Dom John Osborne's face is smooth and unlined, his manner gracious and kindly, and his thoughts from a perfect memory are explicit. Last Friday, this Benedictine Monk, now the oldest priest in the Archdiocese of Port of Spain, or as he says "the doyen of the Catholic Clergy", celebrated his ninetieth birthday. The occasion will be observed today, Palm Sunday, by his peers, family and close friends at Mass and a luncheon.
Born at Upper George Street on April 6, 1911, the last but one of Austin and Phyllicia Osborne's nine children, he proudly claims "I was told that I was born within the sound of the Metropolitan Cathedral, the bells of course...in those days that part of the street was residential." Young John attended Calvary Hill School and the private intermediate school called Mr de Souza's school, which is now the Rosary Boys' Roman Catholic School.
Always wanting to be a priest from as far back as he can remember, John entered the Monastery at Mount St Benedict in 1932: "Two other young men from Arima, Morris Maingot and Placid Ganteaume, had already become Benedictine Monks."
But two specific things led John to his vocation. "First of all, my parents were very good Catholics and secondly I came to the Monastery and was fascinated by strange looking men whom I saw there, they were all foreigners. And being a churchman as I was in the male choir at the Cathedral and was brought up in the fragrance of incense and flowers, captivated by the chanting of these strange looking men, I began visiting the Monastery and was told I had to get certain qualifications before I can be accepted."
But John's parents were poor and those were the days you had to pay to go to College "and we did not have the funds to do that so I was apprenticed at age 15, I think, at the Government Printers, and there passed through an apprenticeship of five years and qualified as a journeyman. According to the records I had a good reputation but the idea of being a priest was there all the time. Sometimes it disappeared, sometimes it came back more forcefully."
So John started working towards his qualifications under the late Acton Brown. "He was very kind to me because I got private tuition from him three times a week and would you believe at $2.00 per month in those days."
In retrospect, he believes that this was more beneficial than going to College as he was Mr Brown's lone student at the time "so when a question was asked I was the only one to answer the question and if I could not answer he went to town on me. I had to keep on my p's and q's to be able to accommodate. That was the great advantage my situation evoked" says this well-spoken man.
Having gotten the qualifications, he applied formally and entered the monastery on August 14 1932. In 1939, at the end of seven years completing his apostolate, novitiate and temporary profession for three years, Dom John Osborne was ordained along with six others who are all now deceased. "This created a record because we had seven priests from the same monastery being ordained on the same occasion which has never been equalled to date" says this man who buried his older sister, Carmen Faustin at age 94, just one month ago.
It was during the time of his training that the idea of the Seminary of St John Vianney, came into vogue. The then Archbishop, Count Finbar Ryan, had a minor seminary of young boys who were aspiring to the priesthood but at the time did not know the difference between religious and secular priests. For John Osborne, "it didn't make a difference as I was already enamored with the strange looking men and their chant who were religious priests and must go to one of the communities, like the monastery, whereas the seculars would go to the seminary. Nowadays there is an arrangement, I think, whereby the religious get their tuition in the seminary but in my time you got your tuition in the monastery."
After his ordination Dom John Osbourne taught at the Abbey School, which the Archbishop made a point had to be a Catholic School for Catholic boys under Catholic management "because he had his junior seminarians up there and wanted them to have 'good' companions." And went out on week-ends to help in the parishes.
He eventually became parish priest of San Fernando where there was a cella house in which several religious priests lived and took charge of the areas including Picton, Mon Repos and Ste Madeline until the parishes became autonomous. He received a scholarship and went to Ealing Abbey in London and completed a Pitman's certificate in business. "Pitman's was the go then" he said with his characteristic sense of humour. And taught business education at St Benedict's College in La Romaine. When Dom John became the first official parish priest of La Romaine, he stopped teaching so as to devote himself more specifically to the parishes.
A planned transfer to Sacred Heart in Port of Spain never materialised, instead he was sent to St Paul's in Couva. "Priests went where they were sent in those days. After six years I retired because my successor in La Romaine, Father Leo with whom I was ordained, died and I thought to myself it is better to walk out than to be brought out. And I had one or two serious bouts of illness so I retired from the parish, returned to my monastery and have been here ever since." He still concelebrates Mass in the Abbey at 8.30 a.m. on Sundays.
Needless to say, our conversation could not end without my asking his thoughts on the appointment of the American Archbishop Edward J Gilbert to the Archdiocese of Port of Spain, which I pointed out he didn't have to answer, Dom John promptly replied "I will answer you that. This part of disobedience is all nonsense. If we are men of the cloth as we say we are and we have our ideals of obedience to the directives of those whom the church has placed in charge and more than that our whole purpose is for self growth in spirituality, obedience, in my mind, is the keynote of that spirituality." Dom John Osborne has no problem with having an American Archbishop since "it does not follow that it has taken us back in time." In fact ,says this wise man "we cannot be taken back in time because time has past and that would never return. Remember the song that time is always moving on."
This grand old gentleman's gentle reply to my farewell Happy Birthday, was "In Spe" and for those who may not understand Latin he added "In hope."