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Health and Sickness as Reality and Metaphor in the Oratory Parish of F. W. Faber, 1849–63

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 June 2022

Melissa Wilkinson
Melissa Wilkinson*
Affiliation:
Welwyn Garden City
*
*E-mail: dr.m.j.wilkinson@btinternet.com.
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Abstract

This article examines the first London Oratory, located in King William St, London between May 1849 and March 1854, during the provostship of its founder F. W. Faber (1814–63). Beginning with a discussion of the physically unhealthy climate at the Oratory and the situation of its congregation, it then considers Faber's health while provost before examining his use of words such as sickness, illness, health and infection in written works and analysing his use of these as metaphors for the spiritual life. The metaphorical concepts of health and sickness are linked to his pessimism about humanity and his preoccupation with the four last things, obtaining eternal salvation, and the relationship between the individual Christian and God. The article thus highlights something of the spirituality, health and teaching of an individual priest, as well as the preoccupations of a parish in mid-nineteenth-century London.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 58: THE CHURCH IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH , June 2022 , pp. 241 - 261
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Ecclesiastical History Society

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References

1 Faber knew Nicholas Wiseman (1802–65) as bishop of the Central District, which included Birmingham, and later as vicar apostolic of the London District. After the restoration of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales in November 1850, Wiseman became the first cardinal archbishop of Westminster.

2 Wilkinson, Melissa, Frederick William Faber: A Great Servant of God (Leominster, 2007), 124Google Scholar.

3 Addington, Raleigh, ed., Faber – Poet and Priest: Selected Letters by Frederick William Faber 1833–1863 (London, 1974), 188–9Google Scholar (F. W. Faber to J. H. Newman, 29 April 1849).

4 London, London Oratory [hereafter: LO), MSS 2, no. 3, Faber to Newman, 2 May 1849.

5 Addington, ed., Faber, 185 (Faber to Newman, 16 April 1849).

6 B. R. Davies, London, 1843 (London, 1843), online at David Rumsey Map Collection: <http://rumsey.geogarage.com/maps/g0890184.html?lat=51.509082704910874&lon=-0.12380046007774759&zoom=17>, accessed 31 October 2020.

7 ‘The Royal Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital’ (n.d.), online at Lost Hospitals of London: <https://www.ezitis.myzen.co.uk>, accessed 30 October 2020.

8 Wilkinson, Faber, 134.

9 Addington, ed., Faber, 242 (Faber to Lord Arundel, 11 March 1852).

10 LO, MSS 2, no. 41, Faber to Newman, 6 June 1849.

11 Addington, ed., Faber, 196 (Faber to Newman, 6 July 1849).

12 Ibid. 200 (Faber to Newman, 15 August 1849).

13 LO, MSS 2, no. 213, Faber to Newman, 15 January 1850.

14 Ibid., no. 127, Faber to Newman, 18 October 1849.

15 Addington, ed., Faber, 211 (Faber to Newman, 6 March 1850).

16 F. W. Faber, ‘Our Lord's Choice of Poverty’, in John Bowden, ed., Notes on Doctrinal and Spiritual Subjects, 1: Mysteries and Festivals, 3rd edn (London, 1866), 127.

17 Ibid. 129.

18 Although the church was painted in June, it was not fitted with a permanent altar, organ and pews until its formal opening in October.

