David Twiston Davies, Author at Catholic Herald

David Twiston Davies

At Newman’s canonisation, Roman babble was reduced to total silence

October 24, 2019

It felt as if we were in a film. Rustling birds announced the approach of dawn in the Eternal City. A tinkle came from the convent in the garden. Gently a couple more bells joined in before an authoritative boom from St Peter’s struck seven o’clock, seven minutes late. A female voice in our residenza

The glory and the awkwardness of Newman’s first trip to Rome after his conversion

October 10, 2019

When John Henry Newman travels to Rome as the Church’s most famous convert in October 1846, the Vatican offers him a freshly decorated apartment. Unfortunately it is not ready. So Newman and Ambrose St John, a member of his community at Littlemore outside Oxford, find themselves lodged in a hotel with the archbishop of Damascus,

The Catholic naval hero descended from St Thomas More

August 08, 2019

Today he is little remembered. But Admiral Sir Henry Harwood made a crucial early contribution during the Second World War: he injected a vital shot of confidence into the British public by scoring the first major victory of the war, sinking the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee in the Battle of the River Plate

David Twiston Davies: Downside’s dilemma

August 30, 2018

We knew that our world was surrounded with sin in the most surprising, embarrassing and horrifying places. So when my wife and I decided to send two sons to Downside I told them what they should do if confronted by an obvious evil: go first to your housemaster. If you are not satisfied with the

David Twiston Davies: From cloisters to battlefields

May 17, 2018

When the Boer War began in 1899 Britain’s imperial forces fielded six officially commissioned Catholic chaplains, who were increased to 12 by the surrender in 1902. But even though some 63 other priests enlisted as officiating or acting chaplains there was still an acute shortage, particularly to serve the 40,000 mainly Catholic Irish troops. The

David Twiston Davies: A curious twist in the tale of a soldier-priest

November 09, 2017

Fr Tom Nangle was a gallant and highly capable chaplain who spent two years in the trenches during World War I encouraging the survivors, comforting the dying and burying the dead. Afterwards he played a vital role in collecting the bodies and creating memorials across Europe to his fellow soldiers of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment;

Can fox hunting end the Gibraltar dispute?

February 16, 2017

Footprints in Spain by Simon Courtauld, Quartet, £20 Ever since Henry VIII cast off Catherine of Aragon, we have had an uneasy relationship with Spain. This is, of course, partly because of the Armada, and the fervent piety and bloodlust that bubble away under the Spanish sun. Simon Courtauld begins this charming and perceptive guide

David Twiston Davies: An exclusive interview with St Benedict

December 15, 2016

One of the great aims of modern journalism is the celebrity interview. So Downside Abbey is to be congratulated on a scoop in arranging for St Benedict, founder of the Benedictine order, to be quizzed by a boy at their school. No explanation is given about how this might have been achieved, since the saint

David Twiston Davies: The Iron Lady had a soft heart

April 28, 2016

Just before entering 10 Downing Street as prime minister for the first time, Margaret Thatcher quoted St Francis of Assisi on the need for harmony, truth, faith and hope. The prayer had been passed to her at the last minute by an adviser; it turned out to be not by Francis but a 19th-century admirer,

David Twiston Davies: The princely genius that time forgot

January 28, 2016

Prince Joseph Poniatowski suffered from the misfortune of many talented men: he had a surfeit of gifts. Contemporaries were so bemused about how to sum him up that it seemed easier to remain silent. But it does not seem fanciful to suggest that if he had died last week, instead of 142 years ago, he

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