OBITUARY NOTICE OF FATHER NINIAN O’CONNOR C.P. Father Ninian O’Connor died in St. Anne’s Retreat, Sutton, St. Helens, Lancs., on 17th June 1966. His death was sudden and unattended. He had dropped dead in his room during the morning, and was not discovered until lunch-time. This tragic circumstance is relieved, however, by the spiritual realities of the occasion. It was the Feast of the Sacred Heart, and it was assumed that Father Ninian, who was to have celebrated the evening Mass of the Feast, was absent bringing Holy Communion to the sick and the aged to whom he was known to be devoted. How they felt on learning of his death is best understood in the remark of one of them, made on the day of his funeral: “The mantle of Father Felix had fallen on Father Ninian”. This comparison with Father Felix Hawarden, C.P., who died thirty years ago, reveals the people’s long and grateful remembrance of that priest whose devotion to the Poor was so remarkable, and it measures the depth of Father Ninian’s priestly spirituality by an indisputable standard. Father Ninian was born in St. Mungo’s Parish, Glasgow on 21st November 1902. He was educated in the Parochial School, and later at St. Mungo’s Academy conducted by the Marist Brothers. This early association with teachers and priests who were dedicated religious was a providential preparation for his Passionist vocation. He entered the Juniorate in Sandymount, Dublin on 13th January 1919, and was professed in the Novitiate, The Graan, Enniskillen, on 26th February 1922. He completed his studies for the Priesthood in St. Paul’s Retreat, Ilkley, Yorkshire, where he was ordained with fifteen class-mates on 13th January 1929. In the following year he was appointed Vice Master of Novices in Broadway. At the end of the year he accompanied his newly-professed novices as Director of Students in Ilkley, Highgate and Sutton, and had the satisfaction of guiding “my boys”, as he called them, right up to the Sacred Priesthood. The office of Director of Students – bravely borne – brought out in Father Ninian those qualities of self-discipline and self-effacement indispensable for the office of moulding and guiding future priests. With the tenacity of the Scot, and with a devotion to duty uninfluenced by any personal considerations, Father Ninian was being prepared in this spiritual crucible for even greater demands on his priesthood and religious life. At the outbreak of World War II, he accepted a commission as Chaplain in the Royal Air Force. After a period of training, and home duties in Kent and Wales, he was posted overseas, and was attached to R.A.F. Headquarters in Rangoon. Like his fellow-Passionists who accepted similar responsibilities in other theatres of the War, Father Ninian’s work for souls has only too brief mention in the official records, but the details are known to God in whose service he always remained. Occasionally there filtered through many exciting adventures the account of an intervention by the Chaplain on behalf of some unjustly treated service-man, nor was Father Ninian the person to hesitate to argue with an officious C.O. whose limited time and regulation-ruled mentality might otherwise have inflicted deep unmerited suffering in the name of military discipline. One also learned that Catholic young servicemen received from Father Ninian the same intolerance of silliness that he had shown to his other “boys” when Director of Students. At home, or abroad, in his Monastery, or on the War front, Father Ninian was first and always a priest – a Passionist Priest – devoted to the Master who chooses whom He pleases to be His instruments and His ministers. After demobilisation, Father Ninian resumed his religious duties with little, if any, of the well-known consequences of so prolonged a separation from the monastic atmosphere. He filled the office of Vice Rector in Broadway, Harborne, Sutton and Blythe Hall. More recently he was parochial administrator of the small parish of Addingham which is attached to our Ilkley Retreat. He was transferred to parochial responsibilities in Sutton after the last Provincial Chapter, and in Sutton he literally died at his post. In the distribution of intellectual gifts, Father Ninian would seem to have belonged rather to the category of the “two talents”, but he certainly traded with them for the “other two” which merit the supreme reward and the joy of the Master. His musical gifts contributed to the excellent concerts with which his fellow-students entertained the Community and their friends in Ilkley, and later, as Vice Master in Broadway, enabled him to lay the foundations of training in Gregorian Music in this Province. Our brethren who to-day attain eminence and ease in the performance of sacred music will readily recognise their indebtedness to the pioneer work of Father Ninian in this field. His appreciation of the sanctifying power of exact observance of Rule, far from making him small-minded, made him rather a man of principle and a generous comrade. He was the first to appreciate in others the gifts he did not himself possess. Without the ability or the aspiration to be an orator, he was proud of the preaching achievements of his fellow-Passionists. As Vice Rector, he is to-day best remembered for his unfailing provision of that “special charity” to the returned missioners in the tradition of Our Holy Founder. This sense of service and comradeship marks out the Priesthood of Father Ninian with the authentic signs of the true pastor as outlined in the recent II Vatican Council. The people he served up to his death may well echo the remark made on Calvary: “Indeed, this was a just man”. His brethren thank God for his fidelity and his achievements. May he rest in peace. Amen. Signed: Fr. Hilary C.P. Rector, St. Anne’s Retreat, Sutton, ST. HELEN’S, Lancs.