On 31stJuly 2026, the Feast of St Ignatius, a beautiful new wooden altar, crucifix and benches were installed in our Rock Chapel here at St Beuno’s. They were handcrafted by Pete, the husband of Sheila our office manager, and carved from the wood of a very special oak tree that, until fairly recently, had stood in our grounds for almost as long as the house itself.
The so-called Roothaan oak was planted in October 1849 by Father General Jan Roothaan SJ in commemoration of his historic visit to St Beuno’s. The tree was planted just outside of what is now the Capel-y-Coed, from where for more than 170 years its crown was always visible. You can still see its great stump, to the left of the steps up to the rose garden, at the end of the car park.
The long life of this tree – though perhaps short by tree standards – saw the growth and development of this house from a college and theologate for the training of young Jesuit priests, to an infirmary for older Jesuits and centre for formation for Jesuits on Tertianship, to a house of prayer, retreat and the giving of the Spiritual Exercises in more recent decades. It spanned three centuries, two world wars, two Vatican councils, the election of a Jesuit pope, and a global pandemic. Now in a new form, God willing, it will continue to bear witness to much life, change, and prayer in the Rock Chapel.
Visits by the Superior General, the global head of the Jesuits, do not come around very often. In fact, there have been only two in the lifetime of St Beuno’s: that of Roothaan in 1849 and of Fr Arturo Sosa in April 2023. On both occasions a tree was planted, the latter being a ‘dove’ or ‘pocket handkerchief tree’ in our new arboretum. The planting of a tree can be a powerful symbol of hope, of faith in the future and an act of loving collaboration with God in caring for both our common home and for future generations.
Back in 1849, the planting of this oak tree was quite a daring act of faith at a time of great instability and uncertainty. Roothaan himself, a Dutchman who had entered the Society in Russia ten years before the Jesuits were officially restored by the pope in 1814, had been formed during the era of Jesuit suppression in Europe and survived expulsion during the Napoleonic wars only to be exiled again following the wave of Revolutions that convulsed Europe in1848. He had been forced to flee Rome in disguise, as had pope Pius IX, and would spend nearly three years abroad before the collapse of the Roman Republic allowed him to return. He had turned this exile into an opportunity and became the first General to visit many of the Jesuit provinces elsewhere in Europe, including England & Wales.
To many Jesuits at the time, the ‘year of revolutions’ in 1848-9 looked like another 1773: the year when their enemies had prevailed and the pope had abolished the Society. Would the Jesuits survive this time around? Would the papacy? A climate of fear and distrust of new movements in wider society grew in the Church in the face of such apparently existential threats, as one recent historian has noted (Markus Friedrich, The Jesuits: A History (Princeton& Oxford, 2023), pp. 639-40).
It was a turbulent time of change for many, politically and economically, as Europe suffered from the effects of several poor harvests, a devastating potato blight and famine, and grappled with the social consequences of early industrialisation and rapid urbanisation. The world as they knew it was ceasing to exist and the new was struggling to be born. There were no guarantees that the institutions, ideas, and way of life with which they were familiar would survive.
Perhaps this might feel vaguely familiar. Where do we place our hope in our own turbulent times, as we live through arguably an even more uncertain ‘change of era’ in the face of AI, global political instability and ecological crisis? Do we dare to plant trees, ‘in whose shade we will never sit’, not knowing if they will be tended or enjoyed by future generations? What message might the Roothaan oak have for us today? One response might be found, perhaps, in the Rock Chapel at St Beuno’s.