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Born: 31 December 1816, Ardee, County Louth
Entered: 30 April 1856, Clongowes Wood College SJ, Naas, County Kildare
Final Vows: 15 August 1866
Died: 26 November 1901, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly

1901 Census inicates born in Meath.

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
According to himself, a sermon by the famous Dr Cahill was the occasion of his deciding to enter Religion. The key statement by Dr Cahill was “Woe to him who is alone”!

Note from Daniel Scully Entry :
He had a very long illness, and was carefully nursed by his old friend Brother George Sillery, who told many amusing stories about him.

His Noviceship was spent first at Clongowes and then at Tullabeg.
1861 He was sent to Belvedere, and was there for 38 years.
1900 He was sent to Tullabeg, and he died there 26 November 1901

His simple homely ways, his unaffected gentleness and piety made him a favourite of everyone. Nothing seemed to affect his mood and temper, even in very trying times. His standard response to anything was a calm “Aye”!
He had a long and fairly uneventful life. He was always either in the Chapel, at Prayer or at Work. At the same time, he was not an austere ascetic, he had a great sense of humour and love a joke. He loved to tell amusing stories from his life, and also quote some of the rhymes he had stored up calling it a “Bit of poethry”!
In his later years he began to dote a bit, and there are a legion of stories on his exploits, one of which included his rousing the Community for prayer in the small hours of the night. The Rector woke one night at 2am to find him standing by his bed, swinging a piece of burning rope around his head and telling him it was time to get up! It was said that on more than one occasion he all but set the house on fire! he had a great affinity for matches, a large quantity of which he kept in his room, and he would journey through the house at midday lighting any gas jet he could find. In the end his memory failed him completely. Often when he had recently completed a meal, he would turn up in the refectory asking what time the meal would begin. Famously, at one domestic exhortation which went on a bit long, he suddenly threw up his hands and spoke in a fairly loud voice “Blessed Mother of God, will he ever stop”! These and many other similar stories made his name a household one, especially in the Novitiate, where he died 26 November 1901.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Brother George Sillery 1816-1901
Br George Sillery was born on December 31st 1916 and entered the Society in 1858. According to himself, the cause of his vocation was a sermon he heard preached by the famous Dr Cahill in Dublin. His text was “Woe to him that is alone”. The preacher dwelt with such persuasive eloquence on the evils of a solitary life, that Br George resolved to seek in religious life a remedy for the loneliness and spiritless derelictions of this world. His noviceship was spent at Clongowes and Tullabeg, after which he came to Belvedere in 1861. In 1900 he was transferred to Tullabeg and he remained there until his death.

His life was long and uneventful. It flowed on its unvarying round of prayers and work till he reached the patriarchal age of 85. In the latter years of his old age he began to dote, and he lost all sense of time. Just when the Litanies were ending in the evening he was often heard asking when they wold begin. Once, when a domestic exhortation lasted rather long, old Br George, sublimely oblivious of his surroundings, suddenly threw up his hands and said in a fairly loud voice “Blessed Mother of God, will he ever stop”. These and a thousand other anecdotes made his name a household word among the novices in the Novitiate, where he died on November 26th 1901.

Born: 10 April 1914, Wimbledon, Surrey, England / Derry, County Derry
Entered: 07 September 1932, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1944, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1950, Chiesa de Gesù, Rome, Italy
Died: 08 August 1988, St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin

Part of the Milltown Park, Dublin community at the time of death

Early education at Clongowes Wood College SJ

by 1939 in Vals France (LUGD) studying
by 1947 at Heythrop, Oxfordshire (ANG) studying
by 1948 at Rome Italy (ROM) - studying

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 21st Year No 4 1946

England :
On September 26th Fr. Simpson went to Heythrop to do special studies in Sacred Scripture.

Irish Province News 63rd Year No 4 1988 (Final Edition)

Obituary

Fr Patrick Simpson (1914-1932-1988)

10th April 1914: born in Wimbledon, England. Schooled at Dominican convent-school, Wicklow, and 1927-32 in Clongowes, his home then being in Derry.
7th September 1932: entered SJ. 1932 4 Emo, noviciate. 1934-38 Rathfarnham, juniorate (at UCD, Latin and Greek to MA). 1938-41 philosophy: 1938-39 at Vals, France; 1939-41 at Tullabeg. 1941-45 Milltown, theology (31st July 1944: ordained a priest). 1945-46 Rathfarnham, tertianship. 1946-47 Heythrop College, Oxfordshire, England: private study of Scripture. 1947-50 Biblical Institute, Rome: study.
1950-88 Milltown, professor of Scripture (1950-60: Parat se ad exam. laur.). 1983-88 Ecclesiastical Assistant to Christian Life Communities (CLC). 8th August 1988: died in St Vincent's hospital, Dublin

It is difficult to write competently or fairly of anyone, even of those with whom we have lived for a long time in close contact. Our perceptions, even of ourselves can be so superficial. Only God can write our biography or autobiography (!). So we are shy to write of Paddy Simpson, but we must do what we can.
We can speak confidently of his wide and deep knowledge and of his willingness to share that knowledge. From his earliest days in the Society we have a picture of him holding forth endlessly, whether to one or to many, on a variety of topics, all the while standing tirelessly on the corridor. Coming into the refectory of a morning you would hear his voice. For Paddy there was no such thing as being off colour before breakfast. He could speak, naturally, of his own speciality, scripture, but also of so many subjects, sacred and profane. Again, he could talk of many practical things with technical knowledge, not least the subject of motor bikes.
In his piety he was not demonstrative. The rosary as a method of prayer did not appeal to him. Yet he surprised many by his enthusiasm for the charismatic movement, and he was much in demand among charismatics in Dublin, and attended Jesuit international charismatic conferences on the continent. He also took an active part in the Christian Life Community.
Although essentially an intellectual, he did not suffer from intellectual snobbery, and he took great pleasure, with no trace of condescension, in talking to and also helping ordinary people and admiring their views and insights. He was a ready learner. He appreciated intellectual honesty and could be blunt in speaking of what he regarded as humbug or pretentiousness.
Looking back over his life I cannot recall any pettiness. He accepted "leg pulling" cheerfully. I never saw him in a huff, or even angry. He may have suppressed hard feelings, but one never got the impression of such suppression or any resultant tension. He was patently honest and sincere, and freely acknowledged the worth of others, even when otherwise they did not appeal to him.
I am sure he had his disappointments, one of which, surely, must have been that he never finished his doctoral work in Rome. Despite his brilliance and capacity and quick understanding, he had great difficulty in protracted study, and apparently took no great joy in writing. A retentive memory and an analytical mind helped him greatly in his reading, An undoubtedly disorderly room, but a very orderly mind. It was always noted in community meetings or Milltown Institute meetings that his remarks were always worth heeding, and the result of clear and unprejudiced thought. He bore no ill-will if his views were not accepted. Many will recall too his cogent views on Six-County affairs.
It is well said that Paddy is remembered with affection - the expression used by the members of the Half-Moon swimming club at Ringsend by whom he was always accepted as one of themselves, and whom he greatly helped. He himself was a man of loyalty and affection, not least towards his own family as we saw in his great concern for his brother who suffered long before dying of cancer about five years ago.
Another aspect of him that always amused and caused gentle chaff was his joy in preparing his itineraries, whether at home or abroad - how to avail of all possible short routes, at the least possible cost. It was said, true or not, that he got more joy out of planning a journey than out of the journey itself.
We cannot speak of his spiritual life, but it was noted that he seemed to have not a few who sought his aid and advice, and we may be sure that he was generous in his sharing with others.
It was hard for him to admit that he had had a small stroke, although for a year or two he had been talking of getting old, and indeed he showed signs of it. In the end when speech had failed, one could not be sure of contact, except for one occasion when he gave his beautiful smile. We miss him in Milltown, but thank God for His eternity where all who are missed will be found.

