by British author Graham Greene, as well as the title of two feature films that were adapted for the screen based on the novel....
. - Ron HansenRon Hansen (novelist)Ron Hansen is an American novelist, essayist, and professor.-Biography:Hansen was born in Omaha, Nebraska, attended a Jesuit high school, Creighton Preparatory School and earned a Bachelor's degree in English from Creighton University in Omaha in 1970. Following military service, he earned an M.F.A...
- Contemporary American author of Mariette in Ecstasy and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. - Jon HasslerJon HasslerJon Hassler was an American writer and teacher known for his novels about small-town life in Minnesota. He held the positions of Regents Professor Emeritus and Writer-in-Residence at St...
, American novelist - Seamus HeaneySeamus HeaneySeamus Heaney is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer. He lives in Dublin. Heaney has received the Nobel Prize in Literature , the Golden Wreath of Poetry , T. S. Eliot Prize and two Whitbread prizes...
, Irish poet (see http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/1995/heaney-bio.html,http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/heaney.htm): translated BeowulfBeowulfBeowulf , but modern scholars agree in naming it after the hero whose life is its subject." of an Old English heroic epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative long lines, set in Scandinavia, commonly cited as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature.It survives in a single...
and pre-Christian aspects are important in his work too. - Peter HebblethwaitePeter HebblethwaitePeter Hebblethwaite , was a British priest, editor, journalist and biographer.-Life:...
– an English journalist and biographer. - Ernest HemingwayErnest HemingwayErnest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
– Although raised Protestant, Hemingway would later convert to Catholicism. - Tony HendraTony HendraTony Hendra is an English satirist and writer who has worked mostly in the United States. Educated at St Albans School and Cambridge University, he was a member of the Cambridge University Footlights revue in 1962, alongside John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Tim Brooke-Taylor.-Career:In 1964 Hendra...
– Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My SoulFather Joe: The Man Who Saved My SoulFather Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul is a memoir written by Tony Hendra, an English humorist and satirist. It was on the New York Times Best Seller list for many weeks.- Plot summary :When Hendra was 14, he had an affair with a married woman...
. - Patrick HollandPatrick HollandPatrick Holland is an Australian novelist, short story writer and essayist. His novel The Long Road of the Junkmailer won the 2005 Queensland Premier's Award for Best Emerging Author and was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, Best First Book South East Asia/South Pacific...
- Australian novelist and short story writer. - Tony HillermanTony HillermanTony Hillerman was an award-winning American author of detective novels and non-fiction works best known for his Navajo Tribal Police mystery novels...
– author of mystery novels set among the NavajoNavajo NationThe Navajo Nation is a semi-autonomous Native American-governed territory covering , occupying all of northeastern Arizona, the southeastern portion of Utah, and northwestern New Mexico...
of the American Southwest. - Gerard Manley HopkinsGerard Manley HopkinsGerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. was an English poet, Roman Catholic convert, and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous 20th-century fame established him among the leading Victorian poets...
– 19th century convert who became a Jesuit priest and a great poet, famous for poems such as "The Wreck of the Deutschland", "God's Grandeur", etc. - Paul HorganPaul HorganPaul Horgan was an American author of fiction and non-fiction, most of which was set in the Southwestern United States. He was the recipient of two Pulitzer prizes in History...
- Robert HutchinsonRobert Hutchinson (author)Robert Hutchinson is an American writer and essayist best known for his popular books on Christianity, Biblical Studies and the Vatican. Hutchinson has published articles in Christianity Today and U.S. Catholic...
– American religion writer, columnist and essayist, author of When in Rome: A Journal of Life in Vatican City and The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Bible. - Elizabeth InchbaldElizabeth InchbaldElizabeth Inchbald was an English novelist, actress, and dramatist.- Life :Born on 15 October 1753 at Standingfield, near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, Elizabeth was the eighth of the nine children of John Simpson , a farmer, and his wife Mary, née Rushbrook. The family, like several others in the...
- Early 19th Century English actress, novelist, and playwright. - Laura IngrahamLaura IngrahamLaura Anne Ingraham is an American radio host, author, and conservative political commentator. Her nationally syndicated talk show, The Laura Ingraham Show, airs throughout the United States on Talk Radio Network...
- conservative commentator, author and radio show host, often appearing on FOX News and EWTN. - Lionel JohnsonLionel JohnsonLionel Pigot Johnson was an English poet, essayist and critic. He was born at Broadstairs, and educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, graduating in 1890. He became a Catholic convert in 1891. He lived a solitary life in London, struggling with alcoholism and his repressed...
– late 19th century English poet and convert - Paul Johnson – historian and journalist – wrote A History of ChristianityA History of Christianity (Paul Johnson)A History of Christianity is a historical study of the Christian religion written by British journalist and author Paul Johnson. The book was published in 1976 and aims to be a factual comprehensive history of the Christian religion...
, Pope John Paul II And The Catholic Restoration, and others books. - David JonesDavid Jones (poet)David Jones CH was both a painter and one of the first generation British modernist poets. As a painter he worked chiefly in watercolor, painting portraits and animal, landscape, legendary and religious subjects. He was also a wood-engraver and designer of inscriptions. As a writer he was...
– an important British modernist poet, much of whose work shows the influence of his conversion to Catholicism. - James JoyceJames JoyceJames Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
- Irish novelist from a middle-class Catholic family; Jesuit-educated. One of the leading modernist writers of the 20th century, author of UlyssesUlysses (novel)Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...
and Finnegans WakeFinnegans WakeFinnegans Wake is a novel by Irish author James Joyce, significant for its experimental style and resulting reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the English language. Written in Paris over a period of seventeen years, and published in 1939, two years before the author's...
, Joyce may have rejected the Church as an adult (some critics/biographers opine that he never really left or later reconciled in some regard); nonetheless, his novels are permeated by Catholic themes and concepts. - Julian of NorwichJulian of NorwichJulian of Norwich is regarded as one of the most important English mystics. She is venerated in the Anglican and Lutheran churches, but has never been canonized, or officially beatified, by the Catholic Church, probably because so little is known of her life aside from her writings, including the...
- Late 14th Century/Early 15th Century English Mystic and anchoress. She either wrote or dictated her mystical experiences consciously to instruct others. Both the original version and the revised version are known as either A Revelation of Divine Love or simply Showings. - George Kelly – Pulitzer PrizePulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
winning playwright; uncle of Grace KellyGrace KellyGrace Patricia Kelly was an American actress who, in April 1956, married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, to become Princess consort of Monaco, styled as Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, and commonly referred to as Princess Grace.After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at the age of... - Margery KempeMargery KempeMargery Kempe is known for dictating The Book of Margery Kempe, a work considered by some to be the first autobiography in the English language. This book chronicles, to some extent, her extensive pilgrimages to various holy sites in Europe and Asia, as well as her mystical conversations with God...
- 15th Century English lay woman and self-proclaimed mystic. Kempe wrote one of the first, if not the first, autobiographies in the English language. - Jack KerouacJack KerouacJean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
- Beat author of On the RoadOn the RoadOn the Road is a novel by American writer Jack Kerouac, written in April 1951, and published by Viking Press in 1957. It is a largely autobiographical work that was based on the spontaneous road trips of Kerouac and his friends across mid-century America. It is often considered a defining work of...
; son of French Canadian immigrants; born and reared a Catholic, experimented with Buddhism and later returned to Catholicism - Joyce KilmerJoyce KilmerAlfred Joyce Kilmer was an American journalist, poet, literary critic, lecturer, and editor. Though a prolific poet whose works celebrated the common beauty of the natural world as well as his religious faith, Kilmer is remembered most for a short poem entitled "Trees" , which was published in...
– convert, poetry titles include: The Robe of Christ, and The Rosary. - Russell KirkRussell KirkRussell Kirk was an American political theorist, moralist, historian, social critic, literary critic, and fiction author known for his influence on 20th century American conservatism. His 1953 book, The Conservative Mind, gave shape to the amorphous post–World War II conservative movement...
- American conservative political theorist and man of letters - Ronald KnoxRonald KnoxRonald Arbuthnott Knox was an English priest, theologian and writer.-Life:Ronald Knox was born in Kibworth, Leicestershire, England into an Anglican family and was educated at Eton College, where he took the first scholarship in 1900 and Balliol College, Oxford, where again...
– convert who became a Roman Catholic priest. He wrote six detective novels, as well as witty essays. - Dean KoontzDean KoontzDean Ray Koontz is a prolific American author best known for his novels which could be described broadly as suspense thrillers. He also frequently incorporates elements of horror, science fiction, mystery, and satire. A number of his books have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List, with...
- American popular novelist best known for moralMoralA moral is a message conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim...
istic thrillers, who converted to Catholicism while in college. - Erik von Kuehnelt-LeddihnErik von Kuehnelt-LeddihnErik Maria Ritter von Kuehnelt-Leddihn was an Austrian Catholic nobleman and socio-political theorist...
, Austrian political writer and novelist, whose most influential works were first published in English. - Jane LaneJane Lane (author)Jane Lane was the pen name of Elaine Kidner Dakers, a British historical novelist and biographer distantly related to the Jane Lane who aided Charles II after his defeat at Worcester. She is best known for her books about the Stuart period and 18th century Scotland, written from a Catholic and...
- wrote historical novels and biographies from a Catholic perspective - George Parsons LathropGeorge Parsons LathropGeorge Parsons Lathrop was an American poet and novelist.-Life:George Parsons Lathrop was born August 25, 1851 in Honolulu, Hawaii....
– convert who was one of the founders of the Catholic Summer School of America. - Penny LernouxPenny LernouxPenny Lernoux was an American journalist and author.Lernoux was born into a comfortable Roman Catholic family in California and excelled in school...
– writer for the National Catholic ReporterNational Catholic ReporterThe National Catholic Reporter is the second largest Catholic newspaper in the United States; its circulation reaches ninety-seven countries on six continents. Based in midtown Kansas City, Missouri, NCR was founded by Robert Hoyt in 1964 as an independent newspaper focusing on the Catholic Church...
, former nun and noted Catholic critic of the hierarchy; died of lung cancerLung cancerLung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
at age 49. - Elmore LeonardElmore LeonardElmore John Leonard Jr. , better known as Elmore Leonard, is an American novelist and screenwriter. His earliest published novels in the 1950s were westerns, but Leonard went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures.Among his...
– JesuitSociety of JesusThe Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
education. - John LukacsJohn LukacsJohn Adalbert Lukacs is a Hungarian-born American historian who has written more than thirty books, including Five Days in London, May 1940 and A New Republic...
– Hungarian/American historian whose view of history is deeply influenced by Catholicism. - Bernadette Devlin McAliskeyBernadette Devlin McAliskeyJosephine Bernadette Devlin McAliskey , also known as Bernadette Devlin and Bernadette McAliskey, is a socialist republican political activist...
– Northern Irish Catholic nationalist politician who became a writer. - David LodgeDavid Lodge (author)David John Lodge CBE, is an English author.In his novels, Lodge often satirises academia in general and the humanities in particular. He was brought up Catholic and has described himself as an "agnostic Catholic". Many of his characters are Catholic and their Catholicism is a major theme...
– a contemporary British novelist who often deals with the turmoil of the post-Vatican II Church in his work; mother of Irish descent. - Barry LopezBarry LopezBarry Holstun Lopez is an American author, essayist, and fiction writer whose work is known for its environmental and social concerns.-Biography:...
- American short story writer and essayist. - Sara MaitlandSara MaitlandSara Maitland is a British writer and feminist. An accomplished novelist, she is also known for her short stories. Her work has a magic realist tendency.-Biography:...
- Feminist author who has made use of Catholic spiritual themes. - Rosie Malek-YonanRosie Malek-YonanRosie Malek-Yonan is an Assyrian actress, author, director, public figure and human rights activist.-Early life:Born in Tehran, Iran, Rosie Malek-Yonan is a descendant of one of the oldest and most prominent Assyrian families, tracing her Assyrian roots back nearly 11 centuries...
- author of The Crimson Field - Paul MarianiPaul MarianiPaul Mariani is an American poet and a professor at Boston College. He grew up on Long Island, the eldest of seven children...
- American poet, critic, memoirist and biographer of William Carlos Williams, Hart Crane, John Berryman, Robert Lowell, and Gerard Manley Hopkins. - Malachi MartinMalachi MartinMalachi Brendan Martin Ph.D. was a Catholic priest, theologian, writer on the Catholic Church, and professor at the Vatican's Pontifical Biblical Institute. He held three doctorates and was the sole author of sixteen books covering religious and geopolitical topics, which were published in eight...
- Irish-American novelist. - Bruce MarshallBruce MarshallLieutenant-Colonel Claude Cunningham Bruce Marshall, known as Bruce Marshall was a prolific Scottish writer who wrote fiction and non-fiction books on a wide range of topics and genres. His first book, A Thief in the Night came out in 1918, possibly self-published...
- Scottish author. - Francis A. MarzenFrancis A. MarzenFrancis A. Marzen was a priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, former editor of the Hawaii Catholic Herald and an information specialist for the City & County of Honolulu in the administration of Mayor Frank Fasi.Born in East Mauch Chunk — present-day Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania...
