St Mary of the Angels, Bayswater

A mission was started in Bayswater in 1849. As the labourers building Paddington Station were mainly Irish Catholic, Cardinal Wiseman saw a need for a Catholic church in the area, and asked Provost Henry Manning to undertake the task.[https://parish.rcdow.org.uk/bayswater/about-the-parish/ "About the Parish", St Mary of the Angels]

The construction of the original building began in 1851 to original designs by Thomas Meyer in the Puginian Gothic style. Meyers also built, around the same time, St Joseph's Church in Avon Dassett, Warwickshire.[https://books.google.com/books?id=0UCQl0ocbZMC&dq=St+Mary+of+the+Angels%2C+Bayswater&pg=PA337 Murray, Peter. "Meyer or Myers?: St. Joseph's Catholic Church, Avon Dassett", English Architecture Public & Private: Essays for Kerry Downes, A&C Black, 1993, p. 283] {{ISBN|9781852850951}} Work was temporarily interrupted due to lack of funds, but was completed in 1857 by Manning's kinsman Henry Clutton, with additions by John Francis Bentley.{{NHLE|num=1223494|desc=Church of St Mary of the Angels (Roman Catholic)|accessdate= 17 November 2016}} Meyer also designed an earlier school chapel, also on Moorhouse Road.[https://books.google.com/books?id=2gTN5BuRpZEC&dq=St+Mary+of+the+Angels%2C+Bayswater&pg=PA147 Evinson, Denis. "Bayswater, St. Mary of the Angels", Catholic Churches of London, A&C Black, 1998, Chapt.8] {{ISBN|9781850758198}} The church was initially dedicated to St Helen, in honour of Helen Hargrave, a benefactor.[http://taking-stock.org.uk/Home/Dioceses/Archdiocese-of-Westminster/Bayswater-St-Mary-of-the-Angels "Bayswater -St. Mary of the Angels", Taking Stock]

A stained glass window in the north aisle depicting Vincent de Paul, the Madonna and John the Evangelist was executed by James Powell & Sons, based on a sketch by John Hungerford Pollen for the Chapel of Studley Royal and adapted as a memorial to Pollen. The window depicting the Coronation of the Virgin is by Hardman & Co.

It was listed as Grade II* by English Heritage in 1970.

The Congregation of Oblates of St Charles were founded by Wiseman. The religious orders established in his diocese did not seem to him to answer adequately to modern conditions, nor were they wholly at his disposal. The priests of the Oratory, gathered round Faber and Newman, showed him, however, what may be looked for from a diocesan society. Manning was at that time at the Cardinal's disposal, and it was to him that the duty was entrusted of founding the new society, and of drawing up its rules. Manning took the Oblates of Milan as his pattern, and gave his priests the title of "Oblates of St Charles". The rules which he prescribed for them were practically those drawn up by Charles Borromeo for his disciples adapted to English conditions, and were approved by the Holy See in 1857 and in 1877.

Wiseman installed his Oblates, with their superior and founder, at the church of St Mary of the Angels, Bayswater, on Whit Monday 1877. Before long they had created other missions or religious centres in the diocese of Westminster. Nor did the opposition of Errington, Wiseman's coadjutor, and of the Westminster chapter, hinder the advance of the society, though the Cardinal found himself, under the necessity of withdrawing them from his seminary at St Edmund's, where he had placed them. Under Manning's direction, the Oblates devoted themselves to various apostolic labours in London, and established several parishes in the two dioceses of Westminster and Southwark.[https://www.explorechurches.org/church/st-mary-angels-bayswater "Bayswater: St. Mary of the Angels", Explore Churches, National Churches Trust]

Manning governed the Bayswater community from 1857 to 1868. He held that the mission of the Oblates was to revive the English secular clergy by taking part in its life and in its labours, and thus setting them an example. [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01403a.htm Besse, Jean. "Ambrosians." The Catholic Encyclopedia] Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 5 Jun. 2019{{PD-notice}} In 1882, the Oblates opened Our Lady of the Holy Souls Church on Bosworth Road in Kensal New Town.[https://books.google.com/books?id=2gTN5BuRpZEC&dq=Oblates+of+St.+Charles%2C+London&pg=PA156 Evinson, Denis. Catholic Churches of London, A. & C. Black, 1998, p. 156]{{ISBN|9781850758198}}

Ronald Knox preached a sermon on Charles Borromeo at St Mary's.[https://books.google.com/books?id=uzKjw9KA3oYC&dq=St+Mary+of+the+Angels%2C+Bayswater&pg=PA123 Knox, Ronald. Captive Flames: On Selected Saints and Christian Heroes, Ignatius Press, 2001, p. 123] {{ISBN|9780898708363}} The Oblates continued their ministry at St Mary's until the mid-1970s.

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Category:1857 establishments in England

Category:1857 in London

Category:Religious organizations established in 1857

Category:19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United Kingdom

Saint Mary

Category:Churches in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Westminster

Category:Grade II* listed churches in the City of Westminster

Category:Grade II* listed Roman Catholic churches in England

Category:Henry Clutton buildings

Category:John Francis Bentley buildings

Category:Roman Catholic churches completed in 1857

Category:Roman Catholic churches in the City of Westminster