One of my favorite Benedictines is not well known in this country and if Father E and I had our way we would make his letters at the top of the list for those seeking a deeper spiritual life.
DOM JOHN CHAPMAN, O.S.B.was born in 1865 the son of an
Anglican canon of Ely Cathedral. Baptized with the name of Henry Chapman, he
was educated privately and at ChristChurch, Oxford
where he received a first class degree in Classical Greats. He stayed
for a subsequent year at Oxford
reading theology, in which he took a third. It was an important year for him,
however, because in this time he decided to take Orders in the Church of
England.
Having
trained at Cuddesdon, near Oxford, he was
ordained deacon in the Anglican Church in 1889, and began his curacy at the
parish of St Pancras, London.
He found himself increasingly troubled during this time about the position of
the Church of England, however, and eventually left the parish for good soon
after Trinity Sunday.
In December
1890 Chapman was conditionally baptized in the Catholic Church at the Brompton
Oratory.In April 1891 he entered the Jesuit Novitiate at Manresa House,
Roehampton, but after eight months had determined that his vocation was not to
the Society of Jesus.
He
subsequently entered the Benedictine Maredsous Abbey in Belgium, when
he was given the religious name of John. He professed simple
vows on 25 March 1893, and made his solemn vows on Whitsuntide
1895.
After his
priestly ordination in 1895, he went to Erdington Abbey, near Birmingham,
where he stayed until 1912, serving the community as novice master and
later as prior, but also frequently visiting the library of St Mary's
College in nearby Oscott.
Having
spent nine months at Maredsous, in February 1913, Dom Chapman was made
temporary superior of the Caldey island community (now based at Prinknash
Abbey), when it was received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1913-14.
On the
outbreak of World War I (1914–1918), Dom Chapman first became a Professor of
Theology at Downside Abbey, joining the many monks who had fled Maredsous to England.
In
early 1915, when these monks moved to Ireland, he became army chaplain to
the British forces. After initial training, his brigade arrived in France in
July 1915. He lived in the trenches in autumn 1915, until a persistent knee
injury led to him being sent to hospital in November. After leaving
the hospital, he first was stationed at Boyton Camp, Wiltshire, for several
months, and then returned to France. At the end of 1917, he was
transferred to Switzerland,
where multilingual chaplains were need for the POW camps. He remained here
until the Armistice. (For myself, having gone back to school after 15 years in
the enclosure, I can imagine how difficult this transfer from monastic life to life
outside, especially in time of war, was for Dom John.)
In
1919 Dom Chapman transferred his monastic stability to Downside
Abbey. He spent most of 1919-22 in Rome,
though, working on a Commission on the revision of the Vulgate. He
returned to Downside in 1922, where in 1929 the community elected him Abbot. As
4th Abbot of Downside, during his short term of four years, cut short by his
death on 7 November 1933, he carried on the work of Abbots Cuthbert
Butler and Leander Ramsay. He completed the transformation of Downside
into a modern abbey in the mainstream of the Benedictine tradition
and in 1933 became the founder of Worth Priory, since 1957 Worth Abbey,
when he bought the property, then called Paddockhurst, from Viscount Cowdray.
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In his day Dom Chapman was a much sought-after spiritual director and authority
on prayer, the spiritual life and mystical theology. His writings remain
of perennial value, especially his Spiritual Letters. He was noted to be brilliant and volatile in manner, but serene
in religious observance. An oft quoted advice
of his was: "Pray as you can, not as you cannot!".
According
to his contemporaries, Chapman had a brilliant mind and was a fascinating
conversationalist. He was also a talented pianist and a Christian humanist in
the finest tradition
Photos of Abbeys:
Left: Maredsous
Right: Downside.
