John Mason Neale: A Life of Service and Artistry
Br. Jonathan Maury
The latter two “lights” of the clerestory windows in the Monastery chapel are Anglican “saints” and religious founders who “shone as lights to the world in their generations.”
The first of these is blessed John Mason Neale, a priest of the Church of England and ardent classical scholar, born in London 24 January 1818. The son of a clergyman, John Mason (himself named for a prominent Puritan cleric and hymnwriter) was raised in the evangelical tradition and yet was also steeped in the worship tradition of the Restoration Book of Common Prayer of 1662.
At Trinity College, Cambridge University, John Mason excelled in studies of classical Greek and Latin texts, placing first in his class for these subjects in each of his university years. Neale came under the influence of the Oxford Movement and catholic revival in the Church of England. He was among the founders of the Ecclesiological Society which advocated enriched religious church decoration and the revival of catholic ritual. Upon graduation and ordination, he served briefly as a parish priest but was forced to resign due to chronic lung disease.
Neale’s “high church” sympathies met with much opposition and eventually he underwent fourteen years of “inhibition” from parochial ministry by his bishop. Yet his love of classical studies bore fruit in his English translations of the Eastern liturgies and of hymns from the Greek and Latin traditions. The Hymnal 1982 includes over forty of his texts, mostly translations of ancient works (for example, “All glory, laud and honor”) but, including as well, his own hymn texts (for example, “Good Christian friends, rejoice”) set to medieval tunes.
His love of classical studies bore fruit in his English translations of the Eastern liturgies and of hymns from the Greek and Latin traditions.
My personal devotion to John Mason Neale was inspired by a 1977 visit to East Grinstead in Sussex, England. There was located Sackville College, not an educational institution but, a communal home for the aged ailing and poor founded in 1609. Neale was called as warden, the resident clergyperson and director of the college, in 1846. It was at Sackville that he and his wife Sarah Norman Webster raised a family of five. Neale was also the co-founder of the Society of Saint Margaret as a nursing order which served the colleges residents while living as a monastic community. Neale and the sisters suffered persecution from those suspicious of and hostile toward the revival of religious life in the Church of England, to the extent that Neale was attacked and mauled at the funeral of one of the sisters, faced with threats to stone him and to burn down his home.
Still serving at Sackville, John Mason Neale passed into the nearer presence of Christ in 1866 at age 48. The light of his holy life shines on in the Monastery window which depicts him in eucharistic vestments and witnessing to the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament as he offers Holy Communion to a kneeling Saint Margaret sister.
Blessed John Mason pray for us, descendants of your vision and artistry!
Questions for Reflection
Have you ever experienced a time in which the way forward seemed closed, but something beautiful or lasting emerged?
What gave you strength or hope during that time?
John Mason Neale’s hymn texts and translations continue to be sung today.
How does the experience of singing a hymn connect you with past and future generations of worshippers?
