A Death in Baltimore

Thomas Mann’s 1912 novella, A Death in Venice, warns us: "He who has looked upon beauty is already marked out for death." A bit of exaggeration, perhaps, but the idea just might hold some truth for men and women who set their sights on loftier things than the rest of us.

Last week I attended the moving memorial service in Baltimore for one of my school chums, Matthew Daniel. We had studied together for the Catholic priesthood, but both of us changed course – I after six years in the seminary, he just weeks away from final ordination.

Like many men with advanced degrees in philosophy and theology, his learning wasn’t easy to apply to the secular marketplace, and he therefore gravitated to teaching. He did it well, of course. One of his students said of him: 

He understood the life of a cadet at Charlotte Hall Military Academy. I learned more in his English class than any other due to his teaching ability . . .  a gentleman and true scholar. 

Mathew Daniel also did some writing. One of his short stories was read at the memorial service, a narrative that demonstrated both his sense of humor and his spirituality. An accomplished violinist, Mathew Daniel was also sensitive enough and caring enough to once lie on the floor next to his pet cat to sooth it as it breathed its last.

I was prompted to write about my friend because this Wednesday marks the death in Baltimore of another man whose gaze was set on the transcendent, Edgar Allan Poe. He died on October 7, 1849, at the age of 40. 

You know Poe well. He’s one of the most famous figures in American literature, celebrated for pioneering poetry like "The Raven" and a raft of macabre short stories like “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Fall of the House of Usher.”

I’m writing about these two men not only because they both died in Baltimore, but also because they both shared a singular vision that set them apart. That vision was given voice in a poem by Poe titled “Alone.” 

From childhood’s hour I have not been 

As others were—I have not seen

As others saw—

At Mathew Daniel’s memorial service, a version of the Lord’s Prayer was prayed that comes to us from the liturgy of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and Polynesia. 

I offer it here, in memory of two men who saw life not as others saw:

Eternal Spirit, Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,

Source of all that is and that shall be,

Father and Mother of us all,

Loving God, in whom is heaven:

The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!

The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of 

the world! Your heavenly will be done by all 

created beings! Your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope and come on earth.

With the bread we need for today, feed us.

In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.

In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.

From trials too great to endure, spare us.

From the grip of all that is evil, free us.

For you reign in the glory of the power that is love, 

now and forever. Amen.