1. Bonaventure Giffard was an English Catholic prelate who served as the Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District of England from 1687 to 1703 and Vicar Apostolic of the London District from 1703 to 1734.
12 Facts About Bonaventure Giffard
1. 2.
Bonaventure Giffard was the second son of Andrew Giffard of Chillington, in the parish of Brewood, Staffordshire, by Catherine, daughter of Sir Walter Leveson, born at Wolverhampton in 1642.
3.
Bonaventure Giffard's father was slain in a skirmish near Wolverhampton early in the Civil War.
4.
Bonaventure Giffard showed his moral courage by urging the King to put away his mistress, Catherine Sedley, Countess of Dorchester, a demand echoed by most of the King's councillors.
5.
Bonaventure Giffard's name is attached to the pastoral letter from the four catholic bishops which was addressed to the lay Catholics of England in 1688.
6.
In 1703, Bonaventure Giffard was transferred from the Midland to the London district, on the death of Leyburn.
7.
Bonaventure Giffard took charge of the western district from 1708 to 1713, in the absence of Bishop Michael Ellis.
8.
Bonaventure Giffard told Cardinal Sacripanti in 1706 that for sixteen years he had scarcely found anywhere a place to rest with safety.
9.
Bonaventure Giffard's name is listed on the Burdett-Coutts Memorial to the important lost graves in the graveyard.
10.
Bonaventure Giffard bequeathed his heart to Douay College, and it was buried in the chapel, where a monument with an epitaph in Latin was erected to his memory.
11.
Bonaventure Giffard procured many large benefactions for the advancement of the catholic religion and the benefit of the clergy, and at his death left about 3,000 shillings for the same ends.
12.
Bonaventure Giffard's portrait has been engraved by Claude du Bosc, from a painting by H Hysing.