Catherine Holland

Catherine Holland (1637 – 6 January 1720) was an English Roman Catholic convert, nun, and autobiographer. Born to Sir John Holland, a Protestant knight and member of parliament, and Lady Alathea Sandys, a Catholic, she had four sisters and six brothers. The family resided at Quidenham Hall in Norfolk. Catherine spent part of her childhood in Bergen op Zoom (1641–1652) before moving to Bruges in 1652. Her father enforced Protestantism on his children, requiring her to copy sermons and learn catechisms under threat of punishment. Despite this, she secretly attended Catholic masses in Bruges.

By 1660, the family returned to England, but Catherine's attraction to Catholicism intensified. She began corresponding with Mary Bedingfield, prioress of the English Augustinian convent in Bruges, who helped her escape to the convent in 1662. Traveling under a false name, Catherine successfully joined the convent and became a choir nun on 3 September 1664. Shortly after, she wrote *How I Came to Change My Religion*, detailing her conversion from Anglicanism to Catholicism.

At the convent, Catherine focused on writing, translating religious works from French and Dutch into English. She died in Bruges in 1720. Her autobiography was later published by fellow nun Catherine Sidney Durrant in *Link Between Flemish Mystics and English Martyrs*.