I first encountered the name and work of Ida Görres while working on my doctoral thesis, through a reference by Joseph Ratzinger in his fundamental theology. Ratzinger, who held her in high regard, cited her to support an idea, which awoke my curiosity about this woman esteemed by such a prominent theologian. My exploration of her writings deepened, thanks in large part to translations by Dr. Jennifer Bryson.

2. Which are your favorite works by Görres? And why these?

My favorite essay is “Trusting the Church” (in Bread Grows in Winter).

The book “The Church in the Flesh” was also a great read. I loved it.

I deeply enjoyed her essays on the Church, from the forthcoming collection.1 In the essays, one sees someone who lives out the reality of the Church in her body and soul. The joys, hopes, struggles of the Church were expressed in her writings.

In this forthcoming collection, I especially appreciated “Why do I remain in the Church?” (1971) and “The Dying of the Church in Souls” (1947).

I also like her essays in this collection on the priesthood. The essay, “On Pastoral Care” (1954), is a really good one. It clearly articulates the priest’s mission: as a servant of truth and “to bear witness to the truth”.

3. What does Görres offer Catholics today?

I know it is a cliché to say that a writer feels timeless, but Ida Görres truly does. She provides thoughtful, well-reflected insights into the challenges facing the Church, delivering truth in a clear, compelling voice that offers both guidance and orientation.

Görres is a voice that feels both old and new at the same time. Her work carries a refreshing quality. It has the freshness of Truth.

She also brings a distinctly feminine perspective, one that delights, inspires, and instructs in equal measure.

What makes her writing particularly relatable is its deeply personal nature. She does not shy away from sharing her struggles and vulnerabilities, allowing readers to connect with her on a human level.

Her literary style is equally engaging, whether through her essays or her use of epistolary form, with images that make the ideas clearer.

4. Which work by Ida Görres would you like to read next?

I would love to read Broken Lights: Diaries and Letters, 1951-1959, by Ida Görres. So far, I have read only a few excerpts of it. I hope to see it come back into print or a new edition of it someday.2

5. For those who have never read anything by Ida Görres, are there any works by her you recommend for an initial foray?

Yes!!! Her essays. I would recommend the essay “Trusting the Church” (in Bread Grows in Winter).

ABOUT FR. NTUBE:

Fr. Vitus Ntube is a Nigerian priest of Opus Dei, ordained in Rome in 2023. He holds a PhD in systematic theology from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. His doctoral research focused on the relationship between religion and truth in the theology of Joseph Ratzinger. He lives in Enugu State in Southeastern Nigeria. He serves as the chaplain of Hillrange Secondary School alongside his other pastoral responsibilities.

EDITOR’S NOTES:

• Sunday, April 19, 6:15–7:45 PM

  • Anchored in Faith: Insights from Ida Görres for Navigating Church Turmoil (Bread Grows in Winter et al.)

  • St. Theresa Parish, St. Zelie Rms. 2 & 3, 21370 Evergreen Mills Rd, Ashburn, VA

• Wednesday, April 22, 6–8 PM

  • What Binds Marriage Forever? A View from Ida Görres

  • Catholic University of America, DC, Della Ratta Auditorium in Maloney Hall

  • Speakers: Jonathan Bieler & Jennifer Bryson, Moderator: Larry Chapp

    CUA Event Details 4/22

• Thursday, April 23

  • Bread Grows in Winter: Essays and Lectures from 1967 to 1970

  • 3–4:30 PM, Catholic Information Center, 1501 K St NW, Washington, DC

    REGISTER for DC Event 4/23

  • A Treasure Chest of Wisdom: Ida Görres on the Saints & Sanctity

  • 6–8 PM, Little Way Cafe, 2907 Popkins Ln, Alexandria, VA

    REGISTER for VA Event 4/23

April 19 and 23, the speaker will be Jennifer Bryson, the translator of several works by Ida Friederike Görres.

Hope to see you there!

Görres, along with a very few other admirable women, stood against the movement to incite, much less pretend to resolve, “the woman question” along modernist lines. In the midst of increasing agitation to allow women priests and to undermine marriage, Görres simply and profoundly exposes a loss of faith.

The publisher [of What Binds Marriage Forever] asked me to write a blurb; a much shortened version was put on the [book’s website]; it’s quite a small book! [so no endorsements fit onto the back cover] and my endorsement is long, but I thought you might like to see what I originally said about it:

In What Binds Marriage Forever, Ida Görres speaks directly to the reader in a form that assumes, bracingly, a shared search for the truth. Without a forest of scholarly citations, she confronts modern attitudes towards marriage with the confidence of ready Scriptural knowledge, a deep understanding of common experience, and a grasp of fundamental moral principles. Her unusual method, I think, is simply to awaken conscience.

Görres warns that Progressivism instills “inverted envy.” With a Chestertonian flair for startling paradox, she notices that those perceived as having more than others are admonished to relinquish their claim to what is good. In the case of marriage, the guilty happy cannot leave the institution intact; the arbiters of modern society demand they must surrender it to the unhappy.

What Binds Marriage Forever offers a needed corrective to prevalent skepticism towards whatever is ancient, including matters of doctrine and discipline, while simultaneously defending against legalism. Anyone grappling with the challenge of the contemporary annulment process, with its sentimental reliance on defect of consent, will be edified by the unswerving clarity of Ida Görres’s work.

Jennifer Bryson’s erudite translation and thoughtful editing of this work enable the English speaker to access an important resource for approaching this highly relevant topic of our day, marriage: a topic with unique implications for the well being of children, society, and ultimately, as St. Paul tells us, our very conception of faith, understood as God’s nuptial relationship with His Church.

