Blackfriars Priory (formally the Priory of the Holy Spirit) is a Dominican religious community in

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

, England. Its primary work is the administration of two educational institutions: Blackfriars Studium, a centre of theological studies in the Roman Catholic tradition; and Blackfriars Hall, a constituent

permanent private hall A permanent private hall (PPH) in the University of Oxford is an educational institution within the University. There are four permanent private halls at Oxford, three of which admit undergraduates. They were founded by different Christian denomina ...

of the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. The current prior of Blackfriars is Dominic White. The name ''Blackfriars'' is commonly used in Britain to denote a house of Dominican friars, a reference to their black ''cappa'', which forms part of their

habit A habit (or wont, as a humorous and formal term) is a routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously. A 1903 paper in the '' American Journal of Psychology'' defined a "habit, from the standpoint of psychology, ...

. Blackfriars is located in central Oxford on St Giles', between the Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies and St Cross College.

History

The

Dominicans Dominicans () also known as Quisqueyans () are an ethnic group, ethno-nationality, national people, a people of shared ancestry and culture, who have ancestral roots in the Dominican Republic. The Dominican ethnic group was born out of a fusio ...

arrived in Oxford on 15 August 1221, at the instruction of a General Chapter meeting headed by

Saint Dominic Saint Dominic, (; 8 August 1170 – 6 August 1221), also known as Dominic de Guzmán (), was a Castilians, Castilian Catholic priest and the founder of the Dominican Order. He is the patron saint of astronomers and natural scientists, and he a ...

himself, little more than a week after the friar's death. As such, the hall is heir to the oldest tradition of teaching in Oxford, a tradition that precedes both the

aularian The academic halls were educational institutions within the University of Oxford. The principal difference between a college and a hall was that whereas the former are governed by the fellows of the college, the halls were governed by their prin ...

houses of the next century and the collegiate houses of the rest of the University of Oxford's history. In 1236 they established a new and extensive priory in the St. Ebbes district. Like all the monastic houses in Oxford, Blackfriars came into rapid and repeated conflict with the university authorities. With the

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

, all monastic houses, including Blackfriars, were suppressed. The Dominicans did not return to Oxford for some 400 years, until 1921 when Blackfriars was refounded by Bede Jarrett as a religious house. The original priory building was designed by Edward Doran Webb and completed in 1929. The Dominican studium at Blackfriars had a close relationship with the university, culminating in the establishment of Blackfriars as a permanent private hall in 1994.

Blackfriars Studium

Blackfriars offers those preparing for the Catholic priesthood the Baccalaureate in Sacred Theology (STB) granted by the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, ''Angelicum'' in Rome. It is also possible for lay men and women to begin the Angelicum's STB programme by studying in the Blackfriars Studium and to conclude the programme with at least a year's full-time study at the ''Angelicum''.

Notable Friars

* Malcolm McMahon,

Archbishop of Liverpool The Metropolitan Archbishop of Liverpool is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Liverpool and Metropolitan bishop, metropolitan of the Province of Liverpool (also known as the Northern Province) in England. Th ...

, former Prior. * Aidan Nichols, first John Paul II Memorial Visiting Lecturer at the University of Oxford * Brian Davies - philosopher * Richard Finn - theology and classics scholar * Timothy Radcliffe - former Prior, Master Emeritus of the Order of Preachers, and

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

Fergus Kerr Fergus Gordon Thomson Kerr (born 16 July 1931) is a Scottish Roman Catholic priest of the English Dominican province. He has published significantly on a wide range of subjects, but is famous particularly for his work on Ludwig Wittgenstein and ...

- former Prior.

Burials at Blackfriars Abbey, Oxford

Robert Bacon (writer) Robert Bacon (died 1248) was the first Dominican writer in England. Biography Early life He was, according to some accounts the brother, according to others the uncle, of Roger Bacon. He is described as already an old man in 1238. He was educat ...

Richard Fishacre Richard Fishacre (or Fitzacre) (c. 1200–1248) was an English Dominican theologian, the first to hold the Dominican chair at the University of Oxford. He taught at Oxford and authored the first commentary on the Four Books of Sentences of Pete ...

Gallery

References

External links

Blackfriars Priory website

Blackfriars Hall website
{{Dominican Order in Britain 1221 establishments in England Educational institutions established in the 13th century Educational institutions established in 1921 Permanent private halls of the University of Oxford Buildings and structures of the University of Oxford