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Saints & Obituaries St Bruno, Priest St Bruno, now honoured as the Founder of the Carthusian Order, lived much of his life in what we would call a very nonmonastic setting. Born in about 1030 in Cologne, he apparently moved at a young age to Reims in France for his education, completed in 1055. His return to Cologne, however, lasted only a year before he was recalled to Reims to take over the supervision of the Episcopal School and other educational establishments of which he had so recently been a student. This certainly looks to have been a time of intellectual achievement, with many later funeral tributes recording both his learning and effective educational influence on many later leaders in the Church, both monastic and secular. Twenty years were spent in this way before his next appointment, as Chancellor of the diocese. This was less to his liking, involving wider administration and unedifying, even violent disputes. As it looked likely that a bishopric would soon be his, Bruno left with a couple of friends to fulfil a vow which he had already made to seek greater

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solitude. At first they joined a small group which would in time become the nucleus of the Cistercian Order. This did not work out, although Bruno had by now (1084) gathered a group of four priests and two lay brothers to be with him. Under the guidance of St Hugh, Bishop of Grenoble, the group settled in an isolated mountainous spot called the Chartreuse in the Lower Alps. Here St Hugh joined them in a life of prayer, study and evangelical poverty. Yet Bruno had only six years here before being summoned to Rome by his former student, now Pope Urban II, who felt himself in dire need of wise counsel and support. The role played by Bruno in Rome remains largely hidden from history. When not in the city itself he was able to be with his Carthusian brethren in Calabria, but always within summoning distance by Pope Urban. In this way our Saint spent the remaining 11 years of his life, from 1090 to 1101. Funerary rolls about him contain statements from no less than 178 witnesses who had known him and experienced his life and teaching. Pre-eminently they celebrate his prayer, mortification and devotion to

Our Lady, characteristics which have marked the Carthusian Order ever since, with all Charterhouses throughout the world being dedicated to her Annunciation. In the spirit of humble simplicity, St Bruno’s followers never sought his canonisation, hiddenness and humility being accounted of greater worth. Only in 1623 did Pope Gregory XV formally proclaim that sanctity which has given so much to the Church in the Carthusian way.

Frs Robert Gates & Alan Ashton RIP Fr Robert Howard Gates, known to many as Fr Bobby, died peacefully on the morning of 15 September at Laurel Dene Care Home in Hampton, west London. Born in August 1920, he was 94 years old at the time of his death. Fr Robert served as a Captain during the Second World War and was involved in the organisation of the D-Day landings in 1944. Following the war, he studied law at Oxford and it was there that he felt called to the priesthood. He studied at the Beda College in Rome and was ordained to the Priesthood for the diocese by Cardinal Clemente Micara in March 1955 in Rome. He served as Private Secretary to the Cardinal, assistant priest at Commercial Road and St Charles' Square, chaplain at Westminster Cathedral then chaplain at HMP Wormwood Scrubs before taking his final placement as parish priest at Parsons Green which was a long and fruitful ministry. He retired in 1995, but continued to remain active as a ‘supply’ Priest, giving assistance when needed in local parishes and in schools. May he rest in peace. Fr Alan Ashton died on 19 September. He was 69 years of age. Born in Wigan in 1945, he worked in retail before training as a teacher. He was

Head of R.E. in Bishop Ullathorne School in Coventry and St Mary's Catholic School in Sidcup. The vocation to the priesthood came later in life for Fr Alan and he was ordained to the priesthood at New Southgate parish in December 1993 by then-Bishop Vincent Nichols. Following ordination he served as Assistant Priest in Kenton, Parish Priest in Royston and Chaplain to the Cathedral before his final appointment as Parish Priest of Wembley Preston Road. He retired in June 2009. As a priest he loved the Sacrament of Confession and in his retirement spent regular sessions in Westminster Cathedral helping (as he saw it) to “lift other people’s burdens” He was always on the lookout for those (like himself) who were experiencing ill-health and offering them the comforts of the Sacrament of the Sick. May he rest in peace.

In Memoriam: October 2 Canon Des Sheehan (2004) 5 Fr John Fleming (1974) Fr Walter Meyjes (1987) 6 Fr Denis Murphy (1999) 7 Fr Thomas Daniel (1984) 8 Fr Thomas Allan (1982) 10 Fr Norman Fergusson (1986) Fr Arthur Moraes (2008) 11 Fr Joseph Davey (1970) 12 Fr James Finn (1977) Canon John P Murphy (1989) 14 Fr Henry Bryant (1972) Fr John Woods (2002) Fr Barry Carpenter (2012) 16 Mgr Canon Terence Keenan (1984) 18 Fr John Eveleigh Woodruff (1976) Fr John Murphy (2005) 19 Fr John Farrell (1983) 21 Fr Richard Berry (1989) 22 Fr David Cullen (1974) Fr Herbert Keldany (1988) Fr Ben Morgan (2005) 23 Fr Joseph O’Hear (1970) Fr Joe Gibbons (2002) Fr Dermot McGrath (2012) 24 Fr John Halvey (1990) Fr Kenneth Dain (2010) 25 Fr Andrew Moore (1994) Fr John Kearney (2007) 26 Fr John Clayton (1992) Fr George Talbot (2004) 27 Fr Colin Kilby (1985) 29 Canon Leo Ward (1970) Fr Joseph Eldridge (1993) 30 Canon William Gordon (1976) 31 Fr William Dempsey (2008)