Fr Michael Beattie SJ died on Saturday 7th January in Chesterfield Royal Hospital. He was 86 years old, in the 69th year of religious life.

Michael was born in Lytham in Lancashire on 31st May 1936, and educated at Mount St Mary’s College in Sheffield. He joined the novitiate at Harlaxton at the age of 18, and made a year’s juniorate in Manresa Roehampton immediately after taking first vows.

Between 1957 and 1960 he studied for a licentiate in philosophy at Heythrop in Oxfordshire. After a year of special studies in modern languages at Campion Hall in Oxford, he made his regency at Mount St Mary’s teaching French. In 1964 he returned to Heythrop for theology, and was ordained in Sheffield in 1967. A fourth year of theology was followed by tertianship at St Beuno’s under Paul Kennedy.

Between 1969 and 1972 he was a member of the parish staff at Sacred Heart Wimbledon, then moved to St George’s Worcester as Superior and parish priest. In 1975 he became Rector and parish priest at the Sacred Heart in Wimbledon, and next, after a sabbatical in Rome and the United States, moved to the Sacred Heart in Edinburgh as parish priest in 1983. While there, in 1986, he was appointed Province vocations’ promoter.

From 1991 he served as parish priest at Farm Street in London for seven years, becoming Superior of the community in 1993. He was appointed Superior and parish priest at Corpus Christi, Boscombe, in 1998, moving to Mount St Mary’s as Director of the Apostleship of Prayer eight years later. He also worked as Spiritual Father there, and remained at the Mount until his death.

A Requiem Mass for Fr Michael will be celebrated in the chapel at Mount St Mary’s on Wednesday 25^th January at 1pm. The Mass will also be livestreamed and can be viewed on the day via Zoom by clicking on the link below (the passcode for access is 065905).