Francis Xavier Morgan
Francis Xavier Morgan | |
---|---|
Born | Francisco Javier Morgan y Osborne 18 January 1857 El Puerto de Santa María (Cádiz, Spain) |
Died | 11 June 1935 Birmingham (United Kingdom) | (aged 78)
Nationality | Spain, United Kingdom |
Other names | tío Curro |
Alma mater | University of Louvain |
Occupation | Priest (Oratory of Saint Philip Neri) |
Years active | 1883–1935 |
Parent(s) | Francis Morgan (father) María Manuela Osborne y Böhl de Faber (mother) |
Francis Xavier Morgan,
Early years
Francisco Javier Morgan Osborne was the son of Francis Morgan, a Welsh merchant who had settled at El Puerto de Santa María in Andalusia as a vineyard owner and exporter of sherry. There Francis Morgan had married a Spanish woman named María Manuela Osborne y Böhl de Faber (daughter of fellow British expatriate, Thomas Osborne Mann, founder of the wine business Bodegas Osborne . Through his maternal grandmother, Aurora Böhl de Faber, the future priest was the grandnephew of historical novelist Cecilia Böhl de Faber, whose immortal contributions to Spanish literature were concealed behind the male pseudonym "Fernán Caballero" and drew both wide praise and comparisons with the novels of Sir Walter Scott.[1][3]
According to a 1987 lecture about Fr. Morgan's life by a fellow priest of the
As a boy, Francis was sent to England, where he became only the third student to enter the primary school attached to the Birmingham Oratory,[5] where his teachers included Father John Henry Newman.[2] After primary school, Francis Morgan went to the Catholic grammar school run by Monsignor Thomas John Capel in London, and then entered the University of Louvain. After two years there he returned to the Birmingham Oratory as a novice.[5]
In
According to Fr. Philip Lynch of the Birmingham Oratory, "Fr. Francis was very interested in the Choir, and when the boy sopranos were in good voice he would describe their singing as drops of liquid gold. He would give Fr. Robert a cheque towards the Choir, expressed with certain criticisms and suggestions, which would not be adverted to. Fr. Francis had a pleasing tenor voice and did the Synagoga in all the sung Latin Passions in Holy Week for many years. When not on a public Mass, he always celebrated at Our Lady’s Altar. His room was the middle one on the front corridor, which he called his cell, but was too crowded to move easily round, including a moving bookcase in the centre. I personally had a fellow-feeling for him as a non-academic, whose sermons and doubts were undistinguished."[5]
Relationship with the Tolkiens
Although he initially taught at the
In a 1965 letter to his son Michael, Tolkien recalled the influence of the man whom he always called "Father Francis": "He was an upper-class
The Tolkiens had been living in a rather unstable situation since the death of the head of the family,
In April 1904 Mabel Tolkien fell seriously ill with diabetes, having great difficulty fending for herself.[1][page needed] Father Francis arranged for her to rent two rooms in a cottage in Rednal, to the south of Birmingham, near the estate where the Oratorians had their cemetery and a retreat house. There Mabel would have the landlady's help with the housework; the landlady would also provide food, and the children could enjoy the countryside setting of the Lickey Hills. Rednal seems to have inspired Ronald's imaginary Rivendell.[9]
In November 1904, seven months after being diagnosed with diabetes, Mabel Tolkien died at Rednal cottage in the care of Father Francis. In her will she appointed him legal guardian of her two children.[1][page needed] The financial means the late Mrs. Tolkien left for the upbringing of the children were rather meagre, but Father Francis was to supplement them with money from his share of his family's sherry business in El Puerto de Santa Maria.[10]
Father Francis took the Tolkien brothers to live with him at the Oratory. The library that the priest kept in his cell was frequently used by Ronald, who learned some Castilian Spanish from his guardian, which enabled him to create a language he called "naffarin". In all probability, thanks to Father Francis' library the young Tolkien had access to the Castilian historical novels of Cecilia Böhl de Faber, the priest's great-aunt. This has been suggested because of the similarity between Gollum's second riddle in The Hobbit concerning the wind, and Fernan Caballero's 187th riddle.[a][6][11]
Soon after taking them in, Father Francis allowed Roland and Hilary to live with a sister-in-law of their late mother, Beatrice Suffield. After three years, the priest realised that Mrs Suffield, widowed and deeply depressed, could not offer the most suitable environment for the Tolkien brothers to grow up in. He looked for something more like a home for them, and so he decided to put them up in Mrs Faulkner's boarding house, right next door to the Oratory. Ronald, aged 16, met Edith Bratt, aged 19, who had been living alone with Mrs Faulkner since the death of their mother, and a romantic relationship began between the two teenagers.[12]
Possibly because of the
In a 1941 letter to his son
Father Francis again found new lodgings for the two boys, this time with the McSherry family, parishioners of the Oratory.
