Hello and welcome to American Catholic History, brought to you by the support of listeners like you.

If you like this podcast and would like to support our work, please visit American Catholic History.org

slash support. I'm Noelle Heister Crow. And I'm Tom Crow.

Today we're talking about the great American writer Edgar Allan Poe and his unexpected

sympathy with Catholicism.

Poe, of course, penned many well-known poems such as The Raven and Annabelle Lee.

He pioneered the form of the short story with tales like The Tell-Tale Heart and a cask of a Monteado.

He was a major figure in the development of science fiction with stories like the unparalleled adventures of one Hans Fall and the balloon hoax.

And he invented the detective novel with his classic murders at the Rue Morg and the

recurring character of C. Auguste Dupin.

But there are two things that grab our attention. First is the two years towards the end of

his life that he spent living near Fordham University, then called St. John College.

While there, he spent many days and evenings with the Jesuits, and they were very important to him.

Also, and perhaps even more striking, is a poem he wrote in 1835, originally called Catholic Him.

This poem is a rather lovely poem and prayer to the

Blessed Mother. Now, I was really surprised by this when I first heard about it because Po, of

course, is mostly known for his tendency toward horror and the macabre. He wrote about despair,

paranoia, suspense, torment, and death. Yeah, well, another reason it's surprising is because of

the times. Poe was writing in the first half of the 19th century, Catholics were still very much

in the minority in the U.S., and Catholicism was usually misunderstood and attacked. And of course,

among the most commonly attacked parts of Catholicism is our understanding

of Mary and her place in heaven.

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