Born: 10 August 1791, County Wexford
Entered: 07 October 1821, Clongowes Wood College SJ, Clane, County Kildare
Died: 20 May 1865, Kolkata, Bengal, India

by 1839 in Calcutta Mission; We have a date of death from somewhere and he disappears from the 1844 Catalogue, having been in up to 1841

Born: 07 July 1843, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 07 September 1861, Milltown Park
Died: 20 May 1865, TSt Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly

by 1864 at Roehampton London (ANG) studying

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Early education was at Belvedere and Clongowes.

After First Vows he was sent to Roehampton for studies. However, at the end of the year he was recalled to Tullabeg as a Prefect. he spent about eight months in this task when he caught a fever. Nobody, including the doctor doubted his recovery. He, however perhaps knew better, and in order to prepare asked the Rector to hear his Confession. His decline was very quick. He is buried in the old Rahan Cemetery.

Born: 1683, County Galway
Entered: 1699, Goa, India - Goana Province (GOA)
Ordained: 1708,
Final Vows: 1717
Died: 02 December 1721, Mysuru, Karnataka, India - Goana Province (GOA)

◆ Fr John MacErlean SJ :
1708-1711 After finished studies and ordination he taught at Daman College, Daman and Diu, India for a few years.
1711 Then sent as a missioner to Mysore (Mysuru), Karnataka, India where he died 10 years later

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Francis Skerret 1683-1721
Fr Francis Skerret was born in Galway in 1683 and entered the Society at Goa in India in 1699.

After his studies he was ordained in 1908, and taught for a few years at the College of Daman. He was then sent as a missioner to Mysore, where he died in 1721 after two years evangelising the Indians.

Born: 27 December 1808, Portarlington, County Laois
Entered: 16 March 1844, Frederick, MD, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Ordained: 1850
Died: 02 April 1852, Holy Cross College, Worcester, MA, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)

Born: 25 April 1858, Drogheda, County Louth
Entered: 05 September 1877, St Charles College, Grand Coteau, LA, USA - Lugdunensis Province (LUGD)
Ordained: 1891, St Aloysius, Jersey
Final Vows: 02 February 1897
Died: 03 December 1921, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA - Neo-Aurelianensis Province (NOR)

Born: 14 July 1611, Cork City, County Cork
Entered: 30 September 1641, St Andrea, Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)
Ordained: 30 June 1641, Rome, Italy - pre Entry
Died: 07 December 1642, Naples, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)

Alias Percy

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Slingsby alias Percy
Son of Sir Francis Slingsby (cf Dominic Collins : Captain Slingsby) and Elizabeth née Cuffe (daughter of Hugh Cuffe, of Cuffe Hall, Somerset). Sir Francis’ mother was Lady Mary Percy, the only sister of Thomas and Henry Percy, the seventh and eighth Earls of Northumberland. Thomas led the “Rising of the North” and was executed for treason, and later beatified. Henry, though a Protestant member of the Percy family, also died in the Catholic cause, c 1532. Francis’ father settled in Ireland, and his son, Francis, was born in Cork 1611.
He studied at Oxford and was one of the best mathematicians of his day.
Visiting Rome, he was converted to the Catholic faith at the English College, and entered that College 06/02/1639 as a boarder, to repeat some studies and make Theology. He was Ordained Priest there 30 June 1641. He then entered the Society at St Andrea, Rome three months later 30/09/1641, leaving the English College an example of many virtues.
He was sent then to the Noviciate at Naples for a change of air at the end of his first year noviceship, and he died there soon after, still a novice.
After his conversion, he had returned to Ireland, was arrested and imprisoned at Dublin Castle, and there held the remarkable conference with the Protestant Bishop Ussher, recounted in “Records SJ” Vol V, pp 301 seq (cf also Vol VI, p 348 and Pedigree)
“Esteemed a Saint”; Converted his family; His life is written by Maurice Ward SJ

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Son of Sir Francis and Elizabeth née Cuffe (both English) Brought up and educated in the Protestant faith of his parents.
He studied Humanities in Ireland and later was sent to Oxford University, where he studied Philosophy and Mathematics, showing a special aptitude for the latter.
During a visit to Europe, 1633, he was received into the Church and on his return to Ireland was imprisoned in Dublin for four months but finally released. It was at the insistence of Queen Maria Henrietta, consort of Charles 1, that young Slingsby recovered his liberty, thanks to the efforts behind the scene of Cardinal Barberini and the General of the Society. During his imprisonment, Francis was visited by Protestant Archbishop James Ussher, whose attempts to shake the constancy of the young convert proved unavailing. He was visited also by Robert Nugent, Superior of the Mission, who fervently hoped he would enter the Society.
On his release, Francis expressed his desire to become a priest but gave no indication that he wanted to become a Jesuit. He went to live, however, at the Dublin Residence of the Jesuits, where, with a few other young men, he studied Philosophy under Fr. Henry MacCavell.
Meanwhile, his mother, younger brother and sister followed him into the Catholic Church. As he had now decided to continue his ecclesiastical studies abroad, he made all the necessary legal arrangements for the renunciation of his inheritance in favour of his younger brother.
He entered the English College Rome in February 1639 and was Ordained there 30 June 1641.
The following 30 September 1641 he Entered St Andrea, Rome. At the end of his first year, due to ill health he was sent to Naples to complete his Noviceship, but he died soon after arrival 07 December 1642

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Francis Slingsby 1611-1642
Francis Slingsby was the son of Sir Francis Slingsby, and his wife Elizabeth Cuffe, of Cuffe Hall, Somerset England. His father settled in Ireland and Francis was born in Cork about 1611.

He studied at Oxford and was reputed one of the best mathematicians of his day. While visiting Rome Francis converted and entered the English College there. After his conversion, he returned to Ireland and held a remarkable conference with Bishop Ussher on religious issues. He was ordained in Rome and entered the Society in 1641,

Not being robust in health, he was sent to Naples for a change of air and to make his noviceship. He died soon after at the early age of 31.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
SLINGSBY, FRANCIS, converted at Rome in September, 1633, became a Convictor of the English College at Rome on the 1st of February, 1639 : entered the Novitiate of St. Andrew on the 30th of September, 1641. Died at Naples.

Born: 06 July 1893, Benagh, Kilkeel, County Down
Entered: 01 October 1924, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: by 1937, Kurseong, India
Final Vows: 15 August 1937
Died: 28 December 1947, Korangi Creek, Karachi, Pakistan - Chigagensis Province (CHG) - Madurensis Mission (MDU) (in a plane crash)

Transcribed : HIB to TOLO 1926 to CHG 1928 (MDU)

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 23rd Year No 1 1948

Frs. G. Casey and C. O'Conor represented the Province at the Solem Requiem Mass celebrated at Kilkeel Church, Co. Down on 22nd January for the late Fr. John Sloan, S.J., of Patna Mission (Chicago Province) who perished in the Dakota crash outside Karachi on the night of 27th December. Fr. O'Conor was the Celebrant. A brief account of his career appears below.

