List of Catholic writers


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 of their writing is imbued with a Catholic religious, cultural or aesthetic sensibility.

Asian languages

Chinese language

  • 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'
  • 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, 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

  • Shusaku Endo – Japanese Roman Catholic novelist; recipient of 1955 Akutagawa Prize
  • Ayako Sono – Japanese Roman Catholic novelist; part of the Third Generation
  • Jacobo Kyushei Tomonaga – He composed one of the first modern Japanese dictionaries.

    Vietnamese language

  • Bảo Đại – last emperor of Vietnam

    European languages

Albanian language

  • 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 Mjeda – Jesuit 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", an Albanian translation of the catechism of Robert Bellarmine.

    Bosnian language

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

    Croatian language

  • 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 Bolšić – Roman Catholic priest, mathematician, writer, and musical theorist primarily known for writing the first Croatian arithmetic textbook Arithmatika Horvatzka.

    Czech language

  • Jindřich Šimon Baar – ordained as a Catholic priest in 1892; wrote about church reform
  • Otokar Březina - Catholic in name only
  • Jan Čep - writer of novels; a translator from French
  • Jakub Deml – between 1902 and 1909 he was a Catholic priest; suspended in 1912; publishing of his books was prohibited after the communist coup
  • Bedřich Bridel - a missionary living in the Baroque era
  • Ivan Diviš – converted to Catholicism in 1964 ; he left the country after the Prague Spring ended
  • Jaroslav Durych – originally a physician; essayist and poet; wrote the novel Bloudění, which was translated into several languages, including English
  • Tomáš Halík – priest and writer; priest in the underground church during Communism
  • Bohuslav Hasištejnský z Lobkovic – elected Bishop of Olomouc, but was refused by the pope; in the times of Renaissance he stood firm with the Catholic Faith
  • Václav Havel – playwright and President of the Czech Republic, converted on his deathbed
  • Vladimír Holan – left the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and re-entered the Catholic Church
  • Jan Lipšanský – contemporary Czech writer of Catholic essays and some mystery stories with a modern monk solving them
  • Bohuslav Reynek - Catholic poet
  • 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

    Danish language

  • Jens Johannes Jørgensen – late-19th and early-20th-century poet and novelist; also a biographer of Catholic saints

    Dutch language

  • Bertus Aafjes – 20th-century poet; poems such as "Een Voetreis naar Rome" and "In den Beginne" show a strong Catholic faith
  • Guido Gezelle – priest
  • Vonne van der Meer – converted in the 1990s; married to Willem Jan Otten
  • Henri Nouwen
  • Willem Jan Otten – converted in the 1990s, a few years after his wife Vonne van der Meer
  • Gerard Reve
  • Godfried Bomans
  • Joost van den Vondel – dramatist and poet of the Dutch Golden Age; converted to Catholicism from a Mennonite background around 1641; his masterpieces are his dramas on religious and biblical themes, e.g., Lucifer, Noah and his short poems

    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 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

  • Lord Acton – 19th-century English historian from a Catholic Recusant family; disagreed with ultramontanism and had Old Catholic Church sympathies, but never left the church; known for the aphorism that "power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely"
  • John L. Allen Jr. – American journalist who has written on Opus Dei and Pope Benedict XVI
  • Elizabeth Anscombe – English philosopher
  • Kenneth Owen Arvidson – New Zealand poet
  • Maurice Baring – English man of letters, convert, friend of Belloc and Chesterton
  • James K Baxter – New Zealand poet, dramatist, literary critic and social commentator; a convert to Catholicism
  • 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
  • Christopher Beha – American novelist and revert to Catholicism.
  • Robert Hugh Benson – English convert and priest who wrote Lord of the World and apologetics
  • William Peter Blatty – American screenwriter and novelist; known for the novel The Exorcist and Academy Award-winning screenplay adapting same
  • Martin Stanislaus Brennan – American priest and scientist; wrote books about science and religion
  • Heywood Broun – American journalist who covered social justice issues, a convert
  • George Mackay Brown – Scottish poet and author
  • Orestes Brownson – 19th-century American writer and convert
  • Vincent Buckley – Australian poet
  • William F. Buckley, Jr. – American writer, journalist and conservative commentator; founder of the National Review; author of God and Man at Yale
  • Anthony Burgess – English novelist, critic and composer
  • Morley Callaghan – Canadian novelist and short-story writer
  • Roy Campbell – South African poet; convert
  • Geoffrey Chaucer – English poet of the Middle Ages; wrote The Canterbury Tales; he mocks corrupt clergy, but also presents an ideal priest who teaches sound Catholic doctrine in "The Parson's Tale"
  • Brainard Cheney – American novelist and playwright; convert
  • G. K. Chesterton – English convert, wrote apologetics including Orthodoxy as well as novels, including The Man Who Was Thursday, poetry, biographies and literary studies, and lighter works including the "Father Brown" detective stories
  • Mary Higgins Clark – American mystery and thriller writer
  • Brian Coffey – Irish poet; wrote 'The Notion of Order According to St. Thomas Aquinas'
  • Suzanne Collins – American author; wrote The Hunger Games
  • Robert Cormier – American young-adult writer
  • Felicitas Corrigan – English nun and writer
  • Richard Crashaw – 17th-century English metaphysical poet; convert; religious poetry includes the "Hymn to St. Teresa"