DEATH OF PRELATE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 7 January 1935, Page 4

DEATH OF PRELATE

REFERENCE AT ST. MARY’S, NELSON “A NOBLE MIND AND HEROIC COURAGE” ‘ THE SECRET OF A LONG LIFE” At St. Mary’s Catholic Church yesterday reference was made to the death of Archbishop Redwood. “Naturally,” said Father O’Leary, “the first name on the list of dead to be prayed for is our late Venerable Metropolitan. He has a special call on our prayers, firstly, because for sixty years lie presided over, and guided tlie destinies of the church in New Zealand. Secondly, Nelson, though not his birthplace, was the home of his childhood, and round it were woven his tenderest and most enduring memories. Stafford Place,' Appleby, was for him in the real sense of the term

“home.” His school days were passed pleasantly in Father Garin’s school, and here lie made those lasting and endurt ing friendships which he recalled constantly in after years. It was my privilege to be associated with him in the early years.of,my priesthood. Often in conversation —and as a conversationalist he was unique—did lie discourse fascinatingly on early Nelson and its people, and never was lie more happy, than when opportunity offered to visit tlie well-loved and always familiar-scenes.of boyhood, and to greet again old friends. How sad lie was, . as one by one they were plucked away by the relentless hand of death. . But his dispositiop' : Wiis always to be cheerful, his menibries of the happiest. He had unfeigned trust in God, and his simple deep faith ’was Of . the‘type that moves .mountains. ' In iiis life lie was simple and unassuming, llis knowledge was truly encyclopedic. He read widely, but would go back at times to books he read as a boy, notably Charles Dickens’s novels, whose ’Pickwick. Papers’:lie’first-becamd (acquainted, witht.'ih their original sei’ial form.. His daily routine was "sb' ; regular that one could set one’s, clock by it. His little chapel, lie tended with his own hands. Never 1 did I-hear ah unkind word fall from his lips. He was eminently just to all. A lover of truth, and lie would have' defended it with his life’s blood. He had a. noble mind, and heroic courage. He bore no malice, and' cherished no grudge. On one occasion he s>.id to me, r Do you want the secret of a long life?’ ‘Of course I did. ‘Then,’ he said, ’never worry,’ if I had any momentous decision to make I go to the chapel, pray for light and guidance for a quarter of an hour —then decide. Right or wrong I leave the consequences to God ; I have done my best.” “Of his eloquence, it is not too much to say that no greater orator has trod these southern lands. At eighty an Australian paper said of him: ‘The outstanding address of the congress was given by the Archbishop, of Wellington, who, even to-day, speaks with the voice, eloquence and dicton of a Demosthenes.’ 1 have given you a few incidents in the life of our greatest churchman as I knew him. Tlie daily papers have fully emphasised the outstanding public features of his life. We must not forget that, great and noble as lie. was, exalted .as. was his office, that he was human,..and subject, as are all children of Adam, to human frailty. For him, therefore,, must we pray, that God will speedily forgive any small human failings, and reward him with eternal happiness, which to us he seems to have so well-merited. I feel sure were it not for his detachment and the irrevocable sacrifice, lie . had made’ as a boy, he would have asked to be laid to rest iii Nelson. Like Goldsmith, whom he admired, he .must often have longed to rest where lie. had been reared: ‘I still had hopes, my long vexations pass’d, Here to return —and die at home at at last.’ ” A letter of sympathy with the priests and people of the district in their great loss’,was received from Bishop Hilliard, and was read to the congregation of St. Mary's last night.