List of Catholic authors

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The authors 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 cultural, religious, or aesthetic sensibility.

[edit] Historically Catholic societies

[edit] Croatian language

Ivan Gundulić – His work embodies central characteristics of Catholic Counter-Reformation
Marko Marulić – Marulić was inspired by the Bible, Antique writers, and Christian hagiographies

[edit] Czech language

Jindřich Šimon Baar – ordained as Catholic priest in 1892, wrote about church reform.
Jakub Deml – between 1902 and 1909 he was a Catholic priest, suspended in 1912, publishing of his books was prohibited after the communist coup.
Ivan Diviš – in 1964 he converted to Catholicism, this was during their Communist period and he left after the Prague Spring ended.
Jaroslav Durych – 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 Halík – priest in the underground church during Communism, in least five books.
Vladimír Holan – he left the Communist Party and reentered the Catholic Church.
Bohuslav Hasištejnský z Lobkovic – he was elected Bishop of Olomouc, but he was refused by the pope.
Jan Zahradníček – 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.

[edit] French language

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

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
Louis Gabriel Ambroise de Bonald - counter-revolutionary philosophical writer
Charles Baudelaire -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 sin, and often utilises Catholic imagery and theology.
Georges Bernanos, the novelist, a devout Catholic and author of The Diary of a Country Priest.
Leon Bloy, late 19th century/early 20th century novelist.
Jacques-Benigne Bossuet, 17th century bishop, preacher and master of French prose – wrote famous funeral orations and doctrinal works.
Pierre Boulle, author of "The Bridge Over the River Kwai" and "Planet of the Apes".
Paul Bourget, novelist
Jean Pierre de Caussade - 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 apology for Christianity, "Génie du christianisme" ("The Genius of Christianity"), which contributed to a post-Revolutionary revival of Catholicism in France.
Paul Claudel, the devout Catholic poet, a leading figure in French poetry of the early twentieth century, and author of verse dramas focussing on religious themes.
Pierre Corneille - the founder of French tragedy, he was Jesuit-educated and also translated Thomas à Kempis's "The Imitation of Christ" into French verse.
St. Francis de Sales – 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 Life") 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 Fénelon – 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-Lagrange - leading neo-Thomist theologian
Henri Ghéon - 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 Gilson, prolific philosophical and historical writer and leading neo-Thomist.
René Girard - historian, literary critic and philosopher
Julien Green – 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 Helyot – Franciscan history writer.
Joris-Karl Huysmans – originally a decadent novelist, his later novels, En Route (1895), La Cathédrale (1898) and L'Oblat (1903), trace his conversion to Roman Catholicism.
Francis Jammes, late 19th/early 20th century poet.
Pierre de Jarric – French missionary and author.
Brother Lawrence - 17th century Carmelite lay brother, known for the spiritual classic "The Practice of the Presence of God"
Henri de Lubac - priest (later cardinal) and leading theologian
Gabriel Marcel - convert, philosopher and playwright
Joseph de Maistre - late 18th/early 19th century writer and philosopher from Savoy, one of the most influential intellectual opponents of the French Revolution and a firm defender of the authority of the Papacy
Jacques Maritain – A convert and a leading Catholic philosophical writer.
St. Louis de Montfort – priest who wrote The True Devotion to Mary and is a Catholic saint.
François Mauriac – devout Catholic novelist, a strong influence on Graham Greene, whose themes are sin and redemption.
Charles Péguy – 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).
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
Jules Verne - science fiction author
Louis Veuillot, leading French Catholic journalist of the 19th century

[edit] Irish language

Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill – Known for a lament on the death of her Catholic husband.
Patrick Pearse – Educated by Christian Brothers and set up St. Enda's School. (Also wrote in English).
Aogán Ó Rathaille – Irish Jacobite who wrote of a decline for Catholics in Ireland. [1]

