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List of Catholic writers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The writers listed on this page should be limited to those who identify as Catholic in some way. 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.

Asian languages

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Chinese language

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  • Xu Guangqi – one of the Three Pillars of Chinese Catholicism. He was a Chinese scholar-bureaucrat, agronomist, astronomer, mathematician, and writer during the Ming dynasty. Xu was a colleague and collaborator of the Italian Jesuits Matteo Ricci and Sabatino de Ursis and assisted their translation of several classic Western texts into Chinese, including part of Euclid's Elements.
  • Su Xuelin – Chinese educator, essayist, novelist and poet; she described Thorny Heart as a description of her 'personal journey on the road to Catholicism'[1]
  • John Ching Hsiung Wu – jurist and author; wrote in Chinese, English, French, and German on Christian spirituality, Chinese literature and legal topics
  • Li Yingshi – Ming Chinese military officer and a renowned mathematician,[1] astrologer and feng shui expert, who was among the first Chinese literati to become Christian. Converted to Catholicism by Matteo Ricci and Diego de Pantoja, the first two Jesuits to establish themselves in Beijing.

Japanese language

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Vietnamese language

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European languages

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Albanian language

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  • Gjon Buzuku – priest; wrote the first known printed book in Albanian.
  • Pal Engjëlli – Archbishop; wrote the first known document in Albanian
  • Gjergj Fishta – poet; in 1937 he completed and published his epic masterpiece Lahuta e Malcís, an epic poem written in the Gheg dialect of Albanian. It contains 17,000 lines and is considered the "Albanian Iliad". He is regarded among the most influential cultural and literary figures of the 20th century in Albania.
  • Ndre MjedaJesuit poet; poems include "The Nightingale's Lament" and "Imitation of the Holy Virgin"
  • Giulio Variboba – poet; priest, of the Arbëresh Albanian people of Southern Italy, regarded by many Albanians as the first genuine poet in all of Albanian literature
  • Pjetër Budi – Bishop; known for his work "Doktrina e Kërshtenë" (The Christian Doctrine), an Albanian translation of the catechism of Robert Bellarmine.

Bosnian language

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  • Matija Divković – Bosnian Franciscan and writer from Bosnia; considered to be the founder of the modern literature in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Croatian language

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  • Ivan Gundulić – poet; work embodies central characteristics of Catholic Counter-Reformation
  • Marko Marulić – poet; inspired by the Bible, Antique writers, and Christian hagiographies
  • Andrija Kačić Miošić – poet
  • Petar Preradović – was a Croatian poet, writer, and military general of Serb origin. He was one of the most important Croatian poets of the 19th century Illyrian movement and the main representative of romanticism in Croatia.
  • Mihalj Šilobod BolšićRoman Catholic priest, mathematician, writer, and musical theorist primarily known for writing the first Croatian arithmetic textbook Arithmatika Horvatzka (published in Zagreb, 1758).

Czech language

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Danish language

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Dutch language

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English language

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As the anti-Catholic laws were lifted in the mid-19th century, there was a revival of Catholicism in the British Empire. There has long 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, also a convert, although most of 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. Although James Hanley was not a practising Catholic, a number of his novels emphasise Catholic beliefs and values, including The Furys Chronicle.

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.

