Fr Ian Petit, baptised Louis Russell, was a doctor's son, born in New Malden, Surrey on 7 November 1922, so he was still seventy-four when he died on 4 November 1996. He went to school first to Avisford, like many other Amplefordians, and then to St Wilfrid's House in the College, under Fr Columba Cary-Elwes. His was not an academic career, but he made a good House Monitor, and was very successful as an athlete, both on the wing of the First XV and as a sprinter and jumper in the Athletics team.
He was clothed as a novice on 22 September 1941, together with Br Basil (a Cardinal), Br Luke (an Abbot), and Brs Brendan, Julian and Kentigern, and took Simple Vows a year later. When the normal time for Solemn Profession came in September 1945, he decided not to continue and returned to lay life, working in a bank, then as an assistant master at Avisford, where the boys were deeply impressed at his speed over the ground if the need arose. He also worked as a waiter in the Savoy and for an insurance company. The Savoy had lasting effects on the standard of waiting in the monastic refectory, where some of the novices he taught remember his guidance still 'Always see that the table you serve has sufficient before you move to the next', and 'Save work by taking a dish away when you have brought one.' And the insurance company, he said, had the effect of sending him back into the novitiate, when he was clothed a second time on 24 September 1950. He was rare in completing two novitiates: he was unique in twice being the fellow-novice of a Bishop, for in his year the second time were the Br Ambrose (a Bishop), Br Gregory, Br Herbert, Br Rupert, Br Charles, and Br Dominic. There was no delay in Solemn Vows which he made on 25 September 1954. He was ordained priest on St Benedict's day 1956.
In late 1954 Abbot Byrne had received and persuaded the Community to support an invitation to make a foundation in St Louis. While the discussion was going on, Br Ian was in Paris, studying French and acquiring diplomas at the Institut Catholique and Alliance Francaise, and returned there for some months after his ordination. During this time he used to relate how he said Mass in a French parish with no less than twenty-one altar-boys. In July he left for St Louis (by ship), and at once began teaching in their school, covering religion, French and Maths, and becoming Athletics Director, a significant post in American schools. In 1958 he was made Housemaster of the Junior House there, and by the testimony of many of his pupils was an extraordinary success at this job. He had one period a week which was simply called 'Ology', in which he would talk to boys about the dance of the bees, or how you grow lemons, or African missionaries: the word and the idea came from his own time under Fr Felix Hardy. He was always very popular with people, especially young people. Yet his very devotion and intensity undermined his strength, and as the sixties drew to a close he began to suffer from lack of energy, some form of depression and a great sense of emptiness in his spiritual life, becoming seriously ill in October 1969. He was allowed a sabbatical period of several months in 1970, and travelled in the USA, but the benefit seemed only to be temporary, and in 1971 Abbot Hume recalled him to England.
In his later years at St Louis Fr Ian had been helping as chaplain in a local convent, and when he became ill they were a considerable help to him. It was here that he first met what we generally name the charismatic movement, and he describes in his first book The God Who Speaks how in the first year or two of his acquaintance with these new ideas he found them no help at all, but rather felt more and more stuck in a pit out of which he could not see, although he was trying quite hard, as he relates, to become convinced and to gain the spiritual freedom and peace which it seemed to him others were now by this means enjoying. He repeatedly says that his idea of God from as early as he could remember was as a God of fear, and that his worst struggle was to escape from what he came to realise was a distortion of the Gospel. One priest whom he helped said 'He was a spiritual father to me, leading me away from a God who brought fear into my life, a severe taskmaster eager to find fault, to the God who so loved me that He gave up his only Son. I am utterly grateful to this son of Benedict who stopped me in my tracks and re-directed me to face the God who loves me into being moment by moment.'
