Circular No 153

Newsletter for past alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.
Caracas, 9 October 2004. Circular No. 153
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Dear Friends,

I would like dedicate by writing a few lines on the coming anniversary of Mount St. Benedict.

I copied this from the 75th Anniversary brochure.

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HOW THE MOUNT GOT ITS NAME.

The Abbot of Bahia, as a founder of the monastery in Trinidad, had a personal right to select an appropriate name for this new foundation. The idea of persecution and expulsion seems to have been vivid in his mind, and apparently he wished to perpetuate it, for he called the Mission in Trinidad: "OUR BLESSED LADY OF EXILE". And to indicate where precisely that Mission was situated, he added: "upon St. BENEDICT's HILL".

These titles were therefore officially bestowed upon the new foundation by the Abbot founder. On the Sunday following their arrival, there was Episcopal Visitation in the Parish of St. Joseph, and the Very Reverend Dom Ambrose was invited to attend the various functions. The CATHOLIC NEWS on Sunday 19th October states: "The very Reverend Dom Ambrose Vinckier, first Superior of the future Mission of Mount St. Benedict, assisted at the throne."

It is possible that the Editor of the Catholic News, the Very Reverend Father Casey O.P. suggested that name in preference to "St. Benedict's Hill" which was the OFFICIAL title. Dom Ambrose became a bit uneasy about this change, and wrote accordingly to the Abbot. Dom Mayeul replied on November 19th: "I have just received a letter from the Superior of Mount St. Benedict, which causes me to add this P.S. before closing of mails. Dom Ambrose tells me that it is better to call our Mission Mount St. Benedict rather St. Benedict's Hill and I see that the Catholic News of October 10th speaks already in that sense. I am not sufficiently acquainted with English to solve the problem. We have a "St. Mary's Hill" in the U.S:A. and I thought that the locality of our future monastery deserved the qualification of Hill rather than that of Mount, though it is true that it serves as a buttress of the mountains which dominate it. I leave therefore, the decision with Your Grace."

And His Grace decided: "MOUNT ST. BENEDICT"

This is still further confirmed by what the Archbishop wrote (later) on August 18th 1934 in the Catholic News: "The name Mount St. Benedict, which I had given the property, was adopted by the monks."

Ever since the 19th October, the Benedictine property in the hills above St. Joseph has been known as: MOUNT ST. BENEDICT or more popularly, "THE MOUNT".
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Now something about MOUNT TABOR

From an internet source:

Mount Tabor is a mountain in Galilee, located about 6 miles / 10 kilometers east of Nazareth and 11 miles / 18 kilometers west of The Sea Of Galilee. With an impressive height of 1,840 feet / 560 meters high, overlooking the Valley of Jezreel, it served as a boundary point between the tribes of Issachar, Naphtali and Zebulun (see Tribal Lands). Jesus Christ would have been very well familiar with Mount Tabor, since He grew up within sight of it, and for that reason some believe that it was the location of The
Transfiguration.
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I just wonder if this is where the peak where the first monastery got its name??? Need comments from historians, since in my nearly six years at the school, I never heard the name; while we spoke of White Stones, daily. By the way the stones cannot be seen any more due to a pine forest planted in the 19.....

(Can anyone help with the date??? Ed.)
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Construction of the building on Mount Tabor began in 1918. It was meant as a study house for the students and a rest house for those who were still on Mount St. Benedict. The building, measured 80 feet at the front, facing south. East and West measured 60 feet while the Northern facade had full length of 40 feet. It had 15 rooms, a chapel and a large hall. There were two towers, 40 feet high on either side. On the right tower, the Papal flag was flown. On the left tower, which had three large guest rooms, the Union Jack was flown.

The building was constructed by Bro. Joseph Kleinmann, according to the plans of Dom Mayeul. It took the Brother four years of strenuous and faithful labour. The walls were made of tapia, with layers of cement as a protective ad finishing touch. On the Western side of the building was an underground cistern with a capacity of 13,000 gallons. Newspaper clippings have preserved parts of the story.
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REMINISENCE OF A VISIT

By A.E. Murray (Gossip)

Monday, 31th July 1922, Discovery Day.

The day on which our beautiful island was discovered by Christopher Columbus of revered memory, and which is proclaimed a Public Holiday is commemoration thereof broken fair, and as the day wore on, Old Sol gave promise of chinning in the very zenith of his glory.

