Richard Meux Benson SSJE (6 July 1824 – 14 January 1915)[1] was a priest in the Church of England and founder of the Society of St. John the Evangelist, the first religious order of monks in the Anglican Communion since the Reformation.

[3][4] Benson was taught at home by a private tutor and entered Christ Church, Oxford.

[citation needed] In 1858, Benson conducted a retreat for priests using material taken in part from the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola.

The form of religious life Benson instituted was not purely contemplative—its members engaged in active external ministry—but they recited the Divine Office together daily in choir.

As a religious founder, he concentrated on essentials, among which he advised life-vows (taken with precautions as to maturity); regular confession; choir office, prayer and meditation; and priestly ministry.

Benson fully recognised his bishop's authority over the community's priests, who were clergy of the diocese, but not as extending to their private life together.