FASCINATING & MORE than a little depressing how many literary and articulate Christian voices from English Catholicism of the last century fell so completely and totally off the map of recognition that no one today remotely knows they ever existed. My candidate today for Rehabilitation:Father C. Martindale (1879-1963), a once renowned Jesuit author, scholar and Oxford philosopher, was born in London in 1879. After attending school at Harrow he became a Catholic and entered the Jesuit novitiate. He was ordained in 1911 and his priestly life has included teaching, much lecturing, travelling, and, of course, writing. One of his biographers says of him, "He has rebuilt Christian apologetics about the doctrines of the supernatural life and the Mystical Body." His books include The Vocation of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, The Mind of the Missal [see The Words of the MissalC.C. MARTINDALE, crony of Mssrs. Frank Sheed and Maisie Ward.Have been reading his essay on God in "God and the Supernatural," as well as his book "Faith of the Roman Church." Very good and relevant.
Also telling that in another lifetime America Magazine gave him such happy endorsement [See "Upon further review" (Some Wear Clerics, January 29, 2008). Today it wouldn't touch him -- nor likely he it -- with a bargepole!]
], Portuguese Pilgrimage, What Are Saints?Life of St. Camillus and many more.[Hat tip to J.M.]
A good resource for some of these other forgotten characters is Aidan Nichols OP's 'Dominican Gallery'. Given what a strong team the Church in England could field up to the 1950s, it is baffling how it could all have disintegrated so totally.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reference, Dr. Lamont. I've put the book on my wish list.
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