Catholic Collecting presents an exquisite display of English art of the Middle Ages and Early Modern era preserved by recusant Catholics in England and the United States. The vast collection features stained glass, alabaster, carving, manuscripts, printed books, liturgical vessels, paintings, and vestments, including the prized chasuble given to Westminster Abbey by Henry VII. A series of essays introducing the objects profiles aspects of piety, politics, and art, including the early missionary work of the Society of Jesus in England and the Maryland Colony. When England became a Protestant state in the sixteenth century, religious imagery was largely banned in the visual arts and Catholics were forbidden to erect buildings. They came to identify their faith with their collections of illicit statues, paintings, chalices, processional crosses and other objects of ritual, prayer books, and works of devotional literature. The art was preserved by Catholics who, recusing themselves from oaths of loyalty and participation in the state-sanctioned religion, were dedicated to collecting pious texts and images even in the face of opposition. These objects embodied their bonds with God, church tradition, and each other. Many of the treasures featured in this book are housed in museums and in the rare book libraries at major Jesuit institutions.

Among those contributing to the exhibition are Stonyhurst College, Lancashire; Campion Hall, Oxford; Georgetown University; Loyola University Chicago; the Bar Convent, York; and the Worcester Art Museum.