Fr Fergus Kerr OP
It is with great sadness that we inform you of the death of Fr Fergus Kerr OP, who died peacefully on Sunday evening, having had dinner with the brothers of the Edinburgh Community earlier that evening.
Requiem Masses
You are invited to join the friars in praying for the repose of his soul:
- Fergus’ funeral Mass will take place in Edinburgh on Friday, 12 December, at 12.30pm. Please see details below.
- A Requiem Mass for Fergus will be celebrated at Blackfriars, Oxford on Saturday, 17 January, at 11am.
A Brief Biography
Fergus’ influence on the English Dominican Province and its intellectual apostolate was immense.
He was Prior of Blackfriars 1969-1978. After this, he remained assigned to Oxford until 1986/87, when he moved to Edinburgh until 1998. He returned to Oxford to serve as Regent of Blackfriars Hall 1998-2004, then returned to Edinburgh, where he remained for the rest of his life.
Fergus was Editor of New Blackfriars for a quarter of a century, from 1995-2020.
Fergus produced much ground-breaking work, for example, bringing insights from analytical philosophy into conversation with the work of St Thomas Aquinas and drawing out the theological relevance of the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein. He also encouraged and inspired young Dominicans and other scholars on whom he had an enormous impact. Many of the leading theologians of recent decades in the UK and beyond cite Fergus as a major influence. Some of them even speak of Fergus as an intellectual “father figure”, so significant was his contribution and support to their intellectual journeys.
Among the books written by Fergus are: Theology After Wittgenstein, After Aquinas: Versions of Thomism, and Immortal Longings: Versions of Transcending Humanity. A collection of Fergus’ essays was published in 2023, From Aberdeen to Oxford. The latter contains a wonderful autobiographical essay, written in Fergus’ inimitable style: conversational ease, insight, clarity and precision, drawing upon an exceptional breadth of reading and formidable databanks of memories expressed with gentleness and charity.
Fergus received many honours include being elected to a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and an Honorary Doctor of Divinity from the University of Edinburgh at a special ceremony in 2019, during which Prof. David Fergusson in his speech pointed out that the History of Scottish Theology describes Fergus as “the most distinguished Scottish Catholic theologian of the 20th Century”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCjH3eo1ixw&t=84s
On a personal note, Fergus was a lovely person to live with in community. He was devoted to the Dominican life and was a wonderful preacher. He was a wise and compassionate man with a warm sense of humour though he was also a quiet man. He will be greatly missed.
Let us finish with Fergus’ own words drawn from his autobiographical essay in From Aberdeen to Oxford (p. xxviii):
“Reflecting on things, my memories are of course of people. But people cannot be separated from the places you got to know them – and they you – Woodchester, Hawkesyard, Blackfriars, Oxford…What I should note at the start is the impact, the day-by-day, routine impact on you, that you are never aware of, and I imagine most of the time the places and the people we see every day have, if you like, an impact that is so pervasive, so casual, so unconscious, that it would be too difficult to locate, let alone narrate.”
Eternal Rest grant unto him, O Lord; and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace. Amen.
Funeral Details of Fergus Kerr – Edinburgh
Thursday 11th December 2025
4.30pm Reception at the Chapel followed by Office for the Dead
5.15pm Mass
Friday 12th December
12.30pm Mass
2.30pm Burial at Mt Vernon Cemetery
Photo credit: David Williams.
