A Deathbed Conversion – By GEORGE BRAINE
My grandfather Charles Stanley Braine was born an Anglican. In 1924, he married Engracia Nonis, who was a Catholic, at a Catholic church. (The two witnesses were Catholic nuns.) Their nine children were brought up as Catholics attended Catholic schools.
Charles Stanley is buried in the Anglican Section of Negombo’s General Cemetery. But, on a visit to my aunt Bridget in England about 10 years ago, I found a yellowed newspaper clipping among her papers which told a strange story. My aunt later confirmed its veracity.
The clipping is from the Catholic Messenger dated 5 March 1944. (Charles Stanley died on Feb. 11, 1944, in Negombo.)
The article is written by a Catholic priest, going by the acronym XYZ. He does not identify Charles Stanley by name (only as Mr. X, an Englishman) nor does he even mention the town where the incident occurred.
I will use the priest’s own words as much as possible in the rest of the article. He begins by saying that he “was summoned to the bedside of a ‘very probably unconscious’ Anglican. His wife and children were Catholics. On several occasions and on umpteen times they had entreated and begged of him to come to their faith but he had resolutely refused. Now he was dying. For the past five days he had been unconscious with but intermittent and faint signs of consciousness. Mr. X was an Englishman and in the house of Anglicans. I was summoned by his daughter and son.”
When the priest reaches the house, he “could hardly step out of the car when the Anglican party rushed up to me and one of them, an elderly lady whom I presumed to be a sister of Mr. X taking my hand, very politely told me ‘Look here Father, Mr. X has already expressed his desire to remain and die an Anglican. We brought our minister this morning. He has administered the last rites. Mr. X is now dying. In about 10 minutes he will be dead. Don’t disturb the patient. He is also unconscious. We only ask of you to attend the funeral as a sort of consolation to his Catholic wife and children.’” The elderly lady must have been Eudora Combe, Charles Stanley’s younger sister.
All the time, the children were beckoning the priest to rush in to the room “before it was too late” but the lady was holding the priest’s hand.
“’Look here’ I replied. ‘I sympathize with you. What your minister has done is right. But now that I have come let me just see the patient. If he is unconscious I can do nothing.’ She replied ‘He will be dead. You need not disturb him. Only at his funeral.’
I was bold. I plucked up courage. Saying ‘His children want me’ I rushed into the room. There was Mr. X breathing his last, surrounded by his weeping children.
‘Mr. X’ I called into his ear ‘the Catholic priest is come. The Roman Catholic priest is here. He is speaking to you.’ He looked at me. For the first time since that attack of his malady, he was fully conscious. I continued. ‘Mr. X, do you wish to die in the faith of your beloved wife and children. Do you wish to be Catholic?’ Faintly, he answered (the first word he spoke in 5 days) ‘Yes’ – as he bowed his assent. His children almost shouted for joy.
‘Mr. X’ I went on ‘do you abjure your Protestant faith?’ Once more with labored breathing, bowing his head in assent, he replied ‘yes'”.
The priest gives Charles Stanley the Extreme Unction followed by the Papal blessing, the dying man loses consciousness.
The Priest continues “I decided to remain with the dying man. To keep myself occupied to help the agonizing soul, and to drown the murmurs and complaints of those outside, I took a prayer book and recited loud in English the prayers for the dying.” The priest says that “Mr. X died almost in his arms”. He concludes “May Mr. X rest in peace and work out from heaven the conversion of his non-Catholic friends and relatives”! (Note: The exclamation mark is mine.)
By all accounts, Charles Stanley was a loving father, affectionate and generous to his large brood. He built a spacious house at his wife’s village, Boralessa, where Engracia and the children resided most of the time. They were provided with two cars at a time when cars were a rarity. Two drivers were on hand.
Charles Stanley bought a 50-acre property nearby, which he named “Greenwood”, for his wife and children. He built a large house, “Stanlodge” at Negombo, the nearest town, so that his children could attend school there. He also bought about 6-acres of land at Boralessa to benefit his wife. His wife and children enjoyed a good life.
From the Catholic priest’s account, the conversion must have been a traumatic experience, and a kindly man like Charles Stanley did not deserve it at all. And all in the name of the same God.
Though a Catholic, at least in name, he was buried in an Anglican cemetery. That was the compromise that his children and their aunt, Charles Stanley’s sister, reached.
GEORGE BRAINE
