List of Catholic authors

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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 cultural, religious, or even aesthetic manner. The common denominator is that in least some (and preferably the majority) of their writing is imbued with a Catholic cultural, religious, or aesthetic sensibility.

Contents

  • Ivan GundulićHis work embodies central characteristics of Catholic Counter-Reformation
  • Marko MarulićMarulić was inspired by the Bible, Antique writers, and Christian hagiographies

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
  • 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".
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 the long poem "Mysteres de Charité de Jeanne d'Arc" (Mysteries of the Charity of Joan of Arc).
  • 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

  • Ludovico AriostoSome 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).
  • 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.
  • Torquato TassoOne day before being crowned by pope Clement VIII as Poet laureate, Tasso died

  • Maironis – Romantic poet and priest.

Note: Because of the description being used here these authors should not be from before the Protestant Reformation.

  • Lambertus Jacobus Johannes Aafjes, also known as Bertus Aafjes, 20th century poet; poems such as "Ein Voetreis naar Rome" (1946) and "In dem Beginne"(1949) show a strong Catholic faith.
  • Joost van der Vondel, leading dramatist and poet of the Dutch Golden Age; he coverted 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.

From the mid nineteenth century, which saw a revival of Catholicism in the English speaking world, there has been a distinct Catholic strain in English literature, most of it from converts to Catholicism.

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.

  • Ndre MjedaJesuit poet of the nightingale's lament and Imitation of the Holy Virgin.

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

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

  • 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.

  • Jeffrey Ford – He was raised in it, but abandoned it in strong terms. He was called a "Catholic writer" by a reviewer and considered it an insult.[24]
  • David E. KelleySometimes assumed to be a Catholic (because of his surname and the character Bobby Donnell on The Practice having a Catholic background and a personal estrangement from the Church over the issue of pedophile priests), Kelley is actually a Protestant.(His Wiki article)

  1. ^ Roger Robinson and Nelson Wattie, The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature, Oxford University Press, Auckland, 1998, pp. 45 - 48.
  2. ^ Roger Robinson and Nelson Wattie, The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature, Oxford University Press, Auckland, 1998, pp. 151 - 152.


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