Here and There

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 5, 4 February 1925, Page 45

Here and There

Dominican Provincial. their general fjDhapter in London, the English Province of the Dominican Order re-elected as Provincial ■ r Father Bede Jarrett, M.A., who has already *«S6rved two terms of office. Educated at Stonyhurst and Hawksyard Colleges, and at Oxford and Louvain, and ordained priest in 1905, he was first elected Provincial in 1916 at the early age of 35. His greatest achievement has been the re-settlement of the Do- ' minican Order at Oxford. He is well-known as a preacher and a writer on both sides of the Atlantic. • * * Benedictine Longevity. Benedictines are proverbially long-lived. An example of Benedictine longevity was afforded by the celebration a few weeks ago of the golden jubilee of the Abbot of St. Augustine’s Abbey, Ramsgate. Abbot Erkenwald Egan, 0.5.8., who was born in 1856, entered the Benedictine Order in 1874, and as ordained priest in 1883. After serving for many years as headmaster of St. Augustine’s College and Prior of the community at Ramsgate, he was appointed first Abbot of Ramsgate in 1909. At his jubilee celebration the chair was taken by another Benedictine priest, Dom Anselm Fox, 0.5.8., who was at one time one of Abbot Egan’s professors. * ♦ *

A Great Jubilarian-Founder.—Probably few jubilarians in this world have received so many good wishes as the Very Rev. Father Paul Francis, the founder of the Society . of the Atonement at Graymoor, Garrison, ■f" New York, U.S.A. Father Paul Francis may r well have his silver jubilee universally feted - with good wishes, for his name is honored throughout the Catholic world as the friend of all good causes, and he is blessed as a benefactor in every quarter of the globe by" grateful missionaries. Pounder of the celebrated Society of the Atonement, which has its headquarters at Graymoor, the “Mount * of the Atonement” as it is known to many a pilgrim, Father Paul Francis, through his famous organ, The Lamp, started his “ Union-that-Nothing-be-lost ” —an association that has caused its promoter’s charity to be blessed by every religious congregation in the mission field, for many a struggling mission has benefited by its alms. Nor has the founder of Graymoor limited his works of mercy to corporal charity: it was his apostle’s heart, burning with love for souls, that inaugurated the ‘‘Church Unity Octave” which now annually unites thousands in prayer for the stray sheep without the fold that non-Catholics may be restored to the centre of Christian unity.

* * * Mr. Britten’s Bequests.—The late Mr. James Britten, a notable convert to the ; Catholic faith and a man to whose credit —jL, lias to be set the reorganisation and rexnvigoration of the Catholic Truth Society ' on its present basis, died a comparatively wealthy man, the gross value of his estate being valued at £21,980n0t a very . great sum in a comparative sense but a good deal

beyond what Mr. Britten appeared to live up to, for he was the least pretentious in men. A summary of his will published in the daily papers gives some interesting particulars of his bequests. He gave £IOOO to Rev. F. H. Higley, Commercial Road, London, and £SOO to Rev. J. C. O’Brien, desiring him to spend £250 in- Masses. He also left bequests of £SOO and £2OO to numerous Catholic institutions, a personal bequest of £IOO to Sir J. R. O’Connell, of the Catholic Truth Society of Ireland; his Edinburgh edition of Robert Louis Stevenson, The Yellow Bool:, Carminia Gndelicia (Carmichael), and Queen Mary Psalter; to the Reform Club, Pall Mall, all his books relating to Ireland which the librarian shall select; and to the Irish Literary Society books concerning Ireland not so selected. Although an Englishman of Englishmen, Mr. Britten had strong pro-Irish leanings. Incidentally it may be mentioned, that as a botanist of national standing he was much interested in botanical questions relating to the shamrock. Commercial Road Mission, to the pastor of which he left £IOOO is one of the poorest Catholic missions in London in the sense that its parishioners are mostly poor people residing in the Whitechapel district. His bequests to Catholic charities were numerous and generous. * * *

Irish Masterpiece Bought for Nation, — jewel casket made "by Miss Mia Cromvell, exhibited at Manchester Art Gallery, is to become the property of the Irish Nation. Miss Cronwell is an artist in metals and jewellery, and her casket is described as “ easily one of the finest works of art ” shown at the exhibition. The casket has a shrine in copper, niched with an overlaid pattern of modelled silve” repousse , with a pierced ground. An eminent Irish scholar says: “It is probably the best Celtic work done in Ireland since early medieval times.” The casket has been purchased by Senator Mrs. Stopford Greene, the Irish historian and authoress of the valuable work The Unmaking of Ireland, She intends to present the casket to the Senate, * * *

Signor Puccini. —The death at. Brussels of the famous composer Puccini is, as Signor Mussolini said in the Italian Chamber, an occasion of mourning for the whole civilised world (says the Universe). He passed away in a nursing home, where he had been receiving treatment for an affection of the throat. Besides his children, the Italian Ambassador and the Papal Nuncio spent most of the night in the sick room, and it was the latter who administered the last Sacraments. The first part of the funeral, which the Italian Government decided should be conducted at the expense of the State, took place in Brussels. The body was taken in procession to the Church of Our Lady through a great concourse of people. Among the distinguished persons in the church were Sir George Graham, the British Ambassador, the Italian Ambassador, and representatives

of the Brussels Conservatoire and the Ministry of Arts and ‘ Sciences. The King of Italy, the King arid Queen of the Belgians, and Signor Mussolini sent beautiful wreaths. Later in the, day the coffin left the Gare du Ndrd for Italy.