Grangegorman Lives: Basil William Maturin

Born at All Saint’s vicarage Grangegorman, Maturin was a popular and effective clergyman and preacher in the Anglican faith. He practiced and preached in Britain, United States and South Africa and produced the first in a series of religious publications titled Some principles and practices of spiritual life. In 1897, however, he converted to Catholicism and was ordained in 1898. He continued to preach in Britain and the US, and he frequently preached in Ireland. He continued to publish writings charting his gradual move towards Catholicism. Following a trip to New York to undertake preaching engagements there, he boarded the Lusitania in May 1915 to return Britain. Tragically, he died when the ship was torpedoed and sank off the Old Head of Kinsale. Read more about his fascinating life

Grangegorman Lives is a series of biographies of over 60 women and men whose lives influenced or were influenced by Grangegorman. The biographies are all sourced from Ireland’s Dictionary of Irish Biography: Ireland’s national biographical dictionary. Devised, researched, written and edited under the auspices of the Royal Irish Academy, its online edition is freely available at dib.ie

Article image courtesy of the Sophia Institute.