37 Facts About Richard Crashaw

Richard Crashaw was ordained as a clergyman in the Church of England and in his theology and practice embraced the High Church reforms of Archbishop Laud.

Richard Crashaw became infamous among English Puritans for his use of Christian art to decorate his church, for his devotion to the Virgin Mary, for his use of Catholic vestments, and for many other reasons.

When Puritan General Oliver Cromwell seized control of the city in 1643, Richard Crashaw was ejected from his parish and fellowship and became a refugee, first in France and then in the Papal States.

Richard Crashaw found employment as an attendant to Cardinal Giovanni Battista Maria Pallotta at Rome.

Richard Crashaw's work is said to be marked by a focus toward "love with the smaller graces of life and the profounder truths of religion, while he seems forever preoccupied with the secret architecture of things".

Richard Crashaw was born in London, England, circa 1612 or 1613.

Richard Crashaw was the only son of William Crashaw.

William Richard Crashaw was a Cambridge-educated clergyman who served as a preacher at London's Inner Temple.

Richard Crashaw was born in or near Handsworth in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and came from a wealthy family.

William Richard Crashaw wrote and published many pamphlets advocating Puritan theology that were sharply critical of Catholicism.

Scholars believe that as a child, Richard Crashaw read extensively from his father's private library.

Richard Crashaw's guardians sent him to the Charterhouse School in 1629.

At Charterhouse, Richard Crashaw was a pupil of the school's headmaster, Robert Brooke.

Richard Crashaw required his students to write epigrams and verse in Greek and Latin based on the Epistle and Gospel readings from the day's chapel services.

Richard Crashaw later continued this exercise as an undergraduate at Cambridge.

Richard Crashaw was acquainted with Nicholas Ferrar and participated in his Little Gidding community, a family religious group.

In 1636, Richard Crashaw was elected a Fellow of Peterhouse at Cambridge.

Richard Crashaw became close to the Ferrar family and frequently visited Little Gidding.

Richard Crashaw incorporated these influences into his conduct at St Mary the Less.

Richard Crashaw was forced to resign his fellowship at Peterhouse for refusing to sign the Solemn League and Covenant.

Richard Crashaw soon decided to leave England, accompanied by Mary Collet, whom he revered as his "gratious mother".

Richard Crashaw arranged for Mary's son, Collete Ferrer, to take over his fellowship at Peterhouse.

Richard Crashaw's poetry took on decidedly Catholic imagery, especially in his poems about Spanish mystic St Teresa of Avila.

Several of these poems Richard Crashaw later collected in a series titled Steps to the Temple and The Delights of the Muses by an anonymous friend and published in one volume in 1646.

Richard Crashaw's conversion was the confirmation of a spiritual state which had already existed, and this state was mainly emotional, an artistic abandonment to the ecstasy of divine love expressed through sensuous symbolism.

At some point in 1645, Richard Crashaw appeared in Paris, where he encountered Reverend Thomas Car a confessor to English refugees.

Richard Crashaw seeks no downes, no sheetes, his bed's still made.

The writer Abraham Cowley discovered Richard Crashaw living in abject poverty in Paris.

Richard Crashaw lived there in poor health and poverty while waiting for a papal retainer.

Richard Crashaw was finally introduced to Innocent X, being called "the learned son of a famous Heretic".

At the college, Richard Crashaw witnessed immoral behaviour from some of Pallotta's entourage and reported them to the Cardinal.

Richard Crashaw was buried in the lady chapel of the shrine at Loreto.

Richard Crashaw's work has as its focus the devotional pursuit of divine love.

Richard Crashaw depicts women, most notably the Virgin Mary, but Teresa and Mary Magdalene, as the embodiment of virtue, purity and salvation.

Richard Crashaw's poetry has inspired or directly influenced the work of many poets in his own day, and throughout the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries.

Richard Crashaw's verse has been set by or inspired musical compositions.

Richard Crashaw's "Come Love, Come Lord" was set to music by Ralph Vaughan Williams.