Una Margaret Patricia Kroll (nee Hill, 15 December 1925 – 6 January 2017) was a British nun, missionary doctor, priest, and campaigner for women's ordination.

Early life

Kroll was born in London, and grew up in Paris, Latvia, and London. Her father, George Alexander Hill (1892–1968), was the son of a timber merchant with business interests stretching from

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, and a British intelligence officer in the First and Second World Wars. Her mother Hilda Evelyn (née Pediani) was the daughter of an Italian tobacco merchant who had eloped from

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

with the

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 ...

Frederick Temple Frederick Temple (30 November 1821 – 23 December 1902) was an English academic, teacher and churchman, who served as Bishop of Exeter (1869–1885), Bishop of London (1885–1896) and Archbishop of Canterbury (1896–1902). Early life ...

's niece, before settling in

St Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

where they had seven children, the youngest of which was Hilda. Hilda Pediani worked as a spy for the British and fell for "philandering" fellow spy George Hill, with Una conceived out of wedlock, and although her father bigamously married her mother before she was born, he left before she was two years old. Kroll was educated

St Paul's Girls' School St Paul's Girls' School is an independent day school for girls, aged 11 to 18, located in Brook Green, Hammersmith, in West London, England. History St Paul's Girls' School was founded by the Worshipful Company of Mercers in 1904, using part o ...

, Malvern Girls College, and

Girton College, Cambridge Girton College is one of the 31 constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college in Cambridge. In 1948, it was granted full college status ...

, from where she graduated with a degree in medicine.

Career

In the October 1974 general election, she stood for Parliament in Sutton and Cheam as an independent candidate on an equal opportunities platform. After she was widowed at the age of 61, she became a nun. In 1997, aged 72 and serving as a

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Churc ...

in a Welsh parish, she was ordained as a priest by the then

Bishop of Monmouth The Bishop of Monmouth is the diocesan bishop of the Church in Wales Diocese of Monmouth. The episcopal see covers the historic county of Monmouthshire with the bishop's seat located at the Cathedral Church of Saint Woolos in Newport, whi ...

, Dr

Rowan Williams Rowan Douglas Williams, Baron Williams of Oystermouth, (born 14 June 1950) is a Welsh Anglican bishop, theologian and poet. He was the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, a position he held from December 2002 to December 2012. Previously the Bish ...

. In 2008, she converted to Catholicism.

Personal life

In 1957, she married Leopold Kroll, an American monk 25 years older than her who had brought her back to England from her work as a missionary doctor in Liberia after she fell ill. They had the first of four children in 1958, and moved to Namibia in 1959, where they became active in the anti-apartheid movement and were expelled from the country within two years. Kroll died on 6 January 2017 at the age of 91.

Publications

* ''The Healing Potential of Transcendental Meditation'', Atlanta : John Knox Press, 1974. , * ''Flesh of My Flesh'', London, Longman and Todd, 1975 * ''Lament for a Lost Enemy'', London : SPCK, 1977. , * ''Sexual Counselling'', London : SPCK, 1980. , * ''Trees of Life'', Mowbray, 1997 * ''Forgive and live'', London : Mowbray, 2000. , * ''Anatomy of survival : steps on a personal journey towards healing'', London : Continuum, 2001. , * ''Living Life to the Full : A Guide to Spiritual Health in Later Years'', CIP Group Ltd., 2006. , * ''Bread Not Stones'', London, Christian Alternative, 2014. ,

References

External links

Una Kroll discusses the struggle for the ordination of women, British Library audio file, 3:57
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kroll, Una 1925 births 2017 deaths 20th-century English Anglican priests Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge Anglican missionaries in Liberia Anglican priest converts to Roman Catholicism British Anglican missionaries British people of Italian descent British Roman Catholics Christian medical missionaries Women Anglican clergy Female Christian missionaries Independent British political candidates People educated at Malvern St James People educated at St Paul's Girls' School British expatriates in Liberia