The First Catenian Saint?

J R R TOLKIEN…. fervent Catholic and possibly the FIRST CATENIAN SAINT!    His cause was begun on 2nd September at the OXFORD ORATORY. Crowdfunding has begun online to raise £4000 to aid his cause. This year has seen a special grace in the movement to Canonise J. R. R. Tolkien, with the first Mass being celebrated at the Oxford Oratory on the 2nd September 2018, calling for prayer for the cause for canonisation to be formally opened.

The first Mass marked the 45th anniversary of Tolkien’s death. The cause is under the guidance of Fr Daniele Pietro Ercoli, a Salesian priest from the Diocese of Treviso (but as a Salesian belonging to the religious province of Triveneto).

The 'Tolkien Canonisation Conference 2018', was held on the weekend of Saturday 1st to Sunday 2nd of September. The Conference aimed to provide a cultural dialogue to advocate for the sanctity of Tolkien’s personal life, as well as how this was mediated through his artistic works. As a fruit of the Conference the organisers hoped to discern the Spirit of this formal attempt to begin the official Canonisation process in the Roman Catholic Tradition by getting a postulator. They are already in contact with the Archbishop of Birmingham Bernard Longley, who has given backing to this opportunity to inform people about Tolkien's faith and how it affected his life and writings. Permission has also been granted allowing for a prayer for private devotion.

Tolkien's devout Roman Catholic faith was a significant factor in the conversion of C. S. Lewis from atheism to Christianity, although Tolkien was dismayed that Lewis chose to join the Church of England.

He once said, "It may be said that the chief purpose of life, for any one of us, is to increase according to our capacity our knowledge of God by all the means we have, and to be moved by it to praise and thank God."

According to his grandson Simon Tolkien, Tolkien in the last years of his life was disappointed by some of the liturgical reforms and changes implemented after the Second Vatican Council: "I vividly remember going to church with him in Bournemouth. He was a devout Roman Catholic and it was soon after the Church had changed the liturgy from Latin to English. My grandfather obviously didn't agree with this and made all the responses very loudly in Latin while the rest of the congregation answered in English. I found the whole experience quite excruciating, but my grandfather was oblivious. He simply had to do what he believed to be right."

JRR Tolkien was a member of both Oxford and Bournemouth Circles. With grateful thanks to Brother Ed Murphy, Marketing and Membership Officer for Sussex Catenians (still known in some parts of the Association as Province 18), for permission to reproduce this article.