If Jim Gavin gets 12 percent then FF recoup their expenditure so I'm spoiling my vote by writing Maria Steen on it. My son plans to write 'Enoch Burke is a legend ' on his.
I love this! He wrote one of my favorite books/plays of all time, The Importance of Being Earnest. I performed part of it as Cecily in college, and wanted to name one of my daughters Cecily, though my husband vetoed it, haha. Anyway, I was so disappointed when I learned more about Oscar Wilde's life. But I never knew about his deathbed conversion!
Sad to say after he got out of prison I read one time he went to a Catholic religious order for help and to do a retreat and they refused him because of the scandal. How this rejection must have hurt poor Oscar. I found a lot of his writings very spiritual. I suspect a lot of the homosexuality came from the boarding schools which were always a very bad idea.
For an Irish Protestant of the period that was quite something to say. They looked down on Irish Catholics like crazy. Which is why CS Lewis much later felt he could never become Catholic. Oscar was something of genius . At Oxford , seemingly not having studied at all he was asked to translate the New testament from Ancient Greek orally. He did so at once perfectly and with ease. He went to Portora Royal School in Enniskillen and I often thought of him as I passed it when camping.
Hi PF, the Importance of being Earnest was on the curriculum for our final year in Secondary school (high school) and I really enjoyed it too. That prompted me to read a lot of his other works and some of the biographies. A few years ago there was a documentary on TV, presented by Oscar's grandson Merlin, which talked about the deathbed conversion and included him being shown the parish record, written by Fr. Cuthbert Dunne, the young Passionist priest (and fellow Dubliner) who received Oscar into the Church. Earlier today I was looking to see if there was anymore information about Fr. Dunne. There was an entry on the Passionist archives which includes a short bio and a good account of the circumstances of him visiting Oscar in his final days, which you might find interesting. (Link below). https://passionistarchives.ie/index.php/fr-cuthbert-dunne/
I didn't realise he only converted on his deathbed. I thought it was way before that because of The Ballad of Reading Gaol
Ah! happy they whose hearts can break And peace of pardon win! How else may man make straight his plan And cleanse his soul from Sin? How else but through a broken heart May Lord Christ enter in?
It is my understanding a personal conversion when he was in jail and so eloquently wrote that poem. He was drawn to the Church but couldn't pull the trigger tol he was dying.
Merlin Holland with Fr Aidan Troy (From the documentary mentioned above - Edward Carson and the Fall of Oscar Wilde). "The written record of Oscar Wilde's conversion to Catholicism on his death bed is seen for the first time on camera. This came about by a remarkably fortunate set of circumstances. Director Jim Creagh's brother, Fr Kieron Creagh, is a priest of the Passionist Order and he revealed that they kept the record of conversions in Saint Joseph's Church in Paris. In the film, Merlin is shown the entry in the book which bears witness to Wilde being received into the Catholic Church and his death the following day."
