Richard of Ingworth

Richard of Ingworth

(INGEWRTHE, INDEWURDE).

A Franciscan preacher who flourished about 1225. he first appears among the friars who accompanied Agnellus to England in 1224, and is supposed to have been the first of the Franciscans to preach north of the Alps. He was already a priest and well on in years at the time of his arrival, and was responsible for the establishment of the first Franciscan house in London. The first convents at Oxford and Northampton were likewise indebted to his efforts, and he served for a time as custodian at Cambridge. In 1230 he acted as vicar of the English Province during the absence of Agnellus at a general chapter at Assisi, and was subsequently appointed provincial minister of Ireland by John Parens. In 1239, during the generalship of Albert of Pisa, he relinquished this position and set out as a missionary for the Holy Land, during which pilgrimage he died.

ECCLESTON, De Adventu fratrum Minorum in Anglican; BREWER, ed., Mon. Franciscana, I, in Rolls Series; LITTLE in Dict. Nat. Biog., s.v.; Eng. Hist. Rev., Oct., 1890.

STANLEY J. QUINN