10 Spiritual Memoirs Every Catholic Feminist Should Read

Part of our bookish series! 📚

I love me a memoir.¹

The story of conversion is one of the most fascinating stories a person can write about. Whenever I’m lucky enough to hear someone’s testimony—the story of how they came to faith in Christ—I always have a billion follow up questions. Maybe it’s the journalism school graduate in me, but I just want to ask about how their parents reacted and which liturgical style they prefer and which Gospel sticks out to them the most and what was the hardest part of their old life to nail to the cross and on and on and on and on.

I don’t view spiritual memoirs as a cut-and-dry before and after tale, either. Conversion, I’m learning, is not a moment. It’s not a retreat. It’s not even a powerful event. It’s a decision we make, day in and day out, to say yes to what God wants for us.

Some of these aren’t straightforward “memoirs”; you wouldn’t find them in the biography section of Barnes and Noble. But they all tell a story of someone’s life, written by themself. And to me, that makes it a memoir.

Here are 10 Spiritual Memoirs Catholic Feminist Should Read, According to Exactly One Catholic Feminist (ie., me).

“What better occupation, really, than to spend the evening at the fireside with a book, with the wind beating on the windows and the lamp burning bright.” – Gustave Flaubert