Open portholes and forward movement further sped up the sinking. The explosion send shocks through the ship, disabling watertight doors. The book documents Byles' early life, his years in ministry and his final hours on board the RMS Titanic.We all know about the sinking of the Titanic, but what about Britannic, her lesser-known sister ship?īritannic, which was meant to be a near-identical sister ship to Titanic and serve the transatlantic route, but was pressed into service in WWI as a hospital ship, sank on November 21st, 1916 after striking an underwater mine. His story is featured in a book written by Cady Crosby entitled A Titanic Hero: Thomas Byles. Richard Basehart plays a thinly disguised Byles in the 1953 film. In the 1997 film, Titanic, he was portrayed by James Lancaster, reciting the Rosary and Revelation 21:4. Titanic, he was portrayed by Matthew Guinness. In popular culture īyles has three times been portrayed in films about the disaster. In April 2015, Graham Smith, the current priest of St Helen's Church, with support of Bishop Alan Williams of the Diocese of Brentwood, initiated the first steps toward declaring Byles a saint. Pope Pius X later described Byles as a "martyr for the Church". His brothers installed a door in his memory at St Helen's Catholic Church in Chipping Ongar, Essex. His body, if recovered, was never identified. Toward the end he recited the Rosary and other prayers, heard confessions and gave absolution to more than a hundred passengers who remained trapped on the stern of the ship after all of the lifeboats had been launched. He reputedly twice refused a place on a lifeboat. As the ship was sinking, he assisted many third-class passengers up to the boat deck to the lifeboats. Stained glass window dedicated to Father Thomas Bylesīyles was walking on the upper deck praying his breviary when the Titanic struck the iceberg. The sermon was on the need for a spiritual lifeboat in the shape of prayer and the sacraments when in danger of spiritual shipwreck in times of temptation. He said Mass on the morning of the sinking, Octave of Easter, (now known as Divine Mercy Sunday), 14 April 1912, for both second-and third-class passengers in their respective lounges. He was assigned to St Helen's Parish in Chipping Ongar, Essex in 1905, where he would remain until his death.Īn invitation to officiate at the wedding of his younger brother William prompted Byles to make the trip to New York City. In 1899, he went to the Beda College in Rome to study for the priesthood and was ordained in 1902. While at Oxford, Byles converted to the Church of England, and later, like his younger brother William had done before, to the Roman Catholic faith, taking the name Thomas. He attended Leamington College and Rossall School, Fleetwood, Lancashire, between 18, then went to Balliol College, Oxford, in 1889 to study theology, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1894. Thomas Byles was born Roussel Davids Byles in Leeds, Yorkshire, the eldest of seven children of Alfred Holden Byles, a Congregationalist minister, and his wife Louisa Davids.
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