Obituary Notice
This obituary notice has been digitally processed from a scanned archival document. Some words may be imperfectly rendered.
Fr. Leonard Fryer (1822-1889) Father Leonard (Fryer) of the Sacred Heart. The Anglo-Hibernian Provinve announces with sertow the. death f th and such eateemed priest. Sh of thie venerable He was born in London on the IIth of Januery 1822 and was called Alfred Fryer His parents had the happy lot of seeing three of their sons raised to the priesthood and three of their daughters consecrated to God suonget the nuns of Saint Ureule.. After having spent some yeara in Saint Edmund!a College he went to Rome and prosecuted his ecolesiastical studies with great success. in 1647 he was ordained priest and went back to England where various missions had the benefit of his administrations, In the twentyseighth year of hie age he entered our novitiate in Broadway » and made his profession there in October 1651 and was at once employed in giving missions and spiritual retreats. The last time he took part in niasionary work was in Liverpool in 1686, and towards the end of that mission he was struck with (689) unded be powevers for some years afterwards, and on the 3lat of December surrounde -his sorrowful brethren he placid) hi sixty+seventh year of his ages P ¥ gave his soul to God in the He was noted for his childlike simplicity and earnest pi " st piety and was altogether ove and copeetent od , " every member of our Congregation he was an object of nd @ perfect model of the observance of our Holy Rule Mi. remain vividly impressed upon us. uo Wy his exauple Requiscat in paces — a. ee See SY ON RR Seis nr gir me ied enh ma eee te eee nyt idl ae ne eect seek cma tara mee arin nen mi amt hinty conn mis Whee wile mlb een em ee ans ah Born in London 11 Nov. 1822. Came to Aston Hall 23 Sept. 1850 already a priest. Arrived with Frs. Ignatius and Raymund and went straight to church for "an hour or two". Community didn't know a postulant had arrived with Ignatius and Raymund. Ignatius asked where he was. Community didn't know he was there at all. Searched ‘house and garden, eventually found him in fervent prayer in church, Even then didn't come into the house until he had finished "all his prayers". Embraced each religious with “extraordinary” joy. Studied at the English College and had to have a dispensation from English College oath in order to enter novitiate. | Humble and mortified novice. Had to be restrained from penances - wished to sleep. on ground, never to eat meat, to drink only water instead of beer, milk etc. Assailed by many temptations against his vocation. Had joined us because of love of penance and disappointed with discouragement to penance thought of joining more strict order. Told Salvian about this and Salvian allowed him some penances which satisfied him. Had.been doing these penances in the world. Very obedient and submissive to Superiors. Very satisfactory novice. Went to Broadway with other novices 12 Dec. 1850, professed 4 Oct. 1851.. Month later appointed Vice-master - not cut out for this office. Financial difficulties in Broadway because of furnishing house church and sacristy and purchse of two pieces of land. Leonard decided he could pay off debt - 10 or 20 thousand pounds for Bishop by starting a RC newspaper at 1 penny and almost no printing costs! Every RC would buy one so we would get weekly as many pennies as RCs in England, Ireland and Scotland and he thought even Protestants would sub- scribe to the paper. So convincing that he got permission and 1000 copies of ist issue printed ("The Artizan") and sent to every RC "whose address was known or found in the Blue Book or Universal Directory etc." Postage alone cost over 10 pounds for circulars sent out before 1st number appeared. No response to circu- lars but Leonard not discouraged - newspaper itself would attract subscribers when it appeared. Of course it didn't and "The Artizan" died in debt after 2nd or 3rd number.
Next scheme - Translation of Fr. Seraphim's Meditations on the Passion from French and life of Peter Canisius - both to be printed and sold together - to come out in small volumes every 2 or 3 months. "Enormous number of copies" of 1st volume sent to every RC bookseller and ads. inserted in "Tablet" and "Catholic Telegraph" but "few persons appeared disposed to buy this badly printed, badly translated, badly bound volume." 2nd volume also appeared. Printer demanded payment before conti- nueing printing. More debts but payed off. "Fr. Leonard's books are still to be sold. We are disposing of them by giving them to our benefactors as presents." Leonard now strictly forbidden by Superiors to propose any new plan! Very clever at presenting his plans and everyone taken in. Wiseman had to pay expenses of a priest thus taken in by Leonard. Leonard now worried about expenses he had caused superiors and asked permission to quest in France (knew French like a native). This granted on grounds Superiors felt at least he'd make his fare. But fare home had to be sent to him! Stationed at Hyde after this and met Luigi OFM Cap. then trying to found Capuchins in England (abortive). This Luigi seems to have been a queer chap. Got one of our Brothers (Br. John) to join them as a cleric, but he ended up in the world. Now got at Leonard who always wanted to be a Capuchin and only joined us because no Capuchins in England then and we "the nearest to the Capuchin order "as he put it. All this because of Leonard's desire for rigorous penance. Leonard wrote to the Provincial (Eugene) for permission to go to the Capuchins and dispensation from Oath of Perseverance in CPs. Eugene's reply suspension a divinis! reserved to Salvian on condition Leonard would retract intention of leaving and renew oath. Leonard "would not omit to say Mass for anything in the world if he could help it" therefore after night prayers (same day as suspension) he retracted and renewed Oath. Salvian wouldn't absolve him until following morning "to make an impression on his mind." If Leonard thought in all this he was doing wrong, he never would have done so, is Salvian's comment. Now removed from Vice-master. Leonard a good theologian but very obstinate. A principle with him that everyone confessing to him MUST make a General Confession "to the end", as he says, "of perfectly knowing the state of their conscience." Almost always this General Confession had to take weeks or even months! So heard very few confessions and on missions left many penitents who hadn't finished confessing during the mission. So sent on missions only if superiors had to in "some extraordinary circumstance." One girl was kept so long making a general confession that her good name was Suspect - confessed to Salvian who remarks she hardly had matter for absolution! Leonard gave extraordinary penances e.g. hear 50 or 100 Masses! - "in many cases took penitent 2 or 3 years to fulfil these penances. Louis, Rector at Aston, thought to be dying. Leonard only priest in the house so Louis confessed to him and got 18 or 20 Masses to hear for a penance! Louis begged for another penance because as he was dying he couldn't perform this one. Leonard ‘said provided he had the intention it was 0.K. and wouldn't commute. A new plan! "Lately he has been inventing a new and wonderful ship of war which has attracted the attention of many {st rate engineers and which has been tried on a small scale, built by himself and which has succeeded remarkably well." Superiors wouldn't have anything to do with this scheme. Salvian's comment: "We shall leave Fr. Leonard in his ship of war and fight as many battles as he likes and invent or improve all the ships of the English navy and we shall remain at home and in peace with every one." Stationed at St. Anne's, Sutton 1864 and officiated at Mother Mary Joseph Prout's funeral on January 14th.
