Caryll Houselander

Caryll Houselander (29 September 1901 – 12 October 1954) was a lay Roman Catholic ecclesiastical artist, mystic, popular religious writer and poet. 2Early life Born in Bath, England, Houselander was the second of two daughters of Wilmott and Gertrude Provis Houselander. Several authors, including Maisie Ward in her 1962 biography Caryll Houselander: That Divine Eccentric, incorrectly state that Houselander was born on 29 October 1901 when, in fact, she was born on 29 September 1901 according to her birth certificate (cited in Andrew Cook, Ace of Spies: The True Story of Sidney Reilly, rev. ed., 2004, p. 319, n. 27) and her remark in A Rocking-Horse Catholic (cited below, p. 41) that she took the Confirmation name "of Michael after the Archangel on whose feast day I was born." When Houselander was six, her mother converted to Roman Catholicism and she in turn was so baptised. Shortly after her ninth birthday, her parents separated and her mother opened a boarding house to support the family. Houselander was sent to a convent where she reported her first mystical experience. One day, she entered a room and saw a Bavarian nun sitting by herself, weeping and polishing shoe