A–C

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D–G

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H–K

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L–M

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N–R

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S–Z

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  • Anna T. Sadlier – Canadian writer, translator
  • Mary Anne Sadlier – Irish author
  • George Santayana – Spanish-American philosopher and novelist; 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; wrote book Architecture in Communion (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1998)
  • William Shakespeare – regarded by most to be the greatest playwright and poet in the English language, as well as being one of the greatest writers in the world; although disputed, a growing number of biographers and critics hold that his religion was Catholic
  • John Patrick Shanley – screenwriter and playwright; educated by the Irish Christian Brothers and the Sisters of Charity
  • Patrick Augustine Sheehan – Canon Sheehan of Doneraile, Catholic priest, novelist essayist and poet; significant figure of the renouveau Catholique in English literature in the United States and in Europe
  • Dame Edith Sitwell – English poet; a convert
  • Robert Smith – American Catholic priest, author and educator
  • Joseph Sobran – wrote for The Wanderer, an orthodox Roman Catholic journal
  • St. Robert Southwell – 16th-century Jesuit; martyred during the persecutions of Elizabeth I; wrote religious poetry, i.e., "The Burning Babe", and Catholic tracts
  • Dame Muriel Spark – Scottish novelist; decided to join the Roman Catholic Church in 1954 and considered it crucial in her becoming a novelist in the tradition of Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene; novels often focus on human evil and sin
  • Robert Spencer – writer and commentator on Islam and jihad
  • Karl Stern – German-Jewish convert and psychiatrist
  • Francis Stuart – Australian-born Irish-nationalist Catholic convert; son-in-law of Maud Gonne; accused of anti-Semitism in his later years by Maire McEntee O'Brien and Kevin Myers
  • Jon M. Sweeney – American author of many books on religion, popular history, and memoir; convert
  • Susie Forrest Swift (later, Sister M. Imelda Teresa, 1862–1916), American Dominican nun, magazine editor, writer
  • Harry Sylvester – American journalist, short story writer, and novelist; most famous books were the Catholic novels Dayspring and Moon Gaffney
  • Ellen Tarry – writer of young-adult literature and The Third Door: The Autobiography of an American Negro Woman
  • Allen Tate – convert; poet and essayist
  • Mrs. Bartle Teeling – convert; articles, biographical sketches, books
  • Francis Thompson – 19th-century poet; wrote the devotional poem "The Hound of Heaven"
  • Colm Toibin – Irish actor and writer; wrote The Sign of the Cross
  • J. R. R. Tolkien – writer of The Lord of the Rings; devout and practicing Catholic
  • John Kennedy Toole – Pulitzer Prize-winning writer of A Confederacy of Dunces.
  • F. X. Toole (born Jerry Boyd) – Irish-American Catholic
  • Meriol Trevor – convert; author of historical novels, biographies, and children's stories
  • Lizzie Velásquez – writer of self-help, autobiographical, and young adult non-fiction
  • Elena Maria Vidal – historical novelist
  • Louie Verrecchio – Italian-American columnist for Catholic News Agency and author of Catholic faith formation materials and related books.
  • Christopher Villiers – British Catholic theologian and poet; author of Sonnets From the Spirit.
  • Maurice Walsh – one of the most popular Irish writers of the 1930s and 1940s, now chiefly remembered for the Hollywood film of his short story 'The Quiet Man;' wrote for the Irish Catholic magazine the Capuchin Annual and listed in the 1948 publication 'Catholic Authors: Contemporary Biographical Sketches, 1930–1952, Volume 1;'
  • Auberon Waugh – comic novelist and columnist; son of Evelyn Waugh
  • Evelyn Waugh – novelist; converted to Roman Catholicism in 1930; his religious ideas are manifest, either explicitly or implicitly, in all of his later work; strongly orthodox and conservative Roman Catholic
  • Morris West – Australian writer; several of his novels are set in the Vatican
  • Donald E. Westlake – American writer; three-time Edgar Award winner
  • Antonia White – author of four novels – including her 1933 novel Frost in May, based on her experiences at her Catholic boarding school – two children's books, and a short story collection.
  • Henry William Wilberforce – English journalist and essayist
  • Tennessee Williams – convert, American playwright and poet, who wrote such noted plays as The Glass Menagerie, The Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and A Streetcar Named Desire.
  • D.B. Wyndham-Lewis – English comic writer and biographer
  • Oscar Wilde – late-19th-century playwright and poet; fascinated by Catholicism as a young man and much of his early poetry shows this heavy influence; embraced a homosexual lifestyle later on, but converted to Catholicism on his deathbed (receiving a conditional baptism as there is some evidence, including his own vague recollection, that his mother had him baptised in the Catholic Church as a child[8][9])
  • Gene Wolfe – science-fiction author; has written many novels and multivolume series; some, such as the Book of the New Sun and the Book of the Long Sun, are considered to be religious allegory
  • Julia Amanda Sargent Wood (pen name, Minnie Mary Lee; 1825 – 1903), American author
  • Carol Zaleski – American philosopher of religion, essayist and author of books on Catholic theology and on comparative religion

French language

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There was a strong Catholic strain in 20th-century French literature, encompassing Paul Claudel, Georges Bernanos, François Mauriac, and Julien Green.