– Hawaiian journalist. - Edward Maurer - American author (fiction), The Prodigal Planet, The Building Of Joe
- James McAuleyJames McAuleyJames Phillip McAuley was an Australian academic, poet, journalist, literary critic and a prominent convert to Roman Catholicism.-Life and career:...
– a leading Australian poet of the 20th century and a convert to Catholicism; many of his poems are imbued with a Catholic vision, e.g. his long poem "Captain Quiros". - Frank McCourtFrank McCourtFrancis "Frank" McCourt was an Irish-American teacher and Pulitzer Prize–winning writer, best known as the author of Angela’s Ashes, an award-winning, tragicomic memoir of the misery and squalor of his childhood....
and Malachy McCourtMalachy McCourtMalachy Gerard McCourt is an Irish-American actor, writer and politician. He was the 2006 Green Party candidate for governor in New York State, losing to the Democratic candidate Eliot Spitzer. He is the younger brother of Frank McCourt.-Personal life:Born in Brooklyn, New York, McCourt was raised...
– American Catholic brothers; Irish Catholic identities/cultures; writers/novelists. - Henry McDonaldHenry McDonaldHenry McDonald may refer to:* Henry McDonald * Henry McDonald * Henry McDonald * Henry McDonald *Henry Monroe McDonald , a Major League Baseball pitcher known as Hank McDonald...
– a Roman Catholic writer and columnist for The Guardian. - Ralph McInernyRalph McInernyRalph Matthew McInerny was a Roman Catholic, American, philosopher, University professor, and prolific author, including fiction of which some appeared under the pseudonyms of Harry Austin, Matthew FitzRalph, Ernan Mackey, Edward Mackin, and Monica Quill, and mysteries of which his best known is...
- Irish-American. Philosophy professor at Notre Dame University, named the Michael P. Grace Professor of Medieval Studies and Director of the Jacques Maritain Center. Awarded the Bouchercon Lifetime Achievement Award, a former member of the President's Committee on Arts and Humanities. Author of the Father Dowling series of mystery novels and many academic books on Catholic philosophy. - Marshall McLuhanMarshall McLuhanHerbert Marshall McLuhan, CC was a Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar—a professor of English literature, a literary critic, a rhetorician, and a communication theorist...
- Canadian philosopher and communications theorist, a convert to Catholicism - Thomas MertonThomas MertonThomas Merton, O.C.S.O. was a 20th century Anglo-American Catholic writer and mystic. A Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky, he was a poet, social activist, and student of comparative religion...
- American monk and writer. - Alice MeynellAlice MeynellAlice Christiana Gertrude Thompson Meynell was an English writer, editor, critic, and suffragist, now remembered mainly as a poet.-Biography:...
– convert and suffragist, much of her poetry is religiously themed. - Sandra MieselSandra MieselSandra Louise Miesel is an American medievalist, writer and science fiction and fantasy fan. Her early work was science fiction and fantasy criticism, fields in which she has remained active. She is a literary analyst; has described herself as "the world's greatest expert" on Poul Anderson and...
– Co-writer of The Da Vinci HoaxThe Da Vinci HoaxThe Da Vinci Hoax is a non-fiction book written by Carl E. Olsen and Sandra Miesel for the express purpose of critiquing Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code. The book was first published in 2004 by Ignatius Press...
. - St. Thomas More – the statesman, lawyer, and martyr of Henry VIIIHenry VIII of EnglandHenry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
's reign was also an author renowned across Europe. Most of his works were written in Latin, but later devotional writings, e.g. his Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation, were in English. - Thomas MooreThomas MooreThomas Moore was an Irish poet, singer, songwriter, and entertainer, now best remembered for the lyrics of The Minstrel Boy and The Last Rose of Summer. He was responsible, with John Murray, for burning Lord Byron's memoirs after his death...
, popular Irish poet of the 19th century (see http://www.contemplator.com/history/tmoore.html, http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/ncd05531.htm) - J. B. MortonJ. B. MortonJohn Cameron Andrieu Bingham Michael Morton, better known by his preferred abbreviation J. B. Morton was an English humorous writer noted for authoring a column called By the Way under the pen name Beachcomber in the Daily Express from 1924 to 1975.G. K...
, English comic writer - Malcolm MuggeridgeMalcolm MuggeridgeThomas Malcolm Muggeridge was an English journalist, author, media personality, and satirist. During World War II, he was a soldier and a spy...
– journalist, broadcaster and writer; his conversionReligious conversionReligious conversion is the adoption of a new religion that differs from the convert's previous religion. Changing from one denomination to another within the same religion is usually described as reaffiliation rather than conversion.People convert to a different religion for various reasons,...
was linked to Mother TeresaMother TeresaMother Teresa , born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu , was a Roman Catholic nun of Albanian ethnicity and Indian citizenship, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, in 1950...
. - Les MurrayLes Murray (poet)Leslie Allan Murray, AO , known as Les Murray, is an Australian poet, anthologist and critic. His career spans over forty years, and he has published nearly 30 volumes of poetry, as well as two verse novels and collections of his prose writings...
, a leading contemporary Australian poet and a convert to Catholicism. - John Henry Newman – convert; became a Catholic priest and later a Cardinal; master of English prose, e.g. his Apologia Pro Vita SuaApologia Pro Vita SuaApologia Pro Vita Sua is the classic defence by John Henry Newman of his religious opinions, published in 1864 in response to what he saw as an unwarranted attack on him, the Catholic priesthood, and Roman Catholic doctrine by Charles Kingsley. The work quickly became a bestseller and has...
, he also wrote poetry, e.g. Lead, Kindly LightLead, Kindly LightLead, Kindly Light is a hymn with words written in 1833 by John Henry Newman as a poem titled "the Pillar of Cloud". In some hymnals, one may find a fourth verse added by Edward H. Bickersteth, Jr...
and The Dream of GerontiusThe Dream of GerontiusThe Dream of Gerontius, popularly called just Gerontius, is a work for voices and orchestra in two parts composed by Edward Elgar in 1900, to text from the poem by John Henry Newman. It relates the journey of a pious man's soul from his deathbed to his judgment before God and settling into Purgatory...
. - Aidan NicholsAidan NicholsJohn Christopher "Aidan" Nichols OP is an academic and Catholic priest.Nichols served as the first John Paul II Memorial Visiting Lecturer at the University of Oxford for 2006 to 2008, the first lectureship of Catholic theology at that university since the Reformation...
, leading Catholic theologian - Michael NovakMichael NovakMichael Novak is an American Catholic philosopher, journalist, novelist, and diplomat. The author of more than twenty-five books on the philosophy and theology of culture, Novak is most widely known for his book The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism...
– contemporary politically conservative American political writer. - Alfred NoyesAlfred NoyesAlfred Noyes was an English poet, best known for his ballads, "The Highwayman" and "The Barrel-Organ".-Early years:...
– English poet, best known for "The HighwaymanThe Highwayman (poem)"The Highwayman" is a narrative poem written by Alfred Noyes, first published in the August 1906 issue of Blackwood's Magazine. The following year it was included in Noyes' collection, Forty Singing Seamen and Other Poems, becoming an immediate success....
"; he wrote about his conversion to Catholicism in The Unknown God (1934). - Kate O'BeirneKate O'BeirneKate O'Beirne is the Washington editor of National Review. Her column, "Bread and Circuses," covers Congress, politics, and U.S. domestic policy....
– writes syndicated columns for National ReviewNational ReviewNational Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...
and other conservative publications; also writes books. - Flannery O'ConnorFlannery O'ConnorMary Flannery O'Connor was an American novelist, short-story writer and essayist. An important voice in American literature, O'Connor wrote two novels and 32 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries...
– her writing is deeply informed by the sacramental, and the Thomist notion that the created world is charged with God; like Graham GreeneGraham GreeneHenry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
and Francois MauriacFrançois MauriacFrançois Mauriac was a French author; member of the Académie française ; laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature . He was awarded the Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur .-Biography:...
she often focuses on sin and human evil. - Flann O'BrienFlann O'BrienBrian O'Nolan was an Irish novelist, playwright and satirist regarded as a key figure in postmodern literature. Best known for novels such as At Swim-Two-Birds, The Third Policeman and An Béal Bocht and many satirical columns in The Irish Times Brian O'Nolan (5 October 1911 – 1 April 1966) was...
- Irish comic writer. - Coventry PatmoreCoventry PatmoreCoventry Kersey Dighton Patmore was an English poet and critic best known for The Angel in the House, his narrative poem about an ideal happy marriage.-Youth:...
- 19th century poet, convert - Craig PatersonCraig PatersonCraig Paterson is a Scottish former football player, who currently works as a pundit for BBC Radio Scotland and Sportscene....
- Philosopher and writer on bioethics. - Joseph PearceJoseph PearceJoseph Pearce is an English-born writer, and Writer in Residence and Professor of Literature at Ave Maria University in Ave Maria, Florida; previously he had a comparable position, from 2001, at Ave Maria College in Ypsilanti, Michigan. He is known for a number of literary biographies, many of...
– English literary scholar and critic. A former British National FrontBritish National FrontThe National Front is a far right, white-only political party whose major political activities took place during the 1970s and 1980s. Its popularity peaked in the 1979 general election, when it received 191,719 votes ....
member who renounced racismRacismRacism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
on conversion, edited the anthology Flowers of Heaven: 1000 years of Christian Verse, and has written biographies of Oscar WildeOscar WildeOscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
and Hilaire BellocHilaire BellocJoseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc was an Anglo-French writer and historian who became a naturalised British subject in 1902. He was one of the most prolific writers in England during the early twentieth century. He was known as a writer, orator, poet, satirist, man of letters and political activist...
. - Walker PercyWalker PercyWalker Percy was an American Southern author whose interests included philosophy and semiotics. Percy is best known for his philosophical novels set in and around New Orleans, Louisiana, the first of which, The Moviegoer, won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1962...
– American convert and novelist. - Ramesh PonnuruRamesh PonnuruRamesh Ponnuru is a Washington, D.C.-based Indian American columnist and a senior editor for National Review magazine. He is also a contributor to TIME magazine and WashingtonPost.com...
– American conservative political writer who wrote The Party of DeathThe Party of DeathThe Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts, and the Disregard for Human Life is a book written by Ramesh Ponnuru. The hardcover edition, published by Regnery Publishing, was released on April 24, 2006 and consists of 320 pages...
, attacking the pro-choicePro-choiceSupport for the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-choice movement, a sociopolitical movement supporting the ethical view that a woman should have the legal right to elective abortion, meaning the right to terminate her pregnancy....
lobby in the United States. - Alexander PopeAlexander PopeAlexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...
– great English poet who was a Roman Catholic in a period when that was potentially unsafe in England (the early 18th century). - Katherine Anne PorterKatherine Anne PorterKatherine Anne Porter was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and political activist. Her 1962 novel Ship of Fools was the best-selling novel in America that year, but her short stories received much more critical acclaim...
– on again and then off again convert. - J. F. PowersJ. F. PowersJ. F. Powers was a Roman Catholic American novelist and short-story writer who often drew his inspiration from developments in the Catholic Church, and was known for his studies of midwestern Catholic priests...
, American writer of stories about clerical life. - Timothy RadcliffeTimothy RadcliffeTimothy Radcliffe, OP is a Catholic priest and Dominican friar of the English Province, and former Master of the Order of Preachers from 1992-2001...
– Dominican OrderDominican OrderThe Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...
lecturer, writer, and professor. - Piers Paul ReadPiers Paul ReadPiers Paul Read, FRSL is a British novelist and non-fiction writer.-Background:Read was born in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire...
– contemporary but orthodox Catholic British novelist; V.P. of Catholic Writers Guild. - Anne RiceAnne RiceAnne Rice is a best-selling Southern American author of metaphysical gothic fiction, Christian literature and erotica from New Orleans, Louisiana. Her books have sold nearly 100 million copies, making her one of the most widely read authors in modern history...
– American writer. After a long separation from her Catholic faith during which she described her self as atheist, she returned to the Church in 1998 and has pledged to use her talents to glorify God. - Francis RipleyFrancis RipleyCanon Francis Joseph Ripley was a Roman Catholic priest in London, England. He wrote several books during his lifetime, including This is The Faith. Later in life he held the position of canon....
– English priest who wrote about the faith. - Frederick RolfeFrederick RolfeFrederick William Rolfe, better known as Baron Corvo, and also calling himself 'Frederick William Serafino Austin Lewis Mary Rolfe', , was an English writer, artist, photographer and eccentric...
, alias Baron Corvo - late 19th century/early 20th century novelist, a failed aspirant to the priesthood. - Raymond RoseliepRaymond RoseliepRaymond Roseliep was a poet and contemporary master of the English haiku and Catholic priest. He has been described as "the John Donne of Western haiku."- Early life :...
- American priest and poet. - George SantayanaGeorge SantayanaGeorge Santayana was a philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. A lifelong Spanish citizen, Santayana was raised and educated in the United States and identified himself as an American. He wrote in English and is generally considered an American man of letters...
