Caryll Houselander
Encyclopedia
Caryll Houselander lay Roman Catholic ecclesiastical artist, mystic, popular religious writer and poet.
Several authors, including Maisie Ward in her 1962 biography Caryll Houselander: That Divine Eccentric, incorrectly state that Houselander was born on October 29, 1901, when, in fact, she was born on September 29, 1901, according to her birth certificate (cited in Andrew Cook, Ace of Spies: The True Story of Sidney Reilly, rev. ed., 2004, p. 319, n. 27) and her remark in A Rocking-Horse Catholic (cited below, p. 41) that she took the confirmation "name of Michael after the Archangel on whose feast day I was born."
When she was six, her mother converted to Catholicism
and she in turn was so baptised. Shortly after her ninth birthday, her parents separated and her mother opened a boarding house
to support the family, while Caryll was sent away to a convent where she reported her first mystical experience
. One day, she entered a room and saw a Bavarian
nun sitting by herself, weeping and polishing shoes. At this time, there was much anti-German sentiment
owing to the war. As she stared, she saw the nun's head being pressed down by a crown of thorns that she was to interpret as Christ's suffering in the woman.
In her teens, she returned home to help her mother in the running of the boarding house. Gertrude allowed a priest to stay and this became such a source of scandal that Caryll and her mother suffered ostracism in the community. This may have been partly influential in Caryll's decision to leave the Church as a teenager, not returning until in her twenties. It may also have contributed to a sense of isolation she would feel at times, reflected in panic attack
s when entering rooms and meeting strangers, so much so that she was considered neurotic.
One night, in July 1918, Caryll was sent by her mother on an errand. On her way to the street vendor, she looked up and saw what she later described as a huge Russian icon spread across the sky. The icon she saw was Christ crucified lifted up, and looking down, brooding over the world. Shortly after, she read in a newspaper article about the assassination of Russian Tsar Nicholas II
. She said the face she saw in the newspaper photograph was the face she saw spread out over the sky as the crucified Christ.
A third vision occurred when she was travelling on a busy underground train when she suddenly saw Christ, living and rejoicing, suffering and dying, in each and everyone of the passengers. When she left the train, the mystical experience continued for several days, during which she became persuaded that the unity of life in Christ was the only solution to loneliness and the human condition.
Another experience involved one of her doctors, who had died but appeared and sat next to her on a bus. They were able to talk and converse.
in 1925, but her spiritual reading was founded almost entirely on the Gospels, rather than the Fathers of the Church or official Church documents. She met and fell in love with Sidney Reilly
, famous spy and the model for Ian Fleming
s "James Bond
", but he left her broken-hearted when he married another woman. She would never marry.
Houselander was a prolific writer and contributed many pieces to religious magazines, such as the Messenger of the Sacred Heart
and The Children's Messenger. Her first book, This War is the Passion, was published in 1941 and in it she placed the suffering of the individual and its meaning within the mystical body of Christ. For a time, she became publishers Sheed & Ward's best selling writer, drawing praise from people such as Ronald Knox
:
During the Second World War, doctors began sending patients to Houselander for counselling and therapy. Even though she lacked formal education in this area, she seemed to have a natural empathy for people in mental anguish and the talent for helping them to rebuild their world. A visitor once found her alone on the floor, apparently in great pain, which she attributed to her willingness to take on herself a great trial and temptation that was overwhelming another person.
The psychiatrist Dr. Eric Strauss, later President of the British Psychological Society
, said of Houslander: "she loved them back to life... .she was a divine eccentric."
She titled her autobiography A Rocking-Horse Catholic to differentiate herself from those termed "cradle Catholics." She died of breast cancer
in 1954, at the age of 53.
Margot H. King is working on a biography for Peregrina Publishers, Toronto, Canada, which will update Maisie Ward's 1962 book on Houselander.
Early life
Born in Bath, England, Houselander was the second of two daughters of Wilmott and Gertrude Provis Houselander.Several authors, including Maisie Ward in her 1962 biography Caryll Houselander: That Divine Eccentric, incorrectly state that Houselander was born on October 29, 1901, when, in fact, she was born on September 29, 1901, according to her birth certificate (cited in Andrew Cook, Ace of Spies: The True Story of Sidney Reilly, rev. ed., 2004, p. 319, n. 27) and her remark in A Rocking-Horse Catholic (cited below, p. 41) that she took the confirmation "name of Michael after the Archangel on whose feast day I was born."
When she was six, her mother converted to Catholicism
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
and she in turn was so baptised. Shortly after her ninth birthday, her parents separated and her mother opened a boarding house
Boarding house
A boarding house, is a house in which lodgers rent one or more rooms for one or more nights, and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months and years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and some services, such as laundry and cleaning, may be supplied. They normally provide "bed...
to support the family, while Caryll was sent away to a convent where she reported her first mystical experience
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
. One day, she entered a room and saw a Bavarian
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
nun sitting by herself, weeping and polishing shoes. At this time, there was much anti-German sentiment
Anti-German sentiment
Anti-German sentiment is defined as an opposition to or fear of Germany, its inhabitants, and the German language. Its opposite is Germanophilia.-Russia:...
owing to the war. As she stared, she saw the nun's head being pressed down by a crown of thorns that she was to interpret as Christ's suffering in the woman.
In her teens, she returned home to help her mother in the running of the boarding house. Gertrude allowed a priest to stay and this became such a source of scandal that Caryll and her mother suffered ostracism in the community. This may have been partly influential in Caryll's decision to leave the Church as a teenager, not returning until in her twenties. It may also have contributed to a sense of isolation she would feel at times, reflected in panic attack
Panic attack
Panic attacks are periods of intense fear or apprehension that are of sudden onset and of relatively brief duration. Panic attacks usually begin abruptly, reach a peak within 10 minutes, and subside over the next several hours...
s when entering rooms and meeting strangers, so much so that she was considered neurotic.
