Cannabis Ruderalis

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 religious, cultural or aesthetic sensibility.

Asian languages[edit]

Chinese language[edit]

  • 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 – was a 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[edit]

Vietnamese language[edit]

European languages[edit]

Albanian language[edit]

  • 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[edit]

  • Matija Divković – was a Bosnian Franciscan and writer from Bosnia. He is considered to be the founder of the modern literature in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Croatian language[edit]

  • 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.

Czech language[edit]

Danish language[edit]

Dutch language[edit]

English language[edit]

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[edit]

D–G[edit]

H–K[edit]

  • Radclyffe Hall – English novelist, author of The Well of Loneliness.
  • Ron Hansen – contemporary American writer of Mariette in Ecstasy and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
  • Jon Hassler – American novelist
  • Seamus Heaney – Irish poet;[4][5] translated Beowulf; pre-Christian aspects are important in his work
  • Peter Hebblethwaite – English journalist and biographer
  • Ernest Hemingway – raised Protestant; converted to Catholicism
  • Tony HendraFather Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul
  • Solange Hertz – American spiritual writer
  • Patrick Holland – Australian novelist and short-story writer
  • Tony Hillerman – author of mystery novels set among the Navajo of the American Southwest
  • Rosamund Hodge – American novelist and short-story writer; works include "Cruel Beauty" and "Crimson Bound"
  • Gerard Manley Hopkins – 19th-century convert; became a Jesuit priest and poet; known for poems including "The Wreck of the Deutschland" and "God's Grandeur"
  • Paul Horgan
  • Stephen Hough – British musician and writer, author of The Bible as Prayer – a handbook for Lectio Divina, The Final Retreat, a novel about sexual addiction and despair in the life of a priest, Rough Ideas, a book of essays about music and many religious topics.
  • Deal W. Hudson – American Catholic writer, philosopher, radio show host, and political commentator.
  • Pauline von Hügel (1858-1901), Italian-born Austrian baroness, British Catholic writer, founder of Corpus Christi Church, Boscombe
  • Robert Hutchinson – American religion writer, columnist and essayist, author of When in Rome: A Journal of Life in Vatican City, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Bible and Searching for Jesus: New Discoveries in the Quest for Jesus of Nazareth.
  • Elizabeth Inchbald – early-19th-century English actress, novelist, and playwright
  • Laura Ingraham – conservative commentator, author and radio show host; often appears on Fox News and EWTN
  • 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 – British modernist poet; much of his work shows the influence of his conversion to Catholicism
  • James Joyce – Irish novelist from a middle-class Catholic family; Jesuit-educated; novels include Ulysses and Finnegans Wake; novels are permeated by Catholic themes and concepts; may have rejected the church as an adult (some critics/biographers opine that he never really left or later reconciled in some regard)
  • Julian of Norwich – late-14th- and 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 KellyPulitzer Prize-winning playwright; uncle of Grace Kelly
  • Margery Kempe – 15th-century English lay woman and self-proclaimed mystic; wrote one of the first, if not the first, autobiographies in the English language
  • 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
  • Lady Amabel Kerr - a convert; British writer of biographies of religious figures
  • Joyce Kilmer – poet; a convert; poetry titles include The Robe of Christ and The Rosary
  • Russell Kirk – American conservative political theorist and man of letters
  • Ronald Knox – convert who became a Roman Catholic priest; translated the Bible from the Latin Vulgate in the 20th century; wrote in a diverse range of genres, including detective stories, essays, sermons and satire
  • Dean Koontz – American novelist; known for moralistic thrillers; converted to Catholicism while in college
  • Peter Kreeft – professor of philosophy at Boston College and The King's College; writer of numerous books as well as a writer of Christian philosophy, theology and apologetics
  • Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn – Austrian political writer and novelist, whose most influential works were first published in English

L–M[edit]

N–R[edit]

S–Z[edit]

French language[edit]

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

A–K[edit]

L–Z[edit]

German language[edit]

A–M[edit]

N–Z[edit]

Icelandic language[edit]

Irish language[edit]

  • Máirtín Ó Direáin, Irish-language poet.[12]
  • 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’."[13]

Italian language[edit]

Latin language[edit]

  • 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[edit]

Norwegian language[edit]

Polish language[edit]

Portuguese language[edit]

Russian language[edit]

Slovenian language[edit]

Spanish language[edit]

Swedish language[edit]

Welsh language[edit]

Genre writing[edit]

Mystery[edit]

  • 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[edit]

Screenwriters[edit]

Writers mistaken for Catholic[edit]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  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. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 2006-08-17.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link).
  4. ^ [1].
  5. ^ Liukkonen, Petri. "Seamus Heaney". Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi). Finland: Kuusankoski Public Library. Archived from the original on 18 November 2005.
  6. ^ First Tings
  7. ^ [2].
  8. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 12 February 2007. Retrieved 2005-11-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link).
  9. ^ Cavill, Paul; Ward, Heather; Baynham, Matthew; Swinford, Andrew (2007). The Christian Tradition in English Literature: Poetry, Plays, and Shorter Prose. p. 337. Zondervan.
  10. ^ Pearce, Joseph (2004). The Unmasking of Oscar Wilde. pp. 28–29. Ignatius Press.
  11. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 19 October 2006. Retrieved 2006-08-22.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link).
  12. ^ 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/
  13. ^ Diary of an Irish Countryman https://www.irelandsown.ie/diary-of-an-irish-countryman-writings-of-humphrey-osullivan/
  14. ^ [3].
  15. ^ [4].
  16. ^ [5]. Christianity Today.
  17. ^ [6]. The Guardian.
  18. ^ [7]. San Francisco Chronicle.
  19. ^ 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.
  20. ^ 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.
  21. ^ [dead link] "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 26 October 2005. Retrieved 2005-11-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link). Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
  22. ^ [8].
  23. ^ [9].
  24. ^ [10].
  25. ^ [dead link] [11].
  26. ^ [12][permanent dead link].
  27. ^ [13].
  28. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 11 September 2005. Retrieved 22 November 2005.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link).
  29. ^ [14].
  30. ^ [15][permanent dead link]. Time Out.
  31. ^ [16] Archived 26 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
  32. ^ [17].
  33. ^ The Keeper of Traken episode two audio commentary.
  34. ^ [18].
  35. ^ Staff (25 November 2002). "Corrections". The New York Times. 18 June 2014.
  36. ^ [19]

References[edit]

  • Encyclopedia of Catholic Literature (Two Volumes) edited by Mary R. Reichardt (Greenwood Press: 30 September 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

External links[edit]

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