Obituary

Fr. John Sloan (1893-1924-1947) - Patna Mission

Fr. John Sloan (Patna Mission). Many of our Province who knew Fr. John at Tullabeg were shocked to learn of his tragic death in the last days of December, with twenty two others he perished in the Dakota crash just outside Karachi on the night of the 27th. He was at the time Superior of the missionary band (miss. excurr.) and on his way to give a mission.
Born at Benagh in the parish of Kilkeel, Co. Down in 1899, he went straight from the National School to business at John Hughes, Ltd., Liverpool. He appears to have attended night school at St. Francis Xavier's, where he met Fr. Bridge who arranged for his entry to Osterley, from which he came to our Novitiate on 1st October 1924. During the following year he was assigned to the Madura Mission of the Toulouse Province, where he completed his noviceship. He studied philosophy at Shembaganur, and during holidays, when catechising in various mission stations, began to show those talents for preaching which he put to such good use in after years. It was as a philosopher, too, that he started collecting funds for the building of a Church to St. Patrick at Periakulam, South India, a project which was warmly supported by the Bishop of Trichinopoly and was carried through to a successful issue. About 1928 Fr. General granted Mr. Sloan permission to transfer to the Patna Mission of the Chicago Province, where he enjoyed much better health and secured congenial work. On the completion of his philosophy in November 1930, he set out for Patna, where, to his amazement, he found himself Procurator of the Mission and residing at Bishop's House, Banakipore. At the end of the following year he went to Kurseong for theology and was ordained priest on 21st November, 1934.
After his Tertianship he served at various mission stations until 1937, when he became head of a missionary group, engaged in the giving of missions throughout India, a post be held till his untimely death, He travelled extensively by air during the ten years of this fruitful apostolate, and had only returned from the Persian Gulf a few days before the end.
He was the recipient of a personal letter of congratulation from our Holy Father, Pope Pius XII, on the success of his work. Fr, Sloan was never in Ireland after he left it as a novice, in 1925.
He is survived by two sisters : Mrs. Harper, Greencastle, Ballyardle, Co. Down, and Mrs. Cavin, St. Anthony, Idaho, and by a brother, Fr. Francis Sloan, pastor of St. Teresa's Church, Midvale, Utah, R.I.P.

Irish Province News 23rd Year No 3 1948

Letter from Fr. J. A. MacSeumais, R. A. F. Staging Post, Mauripur.
“I am still awaiting a plane for Singapore. However, there is a possibility that I may be away tomorrow. This Station is served by Dutch Franciscans from St. Patrick's Church, Karachi. I was in there on Sunday and met the Superior Ecclesiasticus of this Area, Mgr. Alcuin Van Miltenburg, O.F.M. He it was who made all the arrangements for the burial of Fr. John Sloan, S.J. Fr. Sloan was travelling from Karachi Airport to Ceylon, in a TATA Dakota when the plane crashed at Karonji creek about 15 miles from Karachi Airport. The Mother Superior of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary and one of her nuns, Mother Anthony, an Irishwoman, were called to St. Teresa's Nursing Home, Karachi to prepare Fr. Sloan's body for burial. He is buried in the Catholic Plot at Karachi Cemetery where several other Jesuits are buried. I visited Fr. Sloan's grave on Sunday and I hope to obtain a photograph of it.
The German Jesuits had the Mission of Sind and Baluchistan, and after the First World War, it was taken over by the other Provinces. In 1935, it was taken over by the Franciscans. There is a magnificent Memorial in front of St. Patrick's, built in honour of the Kingship of Christ and commemorating the work done by the Society in this Mission. Under the Memorial is a crypt and in a passage behind the altar is the ‘The Creation of Hell’ by Ignacio Vas, a number of figures of the damned being tortured in Hell. Indefinite depth is added by an arrangement of mirrors”.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father John Sloan 1893-1947
John Sloan has been described by his biographer as a Francis Xavier from Ulster. Born in Kilkeel County Down in 1898, he was what we might have called a late vocation. At the age of 23 he entered Osterley College in London, under Fr Lester, to fill in the gaps in his education. In 1924 he entered the Irish noviceship, during the course of which he was selected for the Indian Mission. Eventually in India, he was attached to the American Misison at Patna. Here began his life’s work.

The All-India Mission Band, which travelled the length and breadth of India, preaching Missions, mainly to English speaking residents. His conversions were untold, and the harder the case, the better John Sloan liked it. He was also responsible for numerous late vocations. His energy was boundless, though his frame was frail. Being warned by his doctor to take at least a year’s rest, he replied “I am only looking for eternal rest”.

He had just finished a Mission to oil-workers in the Persian Gulf and was on route to Ceylon to begin another campaign. The plane he boarded at Karachi on December 27th 1947 blew up after being air-borne ten minutes, and his broken body was picked up some ten miles from the city. He had had a premonition of disaster and had made a general confession in the Franciscans before embarking.

A truly apostolic soul, the fruits of his work are still to be seen, and many a priest thanks God daily at his Mass, that he met John Sloan.

Born: 02 April 1904, Richmond, Melbourne, Australia
Entered: 25 March 1930, Loyola Greenwich, Australia
Ordained 16 June 1939, Los Gatos, California, USA
Final vows: 15 August 1954
Died: 05 April 1989, St Raphael’s Nursing Home, Lockleys, Adelaide, Australia - Australiae Province (ASL)

Part of the Xavier College, Kew, Melbourne, Australia community at the time of death

Transcribed HIB to ASL : 05 April 1931

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Walmsley Smith was a man who experienced self-doubt and feelings of inadequacy, especially in his later days. This might seem hard to believe in a man who was so gifted intellectually. He was a good teacher of mathematics, and a man of wide interests, which included the garden and astronomy.
Smith was baptised, 10 April 1904, by Thomas Cahill, the first rector of Xavier College. He lived in Hawthorn, and carne to Xavier College aged eleven. After school he took out an engineering degree at Melbourne University 1930, joined the Jesuits, 25 March 1930, and completed his Jesuit studies in Sydney, Ireland and California. His regency was spent teaching mathematics to the juniors, 1932-34.
He left California on one of the last ships before the bombing of Pearl Harbour and settled down at Xavier College in 1941 to teach mathematics until he retired in 1973. For a
few years in the 1940s he was rowing master. For twenty years he was a member of the Mathematics Standing Committee for the Victorian Universities and Schools Examinations Board, 1948-68.
Testimony to his intellectual interests was his personal library, which contained subjects on mathematics, geography, astronomy, geometry and gardening.
This was followed by sixteen years of retirement, many of which gave him joy in pursuing his interests of music, gardening and reading.
His virtues were never conventional or conformist. He was not into being polite or particularly co-operative, and he certainly had very little time for suffering in silence. Greg Deming described him as a maverick who reached into the hearts of lonely and troubled boys. He also reached into the minds of clever and keen students, and he animated them to love and cherish their work. He developed a limp shortly before his 21st birthday as a result of an accident that resulted in a twisted foot. For the rest of his life he needed to use a stick, and with that stick he could give direction, gesticulate, and prod tardy scholars.

