ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JANUARY
Saints celebrated on the 12th of January
RICHARD CHALLONER, BISHOP OF DEBRA
Dr Richard Challoner was born at Lewes, in Sussex, 29th September, 1691. His father and mother were Protestants, and had him baptised in that persuasion. His father dying soon afterwards, Providence conducted him to Mr Gother, the learned and pious Chaplain of Warkworth, in Northamptonshire, by whom he was instructed in the principles of the Catholic religion.
In 1704, he was sent to the college of the English secular clergy, in the University of Douay, founded by Cardinal Allen, 1568. Throughout the course of his studies, his conduct was most exemplary, and gained him the esteem of his masters and companions. He was appointed Professor of Poetry, afterwards of Rhetoric, and on the 6th September, 1713, was chosen Professor of Philosophy. Mr. Challoner was ordained Priest, 26th March, 1716; in July, 1718, was promoted to the chair of Divinity; and in 1719, passed Bachelor and Licentiate of Divinity with universal applause. Upon the resignation of Mr Dicconson, July, 1720, Dr Challoner was appointed to the Vice-Presidency of the College.
After discharging the office of Vice-president during ten years, Dr Challoner was sent on the English Mission. In his Professorship of Divinity, he was succeeded by Rev. Alban Butler. Dr Challoner was a perfect model of a Missionary Priest. He avoided all intercourse with the world except what was necessary; was most assiduous in the discharge of all his functions; and gave what these did not employ of his time, to prayer, to meditation, and to study.
At this period the laws were a great restraint on Catholic preaching. In the public chapels few sermons were allowed; but some zealous Missionaries preached in the rooms of individuals, or in those hired for the purpose. Here the voice of Dr Challoner was often heard; his sermons were instructive and affecting; they were delivered with mildness, but impressively; and the love of God was his principal subject. In discourse and writing Dr Challoner was an able controvertist. Perfectly master of his subject, he was methodical, cogent, and perspicuous, but never rude or overbearing.
Dr Challoner became, at this time, the object of religious persecution and with the advice of his friends, he repaired to Douay College. Dr Williams, then President, died in 1713. A contest for Dr Challoner then took place between the Douatians and Dr Benjamin Petre, the Vicar Apostolic of the London district; the former earnestly soliciting Dr Challoner for their President; the latter as earnestly soliciting him for coadjutor. Dr Petre prevailed.
His Holiness nominated Dr Challoner Bishop of Debra, and coadjutor to Dr Petre, with the right of succeeding him as Vicar Apostolic of the London district. He was accordingly consecrated on the feast of St Francis of Sales, the 29th of January, 1741. He chose for his model the holy Prelate on whose festival he was consecrated, and practised through life the virtues for which that Prelate was distinguished.
The events of the year 1745 involved the Catholics in the London district in great distress. Several were imprisoned most of their private chapels were shut up and, with the exception of the Bavarian ambassador, the foreign ministers refused them admittance into their chapels. In addition to these evils, the prisons were crowded with English and Scottish Catholics, of whom many were tried and executed - and those who interested themselves for the relief of any of them, became objects of suspicion. Dr Challoner was then the universal refuge; he obtained for the sufferers spiritual and temporal aid. The purse of Edward, Duke of Norfolk, was open to him, and many other Catholics co-operated with him.
In 1758, Dr Petre died, after having governed the London district for twenty-five years as Vicar Apostolic. The whole charge of the district now devolved on Dr Challoner. At this time, Mr Payne, a common informer, indicted several persons for assisting at Mass.
A prosecution was instituted against Dr Challoner; but, from the difficulty of establishing, by proper evidence, the facts, and from the extreme unwillingness of juries and judges to convict, he and others escaped. This was not, however, always the case. One priest being convicted of saying Mass, was sentenced to perpetual imprisonment. The laws which deprived the Catholics of their landed property, for the sake of religion, were sometimes enforced, and in other respects, the Catholics were subject to inconceivable hardships and contumely. In all these transactions, Dr Challoner conducted himself with great prudence. The last attempt to deprive Catholics of their landed property, on account of their religion was made by a near Protestant relation of a Catholic lady in the north of England, who attempted to deprive her of her jointure, under the statute of the 10 and 11 William III. Her counsel found her case remediless at law. She procured a bill for her relief to be brought into the House of Lords. Lord Camden, on reading her petition, declared himself an advocate of her cause; and, in the speech which he made on the occasion, was eminently great.
