author
W. R. W. (William Richard Wood) Stephens
1839–1902
A Victorian church historian and biographer, he paired a life in the Anglican clergy with a gift for making early Christian and English church history readable. His books on figures such as St John Chrysostom and Hildebrand reflect both deep scholarship and a lively interest in the past.
1 Audiobook
Saint John Chrysostom, His Life and Times A sketch of the church and the empire in the fourth century
by W. R. W. (William Richard Wood) Stephens
About the author
Born in Gloucestershire in 1839, William Richard Wood Stephens was educated privately and then at Balliol College, Oxford, where he took a first in Literae Humaniores in 1862. He was ordained in the 1860s and went on to serve in a series of church posts connected especially with Chichester before becoming Dean of Winchester in 1895, a role he held until his death in 1902.
Alongside his clergy work, he built a strong reputation as an ecclesiastical historian and biographer. His writings included books on major religious figures such as St John Chrysostom and Hildebrand, and he also co-edited the opening volumes of History of the English Church with William Hunt. He contributed articles to the Dictionary of National Biography as well, showing how comfortably he moved between pastoral life and serious historical writing.
He was also remembered for generosity in practical church life, helping to fund restoration work at Mid Lavant, Woolbeding, and Winchester Cathedral. No suitable confirmed portrait image was available from the page I checked, so a profile image is omitted here.