[edit] Italian language

Ludovico Ariosto – Some of these attracted the notice of the cardinal Ippolito d'Este, who took the young poet under his patronage
Baldassare Castiglione – In 1521, Pope Leo X conceded him the tonsura (first sacerdotal ceremony).
St. Catherine of Siena - Doctor of the Church, author of the Dialogue of Divine Providence
Dante Alighieri – 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". [2]
Giovanni Guareschi, author of the delightful "Don Camillo" series of stories about a village priest and his rivalry with the Communist mayor.
Alessandro Manzoni – 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
Pope Pius II – In his younger days he had been a Poet laureate and had written an erotic novel called Eurialus and Lucretia. Later he wrote histories and epistles.
Clemente Rebora - poet and Rosminian priest
Torquato Tasso – One day before being crowned by pope Clement VIII as Poet laureate, Tasso died

[edit] Lithuanian language

Maironis – Romantic poet and priest.

[edit] Polish language

Zofia Kossak-Szczucka- writer of historical novels, she helped save Jews in occupied Poland during the Second World War
Ignacy Krasicki – A Polish Bishop.
Czesław Miłosz [3][4][5]
Grazyna Miller – Did Translation of Roman Triptych (Meditations) for Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II - in his youth wrote plays, later wrote poetry, as well, of course, as philosophical works and devotional meditations
Adam Naruszewicz – A member of the Society of Jesus and a poet.
Henryk Sienkiewicz - novelist, won the Nobel Prize in 1905. His famous novel Quo Vadis deals with the rise and persecution of Christianity in Rome.
Jan Twardowski – Poet who became a priest in 1948. In 1959 he became a provost.

[edit] Portuguese language

Marianna Alcoforado – Poor Clares member, wrote Letters of a Portuguese Nun.
Luís de Camões – Camões himself was Catholic; his poem is (among other things) a call to arms against the enemies of the Christian faith.
Miguel Esteves Cardoso, contemporary writer, critic and journalist
Denis of Portugal – Dinis signed a favouring agreement with the pope and swore to protect the Church's interests
Alceu Amoroso Lima – Catholic writer and activist from Brazil.
Adélia Prado – Catholic poet from Brazil.
Luís de Sousa – Portuguese monk and prose-writer.

[edit] Slovenian language

Anton Martin Slomšek - Poet and Roman Catholic bishop.
Fran Saleški Finžgar - Writer and priest.
Boris Pahor - Writer and Christian humanist.
Jože Snoj - Catholic poet, was prohibited to publish his works during the Communist regime.
Edvard Kocbek - Poet, essayist and Christian socialist.
Janko Ferk - Carinthian Slovenian poet.

[edit] Spanish language

Pedro Calderón de la Barca – a leading dramatist of the Spanish Golden Age, he wrote 80 autos sacramentales, short plays to inspire devotion to the mystery of the Eucharist.
Ernesto Cardenal – Liberation theology, scolded by the Pope, and did poetry.
Alonso Cueto – Peruvian writer who studied at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.
Juan Donoso Cortés, political philosopher influenced by Joseph de Maistre
Fernando de Herrera – 16th century poet, took minor orders in the Church.
Luis de Góngora – priest and poet during the Spanish Golden Age.
Ramiro de Maeztu - political theorist, literary critic and journalist
Lope de Vega – 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 Espejo, satirical, polemical and theological writer in colonial Ecuador
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 Cross – this great mystic, Carmelite priest and Doctor of the Church also wrote some of the most famous Christian poetry in any language.
Sor Juana – A nun, poet, and composer.
Osvaldo Lira, priest, theologian and philosopher
Juan Jose Marti – Degree in canon law.
Juan Pérez de Montalbán – Poet, priest, novelist, and notary to the Spanish Inquisition.
Luis Ponce de León – a Spanish lyric poet and an Augustinian canon during the Spanish Golden Age.
Fernando Rielo - Mystic poet and founder of Idente Missionaries.
St. Teresa of Avila – 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 Unamuno - Poet, novelist, essayist and philosopher.

