Richard Rutt
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Cecil Richard Rutt
CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
(27 August 192527 July 2011) was an English
Roman Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the Holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in layman's terms ''priest'' refers only ...
and a former
Anglican bishop The Anglican ministry is both the leadership and agency of Christian service in the Anglican Communion. "Ministry" commonly refers to the office of ordained clergy: the ''threefold order'' of bishops, priests and deacons. More accurately, Anglica ...
. Rutt spent almost 20 years of his life serving as an Anglican missionary in South Korea, a country for which he developed a deep affection. He was perhaps the last of the line of scholar-missionaries, beginning with
James Scarth Gale James S. Gale (February 19, 1863 – January 31, 1937; in modern Korean 제임스 스카스 게일, in old Sino-Korean characters 奇一 (기일)) was a Canadian Presbyterian missionary, educator and Bible translator in Korea. Early life Gale was ...
,
Homer B. Hulbert Homer Bezaleel Hulbert (January 26, 1863 – August 5, 1949) was an American missionary, journalist, and political activist who advocated for the independence of Korea. Biography Hulbert was born in New Haven, Vermont, in 1863 to Calvin and Mar ...
, George Heber Jones and the Anglican bishop
Mark Napier Trollope Mark Napier Trollope (20 March 1862 – 1930) was the third Anglican Bishop in Korea from 1911 until his death. Born on 28 March 1862 and educated at Lancing College and New College, Oxford, he was ordained in 1888. After a curacy at Great Yarmou ...
who laid the foundations of what is now known as
Korean studies Korean studies is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of Korea, which includes the Republic of Korea, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and diasporic Korean populations. Areas commonly included under this rubric include Ko ...
. Some years after he retired as an Anglican bishop, Rutt was one of several Anglicans received into the
Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
in 1994. He was ordained a Roman Catholic priest the following year and spent the closing years of his life in Cornwall.


Early life

Rutt was the son of Cecil Rutt and Mary Hare (née Turner).''Debrett's People of Today'' (1 November 2000). He was educated at Huntingdon Grammar School,
Kelham Theological College Kelham is a small village and civil parish in Nottinghamshire about northwest of Newark on a bend in the A617 road near its crossing of the River Trent. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 census was 207. Historical Kelham ...
in
Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...
and
Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College (officially "The Master, Fellows and Scholars of the College or Hall of Valence-Mary") is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 ...
, from which he received his
Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
degree.


