Br. Pius Ward In the death of Brother Pius the Order in England has lost a valuable and venerable son. If there is unction in the “gospel of work”, then Brother Pius may truly be said, “to have been anointed with its oil”, for his work was his “gladness”. His life may be said to have been a term of hard labour, a period of unremitting toil. Born at Arklow in Co. Wicklow, Ireland, in the year 1838, he grew up to youth’s estate in the pious atmosphere of an Irish home and in the honest but hard employment of a farmer’s life on his father’s land – thus building up in the pure air of the country that strong constitution of body which stood him in good stead through his long and laborious life. After a short spell of city life in Dublin, he entered the novitiate at Broadway, Worcestershire, England and was clothed with the habit on 17 July 1885, taking the name of Pius and discarding the name of William Ward by which he had been known in the outside world. After his year of probation was ended, he was solemnly professed as a Passionist by the Master of Novices, Fr. Raymond, on July 18th 1886. Then began for him a life of labour in many different retreats, first at Glasgow where he spent some time in the exacting position of “questor”, and at Sutton and Broadway and Highgate where he performed the duties allotted to him with scrupulous care and painstaking effort. For some years he lived at St. Paul’s Retreat, Dublin, and there he greatly improved the grounds and promoted to a great degree the dairy department. After “begging” on behalf of Broadway, he was sent to the new foundation at Carmarthen in South Wales, and it is owing to his self-sacrifice and toil that today our finely appointed and well wooded grounds there are due. He discharged the duties of cook, porter and gardener and at the call of his superiors he left Carmarthen for St. Mary’s Retreat, Harbourne, where from 1892 until the day of his last illness he laboured as “questor” in his usual conscientious and self-sacrificing spirit. Every year it was his great delight to erect the crib in honour of the Infant Jesus. Last Christmas he had a premonition it would be his last work and so it proved. With the New Year he was confined to his room with heart-trouble and bronchitis. During the following three months he had short periods of returning health and strength. Finding these were only temporary respites, towards the end of March he begged with great earnestness for the Last Sacraments, which were administered on Holy Thursday night. At Easter he rallied for a time but the improvement was short-lived. On Saturday evening 22nd May he was seized with an apoplectic stroke and paralysed on the left side. The Last Sacraments were again administered and despite the care of the Brother Infirmarian and the skill of his medical adviser he gradually grew weaker. After some weeks of acute suffering and partial unconsciousness a few days before his death he regained complete consciousness. Unable to speak, he gave many signs of his entire resignation to the Divine Will. On Saturday evening, June 5th about 5 o’clock after an agony of some hours he quietly and peacefully breathed his last – crucifix in hand and the sweet names of “Jesus and Mary” sounding in his ears. On Tuesday, June 8th he was buried in our little cemetery at Harbourne. Simple faith and great love for the Mother of God were the great characteristics of his spiritual life, and as a religious he was particularly noted for his faithful and scrupulous discharge of duty, a deep and unaffected loyalty to the Congregation and unsparing labours on its behalf. R.I.P.