As a sort of “soft” feminism continues to penetrate the Church, I think we need to shore up the quality of our reading. The work of Ida Görres is an accessible and wise place to start.

Leila Marie Lawler, a mother, grandmother, and faithful Catholic, blogs at “Like Mother, Like Daughter” and can be heard weekly on “The Home Front” podcast with her husband Phil Lawler.

This review previously appeared at “Like Mother, Like Daughter” and is reprinted here with permission. It has been edited lightly for this edition.

Available from CUA Press

FOR COURSE DETAILS, CLICK HERE

Enrollment is open to all. The course will take place online on six Tuesdays from 7:00 to 8:30 PM Pacific Daylight Time (GMT -7): April 14, 28 / May 5, 12, 19, 26.

The fee for the course is a freewill offering. You decide what you can offer.

Please support the time and effort the Archdiocese of San Francisco puts into making this course available.

We will read and discuss articles by and about Ida Görres along with selections from The Church in the Flesh and Bread Grows in Winter.

Each class session will include lecture, Q&A, and discussion. Those who register will have access to a course syllabus, a PDF course reader with articles by and about Ida Görres, and a discount to order The Church in the Flesh and Bread Grows in Winter.

REGISTER FOR THE COURSE

For those in a different time zone:

If you register for the course, you will be able to access the videos after each session. In addition, I will invite those enrolled in the course but who cannot attend in person to send me questions to answer, if there is time, during the course.

In 1971, when enthusiasts of the sexual revolution were no longer merely outside the walls of the Church but, in Germany at least, now inside, Ida Görres penned this, her final book. What Binds Marriage Forever is a moving, fascinating defense of the indissolubility of marriage, as relevant in 2026 as when it was written.

On Feb. 13 at 3:00 PM, the Catholic Information Center in Washington, DC is hosting an event about the book, featuring Dr Jonathan Bieler of the John Paul II Institute at CUA.

Register for Feb. 13 Book Event

Binds Marriage Forever includes an introduction by Bieler and a study guide with questions about the book for personal reflection, the classroom, and book groups.

One-minute Book Trailer

WATCH Book Trailer

Praise for What Binds Marriage Forever:

When Catholics speak of marriage, they easily fall into one of two pitfalls: either they try to be too sublime, leaving no room for the mess of human intimacy, or they stress the human factor to such an extent that there is no place for sacramental mystery. Ida Görres steers clear of both extremes. With intelligence, precision, and a sense of poetry, she probes the theology of marriage through a lens of incarnation. The result is a compellingly fresh, credible account.

~Bishop Erik Varden, Bishop of Trondheim

Reading this series of reflections on marital indissolubility is like walking around and around an intricate work of art with a curator who can continually bring new aspects to light. And because the Catholic doctrine of marital indissolubility remains challenging, inspiring, and contested in the 21st century, Görres’s insights are as fresh today as they were 50 years ago.

~Helen M. Alvaré, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University

In What Binds Marriage Forever, Ida Görres speaks directly to the reader in a form that assumes, bracingly, a shared search for the truth. Without a forest of scholarly citations, she confronts modern attitudes towards marriage with the confidence of ready Scriptural knowledge, a deep understanding of common experience, and a grasp of fundamental moral principles. Jennifer Bryson’s erudite translation and thoughtful editing of this work enable the English speaker to access an important resource for approaching this highly relevant topic of our day, marriage: a topic with unique implications for the well being of children, society, and ultimately, as St. Paul tells us, our very conception of faith, understood as God’s nuptial relationship with His Church.

~Leila Marie Lawler, author, Summa Domestica: Order and Wonder in Family Life; God Has No Grandchildren: A guided reading of Pius XI’s encyclical Casti Connubii

Informative and inspirational, rather like a powerful and erudite sermon. It could bring about a major change in mindset for the reader who begins the book in disagreement with the doctrine of indissolubility, and for those who are more sympathetic to the author’s positions, it will strengthen the conviction with which they hold their beliefs. Despite their age, the essays are especially timely in light of the recent Synod on the Family and the post-synodal exhortation Amoris Laetitia.

~Timothy J. Cavanaugh, Diocese of Madison, WI

About the Painting on the Cover

From an interview by CUA Press with the translator of this book:

Q. “Tell us about the painting on the cover. What does a walnut have to do with marriage?”

A. The painting on the cover is “Walnut of Eden” by Vladimir Kush (b. 1965). It has an uncanny overlap with an image Görres uses in discussing marriage. This passage is in an epigraph in What Binds Marriage Forever. She writes, “Like a nut in its shell, the married couple’s relationship with each other rested within something… This protective and supportive housing of the past has long since been broken open, and the interior stands naked in an environment that has changed.”

Read the CUA Press Interview

Available from CUA Press, Amazon, and other booksellers.

Watch (and share!) a 2-minute trailer about Bread Grows in Winter.

WATCH

2. Upcoming Events about Ida Görres

• February 13 in DC: What Binds Marriage Forever, at the Catholic Information Center, DC at 3:00 PM, speaker: Dr. Jonathan Bieler

Register for the Feb. 13 Event

• March 21: “From Dull World to Dazzling Universe: Ida Görres on How the Saints Can Renew Wonder,” at Benedictine College in Atchison, KS

• April 19: “What Happened in Germany After the Second Vatican Council? Insights from Ida Friederike Görres,” in Ashburn, VA

• April 22: What Binds Marriage Forever, at Catholic University of America, DC

• April 23: Bread Grows in Winter, at the Catholic Information Center, DC

• April 23: “A Treasure Chest of Wisdom: Ida Görres on the Saints and Sanctity Alexandria,” VA

• April or May: What Binds Marriage Forever, in Lincoln, NE

Click for Details about These Events

3. What Reviewers Say about Bread Grows in Winter

“Timely prophetic insightfulness for the present day. Ida Görres combines a wonderful style of writing, a piercing lucidity in her religious sense, and a unique capacity to diagnose aberrant trends in the Church and propose spiritual solutions. This book is highly recommended to all who seek clarity in their Catholic commitment in a time of confusion and ambiguity, and who would like a great read as well.”

