Altar with commemoration box

The 1960 musical comedy, The Fantasticks, opens with a ballad originally sung by the late Jerry Ohrbach who encouraged audiences to Try to Remember the Kind of September. But as the hours of daylight grow shorter day by day, inching us closer and closer to the end of November, we instead remember here the commemoration of special days, both secular and religious, in what has come to be known as “The Month of Remembrance” throughout the world. For Christians everywhere, it signals nearly the end of the Church’s liturgical year, a time to reflect upon the past twelve months with anticipatory hope for the new year, heralded by the first Sunday of the season of Advent, just over the horizon, a period of preparation before Christmas.

This month began on Wednesday, November 1, with the Solemnity of All Saints, followed the next day by the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, better known as All Souls. Another All Souls Day took place on November 6, this time for the Relatives and Benefactors of the English Benediction Congregation. In the third week of the month, two more special days were noted on the Portsmouth Abbey Ordo: Monday, November 13, marked the Feast of All Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, and Tuesday, November 14 was dedicated to All Souls Day of Portsmouth Abbey. The reading was fitting on November 13 at the Little Hour (Midday Prayers): “All these were honored in their generations and were the glory of their times. There are some of them who have left a name, so that men declare their praise. And there are some who have left no memorial, who have perished as though they had not lived, and become as though they had not been born” (Sirach 44:7-9a).

Every morning during Lauds we hear a reading by the week’s Acolyte of the “necrology” for that particular day, a listing of the Benedictine men and women who died on that date in centuries present and past, some as long ago as the seventeenth century. During November, visitors to the Abbey Church will have noticed a small silver box situated on the main altar. It contains names submitted almost every day of the month of deceased friends, relatives and benefactors. The box itself is a memorial gift with this inscription engraved on its lid: “In memory of Richard Edward Tobin, July 29, 1913 – October 26, 1941 + Graduate of Portsmouth Priory School, June 11, 1931.” This “casket” rests on a violet and gold cloth identified with a sewn-on label as a “Lectern Hanging” made by “Art Needlecraft Inc.” under a contract to the federal government on “11 December 1962,” and my guess is probably it was intended for use at a military installation.

Dr. Bryndol Sones leads Veterans assembly
(Fr. Gregory Havill at left, Sean Brennan ’24 and Mrs. Paula Walter at right)

Commemorations this month extend beyond those of our liturgical life. Whereas England and Canada celebrated Remembrance Day, we in the United States marked Veterans Day on Saturday, November 11, which was known as Armistice Day until 1954, when Congress decreed the name change. Portsmouth Abbey School celebrated veterans on Friday, November 10, in an assembly orchestrated by Dr. Bryndol Sones of the Math Department, himself a retired colonel in the U.S. Army. Besides expressing remembrance of the 17 graduates who have been killed in action, Dr. Sones noted, “it is also an opportunity to learn more about veterans and to recognize some of our school’s connection to military service.” Six members of the community were seated on stage to discuss their perspectives on veterans and later led a thoughtful question and answer session. Dr. Sones noted that “some have served and some are family members of someone who has served,” demonstrating the wide impact of military service across our many families. Military veterans are also currently honored in a wall display in the stairwell between the St. Thomas More library and the Burden Classroom Building. Among an exhibit of books and films of military interest are artifacts, photographs, and an iron cannonball on loan from the monastery and dating to the Revolutionary War. It was fired from the H.M.S. Rose while in Narragansett Bay on August 29, 1778, during the Battle of Rhode Island, excavated from the Abbey grounds years later.