Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T17:30:45.807Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘Surrounded by so great a crowd of witnesses …’*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Osmund Lewry OP
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Osmund Lewry died, surrounded by his fellow-Dominicans, on Easter Thursday, 23 April. He was 57. Although he had continued to be a member of the Oxford Dominican house, and died there, since 1979 he had been on the staff of the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies in Toronto. He was becoming an internationally respected authority on mediaeval thought; as The Times obituary notice said, he died ‘at the height of his powers and at the beginning of a richly-promising scholarly career’. His death is a severe loss, but the remarkably serene way in which he faced that death was an inspiration to many people. In place of a conventional obituary we are publishing here an article which he completed for us only ten days before he died. It traces how his fellow- Dominicans, in the span of almost a life-time, contributed to his spiritual development. We believe it has something to say not only to Dominicans.

J.O.M.

Cornelius Ernst once sought a pattern to English Dominican recruitment and found none. We often come to the Order of Friars Preachers by the strength of chance encounters or even reading; the force of example of one or many witnesses may play its part in leading us there and certainly it is individual witness that plays a part in keeping us there.

Names such as Bede Jarrett, Vincent McNabb and Hugh Pope were on the Catholic Truth Society pamphlets which an eleven-year old convert read in self-education, before and after his entry into the Church.

Type
Research Article
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 68 , Issue 806 , June 1987 , pp. 297 - 308
Copyright
Copyright © 1987 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

References

1 Cornelius Ernst: 1924—1977; OP 1949. Regent of Studies 1966—1974. Cambridge graduate.

2 Bede Jarrett: 1881—1934; OP 1898. Provincial 1916—1932. Oxford graduate.

3 Vincent McNabb: 1868—1943; OP 1885. Master of Theology 1916. ‘The most uninhibited priest of his age.’ (Adrian Hastings: A History of English Christianity 1920—1985, p. 280.)

4 Hugh Pope: 1869—1932; OP 1891. Regent of Studies 1920—1932. One of the founders of the Catholic Evidence Guild.

5 Kenelm Foster: 1910—1986; OP 1934. Reader in Italian, Cambridge University. Master of Theology 1977.

6 Romuald Horn: born 1911; OP 1929. Penitentiary at St Mary Major, Rome (until 1986).

7 Gervase Mathew: 1905—1976; OP 1928. Lecturer in Patrology, Oxford University. Polymath.

8 Paul Foster: 1905—1983; OP 1934. Convert schoolmaster.

9 Thomas Gilby: 1902—1975; OP 1919. Master of Theology 1965. General Editor, Blackfriars edition of Aquinas's Summa Theologiae (Latin text and English translation, 60 vols.)

10 Illtud Evans: 1913—1972; OP 1937. Editor of Blackfriars; first Editor of New Blackfriars.

11 Mark Brocklehurst: 1906—1967; OP 1923. Lecturer and prior.

12 Gerald Vann: 1906—1963; OP 1923. Schoolmaster, lecturer, writer—notably of the best‐selling The Divine Pity.

13 Anthony Ross: born 1917; OP 1939. Historian, lecturer, Chancellor of Edinburgh University 1979—1982. Provincial 1982—1983.

14 Terence Netherway: born 1913; OP 1931. Novice master. Left the Order.

15 Francis Moncrieff: born 1899; OP 1923. Schoolmaster, novice master, perfectionist. Became a diocesan priest.

16 Simon Blake: 1919—1974; OP 1937. Preacher, novice master, pacifist.

17 Yves Congar: born 1904; OP 1925. Member of the French Province. Pioneer of ecumenism; outstanding peritus at Vatican II.

18 Henry St John: 1891 — 1973; OP 1919. A convert Anglican priest. Schoolmaster, ecumenist, Provincial 1958—1962.

19 Columba Ryan: born 1916; OP 1935. Lecturer. Regent of Studies 1961—1966. University chaplain.

20 Roland Potter: 1908—1983; OP 1930. Scripture scholar, master of students.

21 Sebastian Bullough: 1910—1967; OP 1931. Schoolmaster, lecturer, polymath.

22 Jordan Vink: born 1928; OP 1946. Member of the Netherlands Province. Taught scripture at Blackfriars 1959—1960.

23 Aelred Squire: born 1921; OP 1946. Lecturer, writer, liturgist. Left the Order to become a hermit.

24 John‐Baptist Reeves: 1888—1976; OP 1912. Lecturer, preacher, an original.

25 Herbert McCabe: born 1926; OP 1949. Lecturer, preacher, editor of New Blackfriars 1966—7, 1970—79, author of A New Catechism of Christian Doctrine.

26 Conrad Pepler: born 1908; OP 1927. Lecturer, writer, editor of Blackfriars and Life of the Spirit. Warden of Spode House 1953—1980.

27 Edmund Hill: born 1923; OP 1948. Writer and controversialist. Teaching in Lesotho.

28 Robert Kilwardby: died 1279. Regent of Studies at Blackfriars, Oxford. Provincial 1261. Archbishop of Canterbury 1273. Cardinal 1278.

29 Fergus Kerr: born 1931; OP 1956. Prior of Blackfriars, Oxford, 1969—1978. Lecturer and writer. Now teaching at Edinburgh.

30 Geoffrey Preston: 1936—1977; OP 1961. Preacher and searcher.

31 Roger Ruston: born 1938; OP 1962. Lecturer, pacifist and musician.

32 Simon Tugwell: born 1943; OP 1965. Regent of Studies since 1976. Writer on spirituality and early Dominican history.

33 James Weisheipl: 1923—1984; OP 1942. Member of the Central Province, U.S.A. Master of Theology 1978. Professor in the History of Mediaeval Science at Toronto from 1964.

34 Leonard Boyle: born 1923; OP 1943. Member of the Irish Province. Prefect of the Vatican Library since 1984.

35 Daniel A. Callus: 1888—1965; OP 1904. Master of Theology 1924. Mediaevalist, writer, Regent of Studies 1942—1954, 1960—61.

36 Marie‐Dominique Chenu: born 1895; OP 1913. Member of the French Province. Major writer on Aquinas; associated with the French priest‐worker movement. Peritus at Vatican II.