—Fr. Donald Haggerty, Author, The Hour of Testing: Spiritual Depth and Insight in a Time of Ecclesial Uncertainty

“Because of her courage, her clear-sightedness, and her evident devotion to Christ and the Church, Ida Friederika Görres served as an excellent guide for Catholics in German-speaking lands during the tumultuous times surrounding Vatican II. We have Jennifer S. Bryson to thank for recalling Görres’ voice for us in the similarly confusing times that face us today. Bread Grows in Winter shows us how to be fully cognizant of the problems that beset the Church while not only holding fast to, but also deepening, our joyful hope.”

—D. C. Schindler, Professor John Paul II Institute, CUA , D.C.

“This book, first published in 1970, has been a source of inspiration to me. During my first few years of episcopacy I often took it with me on journeys, as a travel companion. . . . Trying to work out how to exercise the ministry, I found in Görres a sure guide unfailingly summoning me to focus on essentials. . . . The publication of Görres’ work in English is a major event full of promise for the Church’s mission, at once ancient and ever new, ‘to carry forward the work of Christ under the lead of the befriending Spirit’.”

—Bishop Erik Varden, from the foreword

“The most remarkable Catholic essayist I discovered in 2025 was the Bohemian Ida Friederike Görres (1901-1971), who wrote about the problems of the Church in the West besieged by secularism in the period immediately following the Second Vatican Council. Faithful, creative, insightful and right on target ... Her writings have helped many readers throughout the West maintain their spiritual balance among the controversies which so often have torn the Church apart.”

—Dr. Jeff Mirus, from “The best books Catholic Culture staff read in 2025”

Read a Review by Jeff Mirus

“Bread Grows in Winter offers bracing vision of faith, Christ-centered triumph …”

—Lumma Simms, Catholic World Report

Read Review by Luma Simms

“Ida Friederike Görres … wrote presciently of the perils of an increasingly secularized society, the Church’s ongoing struggle against calls for reform, and the centrality of sainthood.”

—Heather King, Angelus News

Read Review by Heather King

4. St. John Henry Newman

“I. F. Görres’s John Henry Newman: A Life Sacrificed has plenty of biography in it, but goes to the heart of the saint’s thought and spirituality.”

—Dave Deavel, “The Best Books I Read in 2025,” Catholic World Report

5. Prayer Request

“In 2025, I fell in love with the writing of Ida Friederike Görres … join me in praying that someone will translate and publish more of her works.”

—Dawn Buetner, “The Best Books I Read in 2025,” Catholic World Report

Thanks, Dawn! Yes, let us pray, including for an institution to house and fully catalog the library and literary remains of Ida Görres. Editor, Exploring Ida Görres

Dr. Jennifer Bryson, a scholar in the Ethics and Public Policy Center’s (EPPC) Catholic Studies program, has released the first English translation of Ida Friederike Görres’s “Bread Grows in Winter” (250 pp. Ignatius Press ISBN-10 9781621647386) a powerful collection of Catholic essays and lectures from 1967 to 1970.

During her lifetime, Ida Friederike Görres was a prominent Catholic thinker and writer. Recently, Görres has received renewed interest in English, in large part due to the translation efforts of Bryson. This book offers thoughtful reflection and insight on the state of the Catholic Church and also includes the eulogy Fr. Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) delivered for Görres in 1971 and a foreword by Bishop Erik Varden.

In Bread Grows in Winter, Görres offers a sharply realistic account of the upheaval in the Church following the Second Vatican Council. At the same time, Görres, a deeply faithful Catholic, offers readers a deep well of hope. Today, Bread Grows in Winter speaks directly to the hearts of believers amid the challenges many continue to experience.

“I translated Bread Grows in Winter into English because of the valuable fortification of faith Görres provides in this book. Ida Görres acknowledges frankly what was happening in the Church in Germany after the Second Vatican Council. Some passages are harrowing. She addresses readers who question whether they can trust the Church any longer. With passion and insight, Görres explains why she herself trusts the Church, through thick and thin, and she invites readers to join her in this.” – Dr. Jennifer Bryson

In his 1971 eulogy for Görres, Fr. Joseph Ratzinger stated, “we thank God that this insightful, brave, and faithful woman was given to the Church in this century. We give thanks for her writing, for the way she was and will continue to be present to many people through her writing.”

Read more and purchase the book here.

