Ever Loved But Lost Awhile - Canon’s New Life Story
17 August 2008
Canon Matthew Hayes celebrates sixty years as a Catholic priest this year and has published a memoir to honour his jubilee.
Canon Hayes ministered as Parish Priest of SS Peter & Paul in Combe Down, Bath from 1975 to 1993 and now resides at St John the Evangelist in the city. He was Parish Priest in Bristol at St Pius X, Withywood from 1968 until his move to Bath.
Canon Hayes celebrated the diamond jubilee of his ordination at his family home in Rathcoole, Fethard, County Tipperary, with siblings and extended family members. He concelebrated the Jubilee Mass of Thanksgiving on the lawn in front of the old homestead where he was born in 1924. Concelebrating with him were Canon Tom Breen, Parish Priest of Fethard, Canon Jim Power, Assistant Priest of Fethard, and Father Jack Butler, a priest of the Salesian Order, a native of Thurles. A further celebration was marked in Bath, at St John the Evangelist in Bath. The Mass brought together many priests in recognition of Canon Hayes’ milestone.
Following the Mass, Canon Hayes launched ‘Ever Loved, But Lost Awhile’ - a memoir of his secondary school and seminary years covering 1937 to 1948. His memoir includes a postscript outlining the deep influence Cardinal John Henry Newman had on his later life as a priest. ‘Ever Loved, But Lost Awhile’ is a sequel to Canon Hayes’ first book ‘I Slept With Dan’, which brought to live reminiscences of his childhood and primary schooldays at the Patrician Brothers’ Primary School in Fethard, his native parish.
‘Ever Loved, But Lost Awhile’ vividly recounts his memories of and reflections on his school day. Canon Hayes studied at Rockwell College near Cashel in County Tipperary, Prior Park College in Bath, and Mount Melleray College at Cappoquin in County Waterford. His time at two seminaries St John’s College, Waterford, and Oscott College, near Birmingham are also recalled.
Most of the years covered in ‘Ever Loved, But Lost Awhile’ straddle World War Two and Canon Hayes writes about the fluctuations and atrocities of that conflict, convulsing Europe, and how they impinged on him and his fellow students. His stay in Bath’s prestigious Prior Park College was curtailed due to the targeting of Bath by German bombers. During those momentous years he had the priesthood as his life’s goal. He chose the Clifton Diocese because his uncle, Canon John Hayes, was a Bristol Parish Priest. This led to his ordination in the former Pro-Cathedral in Bristol on 11 July 1948.
‘Ever Loved, But Lost Awhile’ shows Canon Hayes’ remarkable recall, and captures his perceptions of the schools and seminaries he was part of, and of his peers and teachers. His account of his phase of his life, seen through these well-remembered perceptions, provides an important record of those schools and seminaries. He recounts his experiences as he perceived them at the time, and does so with honesty, directness and wit. The photos that lavishly illustrate his memoir are in themselves an important record of family life, and what boarding school and seminary life was like in the late 1930s and 1940s.
In his early years Canon Hayes served at St George’s, Taunton; St Osmund, Salisbury and St Peter’s, Gloucester. He was first appointed as Parish Priest in 1964 when he went to the English Martyrs in Chard.
Canon Hayes has ministered in all counties in the Clifton Diocese and although now in retirement at Bath, he supplies most weekends for Parish Priests across Bristol and Bath, allowing the new generation of priests time for a holiday.
He describes his active retirement as his second vocation, “I believe my second vocation as a retired priest is to make myself available to my bishop and fellow priests in all the ways they may find me useful and helpful. My service is now to supply for them when needed.
“Ours is a friendly diocese in a lovely part of England; a diocese that has caring priests and deacons and sisters, and God’s holy people who are loving and loyal. It is for them to judge what kind of priest these many years, schools and seminaries have made me. But God has the last word.”
‘Ever Loved, But Lost Awhile’ is published by Lisheen Publication (ISBN 978-0-9556139-1-3) and is available for £10.00 or €15.00.
Canon Hayes also features in a special podcast - which cliftondiocese.com brought to you last month. Canon Hayes talks listeners through the journey his life has taken from his childhood in Fethard, through training to become a priest, to his ministry in the West of England that has been so memorable.
