HERBERT CARDINAL VAUGHAN
Herbert Vaughan was born on April 15 1832, into an old Catholic family, that had its seat at Courtfield, in Monmouthshire. After attending Stonyhurst and Downside College, he moved to Rome, and was ordained priest in Florence, in 1854. Returning to England, he became a member of Edward Manning’s Oblates of St Charles at Bayswater. Soon after being appointed vice-rector of St Edmund’s Hall, he felt called to found an order of missionaries. With the blessing of Cardinal Wiseman, Herbert Vaughan travelled throughout North and South America to raise funds for a new missionary college, which was opened at Mill Hill in 1871.
The following year, Herbert Vaughan was appointed Bishop of Salford, where his energy and charm earned him great popularity with the faithful in Manchester. In 1892, following the death of Cardinal Manning, he was appointed Archbishop of Westminster, and in the following year was made Cardinal Priest of St Andrew and St Gregory on the Celian Hill.
As third Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vaughan displayed characteristic energy and breadth of concern, building Catholic orphanages, increasing educational facilities, and revitalising the diocese of Westminster. His great monument, Westminster Cathedral, stands alongside innumerable colleges and institutions through which the Catholic Church grew in apostolate and confidence.
In March 1903, ill health compelled Cardinal Vaughan to withdraw to St Joseph’s, Mill Hill - the place which was, in a special way, the fruit of his prayers and labours. On June 18th, he summoned the Chapter to be present at his profession of faith. Although already dying, he vested himself in his Cardinal’s robes, and was wheeled into the Church where, surrounded by the Canons, he delivered ‘the last public utterance’ of his life. Declaring that ‘I love Jesus, and Mary, and good St Joseph and St Peter’, he asked that the profession of faith be recited, and then said in his own faltering voice, ‘I Herbert Cardinal Vaughan, so profess, and vow, and swear, so help me God and these God’s holy gospels.’ A few hours later, on 19 June, he died peacefully.
The Westminster Cathedral Chronicle noted: It has seemed to some that there were three Cardinals Vaughan, although the three were one and the same - There was Cardinal Vaughan, the stately and dignified prelate, full of graceful affability but with a certain measure of aloofness and just a fascinating touch of Napoleonic hardness. There was the Cardinal Vaughan known to his household and personal friends, never for a moment less dignified, but full of a charming kindliness and heart and wonderful simplicity, which seemed like the radiation of interior peace and joyousness. There was Cardinal Vaughan known to his confessors and the intimate few - the man of prayer, of solid and tender piety, of penitential life and saintly humility.
Indeed, during all his years of episcopate both at Salford and Westminster, the supreme duty of prayer was never neglected. In the words of the book of Maccabees ‘This is he who prays much for the people.’