A Titanic Loss
If you get a chance to visit the Titanic Artifact Exhibit making its rounds, do so. It’s currently at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh. The preservation and restoration of the 154 authentic artifacts is impressive, but it’s also very respectful of the memory of those who perished in the tragedy of April 15, 1912. Among the many biographies on display of those lost is that of Father Thomas Byles, below.
The brief bio is a nice introduction to the life of Father Byles but leaves us with many questions - we’d like to know more, and a bit of research provided detail about his family, the intended wedding, and the concern of his brothers when they learned of the sinking.
And in the Omaha, Nebraska newspaper of April 23 we learn about the wedding of William and Katherine, the requiem Mass for Father Byles, and importantly, his actions as the “unsinkable” Titanic was going down.
Reading those last two paragraphs, one can picture the young priest calmly and heroically carrying out his pastoral calling in the waning minutes of life.
If his body was recovered, it was never identified. Requiescat in pace, Father Byles.
