HAWKS, EDWARD

Teacher, writer; b. Abergarenny, South Wales, Feb. 17, 1878; d. Philadelphia, Pa., Jan. 22, 1955. He was the son of Edward and Theresa (Hallam) Hawks and lived an uneventful youth in Wales before the family settled in Bristol, England. At 21 he immigrated to Canada to prepare for the Anglican ministry. He studied for a time at Bishop's College, Lennoxville, Canada, and then spent several years as a lay missionary in the mining camps of northern Canada. In 1903 Hawks entered the Episcopal seminary at Nashotah, Wis., where he received orders and became a member of the faculty, teaching Latin and Greek. At Nashotah, Hawks joined the Companions of the Holy Saviour, which had been founded in Philadelphia by William McGarvey, an advocate of clerical celibacy and Anglo-Catholic ideals.

When the Episcopal Church altered its canon law in 1907 to permit non-Episcopalians to preach before its congregations, the Companions regarded this "open pulpit" amendment as a denial of the historic priesthood and episcopacy. After resigning his position as instructor at Nashotah, Hawks entered the Catholic Church in 1908, and was soon followed by McGarvey and most of his congregation. In 1911 Hawks became a priest in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, where he served for several years as a parish curate. During World War I he was a chaplain in the Canadian Army. Upon returning to Philadelphia in 1919, he established the parish of St. Joan of Arc, where he remained until his death. For many years Hawks wrote a column on current events for the diocesan newspaper, the Catholic Standard and Times. From 1936 to 1938, after becoming a domestic prelate, he toured Spain to gather accounts of the civil war for his column. His efforts on behalf of the Nationalist cause won him a decoration from the Spanish government.

[d. a. quaintance]