Availing themselves of this, and some circumstances which disposed the government to favour them, the Catholics, in 1778, presented a petition to his Majesty. It was framed by Mr Burke, signed by the Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Shrewsbury and several English Commoners, for the English; and by Lord Linton, and several Scottish Commoners, for the Scotch. It was graciously received. A bill was brought into the house by Sir George Saville, and passed both houses without opposition, Although this Act passed both Houses of Parliament with unanimity, and, apparently at least, with the general applause of the nation; yet some associations were almost immediately formed, both in England and Scotland, to obtain its repeal. They ended in the riots of 1780.
The first symptoms appeared in the close of the month of May; but the associators had often met, and their meetings had been a subject of alarm. After scenes of devastation, a party of the rioters were proceeding to Dr Challoner's house, about 11 o'clock at night, on Friday the 2nd of June. His chaplains awoke him from his sleep, and persuaded him, with great difficulty, to retire to the house of a friend, in which it was supposed he would be in greater safety.
The next day he was conveyed to a gentleman's house a few miles from London; but even there he was not thought to be in sufficient security, and a still farther removal was contemplated; to this, however, he objected. In the midst of these trying scenes he never lost his fortitude, his confidence in God, or the pious serenity of his mind. After a few days he was restored to his flock.
Notwithstanding his constant preaching every Sunday, and the very many duties attendant on his holy calling, the venerable prelate employed every spare moment in writing something - either for the defence of the faith or for the instruction of his flock. In early life he published that little work entitled Think Well on It, which imparts spiritual benefit to the poor. About the year 1732 he brought out Grounds of the Catholic Doctrine, The Young Gentleman Instructed in the Catholic Religion, and several other tracts; after this he composed the Unerring Authority of the Catholic Church, and A Specimen of the Spirit of the Dissenting Teachers. In 1737, he published The Catholic Christian Instructed (in reply to a pamphlet by Dr C. Middleton,) in the preface to which he discusses the point in dispute with great learning and solidity. In 1741, appeared the present volume, in which he has shown that the Protestants accuse the Church of Rome of intolerance and persecution, and at the same time pretend that they never do, nor would persecute any one, merely on the score of religion, yet, that from the year 1577, to the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign, no less than 134 individuals were put to death for the profession and practice of the Roman Catholic faith; and that in the following reigns several others suffered for the same cause. In the year 1742, appeared The Grounds of the Old Religion; subsequently his translation of Thomas A Kempis, Britannia Sancta, and sundry little tracts. Ever anxious to promote true piety, and plant every virtue in the hearts of the faithful, he wrote that inestimable work, Meditations for Every Day in the Year. In 1762, he published The Morality of the Bible, and a translation of the Devout Life. For a detailed account of his writings, we would refer the reader to Barnard's Life of this truly righteous man.
On the 10th of January, 1781, whilst sitting at dinner, he was seized with the palsy. He was conveyed to his bed, and medical assistance procured for him. The palsy seized his right side, and also affected his speech in such a manner that he was not from that moment heard to utter an intelligible word; yet he retained his reason to the last, and the bystanders could evidently perceive his conviction that he had only a short time to live, and that his soul was occupied on God, and in making acts of devotion suitable to his situation. He received the Sacraments of the Church. On the 12th of January, in the 90th year of his age, God was pleased, by another stroke of the palsy, to deliver him from this mortal life; and, we humbly trust, to receive him into the kingdom of heavenly bliss. His remains were conveyed to Milton, in Berkshire, and deposited in the parish church.
Source: Introduction to Memoirs of Missionary Priests, 1842 edition
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