Leo Sherley-Price

Lionel Digby (Leo) Sherley-Price (1911–1998) was a Church of England clergyman and Oblate of Saint Benedict who translated medieval Christian literature for the Penguin Classics series.

Life

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Sherley-Price was a student at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, graduating Bachelor of Arts in 1932, and went on to study at Chichester Theological College in 1933.[1] In 1935 he was ordained as an Anglican priest.[2] In 1936 he graduated Master of Arts and was commissioned as a chaplain in the Royal Navy.[3] From 1937 to 1939 he went to China as chaplain aboard the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle,[4] an experience that influenced his 1951 book Confucius and Christ. In November 1942 he was transferred to HMS Unicorn.[5]

From 1963 to 1969 he was rector of Thurlestone and from 1965 to 1969 rural dean of Woodleigh, Devon.[1] In 1969 he became vicar of Dawlish in the same county.[1] From 1974 to 1978 he was incumbent at Manaton and North Bovey. He relinquished his commission as a Royal Navy reserve chaplain in 1977.[6] He retired from full-time ministry in 1978.[2] In 1985 he celebrated 50 years as an Anglican priest.[4] His wife, Nora, passed away on 7 December 1995.[7] He died at Bovey Tracey hospital on 1 November 1998.[8]

Writings

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As author

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  • Saints of England (Church Literature Association, 1936)
  • Confucius and Christ: A Christian Estimate of Confucius (Dacre Press, 1951)[9]

As translator

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  • Little Flowers of Saint Francis (Penguin Books, 1951)
  • Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ (Penguin Books, 1952)
  • Bede, A History of the English Church and People (Penguin Books, 1955)[10]
  • Walter Hilton, The Ladder of Perfection (Penguin Books, 1957)
  • Lent with Saint Francis: Readings from Early Franciscan Literature (Mowbray, 1958)
  • Francis of Assisi, S. Francis of Assisi: His Life and Writings as Recorded by His Contemporaries (Mowbray, 1959)
  • Julian of Norwich, Lent with Mother Julian: Reading from her "Revelations of divine love" (Mowbray, 1962)
  • Thomas of Eccleston, The Coming of the Franciscans (Mowbray, 1964)

References

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  1. ^ a b c Crockford's Clerical Directory (1971), p. 867.
  2. ^ a b Crockford's Clerical Directory (1987), p. 503.
  3. ^ The Navy List (October 1937), p. 136.
  4. ^ a b "Fifty Years of Service", Herald Express, 21 December 1985, p. 15.
  5. ^ The Navy List (October 1943), vol. 2, p. 2605.
  6. ^ The London Gazette, 1 March 1977, p. 2829.
  7. ^ The Daily Telegraph, 9 December 1995, p. 20.
  8. ^ The Daily Telegraph, 5 November 1998, p. 30.
  9. ^ Reviewed by Joachim Wach in Church History, 21:2 (1952), p. 179.
  10. ^ Reviewed by B. D. Till in Theology, 58:426 (1955), pp. 469-471.