Legion of Mary

Our Lady Spouse of the Holy Spirit Regia

Serving the State of Michigan

Servant of God Alphonsus Lambe.

Legion of Mary Envoy to South America

EXCERPTS FROM A RECENT TALK BY NOEL LYNCH

(Alfie’s successor in the Argentine )

January 21st was the 50th anniversary of the death of Alphonsus Lambe.  Each year on that date all over South America there are large celebrations with thousands of legionaries gathering to honor him, to pray to him and to ask for his intercession.  They attend Mass, say the Legion Prayers and go out on to the streets to speak to people.  This is repeated several times throughout the day, putting into practice what Alfie taught them.

Alfie was sent by the Concilium in 1953 to develop the Legion of Mary throughout the South American countries.  But he didn’t limit himself to setting up groups of the Legion.  He did much more because of his burning zeal for souls.  He found that a majority of the people were baptized but knew little about their Faith.  Many had to be reintroduced to the Christian way of life.

One of the difficulties he encountered were the sects, particularly those sent to South America with the aim of inducing the people to turn their backs on the Catholic Church.  By the time Alfie arrived, he saw there was a major job to be done in winning the people back to the Church.  He taught legionaries of all walks of life and of all ages that everyone must be invited to join the Legion of Mary.

An example of this was Alfie’s meeting with a young railroad employee, Miguel Mancini.  Alfie asked him if he would like to work for Our Blessed Lady. The reply Miguel gave him was that he was baptized but didn’t go to Mass that often.  Alfie persisted saying that he hadn’t asked him if he was practicing and re-issued the invitation to work for Our Blessed Lady.  Miguel accepted.  A month later he became President of his praesidium, later President of the Curia and in due course he was elected President of the Comitium.  On completion of his term of office he entered the seminary and is now Rector of one of the largest seminaries in South America.

Alfie taught legionaries how to make everyone an apostle for the Catholic Church. He brought legionaries with him wherever he went and showed them how to engage in apostolic work and how to extend the Legion.  He was an example of a legionary always on duty.

Occasionally legionaries would see Alfie in ‘off-duty’ mode, having a cup of coffee in an open air cafe.  Street children would approach offering to shine his shoes or sell him a paper.  “Come back in 5 minutes” he would say and then he would offer them Legion membership.  These young teenagers went on to do apostolic work in the toughest and roughest areas of their cities.

At the time, many of the priests who arrived from Europe were suffering from the ravages of World War II.  Despite the after-effects of trauma, illness and incapacity they were invited to become Spiritual Directors and many accepted the invitation.  Some doubted that the Legion of Mary could be a vehicle to transform parishes and bring people back to the Faith.  Some were opposed to having the Legion established within their boundaries.  However, in time those who doubted couldn’t help but be influenced by good reports from neighboring areas where the Legion flourished.

Those who worked with Alfie spoke of the example he gave not only in his spiritual Life but in everything he did.  They agreed they never saw him sad or depressed, never saw him lose patience, become flustered or complain.  He always had a smile.  And he bore those qualities up to his death.

Alfie stayed wherever he was offered accommodation, and more often than not he stayed in student hostels.  In those years in South America, students were being influenced by Marxist and Communist doctrines.  Idealistic young men, some would abandon their Faith to take up those ideologies.  While relaxing in the evenings, Alfie would join in the conversation and speak to them about Catholicism.  On one occasion Alfie was threatened by a young man wielding a knife.  On another occasion he received a phone call in the early hours threatening death if he went to the University to establish the Legion there.  This didn’t stop Alfie.

On yet another occasion while visiting a priest who had just agreed to establish the Legion in his Parish, the priest was called to visit a dying man.  Alfie asked to accompany him to the hospital. After a brief visit to his bedside the priest returned saying the man was a Jew.  Alfie asked permission to speak with him and some short while later asked the priest to return as the man had a desire to be baptized.

Climate changes from extremely cold to extremely hot are part of life in the countries of South America.  Some might have been tempted to train people and allow them to undertake the work.  Not so with Alfie.  He accompanied the legionaries and showed them how to carry out the work.  This is evidenced by work he undertook with a group of seminarians.  During their holidays, Alfie offered to teach them the Legion of Mary system and how to undertake the work.  A group of 14 of them accompanied Alfie on a 24 hour train journey.  He set up the miniature Legion altar he brought with him and they held their first Legion meeting in the carriage.  He then assigned them in pairs to go through the carriages and speak to the passengers about the Mass and what devotion to Our Lady means to a Catholic. After two hours they reported back and discussed what they learned.  During that journey four Legion meetings and work assignments took place.

