David Henrie is crediting beauty for his return to the Catholic faith after creating 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 will debut 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.
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."
