Alexander Badenoch

(Lowland District) Born in Newmill, 12th June 1774; at Scots College, Douai, until closed, March 1793; completed his course, left for Scotland, 17th July 1798 (via Madrid, Badajoz and Lisbon), and ordained a priest in Scotland (or before he left Spain?); taught in Aquhorties, 1798-1804, and was superior there, 1826-29; died in Edinburgh, 9th October 1836.

Obituary of Alexander Badenoch from the Scottish Catholic Directory of 1837.

The Catholics of Edinburgh have just sustained a loss which will be deeply and generally felt by them, in the death of their senior clergyman, the Rev. Alexander Badenoch, who, without any distinct premonition of his approaching end, was suddenly removed from the scene of his earthly labours on Sunday the 9th October, about 8 o’clock, P.M. This venerable and excellent person had long been a sufferer from extreme bodily debility, originally brought on by severe labour and intense application; but the spring of his fine masculine intellect retained its elasticity to the last, and, not ten minutes before he expired, he spoke with as much firmness, and evinced as complete possession of his faculties, as at any period of his life. The thread of his existence, however, was spun out, and it snapt so suddenly as scarcely to allow time for administering to him the last rites of the Church. He died in the sixty-third year of his age, and in about the fortieth of his priestly ministry, beloved, esteemed, and honoured by all who knew him, whether Catholics or Protestants. Mr Badenoch was educated at Douay and at Valladolid. He commenced his academical course at the Scottish College of Douay, and was in that place when it was entered by the revolutionary bands of Paris, who had figured in the massacres of August and September 1792. The immediate proximity of the seat of war, however, and the insecurity of life in the midst of the banditti who had deluged the French capital with blood, together with the certainty of approaching hostilities between Great Britain and France, forced him to quit Douay, and make the best of his way to this country, which he did with much difficulty, and no inconsiderable degree of danger. On his road to the coast, he passed through the Austrian lines; and, if we remember rightly, was for a short time an eye-witness of the bombardment of Lisle by the Austrians. Soon afterwards he proceeded to the Scottish College at Valladolid, then under the presidency of Dr Cameron, where he completed his academical education; and, having returned to this country, he was ordained Priest, and appointed Professor in the College of Aquhorties, then newly established by Bishop Hay. From that Seminary he was removed in 1804 to the charge of the Congregation of Strathavon. Thence in 1808 he was called by Bishop Cameron to Edinburgh, where he remained for nine years. He was subsequently removed to Preshome, and thence, for the second time, in 1826, to the Seminary of Aquhorties (now removed to Blairs), where he resided for three years, conducting that establishment with that ability and success which might have been expected from his strong natural parts and acknowledged learning. In 1829 he returned to Edinburgh, where, under successive Bishops, he has uniformly maintained the same place in the esteem of all, and, like his illustrious friend Bishop Cameron, contributed essentially to abate the prejudices which formerly existed against Catholics, by his mild and gentle virtues, his never-failing practical good sense, and that truly Catholic liberality, which formed so distinguishing a feature in his character.

In this venerable and truly excellent person, therefore, whom not to have loved and esteemed would have argued one insensible to virtue, and dead to all sympathy with the best qualities of the head and the heart, the Catholics of this mission, and, we may add, the Catholic Church of Scotland, have sustained an irreparable loss. He was one of those men born to shame down religious bigotry and religious hatred, by the unobtrusive but constant exemplification in his own conduct, of those Christian virtues of which these evil passions are the contraries; by moderation, charity, liberality, and a generous as well as judicious consideration for the feelings and opinions of others. When he commenced his useful and honourable labours, he was greatly in advance of his age; but he lived to see the evil spirit of persecution in a great measure laid, and the members of his Church restored to the enjoyment of those equal rights which, for three hundred years, had been denied them; and he had the still greater happiness to observe that, as knowledge increased, and the minds of men were disabused of those errors, which to call in question was at one time to incur infamy and proscription, they in the same proportion became disposed to cultivate those feelings of mutual charity and goodwill which it had been one great aim of his life to inculcate and exemplify.

As a preacher, Mr Badenoch was little qualified to impress those who go to hear sermons as they do to see a play, in quest of mere amusement or self-gratification. He had none of the external recommendations of an orator. His voice was feeble, his articulation thick and by no means remarkable for distinctness; and, when he delivered his discourses, he stood motionless in the pulpit. But, with all these disadvantages, it was impossible to listen to him with any degree of attention without being impressed with the conviction that he was a man far above the ordinary stamp. In fact, he was a profound and scientific theologian, a consummate logician, and a thorough scholar; there was no doctrinal truth which he was not prepared on the instant to establish, no heretical opinion which he was not ready to discuss, with equal learning and moderation; the whole history of the Church lay open, as it were, before him; and, as to the Scriptures, he had them, to use a familiar expression, at his fingers’ ends. Hence, his discourses were models of lucid order and logical arrangement; the natural sequence of the ideas was never infringed; and his various positions, following one another with almost mathematical precision, were illustrated by an aptitude and felicity of quotation peculiar to himself. We do not indeed remember ever to have heard him say a word too much or too little; and he had the art of compressing more solid instruction into a short discourse of twenty or five-and-twenty minutes than some men would convey in a month. Hence, his instructions were always best appreciated by those of the most cultivated minds; and, even in his latter years, when the decay of his strength made it painful to see him ascending the pulpit with tottering steps and slow, the innate vigour of his mind was such, that no falling-off was discernible in those peculiar attributes for which he had always been distinguished.

Whilst those feelings, occasioned by the loss of this eminent person, are still warm and fresh in our hearts, we can scarcely trust ourselves to speak of him in his private capacity, or attempt to enumerate those inestimable qualities of the head and heart, and those endearing attributes of character, which made him beloved to enthusiasm by everyone who knew him. Charity was with him both a principle and a sentiment; it was not only part of his creed, but part of his nature; it regulated all his opinions and entered into all his actions. The greater portion of the little pittance he received, as a clergyman, he dispensed to the poor, without distinction; and he acted as almoner to many good and excellent individuals, who thought their charity twice blessed in passing through his honoured hands, and who preferred the secret consciousness of thus contributing to relieve their fellow-creatures to that ostentatious benevolence which blows a trumpet before it. In private life he was one of the most delightful and most instructive of companions. His information, alike various and extensive, was ever ready at his command; in the more minute, as well as in the more comprehensive departments of literature and philosophy, he was equally at home; whilst his correct judgment, refined taste, and original habit of thinking, united with a certain dry humour peculiar to himself, which stole upon you unperceived, gave a raciness as well as a stamp of character to his observations which rendered them inexpressibly attractive. In ready, polished, and somewhat caustic wit, few men have ever approached him. The most sudden and unexpected onset was always that which found him best prepared, and which he was most certain to repel with decided success. The harder you struck him the more fire you elicited by the blow. It was quite impossible to take him at fault, or to gain an advantage over him by a surprise. His perceptions were intuitively quick; he saw at once your aim; and his responsive sally followed with the rapidity of lightning. But his wit, like all his other qualities, was attempered by the native benevolence of his character; and if on any occasion he indulged in a little sarcastic severity, it was merely in reproving folly or in checking presumption, the only things for which he had no toleration.

May his honoured dust rest in peace, and may God also give rest to his soul! May his example be copied by those who follow him, and may the fruits of his lengthened and holy labours appear in the growth and extension of that heavenly charity without which religion is nothing but an empty name! He is gone to his reward. May those who cherish his memory learn to imitate his virtues, and to cultivate that truly Christian spirit which animated and guided all his actions!