VERY REV. FATHER ISIDORE, C.P. Death came unheralded – but it was well; For so thy Saviour bore Kind witness, thou wast meet at once to dwell On His eternal shore; All warning spared, For none He gives where hearts are for prompt change prepared. John Henry Newman 1828. “Father Isidore died last night.” This was the laconic but truly startling telegram that each house of our Province received on the morning of the 16th February. None knew, save our Religious at Sutton, how broken, of late, had been Father Isidore’s health; but they, too, were ignorant of the imminence of his death. The circumstances of Father Isidore’s sudden death are now well known to most of us. On the morning of the 15th February he journeyed to Birkdale to spend the day with his brother, Mr. Thomas Whelehan, M.P.S.I., who was there on a visit from Ireland. ” The same night ” — quote from ” St. Helen’s Advertiser ” of 20th February – ” death came to the Rev. Father Isidore as he was pacing the Birkdale station platform, waiting for the train to Liverpool. He was accompanied by the Rev. Father Doran of St. Teresa’s, Birkdale, who was seeing him to the train, and whilst they were walking, Father Isidore suddenly fell forward on his face, and in a few minutes passed away.” Father Doran gave him absolution, and hastening to the nearest church, returned with the Holy Oils and anointed him. It was a tragic end to a gentle, restful life. Gentleness was Father Isidore’s chief characteristic. I knew him for five and. thirty years, but never once saw him disturbed by anger. ” Clemency becomes no one more than a king or ruler ” said Seneca. It was by clemency that Father Isidore ruled his house during the nine years that he held the office of Rector in our Province. Mildness sat on his brow; his words were unctuous of charity; his deeds, merciful ones. His charity was often, as with the rest of us, imposed upon, but he was wont to say : ” Better to be deceived by ninety-nine impostors than to send away empty-handed one really in want.” His zeal for souls held him, week by week and morning after morning, a prisoner to his confessional ; and his love of little children was real. Most of his Christmas letters were from the little ones. His appearance outside the church or monastery was the advent of a bevy of youngsters who swarmed around him, each vying with the other to get nearest to him. He himself was childlike. I, who knew him most intimately, believe that he carried his baptismal whiteness to the judgment-seat of Christ. Virtuous, and always courteous, he wielded a marvellous power for good over others. One could, without exaggeration, attribute to him that which Tennyson in the excess of his grief, wrote of his dead friend, Arthur Hallam — On thee the loyal-hearted hung; The proud was half disarmed of pride; Nor cared the serpent at thy side To flicker with his double tongue. The stern were mild when thou wert by; The flippant put himself to school And heard thee; and the brazen fool Was soften’d, and he knew not why. He came to us a fresh-faced clever, pious youth. A fervent novitiate was followed by a more fervent scholasticate till, on Ember Saturday, in December of 1895, he received the priesthood at the hands of Cardinal Vaughan in our church in London. The obligations of that priesthood he never once put from him. His death was sudden, but we know that it was not improvisa – unprepared. Just such a death as his had Dominic of the Mother of God. and Ignatius Spencer; and we feel, we believe that he is already with them, looking with rapt, white, innocent soul into the face of God. Beati mundo corde : quoniam ipsi Deum videbunt.” Oswald Donnelly, C.P. (Cross, Vol.. XIII, 1922-23; pp. 774f) Very Rev, Father Isidore C.P. It was a terrible shock to the members of the Suttton Community to learn by a telegram message at 11 o’clock in the night of 15th February that the Rev. Fr. Isidore had died suddenly one and a half hours previously. The news seemed impossible of belief. He had left the monastery about noon, looking well, to meet his brother who was on his first visit to England, and he went with almost boyish eagerness for his simple evening’s pleasure. Though he had aged considerably during the second term of his Rectorship of St. Anne’s and though he had been ailing during the annual retreat, no one would have thought, looking at him that morning, that he was leaving the monastery for the last time – that he would stand in the presence of the Great Judge that night. We learned the sad details later. He had spent a quiet hour with his brother and a few priest friends from his native place, had seemed in splendid form and had left the presbytery, accompanied by Fr. Doran, fore the railway station (Bixdale) to return to Sutton. While conversing on the platform, he fell forward suddenly on his face. Fr. Doran hastened to the nearest presbytery for the Holy Oils and returned with all speed to find him still breathing, and, when anointed and absolved, he sighed gently and his soul went forth to Christ. Like Father Dominic, he, who scarcely ever left the monastery, died on a lonely railway station with none of his brethren near him. Two days later his body was brought back to St. Anne’s, and the grief of the thousands who lined the way – among them not a few non-Catholics – was most touching to behold. Though his community knew well that he was beloved, the consternation and the sorrow caused by his death, not only in Sutton but in many parts of Ireland and England, were in the nature of a revelation. It was edifying to see the number of Masses offered, at the request of the faithful for the repose of his soul. Born in Mullingar (1871) Father Isidore was educated by the Irish Christian Brothers. He entered the Novitiate in 1890 and was ordained in 1898. Sutton was the scene of his first priestly labours. He soon became a very successful missioner. Simple, shy, almost timid in his anxiety not to hurt the feelings of anyone. he grew into the hearts of the people among whom he worked – in Highgate, Belfast and Broadway. It was impossible to think of him as anything but a priest. He was a shepherd of souls and he loved his sheep. His life was full of the sweetness and humility of our Saviour, and he never wearied of preaching the tenderness of the Sacred Heart. Above all, he showed in his life, in a most marked manner, that other characteristic of our Lord – a deep love of and solicitude for little children. “He had the heart of a child”, was one man’s tribute to him when he was laid to rest. R.I.P.