Alfie was as much at home the wealthy person as he was with the poor.  The wealthy kept to themselves leading a comfortable life style.  Alfie took the view that they too had souls to be won for the Church.  Those who joined the Legion were assigned to the poor areas donning t-shirts and jeans to do their work.  Alfie praised their work but set them the further challenge of visiting the red light area.  Not believing such existed in their city, Alfie proved them wrong by taking a taxi and being brought in sequence to ten establishments of ill-repute.  The legionaries undertook the challenge and the work in the red light area continues to this day.

Alfie also had a lighter side to his personality.  He loved to tell a joke or a funny story often told against himself.  He even told of an encounter he had with terrorists who seized him for a couple of hours.  When allowed to make a phone call to prove who he was, Alfie phoned the Irish Ambassador who came to vouch for him. Both he and the Ambassador laughed long and hard when re-telling the story.

Alfie did many things during his short life, some we know about, others we do not.  In Argentina he started the first praesidium for Orthodox members.  He learned the Russian language in the hope of visiting that country.  His wish wasn’t granted as he died a short while later.  He is buried in the vault of the Christian Brothers in Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires.  A simple inscription marks his resting place.  But the real testimony to his memory lies in his legacy of many hundreds of thousands of legionaries working throughout South America through their membership of the Legion of Mary, for the Church.

Alfie Lambe joined the Legion of Mary in Ireland when almost eighteen years old.  Three years later he was one of the youngest of his time to be assigned as a missionary.  After six years he was popularly acclaimed by those who knew him closely as a man of holiness, some comparing him to the Little Flower.  Bishops and priests consider him to be Argentinean and he is grouped with their other Candidates for Canonization.

EXCERPTS FROM A RECENT TALK BY NOEL LYNCH

(Alfie’s successor in the Argentine )

Alphies Last Days

In December 1958, it was decided to seek to start the Legion in Cordoba, Argentina's second largest city. On a hotsunny morning Alfie paid a visit to the Archbishop of Cordoba. Afterwards, he met his companions in order to work out the full programme. At this stage he was very paleand had stomach pains. It was suggested that they go to a

restaurant for a light meal as he had not eaten since morning. Alfie agreed and tried to swallow a few bites of food, butshortly after eating he became very nauseous and began to

vomit. He was so sick that he was taken to bed, but the nausea continued and he began to vomit blood. It was now evident that he was gravely ill, and late that night he was taken to hospital. An x-ray examination revealed a bleedingulcer and intensive treatment was started which halted the bleeding. For a week he was given nothing but milk, a little every hour. He joked that all the cows in Cordoba would rundry.The doctors were not satisfied as a strange knot could befelt to the right side of his abdomen. He would need an operation, so he was taken to the clinic of the "Blue Sisters"in Buenos Aires. The Blue Sisters cared for him there, and he impressed them with his patience and cheerfulness. He spent

Christmas in hospital, where friends, including the IrishAmbassador, Mr. T. J. Horan, called regularly.The operation for the ulcer was fixed for January 9th and it was hoped that before then, he wouldgather strength to withstand the surgery. When the operation took place it was discovered that thestomach trouble was lymphosarcoma, one of the most virulent forms of malignant tumours, and Alfie's vital organs were all affected. There was nothing the doctors could do, but close up the incision.

In hopeless cases of cancer an operation may hasten the end, and in Alfie's case this was true. He wasin terrible agony and everyone could see that he would not last long. Only his closest friends,including Ambassador Horan, were allowed to visit him, and the Ambassador sent a report to Concilium each day.

January is the hottest month of the year in Argentina, and Alfie tossed restlessly in his bed and he suffered terribly in the heat. On January 21 st 1959, the feast of St. Agnes, who is called in the liturgy,"a lamb whiter than snow", el corderrito, the lambkin, as Alfie was known throughout South America,passed to his eternal reward. Legionaries saw in this an exquisite sign of Providence. Before Alfiedied, he received the Last Sacraments from Cardinal Copello and the Apostolic Nuncio gave theenvoy his blessing. This was a mark of the respect in which Alfie was held.The telegram that brought the news of Alfie's death to Dublin read, "Alfie joined Edel today".

The Concilium offered to bring Alfie's body back to Ireland but his mother, in spite of her great grief atthe death of her youngest son, said he should rest in the country and continent of his spiritual conquests.

The Passionist Fathers and the Christian Brothers in Buenos Aires offered a burial plot intheir graveyards. As Alfie had belonged to the Christian Brothers in his early youth, he was buried intheir cemetery in Buenos Aires. His body was accompanied to its last resting place by many priests and Legionaries and the prayers of the Legion were recited.

Alphonsus Lambe