[edit] Historically non-Catholic societies

[edit] Cymraeg (Welsh language)

Dewi Nantbrân – A Franciscan who wrote a catechism in Cymraeg.
Dom William Pugh (Welsh author) composed a Welsh poem in which loyalty to his king is combined with devotion to the Roman Catholic Church.
Gruffudd Robert – An ardent Catholic who wrote in exile during the Elizabethan era. (His article is a stub though).
Saunders Lewis - poet, dramatist, historian and leading figure in modern Welsh nationalism, a convert to Catholicism

[edit] Dutch language

(including Flemish variants)

Lambertus Jacobus Johannes Aafjes, also known as Bertus Aafjes, 20th century poet; poems such as "Een Voetreis naar Rome" (1946) and "In den Beginne"(1949) show a strong Catholic faith.
Guido Gezelle (from the predominantly Catholic Flanders)
Henri Nouwen
Joost van den Vondel, leading dramatist and poet of the Dutch Golden Age; 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.

[edit] English language

As the anti-Catholic laws were lifted in the mid nineteenth century, there was a revival of Catholicism in the English speaking world, 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, also a convert, although most the latter's works were only published many years after his death. In the early twentieth 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.

Lord Acton – a nineteenth-century British historian from a Catholic Recusant family; disagreed with ultramontanism and had Old Catholic Church 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. – Journalist who has written on Opus Dei and Pope Benedict XVI.
Elizabeth Anscombe, English philosopher
Maurice Baring - 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.^[1]
Hilaire Belloc – 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 Benson – convert and priest who wrote Lord of the World and apologetics.
William Peter Blatty -- screenwriter and novelist. Best known for the novel The Exorcist and Oscar winning screenplay adapting same.
Heywood Broun - convert
Orestes Brownson - 19th century American writer and convert
Christopher Buckley – Political satirist who wrote the Thank You for Smoking, he is also the son of William F. Buckley, Jr..
William F. Buckley, Jr. – Conservative, Anglophile founder of National Review; author of God and Man at Yale.
Vincent Buckley - Australian poet
Anthony Burgess - English novelist, critic and composer.
Morley Callaghan - Canadian novelist and short story writer
Roy Campbell – convert, South African poet.
Geoffrey Chaucer - the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages 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"
G. K. Chesterton – English convert, wrote apologetics such as "Orthodoxy (book)", novels such as "The Man Who Was Thursday", poetry, biographies and literary studies, and lighter works like the "Father Brown" detective stories.
Brian Coffey – Irish writer of 'The Notion of Order According to St. Thomas Aquinas' and a Catholic poet.
Ronan Coghlan - Irish writer on mythology and author of a Sherlock Holmes pastiche.
Felicitas Corrigan – Nun and author.
Richard Crashaw – 17th century metaphysical poet and convert to Catholicism; his religious poetry includes the famous "Hymn to St. Teresa".
Dorothy Day – American convert, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement.
Christopher Dawson – a British historian and convert to Roman Catholicism who proposed that the medieval Catholic Church was an essential factor in the rise of European civilisation.
Christopher Derrick – an English non-fiction writer on contemporary issues.
Michael Derrick – an English journalist and pamphleteer.
E. J. Dionne – noted for coverage of Vatican City.
Maureen Dowd – Graduate of The Catholic University of America and practicing, but holds positions at variance with the Church. [6]
Ernest Dowson - decadent poet who converted to Catholicism
John Dryden – the leading poet of Restoration England, who converted to Catholicism in his fifties. His long poem The Hind and the Panther, written in 1687, explains the reasons for his conversion to the Church from Anglicanism.
Alice Thomas Ellis – a novelist and convert from Positivism who became a conservative Roman Catholic critic of the Second Vatican Council and a regular columnist at the Catholic Herald newspaper.
F. Scott Fitzgerald – Raised Catholic, married in a Catholic Church, and categorised as Catholic, though he was not a practicing one for most of his life.
Joseph Fitzmyer – Priest and writer.
Robert J. Fox (priest) – He writes religious works.
Sinéad Flanagan – writer/poet (husband was Eamon de Valera)
Lady 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.
Brian Friel – Some pre-Christian Celtic elements are in his writing too though.
Maggie Gallagher – neoconservative Catholic; opposed to abortion and gay marriage.
Rumer Godden – After her conversion she wrote about the mystical aspects of the faith.
Graham Greene – the English novelist, a convert who wrote The Power and the Glory 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 Matter" and "The End of the Affair".
Andrew Greeley – Irish-American Roman Catholic priest and novelist.
Ron Hansen- Contemporary American author of Mariette in Ecstasy and The Assination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
Jon Hassler, American novelist
Seamus Heaney, Irish poet (see [7],[8]): translated Beowulf and pre-Christian aspects are important in his work too.
Peter Hebblethwaite – an English journalist and biographer.
Ernest Hemingway – Although raised Protestant, Hemingway would later convert to Catholicism.
Tony Hendra – Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul.
Tony Hillerman – author of mystery novels set among the Navajo of the American Southwest.
Gerard Manley Hopkins – 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 Horgan
Lionel Johnson – late 19th century English poet and convert
Paul Johnson – historian and journalist – wrote A History of Christianity, Pope John Paul II And The Catholic Restoration, and others books.
David Jones – an important British modernist poet, much of whose work shows the influence of his conversion to Catholicism.
James Joyce - Irish novelist from a middle-class Catholic family; Jesuit-educated. One of the leading modernist writers of the 20th century, author of Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, Joyce rejected the Church as an adult; nonetheless, his novels are permeated by Catholic themes and concepts.
George Kelly – Pulitzer Prize winning playwright; uncle of Grace Kelly
