Saturday 9 April 2011

Brother Aidan: funeral to be at Nunraw Abbey April Thursday 14th at 1.00 P.M..

Haddington Courier News, 8th April, 2011
OBITUARY
www.eastlothiancourier.com

Brother Aidan: funeral to be at Nunraw Abbey on Thursday 14th at 1pm.

'Brother Aidan worked until his last day'

Brother Aidan
THE community of Cistercian monks at Nunraw Abbey, by Garvald, is mourning the loss of Brother Aidan Hunt, who passed away suddenly last week after more than 50 years at the county monastery.

The 77-year-old Cistercian monk, who first joined the Sancta Maria Abbey in 1960 and made his solemn profession in 1966, was found unconscious during the early hours of last Wednesday morning.
Despite the best efforts of his brothers and paramedics who were called to attend, he was de­clared dead a short time after.

Born in 1934 in Isleworth in England, Br Aidan was farm manager at Nunraw for the past 32 years; and while officially retired, he remained devoted to the post and was working right up until the day before he passed away.

He had also been the acting Sub-Prior (third Superior) for the -last 15 years at the abbey.
He has been described by Dom Donald McGlynn, a former Abbot of Numaw for 33 years who still resides at the East Lothian abbey, as a "remarkable monk".

"He was attracted to the sim­pler style of the monastic life of manual labour, rather than the clerical, choir form," said Dom Donald.
"He had had a very full life.

After his Gateshead School, he enlisted at Aldershot in 1953, served time in Hong Kong, and the Army Emergency Reserves until 1958.
"He had much and varied ex­perience. None of us was so prac­ticed in just about every manual skill and art - forestry, dairy, cobbling, building construction (of the new abbey).

"Up to the last days he could al­ways oblige any cobbling for our boots, and shoes and sandles." 
Br Aidan is survived by his sis­ter, Enis, his brother, Lawrence and extended family. 

His funeral will take place at the Abbey on Thursday 14th at 1pm.

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