John Feetham (bishop)

Saint John Oliver Feetham (28 January 1873 – 14 September 1947) was a long-serving[1] Anglican bishop[2] in Australia who was aligned with the Anglo-Catholic tradition.[3] He is recognised as a saint in the Anglican Church of Australia.

St John Oliver Feetham (1873-1947), Anglican Bishop of North Queensland from 1913 to 1947.

Early life

Feetham was born into an ecclesiastical family, his father was the Reverend William Feetham, Rural Dean of Raglan, Monmouthshire and his mother the daughter of an archdeacon.[4] He was educated at Marlborough College and Trinity Hall, Cambridge.[5][6]

Religious life

Feetham was ordained in 1899.[7] After a curacy at St Simon Zelotes, Bethnal Green,[8] he was Principal[9] of the Brotherhood of the Good Shepherd (one of the Australian Bush Brotherhoods).[10] In 1913 he was ordained to the episcopate as the fourth Bishop of North Queensland.[11]

Feetham established a number of Anglican schools in North Queensland; All Souls and St Gabriel's in Charters Towers, St Anne's in Townsville and St Mary's in Herberton.[12]

Later life, death and relics

Feetham died on 14 September 1947[13] and his ashes, being holy relics, are interred beneath the high altar at St James' Cathedral, Townsville.[14]

Feetham is commemorated in the Australian Anglican calendar. His feast day, known throughout the Diocese of North Queensland as 'Feetham-mass' is celebrated on 15 September.

The Anglican Church in Cardwell, Queensland, is under Feetham's patronage, and was consecrated as 'John Oliver Feetham Church'.

References

1. "Bishop's Lodge (entry 600883)". Queensland Heritage Register. Queensland Heritage Council. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
2. "James Cook University of North Queensland". Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
3. Anglo-Catholicism in Australia
4. Who was Who 1987-1990: London, A & C Black, 1991 ISBN 0-7136-3457-X
5. "Feetham, John Oliver (FTN892JO)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
6. The Times, 14 December 1891 p. 12, "University Intelligence Oxford, Dec. 12"
7. The Clergy List, Clerical Guide and Ecclesiastical Directory, London, John Phillips, 1900
8. Genuki
9. ADB on-line
10. NLA Catalogue
11. "Ecclesiastical Intelligence. New Bishop Of North Queensland", The Times 1 November 1912, p. 4.
12. Moore, Alison (1981). "Feetham, John Oliver (1873–1947)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
13. "Obituary Bishop Of North Queensland", The Times 16 September 1947, p. 6
14. Cathedral website

Anglican Communion titles
Preceded by George Horsfall Frodsham	Bishop of North Queensland 1913 –1947	Succeeded by Wilfrid Bernard Belcher