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Although known for his debauchery and Homeric lifestyle, Babe Ruth reconciled with the Catholic faith and exhibited a charitable heart toward children.

George Herman “Babe” Ruth went by many nicknames and titles during his lifetime, but “Saint” was not one of them.

One of the most popular sports figures in history, the Babe displayed extravagance both on and off the baseball diamond. In 1925, he nearly died from a stomach illness—dubbed “The Bellyache Heard ’Round the World”—that some reports blamed on an exorbitant amount of soda and hot dogs. More likely, it was a disease he had contracted through adulterous affairs while married to Helen Woodford Ruth, which led to their eventual separation.

However, the arc of the Great Bambino’s life mirrors that of many sinners who, by God’s mercy and the example of others, overcome periods of moral decadence and dissipation.

Despite his moral failings, Ruth was a charitable man in a time when “such a phenomenon was not nearly as prevalent” for “prominent rich people,” argues Ray Cavanaugh in the National Catholic Reporter. Meanwhile, the Catholic education he received from the Xaverian Brothers in his youth never left him. Toward the end of his life, the Babe reflected on his shortcomings, sought reconciliation, and more fully embraced the Catholic faith.

“As far as I’m concerned, and I think as far as most kids go, once religion sinks in, it stays there—deep down,” he wrote in a letter to Guideposts that the magazine received the day he died (Aug. 16, 1948). “The lads who get religious training, get it where it counts—in the roots. They may fail it, but it never fails them.”

But Ruth’s life began harshly. “Looking back to my youth, I honestly don’t think I knew the difference between right and wrong,” he wrote in Guideposts. “I spent much of my early boyhood living over my father’s saloon, in Baltimore—and when I wasn’t living over it, I was in it, soaking up the atmosphere. I hardly knew my parents.”

He was a delinquent—roaming the streets, skipping school, and drinking alcohol at a young age. At seven years old, Ruth was admitted as “incorrigible” to the St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys, a reformatory and orphanage run by the Xaverian Brothers. While Ruth resented most authority figures during his youth, the one figure he admired for his athleticism and religious piety was Brother Matthias (Martin Leo Boutlier), a 6-foot-6-inch, 250-pound man.

Brother Matthias introduced Ruth to baseball and trained him in the game, recognizing a natural talent in the boy. The Bambino never forgot the first time he saw the brother hit a ball, which sailed nearly 350 feet, a “tremendous knock in those days.” Ruth recalled in Guideposts, “He used to back me in a corner of the big yard at St. Mary’s and bunt a ball to me by the hour, correcting the mistakes I made with my hands and feet.”

The Hall of Famer added, “Thanks to Brother Matthias, I was able to leave St. Mary’s in 1914 and begin my professional career with the famous Baltimore Orioles.”

At the same time, Brother Matthias’s faith also left a lasting impression on Ruth, who recalled, “He could have been successful at anything he wanted to in life—and he chose the Church.”

While Ruth confessed to straying from the Church after beginning his professional career, he never forgot the religious training he received from Brother Matthias. He “just overlooked it.” According to a 1931 Saturday Evening Post article titled “And Along Came Ruth,” the Babe was “to this day, downright afraid to risk offending Brother Matthias.”

Likewise, an article from the late 1920s titled “30,000 Guineas a Year. World’s Top-Pay Athlete” suggested that “Perhaps the only trait [Ruth] retains from the days of nonage in the Catholic orphanage is his faith—he is said to be deeply religious.”

Though Ruth dealt with demons in his personal life—which were numerous, but not widely reported on by the media at the time—he still yearned to be close to God, praying “often and hard,” as he wrote in Guideposts.

“While I drifted away from the Church, I did have my own ‘altar,’ a big window of my New York apartment overlooking the city lights,” he said. “Often I would kneel before that window and say my prayers. I would feel quite humble then. I’d ask God to help me not make such a big fool of myself and pray that I’d measure up to what He expected of me.”

On the field, Ruth measured up to, and then surpassed, the baseball greats who preceded him. He enjoyed tremendous success, especially during his time with the New York Yankees. His batting skills culminated in 1927 when he hit 60 home runs in a single season, a record that held until 1961. He retired with the Boston Braves in 1935 at the age of 40 with otherworldly career statistics—714 home runs; a WAR (wins above replacement) of 183.1, which is the best all-time; and records in slugging percentage and OPS (on-base and slugging percentage). Even today, Ruth is regarded as not only one of, but the greatest ballplayer of all time.

But Ruth never forgot his origins, which no doubt fueled his charitable giving. As Cavanaugh summarizes, “He was a star who gave to charity because he wanted to.” In 1919, while a Boston Red Sox player, he joined the Pere Marquette Council 271 of the Knights of Columbus (K of C), which is, today, the largest Catholic fraternal organization, with more than two million members.

Ruth was an active Knight. In 1921, Cardinal James Gibbons of Baltimore called on the K of C to restore St. Mary’s Industrial School, which had been destroyed by a fire. The K of C recognized Babe Ruth’s spiritual home, and its restoration, as one of “national importance,” according to Columbiad, the K of C’s magazine before it transitioned to Columbia. As part of the effort, Ruth took the St. Mary’s band to major league ballparks to raise money.

His most consistent collaboration with the K of C came after the major league season ended, when they conducted barnstorming tours across the United States and even into Canada. With the help of local K of C councils and his agent Christy Walsh (who was also a Knight), Ruth brought major league ballplayers to cities and towns that had no professional ball club, all the while participating in exhibition games that supported charitable causes. For instance, the Knights underwrote a game in Los Angeles on Oct. 27, 1924, raising money for their charitable fund. On Oct. 22, 1927, an exhibition game in Stockton, Calif., benefited a K of C Christmas charity fund.

Ruth was truly concerned about children’s temporal health, often visiting orphanages and hospitals throughout his life. In one famous anecdote, Ruth promised to hit a home run for Johnny Sylvester, a sick boy from New Jersey, in the 1926 World Series—a promise that he fulfilled. Nearly 20 years later, in May 1947, the Sultan of Swat established the ‘Babe Ruth Foundation’ to “aid underprivileged youth,” which willed 10 percent of his estate to fund charitable causes.

Yet the Great Bambino was equally adamant about tending to children’s spiritual well-being. In his last days, Ruth wanted to impart to kids not just lessons on how to swing a bat but also the wisdom he learned from Brother Matthias during his youth. As he put it, “God had an eye out for me, just as He has for you, and He was pulling for me to make the grade.” He also believed in giving children “the works” in religious education, saying the education he received allowed him to realize that in all of us is a “solid little chapel.”

“It may get dusty from neglect, but the time will come when the door will be opened with much relief,” he wrote in Guideposts. “But the kids can’t take it, if we don’t give it to them.”

Although commitment to the faith and the Church’s teachings were struggles for Ruth, he eventually made a full confession (or reconciliation) before having surgery to treat nasopharyngeal cancer in 1946, to which he succumbed nearly two years later.

Ruth’s return to the faith gives us all hope that God never abandons us, even if at times we may abandon him. As the Bambino affirmed at the end of his life, “God was Boss” through it all.


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