Thomas Carbery was born in Athy in Ireland on 10 January 1906. He was the second in age of a family of eight with four brothers and three sisters. Father was a builder who took his eldest son into the business with him and encouraged Thomas to qualify as an architect. To this end Thomas was sent to Castleknock school and then on to University College Dublin where in due course hc qualified as an architect. The troubles of the time seem to have affected him little and it was at university that he developed a strong sense of vocation to religious life. After his finals he went to Killarney to join the Franciscan novitiate and, to the amusement of this family he took the name of 'Brother Rock'. He completed the year of novitiate but did not go on to take vows. He was very run-down and returned home where anxieties increased about his general health. He remained at home for two or three years after that fighting an illness which seriously affected his lungs. The diagnosis seems to have been uncertain but in the end he recovered and after that was never again prone to illness. When fit for work he got a job as architect in the Board of Works (the Government department which was responsible for public buildings). That was in the years before the war. He hadn't changed in his sense of dedication to God and during all this time he continued to think seriously about a vocation. Even in everyday lay life he was so easily lost in prayer that it did not surprise his family when, after the war, he became serious again about a vocation to religious life. Fr Eugene Boylan, the Cistercian, was an old friend from university days and it was he who guided Thomas to the novitiate at Ampleforth. After a number of visits, which he found encouraging, he received the Benedictine habit from Abbot Byrne on 19 September 1948 taking the name 'Joseph'. There was never a hesitation in his monastic vocation, which was for him above all else quite simply an unreserved commitment to prayer. He made his Solemn Vows in 1952 and was ordained priest on 18 July 1954 at the age of 48. After a further year in the Abbey he went out to serve on various of the community parishes. He became assistant priest successively at Cockermouth, Cardiff, Harrington and St Benedict's Warrington.
There was something unexpected and even incongruous about this vocation to the English Benedictines at Ampleforth Fr Joseph was always quietly but unreservedly Irish. He was never anglicised by the very English community he joined. He remained himself. He never compromised and was incapable of pretending. He was Irish through and through; but the memorable thing was that he achieved this in a way that caused no friction. He was full of Irish views about everything but he was never political, never provocative. He hardly ever went back to Ireland, although in a sense he had never left it. In a small way he showed what reconciliation can mean without compromise to culture. For those who could see it, that was a lesson very relevant to our times.
Fr Joseph had been for about sixteen years at St Benedict's Warrington when he began to suffer from loss of memory and in October 1984 he returned to the Abbey, where he settled down to a regime, with the Abbey Church as its centre, which was almost unaffected by his loss of memory and concentration. He continued and intensified his routine of prayer and the monastic framework sustained him marvellously. There was a gradual deterioration over the last ten years but it was not until this year that he had to move to the infirmary. Even then he continued to attend all Offices, unless absolutely prevented. From the early days when he was a young man at University in Dublin (where he had joined the Legion of Mary) he had been faithful to a deep devotion to Our Blessed Lady. He had been especially known for that devotion as a layman in Ireland, in the monastery and on the parishes. There was nothing flamboyant or aggressive about it. It was there as an essential part of his life, part of his Catholicism, part of the monastic vocation to which he was always faithful. Fr Joseph suffered a stroke on 6 December. He remained conscious to receive the sacraments. After that his condition deteriorated and no one who knew him was surprised when he died quietly and peacefully during Vespers on the feast of the Immaculate Conception.
Thomas Joseph CARBERY
1906 Jan 10 born Ireland
ed. Ireland
Qualified Architect
1948 Sept 19 Habit Ampleforth Abbot Byrne
1949 Sept 20 Simple Vows Abbot Byrne
1950 Jan 11 Tonsure
1952 Sept 20 Solemn Vows
Dec 23,24 Minor Orders
1953 Jun 28 Subdeacon Bishop Brunner
Jly 19 Deacon
1954 Jly 18 Priest
1955 Sept Cockermouth Assistant
1958 Feb Cockermouth Vic Oeconomicus
Sept Cardiff Assistant
1966 Sept Harrington Assistant
1968 Jan St Benedict's Warrington Assistant
1984 Oct returned to the Abbey for retirement