Joseph Leycester Lyne
Joseph Leycester Lyne, known by his religious name as Father Ignatius of Jesus (23 November 1837 – 16 October 1908), was an Anglican Benedictine monk.
He commenced a movement to introduce monasticism into the Church of England,
Lyne was born in Trinity Square, in the parish of All Hallows-by-the-Tower, London, on 23 November 1837. He was the second son of seven children of Francis Lyne, merchant of the City of London, by his wife Louisa Genevieve (d. 1877), daughter of George Hanmer Leycester, of White Place, near Maidenhead, Berkshire, who came of the well-known Cheshire family, the Leycesters of Tabley. In October 1847 Lyne entered St Paul's School, London, under Herbert Kynaston. In 1852, after suffering corporal punishment for a breach of discipline. His biographer, Baroness Beatrice de Bertouche, four years before his death, described it as the event, "which not only endangered his life" but also "was the cause of a distressing condition of nerve collapse, the effects of which he feels to this day". Bertouche saw it as "the culminating link in a heavy chain of influences, and one which was destined to throw a strange psychological glamour over the entire atmosphere of this devotional and emotional career." He was removed, and his education was completed at private schools in Spalding and Worcester. He early developed advanced views of sacramental doctrine.
An acquaintance with Bishop Robert Eden procured Lyne's admission to Trinity College, Glenalmond. There he studied theology from 1850 to 1858 under William Bright, and impressed the warden, John Hannah, by his earnest piety. After a year's lay work as catechist in Inverness, where his eccentricity and impatience of discipline brought him into collision with Bishop Eden, Lyne was ordained into the diaconate in 1860, on the express condition that he should remain a deacon, and abstain from preaching for three years. He became curate to George Rundle Prynne, vicar of St. Mary's, Plymouth, and soon started a guild for men and boys, called the Society of the Love of Jesus, with himself as superior. Pryme, to Lyne's mother, wrote: "He was animated by a very true spirit of devotion in carrying out such work as was assigned to him; and his earnest and loving character largely won the affections of those among whom he ministered." In Plymouth, Lyne formed two friendships which were very important in his future career; these two friends were Edward Bouverie Pusey and Priscilla Lydia Sellon. According to Bertouche, these two were "the ghostly foster-parents of the monk's vocation, or at any rate of its consummation". Almost up to his death, Pusey was the chosen administrator of the Sacrament of Penance to Ignatius. Pusey was his "friend, his confidant, his arbitrator in all situations difficult." This Society grew to about forty members. Lyne went to Pusey and Sellon for advice about it. Sellon, with Pusey's encouragement, loaned him a house to begin his community life on a monastic pattern. He was encouraged by Sellon, and largely influenced by Pusey, who presented him with his first monastic habit. With two Brothers, he took possession of this house, but the existence of the community was cut short by Lyne's serious illness. In Bruges, Belgium, where he went to recruit, he studied the Rule of Saint Benedict. On his return in 1861 he replaced Alexander Heriot Mackonochie as curate of St George in the East, London, and took charge of St. Saviour's mission church. Now convinced of his monastic vocation, he assumed the Benedictine religious habit. The innovation was challenged by Charles Lowder, founder of the Society of the Holy Cross, his ritualist vicar, and after nine months Lyne resigned rather than abandon his monastic dress.
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