Anglican ministry

Rutt was made deacon as
Michaelmas Michaelmas ( ; also known as the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels) is a Christian festival observed in some Western liturgical calendars on 29 September, a ...
(29 September) 1951 and
ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...
priest on St Matthew's Day (21 September) 1952 — both times by
Edward Wynn Harold Edward Wynn (1889–1956) was an Anglican bishop. He was born on 15 January 1889 and educated at Mercers' School, London and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Ordained a priest on Trinity Sunday 1912 (2 June), by Frederic Chase, Bishop of El ...
, Bishop of Ely, at
Ely Cathedral Ely Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, is an Anglican cathedral in the city of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England. The cathedral has its origins in AD 672 when St Etheldreda built an abbey church. The presen ...
. After a
curacy A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' (''cura'') ''of souls'' of a parish. In this sense, "curate" means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy w ...
at St George's Cambridge he went to
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
as a missionary in 1954 together with Roger Tennant. In 1965 he was appointed
Archdeacon An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denominations, above that o ...
of West
Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...
. In June 1966 he was appointed an assistant bishop of the Diocese of Daejeon by
Michael Ramsey Arthur Michael Ramsey, Baron Ramsey of Canterbury, (14 November 1904 – 23 April 1988) was an English Anglican bishop and life peer. He served as the 100th Archbishop of Canterbury. He was appointed on 31 May 1961 and held the office until 1 ...
,
Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...
; he was consecrated a bishop on 28 October 1966 (the Feast of SS
Simon Simon may refer to: People * Simon (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name Simon * Simon (surname), including a list of people with the surname Simon * Eugène Simon, French naturalist and the genus ...
and
June June is the sixth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and is the second of four months to have a length of 30 days, and the third of five months to have a length of less than 31 days. June contains the summer solstice in ...
). In February 1968, his appointment as diocesan Bishop of Daejeon was announced."New Bishop of Taejon", ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' (1 February 1968): 10.
He was named a Commander of the
Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...
in 1973. Feeling that the time had come for Koreans to take charge of their portion of the Anglican Communion, in 1973 Rutt offered his resignation as Bishop of Daejeon, intending to continue serving as a simple parish priest in the country he had come to love so much. That proved to be impossible and in January 1974 he was appointed
suffragan bishop A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Anglican Communion, a suffragan bishop is a bishop who is subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop (bishop ordinary) and so is not normally jurisdiction ...
of the
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
's
Diocese of Truro The Diocese of Truro (established 1876) is a Church of England diocese in the Province of Canterbury which covers Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly and a small part of Devon. The bishop's seat is at Truro Cathedral. Geography and history The di ...
with the title Bishop of St Germans; He took up that post on
Ascension Day The Solemnity of the Ascension of Jesus Christ, also called Ascension Day, Ascension Thursday, or sometimes Holy Thursday, commemorates the Christian belief of the bodily Ascension of Jesus into heaven. It is one of the ecumenical (i.e., shared b ...
(23 May) 1974; while in Cornwall he learned the
Cornish language Cornish (Standard Written Form: or ) , is a Southwestern Brittonic language, Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family. It is a List of revived languages, revived language, having become Extinct language, extinct as a livin ...
to celebrate weddings in Cornish. In October 1978 he was named
Bishop of Leicester The Bishop of Leicester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Leicester in the Province of Canterbury. Through reorganisation within the Church of England, the Diocese of Leicester was refounded in 1927, and St Martin's Church b ...
: he took up the See between his predecessor's retirement at the end of 1978 and his own enthronement on 24 March 1979. In 1982 Rutt, who was always strongly inclined to
Anglo-Catholicism 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 Anglica ...
, voted against the unity covenant with the Methodist, Moravian and United Reformed churches. In July 1985 he was introduced into the
House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
. He retired on 1 October 1990 and went to live in Falmouth, in the Cornwall he had come to love. He died in his 87th year at Treliske Hospital, Truro.


Roman Catholic ministry

In September 1994, Rutt became a Roman Catholic and in June 1995 he was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest
Ruth Gledhill Ruth Gledhill (born 1959) is an English journalist and is a former religion affairs correspondent for ''The Times'', a post she left in 2014. Gledhill was the last full-time newspaper journalist dedicated to religious affairs in the UK. She is c ...
, "Bishops Lead Exodus to Rome – Women Priests", ''The Times''. 24 February 1994.
by Christopher Budd, Roman Catholic Bishop of Plymouth, at
Buckfast Abbey Buckfast Abbey forms part of an active Benedictine monastery at Buckfast, near Buckfastleigh, Devon, England. Buckfast first became home to an abbey in 1018. The first Benedictine abbey was followed by a Savignac (later Cistercian) abbey cons ...
. He spent his last years in residence at St Mary Immaculate Parish in Falmouth. In 2009 he was made a
Prelate of Honour A Prelate of Honour of His Holiness is a Catholic prelate to whom the Pope has granted this title of honour. They are addressed as Monsignor and have certain privileges as regards clerical clothing.Monsignor Monsignor (; it, monsignore ) is an honorific form of address or title for certain male clergy members, usually members of the Roman Catholic Church. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian ''monsignore'', meaning "my lord". "Monsignor" ca ...
, by Pope
Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereign ...
."Pope Hands out Ancient Title to Retired Newquay Churchman", ''Cornish Guardian'', 18 March 2009. He was an honorary canon of
Plymouth Cathedral The Cathedral Church of Saint Mary and Saint Boniface in Plymouth, England, is the seat of the Bishop of Plymouth and mother church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Plymouth, which covers the counties of Cornwall, Devon and Dorset. The Diocese ...
.


