Irene Mary with her grandson, Cometan, in the year 2000.
Irene Mary & Derrick Taylor in May 1952.
Official Site of the Causes for Beatification of Irene Mary & Derrick Taylor.
An Institution-run website commemorating Cometan's paternal grandparents.
DERRICK TAYLOR
A CAUSE FOR BEATIFICATION
Derrick Taylor (born August 12, 1930 - November 26, 2011) was an English coal miner, gardener and milkman from Coppull, Lancashire who, despite being raised in the Church of England, felt from age seven an instinctual calling to the Catholic faith. Derrick Taylor's conversion to Catholicism officially commenced in September 1950 with help from his Catholic fiancée Irene Mary Taylor who introduced Derrick to Father Patrick McNally of St Mary's Church, Bamber Bridge.
Following the reforms introduced to the Latin Mass by the Second Vatican Council, Derrick Taylor entered a spiritual crisis that ultimately resulted in his experience of interior locution on at least two occasions. Derrick Taylor's experience of interior locution enriched his Catholic faith once more and solidified his faith in Christ and his allegiance to the Pope along the while continuing to attend Latin Mass until he died from ischemic heart disease in 2011.
The Locutions of Derrick Taylor by David Young (2022).
On the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1971, a Catholic convert named Derrick Taylor, the grandfather of Cometan, aged 40, entered St Wilfrid's Church in the city of Preston in Lancashire, England. Disgruntled and confused over his Catholic faith as a result of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, Derrick Taylor feared that the sanctity of the Latin Mass and the sovereignty of the Pope were being eroded from within the Church. In St Wilfrid's narthex, he knelt down before a representation of the Sacred Heart and looked up to the Lord Jesus Christ with a fervent request to be shown a path out of his spiritual crisis. What Derrick Taylor then experienced would come to change the course of his life for his first known experience of interior locution –– God's voice communicated to the human ear –– occurred that very day. Emotional still yet also elated, Derrick Taylor heard the words, "keep up with your Mass. Everything is all right." And so, this is what Derrick Taylor continued to do; he followed the word of God as it was directly spoken to him and attended the Latin Mass no matter the ridicule he knew he would receive.​
Official Cover of Catholic Conversion: An Interview with Derrick Taylor.
On 22nd February 1995, Derrick Taylor agreed to participate in an interview at his home 222 Longmeanygate to reveal his experience as a Protestant turned Catholic. During the interview, Derrick Taylor provided a realistic view of what his life had been like detailing loss, tragedy and suffering. By contrast, he also detailed his predisposition for experiencing interior locutions – divine communications to the ear – which filled him with great elation in times of spiritual crisis.
This interview was titled Light a Candle for Me as based on Derrick Taylor's very first interaction with the Sacred Heart of Jesus when he was just seven years old in which he asked his friend's mother to light a candle for him as a metaphor for his journey to Catholicism. What we ultimately learn of Derrick Taylor's character in this 1995 interview is that he held such a dedication to the Catholic faith that he found it difficult to reconcile the fact that the world and the Church were changing.
In this interview, which is now often titled the Sceptre Bulletin Interview, Derrick Taylor tells us in his own words what he thought of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. This book, the Catholic Conversion, is an exegetical work written by Derrick's grandson Cometan some 27 years later that develops his grandfather's words into a set of theological concepts that come to form Derrick Taylor's definitive approach to Catholicism.
The Kindlement of Derrick Taylor by David Young (2023).
The Kindlement of Derrick Taylor
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Period depicted: 1st July 1938
Artist: David Young
Published: 1st March 2023
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On the Feast Day of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1938, a young boy named Derrick Taylor who was living in the mining town of Coppull, Lancashire, experienced a Catholic spiritual awakening that would change the course of his life. Derrick, seven years old at the time, entered his friend Stanley Eastham’s home in Coppull and in the corner of the hallway, saw for the very first time a representation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus candlelit by votive lamps. Derrick walked over to the picture and touched the Sacred Heart, then instantly feeling inside an instinctual draw to the Catholic faith through the devotion.
This moment of elation sparked Derrick’s journey of conversion to Catholicism at age 20 from his childhood religion Anglicanism. Now viewed as a metaphor for his conversion, Derrick asked his friend’s mother to light a candle for him to stand alongside that same picture of the Sacred Heart that had kindled his Catholicity. On that day, the Lord Jesus Christ guided the young boy Derrick to him through his Sacred Heart and it is to this same devotion that Derrick would return throughout his life to guide him through the many tribulations and sufferances he would necessarily endure. The Kindlement is the commencement of Derrick Taylor’s journey in the Catholic faith and embodies the first event of divine intervention in his life. As a result, Derrick’s deep connection to the Sacred Heart was established, a connection that would, some thirty-three years later, effectuate his first experience of divine locution.