CHALLONER, RICHARD. - Heroic apostle, brilliant apologist, and English ascetical writer, b. at Lewes in Sussex on 29 Sept. 1691, d. 10 Jan. 1781. Son of Protestants, he entered the Church at the age of 13 (1704), together with his mother, who, having become a widow, had placed herself in the service of the Catholic Sir John Gage at Firle, and later of the Catholic Sir George Holman of Warkworth (Northamptonshire), whose wife, Lady Anastasia, was the daughter of the Bl. William Howard, martyred in 1680. Their chaplain, the apologist John Gother, recommended C. to the college of Douai, where he began his studies in 1705, was ordained priest in 1716, and taught philosophy from 1712. In 1720 he became professor of theology and vice-rector. He took the doctorate in theology at the University of Douai (1727).
The following year he published his first book: *Think Well on't*. In 1730 he arrived in the English mission, distinguishing himself in the care of souls and in apologetical production. In the preface to *The Catholic Christian Instructed* (1738) he exposed the fallacies of *Letter from Rome showing an exact conformity between Popery and Paganism* by Dr. Conyers Middleton. The latter cowardly resorted to punitive laws against C., who, on advice, withdrew for a time to Douai. At the request of Dr. Petre, vicar apostolic of the London district, the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda appointed him coadjutor and titular bishop of Debra (1740); he was consecrated at Hammersmith on 29 Jan. 1741. The district comprised ten English counties, the Channel Islands, and the British possessions in America. C. immediately began a complete visitation of the counties.
He published *Garden of the Soul*, a prayer book for the people (1740), *Memoirs of Missionary Priests* (1741), and the work which remains a primary source of information on the English martyrs, *Britannia Sancta* (1745). His translation of the New Testament (1749) is still improperly called the “Douai version” (v. DOUAI, BIBLE OF), though it is far more than a revision of II. C. also revised the translation of the Old Testament (1750), and then published a much improved new edition of the entire Bible (1752) for use by English-speaking Catholics. Notable also are the frequently reprinted *Meditations for Every Day in the Year* (1753), as well as many other ascetical, apologetical, and catechetical works, translations, pamphlets, and minor writings.
In 1758 C. succeeded Dr. Petre as vicar apostolic. He founded schools at Standon Lordship and Sedgeley Park (later transferred to St Edmund’s, Ware, and to Cotton), and one for poor girls at Brook Green, Hammersmith. Persecuted by the “priest-hunters,” he often had to change residence. His almsgiving was incalculable. He barely escaped the pursuit of the anti-Catholic rioters of Gordon (1780). He died six months later.
C. is undoubtedly the greatest Catholic figure in England from the “Reformation” to 1800, so much so that all Catholics and many Protestants venerate him as a saint. His body was transferred from the parish church of Milton, Buckinghamshire, and deposited in Westminster Cathedral during Easter week 1946.