– the Spanish-American philosopher and novelist, was a baptised Catholic. Despite taking a sceptical stance in his philosophy to belief in the existence of God, he identified himself with Catholic culture, referring to himself as an "aesthetic Catholic". - Steven Schloeder - American architect and theologian; author of Architecture in Communion, San Francisco: Ignatius PressIgnatius PressIgnatius Press, named for Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuit Order, is a Catholic publishing house based in San Francisco, California, USA. It was founded in 1978 by Father Joseph Fessio SJ, a Jesuit priest and former pupil of Pope Benedict XVI...
, 1998. - William ShakespeareWilliam ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
- although disputed, there is a growing number of biographers and critics who hold that William Shakespeare's religion was Catholic - John Patrick ShanleyJohn Patrick ShanleyJohn Patrick Shanley is an American playwright, screenwriter, and director. He also contributed articles on the performing arts to The New York Times among other publications.-Life and career:...
– educated by the Irish Christian BrothersCongregation of Christian BrothersThe Congregation of Christian Brothers is a worldwide religious community within the Catholic Church, founded by Blessed Edmund Rice. The Christian Brothers, as they are commonly known, chiefly work for the evangelisation and education of youth, but are involved in many ministries, especially with...
and the Sisters of CharitySisters of CharityMany religious communities have the term Sisters of Charity as part of their name. The rule of Saint Vincent for the Daughters of Charity has been adopted and adapted by at least sixty founders of religious orders around the world in the subsequent centuries....
; screenwriter and playwright. - Dame Edith SitwellEdith SitwellDame Edith Louisa Sitwell DBE was a British poet and critic.-Background:Edith Sitwell was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, the oldest child and only daughter of Sir George Sitwell, 4th Baronet, of Renishaw Hall; he was an expert on genealogy and landscaping...
– the English poet, a convert. - Joseph SobranJoseph SobranMichael Joseph Sobran, Jr. was an American journalist and writer, formerly with National Review and a syndicated columnist, known as Joe Sobran. Pundit Pat Buchanan called Sobran "perhaps the finest columnist of our generation", although Sobran was fired from National Review by his one-time mentor...
– writes for The Wanderer, an orthodox Roman Catholic journal. - St. Robert Southwell – 16th-century Jesuit who was martyred during the persecutions of Elizabeth I. He wrote great religious poetry, i.e. "The Burning Babe", and Catholic tracts.
- Dame Muriel SparkMuriel SparkDame Muriel Spark, DBE was an award-winning Scottish novelist. In 2008 The Times newspaper named Spark in its list of "the 50 greatest British writers since 1945".-Early life:...
– a Scottish novelist, she decided to join the Roman Catholic Church in 1954, which she considered crucial in her development towards becoming a novel writer' in the tradition of Evelyn WaughEvelyn WaughArthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...
and Graham GreeneGraham GreeneHenry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
, her novels often focus on human evil and sin. - Robert SpencerRobert SpencerRobert Bruce Spencer is an American author and blogger best known for critiques of Islam and research into Islamic terrorism and jihad. He has published ten books, including two New York Times bestsellers, and is a regular contributor to David Horowitz's FrontPage Magazine and Human Events...
– writer and commentator on Islam and jihad. - Karl SternKarl SternKarl Stern , German-Canadian neurologist and psychiatrist, and Jewish convert to the Catholic Church. Stern is best known for his account of his conversion in Pillar of Fire .-Life:...
- German Jewish convert, psychiatrist. - Francis StuartFrancis StuartHenry Francis Montgomery Stuart was an Irish writer. His novels have been described as having a thrusting modernist iconoclasm. Awarded the highest artistic accolade in Ireland before his death in 2000, his unwillingness to take a clear moral stance with regard to his years spent in Nazi...
– Australian-born Irish nationalist Catholic convert; son in law of Maud GonneMaud GonneMaud Gonne MacBride was an English-born Irish revolutionary, feminist and actress, best remembered for her turbulent relationship with William Butler Yeats. Of Anglo-Irish stock and birth, she was won over to Irish nationalism by the plight of evicted people in the Land Wars...
; accused of anti-Semitism in his later years by Maire McEntee O'Brien and Kevin Myers. - Ellen TarryEllen TarryEllen Tarry was an African-American author of literature for children and young adults. Tarry was the first African American picture book author. She was born in Birmingham, Alabama. Although raised in the Congregational Church, she converted to Roman Catholicism in 1922...
- Young adult literature and The Third Door: The Autobiography of an American Negro Woman. - Allen TateAllen TateJohn Orley Allen Tate was an American poet, essayist, social commentator, and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1943 to 1944.-Life:...
– convert; poet and essayist. - Francis ThompsonFrancis ThompsonFrancis Thompson was an English poet and ascetic. After attending college, he moved to London to become a writer, but in menial work, became addicted to opium, and was a street vagrant for years. A married couple read his poetry and rescued him, publishing his first book, Poems in 1893...
– 19th century poet; author of the famous devotional poem "The Hound of HeavenHound of HeavenThe Hound of Heaven is a 182 line poem written by English poet Francis Thompson. The poem became famous and was the source of much of Thompson's posthumous reputation. The poem was first published in Thompson's first volume of poems in 1893. It was included in the Oxford Book of English Mystical...
". - Colm ToibinColm TóibínColm Tóibín is a multi-award-winning Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, journalist, critic, and, most recently, poet.Tóibín is Leonard Milberg Lecturer in Irish Letters at Princeton University in New Jersey and succeeded Martin Amis as professor of creative writing at the...
– also an Irish actor; he wrote The Sign of the Cross. - J. R. R. TolkienJ. R. R. TolkienJohn Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
– author of The Lord of the RingsThe Lord of the RingsThe Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
; a devout and practicing Catholic - F. X. Toole – Irish-American Catholic (born Jerry Boyd).
- Meriol TrevorMeriol TrevorMeriol Trevor was one of the most prolific Roman Catholic women writers of the twentieth century. She was educated at Perse Girls' School, Cambridge, and St Hugh's College, Oxford, taking her degree in 1942. During World War II she worked in a day nursery and later as the steerer of a cargo barge...
- convert; author of historical novels, biographies, and children's stories - Elena Maria VidalElena Maria VidalElena Maria Vidal is a historical novelist and noted blogger living in Easton, Maryland. She was born in Florence, Oregon and grew up in Frederick, Maryland...
– Historical novelist. - Louie VerrecchioLouie VerrecchioLouie Verrecchio, M.I. is a Catholic author, columnist and speaker residing in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, MD. He is the President and Founder of Salve Regina Publications, Inc., and the author of the highly acclaimed Harvesting the Fruit of Vatican II series of conciliar document study...
– Italian-American columnist for Catholic News AgencyCatholic News AgencyThe Catholic News Agency is a provider of news related to Catholicism to an English speaking audience worldwide. It is headquartered in Denver, Colorado....
and author of Catholic faith formation materials and related books. - Auberon WaughAuberon WaughAuberon Alexander Waugh was a British author and journalist, son of the novelist Evelyn Waugh. He was known to his family and friends as Bron Waugh.-Life and career:...
– son of Evelyn Waugh, comic novelist/columnist. - Evelyn WaughEvelyn WaughArthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...
– the novelist. In 1930 he converted to Roman Catholicism, and his religious ideas are manifest, either explicitly or implicitly, in all of his later work; strongly orthodox and conservative Roman Catholic. - Morris WestMorris WestMorris Langlo West AO was an Australian novelist and playwright, best known for his novels The Devil's Advocate , The Shoes of the Fisherman , and The Clowns of God . His books were published in 27 languages and sold more than 60 million copies worldwide...
, Australian novelist. Several of his novels are set in the VaticanVatican CityVatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
. - Donald E. WestlakeDonald E. WestlakeDonald Edwin Westlake was an American writer, with over a hundred novels and non-fiction books to his credit. He specialized in crime fiction, especially comic capers, with an occasional foray into science fiction or other genres...
- an American writer; three-time Edgar AwardEdgar AwardThe Edgar Allan Poe Awards , named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America...
winner. - Henry William WilberforceHenry William WilberforceHenry William Wilberforce , was a Church of England clergyman, a Tractarian, a convert to the Roman Catholic Church, and thereafter a newspaper proprietor, editor and journalist.- Life :...
– an English journalist and essayist. - D.B. Wyndham-Lewis – English comic writer and biographer.
- Oscar WildeOscar WildeOscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
– late 19th century playwright and poet, was fascinated by Catholicism as a young man and much of his early poetry shows this heavy influence. As is well known, he embraced a homosexual lifestyle later on, but converted to Catholicism on his deathbed (receiving a conditional baptismConditional baptismMainline Christian theology has traditionally held that only one baptism is valid to confer the benefits of this sacrament. In particular, the Council of Trent defined a dogma that it is forbidden to baptize a person who is already baptized, because baptism makes an indelible mark on the soul...
as there is some evidence, including his own vague recollection, that his mother had him baptised in the Catholic Church as a child) - Gene WolfeGene WolfeGene Wolfe is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He is noted for his dense, allusive prose as well as the strong influence of his Catholic faith, to which he converted after marrying into the religion. He is a prolific short story writer and a novelist, and has won many awards in the...
– science fiction author. He has written many critically acclaimed novels and multivolume series; some, such as the much-lauded Book of the New Sun and Book of the Long Sun, are considered to be religious allegory. - Carol ZaleskiCarol ZaleskiCarol Zaleski, a religious scholar and writer, is the Professor of World Religions at Smith College.Zaleski previously taught at Harvard University, where she received her PhD in the Study of Religion...
- American philosopher of religion, essayist, and author of books on Catholic theology and on comparative religion. - Father Robert S. SmithFather Robert S. SmithRobert S. Smith , the Robert R. Colbert Sr. '48 Catholic Chaplain and Distinguished Scholar at Cornell University, was a Catholic priest, author, and educator. His interests ranged from philosophy and theology to the ethics of medical care to interfaith dialogue...
- American Catholic priest, author, and educator.
French language
There was a strong Catholic strain in 20th century French literature, encompassing Paul ClaudelPaul Claudel
Paul Claudel was a French poet, dramatist and diplomat, and the younger brother of the sculptor Camille Claudel. He was most famous for his verse dramas, which often convey his devout Catholicism.-Life:...
, Georges Bernanos
Georges Bernanos
Georges Bernanos was a French author, and a soldier in World War I. Of Roman Catholic and monarchist leanings, he was a violent adversary to bourgeois thought and to what he identified as defeatism leading to France's defeat in 1940.-Biography:Bernanos was born at Paris, into a family of...
, François Mauriac
François Mauriac
François Mauriac was a French author; member of the Académie française ; laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature . He was awarded the Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur .-Biography:...
, and Julien Green
Julien Green
Julien Green , was an American writer, who authored several novels, including Léviathan and Each in His Own Darkness...
.
- Honoré de BalzacHonoré de BalzacHonoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon....
- 19th century novelist, wrote in a preface to La Comédie Humaine that "Christianity, and especially Catholicism, being a complete repression of man's depraved tendencies, is the greatest element in Social Order." - Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly - 19th century novelist and short story writer, who specialised in mysterious tales that examine hidden motivation and hinted evil bordering the supernatural
- Charles BaudelaireCharles BaudelaireCharles Baudelaire was a French poet who produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. His most famous work, Les Fleurs du mal expresses the changing nature of beauty in modern, industrializing Paris during the nineteenth century...
- 19th century decadent poet. There has long been debate as to what extent Baudelaire was a believing Catholic; but his work is certainly dominated by an obsession with the Devil and original sinOriginal sinOriginal sin is, according to a Christian theological doctrine, humanity's state of sin resulting from the Fall of Man. This condition has been characterized in many ways, ranging from something as insignificant as a slight deficiency, or a tendency toward sin yet without collective guilt, referred...
, and often utilises Catholic imagery and theology. - Georges BernanosGeorges BernanosGeorges Bernanos was a French author, and a soldier in World War I. Of Roman Catholic and monarchist leanings, he was a violent adversary to bourgeois thought and to what he identified as defeatism leading to France's defeat in 1940.-Biography:Bernanos was born at Paris, into a family of...
, the novelist, a devout Catholic and author of The Diary of a Country Priest. - Leon BloyLéon BloyLéon Bloy , was a French novelist, essayist, pamphleteer and poet.-Biography:Bloy was born in Notre-Dame-de-Sanilhac, in the arondissement of Périgueux, Dordogne. He was the second of six sons of Voltairean freethinker and stern disciplinarian Jean Baptiste Bloy and his wife Anne-Marie Carreau,...
, late 19th century/early 20th century novelist. - Louis Gabriel Ambroise de BonaldLouis Gabriel Ambroise de BonaldLouis Gabriel Ambroise, Vicomte de Bonald , was a French counter-revolutionary philosopher and politician.-Life:...
