Circular No 897

Newsletter for alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.

Caracas, 12 January 2019 No. 897

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Dear friends,

Remembering Father Augustine, who is very sick.

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GEORGE MICKIEWICZ <amickiew@att.net>

Jan 10 at 9:31 AM

As I have been praying for….and remembering Father Augustine……some related memories from 50 plus years ago have flooded back…and am sharing in his honour…..in no particular order of priority:

AS “Movie” director – probably the most popular activity for myself at school. 

The Saturday night and occasional Holiday movie. 

He would be asked dozens of times by dozens of boys “What will be the movie tonight, Father?”…he would walk away smiling and never answering the question….with dozens of rumours abounding about what we would see that night.

Library administrator – allowed me to expand my imagination by reading those books that brought excitement to our lives….Agatha Christie with Hercule Poirot was one of my favourite “who done it” authors. 

Always excited to visit the library after returning from vacation to find out which new books had been added.

Serving Mass at monastery – was in charge for scheduling many of us to serve mass at the main altar or one of the chapels during the weekday masses….answered his call hundreds of times over my 6 years at our school.

Prep A – a demanding teacher who opened up many educational doors for me. 

One of his traditions was to take one day off from class and lead the class on an adventure up to Mount Tabor and beyond; everyone enjoyed this outing.

Small Boys Dorm – took over from Father Jerome in 1957.

French teacher – taught me this romance language…….. it has personally benefited me through my business career and several visits to France and New Caledonia

“Dutch speaker” – communicating with fellow monks in our presence when he did not want us to understand the topic of their conversation.

“Caregiver” - along with Father Eugene, for those of us who did not go home for Easter vacation and were taken “Down the Islands” for the week

“Mango Protector” – would walk through the mango groves to capture “any thief” delighting from that bounty.

“Disciplinarian” – did personally receive the proverbial “smack in the backside” a number of times from the stick in his hand….do not remember what were my specific transgressions meriting this reaction

May God bless you all and your families as we continue to pray and remember Father Augustine and the community.

George Mickiewicz (Yury/Jorge/Shish) 1956-1962

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From: Jan Koenraadt

Sent: Wednesday, January 9, 2019 10:25 AM

Dear Fr. Harold and Bro. Paschal,

Thank you very much you keep us informed while in close contact with Fr. Augustine.

Thanks to the wonders of internet all the way in the Netherlands we can follow his situation.

And you mentioning to him that he is in our thoughts, very nice.

Hoping for the best! Our thoughts are with him today, trying to follow the progress.

@Nigel, pleasing to read your reply on Don’s testimony, as in a way we were “whipped into shape” to become “a normal boy”.

Yes we had our thoughts about that too, thank you saying sorry.

Things were like that in those days, they meant it well for us.

Over here we now say “to leave things in their own time”.

If I compare our MSB generation with the generation I see today walking around in my home town, I think we did a lot better, giving value to moral things which are thrown away nowadays.

The church is leaving out of our society, about three church buildings each week are closing their doors in the Netherlands because people don’t come anymore and they cannot keep up with the costs.

The lefties are taking their place.

Oh boy, you have a rich DNA, from Scandinavia to North Africa!

Most people in my hometown are indigenous, maybe some descendants of the Spanish soldiers in the medieval 80 Year War ha ha.

@Don, memories come back, you were that “Big Boxhead” to explain me which books I couldn’t read! But then I experienced you at least one year. Shooting arrows at sunbathing cricketers, you probably were out of sight from the telescope of the seminary! Completing your O-level, you needed a year in between too after Mount? You got the nickname because of all the books inside your head? But you turned out well!

Much greetings and thank you everybody for keeping us informed about Fr. Augustine!

Jan Koenraadt

MSB ‘63-‘67

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From:  Father Harold Imamshah

Sent:  Wednesday, January 9, 2019 3:47 PM

He was getting tired, so he said, "I'm not throwing you out, but I'm getting tired, and I have to rest..." , so I thanked him and gave him a blessing.

I called out every name Dennis, on the email list, and he remembered most, some he had trouble hearing...it was a joy to assure him of everybody's gratitude for all that he did that's contributed to whom you have all become...

What a memory he has...

Well done good and faithful servant.

Sincerely

Fr Harold

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On Wed, Jan 9, 2019, 10:13 AM

GEORGE MICKIEWICZ <amickiew@att.net wrote:

Please hug him for us and tell him that we value and appreciate everything that he did for us during those early years that laid the foundation for the persons that we became later on in life.

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From:  Father Harold Imamshah

Sent:  Wednesday, January 9, 2019 8:07 AM

I am with Fr Augustine now; very conversant, remembering quite a lot...

Abbey School, Monastery, Seminary, Trinidad, Venezuela, Germany, Grenada, St. Vincent...

He sends his kind regards...

Arthritic knees...

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On Wed, Jan 9, 2019, 8:39 AM

Jan Koenraadt <jankoenraadt@casema.nl wrote:

Dear Don,

Thank you for sharing your memories with Fr. Augustine.

