(Fr. Peter Knowles OP is the bearded priest in phelonion, third from left in this picture. Source: St. Michael's Russian Catholic Church)
Fr. Peter Knowles OP died last March 11, 2008 at the age of 81. In his lifetime he had acquired a fair reputation as a preacher and theologian. This reputation was built not only on the few learned articles that he would publish every year, but also on his role as a guardian of two traditions in the Catholic Church. These were the classical Dominican tradition of preaching and sound theology, a brilliant child of the Latin tradition; and the Russian Catholic Church, that small but extremely significant community historically known for its purely Byzantine liturgy, as well as its uncompromising defense of papal primacy and the need of the Orthodox East to be in communion with Rome.
These two traditions exemplify the range and universality of the true faith; and both have been under severe stress and siege in the past four decades from modernistic currents. Much has been said about the assault on the venerable traditions of the ancient religious orders of the West. Rarely, though, do we hear about the neglect and outright hostility that the Russian Catholic Church continues to face, as not a few Catholics consider this small community of a little more than 20 chapels and small convents to be an embarrasment in the age of Ecumenism. Fr. Peter Knowles, nevertheless, enthusiastically embraced the ideals behind the Russian Catholic dream, as expressed by such great converts to Catholicism as Blessed Leonid Fedorov and Fr. Alexander Rzewuski; for that alone, his passing must not pass unmentioned in the pages of Rorate Caeli.
Fr. Knowles was assigned to serve the Russian Catholic community in 1962. He served at the Chapel of St. Nicholas in the Russian Catholic Center in Melbourne.
The Australian has a long and informative article on this fascinating priest. Some of his popular articles include Alexander Rzewuski (1893-1983): The Catholic Church viewed with 'fresh eyes', Leonid Federov (1879-1935): Russian Catholicism - a brave vision unfulfilled and How monastic life can reinvigorate the Church
Fr. Peter Knowles OP: Requiescat in Pace, Vechnaya Pamyat! May you rest in peace and may your memory be eternal.