- counter-revolutionary philosophical writer - Jacques-Benigne BossuetJacques-Bénigne BossuetJacques-Bénigne Bossuet was a French bishop and theologian, renowned for his sermons and other addresses. He has been considered by many to be one of the most brilliant orators of all time and a masterly French stylist....
, 17th century bishop, preacher and master of French prose – wrote famous funeral orations and doctrinal works. - Pierre BoullePierre BoullePierre Boulle was a French novelist largely known for two famous works, The Bridge over the River Kwai and Planet of the Apes .-Biography:...
, author of "The Bridge Over the River Kwai" and "Planet of the Apes". - Paul BourgetPaul BourgetPaul Charles Joseph Bourget , was a French novelist and critic.-Biography:He was born in Amiens in the Somme département of Picardie, France. His father, a professor of mathematics, was later appointed to a post in the college at Clermont-Ferrand, where Bourget received his early education...
, novelist - Jean Pierre de CaussadeJean Pierre de CaussadeJean Pierre de Caussade was a French Jesuit priest and writer known for his work ' and his posthumously-published letters of instruction to the Nuns of the Visitation at Nancy, where he was spiritual director from 1733–1740, although he continued to...
- Jesuit and spiritual writer - The Vicomte de Chateaubriand – The founder of Romanticism in French literature, he returned to the Catholic faith of his boyhood in the 1790s and wrote a famous apologyChristian apologeticsChristian apologetics is a field of Christian theology that aims to present a rational basis for the Christian faith, defend the faith against objections, and expose the perceived flaws of other world views...
for Christianity, "Génie du christianismeGénie du christianismeGénie du christianisme is a work by the French author François-René de Chateaubriand, written during his exile in England in the 1790s as a defence of the Catholic Christian religion, then under attack during the French Revolution...
" ("The Genius of Christianity"), which contributed to a post-Revolutionary revival of Catholicism in France. - Paul ClaudelPaul ClaudelPaul Claudel was a French poet, dramatist and diplomat, and the younger brother of the sculptor Camille Claudel. He was most famous for his verse dramas, which often convey his devout Catholicism.-Life:...
, the devout Catholic poet, a leading figure in French poetry of the early 20th century, and author of verse dramas focussing on religious themes. - François CoppéeFrançois CoppéeFrançois Edouard Joachim Coppée was a French poet and novelist.-Biography:He was born in Paris to a civil servant. After attending the Lycée Saint-Louis he became a clerk in the ministry of war, and won public favour as a poet of the Parnassian school. His first printed verses date from 1864...
- Pierre CorneillePierre CorneillePierre Corneille was a French tragedian who was one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine...
- the founder of French tragedy, he was Jesuit-educated and also translated Thomas à KempisThomas à KempisThomas à Kempis was a late Medieval Catholic monk and the probable author of The Imitation of Christ, which is one of the best known Christian books on devotion. His name means, "Thomas of Kempen", his home town and in German he is known as Thomas von Kempen...
's "The Imitation of Christ" into French verse. - Léon DaudetLéon DaudetLéon Daudet was a French journalist, writer, an active monarchist, and a member of the Académie Goncourt.-Move to the right:...
- Pierre DuhemPierre DuhemPierre Maurice Marie Duhem was a French physicist, mathematician and philosopher of science, best known for his writings on the indeterminacy of experimental criteria and on scientific development in the Middle Ages...
, late 19th century physicistPhysicistA physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
, historianHistory of physicsAs forms of science historically developed out of philosophy, physics was originally referred to as natural philosophy, a term describing a field of study concerned with "the workings of nature".-Early history:...
, and philosopher of physicsPhilosophy of physicsIn philosophy, the philosophy of physics studies the fundamental philosophical questions underlying modern physics, the study of matter and energy and how they interact. The philosophy of physics begins by reflecting on the basic metaphysical and epistemological questions posed by physics:...
. - St. Francis de SalesFrancis de SalesFrancis de Sales was Bishop of Geneva and is a Roman Catholic saint. He worked to convert Protestants back to Catholicism, and was an accomplished preacher...
– Bishop of Geneva 1602–1622, a Doctor of the Church, famous as the author of classic devotional works, e.g. Introduction à la vie dévote ("Introduction to the Devout LifeIntroduction to the Devout LifeIntroduction to the Devout Life was written by St. Francis de Sales, the first edition being published in 1609. The final edition was published in 1619, prior to the death of Francis in 1622. It enjoyed wide popularity, and was well-received in both Protestant and Catholic circles, evidenced by...
") and Traité de l' Amour de Dieu ("Treatise on the Love of God"). Pope Pius XI proclaimed him patron saint of writers and journalists. - François FénelonFrançois FénelonFrançois de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon, more commonly known as François Fénelon , was a French Roman Catholic archbishop, theologian, poet and writer...
– late 17th century/early 18th century. Archbishop and writer. Some of his writings were condemned as Quietist by Pope Innocent XII; he obediently submitted to the judgment of the Holy See. - Reginald Garrigou-LagrangeReginald Garrigou-LagrangeRéginald Marie Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. was a Catholic theologian and, among Thomists of the scholastic tradition, is generally thought to be the greatest Catholic Thomist of the 20th century. Outside the ranks of Thomists of that sort, his reputation is somewhat more mixed. He taught at the...
- leading neo-Thomist theologian - Henri GhéonHenri GhéonHenri Ghéon , born Henri Vangeon in Bray-sur-Seine, Seine-et-Marne, was a French playwright, novelist, poet and critic. Brought up by a devout Roman Catholic mother, he lost his faith in his early teens, while still at the Lycée in Sens...
- French poet and critic. His experiences as an army doctor during the First World War saw him regain his Catholic faith (as described in his work "L'homme né de la guerre", "The Man Born out of the War"). From then on much of his work portrays episodes from the lives of the saints. - Étienne GilsonÉtienne GilsonÉtienne Gilson was a French Thomistic philosopher and historian of philosophy...
, prolific philosophical and historical writer and leading neo-Thomist. - René GirardRené GirardRené Girard is a French historian, literary critic, and philosopher of social science. His work belongs to the tradition of anthropological philosophy...
- historian, literary critic and philosopher - Julien GreenJulien GreenJulien Green , was an American writer, who authored several novels, including Léviathan and Each in His Own Darkness...
– A novelist and diarist, convert from Protestantism. A devout Catholic, most of his books focused on the ideas of faith and religion as well as hypocrisy. - Pierre HelyotPierre HelyotFriar Hippolyte Hélyot, T.O.R., was a Franciscan friar and priest of the Third Order of St. Francis and a major scholar of Church history. He was born at Paris in January 1660, supposedly of English ancestry....
– Franciscan history writer. - HergéHergéGeorges Prosper Remi , better known by the pen name Hergé, was a Belgian comics writer and artist. His best known and most substantial work is the 23 completed comic books in The Adventures of Tintin series, which he wrote and illustrated from 1929 until his death in 1983, although he was also...
- nom de plume of the writer and illustrator of Tin Tin, one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century, answer to Le Petit VingtièmeLe Petit VingtièmeLe Petit Vingtième was the weekly youth supplement to the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle from 1928 to 1940. The comics series The Adventures of Tintin first appeared in its pages.-History:...
request for a Catholic reporter that fought evil around the world. - Victor HugoVictor HugoVictor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
- French novelist and poet - Joris-Karl HuysmansJoris-Karl HuysmansCharles-Marie-Georges Huysmans was a French novelist who published his works as Joris-Karl Huysmans . He is most famous for the novel À rebours...
– originally a decadentDecadent movementThe Decadent movement was a late 19th century artistic and literary movement of Western Europe. It flourished in France, but also had devotees in England and throughout Europe, as well as in the United States.-Overview:...
novelist, his later novels, En Route (1895), La Cathédrale (1898) and L'Oblat (1903), trace his conversion to Roman Catholicism. - Max JacobMax JacobMax Jacob was a French poet, painter, writer, and critic.-Life and career:After spending his childhood in Quimper, Brittany, France, he enrolled in the Paris Colonial School, which he left in 1897 for an artistic career...
- Francis JammesFrancis JammesFrancis Jammes was a French poet. Coming from an ancient family, he spent most of his life in his native region of Béarn and the Basque Country and his poems are known for their lyricism and for singing the pleasures of a humble country life...
, late 19th/early 20th century poet. - Pierre de JarricPierre de JarricPierre de Jarric was a French Catholic missionary writer from Toulouse.Jarric entered the Society of Jesus on December 8, 1582, and taught philosophy and moral theology at Bordeaux for many years. Although he desired to join the missionaries of his order, his wish was not fulfilled. Instead, he...
– French missionary and author. - Marcel JouhandeauMarcel JouhandeauMarcel Jouhandeau was a French writer.-Biography:Marcel Jouhandeau grew up in a world of women presided over by his grandmother. Under the influence of a young woman from the Carmel of Limoges, he embraced a mystical form of Catholicism and for a time thought to enter the orders...
- Brother LawrenceBrother LawrenceBrother Lawrence of the Resurrection served as a lay brother in a Carmelite monastery in Paris. Christians commonly remember him for the intimacy he expressed concerning his relationship to God as recorded in a book compiled after his death, the classic Christian text, The Practice of the Presence...
- 17th century Carmelite lay brother, known for the spiritual classic "The Practice of the Presence of GodThe Practice of the Presence of GodThe Practice of the Presence of God is a text compiled by Father Joseph de Beaufort of the wisdom and teachings of Brother Lawrence, a 17th century Carmelite monk....
" - Henri de LubacHenri de LubacHenri-Marie de Lubac, SJ was a French Jesuit priest who became a Cardinal of the Catholic Church, and is considered to be one of the most influential theologians of the 20th century...
- priest (later cardinal) and leading theologian - Joseph de MaistreJoseph de MaistreJoseph-Marie, comte de Maistre was a French-speaking Savoyard philosopher, writer, lawyer, and diplomat. He defended hierarchical societies and a monarchical State in the period immediately following the French Revolution...
- late 18th/early 19th century writer and philosopher from SavoySavoySavoy is a region of France. It comprises roughly the territory of the Western Alps situated between Lake Geneva in the north and Monaco and the Mediterranean coast in the south....
, one of the most influential intellectual opponents of the French Revolution and a firm defender of the authority of the Papacy - Gabriel MarcelGabriel MarcelGabriel Honoré Marcel was a French philosopher, a leading Christian existentialist, and author of about 30 plays.He focused on the modern individual's struggle in a technologically dehumanizing society...
- convert, philosopher and playwright - Jacques MaritainJacques MaritainJacques Maritain was a French Catholic philosopher. Raised as a Protestant, he converted to Catholicism in 1906. An author of more than 60 books, he helped to revive St. Thomas Aquinas for modern times and is a prominent drafter of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights...
– A convert and a leading Catholic philosophical writer. - Henri MassisHenri MassisHenri Massis was a French essayist, literary critic and literary historian.- Works :* Comment Émile Zola composait ses romans, 1905. * Le Puits de Pyrrhon, 1907.* La Pensée de Maurice Barrès, 1909...
- St. Louis de MontfortLouis de MontfortSt. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort was canonized in 1947. He was a French priest and known in his time as a preacher and author, whose books, still widely read, have influenced a number of popes....
– priest who wrote The True Devotion to Mary and is a Catholic saint. - François MauriacFrançois MauriacFrançois Mauriac was a French author; member of the Académie française ; laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature . He was awarded the Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur .-Biography:...
– devout Catholic novelist, a strong influence on Graham GreeneGraham GreeneHenry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
, whose themes are sin and redemption. He is a laureate of the Nobel Prize in LiteratureNobel Prize in LiteratureSince 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
(1952) and is certainly one of the most important modern catholic writers. - Malika OufkirMalika OufkirMalika Oufkir is a Moroccan writer and former "disappeared". She is the daughter of General Mohamed Oufkir and a cousin of fellow Moroccan writer and actress Leila Shenna....
– Moroccan writer imprisoned with her Mother and siblings in a secret Saharan prison for 15 years. These years are recounted in her autobiography, "La Prisonniere," later translated into English as "Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail." - Blaise PascalBlaise PascalBlaise Pascal , was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Catholic philosopher. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen...
– Polymath (physicist, mathematician, and philosopher) who made significant contributions to various fields including probability and mathematics. Most famous work is PenséesPenséesThe Pensées represented a defense of the Christian religion by Blaise Pascal, the renowned 17th century philosopher and mathematician. Pascal's religious conversion led him into a life of asceticism, and the Pensées was in many ways his life's work. "Pascal's Wager" is found here... - Charles PerraultCharles PerraultCharles Perrault was a French author who laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from pre-existing folk tales. The best known include Le Petit Chaperon rouge , Cendrillon , Le Chat Botté and La Barbe bleue...
- wrote epic Christian poetry before establishing the fairy taleFairy taleA fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...
literary genre with Tales of Mother GooseHistoires ou contes du temps passéHistoires ou contes du temps passé subtitle: Les Contes de ma Mère l'Oye is a collection of eight literary fairy tales written by Charles Perrault and published by Barbin in Paris in January 1697... - Charles PéguyCharles PéguyCharles Péguy was a noted French poet, essayist, and editor. His two main philosophies were socialism and nationalism, but by 1908 at the latest, after years of uneasy agnosticism, he had become a devout but non-practicing Roman Catholic.From that time, Catholicism strongly influenced his...