Mary Ward: Until the Jesuits arrived on the scene the religious orders were “androgynous’’: both a masculine and feminine system, the “first’’ and the “second” order constituted the order as a whole—for the Benedictines, Cistercians, Carmelites, the Franciscans, Dominicans and probably a host of others, long forgotten. The Jesuits formed the first purely male society—bachelors. And with Mary Ward came the spinsters as an independent kind of religious order. But no, not with her, after her. She always intended herself and her followers as the feminine counterpart and complement to the S.J.—much against their will!—planning and pursuing this end with all the energy and vehemence of which she was capable. But this was so directly contrary to the character and will of the S.J. that she had to give in, and so the way was paved for her-own community—without a masculine “half’’. And so the “beehives” began, with the Mother General as queen-bee. For hitherto even the small communities of women religious, such as the Ursulines, with no masculine counterpart still had a male “head” in the bishop, the male guiding counter-pole, i.e. these convents were still enlarged reproductions of the single consecrated virgin who depended on her bishop as the Church on Christ. But now this element was dropped and religious ant-hills began to take form—sterile to the last degree, merely “useful”. I wonder whether in her “providential” opposition to Mary Ward (as distinct from pure policy) the Church also sensed this break with the past—the break-away of women from the bi-polar world into a somehow un-natural, one-level existence, and endeavoured to postpone this as long as possible? That she was actually prepared to sacrifice the enormous and undeniable usefulness of the new institute to the traditional idea of religious? Did the ancient Zeitgeist oppose the rising one not only out of stubbornness, but also because it sensed instinctively the inevitable consequences ? For once this door was opened it could never again be closed. Sooner or later the lone “professional bee’’—the “single” female, no longer virgin-bride but simply virgin-spinster—would have to follow in the wake of the corporation, the conventual bee-hive. Single, i.e. “rid” of man—neither bound to him nor really free of him, building up a purely “women’s world’’, in which the female element hypertrophied—and atrophied—ending up at last as a hybrid substitute for the man it believed to be no longer necessary. How significant and how salutary—and what a mercy it is—that with her iron barrier against female priesthood the Church has bolted at least this door against feminine autarchy! Here at least even the religiously emancipated woman still remains tied to man by her spiritual dependence. So that, strangely enough, even in this sphere the Church is once again maintaining the order of nature.

Broken Lights is currently out of print. It was also published in the US in 1964 by the Newman Press, Westminster, MD.

To learn about the translator, Barbara Waldstein-Wartenberg, read here.

It was only over there that I learned that it was none other than Gurian who, immediately after the end of the war, sent his American friends a list of German intellectuals, and that the first two names listed were those of Ida Friederike Görres-Coudenhove and myself. So, we had him to thank for the care packages that arrived from time to time, which were practically life-saving, especially for the children.1

The “Gurian” to whom Pieper refers is Waldemar Gurian (1902-1954). After escaping Nazi Germany in 1939, Gurian became a professor at the University of Notre Dame. He was a keen observer of the times and the intersection of Catholicism and politics. Describing him in an obituary, Thomas T. McAvoy, C.S.C. wrote:

Dr. Gurian had grasped in his great mind the fundamental problem of the Western world in the twentieth century: the preservation of the spiritual dignity of man in a civilization where old hatreds and lusts have mounted machines and intensified violence to attain their inhuman purposes; and he consecrated his special gifts to a Christian solution of that problem.2

McAvoy described Gurian as someone who wrote “for those who are aware, intellectually and spiritually, of the deepest conflict of the present age.”3

It appears likely there was correspondence between Gurian and Görres. If it remains and if it can be found, I expect it will be interesting.

If there are any letters from Gurian to Görres, they would likely be either in the now-untended papers she left behind (a topic for a future post) or, perhaps, in the Archive of the Archdiocese of Freiburg, where a select portion of her papers were moved a few years ago.

As for possible letters from Görres to Gurian, should someone have time, I think it would be worth having a look through Gurian’s papers in the Library of Congress.

Gurian Papers in the Library of Congress

Although Görres is not mentioned in the file headings of the Gurian papers, perhaps one might find letters from her under the headings “Deutsche briefe” or “Catholic authors.” It is, at least, worth taking a look.

In other news, I am giving a talk about Ida Görres and her work the evening of September 10 at Thomas More College in Nashua, New Hampshire. If you are able to attend, please stop by to say hello. It is always a pleasure to meet others with an interest in the work of Ida Friederike Görres.

Event Sept. 10 in Nashua, New Hampshire

She was skeptical of claims that a living person could be identified as a saint, in large part because the way most people understand sanctity suffers so much distortion. She wrote, “the living saints are so deeply hidden from us.” (The Church in the Flesh, 214.)

Thus, given her seriousness about the saints and her hesitancy about identifying them, it is all that much more significant, and a sign of how exceptional her respect for John Henry Newman was, that she went out on a limb in the late 1940s to suggest, albeit after his death, that the Church would one day recognize him as a saint. We saw in 2013 that she was correct.

In the same passage, she also saw coming what we see before our eyes now: the title of Doctor of the Church coming to Newman.

In John Henry Newman: A Life Sacrificed (52), Görres wrote:

It is not unlikely that John Henry Newman will one day be elevated to the honor of the altars. His long life that filled almost the entire past [nineteenth] century and even the portion of his continuation in the memory of the Church show no trace of the splendor of the extraordinary that belongs to that particular mission. Nevertheless, no one can approach him and remain under his spell without realizing that this man is one of the chosen ones, one of those who are continually given to Christendom as salt and light. His role in the Church is not that of a martyr or a miracle worker; his charisma is also not the love generated in a crisis by the great rescuers and helpers: his gift is wisdom, combined with the other two of the seven gifts that are particularly related to the sanctification of the human spirit: under- standing and knowledge. He is a teacher of the Church like those Fathers of our faith whom the liturgy addresses as Doctor optime (a Doctor of the Church).

Görres also called Newman the ‘‘Church Father of the Twentieth Century’’ (52). To this we can add: and of the twenty-first century, and beyond.

Bishop Erik Varden of Norway describes Ida Friederike Görres as “a crucial voice for the present moment.” Why?

In this interview, discover:

• Why he likes to read the work of Görres.

• How did he discovered Görres.

• Which of her works is his favorite.

