For Tolkien, the Mass Was Life’s Greatest Drama

It’s been 10 years since an Italian priest called for the cause for J. R. R. Tolkien’s canonization to be initiated.

Back in 2015, Father Daniele Ercoli of Turin asked Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham to begin the canonization process. Two years later a special Mass was celebrated at the church in Oxford at which Tolkien attended daily Mass. In the following year, a “canonization conference” was held in Oxford with the aim of revitalizing interest in the calls for the great author’s cause to be initiated by the Church.