– author of such long poems as "Mysteres de Charité de Jeanne d'Arc" (Mysteries of the Charity of Joan of Arc) and "Le mystère des saints innocents" (The Mystery of the Holy Innocents). - Pierre ReverdyPierre ReverdyPierre Reverdy was a French poet associated with surrealism and cubism.Pierre Reverdy was born in Narbonne and grew up near the Montagne Noire in his father's house. Reverdy came from a family of sculptors. His father taught him to read and write. He studied at Toulouse and Narbonne.Reverdy...
- French 20th century poet - Arthur RimbaudArthur RimbaudJean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet. Born in Charleville, Ardennes, he produced his best known works while still in his late teens—Victor Hugo described him at the time as "an infant Shakespeare"—and he gave up creative writing altogether before the age of 21. As part of the decadent...
- 19th century poet and confessional writing pioneer. Author of "A Season in Hell", and self-professed "voyant", or seer. - St. Therese of Lisieux – 19th century Carmelite nun and now a Doctor of the Church, whose autobiography L'histoire d'un âme ("The Story of a Soul") was a best-seller and remains a spiritual classic.
- Patrice de la Tour du Pin - 20th-century poet, see French Wikipedia
- Jules VerneJules VerneJules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
- science fiction author - Louis VeuillotLouis VeuillotLouis Veuillot was a French journalist and author who helped to popularize ultramontanism ....
, leading French Catholic journalist of the 19th century
German language
- Hans Urs von BalthasarHans Urs von BalthasarHans Urs von Balthasar was a Swiss theologian and priest who was nominated to be a cardinal of the Catholic Church...
, influential theologian who also wrote literary criticism and lives of the saints - Heinrich BöllHeinrich BöllHeinrich Theodor Böll was one of Germany's foremost post-World War II writers. Böll was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize in 1967 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1972.- Biography :...
, novelist - Clemens BrentanoClemens BrentanoClemens Brentano, or Klemens Brentano was a German poet and novelist.-Overview:He was born in Ehrenbreitstein, near Koblenz, Germany. His sister was Bettina von Arnim, Goethe's correspondent. His father's family was of Italian descent. He studied in Halle and Jena, afterwards residing at...
, German poet and novelist of Italian origins, a leading figure in the Romantic movement; later withdrew to a monastery and acted as secretary to the visionary nun Blessed Anne Catherine EmmerichAnne Catherine EmmerichBlessed Anne Catherine Emmerich was a Roman Catholic Augustinian nun, stigmatic, mystic, visionary and ecstatic.... - Hermann BrochHermann BrochHermann Broch was a 20th century Austrian writer, considered one of the major Modernists.-Life:Broch was born in Vienna to a prosperous Jewish family and worked for some time in his family's factory, though he maintained his literary interests privately...
, convert, author of major modernist novels, The Death of VirgilThe Death of VirgilThe Death of Virgil is a novel originally written in German by the Austrian author Hermann Broch. The English translation, and an edition in German, were both published in 1945...
and The SleepwalkersThe SleepwalkersThe Sleepwalkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of the Universe is a 1959 book by Arthur Koestler, and one of the main accounts of the history of cosmology and astronomy in the Western World, beginning in ancient Mesopotamia and ending with Isaac Newton. The book challenges the habitual idea... - Heinrich Seuse Denifle, Austrian Dominican friar, leading historian and paleographer
- Alfred DöblinAlfred DöblinAlfred Döblin was a German expressionist novelist, best known for the novel Berlin Alexanderplatz .- 1878–1918:...
, best known for his novel Berlin AlexanderplatzBerlin AlexanderplatzBerlin Alexanderplatz is a novel by Alfred Döblin, published in 1929. The story concerns a small-time criminal, Franz Biberkopf, fresh from prison, who is drawn into the underworld. When his criminal mentor murders the prostitute whom Biberkopf has been relying on as an anchor, he realizes that...
he wrote before he convertet to Catholicism in 1941, but he is also the author of several religious novels. He is certainly one of the most important modern catholic writers. - Heimito von DodererHeimito von DodererHeimito von Doderer was a famous Austrian writer.- Life and work :...
- Annette von Droste-HülshoffAnnette von Droste-HülshoffAnna Elisabeth von Droste-Hülshoff, known as Annette von Droste-Hülshoff , was a 19th century German author, and one of the most important German poets.-Biography:...
, 19th century poet. A strict Catholic, many of her poems are religious. - Joseph Freiherr von EichendorffJoseph Freiherr von EichendorffJoseph Freiherr von Eichendorff was a German poet and novelist of the later German romantic school.Eichendorff is regarded as one of the most important German Romantics and his works have sustained high popularity in Germany from production to the present day.-Life:Eichendorff was born at Schloß...
, 19th century poet and novelist - Joseph Görres, late 18th/early 19th century
- Romano GuardiniRomano GuardiniRomano Guardini was a Catholic priest, author, and academic. He was one of the most important figures in Catholic intellectual life in 20th-century.- Life and work:...
, Italian-born German theologian - Theodor HaeckerTheodor HaeckerTheodor Haecker was a German writer, translator and cultural critic.He was a translator into German of Kierkegaard and Cardinal Newman. He wrote an essay, Kierkegaard and the Philosophy of Inwardness in 1913 at a time when few had heard of Haecker and even fewer had heard of Kierkegaard...
, convert, writer, translator and opponent of the Nazis - Dietrich von HildebrandDietrich von HildebrandDietrich von Hildebrand was a German Catholic philosopher and theologian who was called by Pope Pius XII "the 20th Century Doctor of the Church."...
, convert, philosopher and theologian (wrote in both German and English) - Hugo von HofmannsthalHugo von HofmannsthalHugo Laurenz August Hofmann von Hofmannsthal ; , was an Austrian novelist, librettist, poet, dramatist, narrator, and essayist.-Early life:...
– a leading Austrian poet and playwright, late 19th/early 20th century. "His later plays revealed a growing interest in religious, and particularly Roman Catholic themes." - Elisabeth LanggässerElisabeth LanggässerElisabeth Langgässer was a German author and teacher. She is known for lyrical poetry and novels...
– (1899–1950) An influential Catholic author who the Nazis deemed "too Jewish", she's admired by Pope Benedict XVIPope Benedict XVIBenedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
. - Gertrud von Le FortGertrud von Le FortGertrud von Le Fort was a German writer of novels, poems, and essays. She came from a Protestant background, but converted to Catholicism in 1926. Most of Gertrud's writings come after this conversion...
, convert - Alexander Lernet-HoleniaAlexander Lernet-HoleniaAlexander Lernet-Holenia was an Austrian poet, novelist, dramaturgist and writer of screenplays and historical studies who produced a heterogeneous literary opus that included poesy, psychological novels describing the intrusion of otherworldly or unreal experiences into reality, and recreational...
- Martin MosebachMartin MosebachMartin Mosebach , has published novels, stories, and collections of poems, written scripts for several films, opera libretti, theatre and radio plays....
, novelist, poet, playwright, and noted critic of the liturgical reforms which followed Vatican II - Ludwig von PastorLudwig von PastorLudwig Pastor, later Ludwig von Pastor, Freiherr von Campersfelden , was a German historian and a diplomat for Austria. He became one of the most important Roman Catholic historians of his time and is most notable for his History of the Popes...
, historian, wrote multi-volume history of the popes - Josef PieperJosef PieperJosef Pieper was a German Catholic philosopher, at the forefront of the Neo-Thomistic wave in twentieth century Catholic philosophy. Among his most notable works are The Four Cardinal Virtues: Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, Temperance; Leisure: the Basis of Culture; The Philosophical Act and Guide...
, German Thomist philosopher - Friedrich Ritter von Lama, author and journalist whose Catholic writings prompted Nazis to detain him at DachauDachauDachau is a town in Upper Bavaria, in the southern part of Germany. It is a major district town—a Große Kreisstadt—of the administrative region of Upper Bavaria, about 20 km north-west of Munich. It is now a popular residential area for people working in Munich with roughly 40,000 inhabitants...
. He was allegedly murdered at Stadelheim PrisonStadelheim PrisonStadelheim Prison, in Munich's Giesing district, is one of the largest prisons in Germany.Founded in 1894 it was the site of many executions, particularly by guillotine during the Nazi period.-Notable inmates:...
. - Erich Maria RemarqueErich Maria RemarqueErich Maria Remarque was a German author, best known for his novel All Quiet on the Western Front.-Life and work:...
- Joseph RothJoseph RothJoseph Roth, born Moses Joseph Roth , was an Austrian journalist and novelist, best known for his family saga Radetzky March about the decline and fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and for his novel of Jewish life, Job as well as the seminal essay 'Juden auf Wanderschaft' translated in...
, convert - Max SchelerMax SchelerMax Scheler was a German philosopher known for his work in phenomenology, ethics, and philosophical anthropology...
- Friedrich von Schlegel, convert
- Carl SchmittCarl SchmittCarl Schmitt was a German jurist, philosopher, political theorist, and professor of law.Schmitt published several essays, influential in the 20th century and beyond, on the mentalities that surround the effective wielding of political power...
- Angelus SilesiusAngelus SilesiusAngelus Silesius was a German Catholic mystic and poet.-Life:Silesius was born in Breslau , Silesia as son of Polish noble and German mother...
, 17th century convert to Catholicism from Lutheranism who became a priest and wrote religious poems, some of which became famous as hymns in the German-speaking world. Some of his poetry seems to lean towards pantheismPantheismPantheism is the view that the Universe and God are identical. Pantheists thus do not believe in a personal, anthropomorphic or creator god. The word derives from the Greek meaning "all" and the Greek meaning "God". As such, Pantheism denotes the idea that "God" is best seen as a process of...
or quietism; but his prose works were orthodox, and the Catholic EncyclopediaCatholic EncyclopediaThe Catholic Encyclopedia, also referred to as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia and the Original Catholic Encyclopedia, is an English-language encyclopedia published in the United States. The first volume appeared in March 1907 and the last three volumes appeared in 1912, followed by a master index...
says he repudiated any unorthodox interpretation of those poems. - Robert SpaemannRobert SpaemannRobert Spaemann is arguably the foremost Roman Catholic philosopher in Germany today.Spaemann's focus is on Christian ethics. He is known for his work in bioethics, ecology, and human rights...
, philosopher - Friedrich von SpeeFriedrich von SpeeFriedrich Spee was a German Jesuit and poet, most noted as an opponent of trials for witchcraft. Spee was the first person in his time who spoke strongly and with arguments against torture in general...
, Jesuit priest of the 17th century, author of religious poetry - Count Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg-Stolberg, late 18th/early 19th century poet and convert
- Blessed Henry SusoHenry SusoHenry Suso was a German mystic, born at Überlingen on Lake Constance on March 21, c. 1300; he died at Ulm, January 25, 1366; declared Blessed in 1831 by Gregory XVI, who assigned his feast in the Dominican Order to March 2...
, Dominican friar in the 14th century, one of the great devotional writers of the Middle Ages, "the Minnesinger of Divine Love" in works such as his Little Book of Eternal Wisdom. His works contributed much to the formation of German prose. - Ernst WiechertErnst WiechertErnst Wiechert was a German teacher, poet and writer.-Biography:Wiechert was born in Kleinort near Sensburg , East Prussia.He was one of the most widely read novelists in Germany during the 1930s...
Gheg Albanian
- Ndre MjedaNdre MjedaNdre Mjeda was an Albanian Gheg poet. He was influenced by the Jesuit writer Anton Xanoni and the Franciscan poet Leonardo De Martino....
– JesuitSociety of JesusThe Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
poet of the nightingale's lament and Imitation of the Holy Virgin.
Gaeilge - Irish language
- Eibhlín Dubh Ní ChonaillEibhlín Dubh Ní ChonaillEibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill also Eileen O' Connell, was an Irish noblewoman and poet, the composer of Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire....
– Known for a lament on the death of her Catholic husband. - Pádraig Mac Piarais/Patrick PearsePatrick PearsePatrick Henry Pearse was an Irish teacher, barrister, poet, writer, nationalist and political activist who was one of the leaders of the Easter Rising in 1916...
– Educated by Christian BrothersCongregation of Christian BrothersThe Congregation of Christian Brothers is a worldwide religious community within the Catholic Church, founded by Blessed Edmund Rice. The Christian Brothers, as they are commonly known, chiefly work for the evangelisation and education of youth, but are involved in many ministries, especially with...
and set up St. Enda's SchoolSt. Enda's SchoolSt. Enda's School, or Scoil Éanna, was a Secondary school for boys set up by Irish nationalist Patrick Pearse in 1908.-Background:Pearse, generally known as a leader of the Easter Rising in 1916, had long been critical of the educational system in Ireland, which he believed taught Irish children to...
