DALGAIRNS, JOHN DOBRE. - Bernard in religion; Oratorian theologian, of Scottish and Norman origins, b. on the island of Guernese 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 in the Paris journal « L'Univers » on the Oxford Movement; this led to a correspondence with Father Domenico Barberi, Passionist. In 1842 he joined Newman at Littlemore, and wrote several of the Lives of saints that Newman was publishing. Father Domenico received him into the Church on 29 Sept. 1845, several weeks before Newman. He subsequently lived at Langres in France with 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. On returning to England he lived at Maryvale and in London, then at the Birmingham Oratory (1853-56); he then remained in London, where he briefly 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 competence, 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).