Catherine Holland

Catherine Holland (1637 – 6 January 1720) was an English Roman Catholic convert, a nun, and an autobiographer.

Life Holland was born in 1637 to Sir John Holland and Lady Holland (nee Lady Alathea Sandys). She had four sisters and six brothers. The family seat was Quidenham Hall in Norfolk. Her mother had been married before to William Sandys, the fourth Baron Sandys. Holland was a Catholic Welsh heiress while her father was a Protestant who had been knighted in 1629. He became a member of parliament in 1640 for Castle Rising in Norfolk.

Holland was born in England but lived in Bergen op Zoom from 1641-1652, along with other members of her family.

Her father was asked by his fellow members of parliament to get rid of any Catholic members in his household. He objected to this request, knowing that his wife was Catholic and pointed out that people were entitled to follow the Catholic faith in England. Although he allowed Lady Holland freedom of religion, he made every effort to raise his children as Protestants of the Church of England. He made Catherine copy sermons and learn catechisms. If she failed to do said tasks, she would be punished . She later wrote that she knew that Catholics believed that suicide was a grave sin and it was for this reason that she endured her father's harsh treatment. Bedingfield offered Holland help to leave England and, in 1662, she wrote a letter each to her mother and father, left them on a table in her room and crept out of their home in London in the early morning. She then met an accomplice at a pre arranged place and they travelled to Dover together. Because what she was doing was illegal she gave a false name to the border officials.

Mary Bedingfield was prioress at the English Augustinian convent in Bruges in 1661 and it was she who offered to assist Holland in leaving England. She sent someone to accompany her from England to the convent. Holland's time at the convent was spent writing. She was said to have translated several books and lives of saints from French and Dutch into English.

Death and legacy Holland died in Bruges in 1720. Over two hundred years later a fellow Nazareth nun, Catherine Sidney Durrant, published How I came to change my religion