Circular No 1069

 

Newsletter for alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.

Caracas, 1 November 2022. No. 1069

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Dear Friends,

News on the funeral of Fr. Augustine. He was the last surviving teacher of my time at Mount.

I am including some emails dated as far back as 2002.

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Caracas, 28 of March 2002.

Dear Fr. Augustine

I am resending my 1 of February email to you, since I do not know if you have received it.

There has been no communication between the Monastery´s computer and our group or in that case with me.

Please send us a short note indicating if you are well or any news that you might want others to have.

1 of February 2002.

This is the first time I write to you since my visit to TT.

The visit brought back good memories and as you see in my lines written for msb oldboys and the web page there is a movement to inquire about old friends and classmates.

Your Guava Jam was very good, I left some for the Vaughan family!!!.

I am glad to have been able to meet you and have the conversation,

I am sorry that the time was short and that I could not exchange all the ideas that were in my head as I was being escorted by the friends where I stayed, and I did not want the take more of their time than would have been excessive.

By now you must have read several of my circulars.

I hope that you like them.

In my addressing system I still do not know how to separately address the circulars so that Fr. Benedict would get his personally and Fr. Cuthbert but some day.

I write to all of you with the same kindness.

I would like to get the address of Fr. Paul and Fr. Francis, whom you said to be still living and in a retreat house.

Of course if there is an e-mail it would be good and if you could send some lines for those dead, the year, where, and how, that would be interesting.

I remember you answering to my questions but my hard drive was full and cannot reproduce your answer for my circulars.

I am including the general list of msb students,

I am sure you can add some more and eliminate those that were not.

I shall keep you informed if new ones appear.

The biggest problem is to find out the Form V graduation year because of the Hi C  and other additional courses that were given after the Oxford and Cambridge exams.

Maybe Miss. Markus can help with the list that she worked on.

Do you show her the circulars???.

How can I get an access to her year listing???.

Don Mitchell who visited you last May told me that Fr. John offered the listing and photos from Fr.Bernard??.

Maybe you can follow up.

I am in constant contact with Dr. Isaias Farcheg whom you know and he send his best greetings.

I need a two line information on those that have been in contact with you during these last years.

Many of us have lost contact with others and are curious.

Has there been a book of magazine written about the mount, outside the Jubileum issues??

It is interesting that when I was in TT I have heard promotion to visit the mount in a radio station but no information appears in the internet??.

This part is new: I hope that you are well and that you get my circular every week.

The circulars are for all of you although I do not address them to anybody in particular.

My system does not allow this.

God Bless

Ladislao

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From: Nasser Khan <nkhantt@gmail.com>

Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2018

On February 19, 1947, a twenty-two year old Dutch youth arrived on the shores of Trinidad and Tobago willing to give his life completely to God.

He was a long way off from his homeland in Holland, which he left during the Second World War, but very excited nonetheless by the novelty of the experience and the reason he had made the long voyage by sea.

On Wednesday 16 May 2018 he will be celebrating seventy years of monastic profession in the monastery of Mount St Benedict in Tunapuna.

On 15 October 2018 he will be celebrating his ninety-fourth birthday and so has spent more than three-quarters of his life at Mount St Benedict Abbey living the life of a Benedictine monk.

Peter Schreurs was from a family of ten siblings.

The name given to him in the monastery was Augustine.

Today he is known as Fr. Augustine.

He lived with his family in Tegelan, province of Linburg in the Netherlands, close to the German border.

His secondary education was interrupted several times as a result of the German occupation of Holland.

The Gestapo had closed down the school he attended as they had done with so many schools.

These schools were closed so that Germans could obtain young boys of school age to work in their factories in Germany.

A decree was issued which mandated that all Dutch men between the ages of 18 to 45 who were not working were required to go to the labour bureau to be registered.

After registration the men would be called on to work in German factories and would be transported by train, under the watchful eye of German soldiers to work in Germany.

Men who attempted to jump off the train were shot at once.

Peter obtained a job in a German hospital near to his home and was fortunate enough to secure a permit to return home every weekend.

In the hospital he worked as a jack-of-all-trades and struggled to get a secondary education in between.

Life was difficult and very uncertain.

“You never knew if a bomb was going to drop on your home.”

Some people had a very hard time to get food especially in the winter because often there was no electricity, no oil … especially towards the end of the war.

There was a procurator priest in the Netherlands who was from Mount St. Benedict.

He would go to schools and speak about Trinidad.

His base was with some Benedictine sisters who were neighbours to the Schreurs family.

Peter soon became an acolyte at the Benedictine convent.

It was there that he first encountered Fr. Willibrord, the procurator from Mount St Benedict.

Fr Willibrord had several albums about the Benedictine monastery in Trinidad and its mission in the island of St. Vincent.

Fr Augustine was soon captivated by what he saw and heard.

Before long he was on his way to Trinidad together with the late Frs. Cuthbert van de Sande and Jerome Koot.

We thank God for Fr. Augustine’s life of dedication and for answering the call of God to become a Benedictine Monk.

In spite of his age, he makes every effort to be present at our community prayer and meals.

He is well loved by all the monks.

May God continue to bless you!!

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Nigel Boos

Thanks, Geoff,

I certainly do remember “Rughead.”

He was a serious man, with hardly a sense of humour, but always in control of his emotions.

