Granville Mercer Williams SSJE (December 31, 1889 — August 11, 1980) was an American

Anglo-Catholic Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasise the Catholic heritage and identity of the various Anglican churches. The term was coined in the early 19th century, although movements emphasising the Catholic nature of Anglican ...

priest, monk, and author during the twentieth century. Williams was born in

Utica, New York Utica () is a Administrative divisions of New York, city in the Mohawk Valley and the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The List of cities in New York, tenth-most-populous city in New York State, its population was 65,283 ...

to a prominent New England family and studied at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

(1911) and Harvard Divinity School (1920). He was ordained to the priesthood in 1920 and served as rector of St. Paul's Church, Carroll Street, Brooklyn from 1926 to 1930, and of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Times Square, from 1930 to 1939. Williams was a mission priest of the

Society of St John the Evangelist The Society of St John the Evangelist (SSJE) is an Anglican religious order for men. The members live under a rule of life and, at profession, make monastic vows of poverty, celibacy and obedience. SSJE was founded in 1866 at Cowley, Oxford, Eng ...

or Cowley Fathers, serving as assistant superior from 1924 to 1930 and superior of the American Congregation from 1939 to 1963. He was also involved extensively in Anglican religious life for women, serving as chaplain to the American

All Saints Sisters of the Poor The Society of All Saints Sisters of the Poor is a religious order of sisters in the Anglican Communion. It was founded in 1851 and is active in England and the United States. In 2009 all but two of the American sisters were received into the Rom ...

from 1939 to 1969, and warden of the Order of S. Anne in Arlington, Massachusetts from 1939 until his death in 1980. He was president of the Catholic Clerical Union from 1932 to 1941, and a member of the American council of the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament from 1952 to 1965. Williams also served as editor of ''American Church Monthly'' from 1934 to 1939. The estate of Fr. Williams's father, Granville Whittlesey Williams (1859-1947), president of the Murray Hill Iron Company, was a significant source of the Cowley Fathers' wealth in the United States in the twentieth century.

Bibliography

The Eucharistic Sacrifice
in
The First Annual Catholic Congress: Essays and Papers
' (1926) *
The Touch of Christ: Lectures on the Christian Sacraments
' (1928)

in
The Catholic Life: Addresses and Papers Delivered at the Fourth Annual Catholic Conference, New York City, November 13th to 15th, 1928
' (1929)

in
Liberal Catholicism and the Modern World
' (1933), edited by Frank Gavin *
Toward Self-Discipline: A Rule of Life
' (1958) *
The Shrine on Bowdoin Street, 1883-1958: The Story of the Mission Church of Saint John the Evangelist in the City of Boston, Massachusetts as Told at the Time of Its Seventy-fifth Anniversary
' (1958) *
Joy in the Lord
' (1972)

References

*''The Boston Globe'', August 12, 1980

External links

Grave at Gethsemane Cemetery
in

Foxborough, Massachusetts Foxborough is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, about southwest of Boston, northeast of Providence, Rhode Island and about northwest of Cape Cod. Foxborough is part of the Greater Boston area. The population was 18,618 at ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Granville Mercer 1889 births 1980 deaths People from Utica, New York Columbia University alumni Harvard Divinity School alumni Anglo-Catholic clergy American Anglo-Catholics American Episcopal priests