Biography

Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. was born on July 28, 1844 in Stratford, Essex, and attended Oxford from 1863 until 1867. He converted to Catholicism in October 1866.  Two years later, on September 7, 1868, Hopkins began his novitiate in the Society of Jesus at Roehampton.  He studied philosophy at Stonyhurst College from 1870-1873 and later theology at St. Beuno's from 1874-1878.  

In 1877 Hopkins was ordained a priest. Between 1878 and 1881, Hopkins joined the ministry at Farm St. Church, Mt. St. Mary's College, St. Aloysius in Oxford, and St. Francis Xavier in Liverpool where he taught both Greek and Latin.  In 1881, Hopkins began his tertianship in the Society of Jesus.  From 1882-1884, Hopkins taught Greek and Latin Classics at Stonyhurst College.  In 1884, Gerard Manley Hopkins became the Chair of Greek Literature at Royal University in Dublin. 

He died on June 8, 1889 of typhoid fever at age 44.