Fr Stewart Foster, Archivist of the Diocese of Brentwood, has been elected to a Fellowship of the Society of Antiquaries of London. Established in 1707 and enjoying royal patronage, the Society is a learned body of some 3,000 scholars in the fields of history, archaeology and allied disciplines charged with promoting all aspects of our cultural heritage. Fr Stewart is one of only a handful of Catholic clergy to hold the Fellowship and as such his election marks another step in the Church’s representation on national academic bodies. Fr Stewart was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2001.
Brentwood’s first bishop, Bishop Ward, was a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS), but Fr Stewart is the only Brentwood priest since him to be so and thus far the only one to be elected an FSA. He said: “I am very pleased to be elected but consider the election to be, in the first place, an honour for the Church rather than simply a personal one.”
Fr Stewart has written a number of books and recently collated and edited Brentwood’s Centenary photobook. In releasing the news of the 10 people elected in March, the Society said of Fr Stewart: “His work on the history and deceased clergy of the diocese of Brentwood has made a seminal contribution to Catholic history and Essex local studies from the Reformation onwards.”
Read more here: Society of Antiquaries of London