Vicariate Apostolic of Dahomey
Father Damien (Joseph de Veuster)
Antoine-Elisabeth Dareste de la Chavanne
Victor Augustin Isidore Dechamps
Feast of the Dedication (Scriptural)
Defender of the Matrimonial Tie
Definitors (in Religious Orders)
Dei gratia Dei et Apostolicæ Sedis gratia
Ferdinand-Victor-Eugène Delacroix
Ambrose Lisle March Phillipps De Lisle
Prefecture Apostolic of the Delta of the Nile
Johann Nepomuk Cosmas Michael Denis
Jacques-René de Brisay Denonville
Heinrich Joseph Dominicus Denzinger
Jean Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin
Deus in Adjutorium Meum Intende
Francisco Garcia Diego y Moreno
Melchior, Baron (Freiherr) von Diepenbrock
Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite
Institute of the Divine Compassion
Daughters of the Divine Redeemer
Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger
Emmanuel-Henri-Dieudonné Domenech
Ferdinand-François-Auguste Donnet
Juan Francesco Maria de la Saludad Donoso Cortés
Clemens August von Droste-Vischering
Louis-Guillaume-Valentin Dubourg
Phillippe-Charles-Jean-Baptiste-Tronson Du Coudray
Daniel Greysolon, Sieur Du Lhut
Felix-Antoine-Philibert Dupanloup
Archdiocese of Durango (Durangum)
Also known as FRANCISCUS À SANCTA CLARA and sometimes by the alias of FRANCIS HUNT and FRANCIS COVENTRY.
Theologian, b. 1598, at Coventry, England, d. 31 May, 1680. He was the son of Alderman John Davenport and Elizabeth Wolley, and from the grammar school at Coventry went to Dublin where he spent fifteen months, leaving it 22 Nov., 1611. In 1613 he and his brother John proceeded to Merton College, Oxford, entering as "battelers" and taking Cook's commons; but the warden required them to enter as commoners or to leave the college; whereon in 1614 they migrated to Magdalen Hall. Here Christopher became B. A. on 28 May, his Dublin residence being allowed to count. (Oxford University Register.) John subsequently became a noted Puritan divine and emigrated to New England, where with a band of colonists he founded the city of New Haven, Connecticut (1638). Christopher was converted to Catholicism by a priest living near Oxford and in 1615 went to Douay. Attracted by the efforts restore the English Franciscan Province, he joined the Flemish Franciscans at Ypres, 7 Oct., 1617. When he was professed (under the name of Franciscan à Sancta Clara) he joined the English Recollects at the newly-established convent of St. Bonaventure at Douay (18 Oct., 1618). He was sent to the University of Salamanca in Spain, where he took is degree in divinity and won reputation theologian. Returning to Douay, he became first professor of theology at St. Bonaventure's and filled the office of guardian. At length he was sent to England and was appointed chaplain to Queen Henrietta Maria, in which capactity he attended the Court and became acquainted with King Charles I, Archbishop Laud, Montague, Bishop of Norwich, and Goodman, Bishop of Gloucester. Inspired with the idea of converting England by means of corporate reunion, he wrote a treatise to show that the Thirty-nine Articles were susceptible of an interpretation more in accordance with Catholic teaching than was usually supposed. This was the "Paraphrastica Expositio Articulorum Confessionis Anglicanae", published as an appendix to his book, "Deus, Nature, Gratia", in 1634. It offended many Catholics and was put on the Index in Spain, though a condemnation at Rome was averted by Panzani, the pope's nuncio in London.
On 19, June, 1637, Davenport was elected provincial of the order, an office to which he was subsequently re-elected, 10 July 1650, and 4 June, 1665. After the Restoration he was appointed chaplain to Queen Catharine of Braganza, and returned to London, where he spent most of his remaining years with occasional visits to Flanders. His intellectual ability and attractive manner won him the friendship of many, and aided in reconciling numerous converts, among whom was Anne, Duchess of York. He lived to celebrate three jubilees -- of religious profession, of the priesthood, and of the mission.
His works are:
ANTHONY A WOOD Athenæ Oxonieneses, ed. BLISS (London, 1817), III, 1221; Gillow. Bibl. Dict. Cath., s. v.; Oxford Historical Society, Oxford University Register (Oxford, 1887), X. 374; PERRY in Dict. Nat. Biog. (London, 1888), XIV; Foster, Alumni Oxonienses (Oxford, 1891), I. 376; Shahan, Christopher Davenport in U. S. Cath. Hist. Magazine (Philadelphia, April, 1888), II, 153.
EDWIN BURTON