His experience was, as he later came to realise, very much within the pattern which is found throughout the history of the Church in people who have passed through such a movement of the spirit, but as is common, did not see this till afterwards. What perhaps made Ian different from many such people was that he retained much of his own deeper roots in the ordinary Church and its life of prayer, sacraments and (for monks) obedience, and was therefore for very many a much greater inspiration since they found in him not only the new life of a great spiritual awakening, but also a deep sense of normality and solidity: he always kept close to the Church and to his community. One of them said of him, 'He was the only charismatic figure I have been able to listen to without feeling out of my depth.' He himself constantly repeated that he was not 'charismatic' a term he disliked and always said, as he repeated to Abbot Patrick when he already knew he was dying, 'I can only preach the Gospel'. He really did feel that the basics were poorly understood, and thought that without these the spiritual life was full of pitfalls. This seems to have been the secret of his effect on people, and of his national, indeed international, reputation as a 'speaker', for it was in preaching that his gifts turned out to lie, though he was gifted also with a great capacity to listen and help those who came to him for direction. He also had a talent for effective phrasing: to help a couple worried about their children's adolescent offspring he said, 'God has no grandchildren.'
He had a tremendous sense of vocation. He felt driven to eradicate the notion that we earn our salvation, or that we try to get ourselves into good shape, so that Christ will reward us, for it is all Christ's work, and he has done it already. He was meticulous in sacristy work even into his seventies: it was an expression of his love for the Mass. His motto, indeed, could have been 'Father, you are holy indeed, and all creation rightly gives you praise.' Words like these were the food of Ian's prayer: every morning he would spend an hour meditating on the day's readings, generally with a pad and a pen at his side. He could of course be awkward to live with, for he became frustrated with people who did not see things as he did, and often felt undervalued by superiors, locally or at Ampleforth.
In the last seven years of his life he also discovered a particular style of writing, simple, uninvolved and direct, but transparently sincere, which showed itself in the five books The God Who Speaks (1989), This Is My Body (1991), How Can I Pray (1991), Your Sins Are Forgiven You (1993), You Will Receive Power (1995): he completed another book just before he died, God is Not Angry, due in April 1997. These have found a ready market where they were intended to help, among those who are puzzled or worried or in a mist, and have no time or energy for bigger books. Fr Ian's way of turning each point or problem into a share in the difficulties which he himself had experienced makes it much easier for the reader to identify with the solution when he sees the problem as his own.
He was unusual but not unique among the brethren in his active ministry in the area of what others classed as charismatic, but his brethren appreciated him, especially in the last years when they saw more of him because he was at Osmotherley. He was valued in particular for his qualities as a community man, though he hated cooking, and often said so. Though naturally shy, and as a child a great worry to his parents that he would ever do anything worthwhile with his life, he was the source of a good deal of entertainment, sometimes planned, sometimes off the cuff: he could be relied on for a turn at a Christmas concert, but his ordinary accounts of travel experiences were lively and amusing, as were his accounts of learning French in a silent monastery in France. This gave us some idea of why distant audiences in America or the Far East (he went to Malaysia, Singapore, the US) found him so stimulating. For us, he was giving entertainment: for them he was preaching the Gospel, but the tone and warmth were similar. And the nuns at Stanbrook, to whom he gave a retreat, were deeply impressed with his insistent, gentle homilies: so was, on some special occasion, a packed York Minster.
On his return from America in 1971 he spent some months in Rome, on various priests' renewal courses, and in May 1972 went to St Benedict's, Warrington, and in 1974 moved to St Alban's. Here he was released from ordinary parish work, to which he had found he was not suited, to work full time in the Catholic renewal movement, and in 1976 moved to Bamber Bridge, where he built up a lay community which is still in existence. For the next fifteen years he led many retreats in many countries, of which the Philippines was the most distant. Here he gave retreats for Aide Inter-Monastère, an organisation in which Fr Mark Butlin is closely involved: it assists Third-World monasteries, particularly the Benedictine Sisters. In 1987 Abbot Patrick asked him to move to York to be one of the new community at St Bede's, where he remained till he moved to Osmotherley in March 1994, but still continued to travel and preach. However, some health problems began to show, and in the summer of 1996 cancer was diagnosed which turned out to be too far developed for a surgical solution. He was cross with the Lord for taking him before he had finished his work. Yet only two weeks before he died, fortified by the faith he recovered due to Renewal, he gave an hour-long talk on the Holy Spirit to the Ryedale Christian Council. His sense of humour survived: two days before he died, a nurse said to him, 'I've come to sort you out', to which his reply was, 'The monks have been trying to do that for fifty-five years.' He died about 3.30 in the morning of 4 November in the monastery Infirmary, after seeing his family who had on an impulse travelled a week earlier than they had planned. Only in March they had joined the Osmotherley community in a happy celebration of his fortieth anniversary of ordination. Something is now missing from the Community, but we are glad that the Lord gave us Ian.
