When you think of influential Catholics, you probably immediately think canonized saints.

Not only are there more saints in heaven than we would be able to canonized—or even know by name—but there are many influential Catholics from around the world that we might not have heard of yet.

Influential Catholics work in various fields, employments, and with different struggles but are all united with Christ through the Eucharist. Their influence might be subtle, dramatic, or unheard of during their lifetime. You should be one such influential Catholic in the way God made you to be.

Three Catholic Influencers To Know About

Here are three influential Catholic writers, who wrote about what they knew best and used where God put them to do so:

1.       Lizzie Yu Der Ling (Also, Elizabeth Antionette White, or Princess Der Ling)

“I often look back to the two years I spent at the Court of Her Majesty, the Empress Dowager of China, the most eventful and happiest days of my girlhood. Although I was not able to do much towards influencing Her Majesty in the matter of reform, I still hope to live to see the day when China shall wake up and take her proper place among the nations of the world.”

A princess! I was excited to learn recently about this Chinese Catholic who led an interesting, international life. Her father worked in politics and sought western education for his children. This allowed Lizzie Yu Der Ling to be in the position of international education and connections. She was baptized by a French archbishop and as a young girl received a private meeting and blessing with the pope in Rome.

Later, she became a lady-in-waiting to Empress Dowager Cixi of the Qing Dynasty, who shared personal thoughts and memories with Lizzie Yu Der Ling. Der Ling also interpreted for the empress until she married an American and moved.

She wrote magazine articles, memoirs, and other books. Her most famous is Two Year in the Forbidden City, where she explains that her title of princess was bestowed upon her by Empress Cixi for valid use within the palace. Her book was written in defense against upsetting portrayals of the Empress post-mortem and was opposed by most of her family.

She taught Chinese at the University of Berkley. Tragically her whirlwind of a life on earth ended when a truck hit her while she crossed an intersection. Her life and writings have inspired television series and movies.

2.       Dame Mary Douglas

“The argument that modern science is incompatible with religion is a nineteenth-century relic.”

Yes, she is an “knighted” women called a Dame rather than a Sir and often quoted with thought-provoking wit. I could retype her quotes here for you endlessly because she is full of clever, English humor! The best come directly from her work, or for a faster sampling, from Timothy Larsen in The Slain God: Anthropologists and the Christian Faith.

If you read our first post on influential Catholic writers, you may have been introduced to E.E. Evans-Pritchard for the first time. Mary Douglas is another anthropologist, and Larsen writes that her mission was to “integrate traditional Catholic doctrine and practice with the modern insights of anthropology.”

She was a cradle Catholic raised by nuns and wrote about the importance of hierarchy, significance of ritual, and what she considered a Protestant bias. All this while balancing marriage and motherhood!

Her most works include Purity and Danger, Natural Symbols, Risk and Blame, and a book on Evans-Pritchard. She is what I would consider an influential Catholic!

3.  Christopher Dawson (1889-1970)

“I learnt more during my schooldays from my visits to the Cathedral at Winchester than I did from the hours of religious instruction in school. The great church with its tombs of the Saxon kings and the medieval statesmen-bishops, gave one a greater sense of the magnitude of the religious element in our culture and the depths of its roots in our national life than anything one could learn from books.”

This man is considered a leading Catholic historian, but his life sounds more like a fairy tale.

He descended from Celtic nobility, born and raised in Hay Castle in Wales. His father’s influence was a love of Western tradition while his mother opened the world of saints and mystics to him. Dawson says the latter made a great impression on him so that he “felt that there must be something lacking in any theory of life which left no room for these higher types of character and experience.” Originally Anglo-Catholic, he converted to Roman Catholicism in 1909.

You know how most people developed a heightened sense of hygiene and sanitation during he pandemic? Well, that seems to be Dawson’s normal. He feared germs and did not have happy memories in school because of his secluded upbringing. This did not stop him (and neither should it stop you!) from enjoying life. Dawson adored home, his family, and excelled in study.

Needless to say, he read avidly. Later, he wrote avidly about history, culture, and the importance of the Christian faith in Western culture: “A society which has lost its religion becomes sooner or later a society which has lost its culture.” His work, which varies from a collection of Franciscan Missionary tales in Mongolia and China to his commentary on the crisis of Western education, is said to have influenced T. S. Eliot and J. R. R. Tolkien. Franciscan University of Steubenville also has a Humanities and Catholic Culture program in his vision.

But, these worldly achievements are not the best parts. Most importantly, his fairy tale life included faith, his wife Valery, and three children of his own.

Though all three of these Catholics have passed away, their influence lives on through their writing and families.

Image: Photo by Ashlyn Ciara on Unsplash