Hate to see the last one of the old priests go!

You left Mount in ‘62 before I came in ‘63.

I remember the library very well.

Some boy guided me, those books are for the younger boys, and those for the older.

As from From 1 I had to settle with books about Biggles,

I think I read all of them.

But “meant for old boys” was translated into “forbidden for young boys”, so I couldn’t touch the books about Renaissance or famous artists like Rembrandt or well known medieval Dutch Joost van den Vondel.

But I caught up later in time and love to read about Florence, Michaelangelo and so on.

But now I understand how you come to write the opus magnum you mentioned in your X-mas letter you worked 30 years on, you actually read all the books in the library.

Gosh, that is a lot! Only now I realise I walked into your legacy when I entered the library. But astonishing too that Fr. Augustine supported you.

He was the head of the prep dormitory I first came in.

I remember one night boys were skylarking too much in the toilet there, so he forbid us to go to the toilet that night.

Holding up my pee the whole night, terrible!

He did leave some time later because after that we got novices to supervise us.

He would point us out in class when we were to go to the barber.

He would open and close the showers for us when bathing.

My first schoolbooks I had to go and get from him I think.

He was my French teacher, I learned my first French from him.

I had four years French at Mount and after that two years French in Paramaribo, six years in total, Le Petit Prince we had to read.

I learned English in about three months but I still know less than half of French.

The people in France are very kind and polite.

But when I say “je ne comprendre pas” they will repeat it what they said, but only slower . . . difficult!

The boys liked Fr. Cuthbert much more, he wasn’t so pleased with that.

Thanks for sharing, much greetings Jan Koenraadt MSB ‘63-‘67

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From:  Don Mitchell

Sent:  Wednesday, January 9, 2019 10:51 AM

I remember Fr Augustine as the only priest who ever did anything for me personally to improve my rather unhappy lot at Mount. 

I hated sports or anything to do with scouts or any other organised activity. 

There was a gang of us who ran wild in the bush, making our dens and fashioning bows and arrows and spears out of the saplings that grew everywhere. 

While Br Vincent sent me to Bobo every Monday morning for six of the best for refusing to participate in anything that had to do with the sports field for my first few years (starting in 1955 aged 9), Rughead, as we affectionately knew him made me (around the age of 12) his assistant librarian.

Mind you, I acknowledge that the regular Monday morning licks may have had more to do with shooting arrows at the cricketers from the forest above the sports field than from mere refusal to participate in any of the games.

I swore to Fr Bernard that no one had ever caught me doing anything, but he only replied, “Then, Don, take your licks for all the things you did that nobody caught you doing.”

It started in the Old Library, on the second floor opposite the staircase, when I helped by putting the returned books back on the shelves in the correct place. 

Once the enlarged Library opened in the new building above the Mount, he really needed assistance as he moved out of the Small Boys’ Dorm back down to the Monastery. 

He must have noticed that I was the biggest fan of the library, as I read my way through the entire stock of books. 

Gradually, I took on the responsibility for replacing the library cards in the backs of the books and putting them back on the shelves. 

By Form 4, I had my own key to the Library and in addition to keeping the books tidy, I could spend long hours, including after lights out, reading in the Library. 

I seldom saw him, and became accustomed to sitting at his desk near to the door of the library, as I checked out the books that were being borrowed.

He never interfered, and left me to pursue my own interests among the books. 

When the books that interested me were finished, I selectively read the entire encyclopaedia from beginning to end.

After I left Mount, I lost all touch with any of the priests, and wondered from time to time how they were getting on.

After 8 years in London, I spent 5 years in St Kitts practising as a lawyer, and the rest of my life in Anguilla.

It was only in my retirement years that I ventured back onto the Mount and found him blind and with Fr Benedict practically a shut-in.

I visited him once more, but found it hard to communicate, and I was never certain whether or not he remembered who I was. 

So sad to hear his end is nearing.

Est finis omnium bonorum.

Best,

Don

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From:  Nigel Boos

Sent:  Tuesday, January 8, 2019 8:24 PM

Thank you for sharing this news, Shish and Prior Paschal,

Fr. Augustine seems to be the last in the line of the priests who did their best to provide a decent education for us during my own years at the Abbey School 1955-1960, and I bless him for being the good man that he is and was.

May his passing be gentle, and may he now receive the reward for which he has longed all of his life.

I pray that God will have mercy on his should and grant him an early entrance into his heavenly kingdom.

With love to y’all.

Nigel

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Feliz cumpleaños Arturo Zavarce

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EDITED by Ladislao Kertesz,  kertesz11@yahoo.com,  if you would like to be in the circular’s mailing list, help and make a donation to keep the circular going until No. 1000, hahah, it is only 52usd for a year. This is to offset the costs of preparing and managing the preparation of the Newsletter.

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Photos:

15UN0101MSBEDI, Monastery

10LK2926DBAWRA, David Basanta and Winston Rmsahai

17UN0212GFADGU, Gabriel Faria and Dennis Gurley

17UN0101KAL, UNKNOWN and Keith Allen