DALGAIRNS, JOHN DOBRE. - In religion Bernard; Oratorian theologian, of Scottish and Norman origins, b. on the island of Guernsey on 21 Oct. 1818, d. at Burgess Hill, near Brighton, on 6 Apr. 1876.
He entered Exeter College, Oxford, in 1836. An ardent follower of Newman, he wrote a letter in French to the Paris newspaper « L'Univers » on the Oxford Movement; a correspondence with Father Dominic Barberi, a Passionist, followed. In 1842 he joined Newman at Littlemore, and wrote several of the Lives of saints that Newman was publishing. Father Dominic received him into the Church on 29 Sept. 1845, several weeks before Newman. He then resided at Langres in France with the abbé Jovain, whom he had met at Oxford in 1841; there he was ordained priest in Dec. 1846. At Easter 1847 he joined Newman in Rome and entered the Oratorian novitiate under Fr. Rossi. Having returned to England, he lived at Maryvale and in London, then in the Birmingham Oratory (1853-56); afterwards he remained in London, where for a short time he succeeded Fr. Faber as superior (1863). He was eminent as a preacher, writer and director of souls. He was also a learned historian and philologist. From 1869 he took part in the meetings of the « Metaphysical Society », where his expertise, learning and humility in discussion aroused the admiration of non-Catholics.
He published W. Hilton's Scale of Perfection; besides various translations and other writings, he left three classic works of spirituality: The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (London 1853); The German Mystics of the Fourteenth Century (ibid. 1858); The Holy Communion (Dublin 1861).
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Enrico E. G. Rope