Robert Gradwell

Robert Gradwell, Coadjutor of the Vicar Apostolic of London

Robert Gradwell (born January 26, 1777 in Clifton, near Preston , Lancashire , † March 15, 1833 in London ) was an English Catholic clergyman.

Life

Robert Gradwell was born as the third son of John Gradwell and his wife Margaret. Gregson was born. He wanted to become a clergyman and therefore attended the English seminary founded by Cardinal William Allen in Douai , northern France ("Collège des Anglais Douai") from 1791 . As a result of the events of the French Revolution , the seminary was lost in 1793 and the theology students there were imprisoned. After his release, Gradwell returned to England in 1795 and continued his education in the newly established seminary at Crook Hall near Durham . On December 4, 1802 he was ordained a priest and worked for seven years as a teacher of literature and rhetoric at this seminary, and from 1808 in that of Ushaw . From 1809 he was a pastor in Claughton, now a district of Lancaster .

In 1818 the Pontifical English College was re-established in Rome as the central training center for the English clergy; Cardinal Ercole Consalvi named Robert Gradwell Rector that summer. Soon the first 10 students from England arrived and the study began. One of his students here was Nicholas Wiseman , who later became Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster. The English bishops appointed Gradwell as their representative in Rome. In 1821 Pope Pius VII awarded him an honorary doctorate in theology (Divinitatis Doctor), he ran the institution with great success.

In England there was no regular Catholic church hierarchy at that time due to government restrictions. The country was divided into provisional parishes led by Vicars Apostolic in the rank of titular bishops . From 1827, James Yorke Bramston (1773-1836) served as Vicar Apostolic of the London District. The office was transformed into that of Archbishop of Westminster in 1850 with the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy in England . Bramston was always ailing and asked a coadjutor for assistance soon after taking office . Therefore the Pope appointed Robert Gradwell on May 19, 1828 titular Bishop of Lydda , as well as coadjutor of Bishop Bramston, with the right of succession. He received episcopal ordination from Cardinal Placido Zurla on June 24th of that year, in Rome, and arrived home in August.

London, Warwick Street Church, memorial plaque to the bishops who were formerly here under Bavarian protection (detail with the names of the bishops Bramston and Gradwell)

From 1830 the Vicar Apostolic James Yorke Bramston lived with his Coadjutor Bishop Gradwell in the house No. 36 Golden Square, London. As a provisional bishop's church, they used the nearby Warwick Street Church , which was under the protection of a Bavarian legation . There is still a commemorative plaque with the Bavarian coat of arms there, on which both are listed as bishops serving here under Bavarian protection.

Robert Gradwell died of dropsy in 1833 in his Golden Square residence before Bishop Bramston, whom he should have succeeded. He was buried in St. Mary's Church in Moorfields . When it was demolished in 1899, the bones of the bishops buried here were transferred to St. Edmund's Church, Ware (Hertfordshire) .

Gradwell published several theological and historical writings and was popular with clergy and lay people for his kindness.

literature

• Louise Sage: Robert Gradwell (biographical article), in Venerabile View (magazine of the friends of the English College in Rome), summer 2012 edition, p. 6 u. 7; friendsofenglishcollegerome.org.uk (PDF).
• Obituary (German) in: Journal for Philosophy and Catholic Theology. Volumes 7-8, 1833, pp. 222-224; ( books.google.de ).

Web links

Wikisource: Robert Gradwell  - Sources and full texts (English)

• Entry for Robert Gradwell on catholic-hierarchy.org
• Biographical website of Robert Gradwell (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Reginald Fuller: A short history of Warwick Street Church, formerly the Royal Bavarian Chapel. Catholic Rectory Warwick Street Church, London, 1973, p. 38.
2. ↑ Website on the funerals of the English bishops ( memento of the original from September 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.