Joanna Bogle gives an engaging presentation about the fascinating, little-known life of Caroline Chisholm, Catholic reformer and friend of emigrants in the Australia of the 1840s. Caroline travelled to Australia with her husband and family in 1838. Very soon she realised that little help was given to migrants, especially women, who often, as a resu…

Watch the video below for our latest Zoom presentation from Leanda de Lisle, who gave a wonderful portrait of Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I. For the audio only listen via the player below or go to our podcast to listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.By vburke44

Nicholas Breakspear was elected pope in 1154, but his story started long before that. The son of a local churchman near St Albans, he would battle his way across Europe to defend and develop Christianity, facing war in Scandinavia and the Moors in the Iberian Peninsula. But it was after he took the throne of St Peter as Adrian IV that he would face…

At more than thirty-one years (1903-1935), Cardinal Bourne’s is the longest reign of any Archbishop of Westminster. Today, with the possible exception of his turbulent relationship with Bishop Amigo of Southwark, Bourne is virtually unknown. That obscurity is unmerited. His time at Westminster covered some of the most momentous events of the modern…

Francois Longuet was one of several French émigré priests who came to Reading in the wake of the French Revolution. He founded a new chapel in Reading, the first purpose-built one since the Reformation, which he called The Chapel of the Resurrection. Basing her talk on letters extant between Longuet and his Bishop, Lindsay gives a fascinating insig…

The Papal Zouaves were the volunteers from Britain and Ireland who flocked to Rome to help the Pope defend the Papal States between 1860 and 1870. Fr Nicholas Schofield gives a detailed and fascinating account of this little known episode in Papal history. To listen to the talk click on the arrow below or click to the image to find the talk in our …

Rev Carleton is a Deacon of Brentwood Diocese, UK. He gives an introduction to Cardinal Reginald Pole, Archbishop of Canterbury under Queen Mary, and son of Blessed Margaret Pole. To listen to the talk click on the arrow below or click to the image to find the talk in our podcastBy vburke44

Dr Francis Young spoke on this subject to our members during a recent Zoom lecture. It happened also to be the Feast of St Edmund to which he alludes at the beginning of the talk. Dr Young gives a masterly overview of the history of monasticism in Suffolk. The story of the rise, fall and re-establishment of religious life in Suffolk is in many ways…

We are grateful to Dr Hazard, of the School of History, University College Dublin, for providing us with this recording for our podcast which relates to a unique collection of letters written by Loreto Sisters during the Spanish Civil War. Their Irish Mother Provincial, Mother Baptist Gibney and some of the Loreto Sisters in Spain, were British pas…

Ten Minute Tudors & Stuarts: Best selling historian Leanda de Lisle uncovers the Tudors and Stuarts behind the myths.By Leanda de Lisle

Ten Minute Tudors & Stuarts: Best selling historian Leanda de Lisle uncovers the Tudors and Stuarts behind the myths.By Leanda de Lisle

Ten Minute Tudors & Stuarts: Best selling historian Leanda de Lisle uncovers the Tudors and Stuarts behind the myths.By Leanda de Lisle

Ten Minute Tudors & Stuarts: Best selling historian Leanda de Lisle uncovers the Tudors and Stuarts behind the myths.By Leanda de Lisle

Ten Minute Tudors & Stuarts: Best selling historian Leanda de Lisle uncovers the Tudors and Stuarts behind the myths.By Leanda de Lisle

Ten Minute Tudors & Stuarts: Best selling historian Leanda de Lisle uncovers the Tudors and Stuarts behind the myths.By Leanda de Lisle

Ten Minute Tudors & Stuarts: Best selling historian Leanda de Lisle uncovers the Tudors and Stuarts behind the myths.By Leanda de Lisle

“The spiritual guide, the apologist, the modern visionary, the antidote to liberalism, the defender of conscience, the man who never sinned against the light – these are the reasons why Newman should be considered a Doctor of the Church.” Blessed John Henry Newman will be canonised by Pope Francis on 13 October 2019. This splendidly clear and infor…

Ten Minute Tudors & Stuarts: Best selling historian Leanda de Lisle uncovers the Tudors and Stuarts behind the myths.By Leanda de Lisle

Ten Minute Tudors & Stuarts: Best selling historian Leanda de Lisle uncovers the Tudors and Stuarts behind the myths.By Leanda de Lisle

Ten Minute Tudors & Stuarts: Best selling historian Leanda de Lisle uncovers the Tudors and Stuarts behind the myths.By Leanda de Lisle

Ten Minute Tudors & Stuarts: Best selling historian Leanda de Lisle uncovers the Tudors and Stuarts behind the myths.By Leanda de Lisle

Ten Minute Tudors & Stuarts: Best selling historian Leanda de Lisle uncovers the Tudors and Stuarts behind the myths.By Leanda de Lisle

Ten Minute Tudors & Stuarts: Best selling historian Leanda de Lisle uncovers the Tudors and Stuarts behind the myths.By Leanda de Lisle

Ten Minute Tudors & Stuarts: Best selling historian Leanda de Lisle uncovers the Tudors and Stuarts behind the myths.By Leanda de Lisle

Ten Minute Tudors & Stuarts: Best selling historian Leanda de Lisle uncovers the Tudors and Stuarts behind the myths.By Leanda de Lisle