• Which book by Görres he wants to read next.

Click here to read the interview at the National Catholic Register:

READ

Thursday, June 5: Newman as “Church Father” and “Morning Star” in Ida Friederike Görres

The National Institute for Newman Studies is hosting an event in Pittsburgh, PA, and online on Thursday, June 5, from 10 to 11 AM Eastern.

Dr. Elizabeth Huddleston and I will discuss:

• The role of John Henry Newman in the work of Ida Friederike Görres

• The impact of the Catholic revival in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s on Görres

• Görres’s book John Henry Newman: A Life Sacrificed.

If you are in or near Pittsburgh, join us in person! Afterward, please stop by to introduce yourself. It is a pleasure to meet others who enjoy reading the work of Ida Görres.

For those unable to attend in person, the event will be live-streamed. Click here to register:

REGISTER FOR THE JUNE 5 EVENT

RSVP

6 to 8 PM: A Talk + Q&A + A Brief Reception

The talk will be both in person and online. Free.

Catholic Information Center, 1501 K Street NW in Washington, DC 20005

Newman Sermon & Görres: A Podcast

At the Newman on Tap Presents Podcast, Season 3, Episode 10 is a discussion between Jennifer Bryson & Ron Snyder (President of the Saint John Henry Newman Association of America [SJHNAA]) about St. John Henry Newman’s sermon "Religion of the Pharisee the Religion of Mankind" and how Ida Friederike Görres draws on this sermon in her chapter “On Conscience” in John Henry Newman: A Life Sacrificed.

LISTEN

For this podcast, Newman on Tap provides a custom format for the sermons with line numbers. If you would like to follow along as Jennifer and Rob discuss specific sections of the sermon, you may download the sermon for free from SJHNAA. It is Sermon 2 in Sermons Preached on Various Occasions.

READ

Upcoming Event:

Thursday, June 5, 2025, 10:00–11:00 AM Eastern

National Institute for Newman Studies (NINS)

211 N Dithridge St., Pittsburgh, PA 15213

in person & online

A link to RSVP will be provided in early May.

The excerpt consists of several passages from Chapter 3, “Why We Believe,” from pages 58 to 61 and 68 to 70.

Read the excerpt from The Church in the Flesh, “Why We Believe”:

READ

At the end of the excerpt is a Cluny Media discount code for readers of The Imaginative Conservative. You can buy a copy for yourself or a friend.

What great timing! This comes as we approach, with joy, the entrance of new Catholics into the Church a week from now at the Easter Vigil.

The Church in the Flesh is particularly well-suited as a gift for Catholic converts who believe but are still getting to know what the Church is and learning to navigate the art of believing in an unbelieving age. As Görres writes, in believing, “we embark on a journey.”

Watch a 90-second video introducing The Church in the Flesh:

WATCH

How did your interest in St. Thérèse of Lisieux begin?

I’ve always been drawn to the Carmelites. I spent a lot of time with Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, and really fell in love with John of the Cross in my second round of graduate school in my late thirties. I think it took me until my thirties and forties to be able to read John of the Cross well.

But in all honesty, Thérèse was kind of on the periphery of my Carmelite interest. It was not until discovering Görres and The Hidden Face that Thérèse began to feel real to me. Prior to that, I found the writing around the Little Flower rather saccharine and unhelpful. It just didn’t speak to me. But when I got a taste of Görres, and then discovered The Hidden Face, I had a kind of conversion experience. Görres was the first writer, author, intellectual, who made Thérèse available to me in a meaningful way. Görres was the first to articulate “the Little Way” such that I felt a kinship with Thérèse.

If I recall correctly, you discovered The Hidden Face in 2020 when you edited a translation I did of a lecture by Ida Friederike Görres for the Catholic journal Logos, along with a biographic introduction to Görres by Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz.1 Why, at that time, did you want to learn more about the work of Görres?

Your work was really my first introduction to Görres, I’m embarrassed to say.

Oh, do not be embarrassed that you had not heard of Ida Görres before that! At the time of her death in 1971, she was unfashionable among the new progressivists in the Church in Germany and was thus initially largely forgotten. A rare exception to that was the scholar Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz who “kept the light on,” so to say, writing from time to time about Görres and her work.

Reading Görres I felt like a long-lost sister had been returned to me. It was as if I’d been waiting for her voice in my life for all of my life. And, because I had met Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz and had read her work on other topics and saw her as a kind of “imprimatur” of Görres, all of these things really converged.

By the time you learned about The Hidden Face by Görres in 2020, you had already had some exposure to works about St. Thérèse. What was different about The Hidden Face?

I spent a great deal of time with other Carmelites, John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila, for example. I instantly took to John of the Cross, his poetry, his commentaries. And the supplemental material on John and Teresa is vast and excellent. Iain Matthews and Ruth Burrows are two favorite scholars.

When it came to Thérèse, as I mentioned earlier, the things that I had read about the Little Flower prior to experiencing The Hidden Face left a bad taste in my mouth. They weren’t bad; they just weren’t speaking to me. There is such a temptation in hagiography to overlook the human side of the saint, the real struggle, the real weaknesses and failings, or to romanticize them to the point of making the saints thin veneers of who they truly are. All of this dilutes the true and holy contributions that saints make to the Church.

Görres did not do that with Thérèse. The depth of context in which Görres was able to place her was simply extraordinary. I understood immediately why Görres earned the title “The smartest woman alive” by some of her peers.

What is your favorite thing about The Hidden Face?

