John Cuthbert Hedley was a British Benedictine

Benedictine

Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...

 and writer who held high offices in the Roman Catholic Church.

Born in Morpeth, Northumberland

Morpeth, Northumberland

Morpeth is the county town of Northumberland, England. It is situated on the River Wansbeck which flows east through the town. The town is from the A1, which bypasses it. Since 1981, it has been the administrative centre of the County of Northumberland. In the 2001 census the town had a population...

, he was educated at Ampleforth College

Ampleforth College

Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire, England, is the largest Roman Catholic co-educational boarding independent school in the United Kingdom. It opened in 1802, as a boys' school, and is run by the Benedictine monks and lay staff of Ampleforth Abbey...

. He was professed

Profession (religious)

The term religious profession is defined in the 1983 Code of Canon Law of the Roman Catholic Church in relation to members of religious institutes as follows:By religious profession members make a public vow to observe the three evangelical counsels...

 a member of the Order of Saint Benedict

Order of Saint Benedict

The Order of Saint Benedict is a Roman Catholic religious order of independent monastic communities that observe the Rule of St. Benedict. Within the order, each individual community maintains its own autonomy, while the organization as a whole exists to represent their mutual interests...

 in 1855 and ordained

Holy Orders

The term Holy Orders is used by many Christian churches to refer to ordination or to those individuals ordained for a special role or ministry....

 a priest

Priesthood (Catholic Church)

The ministerial orders of the Catholic Church include the orders of bishops, deacons and presbyters, which in Latin is sacerdos. The ordained priesthood and common priesthood are different in function and essence....

 of the order on 9 October 1862. He was appointed an auxiliary bishop

Auxiliary bishop

An auxiliary bishop, in the Roman Catholic Church, is an additional bishop assigned to a diocese because the diocesan bishop is unable to perform his functions, the diocese is so extensive that it requires more than one bishop to administer, or the diocese is attached to a royal or imperial office...

 of Newport and Menevia and Titular Bishop

Titular bishop

A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese.By definition a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop the tradition of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches is that he be ordained for a specific place...

 of Caesaropolis

Caesaropolis

Caesaropolis is a Byzantine city and a Catholic titular see on the coast of eastern Macedonia.It was founded in 836 by the Caesar Alexios Mosele to consolidate Byzantine control over the Slavic tribes of the area....

on 22 July 1873. His consecration

Consecration

Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service, usually religious. The word "consecration" literally means "to associate with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different groups...

 to the Episcopate

Episcopal polity

Episcopal polity is a form of church governance that is hierarchical in structure with the chief authority over a local Christian church resting in a bishop...

 took place on 29 September 1873, the principal consecrator

Consecrator

Consecrator is a term used in the Roman Catholic Church to designate a bishop who ordains a priest to the episcopal state. The term is often used in Eastern Rite Churches and in Anglican communities. The term "Principal Consecrator" is used to designate the primary bishop who ordains a new bishop...

 was Archbishop (later Cardinal) Henry Edward Manning of Westminster, with bishops Brown

Thomas Joseph Brown

Thomas Joseph Brown, O.S.B. was a bishop of the Roman Catholic Church. He served for two ecclesiastical jurisdictions, first as the Vicar Apostolic of the Welsh District from 1840 to 1850, then as Bishop of Newport and Menevia from 1850 to 1880....

 and Chadwick

James Chadwick (bishop)

James Chadwick was an Anglo-Irish Roman Catholic priest, and second Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle.-Life:...

 as co-consecrators. Hedley acted as editor of the Dublin Review

Dublin Review (Catholic periodical)

The Dublin Review was an influential Catholic periodical founded in 1836 by Michael Joseph Quin, Cardinal Wiseman and Daniel O'Connell. Quin had the original idea for the new journal, soon persuading Wiseman to lend his support, and next enlisting O'Connell whose Catholic Emancipation campaign he...

, before appointed the Bishop

Bishop (Catholic Church)

In the Catholic Church, a bishop is an ordained minister who holds the fullness of the sacrament of Holy Orders and is responsible for teaching the Catholic faith and ruling the Church....

 of the Diocese of Newport and Menevia on 18 February 1881. His episcopal title was changed to Bishop of Newport in 1895.

He published a number of works:

• The Christian Inheritance: Set Forth in Sermons
• Lex Levitarum: Or, Preparation for the cure of souls
• Lex Levitarum with the Regula Pastoralis
• The Light of Life: Set Forth in Sermons
• Our Divine Saviour and other Discourses
• A Retreat 33 Discourses with meditation for the Use of the Clergy, Religious, and Others

Bishop Hedley died in office on 11 November 1915, aged 78. After his death, the see

Episcopal See

An episcopal see is, in the original sense, the official seat of a bishop. This seat, which is also referred to as the bishop's cathedra, is placed in the bishop's principal church, which is therefore called the bishop's cathedral...

 of Newport was elevated to an archdiocese and changed its name to Cardiff in 1916.

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