Martin D'Arcy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Martin D'Arcy

Born(1888-06-15)15 June 1888[1]
Died20 November 1976(1976-11-20) (aged 88)[2]
OccupationPriest (Roman Catholic, Jesuit)
NationalityBritish
EducationStonyhurst College
Alma materCampion Hall, Oxford
Period20th century
GenrePhilosophy
Notable worksThe Mind and Heart of Love (1945)
RelativesConyers D'Arcy SJ (brother)

Martin Cyril D'Arcy SJ (15 June 1888 – 20 November 1976) was a Jesuit priest, philosopher of love, and a correspondent, friend, and adviser to a range of literary and artistic figures including Evelyn Waugh,[3] Dorothy L. Sayers, W. H. Auden, Eric Gill and Sir Edwin Lutyens. He has been described as "perhaps England's foremost Catholic public intellectual from the 1930s until his death".[4]

Background and education[edit]

Born at Bath, Somerset,[5] the youngest of four sons of Northern Circuit barrister Martin Valentine D'Arcy and Madoline Mary (née Keegan),[6][7] D'Arcy was educated at Stonyhurst, at Oxford (M.A.),[8] and at the Gregorian University in Rome.[9][5] He entered the Society of Jesus in 1907 and was ordained priest in 1921. He was Provincial of the English Province of the Society of Jesus from 1945 to 1950.

Career[edit]

He spent much of his working life at the English Jesuit house in Oxford, Campion Hall, but also spent periods in residence at American universities, including Georgetown University, Gonzaga University, Cornell, and at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Among the converts he received into the church was the German-Jewish Baroness Vera von der Heydt.[10]

His major work is The Mind and Heart of Love, published by T. S. Eliot at Faber and Faber in 1945,[11] which explores theological relation of eros love and agape love.

Works[edit]

  • The Nature of Belief (1931)
  • The Pain of this World and the Providence of God (1935)
  • The Mind and Heart of Love (1945)

Death[edit]

D'Arcy died on 20 November 1976 at the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth, St John's Wood, London. He is buried in St. Mary's Roman Catholic Cemetery, Kensal Green.

Memorials[edit]

His grave is 39 NE at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Cemetery, marked with a shared granite grave marker, his details are on the right hand panel.

The permanent collection of Loyola University Museum of Art is named in his memory the Martin D'Arcy Collection.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Sire 1997, p. 3.
  2. ^ "Fr. M. D'Arcy, S.J., Dead at Age 88". The St. Louis Review. 26 November 1976. p. 2. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
  3. ^ Ker, Ian. "Waugh the Catholic". The Tablet.
  4. ^ Richard Harp, "A Conjuror at the Xmas Party", TLS, 11 December 2009.
  5. ^ a b "Rev. Martin D'Arcy A Jesuit Philosopher, Dies in London at 88", The New York Times, 22 November 1976
  6. ^ "The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 6 January 2011 [2004]. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/30998. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  7. ^ "From the Archives: the D'Arcy Papers | Jesuits in Britain". www.jesuit.org.uk. Archived from the original on 26 July 2017.
  8. ^ Current Biography Yearbook 1960, ed. Charles Moritz, H. W. Wilson Co., 1961, p. 107
  9. ^ "Martin Cyril d'Arcy".
  10. ^ Skinner, John (22 November 1996). "Obituary. Vera von der Heydt". The Independent. Retrieved 7 June 2023.
  11. ^ M. C. D'Arcy, The Mind And Heart Of Love: Lion And Unicorn, A Study In Eros And Agape, Faber and Faber, 1945.

Sources[edit]

External links[edit]