1916-1990
Brother Mathias Barrett
Born in a modest cottage in Waterford, Ireland on March 15, 1900 to Margaret and Tom Barrett, Brother Mathias was christened Maurice Patrick Barrett. He died in Albuquerque, New Mexico on August 12, 1990 as founder of a religious community of brothers, and known to thousands as simply “Brother Mathias.”
At fourteen years of age, he returned home from school one day and announced to his mother that he intended to join a community of brothers. Following a series of delays and compromises, prompted by his mother, Maurice, finally boarded a Dublin-bound train on March 17, 1916 and began a journey that would take him to France, Canada, Ireland and the United States.
At age sixteen, Mathias joined the order of the Brothers of John of God. In 1920, he left Ireland bound for the novitiate in Lyons, France and professed his vows on November 21, 1921.
Bound by the vow of obedience, he accepted a transfer to Montréal, Quebec, and on April 14, 1927 sailed into Halifax, Nova Scotia with companion brothers Laurent and Hilary. In 1934, he was appointed provincial superior of the newly established province of the John of God Brothers, and in fourteen short but eventful years he helped establish five institutions: a refuge serving the needs of 200 men; a hospital with 500 beds; a soup kitchen; a home for epileptics; and a convalescent home for seventy-five patients.
Another train trip in 1941 took him to California. He arrived in Los Angeles clothed in a threadbare black clerical suit and shod in an old, oversized pair of shoes with “loose soles that flapped,” carrying only a small cardboard suitcase. True to form, he spent the next nine years establishing hospitals, nursing homes and night shelters in and around Boston and Los Angeles.
The circumstances of his life allowed him to experience alienations, misunderstanding and rejection. He knew the agony of failure as well as the joy of success. Strengthened by his vow of hospitality, he responded to the various human needs of the poor and suffering with total energy and abandon, thereby frustrating the sensibilities of some of his more conservative confreres, friends and benefactors. His sometimes spontaneous response to an obvious human need was unnerving and unsettling. Confusion and misunderstanding eventually led to his dispensation in September of 1950 severing his ties to the Hospitaller community.
Deeply hurt, he amazingly remained open to the mysterious will of God. His simple, Irish faith remained strong and unflappable, secure in the knowledge that somehow, somewhere, he could still be of service. Despite the pain of recent misunderstanding and separation, he was still willing to be used, even abused by friend and foe alike, but only for the sake of the God whom he loved so simply and so humbly and the poor and needy whom he served so willingly.
The Gospel qualities of availability, hospitality, flexibility, adaptability and respect for life so well incarnated in the personhood of this little, stubborn, white haired Irishman were about to find practical an positive expression through the mission and ministry of an “as yet to be founded” religious community of brothers.
The Little Brothers of the Good Shepherd was founded by Brother Mathias Barrett in 1951, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Shelters, homes and apartments for the homeless poor, especially the transient, the elderly, the mentally challenged, as well as abused women with children, persons with AIDS, and troubled teens followed. Soon, Mathias’s brothers had spread beyond New Mexico, and the Little Brothers of the Good Shepherd could be found in Canada, England, Ireland and Haiti – all because Mathias Barrett was willing to love and to risk.
Brother Mathias expanded his ministry in Hamilton in 1961 at the request of Bishop Ryan in 1961. Good Shepherd Centres began has a small hostel for destitute and homeless men. Today, thanks to the perseverance of the Brothers and the generosity of the community, Good Shepherd Centres is the leading provider of human services to vulnerable men, women and children in Hamilton.
In 2000, Mathias Place, was opened and dedicated to Brother Mathias at 369 Main West in Hamilton with 28 supportive housing units. In April 2007, a second 10 bed program was opened on Emerald Street South and dedicated to Brother Mathias as The Barrett Centre for Crisis Support.
In life, Brother Mathias knew both joy and suffering, success and failure, acceptance and rejection, understanding and confusion, much like many of our clients, but never did he regret that fateful train journey from Waterford station to Dublin city and to the Little Brothers of the Good Shepherd.
Today his vision and his spirit still manages to attract and excite people to a life of service as brothers and companions, volunteers, staff, friends and benefactors. The Hamilton community, as well as other communities around the world in which his ministry has expanded, continue to benefit from the inspiration and hope that could only have been possible through the charism and vision of Brother Mathias Barrett.