Born: 15 August 1825, Ballyjamesduff, County Cavan
Entered: 07 January 1849, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Professed: 15 August 1859
Died: 28 March 1912, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

Director of Irish School of Ecumenics

Born: 01 July 1918, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 07 September 1940, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1953, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1981, Sacred Heart Church SJ, Limerick
Died: 03 June 1991, Mater Hospital, Dublin

Part of the Belvedere College SJ, Great Denmark Street, Dublin community at the time of death

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - Insurance clerk before entry

Born: 13 August 1928, Lauragh, Tuosist, County Kerry
Entered: 07 September 1946, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 28 July 1960, Milltown Park Chapel, Dublin
Final Vows: 07 October 1976, St Francis Xavier, Gardiner St, Dublin
Died: 02 August 2023, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin

Part of the St Francis Xavier, Gardiner Street Community Community at the time of death

Son of Thomas Smyth and Frances Lyne.

Born : 13th August 1928 Lauragh, Tuocist, Co Kerry
Raised : Lauragh, Tuocist, Co Kerry
Early Education at Lauragh NS, Co Kerry; Mungret College SJ, Limerick
7th September 1946 Entered Society at St Mary’s, Emo, County Laois
8th September 1948 First Vows at St Mary’s, Emo, County Laois
1948-1951 Rathfarnham - Studying Arts at UCD
1951-1954 Tullabeg - Studying Philosophy
1954-1956 Cheung Chau, Hong Kong - Regency : Studying Cantonese and Teaching Catechetics at Xavier House
1956-1957 Kowloon, Hong Kong - Regency : Teacher
1957-1961 Milltown Park - Studying Theology
28th July 1960 Ordained at Milltown Park Chapel, Dublin
1961-1962 Rathfarnham - Tertianship
1962-1963 Cheung Chau, Hong Kong - Minister; Socius to Novice Master; Church Prefect at Xavier House
1963-1966 Kowloon, Hong Kong - Teacher at at Wah Yan College
1965 Prefect of Studies; President of Academic Alumni; President of Past Pupils Union
1966-1971 Belvedere College SJ - Teacher; Assistant Prefect of Studies; Studying H Dip in Education at UCD
1968 Newsboys Club
1970 Spiritual Father 3rd & 4th years; Assistant Career Guidance
1971-1979 Gardiner St - Assists in Church; BVM & SFX Sodalities; Newsboys Club
1976 Parish Chaplain; Chaplain in Hill St Primary School
7th October 1976 Final Vows at St Francis Xavier, Gardiner St, Dublin
1979-1982 Claver House - Curate in Gardiner St; living in Hardwicke St., Dublin; Spiritual Director Belvedere Youth Club
1982-1985 Luís Espinal - Curate in Gardiner St; living in Hardwicke St., Dublin; Spiritual Director Belvedere Youth Club
1985-1990 Gardiner St - Curate in Gardiner St; living in Hardwicke St., Dublin; Spiritual Director Belvedere Youth Club
1988 Resides in Gardiner St Community
1990-1991 Croftwood, Cherry Orchard - Chaplain in Cherry Orchard Parish of Most Holy Sacrament; Assists in Gardiner St
1991-1992 Milltown Park - Sabbatical
1992-2000 Belvedere - Assistant Pastoral Care Co-ordinator; Ministers in Inner City; Assistant Librarian & Sacristan; College Confessor; Chaplain to Social Integration Scheme
1994 Chaplain in Junior School;
1996 Pastoral work in Gardiner St; Spiritual Director
2000-2023 Gardiner St - Assists in Church; Church Team; Spiritual Director
2015 Prays for the Church and Society at Cherryfield Lodge

https://jesuit.ie/news/featured-news/death-of-fr-james-smyth/

James Smyth SJ RIP: Friend of the poor

Fr James (Jim) Smyth, at 95 the oldest Jesuit in the Irish Province, has died in Cherryfield Nursing Home, Milltown. He passed away peacefully on the morning of Thursday, 31 August. His funeral took place on Tuesday 5 September.

He had a remarkable lifelong involvement with those on the margins in north inner city Dublin, living alongside them in a small one-bedroomed flat in Hardwicke Street. He was a friend to the travelling community, prisoners and anyone in need.

He was a member of the Gardiner Street Community for many years. Richard Dwyer SJ, Superior of that community offers the following reflection on his life.

Renowned for compassion and kindness

Fr James Smyth SJ was born on 13 August 1928 in Lauragh, Tuosist, Co Kerry. He went to Lauragh National School and received his secondary education at Mungret College SJ, Limerick.

On 7th September 1946 he entered the Society of Jesus at St Mary’s, Emo, County Laois and took his first vows on 8 September 1948.

After taking an arts degree at UCD, followed by 3 years of philosophy at Tullabeg, he went to Hong Kong in 1954 to study Cantonese and teach catechetics. He returned to Dublin to study theology at Milltown Park and was ordained to the priesthood on 28 July 1960.

He returned to Hong Kong for 4 years after his tertianship (1962) working as Socius (assistant) to the Master of Novices there and later as a teacher in Wah Yan College, Kowloon.

James returned to Dublin and from 1966 to 1971, he worked in Belvedere College SJ. Through a chance encounter on a bus from Rathnew in Wicklow to Dublin, he was invited into the Newsboys Club not far from Belvedere. He attended the club for a number of weeks and was told to sit in the corner and say nothing. According to himself, he felt awkward and embarrassed and spoke to no one. He missed one session and when he returned, the boys asked him where he had been and that they had missed him. This was the beginning of a remarkable lifelong involvement that James developed with the people of north inner city of Dublin.

He went on to live in Hardwicke Street flats in small one bedroom for a 12-year period and became part of the social fabric of people there. He became close friends with the parents and grandparents and became a trusted and beloved pastor, confessor and counsellor to them. He married their sons and daughters, baptized the children of those unions, and became a priestly grandfather to the numerous children.

He visited the sick and elderly. He was a frequent visitor to Mountjoy and St. Patrick’s prison and was renowned for his compassion and kindness. He highlighted the poor condition of the flats and the lack of any play and recreational facilities. James himself lived on a basic income of £20 per week and had to go without meat to buy a shirt or a pair of shoes. All of this time he worked as a curate in Gardiner Street Church and spent long hours in the confession box. He was loved by all who came to him and he was noted for his compassion and understanding.

Over his years in Hardwicke Street and the Church in Gardiner Street, he also was involved with the Travelling Community and again presided over many weddings and baptisms. In a nutshell, James discovered and developed in his heart a tremendous love of the poor and marginalized and the people of the North inner city and the Travelling Community took Fr James to their hearts and loved and revered him.

In the late 1980s and into the 1990s a heroin epidemic was devastating the lives of young people in the North Inner City. Along with the local residents, Fr James and Dublin City Councillor Christy Burke,set up a committee to rid Hardwicke Street of drug dealers and pushers who were making a lot of money from enticing friends and neighbours to take heroin. It was a wonderful example of a community coming together with great courage and determination to eradicate the scourge of hard drugs from their area and to prevent the death and utter destruction of young lives. Fr James and Christy received death threats as a result of their actions.

Fr James continued to live and work with the poor and marginalized in Gardiner Street Church up to his 85th year when ill health saw him transferred to Cherryfield Nursing Home. He settled in well to life in Cherryfield and was cherished by the staff as one of the oldest residents. The constant stream of visitors from the inner city, the Travelling Community and fellow Jesuits bore strong testimony to the love and affection he was held in, to the very end of his long life.

May he rest in peace and receive the fitting reward of all his good deeds in long priestly ministry.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a ainm dílis.

