Father Cornelius Murphy was the lone Capuchin missionary priest of Luta (Rota).
In 1967, Luta had less than 1000 people. Very few residents were not native-born, and Father Cornelius was one of the few Caucasians living there. He was also the one and only Catholic priest, at a time when virtually all the islanders were Catholic.
Being a priest, Father Cornelius prayed his breviary at least twice a day, in the morning and in the evening. The breviary is a prayer book made up largely of psalms.
Father Cornelius decided to pray his breviary one day while walking outside on the grass.
So focused was he praying from the book, "attente et devote," as they say in Latin (attentively and devoutly) that he did not notice the rush of feet coming up behind him. A bull had gotten loose and started charging at the priest.
Right when Father Cornelius bowed his head at the Gloria Patri (Glory Be), the bull smacked Father's behind, and now Father Cornelius was flying in the air, closer to heaven.
Fortunately, the only thing injured was Father Cornelius' priestly dignity. He lived to tell the tale by way of Ham Radio, which the missionaries on the different islands used in those days when telephone service was unreliable.
Father Sylvan, listening to the story on Saipan, let his pipe fall from his mouth and said into his microphone, "Repeat, please, repeat....hahaha."
Another missionary, Father Emery, had a hard time deciding which headline to use when he wrote a little article about this incident :
FRIAR HAS BULL SESSION
BULL HAS LOW OPINION OF FRIAR
PRAYING FRIAR FALLS FOR BULL
BULL'S EYE ON FRIAR
FRIAR GETS RISE FROM BULL
LUTA
LUTA
