Brother Cyril obituary

My dear friend Brother Cyril, who has died aged 88, was a loyal member for 62 years of the Congregation of the Brothers of St Francis Xavier and devoted his working life to education and to the Catholic church in Manchester.

Raised and educated in north Manchester, he was christened Donald, and took the religious name of Cyril on entering the order in 1943: this was partly in honour of his father, Cyril Birtles, but was also inspired by Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, a fourth-century theologian who wrote of the loving and forgiving nature of God, a principle by which Brother Cyril lived his life.