Richard Dwyer SJ

September 2023

Born: 24 September 1909, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 01 September 1926, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1938, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1944, Milltown Park, Dublin
Died: 1993, Paris, France

Left Society of Jesus: 23 March 1964

Early education at CBS Synge Street, Dublin

by 1933 at Vals, France (TOLO) studying
by 1936 at Valkenburg, Limburg, Netherlands (GER I) studying

Interfuse No 76 : Christmas 1993

Obituary

Kevin Smyth – former Jesuit priest (1909-1993)

Kevin studied Classics in UCD, finishing with a brilliant MA thesis on Wemer Jaeger's distinction between practical (phrone sis) and theoretical (sophia) wisdom in Aristotle's Nicomachaean Ethics. He studied philosophy in Valkenburg in Holland with the German students of the day. Even though the Jesuits had moved their philosophate to Holland because of Nazi activity in Germany, there was more than a trace of German chauvinism among Kevin's fellow-students. In his final year the coveted honour for the brighter students was to defend the Disputatio during the final year - this was in the heyday of neo-scholasticism. To the chagrin of many, Kevin was picked for this honour. Traditionally, in order to ensure a good show, those making the formal “objections” discussed the gist of what they had prepared with the defendant a few days before the great day. No such courtesy was extended to Kevin. But the objectors paid dearly for this: Kevin with brilliant distinctions and sub-distinctions stopped them in their tracks, so that the occasion became a public humiliation for them, much to the delight of the other non-Germans present. To prolong the occasion some of the professors intervened with the own 'objec tions', but although Kevin spoke with perfect courtesy, they fared... no better. This was a side of Kevin which he seldom revealed. He had a brilliant and incisive mind, but if pushed too far could reveal a lack of patience, almost an attitude of contempt - which he regretted immediately and tried hard to make amends for,

When I moved to Milltown Park in 1955 I was asked to teach the Short' course in dogmatic theology in a three-year cycle. Part of the old presentation of each 'thesis' was the Scriptural proof. Knowing that the whole world of Scripture was moving from for merly entrenched positions, I tried to make sure that I was as up to date as possible. After trying various people I finally settled on Kevin as my scriptural guide. He was a gifted guide, always avail able for consultation, invariably helpful and friendly. To this word which refers to friendship | shall return shortly.

Once he had been appointed to Milltown Park, where he had studied theology, Kevin was assigned to teach the old course of Apologetics; this included at that time an introduction to the Gospels. Here Kevin developed his own encyclopaedic knowledge of Scripture. Where he studied Hebrew I do not know, but he became an expert in it - so much so that he was Mgr Boylan's 'external examiner' for the degree in Oriental Languages in UCD The “Dead Sea Scrolls”, the writings surviving from Qumran, were discovered about this time, and Milltown Park Library was soon enriched with the official facsimile publications of the Scrolls. As well as becoming an expert on the Scrolls, Kevin translated, from the original Dutch, Fr Van Der Ploeg's book on the writings of Qumran. He worked in close cooperation with Professor Driver of Manchester University during this period, and together they combated Allegro's attempts to use the Scrolls in order to undermine the documentation for the origins of Christianity. Kevin wrote for Studies on diverse topics, but never received the publicity and recognition which his work deserved. In another Jesuit Province of that time he would have been given the opportunities he deserved for study and writing; a doctorate would have meant little to Kevin, but some recognition should have been given to him.

On the ordinary level of Jesuit community life Kevin was exemplary, deeply pastoral by inclination, which was revealed in his own pastoral work and especially when he was in charge for many years as sub-minister of “Supplies” from Milltown Park - allotting to many Dublin parishes priests to help out on Sunday. It is true to say that he was deeply respected by the Dublin dioce san clergy for his self-sacrificing willingness to help. On another level he was very proud of being a Synge Street past pupil, and he was a gifted football player, playing in Milltown Park well into his forties - even though he did this at some risk with some of his former pupils concentrating on knocking him out!

When in 1961 I was sent to Rome the excitement of the pre Vatican Il times was just beginning. During the few years that followed Kevin corresponded with me regularly, because I was collecting for him from the Italian and French newspapers any items which might throw light on intra- and extra-conciliar manoeuvers: these I sent on to him every week as he was writing a regular column for some Irish newspaper on Vatican II. But there was little personal in this correspondence. Kevin, in many ways, was a prisoner of his very academic world, in spite of his pastoral ad generous qualities. For him I think that some unforeseen suffering was needed to break open the academic armour. In some ways he was the product of the poorer elements in Jesuit formation in his time.

My last letter from him arrived to accompany investment-transfer documents which I had sent to him for his signature. In this let ter he revealed more humanity than in all the other years I had known him. He wrote: “You do not realize what a paradise you live in, with all its faults”.

Paddy Simpson who visited Kevin in Paris always stressed that “he was a much nicer fellow now”.

Born: 28 June 1875, George (O’Connell) Street, Limerick City, County Limerick
Entered: 13 August 1892, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 26 July 1908, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1912, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Died: 24 July 1937, Dublin City, County Dublin

Part of the St Mary’s community, Emo, County Laois at the time of death.

by 1896 at St Aloysius Jersey Channel Islands (FRA) studying
Came to Australia for Regency 1898

Not in Catalogue index 1893, 1894

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Ernest Spillane entered the Society at Tullabeg in August 1892, and undertook regency at Xavier College, 1898-05, where he was a teacher and prefect.

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 12th Year No 4 1937
Obituary :
Father Ernest Spillane

On July 24th, 1937, at a Private Nursing Home in Dublin, Father Ernest Spillane died after a short illness. Though all his life he had to contend with ill health and though for his last few years he had to suffer the pangs of “Colitis” in addition, yet when he came to Dublin for treatment, no one expected the serious turn that was soon to come, and that was finally to cause his death. He was fully conscious up to the end, and he edified all around him by his patient endurance of his sufferings, by the fervour of his prayers and by his submission to the Will of God.

Father Spillane was born in Limerick on June 28th, 1875, was educated at the Sacred Heart College, the Crescent, and entered the Society at Tullabeg on August 13th, 1892. Having taken his vows in 1894, he came to Milltown Park for his juniorate, and in 1895 was sent to Jersey, where he studied Philosophy for three years. He did his College teaching in Kew, Melbourne, and in 1905 returned to Milltown Park to study Theology. Having been ordained in 1908, and having during the following year completed his Theology, he went to Tullabeg for his Tertianship. But the strain of the years of study had told on his health and not until 1914, after a period at Petworth, was he able to resume work. Then we find him at Mungret College for twelve years, with one year's interruption, in 1921, when he was Minister at Belvedere.
At Mungret he was Master, Sub-Minister and Minister for two periods of three years each. From 1925 to his death he was connected with the Noviceship, first in Tullabeg as Minister, and finally in Emo, where for seven years he was Spiritual Father and Confessor of the Novices.
What manner of man was Father Spillane? First of all he was a most saintly Religious, a source of edification to all who had the privilege of living with him. When his conscience dictated a course of action nothing could deflect him from carrying it into effect. This, perhaps. at times game him the appearance of rigidity when “coping”, as his word was, with practical matters. He himself was guided by principles of honour and justice, and perhaps it was demanding too much of human nature to expect others to be always so directed. Yet, he was always gentle and courteous with a certain dry sense of humour, and, it may be added, a taste for Metaphysics. One who knew him well summed him up by saying “Father Spillane was a model Religious, a man of honour, always a gentleman.” And that was a fitting estimate of his character and qualities. May he rest in peace!

