author
Mother Mary Loyola
1845–1930
A popular English Catholic nun and writer, she turned Bible stories, devotion, and church teaching into warm, readable books for children and families. Her works reached a wide audience in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and remained well loved for their clarity and kindness.
1 Audiobook
Before the Most Holy = (Coram Sanctissimo)
by Mother Mary Loyola
About the author
Born Elizabeth Giles in London in 1845, she grew up in a Protestant family and lived through a childhood marked by serious family loss. She later became a Roman Catholic and entered the Bar Convent in York, where she took the name Mother Mary Loyola.
She began publishing relatively late, bringing out her first book in 1896 when she was in her fifties. Over the next three decades she produced many Catholic books, including works for children and devotional readers, and became known as one of the most widely read Catholic writers of her time.
Her books were valued for making religious ideas simple, vivid, and approachable without losing seriousness. That gift helped her reach ordinary readers as well as younger audiences, and it is a big part of why titles like The King of the Golden City continued to be remembered after her death in 1930.