Korean studies and writings

While in Korea, from 1954 to 1974, Rutt studied in great depth the language, culture and history of Korea, as well as Classical Chinese. He was an active member of the
Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch The Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch is a learned society based in Seoul, South Korea. Established in 1900 as the world's first Korean studies organization, it was founded to provide a platform for scholarly research on the history, culture and ...
, serving on the council, overseeing its publications and serving as its president in 1974. He published six scholarly papers in the RASKB's journal, ''Transactions'', most of which reveal his deep knowledge of the Classical Chinese used in pre-modern Korea. His deep affection for the traditional culture of Korea, which had in fact almost ceased to exist by the time he arrived, was particularly expressed in his very popular volume, ''Korean Works and Days: Notes from the Diary of a Country Priest''. One of his notable works of scholarship, apart from his translations, was his annotated edition (RASKB, 1972 / 1983) of the ''History of the Korean People'' by
James Scarth Gale James S. Gale (February 19, 1863 – January 31, 1937; in modern Korean 제임스 스카스 게일, in old Sino-Korean characters 奇一 (기일)) was a Canadian Presbyterian missionary, educator and Bible translator in Korea. Early life Gale was ...
(first published in 1927) which includes a researched biography of the author. Like Gale, Rutt was fascinated by Classical Chinese and, after his retirement, he published a new translation of a challenging ancient Chinese classic, ''The Book of Changes'', in 1996. He later assisted the historical research of the Anglican priest Roger Tennant as well as co-authoring the encyclopaedia ''Korea: A Historical and Cultural Dictionary'' with Keith Pratt. He was a member of both the Association of Korean Studies in Europe (AKSE) founded by William E. Skillend of
SOAS SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury are ...
and the British Association for Korean Studies (BAKS). In particular, Rutt was fascinated by traditional and formal
sijo ''Sijo'' () is a Korean traditional poetic form that emerged in the Goryeo period, flourished during the Joseon Dynasty, and is still written today. Bucolic, metaphysical, and cosmological themes are often explored. The three lines average 14 ...
and older forms of Korean poetry in general. He owned a large collection of books related to Korea, including some rare Korean volumes, which he donated to the
Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second- ...
at
Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
.


Knitting

Rutt developed a passionate interest in knitting and authored a history of the craft in ''A History of Hand Knitting'' (Batsford, 1987). His collection of books about knitting is now housed at the
Winchester School of Art Winchester School of Art is the art school of the University of Southampton, situated 10 miles (14 km) north of Southampton in the city of Winchester near the south coast of England. History The Winchester School of Art was founded in 187 ...
(
University of Southampton , mottoeng = The Heights Yield to Endeavour , type = Public research university , established = 1862 – Hartley Institution1902 – Hartley University College1913 – Southampton University Coll ...
). Rutt was involved with the Knitting & Crochet Guild since its inception in 1978 and was its president at the time of his death.


Personal life

Rutt married Joan Ford (3 April 1919 – 17 September 2007) in Hong Kong in May 1969. He was a bard of the
Cornish Gorseth Gorsedh Kernow (Cornish Gorsedd) is a non-political Cornish organisation, based in Cornwall, United Kingdom, which exists to maintain the national Celtic spirit of Cornwall. It is based on the Welsh-based Gorsedd, which was founded by Iolo Morg ...
. His Korean name was ''Tae-yŏng No''.


Selected works

In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Rutt,
OCLC OCLC, Inc., doing business as OCLC, See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was ...
/
WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the OCL ...
encompasses roughly 30+ works in 70+ publications in three languages and 3,000+ library holdings * 2002 — ''Martyrs of Korea'' * 1999 — ''Korea: A Historical and Cultural Dictionary''(with Keith L. Pratt) * 1996 — ''The Book of Changes (Zhouyi): A Bronze Age Document'' * 1987 — ''A History of Hand Knitting'' * 1980 — ''A Nine Cloud Dream by Man-jung Kim'' * 1974 — ''Virtuous Women: Three Classic Korean Novels'' * 1972 — ''History of the Korean People'' (James Scarth Gale) * 1971 — ''The Bamboo Grove: An Introduction to Sijo'' * 1964 — ''Korean Works and Days: Notes from the Diary of a Country Priest'' * 1958 — ''An Introduction to the Sijo, a Form of Short Korean Poem'' * 1956 — ''The Church Serves Korea''


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rutt, Richard 1925 births 2011 deaths Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge Anglican bishops of Daejeon Bishops of St Germans Bishops of Leicester Anglican bishop converts to Roman Catholicism Bards of Gorsedh Kernow Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Koreanists 20th-century Church of England bishops Korean bishops Alumni of Kelham Theological College