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January 2021

by Blake Billings, Ph.D.
 

We might do well in considering Father Julian Stead to think of him in light of the title of his published book of poems: There Shines Forth Christ. Was it Father Julian who had said on the passing of our beloved Dom Benedict Lang that it was like the host had been taken from the tabernacle? If it was since replaced, it has now been again removed. We lose a vital and personal connection to so much of our cultural and spiritual history, but also it feels that we are detached from a vibrant branch of that vine that is Christ’s own body. Yet, how are we to lament the recent passing of a life which dates its origin to the Twenties of a prior century? And how are we to justify consternation with the heavenly commencement of a life so entirely dedicated to that very moment of commencement?

If the life of Peter Force Stead was surely marked by the division between this world and the next, he also lived the distinction of the Old World and the New World. He was truly transatlantic: born in Oxford, England, of American parents. Attending school in his childhood at Worth, in preparation for Downside school, yet finding himself ultimately at an American offshoot of Downside, at a school founded the very year of his birth. A man of peace whose life was divided by war, a war that prohibited him from returning to Downside – to our great gain. Traveling with his father in 1939 to the U.S., the two found themselves, with their American passports, unable to return to England. So Peter Stead then matriculated at Portsmouth Priory School in 1940. He entered its monastic community just three years later, not quite seventeen years old, beginning a stability in community that would last for nearly eight decades. Fr. Julian reflected on his arrival in the School’s 2019 Winter Bulletin: “When I came here as a student in January 1940, there was a war on. Only ninety boys were enrolled in the school, with sixteen of us displaced from English schools. In those days, students were being prepared primarily not for college but for death.” His stability in this community which kept “death daily before its eyes” (Rule of St. Benedict, chapter 4) did not preclude his return to the Old World, for a licentiate in theology while at Sant'Anselmo in Rome and later ordination to the priesthood while studying at Oxford. And, later, there was the passing of some time at his beloved Downside, perhaps enduring a dark night and regaining the Light that Shines Forth, before returning to Portsmouth.

Fr. Julian with his parents as a young monk-priest

Father Julian’s service to the monastery was manifold. He taught philosophy and patristics to young monks, frequently worked as Guest Master, and for fourteen years was in the critical role of Novice Master. In the School his work also included teaching, though this he found to be a personal challenge. Though it was not without Dom Julian’s gentle yet incisive sense of humor, as in his commenting on a student’s occasional yawning as “the proof he is not asleep.” Julian taught Christian Doctrine and Latin, and with his visual eye directed with the Photography Club – and even assisted with Riflery. His more advanced courses included tutorials in the Fathers of the Church and from 1974-1976 a course in patristics at Providence College. Father Julian was never idle in his intellectual pursuits, as manifest in his several publications: a translation of The Mystagogia of St. Maximus the Confessor; his book of poems, There Shines Forth Christ; a critical analysis of the Rule: St. Benedict, A Rule for Beginners; and Love-Ability: Becoming Lovable by Caring for Yourself and Others (co-authored with Madeline Pecora Nugent). And Julian remained active lifelong in his avocation of painting, primarily watercolors.

Portsmouth Abbey Choir - Watercolor by Fr. Julian 2002

The spiritual journey that centered his life grew from fertile soil. His father, William Force Stead, had graduated from the University of Virginia in 1908, working for the United States State Department in Washington, D.C. He would serve as Vice Consul at the U.S. Consulates in Nottingham and later in Liverpool, England. William Stead left this career in 1918 to become an ordained priest in the Church of England, serving as an assistant chaplain in Florence, Italy before returning to chaplaincy work in Oxford. He earned his Master of Arts in theology at Queen’s College in 1925 and inhabited a heady intellectual world, notably receiving T.S. Eliot into the Anglican communion in 1927. He counted among his associates Eliot, Yeats, C.S. Lewis, and later W.H. Auden, Tennessee Williams, and many others. His vocation, however, took a definitive turn in 1933, when he converted to Catholicism. In fact, William followed his wife, Anne Frances Goldsborough Stead, in that journey to Catholicism. She had become a Catholic in 1929: the guide to the William Force Stead papers notes that Anne then spent much of her time in a convent in Birmingham. With his own conversion, William found himself alienated from Anglican society and resigned his position at Worcester College. This rich and, one might say, tumultuous intellectual and spiritual heritage no doubt impacted the young Peter Stead profoundly.

Father Julian also commented often on how his vocation was greatly shaped by Dom Julian Stonor, a monk and teacher at the school at Worth. In an interview with Miriam Matheson Desrosiers, he speaks of his father’s reaction to an initial encounter with Father Stonor: “He was proof of the existence of God himself.” Father Julian Stonor became the monastic namesake of Peter Stead, who never ceased to speak fondly, reverently, of the man as a saint. His schooling at Worth had been shaped by their encounter: “This young teacher, Julian Stonor, was most impressive. I had him as a teacher of French; we read great stories about adventure in glider planes and a great deal of poetry. He took us out for long walks and tree climbing. We called him Brother Julian and we called ourselves ‘Julian’s Gang.’” Fr. Stonor remained in touch with our Julian, who spoke often of his sanctity, as seen in Fr. Stonor’s description of the beauty of a walk in the Lake District of Cumbria as, “God’s love sustaining us in being.” (Desrosiers). The authenticity and vitality of his faith left its imprint on the young Peter Stead, who continued to seek out such qualities in Christian community life. This may be seen in Dom Stead’s involvement in the Focolare movement, whose name means “hearth” and whose faith life promotes a genuine and warm hospitality. His ongoing relationship with Focolare was sustaining for him, and he would often speak highly of this Apostolic group.

Monastery Cloister Garden - Watercolor by Fr. Julian 2000
 

Father Julian lived the final years of his life away from his monastery, in nursing homes in East Greenwich and Newport, Rhode Island. While this was a grief for him – he lamented going “back to my cage” after attending the monastery’s centennial celebration – he nevertheless made himself fully available to these his penultimate communities. Tony Caputi ’74 would visit him there and sent out a note on Julian’s passing that included the comment: “He held court like he was the mayor and naturally settled into the role of cheering people up. He continued his passion for watercolors and had access to TV. Mostly EWTN, not Kardashians. And, of course, he could watch his beloved Baltimore Orioles instead of listening to a scratchy AM radio, while wearing his prized team jersey.” Remaining active in painting, bike-riding, reading, research, writing, and hospitality, and ever persevering in prayer, Father Julian absorbed and exuded the Benedictine spirit – and this, he himself taught, was nothing more than the spirit of the gospel. May he rest in the Light of Christ.

A forthcoming edition of the School’s Bulletin will contain more on Father Julian.