Jack Kerouac - Beat author of On the Road; son of French Canadian immigrants; born and reared a Catholic, experimented with Buddhism and later returned to Catholicism
Joyce Kilmer – convert, poetry titles include: The Robe of Christ, and The Rosary.
Christina King-Chastity Speaker and Freelance writer for Catholic Answers "This Rock" magazine, Couple to Couple League's "Family foundations" magazine, "Shower of Heavenly Roses; Inspirational Stories" includes her experience with St. Teresa the Little Flower, Guest Columnist for "The Compass" and "The Canticle".
Russell Kirk - American conservative political theorist and man of letters
Ronald Knox – convert who became a Roman Catholic priest who wrote three novels, as well as witty essays.
Dean Koontz - American popular novelist best known for moralistic thrillers, who converted to Catholicism while in college.
Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, Austrian political writer and novelist, whose most influential works were first published in English.
Jane Lane - wrote historical novels and biographies from a Catholic perspective
George Parsons Lathrop – convert who was one of the founders of the Catholic Summer School of America.
Penny Lernoux – writer for the National Catholic Reporter, former nun and noted Catholic critic of the hierarchy; died of lung cancer at age 49.
Elmore Leonard – Jesuit education.
John Lukacs – Hungarian/American historian whose view of history is deeply influenced by Catholicism.
Bernadette Devlin McAliskey – Northern Irish Catholic nationalist politician who became a writer.
David Lodge – a contemporary British novelist who often deals with the turmoil of the post-Vatican II Church in his work; mother of Irish descent.
Sara Maitland - Feminist author who has made use of Catholic spiritual themes.^[2]
Rosie Malek-Yonan - author of The Crimson Field
Francis A. Marzen – Hawaiian journalist.
James McAuley – a leading Australian poet of the twentieth century and a convert to Catholicism; many of his poems are imbued with a Catholic vision, e.g. his long poem "Captain Quiros".
Frank McCourt and Malachy McCourt – American Catholic brothers; Irish Catholic identities/cultures; writers/novelists.
Marshall McLuhan - Canadian philosopher and communications theorist, a convert to Catholicism
Thomas Merton - American monk and writer.
Alice Meynell – convert and suffragist, much of her poetry is religiously themed.
Henry McDonald – a Roman Catholic writer and columnist for The (UK) Guardian.
Sandra Miesel – Co-writer of The Da Vinci Hoax.
St. Thomas More – the statesman, lawyer, and martyr of Henry VIII'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 Moore, popular Irish poet of the 19th century (see [9], [10])
J. B. Morton, English comic writer
Malcolm Muggeridge – journalist, broadcaster and writer; his conversion was linked to Mother Theresa.
Les Murray, 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 Sua, he also wrote poetry, e.g Lead, Kindly Light and The Dream of Gerontius.
Aidan Nichols, leading Catholic theologian
Michael Novak – contemporary politically conservative American political writer.
Alfred Noyes – English poet, best known for The Highwayman; he wrote about his conversion to Catholicism in The Unknown God (1934).
Kate O'Beirne – writes syndicated columns for National Review and other conservative publications; also writes books.
Flannery O'Connor – her writing is deeply informed by the sacramental, and the Thomist notion that the created world is charged with God; like Graham Greene and Francois Mauriac she often focuses on sin and human evil.
Flann O'Brien - Irish comic writer.
Coventry Patmore - 19th century poet, convert
Craig Paterson - Philosopher and writer on bioethics.
Joseph Pearce – English literary scholar and critic. A former British National Front member who renounced racism on conversion, edited the anthology Flowers of Heaven: 1000 years of Christian Verse, and has written biographies of Oscar Wilde and Hilaire Belloc.
Walker Percy – American convert and novelist.
Ramesh Ponnuru – American conservative political writer who wrote The Party of Death, attacking the pro-choice lobby in the United States.
Alexander Pope – great English poet who was a Roman Catholic in a period when that was potentially unsafe in England (the early 1700s).
Katherine Anne Porter – on again and then off again convert.
J. F. Powers, American writer of stories about clerical life.
Timothy Radcliffe – Dominican Order lecturer, writer, and professor.
Piers Paul Read – contemporary but orthodox Catholic British novelist; V.P. of Catholic Writer's Guild.
Anne Rice – 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 Ripley – English priest who wrote about the faith.
Frederick Rolfe, alias Baron Corvo - late 19th century/early 20th century novelist, a failed aspirant to the priesthood.
Raymond Roseliep - American priest and poet.
John Salza – American Catholic non-fiction author.
George Santayana – 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".
John Patrick Shanley – educated by the Irish Christian Brothers and the Sisters of Charity; screenwriter and playwright.
Dame Edith Sitwell – the English poet, a convert.
Joseph Sobran – writes for The Wanderer, an orthodox Roman Catholic journal.
St. Robert Southwell – sixteenth-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 Spark – 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 Waugh and Graham Greene, her novels often focus on human evil and sin.
Robert Spencer – writer and commentator on Islam and jihad.
Karl Stern - German Jewish convert, 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.
Ellen Tarry - Young adult literature and The Third Door: The Autobiography of an American Negro Woman.
Allen Tate – convert to Roman Catholicism; writer.
Francis Thompson – 19th century poet; author of the famous devotional poem "The Hound of Heaven".
Colm Toibin – also an Irish actor; he wrote The Sign of the Cross.
J. R. R. Tolkien – author of The Lord of the Rings; a devout and practicing Catholic
F. X. Toole – Irish-American Catholic (born Jerry Boyd).
Elena Maria Vidal – Historical novelist.
Auberon Waugh – son of Evelyn Waugh, comic novelist/columnist.
Evelyn Waugh – 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 West, Australian novelist. Several of his novels are set in the Vatican.
Henry William Wilberforce – an English journalist and essayist.
D.B. Wyndham-Lewis – English comic writer and biographer.
Oscar Wilde – 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.
Gene Wolfe – 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.

