Benedicta ward biography examples

British theologian and historian (1933–2022)

Benedicta WardSLG (born Florence Margaret Ward, 4 February 1933 – 23 May 2022^[2]) was a Church of England nun, theologian and historian.

She was a member of the Anglicanreligious order, the Community of the Sisters of the Love of God and reader in early Christian spirituality at Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford.^[3][1] She was particularly known for her research on the Desert Fathers, popularising the collection of their writings known as the Apophthegmata Patrum.^[4] She wrote extensively on Anselm of Canterbury and Bede.^[5]

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 Anglicanism through the beauty of choral evensong. At the age of 22 she entered the Community of the Siste