Louis Russell Ian PETIT 1922 Nov 7 b. New Malden Surrey - f. Christopher m. Nina Petit 1932 Preparatory school Avisford, Arundel, Sussex 1936-1941 Ampleforth College.St Wilfrid’s House. House Mon. School Mon. In Ath.team and school rugby team 1941 Sep 22 Habit Ampleforth - Abbot Byrne 1942 Jan 8 Tonsure - Bishop Shine Sep 23 Simple Vows - Abbot Byrne 1945 Sep 7 Left sua sponte with permission. Worked in Bank, taught at Avisford; Trained for hotel at Dungeon Ghyll, and Savoy London; worked for Assurance Company 1950 Sep 24 Recieved Habit again - Abbot Byrne 1951 Sep 25 Simple Vows - Abbot Byrne 1954 Sep 25 Solemn vows - Abbot Byrne Sep 29,30 Minor Orders - Abbot Byrne 1955 Jul 17 Subdeacon - Bishop Brunner 1955 Jul 25 Deacon at St Hilda’s, Whitby - Bishop Brunner 1955-1956 Studied in Paris. Obtained Diplomas at Institut Catholique and Alliance Francaises 1956 Mar 21 Ordained Priest Jul 18 Sent to St Louis Community. Taught RI, French, Maths, Athletic Director. 1958 Sep Headmaster of Junior House; soccer and track coach 1970 Sep Sabbatical. Travelled in USA 1971 Oct Returned to UK. Attended ‘Better World’ course in Rome 1972 Feb Attended Priests’ school Foculari Rome 1972 May 8 Went to St Benedict’s Warrington 1974 May Went to St Alban’s Warrington. Released from parish work to work full-time for charismatic renewal. Elected on to the national service committee for renewal 1976 July Went to Bamber Bridge, Preston, to be based there to develop a lay community in the old convent. Led many retreats & conferences in British Isles and in France, Malta, Malaysia, Singapore, and USA 1987 Moved to St Bede’s, York, to join the community. Gave talks there and continued with retreats in this country. Wrote four books wbile in York 1993 Mar-Apr Led several retreats in Philippines for A.I.M 1993 Jul 8 Gall bladder removed at Bury St Edmunds. 1993 Jul 21 Returned to hospital with thrombosis in right leg 1994 Mar 14 Moved to Osmotherley to join that community. Wrote another book. Still gave retreats around the country. 1996 Aug 13 Operated on to remove a small section of my bowel. Publications 1972 Article in Catholic Herald 1973 ' a** 1975 Wrote regularly for ‘Good News’. Was editor for a few years 1977 Wrote a chapter in ‘Anointed with the Spirit’ - a book of priests’ testimonies. 1980 Wrote pamphlet ‘What is the charismatic renewal?’ 1984 Wrote an article in ‘The Vine’ - Scottish magazine 1986 Wrote an article in ‘New Creation’ - an Irish Magazine wrote 6 articles for ‘Catholic Gazette’ 1989 Wrote first book 'The God who Speaks' (DLT) 1991 Wrote 'This is My body' DLT 1991 Wrote 'How Can I Pray?' DLT 1993 Wrote 'Your Sins Are Forgiven you' DLT 1994 Wrote 'You will Receive Power' DLT 1996 Am writing another book