Ten Minute Tudors & Stuarts: Best selling historian Leanda de Lisle uncovers the Tudors and Stuarts behind the myths.By Leanda de Lisle

Ten Minute Tudors & Stuarts: Best selling historian Leanda de Lisle uncovers the Tudors and Stuarts behind the myths.By Leanda de Lisle

Reading Abbey, a Cluniac monastery, was founded in 1121 by Henry I, the son of William the Conqueror, in remembrance of his own son William, who had died tragically at sea. Little remains now of what was once the largest and one of the most prestigious abbeys in England. John and Lindsay Mullaney have made a special study of the abbey and give a de…

Ten Minute Tudors & Stuarts: Best selling historian Leanda de Lisle uncovers the Tudors and Stuarts behind the myths.By Leanda de Lisle

Ten Minute Tudors & Stuarts: Best selling historian Leanda de Lisle uncovers the Tudors and Stuarts behind the myths.By Leanda de Lisle

Ten Minute Tudors & Stuarts: Best selling historian Leanda de Lisle uncovers the Tudors and Stuarts behind the myths.Battle of the Queens - Katherine of Aragon and Margaret Tudor.By Leanda de Lisle

Bishop Laurence Walter Youens was a convert to the Catholic faith from Anglicanism, and was ordained priest in 1901 in High Wycombe, the first Catholic priest ordained there since the Reformation. After a period of missionary work in North Africa, he returned to the diocese of Northampton and remained for the rest of his life, being especially devo…

Ten Minute Tudors & Stuarts: Best selling historian Leanda de Lisle uncovers the Tudors and Stuarts behind the myths.By Leanda de Lisle

Ten Minute Tudors & Stuarts: Best selling historian Leanda de Lisle uncovers the Tudors and Stuarts behind the myths.By Leanda de Lisle

Ten Minute Tudors & Stuarts: Best selling historian Leanda de Lisle uncovers the Tudors and Stuarts behind the myths.By Leanda de Lisle

Ten Minute Tudors & Stuarts: Best selling historian Leanda de Lisle uncovers the Tudors and Stuarts behind the myths.By Leanda de Lisle

Ten Minute Tudors & Stuarts: Best selling historian Leanda de Lisle uncovers the Tudors and Stuarts behind the myths.By Leanda de Lisle

St Alphege was born near Bath in 954 and died a martyr 1011. Little known today, his life is however an example and inspiration. Dr Giles Mercer, former headmaster of Stonyhurst and Prior Park Schools and author of a recent biography of Bishop William Brownlow, became interested in St Alphege when he became a parishioner of St Alphege Catholic Chur…

Best selling historian Leanda de Lisle uncovers the Tudors and Stuarts behind the myths.By Leanda de Lisle

Best selling historian Leanda de Lisle uncovers the Tudors and Stuarts behind the myths.By Leanda de Lisle

Best selling historian Leanda de Lisle uncovers the Tudors and Stuarts behind the myths.By Leanda de Lisle

26 Fr Richard Finn OP, a member of the Dominican house in Oxford, gives a lucid and informative account of the establishment of the Dominican Order in England. He covers their growth up to the time of the Reformation, their years in exile on the continent and their return to England in the early 1800s, fleeing persecution there. The support of the …

Best selling historian Leanda de Lisle uncovers the Tudors and Stuarts behind the myths.By Leanda de Lisle

Ten Minute Tudors: Best selling historian Leanda de Lisle uncovers the Tudors and Stuarts behind the myths.By Leanda de Lisle

Dr Simon Johnson is Director of Heritage at Downside Abbey, a Benedictine Abbey and school in Somerset, England. Established in the 19th century, Downside is home to one of the best collections of religious manuscripts in the world. A recent Heritage Lottery Fund grant has enabled the library and archives to be modernised. Dr Simon brings us up to …

Lady Clare Asquith published her acclaimed book ‘Shadowplay: The Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics of William Shakespeare’ in 2005, a study of how Shakespeare secretly addressed the most profound political issues of his day, and how his plays embody a hidden history of England. In this fascinating talk she leads us into this hidden world. With prec…

St Nicholas Owen was arguably one of the most fearless and courageous of the Catholic martyrs of the Reformation. He learnt joinery as a trade and put his skills to use in fashioning the most ingenious priest-holes in England during penal times. Finally he was caught and tortured, giving nothing away to his tormentors. He died under torture. Canoni…

The son of a Congregational minister from Leeds, Rousell David Byles was influenced by High Church ideas at school and then at Oxford. He began training for Anglican ministry during which time he converted to Catholicism and was subsequently ordained a Catholic priest at the Beda College, Rome. He spent some years ministering in Essex before taking…

There are approximately 20,000 extant letters written by Blessed John Henry Newman. These have been gathered together in 32 volumes by the long and painstaking work of members of the Birmingham Oratory. Mgr Strange, theologian and Newman scholar, has recently published a book entitled ‘J H Newman – A Portrait in Letters’ through Oxford University P…

Glastonbury is the oldest shrine dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary in England, pre-dating the better-known Marian shrine of Walsingham by many 100s of years. Since the destruction of Glastonbury Abbey at the Reformation, the shrine’s Marian origins have been overshadowed by the legends surrounding the person of King Arthur and those of St Joseph…