St Stephen's House, Oxford

St Stephen's House
Blazon: Gules a celestial crown between three bezants two and one or, on a chief sable an apostolic eagle between two crosses crosslet or.
University	University of Oxford
Location	16 Marston Street, Oxford
Established	1876
Named for	Saint Stephen
Principal	Robin Ward
Undergraduates	20
Postgraduates	20
Website	www.ssho.ox.ac.uk

St Stephen’s House, Oxford, colloquially known as "Staggers", is an Anglican theological college and one of six religious Permanent Private Halls of the University of Oxford, England. In its mission statement the college says that it offers "formation, education, and training for a variety of qualifications and ministries rooted in the catholic tradition, helping the church give faithful witness to Christ in contemporary society" as well as an exceptional education in a "context encouraging disciplined study, academic research and personal reflection centered in prayer and worship".

St Stephen's House was founded in 1876 by members of the Tractarian movement and has stood ever since in the Catholic tradition of the Church of England. The principal founder of the college was a Bishop of Lincoln, Edward King, who was at the time Regius Professor of Pastoral Theology at the University of Oxford. King has been acclaimed as one of the outstandingly holy men of his age and exercised considerable influence on the early life of the college. Associated with King were William Bright, the Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History; Edward Stuart Talbot, the Warden of Keble College and subsequently the Bishop of Winchester; Edwin James Palmer, Professor of Latin, Archdeacon of Oxford and later Bishop of Bombay; Edward Woolcoombe, a fellow of Balliol with a great interest in and support for the missionary movement; and John Wordsworth, Chaplain of Brasenose College. Finally among the founding band was Henry Scott Holland, then senior fellow at Christ Church and one of the leading figures in the development of the Christian social teaching of the time. It was apparently Holland who suggested naming the college in honour of St Stephen and in memory of Stephen Freemantle, a promising young priest who had died.