Twenty years ago Brother Roger Schutz was murdered during evening prayer in the ecumenical community of Taizé which he founded in a small Burgundy village in 1940. The violent manner of his death shocked France and the Christian world.
I did not hear the news because I was on my bicycle high up in the Alps, returning from a holiday in Italy, but I do recall clearly the exact hour of his death that evening. Dark clouds suddenly blotted out the evening sunshine in the place where I had pitched camp and a violent thunderstorm wreaked havoc with my tent. Torrents of water sent rocks crashing through the gully, so that I had to grab my equipment and run to high ground. Then, after half an hour the scene was quiet again and there was a peaceful setting sun.
Taizé brothers in St Peter’s Square, Rome
At that same moment in France thousands of young Christians were gathered for Evening Prayer surrounding Brother Roger in the ecumenical Taizé community. Brothers in their white robes at the center of the church were singing hymns before the icon of the Cross. A woman with a mental condition stepped forward wielding a knife and she murdered Brother Roger as the congregation looked on in horror.
A well-rehearsed plan went into action. The Taizé brothers had prepared for the possibility the old man might die of natural causes in public. The brothers discussed this issue with Brother Roger who said, “Remove my body and continue the prayer!” Nobody considered it might be a crime scene. The appalled congregation were evacuated from the church with blood on the sanctuary carpet. A convoy of flashing blue light vehicles arrived on the hill in Burgundy: patrols of gendarmes, ambulances, and a special van to remove the woman to a mental hospital in a nearby city.
On that terrible evening, two hours later the brothers invited the thousands of people staying in Taizé to return and evening prayer continued, as Brother Roger would have wanted it.
I found out the news from Taizé a few days later in a French newspaper while in Amiens, still travelling back to England on my bicycle. I was shocked and in tears, seated in a café next to Amiens cathedral, and I handed back the menu to the waiter. I had changed my mind about the lunch order. I locked my bicycle below the demonic looking gargoyles and spent an hour on my knees bathed in the cold bluish light from 13th-century stained glass.
I wanted to reflect on this: what did the death of Brother Roger mean in my life? The storm in my Alpine camp site came immediately to mind and I calculated the timing. Jung called such coincidences ‘synchronicity.’ As Catholics we are not superstitious but we know sometimes our hearts are aware of things happening to loved ones far away. Is it intuition or deep empathy? Whatever definition you choose, it is a God-given sign.
Brother Roger Schutz of Taizé
In Taizé last Saturday 16th August today’s leader of the community, Prior Brother Matthew led a round table discussion to mark the twentieth anniversary of Brother Roger’s death. I believe there was an awareness of him in the USA[1] but American readers are not so familiar with Taizé as Catholics in Europe. The personal touches in the video[2] are a good starting point for understanding what this man meant to people of different Christian denominations.
Brother Matthew reaches out to all people who are still affected by what they saw that day and invites them to get in touch with the community. How it must have traumatized them! The peaceful scene — then a violent storm — and all returning to quiet again: the pattern of Beethoven’s 6th symphony, the Pastoral, with its shocking violence and afterwards the calm.
That passing moment — a tragic event at which I was not present — changed the direction of the last stage of my life and vocation. As a former Franciscan friar, but when this happened I was a teacher, I was motivated to return to religious life. I handed in my resignation in a good church school in Canterbury, and I entered the Franciscan postulancy again as a late vocation. It was the start of a long circular journey and I went to Rome and then back to teaching again. Now living a solitary life with donkeys in Spain, for which I am better known, I ask this question: how many lives were changed by Brother Roger’s death?
It must have changed many people, just as his ecumenical witness had already changed thousands earlier in our lives! In an earlier article for this website[3] I talked about my own personal encounter with Brother Roger back in the 1980s. I have met two people in my life who are now saints in heaven: John Paul II in an audience in Rome and Brother Roger of Taizé.
In the case of Brother Roger, the official process is a moot point for me, just as I don’t believe Catholics who tell me that my donkeys are not going to heaven. For me the road to heaven is lined with donkeys and their various burdens. I cannot imagine heaven without Brother Roger Schutz. Requiescat in pace, 12 May 1915 – 16 August 2005.
Notes:
[1] The memorial service in Washington in August 2005: https://www.stjames-cathedral.org/Events/2005/frereroger.aspx
[2] The round table discussion in Taizé remembering Roger Schutz can be seen on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/-VAMTJuPvIg?si=L2DM-D7Ymin6kCiF
[3] From 2021 on Where Peter Is: https://wherepeteris.com/postcard-10-taize-a-parable-of-communion/
Images: Header photo of Taizé brothers in the Church of Reconciliation; Taizé brothers in St Peter’s Square, Rome; Brother Roger Schutz of Taizé.
Gareth Thomas Weaver lives a solitary life with his donkeys in a pine wooded valley in Alicante, Spain. A former aircraft engineer, Franciscan friar, and geography teacher, he has written about the pilgrim routes to Compostela and his walks with donkeys. He was never intending to become an activist in his 70s, but now he goes head-to-head with environmental vandalism, guided by Laudato Si'. Keep up with the story on equusasinus.net.
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