3:30pm Monday 16th August 2010
By Journal Reporter
TRIBUTES have been paid to the Salisbury-bred former Bishop of Clifton, who died on Saturday aged 85.
Bishop Mervyn Alexander was born in Highbury, London, but his family moved to Salisbury when he was a year old and he later studied at Bishop Wordsworth's School.
Bishop Mervyn was the eighth Bishop of Clifton, a position he held between 1974 and 2001.
The Clifton Diocese covers most of the west of England including his former home city of Salisbury. It includes 107 parishes within 13 deaneries serving a Catholic population of around 190,000.
He began his schooling with Salisbury's St Osmund's Catholic School and then continued his studies with Bishop Wordsworth's before moving on to Prior Park College in Bath and trained for the priesthood at the Venerable English College in Rome.
He was ordained in 1948 in the Leonine College, Rome, and later, on returning to England, was appointed assistant priest in the cathedral parish of Clifton. He became chaplain to Bristol Maternity Hospital - now St Michael's - and the Homeopathic Hospital, as well as chaplain to Bristol University, where he opened the University Catholic Chaplaincy in Queens Road as a study and residential centre for students.
Bishop Mervyn became parish priest of Our Lady of Lourdes, Weston, in 1967, going on to be appointed auxiliary bishop before becoming Bishop of Clifton in 1974.
As well as being a very active member of the Clifton he improved their links worldwide, maintaining their relationships with South America.
His successor Declan Lang said: "Bishop Mervyn was a well-regarded figure and was spoken of very highly.
"So highly in fact that he received an honorary doctorate of law by Bristol University."
On Bishop Mervyn's retirement he returned to Weston-Super-Mare as parish priest of St Joseph's - a role he maintained until 2008 - and finished his career "a good and holy man" with "wise and considered judgement" said Bishop Declan.
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