A–K

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L–Z

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German language

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A–M

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N–Z

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Icelandic language

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Irish language

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  • Máirtín Ó Direáin, Irish-language poet.[11]
  • Amhlaoibh Ó Súilleabháin (1780–1838) – Irish language author and one-time hedge school master; is also known as Humphrey O'Sullivan. Was deeply involved in Daniel O'Connell's Catholic Emancipation movement and in relief work among the poor of County Kilkenny. His diary, published later as Cín Lae Amhlaoibh, was kept between 1827 and 1835. "His personal charisma allowed him to cross social and religious barriers, and he used this affability to collect signatures in support of Catholic Emancipation – even getting non-Catholic friends to add their names to 'The Protestant Declaration in favour of Catholic Emancipation'."[12]

Italian language

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Latin language

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  • Saint Ambrose – Bishop of Milan; one of the Four Latin Church Fathers; notable for his influence on Augustine; promoter of antiphonal chant and for the Ambrosian Rite
  • Augustine of Hippo – earliest theologian and philosopher of the Church still having wide influence today; Bishop of Hippo; one of the Four Church Fathers; known for his apologetic work Confessions
  • Boethius – philosopher; known for The Consolation of Philosophy
  • Pope Gregory I – Pope; one of the Four Latin Church Fathers; born to a patrician family in Rome and became a monk; known today as being the first monk to become Pope and for traditionally being credited with Gregorian chant; emphasized charity in Rome
  • Saint Jerome – one of the Four Latin Church Fathers; known for translating the Bible into Latin; this translation is known as the Vulgate and became the founding source for Biblical subjects in the West
  • Saint Thomas Aquinas – one of the greatest philosophers, known for his Summa Theologica

Lithuanian language

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  • Maironis – Romantic poet and priest
  • Vaižgantas – priest and an activist during the Lithuanian National Revival
  • Antanas Strazdas – priest, writer, and poet; became a folklore hero because of his humble origins
  • Motiejus Valančius – Catholic bishop of Samogitia, historian and one of the best known Lithuanian writers of the 19th century

Norwegian language

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  • Jon Fosse  – novelist, 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature recipient, and convert to Catholicism.
  • Sigrid Undset – convert whose Medieval trilogy Kristin Lavransdatter has received high praise in Catholic circles;[14] recipient of 1926 Nobel Prize in Literature

Polish language

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Portuguese language

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Russian language

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Slovenian language

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Spanish language

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Swedish language

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Welsh language

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Genre writing

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Mystery

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  • Anthony Boucher – American science-fiction editor, mystery novelist and short- story writer; his science-fiction short story "The Quest for Saint Aquin" shows his strong commitment to the religion
  • G. K. Chesterton – English lay theologian, poet, philosopher, dramatist, journalist, orator, literary and art critic, biographer, and Christian apologist; wrote several books of short stories about a priest, Father Brown, who acts as a detective
  • Antonia Fraser – English writer of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction; Roman Catholic (converted with her parents as a child); caused a public scandal in 1977 by leaving her Catholic husband for Harold Pinter
  • Ronald Knox – English priest and theologian; wrote six mystery novels
  • Ralph McInerny – American novelist; wrote over thirty books, including the Father Dowling mystery series; taught for over forty years at the University of Notre Dame, where he was the director of the Jacques Maritain Center

Science fiction and fantasy

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Screenwriters

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Writers mistaken for Catholic

