tribute

PLACID SPEARRITT

a tribute

by Fr David Tomlins OCSO

Born Selwyn Spearritt in an Anglican family in Bundaberg, Queensland. The youngest of five brothers (Donald, Gordon, Robert, Clyde, Selwyn). Parents: Frank, and Lillas Herapath. They both came from Cooktown. This gives Placid a fairly good claim to be one of the "truly saved" - not only as a Queenslander, but having roots in the true Queensland, North Queensland. (As an aside, if that wasn't already one!, I might mention that Queenslanders once had a strangle-hold on the leadership of the Australian and New Zealand Benedictine .Union with Sonia Wagner heading the Good Sams, Placid Spearritt, Brian Keogh and myself as three of the abbots) . Both his father and grandfather were bakers and all the sons had bakehouse duties while growing up.

 

Educated in Brisbane where the family moved when he was eight. Finished at Brisbane State High School.

Enrolled as Arts Student at University of Queensland. Centred largely on English literature and Philosophy. Became especially interested in Scholastic Philosophy towards the end of his third year (1954). As a practising Anglican the connection between religion and philosophy began exercising his mind.

 

Music always part of the family life. Gordonformed an unaccompanied vocal ensemble at U.Q. at the end of 1952. A repertoire mostly of madrigals and motets from the renaissance period. Selwyn was one of the keenest tenors of that group, and he liked nothing better than to be asked to sing the tenor part of the William Byrd Four-Part Mass. He was appreciated for his great sense of fun. Gordon recalls one of their choir camps at Tallebudgera Creek, near Big Burleigh on the Gold Coast, when Selwyn appeared on the beach dressed in swimming trunks and holding aloft his beach umbrella, bereft of most of its fabric, witti only the spokes remaining.

 

Another of Gordon's memories of his pranks at this time: "It was the practice at the time for the University' s graduation ceremonies to take place in the Brisbane City Hall. The  choir would be involved in these ceremonies to lead the singing of the various Faculty songs before the graduands of that Faculty moved forward to receive their degrees. The stage was set up so that the various dignitaries (Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, Deans, etc.) were seated in front, with the choir on the choir stalls behind them, so that the people in the auditorium could see the choir, but the dignitaries could not.

 

Selwyn was one of the perpetrators of student pranks to keep the ceremony from becoming dull, such as suddenly holding up the ubiquitous umbrella. On one occasion there had been a jail-break some days before, and The Courier Mail notice had the wording ^Dangerous Prisoner Escapes'. Selwyn chose to hold this up, unbeknown to me, as I walked across the stage to shake the hand of the Chancellor".

Taught for a year at C. of E. boys' school at Warwick on the Darling Downs.

He became a Catholic at the age of 22, after initially considering becoming an Anglican priest.

A periodicals librarian at U. of Q. This was where I first came to know him. He had a life-long commitment to books and libraries, e.g. New Norcia.

Left for England. Applied to join. Asked by the Abbot to join the teaching staff first to get to know Ampleforth community.

Entered Ampleforth Abbey, Yorkshire, and was given the religious name Placid (which fitted so well with Spearritt! Had asked for Serenus).

Professed at Ampleforth Abbey, Yorkshire.

Ordained.

 

Post-graduate work at the Catholic University of Fribourg in Switzerland. Other Benedictines there allowed him to broaden his horizons and understanding of the charism.

 

Returned to Ampleforth where he taught in the boys' boarding school. Also Philosophy in the community. One of his lectures was entitled: "Placidism - a new heresy of the Incarnation" which stated "This paper, like Pope John's derriere, is divided into two parts ...!" (Stephen King, novice. Not the airport author). "Placid was a great teacher, and a deeply intelligent, learned and holy man. However, many Ampleforth monks, novices, and boys remember Placid's impish humour as well as his consideration for others, compassion and empathy. He was a legend with the pupils at Ampleforth for his (then) long hair, smoking and liberal approach to swearing (his as well as theirs)". (Michael King).

I caught up with him at Ampleforth at the end of my studies in Rome. I was thumbing around England at the time. I had been to the ruins of the Cistercian monastery of Rievaulx when I was given a lift by two monks of Ampleforth and invited to stay for the night. We had a long evening session. He told me he would have been driven out of his mind by the English monks, but American monks who were fellow students had saved his sanity by shared debunking of them. He arranged for me to say Mass on the original altar from the nearby Cistercian ruin of Byland while I was at Ampleforth.

Appointed Monastery Librarian and Archivist atAmpleforth. Aussie heritage: magpie. "When a monk died he asked that every bit of paper that was found in the monk's possession be kept so that he could go through them - bus tickets, train tickets, receipts for meals, anything!" (Michael King, old boy of Ampleforth, in eulogy at Requiem Mass at Subiaco).

Appointed Prior of Ampleforth.

Appointed Prior Administrator, New Norcia.

Elected Sixth Abbot of Holy Trinity Abbey, New Norcia.

 

Placid worked tirelessly to give the New Norcia community deep roots in the essentials of classic monasticism. He also achieved wonderful things for the historic New Norcia township.

 

Chris Power addressed words to Placid at his Requiem:

You have given us monks a sharper understanding of our monastic vocation, unified us, and engendered new growth. You have turned the monastery into the centrepiece of the town and encouraged its culture to be expressed in all its works. And for so many thousands of people you have made New Norcia a place of Catholicism at its best:

• open and welcoming
• engaged with the community
• intelligent but not dogmatic
• a place of God and a place of peace
• a home.

Thank you, Placid.

Chris, in his eulogy, summed up Placid as "a rare bird" with the following qualifications for the title:

• bright - some of us might say too bright
• interested in everything except organised sport, especially books
• hardworking to a fault
• unpretentious with almost a disregard for externals - his Aslumminess' a most attentive and thoughtful host
• and of course, always 'agin' the Government, someone who almost always took the opposite view on any subject and often delighted in doing so
• he was always the youngest of five boys
• never a reliable party member.

Chris Power also commented: "His pace of work was unrelenting and we, his monks, were often stupid, rebellious and all too human, so like all true Christians he suffered intensely, though generally in silence. Only occasionally might he admit he was wallowing in self-pity."

 

Placid was President of the Conference of Clerics from May 1986 to May 1988.

 

During that time he was also Vice President of the National Conference of Religious together with the President of the Conference of Sisters and the President of the Conference of Brothers. This was all pre-unity days!  He became, over quite a period, the essential after dinner speaker at our gatherings - feigning surprise at being called to the microphone. He gave us his last performance in this slot last year. His dry sense of humour was a "must".

Attended the Benedictine Abbots' Congress, Rome.

Died suddenly, while on a visit to England, at Ampleforth Abbey.

Requiem Mass, St. Joseph's Church, Subiaco,WA.

 

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