Michael Davies: The Great Defender of Catholic Tradition

by Leo Darroch | Foreword by Adrian Davies

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Product Code: mdgdt
Publication date: March 25, 2026
Pages: 485
Size: 6 x 9

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For so many people who were enduring the trauma of the years of drastic change after the Second Vatican Council, Michael Davies' books and lectures were like manna from heaven and uplifted and educated many lay people and clergy. In his research and exposition of the real facts on the liturgy and architecture, he shed a great deal of light on matters that many in high places preferred to keep hidden. This may well be his lasting legacy to the Church, the provision of books and papers that rallied the faithful in a time of unprecedented upheaval that could truly be called one of the dark ages of the Church.

The immensity of the man will only be fully appreciated in the years to come when his writings will be recognised as one of the springboards of the resurgence of the traditional liturgy and faith of the Church. For those who know him only by his name I hope that this biography will encourage them to search out his published works. —Leo Darroch
Leo Darroch served as a member of the Committee of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales from 1986 until 2013. He was elected to the Council of the International Una Voce in 1999 and was appointed Secretary in 2001 under the Presidency of Michael Davies. He served as President of the Federation from 2007 until 2013. His book, Una Voce: The History of the Foederatio Universalis Una Voce, was published in 2017 by Gracewing.
Michael Davies was a faithful, if not tenacious, Catholic husband, father, friend and teacher. Most of us know him as the latter, not from his professional career but from his adopted vocation of making plain for all to see, in any and every way he possibly could, the dangers of the post-conciliar crisis in the Church, particularly in respect of her Sacred Liturgy.

Few had the privilege of joining him in his attic-study to share the fruits of his infectious and encyclopaedic research before descending to feast on, and be further restored by, Maria’s ‘sandwiches’. This volume may not provide the latter, but Leo Darroch is to be congratulated for diligently opening up the treasures of Michael’s attic—and the witness of his life—and for thereby inviting us today to imitate his passion for the Catholic faith—especially for her Sacred Liturgy—and his tenacity for insisting on its traditional integrity, for which Michael could not but give every ounce of energy Almighty God granted him.
—Dom Alcuin Reid, Prior, Monastère Saint-Benoît, Brignoles, France

This biography of the great Michael Davies will be of great value to the younger generations of Catholics attached to the Traditional Mass, as a guide to his immense and influential body of work, and an introduction to the long and stormy period from the Council to the election of Pope Benedict XVI. The problems of that era have not gone away, and Davies' magisterial response to those challenges retain their value.
—Dr Joseph Shaw, chairman of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales and president of Una Voce International

I asked one of the people attending a Tridentine Mass at a packed Westminster Cathedral in 1972 where I might learn more about the work being done to preserve its celebration in England. ‘Go to Michael Davies’, was the response. ‘He is the Traditional Movement’. It was my great joy to be in regular contact with him and his wife Maria from that year until his death. Although I discovered that there were many others doing yeoman service for the cause in all of Britain, Michael was without a doubt the greatest English-speaking spokesman and activist working for its success throughout the entire globe. By means of his prolific writings, his promotion of the tremendous value of the Chartres Pilgrimage, his tireless traveling for Una Voce in all continents, his endless, patient negotiations with prelates both friendly (like the future Pope Benedict XVI) and ferociously hostile, his lecturing for the Roman Forum, and his overwhelming plenitude of Catholic hope he kept the Faith in the triumph of the Traditional Liturgy and the whole of the teaching of the Magisterium alive in all of us. To my great sorrow, many people today know little about this great man.

God bless Leo Darroch for bringing him and the Traditional Movement he so joyfully embodied vividly alive for those carrying the torch today, so that they can gain a full awareness of the strength of the shoulders on which they stand. He has put into words covering decades of hard work and sacrifices the love that all of us who walked next to Michael on the route to Chartres could see in his face when he once again caught his first glimpse of the cathedral spires and urged all of his fellow pilgrims onward to the beauty of the Mass facing God and final victory.
—Dr John Rao, emeritus of St John’s University, New York; Director of the Roman Forum; former chairman of Una Voce America