Oakeley, Frederick

OAKELEY, FREDERICK. - English convert, b. at Shrewsbury on 5 Sept. 1802, d. at Islington on 30 Jan. 1880. Fellow of Balliol College in 1827, parish priest of Oxford in 1839.

He enjoyed the friendship of W. G. Ward, with whom he joined the Tractarian movement. In 1839 he became incumbent of the Margaret Chapel (later All Saints, Margaret Street) in London, where he introduced the ritualistic practices of Oxford. He defended the "Tract 90" and W. G. Ward, whose book The ideal of a christian Church was condemned at Oxford in 1845. At Littlemore he was received into the Catholic Church in Nov. 1845. Ordained priest by the future card. N. Wiseman, in 1847 (Gillow says 1848) he became rector of St. John's Islington (1850) and canon of Westminster (1852).

A skilled writer and preacher, a zealous parish priest, he enjoyed wide influence. Before his conversion he published The life of st. Augustine of Canterbury (London 1844); then, having become a Catholic: The Order and ceremonial of the Mass (ibid. 1848); The catholic florist (ibid. 1851); The Church of the Bible (ibid. 1857); Lyra liturgica and Historical notes on the tractarian movement (ibid. 1865); The priest on the mission (ibid. 1871) and The voice of Creation (ibid. 1876).