 He is the son of Joan Knape and Michael Francis O'Donovan (1906–1966), better known as Frank O'Connor, eminent Irish writer of short stories and memoirs.His doctoral thesis on the problem of self-love in Augustine of Hippo was completed under both Henry Chadwick at Oxford and Paul Ramsey at Princeton.O'Donovan was ordained in the Church of England as a deacon in 1972 and as a priest in 1973.