A good priest has passed to his reward, at a patriarchal age after a life spent wholly in religious service, many times a jubilarian with sixty years in the priesthood and sixty-eight in the monastic state. Born in Liverpool two years before the Hierarchy was restored, Thomas Feeny came to Ampleforth in 1862, and obeying vocation joined the novitiate at Belmont in 1867 and was professed there the following year. After the usual religious training at Belmont and Ampleforth and ordination in 1875 he was sent on the apostolic mission early in 1877. Warrington, St Alban's, had the benefit of his first labours, where the renovated sanctuary and altar of the mother-church remain in evidence of his energy and success. He next passed rapidly through various parishes and duties - Workington, Edgehill, Barton-on-Humber, Harrington and Spilsby; he was chaplain at Wroxham and Stanbrook; he enlarged schools at Maryport, and when rector of Edge Hill organised a successful bazaar to reduce debt on the rebuilt priory. At Brindle Father Feeny remained for twenty-two years, resigning his country mission when he thought he was becoming more of a burden than a help in 1927. He returned to St Alban's, Warrington for a short spell of light work, and when the infirmities of age grew more heavy retired to the Abbey and finally to Musselburgh (1931), dying there on October 24th, 1935, in his 88th year, the end even then hastened by serious injury through an accidental fall.
Never physically robust, Father Basil needed the constant care that prolonged his life. An observant religious of regular and even austere habit, he was ever eminently priestly; there was nothing of the athlete or the sportsman about him; his nearest approach to worldliness would be that his brother had built the theatre at Ampleforth. He took his vocation, and himself, very seriously; there was a blend of solemnity and simplicity in him, hardly enough relieved by a sense of humour, that greatly impressed people even if it provoked some kindly amusement amongst his brethren. He preached with facility - simple thoughts weighted by a grave delivery; his very tone and appearance suggested profound conviction, and he could enunciate old truths and deliver platitudes as though they were fresh-minted nuggets of wisdom.
Always a bit of a hero-worshipper, Father Basil loved to tell anecdotes in his solemn way and to quote sayings of eminent persons he had met, so saving from oblivion verba seniorum in the style of the Vitae Patrum. Yet there was nothing in all this of affectation or pretence; it was just the genuine outcome of a simple nature; these little foibles covered the real piety of a priestly character. He made no enemies, but many friends he was valued as a prudent, kindly director of souls, attracting and deserving the loving affection of many parishes. Important missions entrusted to him showed the confidence of Superiors, and in later years the priorship of Chester his brethren's respect and affection.
A simple monk, a devout priest, a faithful pastor, may he rest in peace!
THOMAS BASIL FEENY 24 October 1935
1848 29 Mar Born Liverpool
1862-67 Educ Ampleforth
1867 28 Sep Habit at Belmont Prior RB Vaughan
1868 6 Oct Simple Vows
1870 28 Oct Minor Orders Bishop Brown
1872 23 Feb Solemn Vows Ampleforth Prior B Prest
1873 8 Mar Subdeacon
1874 19 Dec Deacon
1875 18 Sep Priest Bishop Cornthwaite
1877 St Alban's Warrington
1878 St Mary's Warrington
1884 Workington
1886 St Anne's Liverpool
1889 St Alban's Warrington
1893 St Anne's Liverpool
1898 Wroxham Norfolk
Barton-on-Humber
1899 Stanbrook
1901 Harrington
Spilsby
1902 Maryport
1905 27 May Brindle
1927 St Alban's Warrington (semi-retired)
1930 Oct Returned to Ampleforth
1931 1 Dec Returned to Musselburgh Convent
1935 24 Oct Died at Musselburgh Convent
25 Oct Buried at Ampleforth