The Happy Prince

Oscar Wilde had two sons, born 1885/1886.
The allegory was published in 1888.
A guess: he wrote it for them.

​In his book, Capistrano Nights, Father St. John O’Sullivan, Pastor of Mission San Juan Capistrano 1910-1933, relates how the swallows first came to call the Mission home.
One day, while walking through town, Fr. O’Sullivan saw a shopkeeper, broomstick in hand, knocking down the conically-shaped mud swallow nests that were under the eaves of his shop. The birds were darting back and forth through the air squealing over the destruction of their homes.
“What in the world are you doing?” Fr. O’Sullivan asked.
“Why, these dirty birds are a nuisance and I am getting rid of them!” the shopkeeper responded.
“But where can they go?”
“I don’t know and I don’t care,” he replied, slashing away with his pole. “But they’ve no business here, destroying my property.”
Fr. O’Sullivan then said, “Come on swallows, I’ll give you shelter. Come to the Mission. There’s room enough there for all.”

One month before my brother Tommy died, the last time I saw him, he said to me, "I had a dream, and in the dream Christ Himself gave me Communion."

I dedicate this reading to all Latin Mass Catholics. I listened several times to understand all the allusions. Keep Oscar, a deathbed Catholic, in your heart.
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