CHALLONIER, RICHARD. — Heroic apostle, brilliant English apologist and ascetical writer, born at Lewes in Sussex on 29 September 1691, died on 10 January 1781. The son of Protestants, he entered the Church at the age of thirteen (1704), together with his mother, who, having been widowed, had entered the service of the Catholic Sir John Gage at Firle, and subsequently that of the Catholic Sir George Holman of Warkworth (Northamptonshire), whose wife, Lady Anastasia, was the daughter of the blessed Guglielmo Howard, martyred in 1680. Their chaplain, the apologist John Gother, recommended C. to the college of Douai, where he began his studies in 1705; he was ordained a priest in 1716 and had taught philosophy since 1712. In 1720 he became professor of theology and vice-rector. He received his doctorate in theology from 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 pastoral work and apologetic production. In the preface to The Catholic Christian instructed (1738), he demonstrated the sophisms of Letter from Rome showing an exact conformity between Popery and Paganism by Dr Conyers Middleton. The latter basely had recourse to the penal laws against C., who, on the advice of others, withdrew for a time to Douai. At the request of Dr Petre, apostolic vicar of the London district, the S. C. of Propaganda appointed him his coadjutor and titular bishop of Debra (1740); he was consecrated at Hammersmith on 29 January 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 that remains a central source of information concerning the English martyrs, Britannia Sancta (1745). His translation of the New Testament (1749) is still improperly called the “Douai version” (v. DOUAI, BIBBIA di), although it is much more than a revision of that version. C. also reworked the version of the Old Testament (1750), and then published the new, greatly improved edition of the entire Bible (1752) for the use of English-speaking Catholics. Also noteworthy are the often-reprinted Meditations for every day in the year (1753), in addition to many other ascetical and apologetic works, catechisms, translations, pamphlets, and minor writings.
In 1758 C. succeeded Dr Petre as apostolic vicar. He founded schools at Standon Lordship and Sedgelye Park (later transferred to St Edmund's, Ware, and to Cotton), as well as one for poor girls at Brook Creek, Hammersmith. Persecuted by the “priest hunters,” he was often obliged to change his residence. His almsgiving was incalculable. He narrowly escaped being pursued by Gordon’s anti-Catholic rioters (1780). He died six months later.
C. is undoubtedly the greatest Catholic figure in England from the “Reformation” to the nineteenth century, 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 laid in Westminster Cathedral during Easter Week 1946.