He spoke clearly, distinctly and sharply, expecting an immediate obedient response from the object of his attention.

He often supervised the refectory together with “Duck” (Fr. Gregory), and one had to recognize him as someone who commanded respect.

What an interesting collection of Dutchman we were fortunate to have as our exemplars during the 1955-1960 era  - good men, all, each with his particular foibles, idiosyncrasies and stories.

Think of them:

“Abbot” Fr. Adelbert van Duin

“Bobo” Fr. Bernard - The Friendly Principal, but don’t cross him 

“Scrutz” Fr. Ildefons - The Stern Scoutmaster, the Woodsman

“Voosh" Fr. Benedict - The Mad Scientist

Fr. Jerome - The Mathematician

Fr. Paul - The Chess Player, another Mathematician

Fr. Lee Sing - The Cricket Fanatic - Perhaps he was a Trini? 

“Mozart” Fr. Forgot His Name - He may have been Guyanese. 

“Duck” Fr. Gregory

“Rughead” Fr. Augustine

“Cutty” Fr. Cuthbert - Scout Master, Friend, Kindly man, who loved being with his boys

Bro Gabriel - The Magician and Builder of the Mount

Bro. Anthony - Thin, quiet man, in charge of the tourist shop in front of the Abbey Church

And there were also some interesting Trini characters as well:

“Bro. Vince” Trini,  - Friend to all, a kind, loving man. Eventually he became a lawyer, married and has 2 daughters, currently living in the US (Louisiana?)

“Swa” Trini or Guyanese? - In charge of PAX Honey and the many mango trees

Tailor Bro George - Always had a yellow canary in his little tailoring room, to keep him company with its whistling

Scoutmaster Bro. Francis - Scout Master, later Fr. Francis, and currently Bishop of Guyana

I’m sure there were others, whose names I cannot now remember, . If you do, please fill them in for me.

So, “Rughead” is now hitting 93 and will turn 94 in 2018 October.

Great innings, old fella, and may he live for many more years too, to hit the big 100. 

May God grant him peace and a quiet certitude that he has lived a good life, been a friend to many, has served his Lord and Master with love and devotion all his days, has kept faithfully to the Rules of his Monastery and is now ready to stand before His merciful judgment.

Nigel

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On May 15, 2018,

GEOFFREY GOLDING <geoffreygolding@rogers.com> wrote:

Hi Stuart,

Thanks for forwarding this info about Fr. Augustine, better known as "rug head" by all of us who attended his classes. 

I remember him well. He was an excellent teacher but really touch on you if you did not pay attention or was disruptive in class.

You would quickly see the black board cleaner coming your way!!!

He was probably the strictest teacher.

He also had an expression,  -  "ats - ats".

Can remember what it meant or in what context it was used but it was in response to something we had done or said.

Does anyone remember that???

He looks good and may God bless him with many more years.

Regards,

Geoff

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Nigel Boos <nigelboos@gmail.com>

            Sat, 6 Aug,                   

Hi Csaba,

Tks for your email.

I was wondering what had happened and why I hadn’t been hearing from you so thanks all the same.

I’m glad to know you and your family are all right and well.

I’ve been laid up for the past 32 months in the aftermath of a Whipple operation for pancreatic cancer (suggestion: google “Whipple”) and in my case the surgeon removed my stomach, my spleen, my gall bladder and half of my pancreas.

My other medical problem is called Ankylosing Spondylitis. (see: https://secure.naturalhealthreports.net/products/185/sp-worst-foods-b-vsl)

Please say one for me. I could use the help.

Best wishes,

Nigel B

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On Jul 27, 2022, <csabajakobszen@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Nigel,

Thanks for all the e-mails which you´ve sent during the past 7 weeks and to which I haven´t reacted.

The reason for that was that I was unable to either receive or to send e-mails.

My son Gabriel, who is a big IT specialist was in touch with me via “Team Viewer” and he checked and double-checked every detail.

At the end it turned out that the reason was that I hadn´t paid the license fee to Google and instead of sending me a message they just cut me off. 

I had switched over from yahoo to Google 3 years ago and the local IT people mentioned that some day I might have top pay something.

How are you doing? How is your health?

Here in Spain we are in a mess.

At this time of the year, we usually get a heat wave coming over from Africa which usually lasts 1 or 2 days.

This year, it is already lasting 21 days and the heat is horrible

Here in the Valencia area we are having temperatures between 27ºC and 40ºC !!

In Sevilla, during the last 21 days, the temperature surpassed the 40ºC level every day and got as high 45ºC various times.

One of the results of all this is that we are having forest and bush fires all over the place.

Yesterday in the province of Malaga 12 different fires have been started and a couple of days ago there were 36 fires burning all over Spain simultaneously!!

Take good care of yourself and your family and let´s keep in touch.

Best regards

Csaba

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EDITED by Ladislao Kertesz,  kertesz11@yahoo.com,  if you would like to subscribe for a whole year and be in the circular’s mailing list or if you would like to mention any old boy that you would like to include, write to me.

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Photos:

22JH0256JHAGRP, attending farewell Mass.

22JH0419GALIGO, attending farewell Mass.

22JH0613JHAGRP attending farewell Mass

22JH0940FAU, Memorial Fr. Augustine