Person DS/UK/1463 Wilcock; Feodor (1906-1985); Jesuit Priest Wilcock Feodor 1906-1985 Jesuit Priest Male Frederick Born 2 September 1906, Blackburn. Entered the English Province of the Society of Jesus 7 September 1924. Ordained as a Roman Catholic priest 8 June 1934. Final vows in the Society of Jesus 2 February 1938. Died 25 January 1985, Los Angeles.

Fr Wilcock was born 2 September 1906, Blackburn. He went to Stonyhurst and from there joined the noviceship in 1924. He was studying philosophy at Valkenburg when, in 1929, Pius XI asked Fr General Ledochowski to train some men for work in Russia. Fr Wilcock volunteered and went on straight from philosophy to study theology at the Gregorian. He was ordained in the Byzantine rite at the Russian College in 1934. There followed tertianship at Tronchiennes and some experience in Poland and Czechoslovakia, and he was then sent to help the Russian colony in Shanghai. When the Japanese entered the war in 1942 he was interned as a British subject for the two-and-a-half years till the end of the war. At the end of the war he returned to his work in Shanghai, where he hoped to start a boarding school modelled om Stonyhurst with the hope that the school would one day move to Russia. However the Russian population had to be evacuated in 1940 when the Communist Chinese army drew close to the city. They were sent to an empty island in Samar in the Philippines where gradually a complete city administration was formed with a law court, police force, jail, and hospital. Fr Wilcock was appointed mayor until a suitable person could be found to replace him. He was then called to Rome to discuss the future of the Jesuits’ work among the Russians. In 1950 it was decided to open a Center for Russian work in New York. At the end of 1951, five Jesuits inaugurated the Russian Center in an old dormitory lent by Fordham University, where they lectured about the Catholic Eastern Churches and Russian questions all over America. In 1957 Fr Wilcock was sent to Sao Paolo where there was a large population of Russian refugees. He opened boarding schools and was involved in social work. After nine years in brazil, he was recalled to New York for another stint in charge of the Center. During his six years there he secured a larger, permanent building for the Center. He conducted the funeral of Fr Fionan Brannigan in Los Angeles in 1972 and remained there to take care of the Russian parish of St Andrew’s Russian-Byzantine church in El Segundo. For the two years up until his death, Fr Wilcock had been suffering congestive heart failure. He died 25 January 1985. His funeral liturgy was concelebrated at St Andrew’s by nine priests of the Byzantine rite and the parish deacon, with a number of Latin rite priests in attendance and the Cardinal Archbishop of Los Angeles presiding in the sanctuary. Letters and Notices vol. 87, pp. 80-85 International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families - ISAAR(CPF) 2nd edition - ICA 2004 ISBN 2-9521932-2-3 National Council on Archives, Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997 Yes CURIA\mallen 12/05/2021 CURIA\mallen 12/05/2021 45960728-b93a-4aff-aa1b-0e2a11ed3c83