[edit] German language

Hans Urs von Balthasar, influential theologian who also wrote literary criticism and lives of the saints
Heinrich Böll, novelist
Clemens Brentano, 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 Emmerich
Heinrich Seuse Denifle, Austrian Dominican friar, leading historian and paleographer
Alfred Döblin, convert
Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, 19th century poet. A strict Catholic, many of her poems are religious.
Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff, 19th century poet and novelist
Johann Joseph von Görres, late 18th/early 19th century
Romano Guardini, Italian-born German theologian
Theodor Haecker, convert, writer, translator and opponent of the Nazis
Dietrich von Hildebrand, convert, philosopher and theologian (wrote in both German and English)
Hugo von Hofmannsthal – 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 Langgässer – (1899–1950) An influential Catholic author who the Nazis deemed "too Jewish", she's admired by Pope Benedict XVI.
Gertrud von Le Fort, convert
Martin Mosebach, novelist, poet, playwright, and noted critic of the liturgical reforms which followed Vatican II
Ludwig von Pastor, historian, wrote multi-volume history of the popes
Josef Pieper, German Thomist philosopher
Erich Maria Remarque
Joseph Roth, convert
Angelus Silesius, 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 pantheism or quietism; but his prose works were orthodox, and the Catholic Encyclopedia says he repudiated any unorthodox interpretation of those poems.
Friedrich von Schlegel, convert
Robert Spaemann, philosopher
Friedrich von Spee, Jesuit priest of the 17th century, author of religious poetry
Friedrich Leopold Graf zu Stolberg, late 18th/early 19th century poet and convert
Blessed Henry Suso, Dominican friar in the fourteenth 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 Wiechert

