In December 1890, Chapman was conditionally baptized in the
Catholic Church at
Brompton Oratory. In April 1891 he entered the
Jesuit novitiate at Manresa House, Roehampton (now
Parkstead House), but decided to leave after eight months. He subsequently entered the Benedictine
Maredsous Abbey in Belgium, where he had been preceded by a friend from Cuddesdon,
Bede Camm. Chapman was given the
religious name of "John", and
professed simple vows on 25 March 1893. He made his
solemn vows on Whitsuntide 1895. After his
priestly ordination in 1895, he went to
Erdington Abbey, near
Birmingham, where he stayed until 1912, serving the community as
novice master and later as
prior. Having spent nine months at Maredsous, in February 1913 Chapman was made temporary superior of the Caldey island community (now based at
Prinknash Abbey), when it was received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1913–14. At the outbreak of World War I, Chapman became a Professor of Theology at Downside Abbey, joining the many monks who had fled Maredsous to England. In early 1915, when these monks moved to Ireland, he became army
chaplain to the British forces. After initial training, his brigade arrived in France in July 1915. He lived in the trenches in the autumn of 1915, until a persistent knee injury led to his hospitalization in November 1915. He was later stationed at Boyton Camp, Wiltshire, for several months, and then returned to France. At the end of 1917, he was transferred to Switzerland, where multilingual chaplains were needed for the
POW camps. He remained there until the armistice.
4th Abbot of Downside In 1919 Chapman transferred his monastic stability to
Downside Abbey. He spent most of 1919 to 1922 in Rome, though, working on a commission on the revision of the
Vulgate translation of the Bible. He returned to Downside in 1922, where in 1929 the community elected him as abbot. As the fourth abbot of Downside, during his short term of four years, he helped transform Downside into a modern abbey in the mainstream of the Benedictine tradition and in 1933 became the founder of Worth Priory (which became independent of Downside in 1957 and
Worth Abbey in 1965).
New Testament and patristics scholar John Chapman not only read both Greek and Latin with facility, but also read and wrote French, Italian, and German. Many of his contributions to biblical scholarship and patristics have proved of lasting value, especially his work on
Cyprian,
John the Presbyter, and on the priority of the
Gospel according to Matthew that, so Chapman argued in support of the early Church tradition, was the first Gospel account to have been written (see also
Synoptic Problem). Among the
novices that Chapman clothed in the
monastic habit was in 1932 John
Bernard Orchard, who soon felt drawn to follow his Abbot into researching the priority of the
Gospel according to Matthew in the light of the patristic evidence, and eventually, after also constructing a synopsis of the four Gospel accounts in Greek and English for the easier study of the compositional sequence Matthew-Luke-Mark-John that is supported by certain early Christian writers, produced what by hindsight may be considered a synthesis of his and his mentor's insights.
Spiritual director In his day Chapman was a much sought-after spiritual director. He published a collection of letters under the title
Spiritual Letters. ==Works==