Frederick William Faber Biography Quotes 5 Report mistakes

Early Life and Education
Frederick William Faber was born in England in 1814 and grew up in a culture shaped by the Church of England and the classical education prized in the early nineteenth century. He showed literary gifts at an early age and, like many of his contemporaries, pursued studies at Oxford. At the university he experienced the intellectual and spiritual currents that were reshaping Anglican thought, and he formed relationships that would profoundly mark his vocation. By temperament he was reflective and poetic, combining a keen sense for doctrine with a warm, affective religious imagination.

Awakening in the Oxford Movement
As a young Anglican clergyman Faber encountered the leaders of the Oxford Movement, including John Henry Newman, Edward Bouverie Pusey, and John Keble. Their call to recover the catholic heritage of Anglicanism appealed to his longing for historical continuity and spiritual depth. He read the Fathers, imbibed sacramental theology, and admired the seriousness with which these mentors treated prayer, ascetic discipline, and the authority of the Church. The friendships and debates of this period formed his first great circle: rigorous minds who prized beauty in worship and integrity in doctrine.

Parish Ministry at Elton
Faber served as a parish priest in Elton in Huntingdonshire, where his preaching and pastoral zeal won affection while also drawing notice for their distinctly catholic tone. He encouraged frequent communion, reverent liturgy, and popular devotions compatible with Anglican discipline. The village became a laboratory for his pastoral ideals: dignified worship, catechesis that spoke to the heart as well as the intellect, and a concern for the moral formation of families. Yet the more he internalized the Oxford Movement's arguments, the more he questioned the ecclesial claims of Anglicanism.

Conversion to Roman Catholicism
The crisis of conscience ripened in the mid-1840s. Like Newman, Faber concluded that coherence lay not in a via media but in full communion with Rome. He was received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1845, entering a community newly energized by converts and supported publicly by Nicholas Wiseman, whose leadership shaped the restored Catholic hierarchy in England. Faber's decision, costly in friendships and prospects, was nonetheless decisive; shortly thereafter he was ordained a Catholic priest. He retained deep respect for his former colleagues, even as his new loyalties reoriented his life.

The Oratory and the London Mission
Catholic England in the 1840s required communities capable of preaching, educating, and organizing lay devotion. Faber initially gathered a small band of companions under generous lay patronage, notably that of John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, who supported new Catholic ventures. Newman, forming the Birmingham Oratory in the spirit of St. Philip Neri, encouraged Faber and his companions to adopt the Oratorian way. Faber embraced the rule and, with characteristic energy, founded the London Oratory. There he served as superior, shaping a house renowned for preaching, confession, spiritual direction, and music. Although he and Newman sometimes differed in pastoral style and emphasis, they remained linked by a common vision of sanctifying English life through sound teaching and accessible devotion. The London Oratory became a focal point for converts, immigrants, and seekers in a swiftly growing metropolis.

Spiritual Writer and Hymn-Composer
Faber's pen was as active as his pulpit. He wrote devotional and theological works that aimed to bring the mysteries of the faith into the interior life of ordinary believers. Among his widely read books were All for Jesus, Growth in Holiness, The Foot of the Cross, and The Precious Blood. His pages combine doctrinal clarity with an ardent, persuasive tone, insisting that sanctity is possible in every state of life. He also composed hymns that entered the common prayer of English-speaking Christians across denominational lines. Faith of Our Fathers gave voice to Catholic memory and steadfastness; Hark! Hark! My Soul and Jesus, My Lord, My God, My All expressed his personal devotion in forms the faithful could sing; There's a Wideness in God's Mercy captured his abiding conviction that divine tenderness exceeds human fear. These works traveled far beyond the Oratory's walls and ensured his name would be remembered wherever congregations sang.

Circles of Friendship and Influence
Faber moved within a network that shaped Victorian religious history. Newman remained a crucial interlocutor and, at times, a counterweight whose prudence complemented Faber's emotive eloquence. Pusey and Keble, though they did not follow him into Catholicism, were part of the spiritual genealogy he never disowned. In the Catholic revival, Wiseman's encouragement gave institutional stability to new communities, while Henry Edward Manning, another prominent convert, represented a vigorous, reforming spirit in the English Church. Lay allies such as the Earl of Shrewsbury provided resources and public support. Over all this hovered the gentle figure of St. Philip Neri, whose cheerfulness, love of the laity, and confidence in music and preaching as paths to God informed Faber's pastoral method.

Style, Teaching, and Pastoral Vision
Faber's originality lay in joining affective piety to careful doctrine. He prized beauty as a catechist in its own right: noble hymn tunes, eloquent preaching, and stately ritual could soften hearts and prepare them for conversion and perseverance. He urged frequent confession and communion, the sanctification of daily duties, and filial love for the Blessed Virgin Mary. His writing avoided arid abstraction, pressing readers to desire holiness and to trust the superabundance of grace. He worked to give English Catholics a robust devotional culture that could sustain faith in a plural society. The Oratorian tradition's freedom from vows, emphasis on fraternity, and dedication to the confessional suited his personality and enabled him to mentor both laypeople and clergy.

Final Years and Death
The demands of preaching, writing, and administration taxed his health. Even so, he continued to direct the London Oratory and to publish books that reached a wide audience. He died in 1863, mourned by parishioners, fellow Oratorians, and readers who had found in his pages a guide to prayer and an advocate for the mercy of God. His burial among his brethren symbolized the community he had built: a house where the sacraments were celebrated, the poor consoled, and the beauty of worship made credible to a skeptical age.

Legacy
Frederick William Faber's legacy endures in multiple registers. As a founder, he helped establish the London Oratory as a durable center of Catholic life in Britain. As an author, he furnished nineteenth-century Catholics with a language of devotion that remains in print. As a hymn writer, he gave English-speaking Christians texts that have outlived confessional divisions and are still sung in churches across the world. His friendships with Newman and other leaders placed him at the heart of a generation that reconfigured British religious culture. Above all, his confidence in the vastness of divine mercy and the accessibility of sanctity continues to invite readers and congregations to turn doctrine into prayer and prayer into life.

Our collection contains 5 quotes who is written by Frederick, under the main topics: Kindness - Self-Discipline - Self-Improvement - God.