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Michael Davies: The Great Defender of Catholic Tradition

by Leo Darroch | Foreword by Adrian Davies

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• Product Code: mdgdt
• Publication date: March 25, 2026
• Pages: 485
• Size: 6 x 9

• $26.95

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•   Description
•   Table of Contents
•   About the Author
•   Endorsements

• ✦ ✦ ✦

  Michael Davies

  The Great Defender of Catholic Tradition

  by Leo Darroch · Foreword by Adrian Davies

   

  A biography of one of the most important lay defenders of the traditional liturgy in the years following the Second Vatican Council.

  ✒

  The Writer

  A prolific author whose books and articles helped ordinary Catholics understand the post-conciliar upheaval.

  ✠

  The Defender

  A loyal son of the Church who fought for the integrity of Catholic tradition and the sacred liturgy.

  ☞

  The Legacy

  A body of work that helped prepare the way for the resurgence of the traditional liturgy and faith.

   

  Overview

   

  For so many people who were enduring the trauma of the years of drastic change after the Second Vatican Council, Michael Davies' books and lectures were like manna from heaven and uplifted and educated many lay people and clergy. In his research and exposition of the real facts on the liturgy, he shed a great deal of light on matters that many in high places preferred to keep hidden. This may well be his lasting legacy to the Church, the provision of books and papers that rallied the faithful in a time of unprecedented upheaval that could truly be called one of the dark ages of the Church.

  The immensity of the man will only be fully appreciated in the years to come when his writings will be recognised as one of the springboards of the resurgence of the traditional liturgy and faith of the Church. For those who know him only by his name I hope that this biography will encourage them to search out his published works. —Leo Darroch

  ✦ ✦ ✦

  A portrait of a layman whose work helped rally the faithful during one of the most turbulent periods in modern Catholic history.

   

  Inside the Biography

   

  Early Life

  Yeovil, Welsh roots, army service, conversion, and the formation of a Catholic mind.

  Teacher and Catechist

  His life as a schoolmaster and his opposition to the destructive trends of the new catechetics.

  The Liturgical Battle

  The post-conciliar crisis, the traditional Mass, Communion in the hand, and the fight for Catholic continuity.

  The Great Trilogy

  Cranmer’s Godly Order, Pope John’s Council, and Pope Paul’s New Mass.

  Una Voce

  His international work with the Federation and his tireless service to the traditional movement.

  Ratzinger and Rome

  The later years, Rome, Cardinal Ratzinger, and the long road toward recognition of the traditional liturgy.

   

  Why This Biography Matters

   

  This biography presents Michael Davies not merely as a writer, but as a husband, father, teacher, convert, soldier, traveller, organiser, and Catholic layman whose life became inseparable from the defense of tradition.

  For readers who know his name but not his story, Leo Darroch’s biography offers a vivid introduction to the man behind the books, the lectures, the battles, and the hope that animated the traditional movement through decades of confusion.

  Recommended For

  • Readers interested in the traditional Roman liturgy.
  • Catholics seeking to understand the post-conciliar upheaval.
  • Those familiar with Michael Davies’ writings and lectures.
  • Readers new to Davies who want an introduction to his life and legacy.
  • Clergy, laity, historians, and students of modern Catholic liturgical history.
• ✦ ✦ ✦

  Contents

  Michael Davies: The Great Defender of Catholic Tradition

   

  A richly documented life of Michael Davies: from his early years and conversion, through the post-conciliar crisis, to his international work for the traditional liturgy and the Catholic Faith.

   

  Front Matter

   

  x

  Illustrations

  xi

  Acknowledgements

  xiii

  Foreword
  by Adrian Davies

  xv

  Introduction

   

  Formation and Conversion

   

  Chapter 1

  The Early Years: 1936–1954

  page 1

  Chapter 2

  Army Service: 1954–1957

  page 9

  Chapter 3

  Marija Jozica Milosh

  page 22

  Chapter 4

  University: 1960–1963

  page 28

   

  The Post-Conciliar Crisis

   

  Chapter 5 · page 32

  The 1960s

  Chapter 6 · page 41

  Teaching

  Chapter 7 · page 72

  The New Catechetics

  Chapter 8 · page 100

  Traditional Publications

  Chapter 9 · page 110

  Changes in the Mass since 1962

  Chapter 10 · page 119

  The 1970s

  Chapter 11 · page 150

  Communion in the Hand

  Chapter 12 · page 157

  Ecumania

  ✦ ✦ ✦

  The heart of the book: Davies’ response to liturgical upheaval, catechetical collapse, and the crisis of Catholic continuity after the Council.

