Stella Maris Meals

“St Mary-on-the-Quay is central to the history of the Catholic Church in Bristol.” Mervyn Alexander, Bishop of Clifton 1974-2001 (✝2010)

Fr Michael Cleary moved into St Mary’s presbytery on the feast of the Triumph of the Cross, 14 September 2004. Ably assisted by Frs Nico and Anil, he thus became the first SVD (Divine Word missionary) incumbent priest. SMQ is usually understood to enjoy the special protection of Our Lady’s Immaculate Conception. However, before his untimely passing in October 2008, Fr Michael told me his firm conviction that the true dedication is to Our Lady, Star of the Sea. Of course, ‘on-the-Quay’ was an accurate qualifier when the church was consecrated in 1843, though the docks were covered over in the 1890s. And he went on to explain that Bristol itself is under the patronage of Stella Maris (‘Star of the Sea’ in Latin). The same title of Our Lady is also likely to have been the original dedication of St Mary Redcliffe: described as “the fairest, goodliest, and most famous parish church in England” by Elizabeth I on her visit to Bristol in 1574.

In 1992, at Craig Lodge, Dalmally, salmon farmer Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow founded an aid agency, Scottish International Relief (SIR), in his Dad’s slightly wonky all-purpose shed. On the face of it you wouldn’t expect a Stella Maris tie-in here. She’s the patron saint for instance of the Netherlands, associated with seafaring and maritime communications. Located twenty miles or more from the nearest jellyfish-infested waters, it hardly seems worth floating the idea that Dalmally is a beachfront holiday resort. Even so, one could mention that the beautiful wider region, Argyll, has a name said to derive from Old Gaelic Airer Goídel, meaning ‘Coast of the Gaels’. Might a Star of the Sea connection be worth taking on board after all?

In the cold light of day it’s more likely pie in the sky. The relevant passage is in Chapter 6 of The Shed That Fed 2 Million Children, Magnus’s bestselling page-turner which he updated last year. Englishman Tony Smith came up with the name Mary’s Meals in 2002, while living in landlocked Malawi. His inspiration was a television interview with onetime US presidential candidate George McGovern. Bemoaning the lack of idealism in US politics, the former Senator from South Dakota extolled the virtues of providing nutritious meals every school day in the world’s poorest communities. The evidence showed three important effects in every one of thirty pilot programmes in different countries. Enrolment almost doubled; academic and general health standards rose sharply; and girls were able to benefit. This last outcome is crucial, not least because educated girls almost invariably marry later and go on to have roughly half or less than half the number of children (on average 2.9 per mother, as opposed to 6). As McGovern put it:

“Nutrition is not only the handmaiden of education, in that it gets children into school and enables them to learn when they get there. It’s also the handmaiden of a responsible birth-rate”.

Still, SMQ wouldn’t be the only example of an obscure or disguised dedication to Stella Maris. In the 2000s there was a centre in downtown St Petersburg, Russia, providing food, medical care and basic education to homeless and underprivileged children. Its name, ‘Morskaya Zvezda’, translates literally into Russian as Sea Star – ‘starfish’. But the Marian connotation wasn’t lost on staff and administrators, many of whom were Byzantine-rite Catholics from Ukraine or RCs from western countries. And when the author of this article was in the famous Shed at Craig Lodge in May 2013, about to embark on a largely overland (and walking) pilgrimage to Malawi, there was a measure of providence in the fact that Magnus told me to visit Liberia.

Like neighbouring Sierra Leone, Liberia was founded in the nineteenth century as a homeland for freed slaves. It falls into the challenging subset of relatively young countries which also happen to be among the world’s poorest. SIR/Mary’s Meals has been active there since the years of devastating civil war in the 1990s, and has made an incalculable contribution since the fighting ended in 2003. I was powerfully struck by the contrast between the calm and confident demeanour of folks in villages benefitting from Mary’s Meals, and the often woebegone ambience of communities it hadn’t reached.

Another notable thing about Liberia though, is its lack of a clearly stated patron saint. True, various possibilities have been suggested, including Jane Rose Roberts, who served as First Lady twice in the mid-1800s. Born in Petersburg Virginia and brought to Liberia in 1824, Mrs Roberts worked hard to improve the lot of the poor and reconcile different tribes. Yet in the absence of any swift progress towards her beatification, the Star-Spangled Banner she may have helped design surely offers the best clue as to who Liberians should turn to in their hour of need. Monrovia, the capital, has a shipping registry containing more vessels than anywhere else in the world except Panama. I began the modified ‘flag of convenience’ below in the Monrovian suburb of Virginia on the feast of St Nicholas (patron saint of seafarers), 06 December 2013. Since my as yet unfinished account of the pilgrimage as a whole has a tongue-in-cheek Indiana Jones theme, the Liberia chapter is projected to be called ‘The Template of Doom’.

“Look at the Star, call upon Mary … With her as your guide, you shall not go astray; while invoking her, you shall never lose heart … if she walks before you, you shall not grow weary; if she shows you favour, you shall reach the goal.” St Bernard of Clairvaux

Until 31 January 2023, all donations to Mary’s Meals will be doubled by a group of generous supporters, up to £1.5 million. It is hoped this will enable the charity to overcome difficulties caused by conflict and increased food insecurity.