Canon Matthew Hayes celebrates sixty years as a Catholic priest this year and has published a memoir to honour his jubilee.
Canon Hayes ministered as Parish Priest of SS Peter & Paul in Combe Down, Bath from 1975 to 1993 and now resides at St John the Evangelist in the city. He was Parish Priest in Bristol at St Pius X, Withywood from 1968 until his move to Bath.
Canon Hayes celebrated the diamond jubilee of his ordination at his family home in Rathcoole, Fethard, County Tipperary, with siblings and extended family members. He concelebrated the Jubilee Mass of Thanksgiving on the lawn in front of the old homestead where he was born in 1924. Concelebrating with him were Canon Tom Breen, Parish Priest of Fethard, Canon Jim Power, Assistant Priest of Fethard, and Father Jack Butler, a priest of the Salesian Order, a native of Thurles. A further celebration was marked in Bath, at St John the Evangelist in Bath. The Mass brought together many priests in recognition of Canon Hayes’ milestone.
Following the Mass, Canon Hayes launched ‘Ever Loved, But Lost Awhile’ - a memoir of his secondary school and seminary years covering 1937 to 1948. His memoir includes a postscript outlining the deep influence Cardinal John Henry Newman had on his later life as a priest. ‘Ever Loved, But Lost Awhile’ is a sequel to Canon Hayes’ first book ‘I Slept With Dan’, which brought to live reminiscences of his childhood and primary schooldays at the Patrician Brothers’ Primary School in Fethard, his native parish.
‘Ever Loved, But Lost Awhile’ vividly recounts his memories of and reflections on his school day. Canon Hayes studied at Rockwell College near Cashel in County Tipperary, Prior Park College in Bath, and Mount Melleray College at Cappoquin in County Waterford. His time at two seminaries St John’s College, Waterford, and Oscott College, near Birmingham are also recalled.
Most of the years covered in ‘Ever Loved, But Lost Awhile’ straddle World War Two and Canon Hayes writes about the fluctuations and atrocities of that conflict, convulsing Europe, and how they impinged on him and his fellow students. His stay in Bath’s prestigious Prior Park College was curtailed due to the targeting of Bath by German bombers. During those momentous years he had the priesthood as his life’s goal. He chose the Clifton Diocese because his uncle, Canon John Hayes, was a Bristol Parish Priest. This led to his ordination in the former Pro-Cathedral in Bristol on 11 July 1948.
‘Ever Loved, But Lost Awhile’ shows Canon Hayes’ remarkable recall, and captures his perceptions of the schools and seminaries he was part of, and of his peers and teachers. His account of his phase of his life, seen through these well-remembered perceptions, provides an important record of those schools and seminaries. He recounts his experiences as he perceived them at the time, and does so with honesty, directness and wit. The photos that lavishly illustrate his memoir are in themselves an important record of family life, and what boarding school and seminary life was like in the late 1930s and 1940s.
In his early years Canon Hayes served at St George’s, Taunton; St Osmund, Salisbury and St Peter’s, Gloucester. He was first appointed as Parish Priest in 1964 when he went to the English Martyrs in Chard.
Canon Hayes has ministered in all counties in the Clifton Diocese and although now in retirement at Bath, he supplies most weekends for Parish Priests across Bristol and Bath, allowing the new generation of priests time for a holiday.
He describes his active retirement as his second vocation, “I believe my second vocation as a retired priest is to make myself available to my bishop and fellow priests in all the ways they may find me useful and helpful. My service is now to supply for them when needed.
“Ours is a friendly diocese in a lovely part of England; a diocese that has caring priests and deacons and sisters, and God’s holy people who are loving and loyal. It is for them to judge what kind of priest these many years, schools and seminaries have made me. But God has the last word.”
‘Ever Loved, But Lost Awhile’ is published by Lisheen Publication (ISBN 978-0-9556139-1-3) and is available for £10.00 or €15.00.
Canon Hayes also features in a special podcast - which cliftondiocese.com brought to you last month. Canon Hayes talks listeners through the journey his life has taken from his childhood in Fethard, through training to become a priest, to his ministry in the West of England that has been so memorable.
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