Newsletter for past alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.
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Dear Friends,
Good to hear from you, Brian Gonsalves.
Also due to the large amount of articles on Fr. Benedict, I have included one more here in this Circular.
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Brian Gonsalves
Monday, August 4, 2008 7:58:56 AM
Dear Ladislao,
Many thanks for your email which I have just 'opened' in
Although I left MSB (with several other 'boys from BG') over 63 years ago, I still cherish many happy memories of Trinidad in general and the
I look forward to keeping in touch via your circulars.
Kindest regards
Brian
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From: laszlo kertesz [kertesz11@yahoo.com],
Sent: Monday, August 04, 2008 12:57 AM
Dear Brian,
Good to hear from you.
I am in contact with Clive but no luck with your address.
Hope you get this,
Ladislao
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Re: Memories of Fr. Benedict-Science Class
Richard Farah
Friday, January 2, 2009 7:24:27 PM
Jon,
I can remember that experiment vividly to this day.
And I became a gunpowder freak from that day on to the eternal annoyance of our cascade neighbours at holiday time as they had to endure bombs and rockets every week, as I used to buy the chemicals at Albert Phillips pharmacy corner Queen and Henry streets.
Its amazing that priests like father Benedict gave up their lives to pass on their knowledge gratis.
May god rest his soul.
Richard.
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From: jongolding
Sent: Fri Jan 02 19:01:47 2009
Nigel,
Please add this to your circular if you think it OK.
I believe these are among the last photos of him which I took on a recent visit to his sick room in the monastery.
It is ironic he took so many pictures of the 'boys' and that the last ones of him should be from the 'boys'.
You might want to add this:
OUR MOST UNFORGETTABLE SCIENCE DEMO
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1957 - Form 1 class - held in upstairs large study hall - Science class.
I used to sit next to 'Mousey' (Richard Farah) - about 3 months before his mango tree accident which cost him his leg. Brave soul and another
Fr Benedict was teaching us about gunpowder that day. To demonstrate, he made gunpowder in the class, a mix of Carbon, Potassium Nitrate and Sulfur. Mousey and I quickly wrote down the proportions (which we later bought on a dentist trip to PoS, and tried out in the bush near the reservoir. But we nearly killed Louis Lacour and my brother Geoff!!).
Our intrepid science teacher then produced a small cannon he had made from some lead piping, one end hammered flat, the other end a lethal open gun barrel anchored firmly onto a chunky mahogany 2 by 4.
He positioned the weapon at the hall window aiming it at a mango tree a mile away on the hill across the valley. His intention was to see if he could hit a mango from this distance.
In went the gunpowder followed by a ramrod stick from Brother Joseph's woodwork shop to pack it tight. He then inserted a marble he had confiscated from one the the Venezuelans in an earlier class. (These guys sometimes used to roll a few marbles onto the floor before the monks came in to teach, hoping they'd 'buss their ass' on the floor! But so far no hits. Fr B knew the game and caught one red handed the week before! Anyway he had his cannon ball for the demo and told us that is what he'd do with all the marbles he found on the floor!
Next step, he pulled out a length of Jetex fuse wire. We all held our breath realising this experiment was getting reeeel serious!!! You could hear a pin drop. No other monk/ teacher had ever exhibited such macho bravado in a class that any of us had attended in the prison on the hill.
He ran the wire along the window and inserted the end into a hole in the pipe cannon near the flattened end. He drew a sketch on the blackboard to show us what was going to happen and asked us to write down the chemical equation; C+S+PNi = BANG!!
He then stepped back and pulled out a cigarette lighter (he'd borrowed from Fr Paul, the walking Chimney!). We all began to talk loudly and nervously and duck under the desks. It was pandemonium!! I vividly remember that Mousey and I could not stop laughing - wide-eyed and in disbelief to relieve our anxiety.
"OK, boys, get down, here comes the countdown! Ten - nine - eight - seven .... we all chorused the countdown getting louder and louder. By this time everybody was ducking down below their desks --------------
" - two - one - ZERO!!!" -------------------
Dead Silence!
Nothing happened!
Actually it did!!
We looked up from under the desks and saw he'd just lit the Jetex fuse. I remember some of the guys sitting near the corridor were so scared they ran into the corridor. Others ducked down into the walkway between the desks and crawled to the back of the study hall. Mousey and I were in the second row from the front and we decided to stay put. We kept looking at the fuse hissing its way quickly towards the cannon and saw that our Voosh had moved behind the big desk at the front (where they used to sit to supervise us in study time).
When the fuse sparks were climbing up to the cannon we ducked down for certain this time and did not have to wait too long:
!!!!--------- BBBAAAANNNNGGGGGGGGG!!!----------------!!!!
The cannon let out such a loud bang we could not believe it. Heads slowly began appearing above the desks and we saw a huge amount of smoke coming from the cannon window- an after effect of the explosion.
The next thing I heard was someone starting to clap until we all quickly joined in the rousing applause! Our new military hero - Fr Benedict!!! We'd go into battle for him immediately, confident he knew how to blow away the enemy!!
Well the fun did not last long.
Next thing we knew was Fr Bernard coming rushing down the corridor into the study hall his face as white as a sheet and eyes wide open searching the room madly - as if to find an assassin hiding under a desk. He did not notice Fr Benedict at first since he and the big desk were camouflaged behind the smoke cloud.
