Benedicta Ward (born Florence Margaret Ward, 4 February 1933 – 23 May 2022) was a
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
nun, theologian and historian. She was a member of the
Anglican
Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
religious order
A religious order is a subgroup within a larger confessional community with a distinctive high-religiosity lifestyle and clear membership. Religious orders often trace their lineage from revered teachers, venerate their Organizational founder, ...
, the
Community of the Sisters of the Love of God and
reader in early
Christian spirituality at
Harris Manchester College,
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
.
She was particularly known for her research on the
Desert Fathers
The Desert Fathers were early Christian hermits and ascetics, who lived primarily in the Wadi El Natrun, then known as ''Skete'', in Roman Egypt, beginning around the Christianity in the ante-Nicene period, third century. The ''Sayings of the Dese ...
, popularising the collection of their writings known as the ''
Apophthegmata Patrum''. She wrote extensively on
Anselm of Canterbury
Anselm of Canterbury OSB (; 1033/4–1109), also known as (, ) after his birthplace and () after his monastery, was an Italian Benedictine monk, abbot, philosopher, and theologian of the Catholic Church, who served as Archbishop of Canterb ...
and
Bede
Bede (; ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, Bede of Jarrow, the Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable (), was an English monk, author and scholar. He was one of the most known writers during the Early Middle Ages, and his most f ...
.
Life
Florence Margaret Ward was born in Durham to Methodist parents; her father had left the Church of England to marry his Methodist wife and had become a minister in his new denomination.
She came to
high church
A ''high church'' is a Christian Church whose beliefs and practices of Christian ecclesiology, Christian liturgy, liturgy, and Christian theology, theology emphasize "ritual, priestly authority, ndsacraments," and a standard liturgy. Although ...
Anglicanism through the beauty of
choral evensong. At the age of 22 she entered the
Community of the Sisters of the Love of God, an enclosed community of Anglican
contemplative nuns at Fairacres in East Oxford, as Sister Benedicta of Jesus.
Works
Ward wrote a number of books and articles, including translations of premodern texts. She was also a regular public speaker, including on the
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
series ''
A History of the World in 100 Objects''. A ''
festschrift
In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...
'' was published in her honour in 2014.
Books
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
evised version of her thesis: *
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
ystematic or thematically arranged collection of sayings from the Desert Fathers*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Articles
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, Benedicta
1933 births
2022 deaths
20th-century British Anglican nuns
20th-century British translators
20th-century British women writers
20th-century British non-fiction writers
21st-century British Anglican nuns
British Anglican theologians
Converts to Anglicanism from Methodism
British women religious writers
People from Durham, England
Scholars of the Desert Fathers