Added to this, there was a light cool breeze which heightened the delightful prospects of a very glorious day.

It was a day such as this in keeping with a previous promise, that he writer elected to pay a visit to Mount Tabor in the company with Rev. Bro. Maur Maingot O.S:B:, Guest Master of the Monastery of Mount St. Benedict. Knowing the generous hospitality of the sons of St. Benedict, I took the liberty to invite a few friends to do the journey with me, but unfortunately at the last moment (much to their loss, I rather fancy) I had to go alone.

Gossip is inclined to think that few people know anything of Mount Tabor, or have ever heard of such a place.

Mount Tabor is the peak of a hill about six miles higher up (further up the trail) than St. Benedict, and is about 2,000 feet above sea level, with a beautiful view of the country below and the sea. The climate is very cool, that is to say, when you have reached there first.

It is not recommended to any one whose heart is not very sound, but to most of our readers it would be a delightful retreat both for soul and jaded mind.

Mount Tabor is the residence of the polished and genial Abbot of St. Benedict Seminary. Gossip thinks that the high officials who play golf on Sundays on the savannah would benefit more by a journey to Tabor than they do for a month on Sunday on the savannah.

Gossip says that a wink is as good as a nod to a blind beggar, but to the spiritually weak a Sunday at Tabor to be enlightened by the learned Abbot and to pray to the Almighty to forgive their sins of omission and commission would de them good.

(I remember the foundations of the building when we used to go that far. Ed)
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So now that we have had a couple of articles of yesteryear on MSB we reach to 1962. The first page of the bulletin "Spotlight on the Mount" reads:
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Sunday the fourteenth of October in the year of Our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-two commemorates the Golden Jubilee of the Abbey of Mount St. Benedict.

FOREWORD

Welcome to our Golden Jubilee Fair.
An enormous amount of hard work and energetic effort has been put into its preparation by the Committee and their helpers so as to make the Fair highly attractive: something to match a Fifty Years' Jubilee!
We wish you a full day of healthy enjoyment!
We sincerely thank the Committee and their helpers; we express our gratitude to the advertisers in this booklet.
We thank you for your generous patronage.
The proceeds of today's Jubilee Fair are destined for the completion of the Abbey.
As ye is it far from being complete.
Throw your stone today on the Mount, and in the near future, please God, your stone will stand polished and bright, pie up into a worthy House of God.
Adelbert van Duin O.S.B.
Abbot
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Now a photo of the MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY

Some missed the photo session, so there is no record, but please write their names in case you remember, so I might include them in the register. To match the numbers I have provided I have asked my good friend Fr. Christopher to place names:

From: "Henry Theunissen" <htt41@hotmail.com>
Date: 13 Feb 06:46 (PST)

Dear Ladislao,
I'm in Holland at the moment for medical reasons and Fr. Francis Friesen has asked me to write this to you.
First of all he wants you to know how much he enjoys receiving your circulars regularly. Although he is almost completely blind, he manages to read them with the help of a TV Reading Loupe, a huge magnifier, able to project a written text on a kind of TV screen. He has just received your message attached to circular 117, dated Feb. 1. He was surprised to read the article of the T'dad Express about the Library. He himself many years ago worked hard and was one of the pioneers in developing the library into the fine
institution it is today.

It will interest you to know that your initiative to publish the Berchmanianum e-mail address in Circular 97, has born fruit.
Since then Fr. Francis received a number of messages from amongst others Anthony Lucky (T&T), Ian Rodrigues (Guyana/Grenada/Canada), Christopher de Marothy (Venezuela/U.S.A. Anthony.
Ian mentioned they were present at my ordination to the priesthood in the Abbey in 1950. Justice Anthony plans to visit here when next he will be in Hamburg, Germany to attend the sessions of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.
Christopher de Marothy surprised me with a photo of 1956 of the abbey boy's choir of which I was in charge. At this particular concert he made his debut as a violinist, "screeching away at the violin" as he calls it.
It makes Fr. Francis very happy to know that so many of the past alumni of the Abbey School have done so well, including yourself.
He and all the other former teacher are very proud to have been able to contribute in some small way to this future development.
I shall now attempt to identify the monks on the photo, taken during the Golden Jubilee Year 1962.

