Ecclesiasticism And The Summers Connection

Seán Manchester was born at a time when the world was destroying itself with war. The obscure figure who preceded him in the field of operative vampirology, Montague Summers, was still extant and soon to hand a vampire protection medallion to Seán Manchester's close friend and colleague, the prolific author and paranormal researcher Peter Underwood, now sadly deceased. Peter Underwood, in turn, would later bequeath the medallion to Seán Manchester who regards the object as a curiosity worthy of display, but little more than that. He has armoury of accoutrements rather more sophisticated, rooted in known and proven antidotes and items intended to repel vampires.

Seán Manchester nevertheless studied the works of Montague Summers while still a teenager, and has always shown appreciation to the earlier vampirologist for this introduction to the subject. He would later dedicate the expanded and revised hardback edition of his bestselling book The Highgate Vampire (1985 & 1991) to Montague Summers whose ecclesiastical career was not so very dissimilar to his own. Seán Manchester was not baptised until he made that decision himself, and, while still at school, he joined an Anglican choir, eventually being made head choirboy. During this time he became increasingly disillusioned with the vagaries of the Church of England whom, he felt, seemed uncertain about almost everything. He studied Catholicism and was received into the Roman Catholic Church, but it was at a time when Liberalism and Modernism were being ushered in by Vatican II. This made him a borderline Sedevacantist, eventually taking Holy Orders in the traditional wing of an independent group of Old Catholic churches in his country; thus enabling him to serve the autocephalous jurisdiction known as Ecclesia Vetusta Catholica. As Bishop (consecrated on 4 October 1991), he is able to carry out exorcisms unfettered, and also appoint others to do so. During his life, as his faith grew exponentially stronger, many were becoming less inclined to believe in anything, much less anything spiritual and/or supernatural. He views himself as a bulwark to such non-belief, and has remained steadfast in that resolve since entering Minor Orders in 1973.  

Seán Manchester founded the Vampire Research Society on 2 February 1970, and remains its President. He was also President of an occult investigation bureau from 21 June 1967 to 8 August 1988 (when the B.O.S. was formally dissolved). For most of his life he resided in London where he met and married on 8 August 1987 a performing arts graduate, who is also an accomplished designer/sculptress. He has no children, and resides at a private retreat on the English south coast. 

Seán Manchester's wife 
(photographed 20 April 2019)