   

  The Great Liturgical Trilogy and the Movement

   

  Chapter 13 · page 186

  The Great Liturgical Trilogy I:
  Cranmer’s Godly Order

  Chapter 14 · page 194

  The Great Liturgical Trilogy II:
  Pope John’s Council

  Chapter 19 · page 263

  The Great Liturgical Trilogy III:
  Pope Paul’s New Mass

  Chapter 15 · page 203

  Archbishop Lefebvre

  Chapter 16 · page 225

  The Roman Forum

  Chapter 17 · page 229

  Firing Line TV Programme

  Chapter 18 · page 235

  The 1980s

  Chapter 20 · page 278

  India

  Chapter 21 · page 298

  Porchester Hall 1982

  Chapter 22 · page 304

  Medjugorje

   

  Final Decades

   

  Chapter 23 · page 330

  The 1990s

  Chapter 24 · page 345

  The FIUV Years

  Chapter 25 · page 379

  The 2000s

  Chapter 26 · page 386

  Cardinal Ratzinger

  Chapter 27 · page 402

  Final Illness

   

  Appendices and Index

   

  Appendix I · page 419

  All Publications and Dates

  Appendix II · page 424

  Writings in Christian Order

  Appendix III · page 430

  Michael Davies: Talks and Articles

  Appendix IV · page 433

  Eulogy for Michael Davies

  Appendix V · page 437

  Letter from †Ratko Perić

  Appendix VI · page 439

  Statistics

  Appendix VII · page 443

  Tributes

  page 459

  Index

• Leo Darroch served as a member of the Committee of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales from 1986 until 2013. He was elected to the Council of the International Una Voce in 1999 and was appointed Secretary in 2001 under the Presidency of Michael Davies. He served as President of the Federation from 2007 until 2013. His book, Una Voce: The History of the Foederatio Universalis Una Voce, was published in 2017 by Gracewing. 

• ✦ ✦ ✦

  Praise for Michael Davies

  The Great Defender of Catholic Tradition

   

  Distinguished voices from the traditional Catholic world commend Leo Darroch’s biography of Michael Davies: husband, father, teacher, writer, activist, and tireless defender of the Sacred Liturgy.

  “

  Michael Davies was a faithful, if not tenacious, Catholic husband, father, friend and teacher. Most of us know him as the latter, not from his professional career but from his adopted vocation of making plain for all to see, in any and every way he possibly could, the dangers of the post-conciliar crisis in the Church, particularly in respect of her Sacred Liturgy.

  Few had the privilege of joining him in his attic-study to share the fruits of his infectious and encyclopaedic research before descending to feast on, and be further restored by, Maria’s ‘sandwiches’.

  This volume may not provide the latter, but Leo Darroch is to be congratulated for diligently opening up the treasures of Michael’s attic—and the witness of his life—and for thereby inviting us today to imitate his passion for the Catholic faith—especially for her Sacred Liturgy—and his tenacity for insisting on its traditional integrity, for which Michael could not but give every ounce of energy Almighty God granted him.

   

  —Dom Alcuin Reid
  Prior, Monastère Saint-Benoît, Brignoles, France

  “

  This biography of the great Michael Davies will be of great value to the younger generations of Catholics attached to the Traditional Mass, as a guide to his immense and influential body of work, and an introduction to the long and stormy period from the Council to the election of Pope Benedict XVI. The problems of that era have not gone away, and Davies' magisterial response to those challenges retain their value.

   

  —Dr Joseph Shaw
  Chairman of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales and President of Una Voce International

  ✦ ✦ ✦

  “

  I asked one of the people attending a Tridentine Mass at a packed Westminster Cathedral in 1972 where I might learn more about the work being done to preserve its celebration in England. ‘Go to Michael Davies’, was the response. ‘He is the Traditional Movement’. It was my great joy to be in regular contact with him and his wife Maria from that year until his death.

  Although I discovered that there were many others doing yeoman service for the cause in all of Britain, Michael was without a doubt the greatest English-speaking spokesman and activist working for its success throughout the entire globe.

  By means of his prolific writings, his promotion of the tremendous value of the Chartres Pilgrimage, his tireless traveling for Una Voce in all continents, his endless, patient negotiations with prelates both friendly (like the future Pope Benedict XVI) and ferociously hostile, his lecturing for the Roman Forum, and his overwhelming plenitude of Catholic hope he kept the Faith in the triumph of the Traditional Liturgy and the whole of the teaching of the Magisterium alive in all of us.

  To my great sorrow, many people today know little about this great man.

  God bless Leo Darroch for bringing him and the Traditional Movement he so joyfully embodied vividly alive for those carrying the torch today, so that they can gain a full awareness of the strength of the shoulders on which they stand.

  He has put into words covering decades of hard work and sacrifices the love that all of us who walked next to Michael on the route to Chartres could see in his face when he once again caught his first glimpse of the cathedral spires and urged all of his fellow pilgrims onward to the beauty of the Mass facing God and final victory.

   

  —Dr John Rao
  Emeritus of St John’s University, New York; Director of the Roman Forum; former chairman of Una Voce America

  ✦ ✦ ✦

  A biography of the man who, through scholarship, courage, humour, and perseverance, helped keep alive the cause of Catholic tradition and the triumph of the Traditional Liturgy.

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