Obituary - Fr Aldhelm Finniear 1967

Let us begin by going backwards. Fr Aldhelm died on 12th April 1967, the result of a collapse in the streets of Bristol. He had served in six parishes since his ordination in 1937. He had taught at Gilling; studied in Rome; been clothed in the habit of St Benedict in 1930; been received into the Church in 1929. He had been ordained as an anglican to the title of St Columba's, Seaton Burn, Newcastle, 1926; had studied at St Boniface's College, Warminster, as an ardent Anglo-Catholic till 1926; had been trained as a lad in the antiques business of Messrs. J. Locke & Sons at the Octagon (opposite Fortts) in Bath; had been sent to King Edward VI School and before that to Miss Silverside's; and in God's good time was born in Bath on 28th June 1902.

To understand the gentle character of Fr Aldhelm we must bear in mind that he was ever a West Countryman, and conservative to a degree. His longest spell in an Ampleforth parish was at St Mary's, Cardiff. From the cliffs of neighbouring Penarth he would cast a nostalgic eye at his beloved Somerset. It was his delight to show his friends the beauties of Bath, and this enthusiasm for its honey-coloured terraces appeared to add to the natural warmth of his virtue.

I first met him when I was visiting St Boniface's College to discuss my education as an Anglican Missionary. This was in 1923. I was 17; he was about 21. I was a rabid Protestant; he was an ardent Anglo-Catholic - the first I had ever met. I was to begin my studies at Warminster; he was well-advanced on his course. I was rash and brash; he was wise and gentle. His home was in Bath; so was mine. Thus it was quite natural for me to accept, on every plane, the guidance and tutelage of this kind and experienced mentor. He took me to High Mass at St Mary's, Bathwick. I was enchanted by the Mozart, the clouds of stupefying incense, the tall Renaissance candlesticks, the rich vestments, and, above all a devotion that was far above and beyond my dreams. The whole experience might have been taken from a Compton Mackenzie novel - except that it seemed real and vital, not artificial and slightly corrupt. He taught me about Confession, the Rosary, the Mass, Priesthood, Religious life, and St Boniface whom he liked very much because he too was a West Countryman and had successfully introduced Benedictine Monachism and the Roman Rite into Germany. He persuaded me to make my first Confession, and helped me by his gentleness and comfort when my new-found faith caused serious trouble at home.

He told me of his own life... his approach to the Community of the Resurrection, Mirfield... He had even visited Downside - 'a monastery of the Roman obedience - but really excellent'. His own way of life was quite fixed: 'If I didn't want to become a priest, I should be a schoolmaster'. He taught me to say the Angelus, and to aspire to celebrating Mass daily as a priest.

Completing his theology at Warminster in 1925 he went on to St Chad's College, Durham, to read for his degree. St Chad's was very 'extreme' but greatly lacking in true piety; it was therefore not entirely to his taste.

In 1926 he was ordained to the title of St Columba's' Seaton Burn, Newcastle. When I came up to Durham myself I used to visit him in his rooms at the cheerful and hospitable vicarage.

In 1927 he reported a sharp bout of Roman Fever; so did I. Then in 1928 I abandoned my University course, became a Catholic, and told him so, His reply, so characteristic, was: 'I pray that your life may be very happy and full of grace'. I went to Ampleforth to teach, keeping in close touch with him. Then, in October 1929 he wrote to say he also must become a Catholic; what should he do? Abbot Matthews characteristically invited him to make Ampleforth his home, and he arrived in a celluloid collar, a grey clerical suit, with a gold watch from his parishioners inscribed 'To Father Finniear'. So as not to perturb them, they had been told that Fr Finniear had to leave Seaton Burn because 'he had been rather overdoing things a little'. Abbot Matthews appointed Fr Felix to instruct him.

In due time Fr Aldhem saw a good deal of continental catholicism. Studying at St Anselmo's in Rome he was ordained sub-deacon there; and then deacon at Weingarten in Württemberg. From 1931 he worked on the parishes with our own monks. First it was Workington, then Warwick Bridge, then Cardiff, Grassendale, Warrington (St Mary's), Harrington, and once again, this time for 11 years, at St Mary's Cardiff.

Officially he was not given a wide sphere of action. Nevertheless he came to hold a wider sphere of influence than he or many of us suspected. It was his way of just being there, in his district; mixing with the pilgrims at Lourdes; leading the common life shared with his brethren. When he came to die, the cry was: 'Now to whom do we go to confess our sins?' And so the packed church at the evening Requiem and again at the committal service next day was evidence enough of the regard and love in which he was held.

Truly there was something endearing about Fr Aldhelm's self: the tilt of his beret, his addiction to cups of tea, his circumscribed taste in music ('that work would be out of my bracket'), his lapses of memory (he had suffered a mild stroke, resulting in hypertension, two or three years before he died), the gathering momentum of his sometimes 'off-beam' queries, his taking refuge under quite transparent secrecy, his genius for neo-Malapropisms (the Pasternak film 'Dr Zigarro', or those 'insinuendos'), that indescribable breviary of his. And all the time that sustained and smiling equipoise under the fire of continuous banter: 'I won't be made a butt of!'

Indeed, how much he is missed. Not solely for that gay simplicity, but even more for that retiring way he had of being holy.

He lies buried near several of our deceased brethren in Cathays Cemetery, Cardiff. May he rest in peace.

ALDHELM FINNIEAR

Details from the Abbey Necrology