Mamerto Gueritz

A Country Catholic 1823–1912

David Gunn-Johnson

• Publisher: Sacristy Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781789593105
• eBook ISBN: 9781789593129
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religious Biographies

This is the story of Mamerto Gueritz, a country priest in the second half of the nineteenth century. His is a fascinating tale, with the adventures of his father and grandfather in Spain and the subsequent deeds of his children, framing the story of the man himself.

However, Mamerto Gueritz also offers an illustration of the ways in which the Catholic Revival in the Church of England, the Oxford Movement, spread and took root in the remotest corners of the kingdom. His story tells a much wider tale of the renewal of the Church, the revival of a glorious liturgical heritage and the search for holiness which, for Gueritz and many of his peers, was the driving force behind it all.

Mamerto's father had been an officer in the Royal Guard of Spain but his opposition to the absolutism of Ferdinand VII meant that he and his family had to flee. The period between the time of Gueritz' arrival as an infant refugee from Spain in 1823 and his death in 1912 may indeed be seen as the time of the emergence and flowering of what became known as the Oxford Movement. However, it was also a time of great conflict and change both in the Church and in society. Such change was not without cost and Mamerto Gueritz shared in it all, both in the battles in London and in his country parish, which proved anything but a safe haven.

The reader with a straightforward love of history will find Mamerto's story a significant addition to their store of knowledge. Those who read widely in Church history, particularly that of the nineteenth century, may find that what seems like familiar ground can be anything but!  The student of the Oxford Movement and the catholic heritage of the Church of England may yet find some further insight from hitherto unreported events and in Mamerto Gueritz find also an encouragement for the work of today.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Dedication
• Preface and acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Chapter 1. Antecedents, childhood and Mamerto Gueritz the scholar
• Chapter 2. Shepton Beauchamp and Barrington: Ordination and first curacy
• Chapter 3. The diocese of Exeter: A contextual note
• Chapter 4. The troubleshooting curate: Return to Exeter diocese
• Chapter 5. Colyton in 1860: Another contextual note
• Chapter 6. The new vicar of Colyton: Arrival and the years to 1865
• Chapter 7. London and Colyton
• Chapter 8. Sisters of Mercy: The Sisterhood of Our Lady of Compassion
• Chapter 9. “In quires and places where they sing”: Mamerto and music
• Chapter 10. Belonging and believing: Guilds, associations and societies
• Chapter 11. Reordering and resistance: Of “pues” and pulpits
• Chapter 12. Filling in the gaps
• Chapter 13. An Indian summer turns to autumn
• Chapter 14. “The Long Day Closes”: Final years, retirement and death
• Chapter 15. The next generation
• Chapter 16. The supporting cast
• Appendix 1. A letter to S. L. Ollard from E. C. Mortimer
• Chapter 2. Gueritz in “E”: A musical setting for the Holy Communion
• Chapter 3. The Borcombe Homily
• Chapter 4. Curates, assisting clergy, missions and missioners
• Chapter 5. Mamerto Gueritz—A synoptic timeline
• Bibliography