Dom John Osborne, O.S.B, Monk of Mount St Benedict Abbey, was laid to rest last Friday morning in the Abbey's cemetery near to his late mother, after a Eucharistic Celebration and Burial Service conducted by Abbott Francis Alleyne. Pall bearers were students of St Benedict's College, La Romaine, where Dom John has taught many years ago.
As Dom John's body lay in state at the foot of the altar, Archbishop Edward Gilbert, fellow priests and monks processed around the packed Abbey Church to the altar for the con-celebrated Mass during which his great-niece, Juliette Faustin, shared a Remembrance of her Uncle Cyril with the congregation.
Born Cyril Celsus Joseph Osborne on April 06, 1911, at upper George Street, Port of Spain, his parents Herbert and Felicia Osborne, raised a family of eight and ensured that Cyril had a Catholic upbringing and education which included serving as an acolyte at Rosary Church.
On leaving school, he was apprenticed as a Compositor at the Government Printing Works for a period of five years. But Cyril had already developed a love for the Mass and felt that God was calling him to become a priest and as a member of the male choir at the Cathedral, Cyril, who had been brought up in the fragrance of incense and flowers, was captivated by the chanting of the monks and began visiting the Monastery where he was told he had to get certain qualifications before he could be accepted.
Having gotten the necessary qualifications, Cyril entered the monastery at Mount St Benedict on August 15, 1932, and as he said during our interview last April on his 90th birthday "was fascinated by the strange looking men whom I saw there, they were all foreigners."
Cyril made his monastic profession on Christmas Day 1933 and his name was changed to John. On July 27, 1939, at the end of seven years completing his apostolate, novitiate and temporary profession, Dom John Osborne was ordained to the priesthood along with six other monks (all now deceased), which remains to this day the country's largest ever ordination of priests from the monastery on the same occasion.
At the time of his death on Tuesday September 04, 2001, Father John was Trinidad's oldest priest.
Dom John had served in a variety of capacities at The Abbey, teacher, organist, infirmarian, scoutmaster, kitchen supervisor, gardener, lay brothers' instructor, secretary, and chaplain to the pilgrims and teachers. In addition, he did week-end ministry in the parishes of San Fernando, La Brea, Siparia, Chaguanas, Arima, Blanchisseuse and Tobago.
Father John eventually became parish priest of San Fernando where there was a cella house in which several religious priests lived and took charge of the aras including Picton, Mon Repos and Ste Madeline until the parishes became autonomous. Known for his powerful and thought-provoking sermons, in 1964 Father John was appointed Parish Priest at La Romaine where he remained until 1977 when he was transferred to Couva.
In 1983, Father John left Couva and returned to his beloved monastery where he lived out his priesthood within the monastic milieu. And as he grew weaker and weaker in the last months of his life, was lovingly cared for by his fellow monks, the doctors, nurses, family members, and his long-time house-keeper, Elise Fontaine, whose brother was buried in France last Friday, the same day as her beloved priest/monk.