Actor David Henrie opens up about his Catholic conversion ahead of new series exploring Italy, Spain's magnificent places
(OSV News) — David Henrie is crediting beauty for his return to the Catholic faith after helping create a new docuseries with EWTN Studios called "Seeking Beauty."
"Beauty was a part of it, because the place that I had my conversion was St. Michael's Abbey in Orange County, which is probably one of the most beautiful monasteries in the United States," the 36-year-old actor, who rose to fame starring in TV shows like Disney's "Wizards of Waverly Place" and the CBS sitcom "How I Met Your Mother," said of the community of Norbertine priests in Silverado, California. "That's where I went and did my first general confession."
Henrie spoke with OSV News ahead of the premiere of his adventure documentary series, "Seeking Beauty with David Henrie," on Jan. 19.
As the show's host, he invites viewers to travel with him across Italy to Vatican City, Rome, Florence, Milan, Subiaco and Venice in a quest for beauty. In six 45-minute long episodes, he channels the viewer's wonder and curiosity as he explores the art, music, food, history, culture and people of those regions.
The show debuted on EWTN's streaming platform, EWTN+, which is available for free on RokuTV and recently launched on EWTN.com, AppleTV, AmazonFireTV and GoogleTV. The show is produced by EWTN Studios and Digital Continent in association with Novo Inspire and Sacred Arthouse.
"Beauty is a fingerprint of the divine," Henrie, who is also an executive producer of the show, told OSV News. "I have come to see how, if you invite it into your life, it can help you know, see and love God."
In his search for beauty, Henrie examines masterpieces and monasteries up close and engages in intimate conversations with a variety of experts and artists. Along the way, he invites viewers into his own life and introduces his wife, Maria, and their three children.
In one of the earlier episodes, Henrie speaks about his faith journey.
"By the time I was a teenager and in my twenties, I had gained all this, all this success and money and traveled the world," he tells Ilaria della Bidia, a singer who has performed worldwide with Andrea Bocelli, in Rome. "But I was brought to a real low point."
At the time, he felt depressed and struggled with a lot in his life, including a toxic relationship, he says.
"I felt I should be happy, I have all the things that I should have to be happy," he adds. "But then once God reached out and gave me that clear sign that there is a path and that my life isn't a big mistake — or I'm not lucky for just where I am in life, there's a purpose, there's a calling, there's a way — everything in the past that I was confused about made sense."
Henrie told OSV News that he was 22 when he visited St. Michael's Abbey for confession. Friend and fellow actor Kevin James recommended the abbey and gave Henrie a ride from Los Angeles. Henrie remembered the date: Jan. 1, 2012.
"I didn't just go anywhere for my conversion, and I wasn't even directly seeking it," Henrie said of the abbey. "It was at the most beautiful place, a place that you can really feel God ... beauty was right there, knocking on my door."
At the abbey, he met some of the first priests who became his friends, he said. One of them later helped marry him and Maria.
"That special place left a mark on me, and I still go back to visit all the time with my wife and children," Henrie said.
Edmundo Reyes, executive producer of the series and founder of Digital Continent, said the idea for the show came after a family trip to Portugal and Spain in 2021.
During the trip, Reyes recalled visiting the magnificent cathedral in Seville, Spain, and standing before “a beautiful painting of the Immaculate Conception” in the chapter hall where the cathedral’s canons would gather.
“Thousands of people visit this cathedral every year — not just people of faith, but also tourists,” Reyes said. “But what broke my heart was to see so many people come in, spend just three or four minutes, take a quick peek at the painting and then leave. Nobody was spending time there, slowing down and contemplating it.”
Curious, Reyes pulled out his phone and began to research the artwork, by famed Spanish painter Esteban Murillo.
“I was ignorant,” Reyes said. “I didn’t know that the Immaculate Conception had been championed by the people of Seville hundreds of years before it even became a dogma. This Spanish painter, a person from the region who believed in this dogma, used his gifts and talents to communicate this truth and beauty to the world.”
From that day, Reyes said he wanted to create a show “that helps people slow down and appreciate and contemplate beauty, and to let that beauty speak to them.”
“In the case of sacred art, we want to let the art speak to our souls and inform and illuminate our minds, so that we can also elevate our experience to God,” said Reyes, formerly the communications director for the Archdiocese of Detroit. “That’s been the beginning of this journey.”
Reyes said it’s been a joy to work with an “amazing crew” of talented creatives, including Henrie, whom he described as “a really good actor and a better human being.”
“People are going to see how talented David is, how funny he is, how personable and authentic,” Reyes said. “He’s the real deal. He’s a genuine Catholic who loves the Lord and loves his family.”
A new episode will be released each Monday, Reyes said, and "is available for free to the world," he added. "We really want people to connect with the mission of the show."
Henrie expressed excitement about exploring beauty with others in "Seeking Beauty," which has already filmed a second season in Spain.
"I've always struggled with just purely producing secular works and working in secular Hollywood and being vocal about my faith," he said. "It's been a joy to just be able to be myself and talk about something that I love and care about."
Beauty, Henrie said, is God's language. He encouraged viewers to explore whether beauty is subjective or objective.
"If it's something that's outside of you that has a universal effect, where you have people from all different faiths, all different ages, standing there, looking at a thing, contemplating it, being brought to tears, well then maybe it's objective," he said. "Maybe there's an objective truth to it."
"If that's the case, who's the author of that?" he added. "That's where you start the conversation about God and contemplation."
He encouraged people to bring beauty into their homes. He recommended going through one's house and asking, "What in here is helping lead me to God? What in here is helping add a sense of beauty?"
In another episode, Henrie pursues beauty in real time and takes a piece of it back home. After he meets Sofia Novelli, an artist in Florence, and learns the story behind her lifelike painting of the Holy Family, he buys it.
"We put it right next to our bed, because, at the end of the day, I think my wife and I wanted it as a reminder of the family we're trying to create, which is our version of the Holy Family," Henrie told OSV News.
He hoped the show also inspires viewers to embrace beauty.
"I hope that they're inspired to go visit these places," he said. "I hope that beauty takes the stage in their life in a way that it didn't before."
Reyes said viewers will be blessed by the experience — not just by seeing majestic and beautiful places, but through the stories and human emotions woven into each episode.
“What I’ve learned is that the most beautiful thing in the world, outside of the Lord and the Eucharist, is the human person,” Reyes said.
Reyes cited the episode in Florence with Novelli, which will air Monday, as his favorite filmed so far.
“There’s a story about a mother an art teacher that’s one of the most beautiful stories,” Reyes said. “I won’t spoil it, but it makes me cry every time. That’s what we discovered as we were seeking beauty: It’s not just the art or the places, but it’s the individuals and their stories and their lives where we can also find beauty.”
The goal of “Seeking Beauty” is to instill a sense of hope and wonder in God’s awe-inspiring creation, wherever it might be found, he added.
“That’s the hope of the show,” Reyes said. “We want to invite people to have that experience. You don’t need to pay thousands of dollars to go to Italy; you can be a seeker of beauty anywhere.”
Detroit Catholic contributed to this report.
