Drane, Augusta Theodosia
DRANE, AUGUSTA THEODOSIA (1823-1894), English writer, was born at Bromley, near Bow, on the 29th of December 1823. Brought up in the Anglican creed, she fell under the influence of Tractarian teaching at Torquay, and joined the Roman Catholic Church in 1850. She wrote, and published anonymously, an essay questioning the Morality of Tractarianism, which was attributed to John Henry Newman. In 1852, after a prolonged stay in Rome, she joined the third order of St Dominic, to which she belonged for over forty years. She was prioress (1872-1881) of the Stone convent in Staffordshire, where she died on the 29th of April 1894. Her chief works in prose and verse are: The History of Saint Dominic (1857; enlarged edition, 1891); The Life of St Catherine of Siena (1880; 2nd ed., 1899); Christian Schools and Scholars (1867); The Knights of St John (1858); Songs in the Night (1876); and the Three Chancellors (1859), a sketch of the lives of William of Wykeham, William of Waynflete and Sir Thomas More.
A complete list of her writings is given in the Memoir of Mother Francis Raphael, O.S.D., Augusta Theodosia Drane, edited by B. Wilberforce, O.P. (London, 1895).
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
