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Remembering Father Bede Jarrett 50 Years After

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Conrad Pepler O P
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This year the English Dominicans are commemorating the 50th anniversary of the death of Father Bede Jarrett (1881—1934). As we noted in last month’s editorial, he was—and still is—revered as administrator, author, preacher, friend; above all, as a man who gave a distinct stamp to the English Dominican Province. During his sixteen years as Provincial (1916—32) he founded this magazine, but probably his most important single achievement was to bring the Dominicans back to Oxford after an absence of nearly 400 years. He initiated the building of the new Oxford house of studies, Blackfriars, in 1921—the 700th anniversary of its original founding on the instructions of St. Dominic. On 17 March (exactly fifty years after Father Bede’s death) Dominicans from many parts of the English Province met there for a commemorative Mass. Father Conrad Pepler spoke at this, and we print his text here. Born in 1908, from boyhood Father Conrad knew Bede Jarrett; he came to the Order in 1927, when Father Bede was Provincial, and was a student at Blackfriars, Oxford, when he was its Prior (1932—4). Later he was Editor of both “Blackfriars” and “The Life of the Spirit” (now merged in “New Blackfriars”), and then, from 1952 to 1981, Warden of the Dominican conference centre in Staffordshire, Spode House.

“Wisdom has built her house, she has set up her seven pillars.”

(Prov. 9: v.1)

Type
Research Article
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 65 , Issue 766 , April 1984 , pp. 186 - 190
Copyright
Copyright © 1984 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

References

1 Philip Thomas, Cardinal Howard (1629 1694); joined the Dominicans in 1645, and was largely responsible for preserving what was left of the English Province, then in exile, from extinction; later Cardinal-protector of England. Bede Jarrett wrote an early CTS Penny Pamphlet on him, Cardinal Howard.

2 “to give to others the fruits of contemplation” (ST2a2ae. 188, 6).

3 the monthly free day.

4 “apostolic” school run by the English Dominicans 1659 1967; situated at Hawkesyard in Staffordshire 1898 1924.

5 Eric Gill, the typographic designer, sculptor and writer and Fr. Conrad’s father, Hilary Pepler, were the principal founders of the Ditchling Community, in Sussex, the famous lay community (prominent for its artists and craftsmen) associated with the Dominican Third Order. It lost much of its vitality after the estrangement of Gill and Pepler. Piggotts, in Buckinghamshire, was Gill’s later home.

6 Victor White (1902 1960), Editor of Dominican Studies, foundation member and lecturer at the Jung Institute of Analytical Psychology (Zurich), author of the pioneering God and the Unconscious; Gerald Vann (1906 1963), lecturer and author of the best-selling The Divine Pity; Roger Ruston (born 1938), lecturer at Blackfriars in Ethics and Moral Theology, and frequent lecturer on nuclear disarmament.

7 1882 1945: a rather unconventional man, with such a remarkable range of talents that Rome doubted his seriousness and would not award him the title of Master in Sacred Theology (STM) but only the Baccalaureate; probably Bede Jarrett’s greatest friend in the Order.