Andrew Joseph Grattan

 

I was born in Ascot, Berkshire, England in 1972, and I was educated at St. Augustine's, The Abbey School, Kent, and King Edward VI Grammar School, in Chelmsford, Essex. 

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I read Latin, under the Papal Latinist, Fr. Reginald Foster, for a year, at the Gregorian University in Rome, including Aestivae Latinitatis, the Latin Summer School, before a First Class Degree in English Literature at King's College, London, in 1995, where I won the Associateship of King's College, London, (AKC), First Leathes Prize, in 1994 and 1995. I also read for a Postgraduate Diploma in Theology, at King's College, London, in 1996.

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I successfully completed a two month monastic experience, at Quarr Abbey, on the Isle of Wight, (Thomas More's 'holy isle' of Utopia), when I was 25. I also successfully completed a full year's novitiate, as an English Benedictine Novice, at 'Adonai Abbey', (William Blake's heavenly 'Jerusalem'), in rural west Berkshire, where I wrote my first novel, 'Christ: a depiction of the Writer as an English Benedictine Novice' when I was 27, joining as a postulant, at the age of 26.

I successfully completed, too, a six month period, as a layman pre-postulant, at St. Benedict's, a monastic foundation of Ampleforth Abbey, (St. Augustine's City of God), in Yorkshire, England, based at Bamber Bridge, Preston, in the North of England, when I was 29.

I worked, for a year, as an Academic Coordinator, at The Newman Institute, named after Cardinal John Henry Newman, in Ballina, county Mayo, in the west of Ireland, when I was 30.

I was a First Year Seminarian, at The Pontifical Irish College, in Rome, when I was 31, where I became a canonical writer instead, and where I wrote 'The Christ Sonnets', and conceived the

initial idea of 'The Christ Colloquy', originally designed to be one book, of 100 cantos, in just three sections: English, Philosophy and Theology. I also conceived the idea for the new epic poem, 'Eucharist', whilst reading 'Paradise Lost' before the tabernacle, in the chapel of The Irish College, as a new form of lectio divina and traditional monastic mental prayer.

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I received the initial literary inspiration for 'The Christ Colloquy' on Good Friday afternoon, at Corpus Christi Roman Catholic Church, Wokingham, Berkshire in England, when I was 32, when I wrote, the first three cantos of Book I Commedia, which is a "work in progress".

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I visited Florence, and Dante's tomb in Ravenna, on a literary tour, when I was 19, and I met and fell in courtly love with, 'the new Beatrice', April Child, in Florence, at The British Institute of Florence, at the same age as Dante's 'pilgrim', 35, justifying my assumption, of the literary identity of Dante's greyhound, in the form of the 'eternal pilgrim' at 40, based on true and autobiographical life experience. Consequently, I have been able to initiate, a new age in The Western Canon, with a portfolio of work, in a variety of different literary genres.

I have placed April above Beatrice, to honour and recognize her life of service as a librarian, and this canonical event, also confirms me, as a canonical writer.

April Child is divine agency, in 'The Christ Colloquy', conceived as a "sixth gospel", during the Pontificate of Pope Francis, as Beatrice Portinari, is divine wisdom, in 'The Divine Comedy', which Pope Benedict XV, termed the "fifth gospel".

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I wrote   'Eucharist'  in six weeks, and 'Corpus Christi', in two weeks, when I was 36, and 'Jesus' in four weeks, when I was 37.

I completed the first version of 'The Christ Colloquy' Book I Commedia, when I was 38.

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My prinicpal aim, is to write as a new 'theological poet' in the Colloquium Christus, and in a mosaic of genres, to honour the Logos.

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My other books are all "work in progress", all in different genres, forming a mosaic, in order to

honour and undergird the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, as expressing the truth of the

life, death and resurrection of Christ.

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I would like to formally thank, Professor Robin Kirkpatrick, a Fellow of Robinson College, at the university of Cambridge, and Emeritus Professor of Italian and English Literatures, whose email friendship, has fully facilitated my literary career.

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Foremost, I would like to thank my parents, who first taught me about Christ, and the Roman Catholic Church and Faith, and provided me, with the privileged education, that has made all of this work possible. They have always extended to me, the fullest support, that has enabled me, to return my talent fully to God, after so many intellectual and spiritual journeys, beginning as both, a Miltonist and a Joycean. I dedicate my writing career, to my mother and my father.

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It is especially, though, this central piece, and literary "sixth gospel" of 'The Christ Colloquy', dedicated to Christ and Our Lady, for which my parents, must receive the principal credit, they

knowing it, to have been, my desire, to write a new literary "gospel", since I was young. They alone, provided me, with the time and space, to develop the poem to its fullest fruition.

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 My parents  lay this "sixth gospel", before  the manger of Bethlehem  and the Chair of Peter.

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La "dritta via" tra la chiesa e Dante.

The Church has special right to call Alighieri hers. In Praeclara Summorum, Benedict XV, 1921, n. 2.

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