WEATHERS, WILLIAM. - Bishop, b. November 12, 1814, d. at Isleworth on March 4, 1895.
Converted to Catholicism after his father's death, he was educated by the Franciscans at Baddesley. Having obtained priestly ordination in 1838, he entered Old Hall College, where he remained for thirty years, rising from office to office up to that of rector, which he held from 1851 to 1868. His stay at Old Hall marked a memorable epoch in the history of Catholicism in southern England, because it was in the College governed by W. that the young British clergy was for the most part prepared after the re-establishment of the Catholic hierarchy in the United Kingdom (1850). An incomparable educator, a master of spirituality, a most wise director of conscience, he formed hundreds of levites for the apostolate, so as to be the most precious collaborator of the English episcopate of his time. In 1868 Pius IX called him to Rome among the theologians charged with the preparatory works of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council and conferred on him the dignity of domestic prelate; four years later he promoted him to the titular see of Amycla and appointed him coadjutor of the Archbishop of Westminster, the future Cardinal Manning. While carrying out a precious and intense pastoral activity, W. was then able to resume the scientific studies he had favored in his youth and to publish, under the transparent pseudonym of Amyclanus - taken from his episcopal title - a volume entitled An enquiry into the nature and results of electricity and magnetism (1876).
Bibliography
Renzo U. Montini