Its scope and thoroughness. It is simply a marvel of hagiography in those terms. The way Görres was able to capture this beautiful and necessary shift in Thérèse, from hating her weaknesses to loving them as opportunities for God to demonstrate his mercy and love. Everything turned toward God. And the way that Görres was able to capture the natural growth of this little girl. The hand of God was surely on Thérèse, but she was once a little, naive child growing into a holy and wise woman.

What surprised you the most in The Hidden Face?

The reframing of what it means to be holy, nd the superb way that Görres was able to explain that according to the mind and soul of Thérèse. Görres captures very well that paradoxical tension between holiness as a gift freely given and bestowed by God and holiness as a surrender to God’s will in every moment, the need to cooperate with this gift of holiness.

The Hidden Face is a deep dive into the life and soul of St. Thérèse. For those who are new to learning about St. Thérèse, is there a more basic introduction to her you would recommend to readers as an “on-ramp,” before reading The Hidden Face?

The book St. Therese of Lisieux: Essential Writings edited by Mary Frolich is excellent. Very digestible. She introduces snippets of the writing of Thérèse grouped in themes and it makes for a really lovely introduction and overview of the heart of Thérèse. From there, you would be better prepared to read Story of a Soul.

LIZ KELLY is the community leader for women’s formation at the Word on Fire Institute and the author of more than a dozen award-winning books, including Jesus Approaches, Love Like a Saint, and A Thrill of Hope. She holds advanced degrees in creative writing and Catholic studies. She is trained as a spiritual director, leading retreats and speaking around the world with a particular focus on helping women to flourish in their faith. Visit her website at LizK.org or follow her on Instagram at LizKToday.

The Hidden Face: A Study of St. Thérèse of Lisieux by Ida Friederike Görres is available from Ignatius Press. 434 pages.

Now, however, I have learned the topic—one she cared about so passionately that it consumed her final energy in life.

“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Ex 20:8)

Her husband, Carl-Josef Görres (1905–1973), provides the following account of the final days of his wife’s life. He notes that to the end, even under increasingly difficult health challenges, she continued to work on essays and books about the Catholic faith. He observes, “Like my wife's life, so was her death.”1

Carl-Josef Görres continues:

The start of the Commission meeting on May 14 was moved forward from the afternoon to the morning at short notice. I had said in the days before that she “would not come home” under the current program. She said that the bishops had given her the task, that her conscience dictated she should carry it out. Her doctors thought her health was better than ever, and that she had to go to the morning session at all costs. To which I gave in, saying, “She could be glad that we were in the same ‘club,’ which allowed her mistaken conscience to be the guiding principle.”

Due to the absence of important participants, the morning program had to be changed. Only about a quarter of the thirty or so Synod members who could reschedule in time or were interested in the modern topic showed up.

By “Providence,” my wife was now to present, in detail, her understanding of keeping Sunday holy to the progressive-minded synod members, albeit probably not very convincingly, but in a “respectable format”.2

Next came the discussion of her presentation:

While listening to the discussion, my wife developed brain spasms of such intensity that, according to medical expertise, if they lasted for more than eleven minutes, they would irreparably destroy any further possibility of working. Thus, the meeting was not only “stimulating,” as the highly esteemed chairman Prof. Dr. Bertsch, SJ, put it to me mildly, but also—at least for my wife—“upsetting”.3

At this point, she was rushed to the hospital, where she remained overnight. Carl-Josef Görres concludes:

“By Providence,” Ida Friederike Görres died in the Frankfurt Marian Hospital of the Dernbacher Sisters on May 15, 1971.

She was buried in the Bergäcker cemetery in Freiburg, the resting place of her most brilliant friend Gustav Sieverth [sic], after a requiem arranged and introduced by Prelate [Otto] Bechtold in the presence of Archbishop Dr. Hermann Schäufele in the Church of Our Lady [in Freiburg] with a eulogy by Prof. Dr. Dr. Joseph Ratzinger and graveside remarks by Prof. Dr. W. Nigg, Zurich.4

Pieper, Ratzinger, and the Death of Ida Görres

Further related to the death of Ida Görres, I recently found this note in the third volume of Josef Pieper’s autobiographical works. Pieper, while discussing Joseph Ratzinger, mentions in passing, “I believe he was also the one who broke the news that Ida Görres-Coudenhove had collapsed and died suddenly after giving a presentation to a committee of the Synod of Würzburg.”5

And now we know what the topic of that presentation was. I hope to find the text of that presentation someday. I will keep hunting.

For several years, I have been compiling a bibliography of translations of works by Ida Friederike Görres into other languages. In 2023, I published a bibliography of these translations in fourteen languages.1 Recently, I discovered translations into one more language: Swedish.

This brings the total to fifteen languages.

How I Discovered Translations of Görres into Swedish

In October 2024, while searching the AbeBooks website of used booksellers for something by Ida Görres (I no longer remember what), my search for “Ida Friederike Görres” yielded an unusual listing: a journal from 1954 in Swedish!

I contacted the seller, Antikvariat Patrik Andersson in Lund, to ask whether the text “Jeanne d’Arc” is in Swedish, German, or French. Mr. Andersson kindly checked for me and responded that the essay is in Swedish.

Swedish! One more language to add to my list of Görres translations.

Next, I thought, “If there is one translation into Swedish, there might be more.” Knowing no Swedish and no Swedish Catholics, I turned to the next best option—a Norwegian Catholic, and not just that, but one who is a fan of Ida Görres, namely, Bishop Erik Varden.

I wrote to him about what I had found and my suspicion there might be more. He kindly contacted Helena D’Arcy, Editor of Katolskt magasin in Sweden. Some days later, scans of two translations of works by Görres in Swedish were in my inbox along with a link to the Swedish-language Catholic journal Signum (1975–present), formerly known as Credo (1920–1974).

