JESUITICA: Waugh and the Jesuits

Both the life and the writings of the English novelist Evelyn Waugh were characterised by a deep faith, but also by a dark, acerbic wit. It was perfectly apt then, according to his friend Graham Greene, that Waugh should die just after attending the Resurrection Mass of Easter Sunday – while sitting on the toilet! Two Jesuits featured prominently in Waugh’s life. First was Fr Martin D’Arcy SJ, who instructed him before his reception into the Catholic Church. Then, five years later, he published a biography of Edmund Campion, the Jesuit martyr who was executed at Tyburn in 1581, and whose feastday is celebrated next week, 1 December.