Born at Birkdale on 8th October 1887, he was educated at Ampleforth and clothed at Belmont in 1905, taking his solemn vows there in 1909. He was at Parker's Hall (now St Benet's Hall), Oxford, from 1910 to 1913, reading History, and graduated B.A. and eventually M.A. He was ordained Priest on 30th May 1915 and taught in the School until sent as Assistant to St Alban's, Warrington, in 1916. He was Assistant at Workington from 1917 till 1929, when he was appointed Parish Priest of St Mary's, Warrington, which post he held until 1942. Then in poor health, he was at Parbold and Brindle until he retired to Brownedge in 1956. He was made Cathedral Prior of Durham and Economus of the Mission Fund in 1941, and Titular Abbot of St Mary's, York, in 1961. He died at Brownedge on 30th December 1965 and was buried there.
What follows is the panegyric preached at his funeral by Abbot Herbert Byrne.
Before we return the mortal remains of Abbot Alexius to the earth from which they came, let us speak of him briefly and happily; happily because the story of his life is a story of God's mercy, of his gifts which Abbot Alexius accepted, and gratefully and faithfully, we believe, used.
The first gift of God to him was the Faith. He was born into a solidly and traditionally Catholic family in which the faith penetrated their being and shaped their life, without in the least detracting from its liveliness. The presence of several of them here restrains me from saying more about them.
This Catholic family was neighbourly associated with other similar families, congenial in temper and tastes and having the same deep-rooted faith. They formed a Catholic milieu such as we are apt to say is not commonly found in this country beyond the bounds of Catholic Lancashire.
He was sent to Ampleforth. This was a less formidable experience, less of an adventure into the unfamiliar, than for many little boys. He was in the third generation of Ampleforth boys in his family; and his predecessors were devotedly attached to it. He must have heard much and learned much about Ampleforth before he first saw it. His eldest brother was already there before him.
My earliest recollection of him dates from his coming to the School, a slender, pale boy who looked as if he were outgrowing his strength. He wore a gentle expression which years later was wickedly and correctly described in his presence as 'deceptively demure'. There was even then no undue weakness or self-effacing habit about him.
He entered fully into all parts of school life of course, and became a typical example of a good kind of Catholic boy of that period.
Meanwhile, God had revealed to him his further gift, a vocation to the monastic state and to the priesthood. He accepted the call, was admitted to the novitiate for Ampleforth, and began his monastic and later his priestly life which ended last Thursday.
He threw himself into the life with the wholehearted generosity in self-giving which was one of his most striking characteristics. It was the same lavish expenditure of self which was the secret source, perhaps of his genius for friendship. There are many men and women in this country who will be deeply distressed and lonely when they hear what we are doing this morning. Most of them are likely to be humble people, the weak on whom life is bearing hard. He never forgot them or anything about them, their needs and hopes, their anniversaries, least of all their inter-marriage relationships, and a stream of human, and not only human, kindliness poured from him in sympathy, encouragement and advice.
With the same generosity he threw himself into monastic life, and was immediately rewarded when Ampleforth and the monastic spirit which it expressed took possession of his heart, and to the end of his life was a cause of interest, pride and joy. He was eager for news of Ampleforth and he gloried in her successes. He was far from uncritical in his appreciation, and woe betide us if we seemed to fall short of what the spirit and traditions of Ampleforth required! After his novitiate he did his studies for the priesthood, took a degree in history at Oxford, and taught in the School. It appeared, however, that his mind made a more successful approach to grown-up persons than to youth, and he was sent out to work on the parish of St Alban's, Warrington. The venerable Mother Church of Warrington was an appropriate starting point for one so interested in history, and he had for his local Superior an elderly monk who was a mine of ancient ways and views.
From Warrington he was sent to Workington. The peculiar ethos of West Cumberland fascinated him. It encouraged him too to put into active practice his strong views on the advantage of close and friendly contact with men prominent in public life. It is not necessary now, perhaps, to urge priests to come out of their sacristies and learn to know and to be known by public men. Fr Alexius was a pioneer.
In 1929, he was sent back to Warrington, to take charge of St Mary's. The thirteen years which he spent there formed, perhaps, the period of his chief and best work. He cared devotedly for the spiritual needs of his parishioners, and for their social life, and he did much valuable work for Catholic education in the town. A useful by-product of this work was the new prominence, the new 'image' as we now say, of the Church in Warrington.
He worked as hard for other parishes as for his own, and he gave much help to priests who were less experienced or less confident than himself.
Perhaps it was due to those efforts that he developed a mannerism by which his brethren were affectionately amused, though others, who knew him less well, may have been offended: it was a manner which seemed to express an overbearing dogmatism. If we, however, were inclined to smile at him, he was very ready to laugh at himself. The truth is, as we well know, that under the domineering manner there was a childlike humility and an exceptionally sound and thorough self-knowledge.
Unhappily, he was seriously affected at this time by the earlier of the two maladies by which he was afflicted. He suffered from asthma, and was sometimes seen fighting for breath like a drowning man. It seemed impossible that even his magnificent constitution would bear up for another thirty years.
Undoubtedly the strain of asthma shortened his working years, and he was finally sent to St Joseph's, Brindle, to help Fr Hind in his failing health.
From there he was transferred to Parbold. He would have been happy at Parbold. The climate suited his asthma, he liked the parish, and the good people were kind to him. But his second malady came savagely upon him, a peculiarly severe form of arthritis. He endured much pain. There were operations, and he lost the free use of his legs. He could no longer do active work, and he came here for the last stage.
The affection and care of his brethren did everything possible to lighten his lot. Also there were at least two other alleviations: God had given him an active, interested and reflective mind, which he had not allowed to lie fallow. Consequently, although he spent many hours alone in his room, there was so great a throng of questions, problems, memories teeming in his mind, fed by his sustained reading and preserved from wastage by his retentive memory, that he can rarely have been without interesting thoughts. Secondly, he had been given an important post in which he was responsible for the general administration of the overheads of parish work; and nearly all his duties could be fulfilled at his desk. Consequently the important work was well done by an able and industrious man with ample leisure, and he was safeguarded from any delusion that he was useless.
It remains that there was plenty of unavoidable suffering of several kinds; but there was no word of self-pity, only regret that he was a cause of extra work for others.
There is no need to remind you of the gallantry which won and held our admiration, the ready gratitude which he showed for anything that was done for him.
During the last few months he may have felt some bodily weakening. Certainly his thoughts often turned towards death. He faced it as we should all hope to face it: with ready resignation and relying on the mercy of God as our sole but sufficient ground of hope.
The mercy of God has taken him. We shall restore his body to earth, pray for his soul and remember him with admiration and affection, so human, so monastic, so priestly. May God give rest to him.
HERMAN ALEXIUS CHAMBERLAIN 30 December1965
1887 8 Oct Born Birkdale
Educ Ampleforth
1905 Clothed at Belmont
1906 Simple Vows
1909 Solemn Vows
1910-13 Parker's Hall, Oxford (MA)
1915 30 May Priest
1916 Assistant at St Alban's Warrington
1917 Workington
1929 St Mary's Warrington
1941 Cathedral Prior of Durham & Economus of the Mission Fund
1942 Parish Priest at Parbold & Brindle
1956 Retired to Brownedge
1961 Titular Abbot of the ancient Abbey of St Mary's York
1965 30 Dec Died at Brownedge
Buried at Brownedge