He was Bishop of Southwark for the first half of the 20th century. He was apparently terrifying but a great friend of the poor and much loved.
Fr Michael Clifton's life of him "Amigo, friend of the poor: Bishop of Southwark, 1904-1949" can be found here. Fr Clifton is also Fr Mildew.
19 comments:
I had no idea my book was available like that to read on the internet ! Presume it is not under copyright ? I was present at the funeral as a student at the Junior Seminary Mark Cross and marvelled at the numbers actually outside the Cathedral, some weeping.I was one of the last people interviewed by him before entry to the Sem, only 4 months before he died.
The Pathe News site is full of such gems.
I loved the fact that de Valera and Sean MacBride had come to pay their respects to a friend of Error.
For some strange reason the Pathe film is not working but I have been reading the link to Fr Clifton's book. I was interested to learn that in 1910 the whole congregation of an Anglican church in Brighton converted to Catholicism including two of their ministers. Fr Clifton does not name them - does anyone know which ones they were?
Pelerin,
I think it was the Annunciation, the processed down the road to St Joseph's.
Can't get Pathe to work also.
I was taught 'Reverend' meant one to be feared; the Blessed Sacrament is the most fearsome presence in all creation.
Jesus is the Blessed Sacrament, therefore His Priests are also fearsome.
All great Priests are friends of the poor, hated by their peers, and loved by their enemies.
*
Fr Michael Clifton, the book is under preview. Only a certain amount of pages can be viewed. The system allows prospective purchasers to check out the book before buying, like they would normally do in a book-shop.
Thank you Father for that information. I do love the image of them all processing down the hill to St Joseph's. Although St Joseph's was my first parish I don't remember ever hearing about these conversions.
The presence of de Valera and Sean McBride was in no small measure due to the fact that then Bishop Amigo had presided at the requiem Mass held in St George's Cathedral for Terence MacSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork, after he had died on hunger strike in Brixton Prison on October 25, 1920.
My apologies for going off topic, but...
Father you linked to an excellent site about a year ago, that had a load of church related academic-type lectures to download as MP3s. I remember there were quite a lot on church history. It was very impressive. Unfortunately I've completely forgotten what the name of the site was. Can you remember it?
The people kneeling on the pavement outside the cathedral for the Requiem Mass. Wow.
Shane, sorry I can't.
Father, no worries. I had my memory jogged soon after I wrote that. It can be found here. Excellent stuff.
The case referred to was when the vicars of St Bartholomew's and St Martin's, Brighton, became Catholics in 1911, taking a great many of their people with them.
Fr Cox, of St Bartholomew's, went on to be parish priest of the Catholic church in Eastbourne which he proceeded to finish. He was a strong-minded man and, after a difference, Archbishop Amigo wrote and reminded him that he was not the Bishop of Chichester.
Cox became a Monsignor and later built the church of Our Lady
Star of the Sea, in Hove. When he was at St Bartholomew's he had ambitious plans for the decoration and extension of the church, of which the present sanctuary is the result. The rest was truncated by his conversion.
Earlier, in 1874 or so, the vicar and curates of St Bartholomew's also became Catholics, taking the greater part of the congregation with them. Fr Wagner, the founder, was untroubled and seemed concerned only about who should conduct the services on the following Sunday.
A curate or two from St Michael's also became Catholics, including Charles Walker, author of 'The Ritual Reason Why'.
A small addition. The congregation who converted moved effectively wholesale, taking their small orchestra with they. They performed at SMM for a while.
Correction to a piece done in haste. It should of course be 'them' and they moved wholesale to Saint Mary Magdalen. Some younger ones were still in the congregation in the 1950's, though the orchestra had to go when the church moved to 'organ only' in its music.
Michael1,
Where did you find this Magdalen connection?
As far as I know, there was nothing written, but my father became a member of the congregation in 1927 and he reminisced about that particular group of parishioners.
Managed to get the old Pathe News link working: "friend of error" indeed, Ttony! I knew Terence MacSwiney had lain "in state" at Southwark Cathedral, but I didn't know much about the Archbishop Amigo: what a wonderfully evocative name! And so moving to see people kneeling in the street.
When I first moved to Brighton and was renting near the station, I became immediately fond of St Barts before I found two Catholic churches. I love the very solemn beauty of St Barts along with the odd flash of opulence here and there. Again, I thought I'd read a fair bit about the Wagner Anglo-Catholic churches in the area but I didn't really know about clerical conversions to Catholicism. Quite apt, I think. Is there any more about the link with St Mary Magdalens?
Degringolade - your comments are fascinating and add information to a photographic postcard I have which was printed in Brighton about 100 years ago. It depicts a bald rather stern looking, square jawed (with a dimple in his chin!)priest holding a book. On the back someone has written 'Mgr Cox Brighton'.
Thank you for this information which adds interest to what would otherwise be an unknown photograph.
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