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See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ [dead link] "The Study of Professor Su Xuelin" Archived 22 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine. National Cheng Kung University.
  2. ^ Roger Robinson and Nelson Wattie, The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature, Oxford University Press, Auckland, 1998, pp. 45–48.
  3. ^ "The latest priest-scandal scapegoat - Salon.com". Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 17 August 2006..
  4. ^ "Seamus Heaney - Biography".
  5. ^ First Tings
  6. ^ "The Contemplator's Short Biography of Thomas Moore".
  7. ^ "New Catholic Dictionary: Thomas Moore". Archived from the original on 12 February 2007. Retrieved 20 November 2005..
  8. ^ Cavill, Paul; Ward, Heather; Baynham, Matthew; Swinford, Andrew (2007). The Christian Tradition in English Literature: Poetry, Plays, and Shorter Prose. p. 337. Zondervan.
  9. ^ Pearce, Joseph (2004). The Unmasking of Oscar Wilde. pp. 28–29. Ignatius Press.
  10. ^ "IrishAbroad Internal Messaging". Archived from the original on 19 October 2006. Retrieved 22 August 2006..
  11. ^ Cuireadh oileánach do Mhuire (The poem An Islander’s Invitation to Mary) set to music and cited: https://www.catholicireland.net/maynooth-celebrates-50th-christmas-carol-service/
  12. ^ Diary of an Irish Countryman https://www.irelandsown.ie/diary-of-an-irish-countryman-writings-of-humphrey-osullivan/ Archived 4 October 2023 at the Wayback Machine
  13. ^ "In Praeclara Summorum". 30 April 1921.
  14. ^ http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/arts/al0078.html .
  15. ^ http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/136/12.0.html . Christianity Today.
  16. ^ http://books.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,11617,1283895,00.html . The Guardian.
  17. ^ http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/08/29/LVGA98D32M1.DTL . San Francisco Chronicle.
  18. ^ Prado-Garduño, Gloria. Creación, recepción y efecto: Una aproximación hermenéutica a la obra literaria (in Spanish) (Second edition-First electronic ed.). México: Universidad Panamericana A.C. 2014. p. 203. ISBN 978-607-417-264-5.
  19. ^ LaGreca, Nancy. Rewriting womanhood: feminism, subjectivity, and the angel of the house in the Latin American novel, 1887–1903. United States of America: Penn State Press. 2009. p. 202. ISBN 978-0-271-03439-3.
  20. ^ [dead link] "R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) – SFWA News". Archived from the original on 26 October 2005. Retrieved 20 November 2005.. Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
  21. ^ "R. A. Lafferty at the Great SF&F site".
  22. ^ "The Infinite Matrix | David Langford | Runcible Ansible Week 18".
  23. ^ Article Title .
  24. ^ [dead link] [1][dead link].
  25. ^ http://studiobrien.com/site/index/php [permanent dead link].
  26. ^ "Locus Online: Tim Powers interview excerpts".
  27. ^ "Strange Horizons Articles: Interview: Tim Powers, by Lyda Morehouse". Archived from the original on 11 September 2005. Retrieved 22 November 2005..
  28. ^ "Catholics & Science Fiction | an Interview with Sandra Miesel". Archived from the original on 28 June 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2005.
  29. ^ http://www.timeout.com/film/news/454.html [permanent dead link]. Time Out.
  30. ^ http://www.oecumene.radiovaticana.org/en1/Articolo.asp?c=93974 Archived 26 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
  31. ^ "Bresson, Robert – Senses of Cinema". 24 January 2003.
  32. ^ The Keeper of Traken episode two audio commentary.
  33. ^ "Two Identities, One Faith".
  34. ^ http://www.nightshadebooks.com/discus/messages/17/956.html?1085325005 Archived 12 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine .
  35. ^ Staff (25 November 2002). "Corrections". The New York Times. 18 June 2014.
  36. ^ "Nie wierzę w czary". 11 March 2017.

References

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