A priest, controversialist and martyr of charity, b. at Sheffield, England, in the last quarter of the eighteenth century; d. at Leeds, 29 June, 1847. He was educated at Crook Hall, County Durham, and Ushaw College, was ordained a priest and served for some years the missions in Rook Street and Granby Row, Manchester, where he engaged in controversy with the Protestant Bible Association. Later, after a retirement to La Trappe in France, he returned to Ushaw, going thence to Callaly, Northumberland. About 1840 he was at St. Albans, Blackburn, with Dr. Sharples, until the latter was consecrated Bishop of Samaria in partibus . Father Curr then went to Whitby remaining there until about 1846, when he was appointed to Sheffield. During the typhus fever epidemic 1847, Leeds was almost bereft of priests ; Father Curr volunteered for service there, and fell a victim to the disease. His principal works are: "The Instructor's Assistant", long used in Manchester Sunday Schools; "Visits to the Blessed Sacrament and to the Blessed Virgin", from the Italian of Liguori (Manchester); "Spiritual Retreat ", adapted from Bourdaloue ; "Familiar Instructions in Catholic Faith and Morality" (Manchester, 1827). There remain two sermons, also several pamphlets and newspaper letters of a controversial character.

The Catholic Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive resource on Catholic teaching, history, and information ever gathered in all of human history. This easy-to-search online version was originally printed in fifteen hardcopy volumes.

Designed to present its readers with the full body of Catholic teaching, the Encyclopedia contains not only precise statements of what the Church has defined, but also an impartial record of different views of acknowledged authority on all disputed questions, national, political or factional. In the determination of the truth the most recent and acknowledged scientific methods are employed, and the results of the latest research in theology, philosophy, history, apologetics, archaeology, and other sciences are given careful consideration.

No one who is interested in human history, past and present, can ignore the Catholic Church, either as an institution which has been the central figure in the civilized world for nearly two thousand years, decisively affecting its destinies, religious, literary, scientific, social and political, or as an existing power whose influence and activity extend to every part of the globe. In the past century the Church has grown both extensively and intensively among English-speaking peoples. Their living interests demand that they should have the means of informing themselves about this vast institution, which, whether they are Catholics or not, affects their fortunes and their destiny.

Copyright © Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company New York, NY. Volume 1: 1907; Volume 2: 1907; Volume 3: 1908; Volume 4: 1908; Volume 5: 1909; Volume 6: 1909; Volume 7: 1910; Volume 8: 1910; Volume 9: 1910; Volume 10: 1911; Volume 11: - 1911; Volume 12: - 1911; Volume 13: - 1912; Volume 14: 1912; Volume 15: 1912

Catholic Online Catholic Encyclopedia Digital version Compiled and Copyright © Catholic Online