Conrad (Stephen) Pepler O.P. (5 May 1908 – 10 November 1993) was an English Dominican priest, writer, editor, and publisher. He was the founding Warden of the first

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

conference centre in the UK, at

Spode House Armitage Park (which has reverted to an earlier name of Hawkesyard Hall) is a 19th-century Grade II listed country house at Armitage near Rugeley, Staffordshire. History The land at Armitage was purchased by Nathaniel Lister, (poet and author, ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

Life

He was born Stephen Pepler in

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, west

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, where his father Hilary Pepler was running a working-men's club. In 1916 the family moved to

Ditchling Ditchling is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. The village is contained within the boundaries of the South Downs National Park; the order confirming the establishment of the park was signed in Ditchling. ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

, where Hilary,

Eric Gill Arthur Eric Rowton Gill, (22 February 1882 – 17 November 1940) was an English sculptor, letter cutter, typeface designer, and printmaker. Although the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' describes Gill as ″the greatest artist-cra ...

and Desmond Chute set up the Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic, a community of Catholic artist-craftsmen. Hilary was the community's printer. Stephen was received into the Catholic Church in 1916, and sent to the Dominican boarding school at Hawkesyard Priory, Staffordshire. On leaving school he worked for his father in the printing shop until, in 1927, he entered the Dominican order, taking the name of

Conrad Conrad may refer to: People * Conrad (name) Places United States * Conrad, Illinois, an unincorporated community * Conrad, Indiana, an unincorporated community * Conrad, Iowa, a city * Conrad, Montana, a city * Conrad Glacier, Washington ...

. On 10 May 1948, he spoke in Oxford, England, to the Socratic Club on "The Necessity of Christian Mysticism" with T. M. Parker also addressing the topic. He and others attended

Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is considere ...

on his deathbed in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

in 1951. He is buried in the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge.

Influence

Writings

*''The English religious heritage''. St Louis, MO: B. Herder, 1958. *''Sacramental prayer''. St Louis, MO: B. Herder, 1959. *''The three degrees: A study of Christian mysticism''. London: Blackfriars Publications, 1957. *''Riches despised: A study of the roots of religion''. St Louis, MO: B. Herder, 1957. *''Lent, a liturgical commentary on the lessons and gospels''. St Louis, MO: B. Herder, 1944.

External links

* * "Unrelieved grief is almost a pagan conception", by Conrad Pepler, O.P., Catholic Herald, 12 June 1953. http://archive.catholicherald.co.uk/article/12th-june-1953/6/unrelieved-grief-is-almost-a-pagan-conception *

Spode Music Week Spode is an English brand of pottery and homewares produced by the company of the same name, which is based in Stoke-on-Trent, England. Spode was founded by Josiah Spode (1733–1797) in 1770, and was responsible for perfecting two extremely ...

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pepler, Conrad 1908 births 1993 deaths English Dominicans English printers 20th-century English Roman Catholic priests 20th-century English businesspeople