. (Also wrote in English). - Aogán Ó RathailleAogán Ó RathailleAodhagán Ó Rathaille, also spelt Aogán Ó Rathaille or Anglicised as Egan O'Rahilly , was an Irish language poet. He is credited with creating the first fully developed Aisling poem.-Early life:...
– Irish Jacobite who wrote of a decline for Catholics in Ireland. http://www.irishabroad.com/Travel/Info/irishlit.asp
Icelandic language
- Jón SveinssonJón SveinssonJón "Nonni" Stefán Sveinsson was an Icelandic children's writer and member of the Society of Jesus....
– Jesuit who lived in France after age 13, but wrote children's books in IcelandicIcelandic languageIcelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
.
Italian language
- Dante AlighieriDante AlighieriDurante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...
– his Divine Comedy is often considered the greatest Christian poem. Pope Benedict XV praised him in an encyclical, writing that of all Catholic literary geniuses "highest stands the name of Dante". http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Ben15/b15summo.htm - Ludovico AriostoLudovico AriostoLudovico Ariosto was an Italian poet. He is best known as the author of the romance epic Orlando Furioso . The poem, a continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato, describes the adventures of Charlemagne, Orlando, and the Franks as they battle against the Saracens with diversions...
– Some of these attracted the notice of the cardinal Ippolito d'Este, who took the young poet under his patronage - Baldassare CastiglioneBaldassare CastiglioneBaldassare Castiglione, count of was an Italian courtier, diplomat, soldier and a prominent Renaissance author.-Biography:Castiglione was born into an illustrious Lombard family at Casatico, near Mantua, where his family had constructed an impressive palazzo...
– In 1521, Pope Leo XPope Leo XPope Leo X , born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, was the Pope from 1513 to his death in 1521. He was the last non-priest to be elected Pope. He is known for granting indulgences for those who donated to reconstruct St. Peter's Basilica and his challenging of Martin Luther's 95 Theses...
conceded him the tonsura (first sacerdotal ceremony). - St. Catherine of SienaCatherine of SienaSaint Catherine of Siena, T.O.S.D, was a tertiary of the Dominican Order, and a Scholastic philosopher and theologian. She also worked to bring the papacy of Gregory XI back to Rome from its displacement in France, and to establish peace among the Italian city-states. She was proclaimed a Doctor...
- Doctor of the Church, author of the Dialogue of Divine Providence - Eugenio CortiEugenio CortiEugenio Corti is an Italian writer. After participating in the Italian retreat from Russia in World War II, he joined the Italian Freedom Fighters...
- Grazia DeleddaGrazia DeleddaGrazia Deledda was an Italian writer whose works won her the Nobel Prize for Literature for 1926.-Biography:...
- Italian novelist and Nobel Laureate - Antonio FogazzaroAntonio FogazzaroAntonio Fogazzaro was an Italian novelist.-Biography:Fogazzaro was born in Vicenza to a rich family.In 1864 he got a law degree in Turin...
- Giovanni Guareschi, author of the delightful "Don CamilloDon CamilloDon Camillo is the main character created by the Italian writer and journalist Giovannino Guareschi , and is based on the historical Roman Catholic priest, WW II partisan and detainee of the concentration camps of Dachau and Mauthausen, Don Camillo Valota . Don Camillo is one of two protagonists,...
" series of stories about a village priest and his rivalry with the Communist mayor. - Alessandro ManzoniAlessandro ManzoniAlessandro Francesco Tommaso Manzoni was an Italian poet and novelist.He is famous for the novel The Betrothed , generally ranked among the masterpieces of world literature...
– The author of the most beloved Italian novel, "I Promessi Sposi" ("The Betrothed"), which reflects his Catholic faith. In his youth "he imbibed the anti-Catholic creed of Voltairianism", but after his marriage, under the influence of his wife, he "exchanged it for a fervent Catholicism". - Francesco Petrarca
- Giovanni PapiniGiovanni PapiniGiovanni Papini was an Italian journalist, essayist, literary critic, poet, and novelist.-Early life:...
- Pope Pius IIPope Pius IIPope Pius II, born Enea Silvio Piccolomini was Pope from August 19, 1458 until his death in 1464. Pius II was born at Corsignano in the Sienese territory of a noble but decayed family...
– In his younger days he had been a Poet laureatePoet LaureateA poet laureate is a poet officially appointed by a government and is often expected to compose poems for state occasions and other government events...
and had written an erotic novel called Eurialus and Lucretia. Later he wrote histories and epistles. - Clemente ReboraClemente ReboraClemente Rebora was a poet from Milan, Italy. From 1913 to 1922, he wrote anonymous "Songs" and lyrics. Previously an atheist, he had a spiritual crisis in 1928 and became a devout Catholic. In 1930, he entered a seminary; in 1936, he became a Rosminian priest...
- poet and Rosminian priest - Torquato TassoTorquato TassoTorquato Tasso was an Italian poet of the 16th century, best known for his poem La Gerusalemme liberata , in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the First Crusade, during the siege of Jerusalem...
– One day before being crowned by pope Clement VIII as Poet laureatePoet LaureateA poet laureate is a poet officially appointed by a government and is often expected to compose poems for state occasions and other government events...
, Tasso died - Giuseppe UngarettiGiuseppe UngarettiGiuseppe Ungaretti was an Italian modernist poet, journalist, essayist, critic and academic. A leading representative of the experimental trend known as Ermetismo , he was one of the most prominent contributors to 20th century Italian literature. Influenced by symbolism, he was briefly aligned...
Norwegian language
- Sigrid UndsetSigrid UndsetSigrid Undset was a Norwegian novelist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928.-Biography:Undset was born in Kalundborg, Denmark, but her family moved to Norway when she was two years old. In 1924, she converted to Catholicism and became a lay Dominican...
, convert whose Medieval trilogy Kristin Lavransdatter has received high praise in Catholic circles. http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/arts/al0078.html. Won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928.
Polish language
- Zofia Kossak-SzczuckaZofia Kossak-SzczuckaZofia Kossak-Szczucka was a Polish writer and World War II resistance fighter. She co-founded the wartime Polish organization Żegota, set up to assist Poland's Jews in escaping the Holocaust...
- writer of historical novels, she helped save Jews in occupied Poland during the Second World War - Ignacy KrasickiIgnacy KrasickiIgnacy Krasicki , from 1766 Prince-Bishop of Warmia and from 1795 Archbishop of Gniezno , was Poland's leading Enlightenment poet , a critic of the clergy, Poland's La Fontaine, author of the first Polish novel, playwright, journalist, encyclopedist, and translator from French and...
– A PolishPolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
BishopBishopA bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
. - Zygmunt KrasińskiZygmunt KrasinskiCount Napoleon Stanisław Adam Ludwig Zygmunt Krasiński , a Polish count, is traditionally ranked with Mickiewicz and Słowacki as one of Poland's Three National Bards — the trio of great Romantic poets who influenced national consciousness during the period of Poland's political bondage.-Life and...
- Czesław Miłoszhttp://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/136/12.0.htmlhttp://books.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,11617,1283895,00.htmlhttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/08/29/LVGA98D32M1.DTL
- Grażyna MillerGrazyna MillerGrażyna Miller was a poet, born in Poland.She lived in Italy, where she wrote poems and translates publications from Polish into Italian. She was also a literary critic whose work was published by the most prestigious Italian press media...
– Did Translation of Roman Triptych (Meditations) for Pope John Paul IIPope John Paul IIBlessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ... - Pope John Paul II - in his youth wrote plays, later wrote poetry, as well, of course, as philosophical works and devotional meditations
- Adam NaruszewiczAdam NaruszewiczAdam Stanisław Naruszewicz was a Polish nobleman from an impoverished aristocratic family, poet, historian, dramatist, translator, publicist, Jesuit and titular Bishop of Smolensk and bishop of Łuck .His family had a small estate in Polesie and he was educated at Pinsk.As a senator he...
– A member of the Society of JesusSociety of JesusThe Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
and a poet. - Władysław Reymont - novelist, won the Nobel Prize in 1924 for his novel Chłopi.
- Henryk SienkiewiczHenryk SienkiewiczHenryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz was a Polish journalist and Nobel Prize-winning novelist. A Polish szlachcic of the Oszyk coat of arms, he was one of the most popular Polish writers at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1905 for his...
- novelist, won the Nobel Prize in 1905. His famous novel Quo Vadis deals with the rise and persecution of Christianity in Rome. - Jan TwardowskiJan TwardowskiJan Jakub Twardowski was a famous Polish poet, but, as he said of himself, he was a priest first of all. He was a chief Polish representative of contemporary religious lyrics. He wrote short, simple poems, humorous, sometimes with colloquialisms...
– Poet who became a priest in 1948. In 1959 he became a provostProvost (religion)A provost is a senior official in a number of Christian churches.-Historical Development:The word praepositus was originally applied to any ecclesiastical ruler or dignitary...
.
Portuguese language
- Marianna AlcoforadoMarianna AlcoforadoSóror Mariana Alcoforado , was a Portuguese nun, living in the convent of the Poor Ladies in Beja, Portugal....
– Poor Clares member, wrote Letters of a Portuguese NunLetters of a Portuguese NunThe Letters of a Portuguese Nun , first published anonymously by Claude Barbin in Paris in 1669, is a work believed by most scholars to be epistolary fiction in the form of five letters written by Gabriel-Joseph de La Vergne, comte de Guilleragues , a minor peer, diplomat, secretary to the Prince...
. - Luís de CamõesLuís de CamõesLuís Vaz de Camões is considered Portugal's and the Portuguese language's greatest poet. His mastery of verse has been compared to that of Shakespeare, Vondel, Homer, Virgil and Dante. He wrote a considerable amount of lyrical poetry and drama but is best remembered for his epic work Os Lusíadas...
– Camões himself was Catholic; his poem is (among other things) a call to arms against the enemies of the Christian faith. - Gustavo Corção – Catholic writer from Brazil, see Portuguese Wikipedia
- Miguel Esteves CardosoMiguel Esteves CardosoMiguel Vicente Esteves Cardoso is a Portuguese writer, translator, critic and journalist. He's a well known monarchist and conservative.-Early life:...
, contemporary writer, critic and journalist - Denis of PortugalDenis of PortugalDinis , called the Farmer King , was the sixth King of Portugal and the Algarve. The eldest son of Afonso III of Portugal by his second wife, Beatrice of Castile and grandson of king Alfonso X of Castile , Dinis succeeded his father in 1279.-Biography:As heir to the throne, Infante Dinis was...
– Dinis signed a favouring agreement with the pope and swore to protect the Church's interests - Alceu Amoroso LimaAlceu Amoroso LimaAlceu Amoroso Lima was a writer, journalist and activist from Brazil. He adopted the pseudonym Tristão de Ataíde in 1919 and wrote under that name. In 1928 he converted to Catholicism and eventually became head of Catholic Action in Brazil...
– Catholic writer and activist from Brazil. - Adélia PradoAdélia PradoAdélia Luzia Prado Freitas , is a Brazilian writer and poet.She was born in Divinópolis, Minas Gerais, and started writing at the age of 40 which is relatively late in life for a poet...
– Catholic poet from Brazil. - Luís de SousaLuís de SousaFrei Luís de Sousa , Portuguese monk and prose-writer, was born at Santarém, a member of the noble family of Sousa Coutinho.-Capture and release:...
– Portuguese monk and prose-writer. - Olavo de CarvalhoOlavo de CarvalhoOlavo Luiz Pimentel de Carvalho is a Brazilian journalist, and essayist on several issues like the history of astrology and mysticism; the history of revolutionary mentality; and Philosophical Anthropology...
– Brazilian philosopher,journalist and essayist.
Slovenian language
- France BalantičFrance BalanticFrance Balantič was a Slovene poet. His works were banished from schools and libraries during the Titoist regime in Slovenia, but since the late 1980s, he has been re-considered as one of the foremost Slovene poets of the 20th century.- Life :Balantič was born in a working class family in Kamnik,...
, Poet. - Alojz GradnikAlojz GradnikAlojz Gradnik was a Slovenian poet and translator.-Life:Gradnik was born in the village of Medana in the Goriška Brda region, in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire and is today in the Goriška province of Slovenia. His father was a Slovene from Trieste who came from a poor working family...
- Poet. - Fran Saleški FinžgarFran Saleški FinžgarFran Saleški Finžgar was a Slovene writer, playwright, translator and Roman Catholic priest.Fran Saleški Finžgar was born into a poor peasant family in the Upper Carniolan village of Doslovče , in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire...
- Writer and priest. - Edvard KocbekEdvard KocbekEdvard Kocbek was a Slovenian poet, writer, essayist, translator, political activist, and resistance fighter. He is considered as one of the best authors who have written in Slovene, and one of the best Slovene poets after Prešeren...
- Poet, Writer, essayist and Christian socialist. - Boris PahorBoris PahorBoris Pahor is a Slovene writer from Italy. He is considered to be one of the most influential living authors in the Slovene language and has been nominated for the Nobel prize for literature by the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts...
