Thomas Griffiths (2 June 1791 – 19 August 1847) was an English
Roman Catholic bishop.
Life
St. Edmund's College, Old Hall
Griffiths was born in London, and was the first and only
Vicar Apostolic of the London District educated wholly in England. At the age of thirteen he was sent to
St. Edmund's College, Old Hall, where he went through the whole course, and was ordained priest in 1814. Four years later he was chosen as president, at the age of 27. He ruled the college for fifteen years, and did much to give the college a sound financial basis.
Vicar Apostolic
He was then appointed coadjutor to
Bishop Bramston, then Vicar Apostolic of the London District. He was consecrated as
Titular Bishop of Olena at St. Edmund's College, 28 October 1833. Within three years Bishop Bramston died, and Bishop Griffiths succeeded him.
[Ward, Bernard. "Thomas Griffiths." The Catholic Encyclopedia]
Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 11 January 2019
A biographical sketch by one of his priests describes Griffiths as "...silent, meditative, bland, inoffensive, ever too happy to serve and oblige everyone; patient, enduring, forgiving; unmoved by slights, unkindness, or even insults -a man after God's own heart, full of faith, of hope, of love; not one thing today and another tomorrow, but ever consistent and the same."
Father Thomas of St. George's, Southwark. "Saint George's and the Late Bishop Griffiths", ''The New Catholic Weekly Magazine'', August 28, 1847, p. 266
/ref>
The agitation for a regular Catholic hierarchy in England became more and more pronounced and as a preliminary measure, in 1840, the four ecclesiastical "districts" into which England had been divided since the reign of James II of England were subdivided to form eight, Dr. Griffiths retaining the new London District. Soon after this, the Oxford movement
The Oxford Movement was a movement of high church members of the Church of England which began in the 1830s and eventually developed into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose original devotees were mostly associated with the University of O ...
and attendant Catholic conversions began: and the immigration of Irish Catholics grew. At the same time the growth of the British colonies, many of which had been until lately ruled as part of the London District, brought him into contact with the government. In all these spheres Griffiths discharged his duties with practical ability; but it was thought that he would not have the breadth of view or experience necessary for initiating the new hierarchy, and (according to Bishop Ullathorne
William Bernard Ullathorne (7 May 180621 March 1889) was an English prelate who held high offices in the Roman Catholic Church during the nineteenth century.
Early life
Ullathorne was born in Pocklington, East Riding of Yorkshire, the eldes ...
) this was the reason why its establishment was postponed.[
When Griffiths died, somewhat unexpectedly, in 1847 Ullathorne himself preached the funeral sermon. The body of the deceased prelate was laid temporarily in the vaults of Moorfields Church; but two years later it was removed to St. Edmund's College, where a new chapel by Augustus Pugin was in course of erection, and a special chantry was built to receive the body of Griffiths, to whose initiative the chapel was due. An oil painting of Griffiths is at Archbishop's House, Westminster; another, more modern, at St. Edmund's College.][
]
References
;Attribution
* The entry cites:
** Thompson Cooper in ''Dictionary of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
'', s.v;
**Joseph Gillow
Joseph Gillow (5 October 1850, Preston, Lancashire – 17 March 1921, Westholme, Hale, Cheshire) was an English Roman Catholic antiquary, historian and bio-bibliographer, "the Plutarch of the English Catholics".
Biography
Born in Frenchwood H ...
, Bib. Dict., Eng. Cath. s. v.,
** Bernard Nicholas Ward, ''History of St. Edmund's College'' (London, 1893);
**William Maziere Brady
William Maziere Brady (1825–1894) was an Irish priest, ecclesiastical historian and journalist who converted to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism.
Life
Born in Dublin, on 8 January 1825, he was a nephew of Sir Maziere Brady, 1st Baronet, Lo ...
, ''Annals of the Catholic Hierarchy'';
**E. Price in Dolman's Magazine, VI;
**Cox in ''Catholic Directory'' for 1848.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Griffiths, Thomas
1791 births
1847 deaths
Apostolic vicars of England and Wales
19th-century Roman Catholic bishops in England