Thomas Grant (1816–70) – Rector and ‘Piccolo Santo’

A hundred and fifty years ago, the Venerable English College would have been abuzz with bishops from England and Wales as they attended the First Vatican Council (1869–70). One of them, Thomas Grant (1816–70), died at the College on 1 June 1870 as a result of a longstanding illness. As well as being a former Rector and the first bishop of Southwark, he had, even in his lifetime, a reputation for holiness, humility and ascetism. At his death, Pope Pius IX (1792–1878) is supposed to have exclaimed: ‘another Saint in heaven!’

Thomas Grant was born at Ligny-les-Aires in northern France on 25 November 1816. His father, Bernard, had then recently fought at the battle of Waterloo with the 71st Highlanders (later to become part of the Highland Light Infantry) and went on to obtain a commission as captain. Both his parents were of Irish stock: his mother was a McGowan and the family surname – Garraghty – had been changed to Grant so that Bernard could more smoothly progress in his army career.

As the son of a soldier, the future bishop spent his childhood in diverse places – France, Malta, Canada, and, finally, Chester. Educated first at Ushaw College, Durham, the young Thomas progressed to the Venerable English College in December 1836, where the Rector was then Nicholas Wiseman (1802–65). The young Thomas Grant became a leading light in the College’s Literary Society and among his presentations was one on the College Library, implying that he served as student librarian. In 1841 he graduated as Doctor of Divinity and was ordained a priest. Staying on in Rome, he continued his studies in civil and canon law, acting first as secretary to the English cardinal, Charles Januarius Acton (1803–47), and then, on 13 October 1844, succeeding Charles Baggs (1806–45) as College Rector.  

Portrait of Thomas Grant as Rector of the Venerable English College, Rome, 1844–51

Grant threw himself into the job. He successfully won a longstanding lawsuit against one Signor Bianchi, retaking possession of College lands at Monte Porzio lost during the French occupation. He seems to have been respected by the students and, although scrupulous in the observance of rules, had a very human side. It is related that, on his fortnightly visits to the College property at Magliana, he would call together the contadini (country folk) and distribute wine.

Grant had to guide the College through the troubled times of the 1848 Revolution, the subsequent flight of the pope, and the declaration of a Roman Republic. Students were forced to wear lay clothes, for fear of anti-clerical attacks, and, when Rome was besieged by French troops in 1849, the community took refuge at its summer house in Monte Porzio. Grant and one chosen student courageously returned to the College to secure it against attack, proudly raising there the Union Jack. This was considered such an emblem of safety that the Holy Office entrusted Grant with the safekeeping of some of its important documents. The College buildings escaped serious damage, beyond some bullet holes and the tower being struck by a cannon ball, which was for many years kept as a memento. Memorably, the Rector found an ingenious way to send messages to his students at Monte Porzio:

by rolling them up as a cigar, and thus getting them through the pickets in the mouth of a trusted messenger. He used to date these notes from the successive reigns of the kings of England, thus ensuring that the absence of any one from the series would be noted at once, and by dint of excelling himself in his habit of writing very small, he was able to convey a fair amount of news.[1]

Grant, like all rectors in this period, also acted as Agent for the English and Welsh Vicars Apostolic and did much work behind the scenes preparing for the restoration of the Hierarchy in 1850 – the replacement of the Vicars Apostolic (effectively missionary bishops) with the current system of diocesan bishops. It is perhaps little surprise, given the competence that he had displayed as Rector, that he was nominated as first bishop of the new see of Southwark: he was consecrated bishop on 6 July 1851.

Grant had much to do in his large diocese, then stretching from south London to the Channel Islands. Under his leadership, the number of churches in Southwark increased from 58 to 144 and school provision was set up for some 35,000 children. He frequently acted as a negotiator with the British government, being seen (rightly or wrongly) as a safer pair of hands than Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman of Westminster, much to the latter’s frustration. Moreover, Grant had an important role in arranging Catholic chaplains in the British Army. With the help of Henry Edward Manning (1808–92), Wiseman’s future successor, he sent chaplains to the Crimea and to India during the mutiny of 1857.

Well known for his simplicity and holiness of life, Grant suffered from 1862 until his death with stomach problems, possibly ulcers or, as his first biographers suggested, cancer. Nevertheless, despite declining health, he was enthusiastic in travelling to Rome to attend the First Vatican Council (1869–70) in which he took an active part, being appointed Latinist and a member of one of the congregations.

Thomas Grant as bishop of Southwark, photographed in 1869 at the start of the First Vatican Council

It is interesting that, along with several other English bishops, and going against the position of Manning, he thought it inopportune to define papal infallibility as a dogma, though he was happy to assent to its doctrinal truth.

Much to his regret, he was taken seriously ill in mid-February 1870 and had to be confined to his room, which was described in 1929 as ‘the one near the Archive overlooking the present swimming tank’.[2] Such was the pope’s esteem for Grant, whom he called his piccolo santo (‘little saint’), that Pius IX visited him on 7 March 1870, sitting with him in his sick room for a quarter of an hour and then viewing, with him, the site where the present College church was being constructed.

Carte-de-visite photograph of Pius IX in 1870

Thomas Grant remained elated for some time after this unexpected visit but the illness continued its destructive course and he died on 1 June 1870. His body was taken back to England to be buried not in his cathedral but in the cemetery attached to the convent orphanage at Norwood.

Thomas Grant’s role in the nineteenth-century Catholic revival is often downplayed, partly because of his self-deprecating personality and his later disagreements with Wiseman and Manning, but, on the 150th anniversary of his death, credit should be given to this hard-working and saintly prelate.  

[1] The Venerabile, vol. 4 (1929), no. 3, 252–53.

[2] Ibid., 262.