“Have you ever wanted to become a Catholic?” Muriel Spark wrote to Derek Stanford on 6 February 1949. “I would if I could find Faith. I shall set out on a pilgrimage, I think, turning over small stones and leaves [...] searching for Faith.” The tone was light-hearted, despite the fact that she had just been sacked from the Poetry Society, and relations with her lover, the poet Howard Sergeant, were terminally acrimonious. In a sense she was converting from Sergeant to Stanford as her confidant and courtier.
8:37 AM
How Muriel Spark found faith: an account by her authorised biographer
Muriel Spark’s journey to Catholicism was marked by doubt, illness and artistic revelation. Drawing on newly published letters, Martin Stannard traces how faith, breakdown and literary creation intertwined in the years leading up to her 1954 reception into the Church.
Martin Stannard
6 min read
Already a subscriber? Sign in
5freearticles every month
Continue reading with a free account. No card needed.
- Five free articles every thirty days, on any device you sign in on
- The Catholic Herald newsletter, every morning
- Subscribe whenever you like for everything: every article and the magazine
Related articles
Chapter HouseWhy Catholic therapy needs both psychology and theology
From Pius XII to Pope Francis, the Church has engaged with psychotherapy while defending its understanding of the human person, a mission that a new generation of Catholic therapists is now taking forward
Dominic McCann
Chapter HouseEdward Dwyer VC: the forgotten war hero of Catholic London
Andrew Cusack
Chapter HouseThe Church should reject DCD as death criteria prior to organ harvesting
Patrick Pullicino & William J Burke
Chapter HouseRepublicans lost the midterms because they failed to hold Trump’s coalition
Patrick Neve
Chapter HouseIs Ireland turning to the occult?
Ruadhan Jones
subscribe to the catholic herald today
Our best content is exclusively available to our subscribers. Subscribe today and gain instant access to expert analysis, in-depth articles, and thought-provoking insights—anytime, anywhere. Don’t miss out on the conversations that matter most.
Subscribe