◆ Mungret Annual, 1938

Obituary

Father Ernest Spillane SJ

Many old Mungret men will hear with regret of the death of Father Ernest Spillane SJ, which took place in a Dublin nursing home on July 24th, 1937.

Father Spillane first came to Mungret in 1912. For the next six years he was engaged chiefly in teaching French to the Senior boys, and in 1918 he was appointed Minister, a position which he held for three years. In 1921 he was transferred to Belvedere College, Dublin, but was back again with us as Minister in 1922. He held that position till 1925, when he was called away for other important work.

During his years in Mungret, but especially during the time when he was Minister, Father Spilane endeared himself to boys and community alike. He was a kindly man, and though in very poor health, he was always bright and cheerful. To the sick in particular he was most attentive, and boys in the Infirmary looked forward to his daily visits, eager to suggest answers to conundrums which he had given them, or to resume an argument on some question raised by him. Their hopes of scoring a point, however, were always quickly dashed to the ground, for Father Spillane had a very acute mind and was an adept in subtle argument.

But, perhaps, what the boys appreciated above all was the Minister's justice. He was a man with a great sense of honour and justice, and all were sure of a fair hearing and a just decision.
It is impossible, in this short notice, to touch on Father Spillane's many virtues, but we cannot omit to mention his holiness. He was a remarkably prayerful man, and one felt that God was never far from his thoughts. An atmosphere of prayer seemed to surround him as he paced backwards and forwards on the walk by the garden, reading his Office or reciting his Rosary - a very familiar sight indeed during those years.

Well, he is gone from us forever-gone, as no one who knew him can doubt, to the God Whom he served so well.

To his brother and sisters who survive him we offer our deep sympathy, for they have lost a saintly brother on earth. But we rejoice with them also at the passing away of one of whom it can surely be said : “He did not receive his life in vain”. May he rest in peace.

JAD

Born: 01 November 1919, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 07 September 1939, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1953, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1956, Clongowes Wood College SJ
Died: 26 May 2000, Mater Hospital Dublin

Part of the Belvedere College SJ, Dublin community at the time of death.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - Studied 1st year Engineering at UCD before entry

◆ Interfuse
Interfuse No 105 : Special Edition 2000

Obituary
Fr Gerard (Gerry) Spillane (1919-2000)
1st. Nov. 1919: Born in Dublin
1931 - 1938 Christian Brothers' O' Connell Schools, Dublin - Leaving and Matric.
1938 - 1939: UCD for a half-year, studying Engineering.
7th Sept. 1939: Entered the Society at Emo.
8th Sept. 1941: First Vows at Emo.
1941 - 1944: Rathfarnham-studying Arts at UCD.
1944 - 1947: Tullabeg- studying Philosophy.
1947 - 1950: Clongowes- Teacher; Prefect; Clongowes Certificate in Education.
1950 - 1954: Milltown Park- Theology
31st July 1953: Ordained at Milltown Park.
1954 - 1955: Tertianship at Rathfarnham.
1955 - 1962: Clongowes- Teacher, Higher Line Prefect
1962 - 2000: Belvedere- Teacher; Games; Vice-Rector. Since 1988 he has served as Health Prefect; Chaplain St. Monica's Nursing Home; Sacristan; Guestmaster.

From March 1999, Fr. Spillane's health was in decline. He was admitted to the Mater Hospital and was diagnosed to be suffering from cancer in July of that year. Since then, he spent several periods receiving special nursing care in Cherryfield Lodge, after which he would be well enough to return to Belvedere. He was again admitted to Cherryfield Lodge in March, but was not confined to bed and until shortly before his death he was able to go for walks around the grounds. He died peacefully on 26th May 2000 at the age of 80.

Joe Dargan writes ...
Behind the simple facts of the Curriculum Vitae given above there was a life of faithful commitment and service which was the heart and soul of Gerry. He touched the lives of many people who valued his support and judgement and recognised that his influence on their lives was deep and personal. Fr Gerry was above all else a Religious and Priest. His life was centred on the Eucharist. Through it he became an act of worship of God. The witness of his life spoke volumes. The quiet impact he made on people was shown by the numbers and variety of people who attended his funeral.

As a teacher in Clongowes and Belvedere he dedicated himself to the hidden, constant and grinding work of the classroom as well as forming boys according to the values of Jesus Christ. When his close friend, Fr. Tom Scully, died in 1968 at the age of 46 Gerry became chaplain and mentor of the Catholic Housing Aid Society which provides accommodation for the aged poor as well as newly weds. At the time of his death another flat complex was near completion.

In 1988 Gerry retired from teaching. He became Chaplain to St. Monica's Nursing Home. His care of the sick and dying was unstinting. He would sit for hours with a dying patient, just being present offering support and prayer. At his death the patients of St. Monica's asked that the funeral from Gardiner Street to Glasnevin cemetery would pass and stop at St. Monica's.

Gerry is greatly missed by the members of the Belvedere Community. His was a constant presence and made everyone feel welcome. One of his late colleagues wrote this letter to the community at the time of his death.

"I regret that I cannot attend the funeral of Fr. Gerry Spillane this morning. Gerry is in my prayers. I send my sincere condolences to his family and the community. Gerry was already an established and hugely respected member of the staff of Belvedere when I arrived in 1965. I well remember that he made me feel very welcome and was kind and helpful to me as I settled in to life in Belvedere. We struck up a nice bond of friendship as we chatted on the corridor. I was struck from our first meeting by his transparent decency. I never heard him raise his voice to any boy - nor did I ever hear him speak badly of any boy. He had a great respect for our students and they had huge respect for him.

I was always aware of his love for all sports. He seemed to believe that the real value of sport was in contributing to the good of the team, rather than seeking personal glory. I feel that Gerry was very much at home in Belvedere. He knew Belvedere and its community very well and was most generous in giving his time and energy for their good.

I believe that Gerry lived his vocation fully every day of his life. I feel privileged to have known him as friend and colleague over 30 years. Please convey my deepest sympathies to his family and members of the community.

Sincerely,
John Brown."

May he rest in the Peace of Christ,

Joseph Dargan SJ

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 2000
Obituary
Father Gerry Spillane SJ
Gerry Spillane was born on 1 November 1919, one of three brothers, a north Dubliner, from the district around Drumcondra and Glasnevin which - as he liked to point out - produced so many Jesuits around those years, mostly, like himself, pupils of the Christian Brothers at O'Connell's (for whom he always retained great regard). He had in a high degree the virtues typical of his background: straightforwardness, conscientiousness, great human decency and loyalty to the traditional values he had inherited at home and in school.

Having started an engineering degree at UCD, he soon abandoned it to follow what he had come to recognize as his true vocation and he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Emo, Co Laois, in September 1939, in lean times just as the Second World War was breaking out. He was a few months short of his 20th birthday.

He followed an entirely traditional course of Jesuit formation, mostly during the war-years and their aftermath; after Emo, juniorate in Rathfarnham Castle, while studying for the BA at UCD, philosophy in Tullabeg, Co Offaly, three years as a teacher and prefect in Clongowes and then theology in Milltown Park. Following ordination on 31 July 1953 by Archbishop John Charles McQuaid, there was a fourth year of theology, and finally tertianship back in Rathfarnham.

He had hoped to go on the newly-opened Irish Jesuit mission to Zambia (known in those pre-independence days as Northern Rhodesia) but was sent instead to teach in Clongowes. It was not a posting which greatly appealed to him. Quite apart from the thwarting of his missionary desires, boarding school life in the early fifties was austere and relations between pupils and staff were formal and relatively remote.

