WATTSON, LEWIS THOMAS. — Founder of the Franciscan Friars of the “Atonement,” born at Millington (Maryland, U.S.A.) on 16 January 1863, died at Graymoor (Nuova York) on 8 February 1940.
The son of a pastor of the Episcopal Church, when he was ordained pastor of the church of St. James at Kingston (Nuova York) in 1893, he felt more keenly the desire, already cherished in his youth, to found within the Anglican Church a religious community devoted to the Franciscan ideals of “reconciliation.” Having entered into contact with the Anglican nun Francesca Lurana, he persuaded her to become the foundress of the female branch of the community he had conceived, and in 1896 together they laid the foundations of the new institution at Graymoor (Nuova York). W., increasingly convinced of the necessity of relying upon the Rock of Peter, created the “Pro Unione” movement in 1900, which he supported from 2 February 1903 through the new periodical The Lamp, and in 1907 instituted the Octave of Prayers (v.) for the Union with Rome of all dissenters, establishing its days as 18–25 January and the particular intention for each day. In the second year, the Octave produced its splendid fruit: the two communities of the Atomement passed bodily into the Catholic Church and were recognized as a religious institute. From that day the two institutions developed rapidly, and in 1946 the church of St. Onofrio on the Gianicolo was entrusted to the Franciscans of the Atomement; there the center of the Octave for the Unity of the Church was established, which had by then become a universal practice and was supported from 1946 by the periodical Unitas. W. produced numerous works both for assistance to the Missions through The Lamp and for the “Union”; he is also responsible for the original institution of the “Hour of the Hail Mary,” during which very many radio stations, at a set hour, broadcast episodes from the lives of the Saints as an incentive to a more Christian life.