English Catholic nobility

The Garden of the Soul, or a Manual of Spiritual Exercises

The Garden of the Soul

Bishop Richard Challoner's 1740 prayer manual became the definitive devotional handbook of English-speaking Catholics for over two centuries, reprinted over fifty times by 1800 and reprinted well into the 20th century. It contains the Mass ordinary, litanies, daily prayers, examination of conscience, and instructions for spiritual exercises. It was standard in every Catholic household of rank in Britain, Ireland, and their diaspora, and its emphasis on personal devotion and frequent confession sustained Catholic identity throughout the penal era and Victorian revival. Catholic noble families in Britain would invariably have owned and prayed from this book.