David V Barrett, Author at Catholic Herald

David V Barrett

After Queen Victoria, Buckingham Palace could never be the same

August 08, 2019

Buckingham Palace is both a home and an office for the monarch. But before Queen Victoria’s time it was an unloved and fairly rundown building. The 18-year-old Victoria ignored her advisers and moved into Buckingham Palace within weeks of becoming Queen in 1837 – and set about transforming it into the magnificent building it is

How Britain laid claim to Leonardo

June 06, 2019

This year is the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci – and if you’re planning a visit to London this summer, check out the exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace. Forget Dan Brown’s execrable books and films. Leonardo completed fewer than 20 paintings that we know of, but he would have

‘We do not want pretty pictures’: What Munch meant by the Scream

April 18, 2019

Most people assume that the figure in Edvard Munch’s The Scream is screaming. It’s not. It’s reacting to an event: “I felt a great scream pass through nature,” Munch wrote. He created several versions of The Scream; it’s the 1895 lithograph which is in the excellent exhibition of prints at the British Museum in London,

Catholic beliefs on abortion and gay marriage ‘could become hate crimes’

March 25, 2019

Expressing Catholic beliefs on sexuality could become a hate crime, a Catholic spokesman in Scotland has warned. “In a climate of heightened sensitivity there is a very real danger that expressing or even holding individual or collective opinions or beliefs will become a hate crime,” said Catholic Parliamentary Office Director Anthony Horan last week. “We

The biblical ruler who wanted to be ‘king of the world’

February 12, 2019

The “great and illustrious Ashurbanipal” is mentioned in the Bible, in Ezra 4:10 – and there was good reason for him calling himself “king of the world”. From his splendid palace at Nineveh, his rule over Assyria from 669 to c. 631 BC was the highest point of the Assyrian empire, which stretched from the

How a shy poet became a Victorian muse

January 10, 2019

Today we know Christina Rossetti for two well-loved carols, In the Bleak Midwinter and Love Came Down at Christmas. In her lifetime (1830-1894) she was regarded as one of the greatest British poets of her day, rivalling Elizabeth Barrett Browning. She wrote on both secular and religious themes, and for children. She was born into

Russia, Royalty & the Romanovs: an intimate portrait of a doomed family

January 03, 2019

Europe’s royal families have long been related to each other. Queen Victoria’s family were closely entwined with the Romanovs of Russia, first through the marriages of the future Edward VII and the future Tsar Alexander III to two Danish sisters in 1863 and 1866. Then, in 1874, Victoria’s second son, Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, married

The visions that lit up the trenches

December 13, 2018

A Supernatural War By Owen Davies OUP, 284pp, £20/$28 “There are no atheists in foxholes” – that’s the common perception of spirituality on the battlefields of the First World War. But it’s a lot more nuanced than that, according to social historian Owen Davies in his new book, subtitled Magic, Divination and Faith During the

The beautiful order of the Anglo-Saxons

November 08, 2018

There are more ancient Bibles at Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War, the splendid new exhibition at the British Library, than most of us will ever have seen in one place. Side by side are two contrasting 8th-century Scriptures: a palm-sized Gospel of John known as the St Cuthbert Gospel because it was found in his

Dreamy, languid and above all beautiful

November 01, 2018

The Pre-Raphaelite artist Sir Edward Burne-Jones was once asked by a young girl if he believed the story he had painted in The Star of Bethlehem. According to his long-suffering wife Georgiana, the daughter of a Methodist minister, he replied: “It’s too beautiful not to be true.” The Nativity story is represented by a tapestry

Ampleforth abbot launches legal action to be reinstated

October 16, 2018

Fr Cuthbert Madden was cleared over abuse claims in 2016, but has not been reinstated

‘Pray the Rosary often’, says bishop

October 08, 2018

Bishop John Wilson said Catholics can find solace in the Rosary no matter how 'spiritually flimsy' they feel

← 1 2 3 4 … 18 →

Sorry, no search matching search results found. Please try again.