I began to dig. Fortunately, this journal has scanned all the past issues of Credo and Signum and made them available online.

Below you will find:

1. A chronology of the publications

2. A bibliography of what I found.

CHRONOLOGY OF GÖRRES IN SWEDISH

1945: Review

Gunnel Vallquist (1918–2016) reviewed Das Verborgene Antlitz. Eine Studie über Thérèse von Lisieaux by Ida Friederike Görres (1944).

This came as a surprise because almost all copies of this first edition were destroyed when an Allied bomb hit the publisher’s warehouse in 1944. Yet, somehow, bombs or not, war or not, one copy found its way to a Swedish reviewer. (The book was reprinted in Germany in 1946 and repeatedly thereafter.)

1951: “Nocturner”

A translation of excerpts from Görres’ journals from 1937 to 1947, Nocturnen (1949). Most of the excerpts translated into Swedish are about Nordic authors such as Olav Dunn, Selma Lagerlöf, and Sigrid Undset.

1954: “Jeanne d’Arc”

A translation of an excerpt from the introduction by Görres to the German translation (1954) of Jeanne d’Arc (1949) by Sven Stolpe.2

1. Stolpe (1905–1996) wrote a book in Swedish: Jeanne d’Arc, 1949.

2. Alfred von Sterneck translated the book from Swedish into German: Das Mädchen von Orléans: Das Schicksal der Joanne d’Arc, 1954. For von Sterneck’s translation, Ida Görres wrote an introduction.

3. Next, in 1954, someone translated an excerpt of Görres’ introduction from German to Swedish and published it in the Swedish-language Catholic journal Credo. (This is the discovery that launched my research into Swedish.)

1958: Review

Sven Stolpe reviewed Görres’ revised (and retitled) book, Das Senfkorn von Lisieux. Das verborgene Antlitz, Neue Deutung (1958).

1959: Review

Sven Stolpe reviewed Görres’ book Der göttliche Bettler (1959).

1971: “Från Celibat till Äktenskap?” & “Tillit till kyrkan”

1. A translation of almost all of Section 2 of the essay “Bemerkungen zum Zölibat” from Im Winter wächst das Brot (i.e., “Remarks on Celibacy” from Bread Grows in Winter).

2. A translation of the lecture “Vertrauen zur Kirche” from Im Winter wächst das Brot (i.e., “Trusting the Church” from Bread Grows in Winter).

2002

Jan Kerkhofs mentions Ida Görres among the prominent lay Christian (mostly Catholic) authors who rose to prominence in the mid-20th century and ushered in a more prominent role for lay Christian authors.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

with hyperlinks to the texts

TRANSLATIONS from German to Swedish of works by Ida Friederike Görres:

Görres, Ida Friederike. “Från Celibat till Äktenskap?” Translated by Anonymous. Credo Katolsk Tidskrift 51, no. 1 (1971): 9–14.

_____. “Jeanne d’Arc.” Translated by Anonymous. Credo katolsk zidskrift 35, no. 3 (1954): 107–17.

_____. “Nocturner.” Translated by Anonymous. Credo katolsk tidskrift 32, no. 4 (1951): 155–58.

_____. “Tillit till kyrkan.” Translated by Anonymous. Credo Katolsk Tidskrift 4, no. 52 (1971): 168–74.

REVIEWS in Swedish of works by Görres:

Stolpe, Sven. “[Review of] Ida Friederike Görres: Der Göttliche Bettler, Frankfurt/Main, 1959, Josef Knecht.” Credo Katolsk Tidskrift 40, no. 4 (1959): 186.

_____. “[Review of] Ida Friederike Görres: Das Senfkorn von Lisieux. Das Verborgene Antlitz, Neue Deutung. Freiburg 1958, Herder.” Credo katolsk tidskrift 39, no. 4/5 (1958): 239–40.

Vallquist, Gunnel. “[Review of] Das Verborgene Antlitz. Eine Studie über Thérèse von Lisieaux von Ida Friederike Görres (1944).” Credo katolsk tidskrift 26, no. 4 (1945): 226–28.

MENTION of Ida Görres in an article in Signum

Kerkhofs, Jan. “Europeisk andlighet?” Signum, 2002, no. 3. https://signum.se/artikelarkiv/europeisk-andlighet/

CONTACT

FORTHCOMING BOOK UPDATE

An update about my translation of Bread Grows in Winter (Im Winter wächst das Brot, 1970): Ignatius Press recently sent me the copy edits of the manuscript to review. The book is winding its way toward publication and is scheduled for release in 2025.

At The Newman Review, Dr. Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz told Jennifer Bryson the adventuresome story about how the unpublished manuscript of the book by Ida Friederike Görres on John Henry Newman surfaced in Munich in the 1990s and how she got a hold of it to ensure it would not be lost to history.

Dr. Gerl-Falkovtiz also reflects on what she learned about Newman while editing the German edition of John Henry Newman: A Life Sacrificed.

Read “Discovering an Unpublished Manuscript on Newman in Munich: An Interview with Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz”:

Dr. HBGF's Adventure READ

2. The So-What of Hagiography

At Public Discourse, Felix Miller interviewed Jennifer Bryson about “John Henry Newman, Ida Görres, and the Power of Hagiography”:

Görres, Newman, Hagiography READ

3. Church and Culture Show: Ida Görres and St. Newman

For the “Church and Culture” radio show on the Ave Maria Radio Network, Deal Hudson interviewed Jennifer Bryson (53:00) about Ida Friederike Görres and the book John Henry Newman: A Life Sacrificed.