Fr Bernard shouted out in near panic:
"What's going on here?"
We all sat frozen as we faced this unexpected after shock! Our dear headmaster had never looked so furious and lethal - as if to prepare himself for the battle that Fr Benedict had signalled with his opening round of cannon fire.
The tension broke when Fr Benedict, amazed at his resounding success (sorry about the pun), called out apologetically, "It's OK, Fr Bernard, it was only an experiment!"
I cannot remember the rest of the dialogue but it was not pretty. Fr Bernard laid into Fr Benedict about how irresponsible it was not to inform him and the rest of the school first. We found out later that the bang was so loud that most of the other classes were cut short as they all ran out into the corridors to see what had happened.
Eventually, Fr Bernard left in a huff and Fr Benedict looked sheepishly at his terminated science lesson, ducking his head down a little with a mischievous grin, but receiving a round of supporting laughter and light applause from his newly initiated class. Yes, this was an initiation - into science - that every one of us present that day will never forget!
From that day on, we all listened intently to every word in his science classes and I believe we all got record marks, never to be repeated again. I am sure someone in our class will get a Nobel Prize for science one day!
For me, it was a true positive initiation into science which I approached fearlessly from then on - I eventually got A's all the way through 'A' levels and university and it is to Fr Benedict I owe my motivation - gaining my BSc(Hons) in the UK eventually.
I know I am joined by all those in the 1957 science class, and beyond, in expressing our utmost affection and admiration for our unsung hero of science education who put more than his best efforts into making our classes interesting and memorable. To top it all, he never needed to get heavy with us for discipline and had a lovely charm and gentle smile - identifying with the 'boy' in all of us - in a way that only few of the other teachers could!
The pictures attached, which I was fortunate to take before he went to be with the Lord, say it all!
Let us pray that one day we also will arrive and see him again at that
May God rest our Fr Benedict, a true Benedictine par excellence, and exemplar for us to emulate while we still have the time!
Well done Fr Benedict and may the angels "Voooooosssssssh" you straight up into the Heavens like a cannon ball !!
Your grateful and admiring student
Jon Golding (1955 - 1962)
on behalf of all the science class of 1957
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arthurxavierusa@aol.com"
Thursday, January 8, 2009 6:09:01 PM
MSB photo 56DA0001DAMSCOUTs154_s327[1].JPG (253KB)
Ladislao,
Thank you for the prompt response.
Below are my answers (green letters) to your questions (black letters).
Dear Arthur,
I have been looking for news on Fr. Benedict demise.
I cannot find any, can you provide information??
What was his publish eulogy.
I met MSB's Abbot on Tuesday.
Tomorrow Friday, Jan 9th at 1:30 pm at the mount, a follow-op service will be held for Fr. Benedict. All are invited. There will be a eulogy hand out. I plan to be there.
Was he your teacher?
Yes, I believe as a result I became an Engineer in the
Did he take a photo during his time.
I had a long face to face chat with Fr. Benedict a few months ago. I saw several of his old Abbey School photos, including one with me and his student team launching a home made hot air paper balloon (about 2 meters diameter). I was about 15 years old. I vividly remember the launch experience/experiment, it was my initial big turn on to science.
Fr. Benedict was kind enough to give me a run down on his exiting life from his 1933 departure from
You live in TT??? looking to the telf number.
I have homes in Briarcliff Manor
The names I recall on the attached photo are:
MSB photo 56DA0001DAMSCOUTs154_s327[1].JPG (253KB)
7 ? Gabriel (#13's brother),
8. David or Peter Ames,
11. ? Mc Laughlin,
12. Anthony Lucky
13. ? Gabriel (#7's brother),
14. ? Hutton,
16 Geoffrey Xavier (my brother) ,
17. Anthony Sabga,
19, Arthur Xavier (me)
20. Alix Devertille,
20. Luciano Savonijuan,
Maybe others can fill in the blanks. I believe there is a ? Goddard and a Richard Farah in the photo.
God Bless
Thank you! Happy New Year and God Bless to you as well.
Arthur
LAdislao, please acknowledge receipt of this e-mail.
----Original Message------------------------------------------------.
From: arthurxavierusa@aol.com
Sent: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 7:36 pm
Fr. Benedict died Thursday January 1st 2009 and was buried at the mount on Saturday 3rd.
All the best,
Arthur Xavier
Ladislao I will follow-up on your request.
-----Original Message-------------------------------------------------.
From: Ladislao Kertesz <kertesz11@gmail.com>
Sent: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 5:12 pm
Dear Arthur,
I have been looking for news on Fr. Benedict demise.
I cannot find any, can you provide information?? The Circular 375 shall be dedicated to him.
What was his publish eulogy.
Was he your teacher?
Did he take a photo during his time.
You live in TT??? looking to the telf number
God Bless
Ladislao
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2009/1/4 <arthurxavierusa@aol.com>
Fr. Benedict died Thursday December 1st 2009 and was buried at the mount on Saturday 3rd.
All the best,
Arthur Xavier
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That is for now, till the next one
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Photos:
08LK0012AACBGO, Brian Goddard and Alberto Ache.
03UN0002GRP, Matias Fedak, Ladislao Kertesz, and Giuseppe Braggio
08GM1571GMIFAM, George Mickiewicz and Family.
08AM0001AMOFAM, Azizul Mohammed and Family.
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