- Writer and Christian humanistChristian humanismChristian humanism is the position that universal human dignity and individual freedom are essential and principal components of, or are at least compatible with, Christian doctrine and practice. It is a philosophical union of Christian and humanist principles.- Origins :Christian humanism may have...
. - Marjan RožancMarjan RožancMarjan Rožanc was a Slovenian author, playwright and journalist. He is mostly known for his essays, and is considered one of the foremost essayists in the Slovene language, along with Ivan Cankar, Jože Javoršek and Drago Jančar, and as a great master of style.He was born in a working-class suborb...
, Writer, playwright and essayist. - Jože SnojJože SnojJože Snoj is a Slovenian poet, novelist, journalist and essayist.He was born in Maribor, then part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, into a wealthy Slovene family. His uncle, Franc Snoj, was a prominent member of the Slovene People's Party and a minister in the Royal Yugoslav Government...
- Catholic poet, was prohibited to publish his works during the Communist regime. - Anton Martin SlomšekAnton Martin SlomšekAnton Martin Slomšek was a Slovene bishop, author, poet, and advocate of Slovene culture.Slomšek was born to a peasant family in the hamlet of Slom near the village of Ponikva in the Municipality of Šentjur, Lower Styria. He studied theology and philosophy before being ordained in 1824 at the...
- Poet and Roman Catholic bishop. - Karel Vladimir TruhlarKarel Vladimir TruhlarKarel Vladimir Truhlar was a Slovenian Jesuit, theologian and poet of Czech origin.He was born as Karel Truhlař to Czech parents in Gorizia, which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire . He grew up in a Slovene-speaking environment. In the 1920s, he moved with his family to the Kingdom of...
, Theologian, Jesuit priest, and mystical poet. - Valentin VodnikValentin VodnikValentin Vodnik was a Slovene priest, journalist and poet from the late Enlightenment period.-Life and work:He was born in Šiška, now a suburb of Ljubljana, then part of the Habsburg Monarchy...
- 18th century poet and Roman Catholic priest.
Spanish language
- Jaime Balmes
- Gustavo Adolfo BécquerGustavo Adolfo BécquerGustavo Adolfo Domínguez Bastida, better known as Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, was a Spanish post-romanticist writer of poetry and short stories, now considered one of the most important figures in Spanish literature. He adopted the alias of Bécquer as his brother Valeriano Bécquer, a painter, had...
- Giannina BraschiGiannina BraschiGiannina Braschi is a Puerto Rican writer. She is credited with writing the first Spanglish novel YO-YO BOING! and the poetry trilogy Empire of Dreams , which chronicles the Latin American immigrant's experiences in the United States...
- 21st vanguard poet and bilingual novelist, author of "Empire of Dreams". - Pedro Calderón de la BarcaPedro Calderón de la BarcaPedro Calderón de la Barca y Barreda González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco y Riaño usually referred as Pedro Calderón de la Barca , was a dramatist, poet and writer of the Spanish Golden Age. During certain periods of his life he was also a soldier and a Roman Catholic priest...
– a leading dramatist of the Spanish Golden Age, he wrote 80 autos sacramentalesAutos sacramentalesAutos sacramentales are a form of dramatic literature which is peculiar to Spain, though in some respects similar in character to the old Morality plays of England.The auto sacramental may be defined as a dramatic representation of the mystery of the Eucharist...
, short plays to inspire devotion to the mystery of the EucharistEucharistThe Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...
. - Ramón de Campoamor
- Leonardo CastellaniLeonardo CastellaniLeonardo Castellani , was an Argentine essayist, novelist, poet and theologian.Born in Reconquista, Santa Fe, Castellani was ordained as a Jesuit priest in 1930, he studied Philosophy and Theology in Rome. Back in his country, he worked in the Catholic press and went into politics as a...
- Alonso CuetoAlonso CuetoAlonso Cueto Caballero is a Peruvian novelist and playwright. His novel El tigre blanco , published in 1985, was awarded the Premio Wiracocha. He has published regularly and currently writes for the newspaper Peru 21 and is a Professor of Journalism at the Catholic University of Peru...
– Peruvian writer who studied at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. - Juan Donoso CortésJuan Donoso CortésJuan Donoso Cortés, marqués de Valdegamas , Spanish author, political theorist, and diplomat, was born at Valle de la Serena...
, political philosopher influenced by Joseph de MaistreJoseph de MaistreJoseph-Marie, comte de Maistre was a French-speaking Savoyard philosopher, writer, lawyer, and diplomat. He defended hierarchical societies and a monarchical State in the period immediately following the French Revolution... - Gerardo DiegoGerardo DiegoGerardo Diego Cendoya was a Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of '27.Gerardo Diego taught language and literature at institutes of learning in Soria, Gijón, Santander and Madrid...
- Fernando de HerreraFernando de HerreraFernando de Herrera , called "El Divino", was a 16th-century Spanish poet and man of letters. He was born in Seville. Much of what is known about him comes from Libro de descripción de verdaderos retratos de illustres y memorables varones by Francisco Pacheco.-Biography:Although...
– 16th century poet, took minor orders in the Church. - Luis de GóngoraLuis de GóngoraLuis de Góngora y Argote was a Spanish Baroque lyric poet. Góngora and his lifelong rival, Francisco de Quevedo, are widely considered to be the most prominent Spanish poets of their age. His style is characterized by what was called culteranismo, also known as Gongorism...
– priest and poet during the Spanish Golden Age. - Ramiro de MaeztuRamiro de MaeztuRamiro de Maeztu y Whitney was a Spanish political theorist, journalist, literary critic, occasional diplomat and member of the Generation of '98....
- political theorist, literary critic and journalist - Lope de VegaLope de VegaFélix Arturo Lope de Vega y Carpio was a Spanish playwright and poet. He was one of the key figures in the Spanish Golden Century Baroque literature...
– the great playwright of Spain's Golden Age, he was a priest and wrote more than four hundred short plays (autos sacramentales) on religious themes. - Eugenio EspejoEugenio EspejoFrancisco Javier Eugenio de Santa Cruz y Espejo was a medical pioneer, writer and lawyer of mestizo origin in colonial Ecuador. Although he was a notable scientist and writer, he stands out as a polemicist who inspired the separatist movement in Quito. He is regarded as one of the most important...
, satirical, polemical and theological writer in colonial EcuadorEcuadorEcuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border... - José María GironellaJosé María GironellaJosé María Gironella Pous was a Catalan and Spanish author best known for his fictional work The Cypresses Believe in God published in Spain in 1953, and translated into English by Harriet De Onís in 1955...
- Nicolás Gómez Dávila, Colombian philosopher and writer of aphorisms, a critic of modernity and of the liturgical changes which followed Vatican II.
- Baltasar Gracián y Morales – Jesuit. He wrote El héroe as a criticism of Machiavelli drawing a portrait of the ideal Christian leader.
- St. John of the CrossJohn of the CrossJohn of the Cross , born Juan de Yepes Álvarez, was a major figure of the Counter-Reformation, a Spanish mystic, Catholic saint, Carmelite friar and priest, born at Fontiveros, Old Castile....
– this great mystic, Carmelite priest and Doctor of the Church also wrote some of the most famous Christian poetry in any language. - Sor JuanaSor JuanaSor Juana Inés de la Cruz , fully Juana Inés de Asbaje y Ramírez de Santillana, was a self-taught scholar and poet of the Baroque school, and nun of New Spain...
– A nun, poet, and composer. - Osvaldo LiraOsvaldo LiraJosé Luis Osvaldo Lira Pérez SS.CC. , priest, philosopher and theologian. Author of more than 10 books on topics related to the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, as well as Ortega y Gasset and Juan Vázquez de Mella...
, priest, theologian and philosopher - Juan Jose MartiJuan Jose MartiJuan Jose Marti , Spanish novelist, was born at Orihuela, Province of Alicante about 1570. He graduated as bachelor of canon law at Valencia in 1591, and in 1598 took his degree as doctor of canon law; in the latter year he was appointed co-examiner in canon law at the University of Valencia, and...
– Degree in canon law. - Marcelino Menéndez y PelayoMarcelino Menéndez y PelayoMarcelino Menéndez y Pelayo was a Spanish scholar, historian and literary critic. Even though his main interest was the History of ideas, and Hispanic philology in general, he also cultivated poetry, translation and philosophy.He was born at Santander where he showed that he was an infant prodigy...
- Leopoldo PaneroLeopoldo PaneroLeopoldo Panero, Spanish poet born in Astorga in 1909 and deceased in 1962. Member of the Generation of 27, wrote intimate poems of religious and conservative character...
- José María PemánJosé María PemánJosé María Pemán y Pemartín, KOGF was a Spanish journalist, poet, novelist, essayist, and right-wing intellectual....
- José María de PeredaJosé María de PeredaJosé María de Pereda was one of the most distinguished of modern Spanish novelists....
- Juan Pérez de MontalbánJuan Pérez de MontalbánJuan Pérez de Montalbán , Spanish Catholic priest, dramatist, poet and novelist, was born at Madrid.At the age of eighteen he became a licentiate in theology, was ordained priest in 1625 and appointed notary to the Inquisition...
– Poet, priest, novelist, and notary to the Spanish InquisitionSpanish InquisitionThe Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition , commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition , was a tribunal established in 1480 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, and to replace the Medieval...
. - Luis Ponce de LeónLuis Ponce de LeónFray Luis Ponce de León was a Spanish lyric poet, Augustinian friar and theologian and academic, active during the Spanish Golden Age.-Early life:...
– a Spanish lyric poet and an Augustinian canon during the Spanish Golden Age. - Fernando RieloFernando RieloFernando Rielo was a mystical poet, philosopher, author, metaphysician, and Founder of a Catholic Religious Institute. Rielo also founded a school of thought and a foundation based on a new metaphyics. His metaphysics is called the Genetic metaphysics of Fernando Rielo and the foundation is called...
- Mystic poet and founder of Idente MissionariesIdente MissionariesThe Institute Id of Christ the Redeemer, Idente Missionaries], is a Catholic congregation founded by Fernando Rielo in 1959 on the island of Tenerife, Spain. The congregation has men and women religious, as well as married missionaries...
. - Vicente RiscoVicente RiscoVicente Martínez Risco Agüero was a Galician intellectual of the 20th Century. He was a founder member of Xeración Nós, and among the most important figures in the history of Galician literature. He is well regarded for his writings on Galician nationalism, as well as a contributor to the Galician...
- Pedro Sainz RodríguezPedro Sainz RodríguezPedro Sainz Carlos Rodríguez was a Spanish writer, philologist, publisher and politician, an adviser to Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona and one of the main architects of the reign of Juan Carlos I of Spain and the Spanish transition to democracy...
- Luis RosalesLuis RosalesLuis Rosales Camacho was a Spanish poet and essay writer member of the Generation of '36. Member of the Hispanic Society of America and the Royal Spanish Academy since 1962...
- Manuel Tamayo y BausManuel Tamayo y BausManuel Tamayo y Baus was a Spanish dramatist.He was born at Madrid, into a family connected with the theatre, his mother being the eminent actress Joaquina Baus. It is interesting to note that she appeared as Geneviève de Brabant in an arrangement from the French made by Tamayo when he was in his...
- St. Teresa of AvilaTeresa of ÁvilaSaint Teresa of Ávila, also called Saint Teresa of Jesus, baptized as Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada, was a prominent Spanish mystic, Roman Catholic saint, Carmelite nun, and writer of the Counter Reformation, and theologian of contemplative life through mental prayer...
– a Carmelite nun, great saint, and Doctor of the Church who wrote some of the best Catholic mystical literature, e.g. Camino de Perfección (The Way of Perfection) and El Castillo Interior (The Interior Castle). - Miguel de UnamunoMiguel de UnamunoMiguel de Unamuno y Jugo was a Spanish essayist, novelist, poet, playwright and philosopher.-Biography:...
- Poet, novelist, essayist and philosopher. - José Zorrilla
- Xavier ZubiriXavier ZubiriXavier Zubiri was a Spanish philosopher noted for his intellectual rigor. A major accomplishment of Zubiri's philosophy is its systematic development of a new conception of reality such that within it man, as a "sentient intelligence," appears in a different light...
Swedish language
- Gunnel VallquistGunnel VallquistGunnel Vallquist is a Swedish writer and translator. Born in Stockholm, Vallquist was elected member of the Swedish Academy in 1982. Gunnel Vallquist is of the Catholic Church and has written several essays on Catholic religion of our time, among them reports from the Second Vatican Council...
– Swedish writer noted for a translation of In Search of Lost TimeIn Search of Lost TimeIn Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past is a novel in seven volumes by Marcel Proust. His most prominent work, it is popularly known for its considerable length and the notion of involuntary memory, the most famous example being the "episode of the madeleine." The novel is widely...
. - Birgitta TrotzigBirgitta TrotzigBirgitta Trotzig was a Swedish writer who was elected to the Swedish Academy in 1993. She was one of Sweden's most celebrated authors, and wrote prose fiction and non-fiction, as well as prose poetry.-Biography:...