19 Addington, ed., Faber, 198 (Faber to Newman, 2 July 1849).

20 LO, MSS 2, no. 109, Faber to Newman, 6 September 1849.

21 Ibid., no. 91, Faber to Newman, 19 July 1849; no. 101, Faber to Newman, 14 August 1849.

22 Ibid., no. 105, Faber to Newman, 18 August 1849.

23 Ibid., no. 103, Faber to Newman, 15 August 1849.

24 Ibid., no. 97, Faber to Newman, 3 August 1849.

25 Addington, ed., Faber, 200 (Faber to Newman, 15 August 1849).

26 Faber to Newman, 14 August 1849.

27 Faber to Newman, 15 August 1849.

28 Faber to Newman, 14 August 1849.

29 LO, MSS 2, no. 69, Faber to Newman, 9 July 1849.

30 Faber to Newman, 14 August 1849.

31 Ronald Chapman, Father Faber (London, 1961), 166.

32 Addington, ed., Faber, 203 (Faber to Newman, 31 October 1849).

33 Wilkinson, Faber, 57.

34 LO, MSS 8, no. 160, Newman to Faber, 25 December 1849.

35 LO, MSS 2, no. 183, Faber to Newman, n.d.

36 Ibid., no. 115, Faber to Newman, n.d. (‘end of October 1849’ added in pencil).

37 Ibid., no. 183, Faber to Newman, n.d.

38 Ibid., no. 145, Faber to Newman, 20 November 1849.

39 Ibid., no. 157, Faber to Newman, 1 December 1849.

40 Ibid., no. 147, Faber to Newman, 29 November 1849.

41 Ibid., no. 171, Faber to Newman, n.d. [December 1849].

42 Ibid., no. 176, Faber to Newman, Christmas Eve 1849.

43 Ibid., no. 185, Faber to Newman, 1 January 1850.

44 Ibid., no. 189, Faber to Newman, 3 January 1850.

45 LO, MSS 3, no. 30, Faber to Newman, 13 January 1851, ibid., no. 49, Faber to Newman, 30 April 1851.

46 Ibid., no. 71, Faber to Newman, 8 August 1851.

47 Ibid., no. 74, Faber to Newman, 25 September 1851.

48 Ibid., no. 82, Faber to Newman, 22 October 1851.

49 Ibid., no. 83, Faber to Newman, 31 December 1851.

50 Ibid., no. 108, Faber to Newman, Easter Day [27 March] 1853.

51 LO, MSS 2, no. 70, Faber to J. B. Morris, 17 July 1844.

52 LO, MSS 1, no. 130, Faber to Morris, 20 August 1850.

53 LO, MSS 2, no. 107, Faber to Newman, 27 August 1849.

54 LO, MSS 3, no. 75, Faber to Newman, 30 September 1851.

55 Faber to Newman, Christmas Eve 1849.

56 Faber to Newman, 27 August 1849.

57 John Bowden, The Life and Letters of Frederick William Faber, 5th edn (London, 1869), 323.

58 See Wilkinson, Faber, 118.

59 See ibid. 121.

60 ibid. 244.

61 ibid. 144, 236.

62 ibid. 244.

63 F. W. Faber, Spiritual Conferences, 9th edn (London, 1858).

64 Ibid. 216–17.

65 Ibid. 218.

66 Ibid. 216.

67 Ibid. 217.

68 Ibid. 221.

69 Ibid. 216.

70 Addington, ed., Faber, 282 (Faber to the duchess of Argyll, [May 1857]).

71 LO, MSS packet 1, part 2, doc. 1, F. W. Faber, Sermon, ‘The Epiphany’, 6 January 1861.

72 Faber, F. W., The Precious Blood, 3rd edn (Philadelphia, PA, 1959; first published 1860), 180Google Scholar.

73 LO, MSS packet 3.4, doc. 12, F. W. Faber, Lecture 4: ‘The Church at War with Heresy’.

74 LO, MSS packet 1, part 2, doc. 30, F. W. Faber, ‘The View which ye Saints take of the World as a Howling Wilderness’, 31 December 1849.

75 Faber, Spiritual Conferences, 246.

76 F. W. Faber, Growth in Holiness, new edn (London, n.d.), 79.

77 Faber, Spiritual Conferences, 247.

78 Ibid. 246–7.

79 Ibid. 246.

80 Ibid. 247.

81 Addington, ed., Faber, 266 (Faber to Monsignor George Talbot, 15 September 1854).

82 Ibid.

83 Faber, Precious Blood, 61.

84 Ibid. 60–1.

85 Ibid. 61.

86 Ibid.

87 Ibid. 60.

88 F. W. Faber, Sermon, ‘The Solitariness’, in Bowden, ed., Notes, 1: 193–6, at 193.

89 Faber, Precious Blood, 48.

90 Ibid. 49.

91 F. W. Faber, Sermon, ‘Devotion to the Passion’, in Bowden, ed., Notes, 2: 361–3, at 361.

92 Faber, Precious Blood, 61.

93 Ibid. 62.

94 Ibid. 61.

95 F. W. Faber, Bethlehem, new edn (London, n.d.; first published 1860), 200.

96 Ibid.

97 F. W. Faber, ‘God's View of our Past Sins’, in Bowden, ed., Notes, 2: 70–2, at 70.

98 Faber, Bethlehem, 200.

99 LO MSS, packet 1, part 1, section 1, doc. 18, F. W. Faber, ‘God so little Loved’ (sermon), n.d.; see also idem, Sermon, ‘God so little Loved’, in Bowden, ed., Notes, 1: 35–7, at 35.

100 Mark 4: 39 (NRSV).

101 Faber, ‘God so little Loved’.

102 Ibid.

103 F. W. Faber, ‘Eternity’, in Bowden, ed., Notes, 2: 339–42, at 339.

104 LO, MSS packet 1.2.1, doc. 7, F. W. Faber, ‘The Legacies of Jesus’, 6.

105 Faber, ‘Eternity’, 339.

106 Wilkinson, Faber, 127.