William Bernard Ullathorne
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William Bernard Ullathorne (7 May 1806 – 21 March 1889) was an English Roman Catholic bishop and missionary in Australia.
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[edit] Early life
Ullathorne was the son of a prosperous grocer, draper and spirit merchant and was born at Pocklington, Yorkshire to an old Roman Catholic family. At about nine years of age his family moved to Scarborough where he started school. At 12 he was taken from school and placed in his father's office to learn the management of accounts. The intention was to send him to school again, but Ullathorne wished to go to sea, and at the age of 15,with his parents' permission, he made the first of several voyages to the Baltic Sea and Mediterranean. While attending mass at a chapel at Memel he experienced something in the nature of a conversion, and on his return asked the mate if he had any religious books. He was given a translation of Marsollier's Life of St Jane Frances Chantal, which deepened his experience. At the end of this voyage he left the sea, returned home, and in February 1823 was sent to the Benedictine school of St Gregory's, Downside, near Bath. There he was given as his director, John Bede Polding, afterwards the first archbishop of Sydney, who influenced him greatly.
[edit] Priesthood
In 1823 he entered the Benedictine monastery of Downside, near Bath, taking the vows in 1825. He was ordained priest in 1831, and in 1833 went to New South Wales, Australia, as vicar-general to Bishop William Morris (1794-1872), whose jurisdiction extended over the Australian missions. It was mainly Ullathorne who caused Pope Gregory XVI to establish the hierarchy in Australia.
He returned to the Britain in 1836, he met Francis Murphy and enlisted him for the Australian mission. After another visit to Australia, Ullathorne settled in England in 1841, taking charge of the Roman Catholic mission at Coventry. He was consecrated bishop in 1847 as vicar-apostolic of the western district, in succession to Bishop C. M. Baggs (1806-1845), but was transferred to the central district in the following year.
[edit] Archbishop of Birmingham
On the re-establishment of the hierarchy in England, Ullathorne became the first Roman Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham. During his thirty-eight years tenure of the see 67 new churches, 32 convents and nearly 200 mission schools were built. In 1888 he retired and received from Pope Leo XIII the honorary title of archbishop of Cabasa. He died at Oscott College. The Bishop Ullathorne RC School in Coventry is named after him.
Of his theological and philosophical works the best known are The Endowments of Man (1882); The Groundwork of the Christian Virtues (1883); Christian Patience (1886). For an account of his life see his Autobiography, edited by A. T. Drane (London).
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
- Serle, Percival. (1949). "Ullathorne, William Bernard". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.
[edit] External link
- W.B.Ullathorne at The Australian Dictionary of Biography
| Religious Posts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Thomas Walsh |
Vicar Apostolic of the Central District 1848–1850 |
Succeeded by none |
| Preceded by None |
Archbishop of Birmingham 1850–1888 |
Succeeded by Edward Illsley |
- This article incorporates text from the public domain 1949 edition of Dictionary of Australian Biography from
Project Gutenberg of Australia, which is in the public domain in Australia and the United States of America.
