Star Wars Hero Converted to Traditional Catholicism
Sir Alec Guinness Had a Miraculous "Personal Encounter" with God
TRADITIO
Note: NOT an endorsement
Traditional Catholics May Not Be Aware that Star Wars Hero
British Actor Sir Alec Guinness (1914-2000), Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Jedi Sage
Converted to Traditional Catholicism by Vow
As a Result of a Miraculous "Personal Encounter" with God
From 1956 until the Day He Died at Age 86 in 2000
Guinness Remained a Traditional Catholic
His Wife Followed Him a Year Later, as Did His Son
With the seventh installment of the Star Wars series, entitled "The Force Awakens," breaking all box-office records, traditional Catholics may not be aware that one of the series' greatest heroes, Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Jedi sage, was played by a confirmed traditional Catholic: distinguished British actor (1914-2000) Sir Alec Guinness.
Guinness had previously been known as a fine actor in many films on varied subjects, including a film of the priest-detective Father Brown, based upon the books of Catholic author G.K. Chesterton. Guinness, once noted for his anti-clericalism and anti-Romanism, had been received into the Roman Catholic Church on March 24, 1956. His conversion indirectly occurred during filming in France of the priestly role he played in his 1954 Father Brown film. He relates the circumstances in his autobiography Blessings in Disguise as follows:
By the time dusk fell, I was bored and, dressed in my priestly black, I climbed the gritty winding road to the village.... I hadn't gone far when I heard scampering footsteps and a piping voice calling, "Mon père!" My hand was seized by a boy of seven or eight, who clutched it tightly, swung it and kept up a non-stop prattle.... Although I was a total stranger, he obviously took me for a priest and so to be trusted. Suddenly with a ""Bonsoir, mon père," and a hurried sideways sort of bow, he disappeared through a hole in the hedge.... Continuing my walk I reflected that a Church which could inspire such confidence in a child, making its priests, even when unknown, so easily approachable could not be as scheming and creeping as so often made out [in Britain]. I began to shake off my long-taught, long-absorbed, prejudices [against Roman Catholicism].What eventually made Guiness decide to convert into a full-fledged traditional Catholic in 1956 was a miracle and a "personal encounter" with God. His only child Matthew contracted polio at the age of 11 and was at risk of dying. Guinness began visiting a Catholic church and prayed that if his son survived, he and his family would join the Catholic Church. His prayers were answered, and his son recovered from the almost-fatal illness. Guinness was as good as his word and fulfilled his vow. From 1956 until the day he died at age 86 in 2000, Guinness remained a traditional Catholic. A year after he convert to Catholicism in 1956, his wife followed him, and his son also joined the church and was sent to a Jesuit school.
Other noted converts to traditional Catholicism have been:
- Actor Gary Cooper
- Actor Vincent Price
- Actor John Wayne, on his deathbed
- Actor Oscar Wilde, who made a Sacramental Confession and received Extreme Unction
- U.S. President George Washington, who was probably baptized on his deathbed by a Jesuit priest from the church across the river, where Washington was known to slip into the Catholic Mass on occasion
- Ludwig van Beethoven, who had been baptized as a baby, but had fallen from the Faith; he called for a priest and received Extreme Unction on his deathbed