Thomas Byles
Thomas Roussel Davids Byles (born February 26, 1870 in Leeds , † April 15, 1912 in the North Atlantic ) was a British Catholic priest . He was best known from the sinking of the Titanic in April 1912 when he prayed with the remaining people on board and gave them absolution . Byles himself was killed in the accident.
Life
Roussel Davids Byles was born in Leeds in 1870, the first of seven children of Reverend Alfred Holden Byles. He attended Leamington College and the Rossall School before studying theology at Balliol College , Oxford from 1889 . He graduated in 1894. During his time in college he switched from Congregationalism to Catholicism and also took the name Thomas at the same time . In 1899 he went to Beda College in Rome , where he was ordained a priest in 1902. In 1905 he moved to Chipping Ongar , Essex . He lived there until his death.
Because of a wedding invitation of his brother William, who lived in the United States , Byles wanted to travel to New York on the Titanic . He had a second-class cabin and held mass there as well as for third-class passengers.
When the Titanic collided with an iceberg on April 14, 1912, Byles was on deck to pray. When the ship went down, he and his German brother, Father Joseph Peruschitz, helped second and third class passengers to get onto the ship's deck and to the lifeboats. They are said to have been offered a place themselves, but they refused. In the final minutes before the ship sank, Byles prayed the rosary at the stern with passengers and crew members and gave them absolution. He himself died in the sinking; his body was never found or never identified.
In honor of Byles, a door was installed in the church where he lived, Chipping Ongar, the inscription of which commemorates the most famous resident of the town. Pope Pius X called Byles a martyr for the Church after his death . In April 2015, Graham Smith, the current priest of Chipping Ongar, initiated the first step in the process of canonization for Byles , with the help of Bishop Alan Williams .
In the movie
Byles was portrayed in a total of three films about the sinking of the Titanic :
- 1953 in The Fall of the Titanic by Richard Basehart ,
- 1979 in SOS Titanic by Matthew Guiness ,
- 1997 in Titanic by James Lancaster .
Web links
- Website about Thomas Byles (English)
- Biography of Thomas Byles (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Stewart Foster: The priest who prayed the rosary and heard Confessions as the Titanic sank. April 16, 2012, accessed October 28, 2016 .
- ↑ Graham Smith: Devotion to a heroic priest who died on the Titanic is growing. April 7, 2016. Retrieved October 28, 2016 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Byles, Thomas |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Byles, Thomas Roussel Davids (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British Catholic priest |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 26, 1870 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Leeds , UK |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 15, 1912 |
| Place of death | North Atlantic |