Donald Attwater by Eric Gill, 1929, private collection. Donald Attwater (24 December 1892 – 30 January 1977) was a British Catholic author, editor and translator, and a visiting lecturer at the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

Life

Attwater was born in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, on 24 December 1892. His parents were Methodists who became Anglicans while Attwater was a child. He himself became a Catholic at the age of 18. He studied Law but did not earn a degree. He served in the Sinai and Palestine campaign during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, developing an interest in

Eastern Christianity Eastern Christianity comprises Christian traditions and church families that originally developed during classical and late antiquity in Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, Northeast Africa, the Fertile Crescent and ...

while in the Middle East. After the war he lived for a time on

Caldey Island Caldey Island ( Welsh:''Ynys Bŷr'') is a small island near Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales, less than off the coast. With a recorded history going back over 1,500 years, it is one of the holy islands of Britain. A number of traditions inherited ...

, undergoing the influence of the monks of

Caldey Abbey Caldey Abbey is an abbey of the Trappists situated on Caldey Island off the coast of Pembrokeshire, Wales, south of Tenby. Caldey Island has been known as one of the centres of Cistercian activity since Celts, Celtic times and thrived during medi ...

. He also became a friend and admirer of

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 ...

. Throughout the 1930s, 40s and 50s he was a frequent contributor to the Catholic press in both Britain and America, and a prolific author of books on Christian themes. In 1936 he was one of the founders of the Catholic peace movement Pax, which opposed the invasion of

Abyssinia The Ethiopian Empire (), also formerly known by the exonym Abyssinia, or just simply known as Ethiopia (; Amharic and Tigrinya: ኢትዮጵያ , , Oromo: Itoophiyaa, Somali: Itoobiya, Afar: ''Itiyoophiyaa''), was an empire that historica ...

by Fascist Italy. Attwater was married to Rachel Attwater of South Wales, a fellow historian and published author on

Catholic saints This is an incomplete list of people and angels whom the Catholic Church has Canonization, canonized as saints. According to Catholic theology, all saints enjoy the beatific vision. Many of the Calendar of saints, saints listed here are to be f ...

in the Orient. He died in Storrington,

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 ...

, in February 1977.Obituary in ''

The Catholic Historical Review ''The Catholic Historical Review'' (CHR) is the official organ of the American Catholic Historical Association. It was established at The Catholic University of America in 1915 by Thomas Joseph Shahan and Peter Guilday and is published quarterly b ...

'', 63:3 (1977), p. 497.

Writings

;As author * ''Father Ignatius of Llanthony: A Victorian'' (1931) * ''The Catholic Church in Modern Wales'' (1935) * ''The Dissident Eastern Churches'' (1937) * ''The White Fathers in Africa'' (1937) * ''The Golden Book of Eastern Saints'' (1938) * ''Life of St. John Chrysostom'' (1939) * ''Names and Name Days'' (1939) * ''Eastern Catholic Worship'' (1945) * ''The Christian Church of the East'' (1947) * ''Saints Westward'' (1953) * ''A Dictionary of Mary'' (1956) * ''Martyrs, from St. Stephen to John Tung'' (1957) * ''Saints of the East'' (1963) * ''Dictionary of the Popes'' (1965) * ''The Cell of Good Living'' (1969) ;As translator * Vladimir Solovyov, ''God, Man, and the Church'' * Nikolai Berdyaev, ''The End of Our Time'' (1933) * Nikolai Berdyaev, ''Christianity and Class War'' (1933) * Nikolai Berdyaev, ''Dostoievsky: An Interpretation'' (1934) *

Charles de Foucauld Charles Eugène de Foucauld de Pontbriand, Viscount of Foucauld (15 September 1858 – 1 December 1916) was a French soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnographer, Catholic priest and hermit who lived among the Tuareg people in the Sahara in Alg ...

, ''Memories of Charles de Foucauld: Explorer and Hermit, Seen in His Letters'', edited by Georges Gorrée (1938) *

Hippolyte Delehaye Hippolyte Delehaye, S.J., (19 August 1859 – 1 April 1941) was a Belgian Jesuit who was a hagiographical scholar and an outstanding member of the Society of Bollandists. Biography Born in 1859 in Antwerp, Delehaye joined the Society of Jesus ...

, ''The Legends of the Saints'' (1962) *

Yves Congar Yves Marie-Joseph Congar (; 13 April 1904 – 22 June 1995) was a French Dominican friar, priest, and theologian. He is perhaps best known for his influence at the Second Vatican Council and for reviving theological interest in the Holy Spiri ...

, ''Lay People in the Church'' (1963) *

Jean Daniélou Jean-Guenolé-Marie Daniélou (; 14 May 1905 – 20 May 1974) was a French Jesuit and cardinal, an internationally well known patrologist, theologian and historian and a member of the Académie Française. Biography Early life and studies ...

, ''Primitive Christian Symbols'' (1964) *

Brother Lawrence Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, OCD (c. 1614 – 12 February 1691) served as a lay brother in a Carmelite monastery in Paris. Christians commonly remember him for the intimacy he expressed concerning his relationship to God as recorded in ...

, The Practice of the Presence of God'' (1974) * ''An Anthology of Mysticism'', edited by Paul de Jaegher (1977) ;As editor * ''A Catholic Encyclopedic Dictionary'' (1931) * ''Dictionary of Saints'' (1938); later ''Penguin Dictionary of Saints'' * ''Butler's Lives of the Saints'' (4 vols., 1956), a revision of

Herbert Thurston Herbert Henry Charles Thurston (15 November 1856 – 3 November 1939) was an English priest of the Roman Catholic Church, a member of the Jesuit order, and a prolific scholar on liturgical, literary, historical, and spiritual matters. In ...

's edition. * ''Modern Christian Revolutionaries'' (1971)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Attwater, Donald 1892 births 1977 deaths People from Essex Converts to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism 20th-century English writers 20th-century English male writers Translators to English 20th-century translators People from Storrington Military personnel from Essex British military personnel of World War I