THE DAY I MET "DON BOSCO"

All the priests in Blaisdon were, in their various ways, substitute 
fathers to a boy such as myself who had never known a real identifiable 
father in the familial context of a loving family. Father Daniel Lucey SDB was 
my special surrogate father. I took to him on first sight the first day I 
was in Blaisdon. After lunch on that day, the boys in my arrival group were 
taken down to the farm. Earlier, we had been shown a half life-size white 
marble statue of Saint. John Bosco which stood in a niche in the front hall 
below a portrait of Don Michael Rua, his successor. But a much more 
sympathetic representation of the saint was to be found in the chapel: a 
gold framed oil painting, above the altar which was dedicated to him.

                       

Our guide, Freddy Cove, led us across the fields towards Stud Farm and 
Harvey's Acre - the sports and playing field. Soon we were close to a man 
pacing lengths and placing spikes among deep lush grass. He stopped and 
waited for us. We were introduced to - not a workman as we had supposed - 
but the priest in charge of the farm. His hand put forward in greeting was 
big and hardened with calluses. His face was brown, his eyes had a blue 
twinkle and his hair was grey. His whole demeanor radiated kindness. I 
thought immediately not of the statue in the hall, but his likeness to the 
portrait we had seen earlier in the chapel. As the priest placed his hand on 
my shoulder after learning my, name I said to him: "You are Don Bosco!" He 
laughed and replied: "Don Bosco is a saint - I am a simple priest to be sure 
and all!" The attraction was instant and from that meeting, I was to remain 
permanently under the spell of this man who was known to all as Father Dan.

He then played his first joke on me. The purpose of what he had been 
erecting before stopping to speak to us now became clear; he got us to help 
him. We were each given a spike and followed him as he paced out a measured 
distance. On each metal spike topped with a white porcelain pigtail head, 
there was a foot-piece to aid its insertion in the ground. We pressed on 
these and soon a line of spikes ran across the field. Fr. Dan then threaded 
a fine wire through the whole of the line and connected it to a battery. He 
lined us up, placing me last in the line with us all linked hand in hand. 
Taking the hand of the boy closest to the fence, he then touched the wire 
and everyone laughed when I shouted out and recoiled as an electric shock (6 
volts) was transmitted to me and earthed.

John Ward and many others, have commented on the modest and humble person 
they remember as Fr. Dan. SDB, RIP. Usually, one can find a photographic 
image of a priest on the back of their ordination Holy Picture. I have 
Father Dan's: but unlike most of the others in my Missal, his does not have 
his face upon it. On the back, his name, Commemoration, Thanksgiving, 
Dedication and the location, Blaisdon, is signified. There are two 
Invocations: Above - "He that is mighty hath done great things to me." (The 
Magnificat) Below: "And the Mother of Jesus was there." (John 2, 1) On the 
front, Fr. Dan chose an image of Christ - the Sacred Heart - who is shown 
offering comfort to a bed-ridden woman. The invocations are in French. Above 
the picture: Je souffre tant, O Jesu. Translated: Oh Jesus! I suffer much. 
Under the picture: Sur votre coer, Oh Jesu, la souffrance perd de son 
amertume, les larmes deviennent douces, et les angoisses se changent en 
esperance. Translated: In your heart, Oh Jesus, suffering loses its 
bitterness, tears become sweetened and anguish is changed into Hope. The 
language and imagery are significant.

His was a "late" vocation. He told me in our many conversations that he 
found the studies to prepare for the priesthood most difficult and "at times 
a real torture." I also learned that in his boyhood years, his mother was 
nursed in the family home in Killarney, Co. Kerry. Luckily, I have photos 
of Father Dan and identified one that shows his face as very similar to Don 
Bosco. The likeness was an observation made not just by me, but many of his 
brethren and lay-people in Blaisdon at the time.

The French is interesting: Fr.Dan's favourite Saint was St. John 
Jean-Marie- Baptiste Vianney (1786-1859) - The Curé of Ars. He told me much 
about him. He was famous as a Confessor. Fr. Dan was overjoyed when, on some 
special day, I gave him a biography of St. J.V. entitled: Miser of Souls. 
Later, the Rector Fr. Henry Mullaney SDB, appointed him School Confessor: duties 
which he carried out assiduously along with his farm management 
responsibilities. Reading about his saint/mentor in The Catholic 
Encyclopedia, I came across a passage which I believe can be fittingly 
applied to this unforgettable Salesian priest:

"His direction was characterized by common sense, remarkable insight, and 
supernatural knowledge. He would sometimes divine sins withheld in an 
imperfect confession. His instructions were simple in language, full of 
imagery drawn from daily life and country scenes, but breathing faith and 
that love of God which was his life principle and which he infused into his 
audience as much by his manner and appearance as by his words."

"Men they were - to all the country dear."

Out of 'Scenes from an Examined Life'.

Tony Brady - February 2009