Ten Ten Theatre director pays tribute to Canon Digby Samuels

Ten Ten Theatre Martin O'Brien writes in his First Monday email: With a heavy heart, I'm sorry to share the news that Fr Digby Samuels sadly passed away on 17th March. He was a great personal friend and long-time supporter of Ten Ten... Although his involvement in Ten Ten was a tiny fraction of his life, to us the impact of his support was immense and so I'd like to share a little bit about that here.

I first met Digby in 2004 when I was at the very start of producing Church-related theatre productions. I was looking for rehearsal space and somebody told me about this parish priest in Wapping who had the keys to an unused school building next to his Church. So I phoned him and Digby was at once encouraging and supportive. He invited me down to show me the space and, indeed, he did have an empty school which he had now converted into an unofficial home of Christian artists. At a time when I had deep reservations about whether creating drama of this nature was the right thing to do, being part of a small, Catholic creative hub enabled by Digby was precisely the kind of encouragement I needed.

We rehearsed many productions in that space for a number years and it was always a privilege to be around Digby, in his presence. Often he would see me or members of our team in the street outside and ask how it was going. When we told him the latest developments, he would punch the air with his fist and say "Great! Great!" Then he would say, "Let me give you a blessing," and in the wide open street he would raise his hands over our heads and bless us. Whether the team members were Christian or not, this did not feel strange or uncomfortable because he was a man of prayer and there was something very holy about Digby. This is the word I have heard people use to describe him most often: holy.

When Digby moved to St Anne's Care Home as chaplain, every year he invited our touring team in to present a play to the residents as part of his annual Christmas retreat, and we usually presented a play called "Healthy Heart" about the relationship between a 10-year-old girl and her grandfather/mother, or a play "Called Up" about evacuation in World War Two. Clare and I always tried to schedule the visit for the very end of a long six-month or nine-month tour because we knew that this was a special experience for our teams and it would leave them on a high and hopefully with good memories! Time and time and time again, our actors would animatedly talk about how 'lovely', 'holy' and 'saintly' Digby was. He engaged our actors precisely where they were at, encouraged them and blessed them. I'm sure that many of actors who read this email will remember those experiences with great fondness.

Clare and I probably spent more time with Digby over the past 12 months than ever before. Aware of his failing health, and his frustration at the limitations this put on his ministry, we asked him if we would be interested in writing our parent newsletters, which have a potential circulation of about 45,000 families through schools and our own mailing list. I'm not sure if Digby was ever entirely happy writing the newsletters - it wasn't the ministry he wanted to do - but he prayed deeply about them and always produced beautiful pieces of writing. Again, his empathetic ability to meet people where they were at, even people he had never met, was seeped in his writing, and I know from feedback we received how much this was appreciated.

However, having Digby 'on board' in this way also gave Clare and I an opportunity (or maybe I should say 'an excuse') to spend time with him, because spending time with Digby was like going on a mini-retreat. We often enjoyed 'meetings' with him at St Anne's Care Home, or going for lunch at his local Italian in Stoke Newington, or giving him a lift to St Bart's for his hospital appointments. Despite his poor health, lack of breath and painfully thin skeleton frame, he would always want to know how things were going with Ten Ten, and when we told him, he would again punch the air with his fist and say "Great! Great!" and give us a blessing before we said goodbye. He called me from his hospital bed a few short weeks ago to say that he wouldn't be able to write any more newsletters - a responsibility that he was no doubt relieved to relinquish! - and then, just a few days before he passed away, we spoke again on the phone and he was discussing our next lunch. Sadly, it was not to be.

His funeral was held at Westminster Cathedral last Monday 26 March, celebrated by Cardinal Vincent Nichols. In the obituary, Monsignor Martin Hayes said, "Very soon after the sad news of the death, on March 17, of Canon Digby Samuels was sent to the priests and parishes across the Diocese a response was received from a priest: 'The Diocese has lost a saint'. Canon Digby will be remembered with gratitude by many priests, religious and lay people for helping them to grow in holiness, in sanctity."

We thank God for Digby and for the many blessings he gave to us and our teams over the years.