The tale of an English girl who falls in love with the Catholic faith shortly before the Conciliar reforms of Vatican II, Judith’s Marriage recounts the experiences of an unassuming young saint who must watch as the most profound aspects of her faith are stripped away. At turns lighthearted and profound, but never heavy-handed, this is a story of quiet strength and grace even as the joy of her conversion fades in the wake of upheaval in the Church. But Judith’s Marriage is not only a beautiful telling of faith, it is also a charming romance, providing an intimate look at the close relationship between religion and family life. Long out of print, it remains as relevant now as ever, a perfect example of how true faith will live on despite attacks from without and within.
Praise
“Father Bryan Houghton writes just about the best English prose around today—up there with Waugh and Ronald Knox—elegant, clear, concise, severe, humorous, light, cantankerous, and bright, in a word, consummately British, surprisingly humane and even warm, as if Waugh were suddenly Dickens.”
— JOHN SENIOR
About the Author
Bryan Houghton (1911–1992), of Anglican background, was received into the Catholic Church in Paris in 1934 and ordained a priest on March 30, 1940. Throughout the 1960s he found himself increasingly at odds with the self-styled “reformers” who, in the name of Vatican II, were wreaking havoc in the Church. On the day the Novus Ordo Missae went into effect—November 29, 1969, the first Sunday of Advent—he resigned from his pastorship at Bury St Edmunds, refusing to celebrate with the new missal. Drawing on his inheritance, he purchased a property with a chapel in the region of Viviers in the south of France and, with his bishop’s consent, continued to offer the Tridentine Mass for a small congregation until his death on November 19, 1992. He wrote two novels, Mitre and Crook and Judith’s Marriage, a collection of essays, Unwanted Priest, and a children’s book, Saint Edmund, King and Martyr.