Within a year, Gerry was appointed Higher Line Prefect, which meant that, in place of teaching, he was responsible for the discipline and good order of the school as a whole and of the most senior pupils - the Higher Line - in particular. His sense of duty and his scrupulous anxiety to ensure the highest standards of behaviour in the school probably had the effect of concealing his enormous humanity from those in his charge (his formation had partly concealed it even from himself) and only the more perceptive among them descried it.

1962 marked a watershed in his life: it was the year he was transferred to Belvedere, in the wide-ranging “reshuffle” of Jesuit assignments made at that time by the American Jesuit plenipotentiary sent by Father General to visit the Irish Province. This change brought him back to his north Dublin roots and set him to tasks which were more congenial than the role of Higher Line Prefect, faithfully though he had discharged that office. He was to spend his remaining thirty-eight years in the college - until 1988 as a member of the staff, thereafter, until his health failed, as chaplain to a nearby nursing home.

Gerry taught mathematics and his specialty was the “matric” class at the top of the school. His teaching had all the hallmarks of the man himself: solid, faithful, meticulously and painstakingly prepared. In the first years, he also taught religion. But 1962 was another, deeper watershed, not only for him but for priests of his generation and the church they served. In October of that year the Second Vatican Council began. It was to transform the landscape and seemed to render the theological studies Gerry had undertaken with such careful fidelity suddenly irrelevant. Like others, he lost confidence and found it difficult to master the new insights so prodigally unleashed in those years. After a short time, he stopped teaching religion and never gave a retreat again.

He had come to Belvedere as replacement for Tom O'Callaghan, sent to Limerick the year Gerry arrived. He inherited not only Tom's classes but also his teams and, for the next nineteen years, his name became synonymous with Junior Cup rugby in the college. Tom - regarded by Tony O'Reilly as the best coach he ever had anywhere - had ended a long sequence of semi-final near-misses through the fifties by winning in 1960 and 1961 and had failed only narrowly to make it three-in-a-row with a talented team the following year. Gerry Spillane, with less natural flair, was to maintain Belvedere's high standards at this level throughout his long term in charge.

But he was dogged by every kind of misfortune in the Cup itself and, despite reaching five finals, he never succeeded in winning the trophy. One year, there was the loss of key players through freak injuries between a drawn match and a delayed replay against Blackrock (delayed, as he would explain to you, against his will); defeat through a last-minute try and touchline conversion at the hands of Pres Bray another year; a comeback from 3-14 down to 13-14 against Blackrock finally thwarted in the closing minutes, with 'Rock on the ropes, by the referee's failure to play advantage, a third year. “What do you have to do?” he wondered aloud on the night of his last final in 1979, when Conor Hickey's team had lost by only a single score - once again to Blackrock. It was hard to find an answer.

Gerry's own tension and nervousness on big match days was apt to communicate itself to his young teams and may have played a part in their undoing. But there is no doubt that he made a huge contribution to the welfare of the game in Belvedere and he did much to develop the school's rugby talent in his time. What he lacked in flair he made up for by dogged, methodical study of the game, which helped to make him the perceptive coach he was.

It was typical of him that he looked after equipment - balls, pumps and the rest - with scrupulous care, preferring to keep them in his own room rather than entrust them to anyone else. There was no waste, no needless damage or loss, no lavish expenditure of any kind. That was how he conducted his entire life. (Instances of venality among the clergy and the abuse of the Mass-card system by some of them was one of his well known conversational whipping-boys). His whole approach was somehow epitomized in the vision of him on so many winter afternoons setting off on his bicycle at the end of a full day's class (he didn't drive), already middle-aged, three or four rugby balls laced together and hung from the handle-bars, for another carefully prepared practice in Jones's Road.

He expected of his players the same high standards of application and attention to detail he set for himself and he helped to pass on these standards to his successors.

His preparatory work in the earlier years must surely be given some of the credit for the memorable Senior Cup successes of 1968, 1971 and 1972, under Gerry Brangan, Paddy Lavery and Jim Moran. Needless to say, he would never claim such credit for himself - he shunned the limelight and took a dim view of coaches who were less self-effacing, whether colleagues at schools level or those on the national stage. There were certain bêtes noires in particular, but they cannot be named here!

After his retirement from coaching in 1981 - he was by then 62 and had been fit enough to referee until shortly before - he retained a close interest in the school's fortunes. Whatever rueful reflections it may have inspired in him, he greatly rejoiced at the ending of the long drought in 1994 and the two further Junior Cup successes of the nineties. He may be forgiven if he found the victories over Blackrock, at whose hands he had so often tasted bitter disappointment, especially sweet.

He had much better fortune as a coach on the athletics track and his sprinters, hurdlers and relay teams won several Leinster and All-Ireland championships over the years. Even here, there were, of course, occasional disasters', as he would have said himself - his sprinters misplaced by a negligent judge on the tape, recalcitrant parents, long meetings in the parlour, to little avail, and so on. Gerry had a certain expectation that reality would disappoint him and, although he loved to win, he probably found losing fitted better into his view of the world.

He also had success coaching cricket in Belvedere, somewhat to the surprise of those who had known his apparent disapproval of it in Clongowes. One of his junior teams famously ran up such a big score (a currently very prominent Jesuit playing a starring role) that his opponents refused to bat and conceded the game in high dudgeon. Gerry's hyper-caution in this instance was punished by - horror of horrors - having the incident reported in the newspapers. This he would certainly have regarded as “Disastrous in the extreme”! He had been a gifted tennis player in his youth, but he didn't talk about that. He was somewhat less private about his support for Manchester United, whom he followed loyally, if at times a little despairingly, until the good times came at last - happily he lived long enough to see them reach their present heights, even though he would have found adjustment to such a flood of good fortune quite hard to cope with.

When he retired from teaching in 1988 - by then he was beginning to find classes harder to control (and the milder sobriquet “sausage” for troublesome boys was giving way with growing frequency to somewhat harsher terms) - he suffered a minor crisis. For someone so unstintingly devoted to duty and so averse to relaxation or self indulgence of any kind, not working seemed close to not being. He was a life-long Pioneer and he didn't smoke. He wasn't a reader and he lacked cultural interests. Well-intentioned (or occasionally mildly mischievous) efforts by colleagues in the community to remedy such defects by luring him to a concert or a play were apt to founder on Gerry's imperviousness to the delights of coloratura cadenzas or what he regarded as the unintelligible, unfunny fantasies of the stage and screen. He found holidays a penance and was glad of an excuse not to take them. An invitation to join some of the community on a picnic outing to the Dublin mountains one St Stephen's Day was met by the puzzled - and, of course, unanswerable - enquiry, “What's the purpose?” Loyalty made him accept occasional invitations to class reunions of former pupils of both Clongowes and Belvedere - so many of whom had, at worst, sneaking respect for him, while many more felt genuine affection - but it was against the grain and, having made a brief appearance, he would be gone.