Fr. Leonard Fryer's testimony on the occasion of the translation of Fr. Dominic's remains from Aston Hall to St. Wilfrid's, Cotton Hall. Introductory pages missing. (The body seemed like that of) “a living man and not of a corpse and also as plump, so that I used to say it looked as fresh and as white as that of a Lady, a real living lady; it was also supple for I touched it with my finger and it did not feel hard, but you could make an impression in it with your finger. I must say I did not see any part of the flesh where the linen trousers were and the Stockings and Boots were. But the skin of the face seemed like being hard and dried up and was not at all like the skin of the bosom and that is the reason why I say I consider that there was a partial preservation as God Almighty sometimes allows instead of whole preservation as we read in the life of first martyr of the seal of Sacramental Confession, when his tongue was preserved whole and intact, when his tomb was opened a long time after his death. So a bosom which must have burned so much in life with the Love of God, of his Sacred Passion and the love of souls, God perhaps wished to preserve whole and intact for several years after death as a kind of miracle of a partial preservation to show his great love for him to his Religious but God Almighty was not obliged to preserve or continue this miracle for several years after the opening of the coffin when I shall show that the Passionist Religious did not take due care of that great treasure they had in their possession. For when this reached St. Wilfrid's Retreat, Cotton Hall, Staffordshire; “for a long time this temporary wooden box, until it was brought back to Sutton, a long time afterwards, was left on the top corridor of the mona- stery on an ordinary wooden bench, below the window exposed all the summers to the burning rays of the sun, and to the frost and cold and rain of all the winters. God Almighty would have had to perform fresh miracles to have preserved the flesh of a corpse exposed-to such dangers and calamities in a single wooden box of thin material not like a coffin and covered with black cloth on the top and sides etc. It must have remained here for many years, but I cannot say how many. Then when it came back to Sutton the last time, it was exposed in the tower of the church of St. Anne's, which is open on all sides to the inclemencies of the weather, the heat of summer, and the frosts and colds of winter. I cannot say how long it remained here, how many years before it was opened by order of the Bishop of Liverpool when the beautiful white soft flesh of the bosom was no longer found according to the testimony of the witnesses. But I was not then amongst them. But I say this that had the flesh of the bosom been found as I had found it, it would have required God Almighty to have performed fresh miracles contrary to the ordinary course of nature, to preserve a corpse under the adverse conditions I have merely aluded to. I now mention some more wonderful particulars about the state of the Body when I was present at the opening. We had to lift the Body from the coffin in which it was into the new white wooden box prepared for its recep- tion. I was behind the head and lifted it up at that end and Brother Alphonsus and Brother Dominic took hold of the feet by the Boots or Shoes at the other end of the coffin, and we lifted the body up and placed it in the Box prepared for it, and in so doing the right arm and hand which together were lying on the body, fell on the right side and we had to put it back again. Now the arm was quite flexible and not at all detached from the body, now it could not be so without a miracle, after being so many years in the Coffin, for without a miracle the arm would have been quite stiff and not at all flexible like that of a living person. And it would have been detached from the rest of the Body, but the whole Body remained together, in spite of my holding the part towards the head and the two brothers the part towards the feet. This also could not have been the case, with a miracle from God. For remember there was no religious habit to support the body which must have been a great weight, and it could not kept together without a miracle after so many years in the Coffin. I must also say that the large stone or brick building where the Coffin was kept in the Garden had no roof or covering of any kind and the body in the coffin was kept exposed to all the inclememcies of the weather for many years after his death, perhaps six years about or more, I do not know how many. Let persons who know what takes place in ordinary tombs of burried persons, after five or six years, account to me without a miracle of God, how the bosom of Father Dominic could look beautifully white and fresh and as soft as that of a living Lady, after so many years. Where were the worms which devour the flesh of dead persons and are generated in the inside of dead persons and devour their flesh etc. etc? Signed Fr. Leonard of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Passionist Priest.”
Source: Obituary Notices, Provincial Archive, St Joseph's Province. Passionist Congregation.