A stained-glass window in our own St. Mary Cathedral in Lansing depicts the baptism of St. Ethelbert of Kent in 597 AD. Guided by the missionary St. Augustine of Canterbury, Ethelbert embraced Christianity, established churches, and spread the faith across the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. The builders of our cathedral understood that St. Ethelbert’s conversion marked the beginning of Catholicism in the English-speaking world, shaping a distinctly English expression of Catholic spirituality that continues to bring souls to Christ. 

In 1061, the Virgin Mary appeared to Richeldis de Faverches, a noblewoman in Walsingham, England, instructing her to build a replica of the Holy House of Nazareth. This Holy House memorialized Mary’s joy at the Annunciation, which she called “the first of my joys, the root of man’s salvation,” a message re-echoed in the Angelus devotion.  Our Lady promised her motherly help to all who devoutly seek her there. This shrine was soon constructed. It became a major pilgrimage site, as popular as the Camino to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, or pilgrimages to Canterbury and Rome. 

Devotion to Our Lady of Walsingham reinforced England’s spiritual identity as the “Dowry of Mary,” a title dating back to at least the 14th century. It signifies England’s consecration to the Blessed Virgin, invoking her protection and intercession. The title draws from medieval traditions, where a dowry was a gift of property provided by a husband for his wife’s security, if she became widowed. It is in this sense that the title “Dowry of Mary” is understood; that England has been especially set apart for Our Lady.    

Catholic England was also called “the island of saints” and “the most devoted child of the See of Peter.” Throughout the medieval period and into the Reformation, England produced many saints. The English missionary St. Boniface established the faith in Germany. St. Bede the Venerable, the only English-born doctor of the Church, wrote extensively on Scripture and history, coining the terms “AD” and “BC” to mark dates relative to the birth of Christ. St. Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, was martyred in 1170 for defending the Church’s liberty against secular interference.  Abbeys, monasteries, and other houses of religious life were found in nearly every town across the land, promoting a unified vision of faith, worship, education, and charitable help for the sick and poor. The Carmelite prior in Aylesford, Kent, St. Simon Stock, is associated with the beginnings of the Brown Scapular devotion. Writers like Dame Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe enriched the English mystical tradition by reflecting on divine mercy, suffering, and holiness.

The English Reformation brought immense suffering to Catholics. St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More were executed for upholding the sanctity of marriage and union with Rome after Henry VIII’s break with the Church. Jesuit martyrs, including St. Edmund Campion, ministered to Catholics in hiding, often at the cost of their lives. St. Margaret Clitherow, a young mother, was martyred for harboring priests.  Their sacrifices solidified the unconquered resilience of English Catholics, who kept the faith alive through clandestine Masses and the practice of the faith in recusant families’ households.

Despite centuries of suppression, English Catholicism experienced rebirth following the Oxford Movement, led by St. John Henry Newman. This renewal found expression in literature, with writers like G.K. Chesterton, a Catholic convert, who reproposed the faith in works like Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man. Gerard Manley Hopkins expressed a sacramental vision of nature in his poetry. J.R.R. Tolkien, a devout Catholic, wove themes of Christ-like sacrifice, redemption, and hope into The Lord of the Rings, while Evelyn Waugh, in Brideshead Revisited, captured the struggles and triumphs of the faith in an increasingly secular world.

Pope Benedict XVI once remarked: “The great tradition of English Catholic spirituality has much to offer the Church today. It is a spirituality of both contemplation and action, which expresses the deep interior life of the individual and the commitment to work for the common good, in accordance with the Gospel.”