Challoner, Richard

CHALLONER, RICHARD: English Roman Catholic prelate; b. at Lewes (50 m. s. of London), Sussex, Sept. 29, 1691; d. in London Jan. 12, 1781. His father was a Protestant, but died soon after his son's birth, and the latter was brought up by Roman Catholics and embraced their religion at about the age of thirteen. In 1704 he was sent to Douai and remained there as student, professor, and vice-president for twenty-six years (B.D., 1719; D.D., 1727; ordained priest 1716). In 1730 he joined the London mission, and in 1741 was consecrated coadjutor to Dr. Benjamin Petre, vicar apostolic of the London district; he became vicar apostolic on Dr. Petre's death in 1758. He was a learned and pious man, and performed his duties with faithfulness and ability, in the midst of persecution from the penal laws and the fanaticism of the English populace. He wrote upward of forty different works, controversial, devotional, historical, etc. His Memoirs of Missionary Priests . . . and of other Catholics . . . that have suffered death in England on religious accounts from the year 1577 to 1684, (2 vols., London, 1741–42; many later eds.) is the Roman Catholic "Book of Martyrs"; The Garden of the Soul (1740) is still the most popular prayer-book with English Roman Catholics; and The Rheims New Testament and the Douay Bible, with annotations (5 vols., London, 1749–50; 3d ed., revised, 1752), prepared by Challoner and under his direction, is the best-known version of the Douai Bible. His Life was written by J. Barnard (London, 1784), and by Dr. John Milner (in the 5th ed. of his Grounds of the Old Religion, 1798).

Bibliography: J. Barnard, Life of . . . R. Challoner, London, 1784; John Milner, Brief Account of the Life of Richard Challoner, prefixed to the 5th ed. of Challoner's Grounds of the Old Religion, ib. 1798; J. Gillow, Bibliographical Dictionary of English Catholics, i. 447–457, London (1885); DNB, ix. 440–443.