One night, in July 1918, Caryll was sent by her mother on an errand. On her way to the street vendor, she looked up and saw what she later described as a huge Russian icon spread across the sky. The icon she saw was Christ crucified lifted up, and looking down, brooding over the world. Shortly after, she read in a newspaper article about the assassination of Russian Tsar Nicholas II
Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official short title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until...
. She said the face she saw in the newspaper photograph was the face she saw spread out over the sky as the crucified Christ.
A third vision occurred when she was travelling on a busy underground train when she suddenly saw Christ, living and rejoicing, suffering and dying, in each and everyone of the passengers. When she left the train, the mystical experience continued for several days, during which she became persuaded that the unity of life in Christ was the only solution to loneliness and the human condition.
Another experience involved one of her doctors, who had died but appeared and sat next to her on a bus. They were able to talk and converse.
Later Life & Works
The three mystical experiences she claimed to have experienced convinced her that Christ is to be found in all people, even those whom the world shunned because they did not conform to certain standards of piety. She would write that if people looked for Christ in only the "saints," they would not find him. She herself smoked and drank and had a sharp tongue. She returned to the Catholic ChurchRoman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
in 1925, but her spiritual reading was founded almost entirely on the Gospels, rather than the Fathers of the Church or official Church documents. She met and fell in love with Sidney Reilly
Sidney Reilly
Lieutenant Sidney George Reilly, MC , famously known as the Ace of Spies, was a Jewish Russian-born adventurer and secret agent employed by Scotland Yard, the British Secret Service Bureau and later the Secret Intelligence Service . He is alleged to have spied for at least four nations...
, famous spy and the model for Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...
s "James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
", but he left her broken-hearted when he married another woman. She would never marry.
Houselander was a prolific writer and contributed many pieces to religious magazines, such as the Messenger of the Sacred Heart
Messenger of the Sacred Heart
The Messenger of the Sacred Heart is an Irish Roman Catholic periodical. It was founded by an Irish priest, Fr. Paul Cullen SJ in 1888. It is printed in Dublin. It is generally known simply as The Messenger. For much of its history it was one of the most read Irish devotional...
and The Children's Messenger. Her first book, This War is the Passion, was published in 1941 and in it she placed the suffering of the individual and its meaning within the mystical body of Christ. For a time, she became publishers Sheed & Ward's best selling writer, drawing praise from people such as Ronald Knox
Ronald Knox
Ronald Arbuthnott Knox was an English priest, theologian and writer.-Life:Ronald Knox was born in Kibworth, Leicestershire, England into an Anglican family and was educated at Eton College, where he took the first scholarship in 1900 and Balliol College, Oxford, where again...
:
"she seemed to see everything for the first time, and the driest of doctrinal considerations shone out like a restored picture when she had finished with it. And her writing was always natural; she seemed to find no difficulty in getting the right word; no, not merely the right word, the telling word, that left you gasping."
During the Second World War, doctors began sending patients to Houselander for counselling and therapy. Even though she lacked formal education in this area, she seemed to have a natural empathy for people in mental anguish and the talent for helping them to rebuild their world. A visitor once found her alone on the floor, apparently in great pain, which she attributed to her willingness to take on herself a great trial and temptation that was overwhelming another person.
The psychiatrist Dr. Eric Strauss, later President of the British Psychological Society
British Psychological Society
The British Psychological Society is a representative body for psychologists and psychology in the United Kingdom. The BPS is also a Registered Charity and, along with advantages, this also imposes certain constraints on what the society can and cannot do...
, said of Houslander: "she loved them back to life... .she was a divine eccentric."
She titled her autobiography A Rocking-Horse Catholic to differentiate herself from those termed "cradle Catholics." She died of breast cancer
Breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
in 1954, at the age of 53.
Margot H. King is working on a biography for Peregrina Publishers, Toronto, Canada, which will update Maisie Ward's 1962 book on Houselander.
Select bibliography
Sheed & Ward books:- This War is the Passion (1941); republished by Ave Maria Press (2008)
- The Reed of God (1944); republished by Ave Maria Press (2008)
- The Splendor of the Rosary by Maisie Ward, prayers by Caryll Houselander (1945); Houselander's prayers reprinted in The Essential Rosary published by Sophia Institute Press (1996)
- The Flowering Tree (1945)
- The Dry Wood (1947)
- The Passion of the Infant Christ (1949)
- Guilt (1952)
- The Comforting of Christ (1954)
- A Rocking-Horse Catholic (1955)
- The Stations of the Cross (1955) illustrated with fourteen wood engravings by Caryll Houselander.
- The Way of the Cross (1955); revised edition (inclusive language changes and use of a different Biblical translation for Scriptural quotations) published by Liguori Publications (2002)
- Inside the Ark (1956)
- Terrible Farmer Timson and Other Stories (1957)
- The Risen Christ (1959); republished by Scepter Publications (2007)
- The Letters of Caryll Houselander: Her Spiritual Legacy (1965) Edited by Maisie Ward
External links
- "Caryll Houselander 1901-1954", Margot H. King, retrieved 21 May 2007.http://www.peregrina.com/caryll/caryll.html
- "Seeing Christ in All People", Karen Lynn Krugh, Catholic Culture, retrieved 8 December 2009.http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=528
- "Caryll Houselander: Essential Writings", reviewed by Francis Philips, Theotokos, retrieved 21 May 2007,http://www.theotokos.org.uk/pages/breviews/francisp/carryllh.html