Little St Hugh, and Our Lady’s Special Song
told for children by Joan Windham

Once upon a time there lived a little boy called Hugh, and he was six years old. He lived in a house alone with his Mother, because his Father had died such a long time ago that Hugh could not remember him, even though he could remember when he was two.

Well, at that time the Christians and the Un-Christians lived in different parts of the Town. They even had their own special shops and hotels. But a funny thing was that the Christians’ School was right in the middle of the Un-Christian half of the Town. So, when the Christian children went to School they had to go through the Un-Christians’ half, and no one liked that very much, but it couldn’t be helped.

Hugh, although he was only six, used to go to School and back by himself because his Mother was very poor and couldn’t take him because she had a lot of work to do. She used to give him some sandwiches for his dinner and sometimes an apple or a banana as well, done up in a parcel which he carried in his satchel. She always wanted him to put the parcel in last so that it would not get squashed with the books, but Hugh often forgot and put it in first. Usually he had beef sandwiches and honey sandwiches, but on Fridays he had egg ones because, although he did not hate fish, he liked egg much better.

At school, before they came home, the children used to have Compline, exactly like we do on Sundays (only, as they didn’t go to school on Sundays, they had it on weekdays), and at the end the Bigger Boys used to sing a Latin hymn called Alma Redemptoris Mater, which means “Kind Mother of our Redeemer.” (Redeemer is another name for Our Lord.) Hugh had not got up to doing Latin yet, only the Bigger Boys did it, so he did not know what it meant, but he loved the tune and he used to hum it on the way home. Soon he began to know the words because they sang them so often at school, and so he sang them too, and hummed the part he didn’t know. One day he asked an Older Boy called Clement, who used to walk home with him sometimes, what the words meant, and Clement, who lived near Hugh’s house, told him that they were about Our Lady.

“Is it all about Our Lady?” asked Hugh.

“Yes,” said Clement, “it’s all about her being God’s Mother and how she helps us when we can’t do things ourselves.”

Hugh was very pleased about this because when he was happy he always wanted to sing very loud, and he did not know any songs about Our Lady. He specially wanted to sing about her when he was going to and from school because he always asked her not to let him get Run Over at the Crossings, and she never did. So Clement taught him the song called Alma Redemptoris Mater, and Hugh sang it all the way to school and all the way back again, every day, just as loud as he could.

Now the Un-Christians used to hear him singing when he was going through their part of the Town and they disliked it because they thought that Our Lady wasn’t a bit Special and that she couldn’t help anyone, and anyway Hugh was a Christian and they disliked Christians. So one day, when Hugh was on his way to school and was going along a very Dark and Narrow Street with bumpy cobblestones all over it, some of the Un-Christians came out and told him to “Stop singing that silly song because they didn’t like it in their part of the Town.” But Hugh Knew that Our Lady was very Special, so he said:

“No, I won’t stop singing, because it is not a silly song at all but a song about Our Lady-who-doesn’t-let-me-get-run-over-at-crossings, didn’t you hear the words? Besides, she likes me singing that song.”

This was very brave of Hugh because the Un-Christians were all Grown-up and he was Only Six, but just before he had answered the Un-Christians he had said to Our Lady:

“Won’t you please tell me something to say, quick, so that I needn’t stop singing your song?” And so she did.

Next morning when Hugh came past singing his song, the Un-Christians did a horrible thing. They caught Hugh when he was Walking along the Dark and Narrow Street and Killed him in the Throat and put him in a deep hole behind their houses!

When he didn’t turn up at school that day no one minded because they thought perhaps he had got a cold and was Staying in Bed for Breakfast. And when he was late coming home for Tea his Mother didn’t mind either, because she thought that he must have gone to have tea with Clement like he often did. So it wasn’t till he was late for supper too that she began to wonder Where he Was. So she got supper all ready, and set Hugh’s place at the table with his back to the fire in case he was cold coming in late. Then she put on her outdoor things and went to Clement’s house to see Clement’s Mother about it.

“Is Hugh staying to supper with you as well as tea?” she asked. “Because it is getting late and it is nearly his bedtime.”

“But I haven’t seen Hugh all day,” said Clement’s Mother. “Clement said he thought he must be Staying in Bed for Breakfast as he did not see him at school.”

“But he did go to school,” said Hugh’s Mother. “I know he did because I remember that he forgot again and put his books on top of his sandwiches. I do wish he would not do that, it makes them all squashy.”

“What a very Extraordinary Thing! I think we had better go out and look for him,” said Clement’s Mother. “Perhaps he has been Run Over at one of those nasty Crossings.”

“I don’t expect so,” said Hugh’s Mother, “Because he always asks Our Lady not to let him be, and she never does.”

Anyway, they went out and they looked everywhere and they couldn’t find him. At last they asked some of the Un-Christians, but the Un-Christians were very frightened because they had killed Hugh, and so they said:

“No, we haven’t seen him since he came past this morning, singing that silly song of his. Perhaps he has been Kept In at School.”

So Hugh’s Mother said to Our Lady:

“Do you know where Hugh is? Because if you do, would you mind telling me, because I’m getting rather bothered, it is so late? I thought you might know because he sings your Special Song and you don’t let him get Run Over at Crossings.”

Our Lady did not say anything, but just then Hugh’s Mother heard him singing Alma Redemptoris Mater quite close by. She looked about and found him in the deep hole behind the Un-Christians’ houses and singing away like anything. She and Clement’s Mother got him out, but they were very surprised that he kept on singing when he was killed, but they were very glad he did or they would never have found him.

When people heard that Hugh was still singing his song after he was dead they were very excited and everybody wanted to see. The Christians were very pleased that God had made Hugh do such a Surprising Thing, but the Un-Christians were very angry because they had been Found Out and would be put in Prison.

Then they took Hugh to the church and the next morning the priest said Mass for him before he was buried, like we always do to people when they die or are killed. But as soon as Mass was finished Hugh began singing again in the church! So the priest came and said to him:

“Hugh, why are you singing when you have been killed? Or aren’t you dead at all?”

Then Hugh stopped singing and said:

“Yes, Father, I am dead, but God is letting me sing so that everybody will know how Special Our Lady is. She was always my Special Person because she looked after me on the way to school, and when the Un-Christians Killed me in the Throat and put me in a hole, of course my Mother could not find me. So Our Lady came to me and said, ‘Sing my Special Song so that your Mother can find you, she has just asked me where you are. And then the Un-Christians will know that I really do look after you.’ And then she put a grain of rice under my tongue so that I could sing when I was dead, and when a priest takes it out again she will come back and take me to Heaven with her.”

So the priest took the grain from under Hugh’s tongue, and he stopped singing, and as soon as he had stopped Our Lady came for him and he went away to Heaven with her, and she looked after his Mother until it was time for her to go to Heaven too.

St Hugh’s Special Day is on the 18th of August, nice and near one of Our Lady’s Special Days. †