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PORTSMOUTH ABBEY | Monastery in the 1940s

PORTSMOUTH PRIORY MONKS IN THE 1940s

Standing: Aelred (Barney) Wall, Andrew Jencks, Hilary, John, Crepeau, Julian, Peter, David
Seated: Placid, Crenier, Richard, Prior Gregory Borgstedt, Hugh Diman, Wilfrid Bayne, Joseph
Missing from Photo: Alban, Ansgar

The monks I got to know quite well when I was a student there in 1955-58 were Fr Aelred, Fr Andrew, Fr Hilary, Fr Peter, Fr Wilfred, Fr Alban.

RIP | Damian A. Kearney, OSB

Rev. Dom Damian Kearney, OSB (1928-2016)

Rev. Dom Damian A. Kearney, O.S.B. has been a fixture of Portsmouth Abbey School for so long that his death did not fully register with me. 

I heard news of it while I was traveling in England, but I somehow expected to see him this week at the annual New York City Portsmouth reception. He died at 87 on Sept. 8, 2016 and his funeral Mass was on Sept. 14 in the Portsmouth Abbey Church in Portsmouth, R.I. He is buried in the Abbey’s cemetery.

Born Allan Peter Kearney on Nov. 28, 1928, in Rockville Center, Long Island, N.Y, he was the son of Edward and Louise Keefe Kearney. Fr. Damian had five brothers and a sister, of whom his brothers David and Andrew survive him, along with many nephews and nieces. I met his younger brother David Q. Kearney at the Vero Beach, Fla. Portsmouth reception in the spring of 2016.

Portsmouth Abbey Cemetery

Fr. Damian entered Portsmouth Abbey (then Priory) School in the First Form in 1940, graduating early as a Fifth Former in 1945 because of the war. He earned a B.A. degree from Yale University in 1949 and entered the monastery in 1950. Fr. Damian was ordained to the priesthood on May 26, 1956. I believe I was the first at Portsmouth to be Fr. Damian’s altar boy in 1956. The monks said mass early on a weekday morning and, as I recollect, one signed up to be the altar boy.

Fr. Damian taught in the English Department for more than 50 years and chaired the department ion 1974-88. I took his English course in the Fifth Form and was impressed with his dedication to teaching, to the English language, and to Portsmouth:

• When I wrote to him about some great calligraphy I found in Estonia, he reminded me of the great calligraphers over the years at Portsmouth.
• When I told him that I had written an article about heraldry at Oxford, he reminded me that Fr. Wilfred Bayne at Portsmouth must have kindled my interest–quite possibly true. 

He was the house master of the largest boys' dormitory, St. Benet's, in 1960-74. I was at St. Benet’s in 1955-58 when his predecessor Cecil Acheson was the house master.

Fr. Damian was Prior of the monastery and thus acting Superior whenever the Abbot was away during the 1974-90 period. He was a member of the Abbot's advisory Council starting in 1964, with hardly a break. He directed the monastic education of the Novices and Junior monks, and toward the end of his life was Director of Oblates.

Fr. Damian was the Abbey’s historian and archivist. He was strong in his teaching of Shakespeare’s plays. He met my mother on one of her visits; she has published two dozen books for children at Viking and Farrar Straus, under the name Hilda van Stockum. She argued strongly with Fr. Damian for the case that the Earl of Oxford was the real writer of the Shakespeare plays, making the point that Shakespeare didn’t travel and could not have known about foreign countries and their  manners. Fr. Damian initially dismissed the idea, but then found the subject interesting and pursued it, although he continued to support the authenticity of the Shakespeare authorship.

His ordination card reads: “One thing have I asked the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life.” He surely found what he was seeking. May he dwell now with the Lord now that the days of his life have ended.

Sources: Patch R.I., Funeral Home
Related stories: Wilfred Bayne, OSB, Leo van Winkle, OSB
Possibly related story: Barack Obama's mother's Moneygall Irish relatives, the Kearneys and the Healys

HERALDRY | Wilfred Bayne, OSB, Heraldist, Portsmouth Abbey

Portsmouth Shield

Feb. 2, 2016–Sometimes I have been astonished at the moments of exhilaration when making some new heraldic discovery. I have been wondering why. Four reasons, from different parts of my childhood, occur to me:

• Heraldry was of great interest to my mother, who early explained her mother's family's coat of arms with its motto Ni regret du passé, ni per de l'avenir (no regret for the past, no fear of the future).
• At Blackrock College in Ireland there was a coat of arms for the school that was on my cap and blazer. Its motto was Fides et Robur (faith and strength).
• At Ampleforth I was introduced to the Abbey coat of arms, which is also the coat of arms of St Benet's Hall at Oxford.
• At Portsmouth Abbey, we again deployed a coat of arms and there was a monk who did exquisite heraldry work, Dom Wilfred Bayne (1893-1974), about whom Fr. Damian Kearney wrote a biography for the Portsmouth Bulletin, Winter 2004. Apparently Fr. Wilfred was a convert to Catholicism; he had attended a military academy and from there joined a ballet company in Russia headed by the prima ballerina Anna Pavlova. Fr. Wilfred kept himself busy in his later years doing the coats of arms of the Oxford and Cambridge colleges, among others.

Recently, at the suggestion of Dom Damian of Portsmouth, whom I saw earlier this week when he was visiting Vero Beach, Fla., I have been looking up what I could find about Dom Wilfred. In 1967 the Heraldry Society published a monograph by Dom [William] Wilfred Bayne with 39 pages of coats of arms and illustrations, and a comment on ecclesiastical heraldry by Dom Wilfred. He has prepared coats of arms for many Benedictine institutions.

He has also written an article on the Benedictine Armorial that can be consulted here.

In addition, he prepared the coat of arms for Bishop Ansgar Nelson, OSB (1906-1990), Roman Catholic Bishop of Stockholm, 1957-1962.

Nelson was an interesting subject for Dom Wilfred to work on. Here is a summary of his unusual life:

Born in 1906 in Frederiksværk, Denmark, Knut Ansgar Nelson came to the United States in 1925, converted to Roman Catholicism while working in Salem, Mass. and studying medieval art. In May 1931 he entered Portsmouth Priory, making his solemn profession in 1935 and becoming ordained a priest on May 22, 1937. During his early years in the monastery he taught classics. After his retirement he provided philosophy seminars in the novitiate and for the more advanced students in the school. On August 11, 1947 he was appointed coadjutor Vicar Apostolic of Sweden, as titular bishop of Bilta (Tunisia), and consecrated bishop by Amleto Giovanni Cicognani, Apostolic Delegate to the United States, on Sept. 8 at a ceremony in the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Providence. When Stockholm became an independent diocese in 1953, Nelson became coadjutor bishop. He succeeded to the bishopric on Oct. 1, 1957, resigning on July 2, 1962. After his retirement he served as a chaplain to nuns in Switzerland for five years before returning to what had now become Portsmouth Abbey. Nelson died in Newport Hospital on March 31, 1990.

Comment

I sent the above to Dom Damian and he commented that he studied Homer with Dom Ansgar, who was also his housemaster, during 1944-45, the year before Ansgar left to become Bishop of Stockholm.

Other Portsmouth Stories

GREEN EDGE 11 | Monks Embrace Mighty Wind

HARVARD | Admissions Policies, 1958-2012

PORTSMOUTH | Abbey at Vero Beach

PORTSMOUTH | 50th Reunion

PORTSMOUTH | 50th Reunion, 2008