De Vere, Aubrey

Anglo-Irish poet Aubrey De Vere (1814-1902) studied metaphysics at university, and honed his literary talent by writing poetry in the manner of his friend Wordsworth. Having converted to Catholicism in 1851, this selection from his numerous poems which centre on devotion to the Virgin Mary expresses his enthusiastic and intelligent assent to the Church's understanding of the meaning of her life and role as expressed in the then freshly-promulgated dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Phillip Medhurst (born 1948), a former Anglican priest, converted to Catholicism in 1988. He has since establish...