[edit] Russian language

Regina Derieva, the Russian poet and a convert to Catholicism.

[edit] Communities with low percentages of Catholics

[edit] Gheg Albanian

Ndre Mjeda – Jesuit poet of the nightingale's lament and Imitation of the Holy Virgin.

[edit] Icelandic language

Jón Sveinsson – Jesuit who lived in France after age 13, but wrote children's books in Icelandic.

[edit] Japanese language

Shusaku Endo – "His Roman Catholic faith can be seen at some level in all of his books, and it is often a central feature."

[edit] Norwegian language

Sigrid Undset, convert whose Medieval trilogy Kristin Lavransdatter has received high praise in Catholic circles. [11]. Won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928.

[edit] Swedish language

Gunnel Vallquist – Swedish writer noted for a translation of In Search of Lost Time.

[edit] Genre writing

[edit] Science Fiction & Fantasy

R. A. Lafferty – By all accounts a devout and conservative Catholic.[12][13][14][15][16]
Murray Leinster – Dean of Science Fiction
Walter M. Miller – Convert, then ex-Catholic, noted for A Canticle for Leibowitz and other Catholic themed works.
Michael D. O'Brien – Canadian Catholic Author of "Father Elijah" about a Catholic priest (converted from Judaism) encounters the supernatural. Five other titles in this novel series. [17]
Tim Powers – Self avowed in interviews.[18][19]
Fred Saberhagen [20]
J. R. R. Tolkien – He worked on a translation of the Book of Job in the Catholic Jerusalem Bible, and some have seen a religious sensibility in his book trilogy, The Lord of the Rings.
Gene Wolfe – Convert, a recent story of his in Asimov's concerned a Catholic holy card

[edit] Mystery

Anthony Boucher – Wrote Quest for St. Aquin. Although it's science fiction it showed his strong commitment to the religion.
Anne Rice – She has said her new books will focus on Jesus.
G. K. Chesterton - Wrote several books of short stories about a priest, Fr. Brown, who acts as a detective
Ronald Knox - Wrote six mystery novels
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.

[edit] Screenwriters

Frank Cottrell Boyce – Millions being perhaps the most "Catholic" film he's written.[21]
Robert Bresson – Adapted Diary of a Country Priest to film. The Pontifical Council for Culture's Robert Bresson Prize in film is named for him. [22] (Influenced by Jansenism however. [23])
Johnny Byrne - Writer of episodes of Space 1999 and Doctor Who. ^[3]
Leo McCarey – He wrote The Bells of St. Mary's and directed Going My Way.

[edit] Writers falsely considered to be Catholic

Jeffrey Ford – He was raised Catholic, but abandoned the Faith in strong terms. [24]
David E. Kelley – Sometimes assumed to be a Catholic because of his surname, Kelley is actually a Protestant.(His Wiki article)

[edit] Notes

^ Roger Robinson and Nelson Wattie, The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature, Oxford University Press, Auckland, 1998, pp. 45 - 48.
^ First Tings
^ The Keeper of Traken episode two audio commentary.

[edit] References

Encyclopedia of Catholic Literature (Two Volumes) edited by Mary R. Reichardt (Greenwood Press: September 30, 2004) ISBN 0-313-32289-9
Literary giants, literary Catholics(Ignatius Press 2005) editor Joseph Pearce ISBN 1-58617-077-5
Anthology of Catholic poets edited by Joyce Kilmer ISBN 1-4101-0281-5

[edit] External links

Hidden categories: Articles lacking sources from December 2007 | All articles lacking sources