Here goes (subject to correction):

1 Br. Camillus Culley
2 Br. Michael Thomas
3 Br. Crispin Millet
4 Br. Robert John
5 Br. Christopher Theunissen
6 Fr. Eugene Gibbs
7 Br. Bruno Schrama
8 Br. George Etienne
9 Br. Rupert Alexis
10 Br. Edward Theunissen
11 Fr. Charles Lwanga Hoskins
12 Fr. Bernard Vlaar
13 Br. Hildebrand Greene
14 Br. Gerard Cotter
15 Br. Alphonse Koenraadt
16 Br. Oswald Gomes
17 Br. Cornelius Verburg
18 Fr. Anselm van der Heijdt
19 Br. Guest
20 Fr. Gregory Kloeg
21 Fr. Martin van Enschot
22 Br. Joseph Perez
23 Br. Raphael Goemare
24 Fr. Ignatius Oudshoorn
25 Fr. Simeon Campbell
26 Fr. Cuthbert van de Sande
27 Fr. Retreatmaster
28 Fr. Augustine Schreurs
29 Abbot Adelbert van Duin
30 Fr. Paul van den Eijnden
31 Prior Hugh van der Sanden
32 Fr. John Chrysostom Lee Singh
33 Fr. Bede Theunissen
34 Fr. Leo van Leeuwen
35 Fr. Andrew Brugman
36 Fr. William Boers
37 Fr. John EvangelistVerdijk
38 Fr. Basil Matthews
39 Br. Conrad De Silva
40 Br. Brendan Christian
41 Br. Maurus Superville
42 Br. Postulant
43 Br. Felix Dorset
44 Br. Anthony Murray
45 Fr. Ildefons Schroots

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Editor: I have the following names that do not appear in the above list:
Fr. Peter Can. Van Straelen
Fr. Odilio van Tongeren
Fr. Radbod van den (Plas.)
Fr. John Gualbert van den (Plas.)
Fr. John Baptist Osborne
Fr. Suitbert de Zwart
Fr. Francis Friesen
Fr. Benedict Simons (maybe he took the photo??)
Fr. Gerome Koot
Fr. Theodore Koek
Fr. Boniface Toneman
Fr. Odo van der Heydt
Bro.Gabriel Mokveld
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For further clarifications and some omissions you may perhaps contact the monks at the Mount. Especially Br. Gerard (formerly Br. Rupert) is very good at identifying persons.
God bless.
Fr. Christopher Theunissen

PS We have just received news that Fr. Cornelius Verburg is very sick, terminal with cancer. Some may remember him as art teacher at the Abbey School in the sixties. Please, pray for him.
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I hope that this resume would help us in remembering the celebrations that we had each year.
It was a free day for us school boys, although I cannot remember the exact date, but we all expected it. Naturally the date of the fair for outsiders, parents etc, was on Saturday and Sunday.
I have information on Fr. Ignatius and Fr. Francis, pictures and all!!!!
Also I have talked with Bro. Vincent (Lionel Roberts), that for another story.!!!

God Bless
Ladislao
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Photo: Members of the community 1962 MSB
Column: dbratt , Since the photo is large, larger than I would like it to be, I am going to send the article latter.
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Look us up at http://www.theabbeyschool.com, an all class msb web site.
Look at www.paxabbey.com for information on the Monastery, Mt St. Benedict.

For those that want to communicate with the web, use, webmaster@theabbeyschool.com,.
Send information to: Ladislaokertesz@hotmail.com, if you would like to be in the circular's mailing list or any old boy that you would like to include. Telf. 0 (212) 263.5346 Caracas.
Use Kaviacion@cantv.net, or kertesz11@yahoo.com, for photos as I leave enough storage space for these.
Please note: you may have missed some of the circulars, if you have not received one every week, do not hesitate to ask for the missing number to idmitch@anguillanet.net,
For those that would like to contact me here I include my telephones:
Telf.Office: 58 (212) 263.5346, 267.2416, From:
11:00GMT to 22:00GMT
FAX: 58 (212) 261.0829,
Home: 58 (212) 238.4084. From: 00:00 GMT to 04:00 GMT
Cellphone: +58 (0416) 612.5695
Remember that Venezuela's time is the same as
Trinidad's, -04:00 GMT.