Church and Culture LISTEN

EVENT

Wednesday, January 22 at 7:30 PM

Ida Friederike Görres: New Translations on St. Newman & on Being Catholic Today

Stanford University, Building 300, Room 303

Speaker: Dr. Jennifer Bryson

The text of the article is in German, but the abstract from the journal is in English:

ABSTRACT: There is an unpublished longer note on Heidegger's inaugural lecture in Freiburg in 1930 [1929] “What is metaphysics?” by an eyewitness: Ida Friederike Coudenhove (later married Görres; 1901 – 1971), who was studying in Freiburg at the time. The notes are enthusiastic and at the same time critical of the Freiburg faculty, who attended somewhat “affected”. This is the first time that these notes have been published from the original text and commented on and it is rather a philosophical-historical contribution.

Keywords: Ida Friederike Coudenhove, Martin Heidegger, Metaphysics, Philosophy of ,Nothingness‘, Catholic Youth Movement – Ecclesiasticism.

GERL-FALKOVITZ, Hanna-Barbara, 2024. Ein Blitzlicht: Das Echo auf Martin Heideggers Antrittsvorlesung „Was ist Metaphysik?“, Freiburg 1930 bei Ida Friederike Coudenhove (1901 – 1971). In: Kultúrne dejiny. Online. VERBUM – vydavateľstvo Katolíckej univerzity v Ružomberku, Jg. 15, Nr. Supplement, S. 136-141. ISSN 1338-2209.

NEW BOOKS

IGNATIUS PRESS

1. The Hidden Face: A Study of St. Therese of Lisieux, $19.95 / sale: $15.96

2. John Henry Newman: A Life Sacrificed, $19.95 / sale: $15.96

Ignatius Press Black Friday sale now through Dec. 3:

20% off orders of $70 or more.

CLUNY MEDIA

1. The Church in the Flesh, $22.95

2. “St. John of Arc” essay in Saints Are Not Sad, $22.95

3. “The Nature of Sanctity” long-form essay in The Persistence of Order, Vol. 1, $22.95

Cluny Media Black Friday sale on Friday, November 29 only:

Save 40% on 10+ books, 30% on 5+ books, 20% on 1–4 books.

USED BOOKS

The following used books by Ida Görres are available in North America as of the publication of this Substack post on November 25, 2024.

ENGLISH

These are rare books; they will likely go fast.

The Hidden Face (first edition, hardcover, 1959), $60.00.

Mary Ward, 1939 (first edition, hardcover, 1939, out of print), $22.50.

GERMAN*

Im Winter wächst das Brot (essays & lectures from 1967 to 1970, linen cover), $15.84, $28.01, $41.33.

Die leibhaftige Kirche (aka The Church in the Flesh), $11.65 [hardcover 1954 edition, a bargain!], $76.09 [linen, 1994], $79.89 [linen, 1994].

*Note: Both of these books in German are still in print from Johannes Verlag, in linen cover editions, and are available in Europe new for €16.00 and €15.50, respectively.

These and additional titles may be available outside North America, especially in Europe. Check local used bookstores and online vendors to find a nice Christmas surprise for a Catholic reader you know.

Whether for books to give or to add to your “Dear Santa” wish list, happy book hunting!

She published it initially as an article in the Catholic Youth Movement journal Schildgenossen in 1930 and then as a book in 1931 (republished in 1949). The English edition followed right away in 1932. This was her first work translated into a foreign language. The translators were Ruth Bonsall and E.I. Watkin.

In English, The Nature of Sanctity was published by Sheed and Ward in two formats: As a short book and included by Christopher Dawson and T.F. Burns in The Persistence of Order, Volume I of their series of Essays on Religion and Culture. In 2019, Cluny Media republished The Persistence of Order. (In the 2019 edition, this dialogue is 68 pages.)

The dialogue opens with an attempt to clarify who St. Elizabeth really was, to understand “her soul.” “I have no intention,” declares one of the discussants, “of toning down the picture as some people attempt to do for Saint Francis, her greater brother in spirit, making him into a mere inoffensive nature-worshiper and so falsifying him.” In later decades, this quest for clarity about individual saints would remain a central theme in the hagiography of Görres, seen most clearly in The Hidden Face: A Study of St. Therese of Lisieux and in John Henry Newman: A Life Sacrificed.

Another theme in the hagiography of Görres found in this dialogue is the emphasis that saintliness is not a matter of being a telegenic superstar or having extraordinary skill. (She develops this theme more fully in the final chapter of her book The Church and the Flesh.)

As one of the dialogue partners points out: “Christianity has filled untold numbers of ‘untalented’ souls with a genuine and true love and kindness.”

The reflections on love in this dialogue are beautiful. The discussants contrast “social service for ‘humanity,’” “the pity of weak persons,” and '“pleasure” with the authentic love we see in the lives of the saints. As for Saint Elizabeth:

The dialogue partners consider the distinctive humility and sacrifice one finds in the lives of the saints. In addition, they consider how very human the saints are, exploring, for example, the deep grief St. Elizabeth suffered upon learning of her husband’s death.

The dialogue concludes with a reflection on “the very greatest gift of the saints to us.” (To find out what that is, you will have to read the dialogue.) If you have a friend to read with, you might consider reading this dialogue out loud.

TRANSLATIONS

The Nature of Sanctity has been translated from German into Dutch (1936), English (1932), French (1936), and Hungarian (1936).

Wishing all readers of the “Exploring Ida Görres” Substack a blessed Feast of St. Elizabeth of Hungary today! (Or two days ago for those following the new calendar.)