John and Priscilla Tolkien later wrote that while their father was attending Oxford, "Father Francis sometimes came to visit from Birmingham, once chaperoning Edith. She remembered the train stopping at Banbury and Father Francis insisted upon buying Banbury cakes – the local delicacy – which were very greasy. The grease got everywhere and caused considerable confusion."[18]
After the couple's marriage and Tolkien's return from
Death and legacy
According to Fr. Philip Lynch, "Fr. Francis only went home every alternate year, as getting out there was such a business – booking a cabin to
Also in his later life, Father Francis often travelled from Birmingham to
Francis Xavier Morgan died inside his room at the Birmingham Oratory at the age of 76 in 1935. He left each of the Tolkien brothers £1,000 as an inheritance. According to Fr. Philip Lynch, "The Oratory was a duller place without him."[5]
In a 1972 letter to his son
In popular culture
- Father Francis Morgan was portrayed onscreen by Irish actor priests in contemporary cinema. He shines forth as a compassionate father-figure, which is how Tolkien described him in his letters, who has Tolkien’s best interests in mind at all times, even and especially at those times when he appears most harsh, such as his decision to forbid Tolkien from seeing Edith."[23]
Notes
- ^ Fernán Caballero's 187th riddle is: "Vuela sin alas, silva sin boca, azota sin manos, y tú ni lo ves ni lo tocas." In English: "Flies wingless, hisses/whistles mouthless, lashes handless, and you neither see it nor touch it." This has been compared to Gollum's second riddle: "Voiceless it cries, Wingless flutters, Toothless bites, Mouthless mutters." From Fernán Caballero's Cuentos, oraciones, adivinanzas y refranes populares (Madrid, 1877).[6][11]
References
- ^ a b c d J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment. ed. Michael D. C. Drout. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-4159-6942-0.
- ^ a b c d "910. Francis Morgan y Osborne. La conexión portuense del Señor de los Anillos". Habitantes y gente de El Puerto de Santa María. Diario de Cádiz. 30 January 2011. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
- ^ "Cecilia Böhl de Faber, Autora del Año 2022". juntadeandalucia.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 16 January 2022.
- ^ F. Francis Xavier Morgan A reminiscence during a 16 November 1987 chapter address by F. Philip Lynch of the Birmingham Oratory.
- ^ a b c d e Lynch, Philip (16 November 1987). "F. Francis Xavier Morgan". Birmingham Oratory. Archived from the original on 6 February 2012. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
- ^ a b c Fernández Bru, José Manuel (2008). "La conexión española de J. R. R. Tolkien. El tío Curro. Selección de fragmentos". Archived from the original on 7 October 2011. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
- ^ Carpenter & Tolkien 1981, Letter No. 267 to Michael Tolkien, 9–10 January 1965.
- ^ Carpenter 1977, p. 26-28
- ^ Tracey, Gerard (2010). "Tolkien and the Oratory". Birmingham Oratory. Archived from the original on 10 February 2012. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
- ^ Carpenter 1977, p. 30-33
- ^ a b García-Máiquez, E. (23 January 2011). "Francis Xavier Morgan Osborne, la clave española de J. R. R. Tolkien" (PDF). 59. Intereconomía. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
- ^ Carpenter 1977, p. 39-40
- ^ a b c Carpenter & Tolkien 1981, Letters No. 43 to Michael Tolkien, 6–8 March 1941.
- ^ Doughan, David (2002). "War, Lost Tales and Academia". J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biographical Sketch. Archived from the original on 3 March 2006.
- ^ Carpenter 1977, p. 43
- ^ Carpenter 1977, p. 41-43
- ^ John and Priscilla Tolkien (1992), The Tolkien Family Album, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Page 34.
- ^ John and Priscilla Tolkien (1992), The Tolkien Family Album, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Page 35.
- ^ Carpenter 1977, p. 96-97
- ^ Carpenter 1977, p. 160
- ^ Carpenter & Tolkien 1981, Letters No. 332 to Michael Tolkien, 24 January 1972.
- ^ "Tolkien (2019)". IMDB. Retrieved 5 November 2020.
- ^ How I Was Wrong About the Movie “Tolkien”, by Joseph Pearce, The Imaginative Conservative, May 18th, 2019.
Sources
- ISBN 978-0-04-928037-3.
- ISBN 978-0-04-826005-5.
External links
- F. Francis Xavier Morgan A reminiscence during a 16 November 1987 chapter address by F. Philip Lynch of the Birmingham Oratory.