Robert Hugh Benson

Robert Hugh Benson was the youngest son of Edward White Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury, and was himself an ordained Anglican priest. He described his reception into the Catholic Church in Confessions of a Convert, published in 1913. He was received at the Dominican priory of Woodchester in 1903, making his confession before the Prior.

kneeling down by the Prior’s seat, I made my confession, together with acts of faith, hope, charity, and contrition, and received absolution. I did not receive conditional baptism — although of course I was perfectly willing to do so — since two witnesses at my previous baptism had given independent testimony that the ceremony had been undoubtedlyR. H. Benson, Confessions of a Convert (1913)

He describes the hours that followed.

a father with his son, he kissed me, and I went through into church to make my thanksgiving. On the following morning I received Holy Communion in the beautiful little church, from the hands of the Prior. I stayed over the Sunday, with a curious, passionless kind of contentment growing in my heart almost every momentR. H. Benson, Confessions of a Convert (1913)

The announcement in the newspapers brought a flood of correspondence.

I do not know how many letters I received in the few days following the announcement in the papers of my conversion; but I had at least two heavy posts every day.R. H. Benson, Confessions of a Convert (1913)

Benson was ordained a Catholic priest in 1904 and became a popular preacher and novelist. He was born in 1871 and died in 1914.