In the death of Fr. Bernard Davey, St. Lawrence's has lost its most venerable member, the first for many past years to reach the age of eighty. He was not the oldest, however, in the habit or priesthood, having joined us almost in middle life.
Fr. Davey was born in 1828 at Dorchester in Oxfordshire, and came of an old Catholic family, which had suffered for the faith, to which it had clung right through the penal times. He used to relate how as children they were driven nine miles in all weathers to hear Mass every Sunday in Oxford, where the nearest church was situated. In so doing they used to pass by Littlemore where Dr. Newman then lived in his Anglican days, and who many years afterwards, as Cardinal Newman, told Fr. Austin Davey, how edified he used to be as he witnessed them going by Sunday after Sunday and in the roughest of weather, to hear Mass. Such fidelity to their religion had struck Newman, and had won his admiration for such staunch and practical Catholicism.
Fr. Davey was educated at St. Edmund's, Douai. On leaving school he went into business, and had no thought of the religious life. After some years, however, he received the grace of a call to religion. But with that humility and diffidence of his own powers, which were the characteristics of his whole life, he considered himself unfit for the priesthood, and so thought of becoming a lay-brother. It would appear, however, as far as we can ascertain, that by the advice of a Redemptorist Father, he was prevailed upon to aspire to the priesthood, in a religious order. Eventually he applied to St. Lawrence's, and was admitted there as a Postulant in 1861. From thence he proceeded to the Belmont Novitiate in 1862, being a fellow novice of Fr. Wilfrid Sumner, whose death followed so closely upon his own. After his return to Ampleforth in 1866, his diffidence again prompted him to obtain a longer preparation for the priesthood than was usual - a period of an extra year. Many can, still recall the Br. Bernard of those days, grey-haired and venerable. He acted for a time as Guestmaster and also as Infirmarian; and many can recall amusing incidents of boyish advantages taken of his simple kindliness in that office. After his ordination he served the Ampleforth and Kirby missions for a short time.
In 1873 he was sent to Dowlais to assist Fr. Basil Hurworth and then to take charge of the mission at Maesteg, where he fell upon evil times. During the great 'Strike' of those days he shared the hardships and real poverty of his people. For some time he acted as his own housekeeper, and used to relate in after life how his dinner many a day consisted only of 'pea-flour.' After Maesteg he served various small missions such as Studley and Acton Burnell. For a time he was chaplain to the nuns at Stanbrook, and also later to those at Mayfield. At the age of sixty-five he went from Barton-on-Humber to St. Anne's, Liverpool, where he remained ten years. Still wonderfully, active and with health that was remarkable for the age of seventy-five, he was sent to Brownedge, near Preston, where he laboured cheerfully and vigorously till his eighty-first year. Possessed of a strong constitution, and blessed with wonderful health, he seemed likely to rival his elder brother, Fr. Austin, who still enjoys good health at the age of eighty-four. But a bronchial attack finally proved too much for him, and he died in his eighty-first year, on the 6th of July, 1909, at Brownedge.
His earnest piety and patience during his last illness edified all those who attended him. He was buried by the side of several of his brethren in the cemetery attached to St. Mary's, Brownedge. The text of his funeral panegyric, preached by Fr. Hilary Willson, we think summed up his life and character 'The simplicity of the just shall guide them' (Prov. xi,3). His faith and piety were of that childlike nature which wins the kingdom of heaven. His simple straightforwardness, no doubt, sometimes led him into mistakes in his dealings with others; mistakes that used to call forth his favourite expression, which he used to titter with such a look of astonishment and expressive gesture: 'My patience! Did I say that? How foolish of me!' Little in his own eyes, diffident of his abilities, he nevertheless zealously did his duty, and lived and died a good monk and a good priest. May he rest in peace.
John Bernard DAVEY 6 July 1909 1828 13 Jul born 1862 Clothed 1867 Professed 1871 Priest 1873 Dowlais 1875 Maesteg 1878 Studley Acton Burnell 1885 Stanbrook 1888 Mayfield 1891 Lee House, Preston Barton-on-Humber 1893 St Anne's Liverpool 1903 Brownedge 1909 6 Jul died