– Swedish novelist, member of the Swedish AcademySwedish AcademyThe Swedish Academy , founded in 1786 by King Gustav III, is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden.-History:The Swedish Academy was founded in 1786 by King Gustav III. Modelled after the Académie française, it has 18 members. The motto of the Academy is "Talent and Taste"...
, chair number 6.
Chinese language
- Su XuelinSu XuelinSu Xuelin Su Xuelin Su Xuelin (蘇雪林, 1897－April 22, 1999）was a Chinese author and scholar. She was born in Rui'an, Zhejiang and was a descendant of Su Zhe, a renowned poet of Song Dynasty. She studied in Anhui, and later Beijing under the supervision of Hu Shi. During the May Fourth Movement, she...
- "she described Thorny Heart as a description of her ‘personal journey on the road to Catholicism’".
Japanese language
- Shusaku EndoShusaku EndoShūsaku Endō was a 20th-century Japanese author who wrote from the unusual perspective of being both Japanese and Catholic...
– "His Roman Catholic faith can be seen at some level in all of his books, and it is often a central feature." He received the Akutagawa prizeAkutagawa PrizeThe is a Japanese literary award presented semi-annually. It was established in 1935 by Kan Kikuchi, then-editor of Bungeishunjū magazine, in memory of author Ryūnosuke Akutagawa...
in 1955, the most important Japanese literature prize.
Science Fiction & Fantasy
- R. A. LaffertyR. A. LaffertyRaphael Aloysius Lafferty was an American science fiction and fantasy writer known for his original use of language, metaphor, and narrative structure, as well as for his etymological wit...
– By all accounts a devout and conservative Catholic.http://www.sfwa.org/news/lafferty.htmhttp://greatsfandf.com/AUTHORS/RALafferty.phphttp://www.infinitematrix.net/columns/langford/langford18.htmlhttp://www.google.com/search?q=cache:hffgCZgnC4oJ:news.ansible.co.uk/a177.html+%22R.+A.+Lafferty%22+%22conservative+Catholic%22&hl=enhttp://www.google.com/search?q=cache:CsUOiXH7D4gJ:www.marthasvineyarddirectory.com/static.php%3Ffile%3Dr/R.A._Lafferty.html+%22R.+A.+Lafferty%22+%22conservative+Catholic%22&hl=en - Murray LeinsterMurray LeinsterMurray Leinster was a nom de plume of William Fitzgerald Jenkins, an award-winning American writer of science fiction and alternate history...
– Dean of Science Fiction - Walter M. Miller – Convert, then ex-Catholic, noted for A Canticle for LeibowitzA Canticle for LeibowitzA Canticle for Leibowitz is a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by American writer Walter M. Miller, Jr., first published in 1960. Set in a Roman Catholic monastery in the desert of the southwestern United States after a devastating nuclear war, the story spans thousands of years as...
and other Catholic themed works. - Michael D. O'BrienMichael D. O'BrienMichael D. O'Brien is a Roman Catholic author, artist, and frequent essayist and lecturer on faith and culture, living in Combermere, Ontario, Canada. Born in Ottawa, he is self-taught, without an academic background...
– Canadian Catholic Author of the "Father Elijah" series.http://studiobrien.com/site/index/php - Tim PowersTim PowersTimothy Thomas "Tim" Powers is an American science fiction and fantasy author. Powers has won the World Fantasy Award twice for his critically acclaimed novels Last Call and Declare...
– Self avowed in interviews.http://www.locusmag.com/2002/Issue02/Powers.htmlhttp://www.strangehorizons.com/2005/20050207/powers-int-a.shtml - Fred SaberhagenFred SaberhagenFred Thomas Saberhagen was an American science fiction and fantasy author most famous for his Berserker series of science fiction short stories and S.F...
http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2005/smiesel_sfintervw1_mar05.asp - J. R. R. TolkienJ. R. R. TolkienJohn Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
– He worked on a translation of the Book of JobBook of JobThe Book of Job , commonly referred to simply as Job, is one of the books of the Hebrew Bible. It relates the story of Job, his trials at the hands of Satan, his discussions with friends on the origins and nature of his suffering, his challenge to God, and finally a response from God. The book is a...
in the Catholic Jerusalem BibleJerusalem BibleThe Jerusalem Bible is a Roman Catholic translation of the Bible which first was introduced to the English-speaking public in 1966 and published by Darton, Longman & Todd...
, and saw The Lord of the RingsThe Lord of the RingsThe Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
as deeply informed by his Catholicism. - Gene WolfeGene WolfeGene Wolfe is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He is noted for his dense, allusive prose as well as the strong influence of his Catholic faith, to which he converted after marrying into the religion. He is a prolific short story writer and a novelist, and has won many awards in the...
– Convert, a recent story of his in Asimov's concerned a Catholic holy cardHoly cardIn the Catholic tradition, holy cards or prayer cards are small, devotional pictures mass-produced for the use of the faithful. They typically depict a religious scene or a saint in an image about the size of a playing card. The reverse typically contains a prayer, some of which promise an... - John C. Wright - Convert, Nebula AwardNebula AwardThe Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
Finalist who wrote The Golden AgeThe Golden Age (John C. Wright novel)The Golden Age is a science fiction trilogy by the American writer John C. Wright. It consists of three books, The Golden Age, The Phoenix Exultant and The Golden Transcendence.-Plot introduction:...
series and the Orphans of ChaosOrphans of ChaosOrphans of Chaos is a 2005 fantasy novel by John C. Wright. It is the first volume of a trilogy that continues with the novels Fugitives of Chaos and Titans of Chaos .-Plot synopsis:...
series.
Law
- Avocate Sebastian ChampappillySebastian ChampappillySebastian Champappilly is an authority on Christian Law in India, as judicially recogonized in various reported judgments of the High Court of Kerala. He is the First Indian to secure a Doctorate in Christian Personal Law....
- Has written on Christian Law of MarriageChristian Law of Marriage in IndiaThe Christian Law of Marriage in India is governed by the Indian Christian Marriage Act of 1872.Marriage, as is seen in Christian tradition, is not merely a civil contract nor is it purely a religious contract. It is seen as a contract according to the law of nature, antecedent to civil...
, Canon LawCanon law on marriage in IndiaCanon law is recognised as the personal law of Catholics in India. The Supreme Court of India has held so in Lakshmi Sanyal V. S.K. Dhar . An authoritative exposition of the origin, development and legal status of canon law in India is given in the book “Christian Law on Marriage, Adoption &...
, successionChristian Law of Succession in IndiaChristians in India have had different laws on succession. The British Indian Government enacted the Indian Succession Act of 1865 on the recommendations of the 3rd Law Commission. This Act was intended to be applied to different communities in British India who did not have a law of their own in...
, guardianshipChristian Law of Guardianship in IndiaChristians in India are governed generally by the provisions of the Guardians and Wards Act in matters relating to guardianship of minors in respect of their person and property...
, adoptionChristian law of adoption in IndiaChristians in India can adopt children by resort to section 41 of the Juvenile Justice Act 2006 read with the Guidelines and Rules issued by various State Governments. Apart from that there are customary laws permitting them to adopt children especially in Punjab. There is a peculiar custom among...
and divorceChristian Law of Divorce in IndiaThe British colonization of India, has had a tremendous impact on the legal system in India. In many respects, English law in letter and spirit came to be applied in India. Even when the law relating to Christian marriage was still in a fluid state, British Indian Administration thought it...
.
Mystery
- Anthony BoucherAnthony BoucherAnthony Boucher was an American science fiction editor and author of mystery novels and short stories. He was particularly influential as an editor. Between 1942 and 1947 he acted as reviewer of mostly mystery fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle...
– Wrote Quest for St. Aquin. Although it's science fiction it showed his strong commitment to the religion. - G. K. ChestertonG. K. ChestertonGilbert Keith Chesterton, KC*SG was an English writer. His prolific and diverse output included philosophy, ontology, poetry, plays, journalism, public lectures and debates, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics, and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction....
- Wrote several books of short stories about a priest, Fr. Brown, who acts as a detective - Ronald KnoxRonald KnoxRonald Arbuthnott Knox was an English priest, theologian and writer.-Life:Ronald Knox was born in Kibworth, Leicestershire, England into an Anglican family and was educated at Eton College, where he took the first scholarship in 1900 and Balliol College, Oxford, where again...
- Wrote six mystery novels - Antonia FraserAntonia FraserLady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser, DBE , née Pakenham, is an Anglo-Irish author of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction, best known as Antonia Fraser...
– A Roman Catholic (converted with her parents as a child), Lady Antonia caused a public scandal in 1977 by leaving her Catholic husband for Harold Pinter. - Ralph McInernyRalph McInernyRalph Matthew McInerny was a Roman Catholic, American, philosopher, University professor, and prolific author, including fiction of which some appeared under the pseudonyms of Harry Austin, Matthew FitzRalph, Ernan Mackey, Edward Mackin, and Monica Quill, and mysteries of which his best known is...
- is the author of over thirty books, including the most popular Father Dowling mystery series, as well as having taught for over forty years at the University of Notre Dame, where he was the director of the Jacques Maritain Center before retiring. He passed to his eternal reward in January 2010.
Screenwriters
- Frank Cottrell BoyceFrank Cottrell Boyce-Awards:*2004: Buch des Monats des Instituts für Jugendliteratur/Book of the Month by the Institute for Youth Literature , Millions*2004: Carnegie Medal, Millions*2004: Luchs des Jahres , Millions...
– MillionsMillionsMillions is a 2004 British comedy-drama film, directed by Academy Award–winning director Danny Boyle, and starring Alex Etel, Lewis McGibbon, and James Nesbitt. The screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce adapted his novel while the film was in the process of being made...
being perhaps the most "Catholic" film he's written.http://www.timeout.com/film/news/454.html - Robert BressonRobert Bresson-Life and career:Bresson was born at Bromont-Lamothe, Puy-de-Dôme, the son of Marie-Élisabeth and Léon Bresson. Little is known of his early life and the year of his birth, 1901 or 1907, varies depending on the source. He was educated at Lycée Lakanal in Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, close to Paris, and...
– Adapted Diary of a Country PriestDiary of a Country PriestDiary of a Country Priest is a 1951 French film directed by Robert Bresson, and starring Claude Laydu. It was closely based on the novel of the same name by Georges Bernanos. Published in 1937, the novel received the Grand prix du roman de l'Académie française...
to film. The Pontifical Council for CulturePontifical Council for CultureThe Pontifical Council for Culture is a department of the Roman Curia charged with fostering the relationship of the Catholic Church with different cultures. Pope John Paul II founded it on 20 May 1982...
's Robert Bresson Prize in film is named for him. http://www.oecumene.radiovaticana.org/en1/Articolo.asp?c=93974 (Influenced by JansenismJansenismJansenism was a Christian theological movement, primarily in France, that emphasized original sin, human depravity, the necessity of divine grace, and predestination. The movement originated from the posthumously published work of the Dutch theologian Cornelius Otto Jansen, who died in 1638...
however. http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2002/great-directors/bresson/) - Johnny Byrne - Writer of episodes of Space: 1999Space: 1999Space: 1999 is a British science-fiction television series that ran for two seasons and originally aired from 1975 to 1977. In the opening episode, nuclear waste from Earth stored on the Moon's far side explodes in a catastrophic accident on 13 September 1999, knocking the Moon out of orbit and...
and Doctor WhoDoctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
. - Leo McCareyLeo McCareyThomas Leo McCarey was an American film director, screenwriter and producer. During his lifetime he was involved in nearly 200 movies, especially comedies...
– He wrote The Bells of St. Mary'sThe Bells of St. Mary'sThe Bells of St. Mary's is a 1945 American film which tells the story of a priest and a nun at a school who set out, despite their good-natured rivalry, to save the school from being shut down. It stars Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman...
and directed Going My WayGoing My WayGoing My Way is a 1944 film directed by Leo McCarey. It is a light-hearted musical comedy-drama about a new young priest taking over a parish from an established old veteran . Crosby sings five songs in the film. It was followed the next year by a sequel, The Bells of St. Mary's. This picture was...
.
Writers mistaken for Catholic
- Jeffrey FordJeffrey FordJeffrey Ford is an American writer in the Fantastic genre tradition, although his works have spanned genres including Fantasy, Science Fiction and Mystery. His work is characterized by a sweeping imaginative power, humor, literary allusion, and a fascination with tales told within tales...
– He was raised Catholic, but abandoned the Faith in strong terms. http://www.nightshadebooks.com/discus/messages/17/956.html?1085325005 - David E. KelleyDavid E. KelleyDavid Edward Kelley is an American television writer and producer, known as the creator of Picket Fences, Chicago Hope, The Practice, Ally McBeal, Boston Public, Boston Legal and Harry's Law, as well as several films. Kelley is one of the only screenwriters to have had a show created by him run on...
– Sometimes assumed to be a Catholic because of his surname, Kelley is actually a Protestant.(His Wiki article)
External links
- Catholic writers online
- The Catholic Writers' Guild of England and Wales
- Catholicfiction.net -- reviews of Catholic novels
See also
- List of Roman Catholics
- List of Protestant authors