With such a temperament, reinforced by the rigidities of his training in the thirties and forties, retirement from the work he had been doing all his life was very difficult. But with time and care the crisis passed. In due course, and with real success, he undertook chaplaincy to the nursing home run by the Irish Sisters of Charity, St Monica's, across Mountjoy Square in Belvedere Place. Although he had spent so much of his life in the classroom, Gerry had always been very much a priest. His pastoral instincts expressed themselves in his care for his family, in his work with Fr Scully Flats (Tom Scully had been his colleague in the Belvedere community), and in many other ways, most of them known only to himself and those for whom he worked. His recent, harrowing experience of personal weakness helped to bring some of his deep humanity more visibly to the surface. He greatly admired the dedication of the Sisters and his gentleness and compassion and zeal as a priest found a new outlet in his ministry to the sick and dying old ladies in his care in St Monica's.

His significance in the Jesuit community grew steadily over the last fifteen or twenty years of his life. He had lived through the changes in community brought about by the Council and survived them. His official role for much of the last period of his life was that of guestmaster (or, as he half-jokingly preferred to insist, eschewing the appearance of self-importance through use of the official title, “distributor of rooms”) and he was a warmly welcoming presence for the many visiting Jesuits, from Ireland and abroad, who came each year to stay in Belvedere.

But his profile in the house far transcended any formal function - he was also, at different times, vice-rector, prefect of health, and sacristan. His warmth and capacity for humour, his lack of self-regard, the simplicity of his personal life, his courtesy and graciousness, his obvious rectitude and integrity, all these and something else, a certain enduring youthfulness of spirit, despite being old-fashioned in so many ways, something irreducible which was just “Spillane”, gave him unique stature and he became, for far more reasons than the length of time he had spent there, 'father of the house, loved and respected, the very heart of his community.

Cautious and conservative by instinct and training as he was (he never, for example, wore anything but clerical black), he genuinely enjoyed being teased and taken for what he emphatically was not. The sheer absurdity of having it suggested to him that he was a crypto-charismatic, a “banner man” who, beneath the sober surface, was really into “raising and praising”, greatly tickled his fancy and no one saw the ludicrousness of it more keenly than himself. Some of the things that made us - and him - laugh most were stories he told about himself, usually with a hint of the absurd lurking not far away, Thus, he took pleasure in recounting how he had responded to an earnest American lady who, on learning that he was in Belvedere, asked him expectantly how the Jesuits now viewed their famous past pupil, James Joyce (of whom Gerry would, on principle as well as by disinclination, almost certainly have read not a single line): “As a bowsy!”

He enjoyed telling us, too, of the times when he had been mistaken for the then Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Henry McAdoo, to whom he bore more than a passing resemblance. One lady, who had insisted that, despite his denials, he must be Dr McAdoo, had forced him to walk away from the bus-stop where he was standing and seek alternative means of transport. Someone else had taken him for 'the Abbot of Mellifont and he had had to flee then too! Another topic we liked to draw him out on was the terse one - or two - line letters he had written in his time in response to parents whom he regarded as unduly interfering or presuming to tell him how to train - or, much worse, pick - his rugby teams. Such Spillane rebuttals would have invited no further dialogue on the recipient's part and he richly enjoyed our detailed analysis of the merits of his literary style!

In July 1999, when he was nearly 80, after being in obvious decline for some months, he was admitted to the Mater Hospital and diagnosed as having cancer. The progress of the disease was quite slow and, after periods of convalescence in Cherryfield Lodge, the Jesuit nursing home beside Milltown Park, he was able to return to Belvedere. His lack of energy distressed him and - consistent with the gentle pessimism which was part of his make-up - he could always find some reason for a measure of frustration, some minor “disaster” to lament. But the prevailing note was of patient resignation in the face of illness and the mystery of life and death, great gratitude for what the nursing staff in the Mater or Cherryfield Lodge were doing for him, and deep, characteristically undemonstrative faith.

In March of the present year, Gerry returned to Cherryfield, where he died on 26 May, halfway through his 81st year, predeceased by his brothers. May that slightly taut smile, worn so often in life, relax now in joy and surprise as he beholds the unclouded glory of God.

◆ The Clongownian, 2000
Obituary
Father Gerard Spillane SJ

Fr Spillane was teacher and Third Line Prefect for three years 1947-50, while preparing for the priesthood. Later, he returned to teach and then become Higher Line Prefect in 1955,
remaining until 1962. He was to spend the rest of his life in Belvedere College and died, aged 80, on 26 May 200. The following is a slightly edited extract from the obituary which recently appeared in “The Belvederian”.

Following ordination, Fr Gerry Spillane had hoped to go on the newly-opened Irish Jesuit mission to Zambia (known in those pre-independence days as Northern Rhodesia) but was sent instead to teach in Clongowes. It was not a posting which greatly appealed to him. Quite apart from the thwarting of his missionary desires, boarding school life in the early fifties was austere and relations between pupils and staff were formal and relatively remote.

Within a year, he was appointed Higher Line Prefect, which meant that, in place of teaching, he was responsible for the discipline and good order of the school as a whole and of the most senior pupils - the Higher Line - in particular. His sense of duty and his scrupulous anxiety to ensure the highest standards of behaviour in the school probably had the effect of concealing his enormous humanity from those in his charge (his formation had partly concealed it even from himself) and only the more perceptive among them descried it.

1962 marked a watershed in his life: it was the year he was transferred to Belvedere, in the wide-ranging reshuffle of Jesuit assignments made at that time by the American Jesuit plenipotentiary sent by Father General to visit the Irish Province. This change brought him back to his north Dublin roots and set him to tasks which were more congenial than the role of Higher Line Prefect, faithfully though he had discharged that office. He was to spend his remaining thirty-eight years in the college - until 1988 as a member of the staff, thereafter, until his health failed, as chaplain to a nearby nursing home.

Born: 29 April 1815, La Vittoriosa, Malta
Entered: 30 December 1844, Palermo Sicily Italy - Sicilian Province (SIC)
Final vows:02 February 1855
Died: 29 April 1871, Milltown Park, Dublin - Sicilian Province (SIC)

Came to HIB in 1861

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He came to Dublin in 1861 on the expulsion of the Jesuits from Rome, Naples and Sicily. About twenty Jesuits came, with Aloysius Sturzo as their Superior.
He was a tailor by trade, and he worked at Milltown until his death there 29 April 1871

Died: 31 January 1691, Amiens, France - Franciae Province (FRA)

◆ In Old/15 (1) and Chronological Catalogue Sheet
◆ CATSJ I-Y has RIP 31 January 1691 Amiens

Born: 23 August 1713, Waterford City, County Waterford
Entered: 25 April 1729, Madrid, Spain - Toetanae Province (TOLE)
Ordained: 1737, Murcia, Spain
Final Vows: 1752
Died: 22 May 1783, St Patrick’s, Waterford City, County Waterford

Uncle of Robert St Leger - RIP 1856, and a nephew of John St Leger RIP 1868

For Entry was taken to Spain by a Sergeant of the Irish Brigade (told to Fr Hogan by John St Leger)
1754 Baptises Hannah - 10 year old daughter of Matteus Ryan of Newfoundland
1758 Baptises a young woman (age 22) from Newfoundland
He left many MS, sermons. Seems very familiar with “Bourdaloue” (Louis - a French Jesuit and Preacher)
In a book of Waterford Residence there is signed “Johan St Leger 1743”
Thrift’s Index of Irish Wills gives 1783 as date of John St Leger PP Waterford

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Nephew of Fathers Robert and John St Leger
Taught Humanities for five years in Spain
1742 Sent to Ireland
1752 & 1755 Acting PP in Waterford, where he built St Patrick’s Chapel ad Residence.
He was an eloquent Preachers, and left a large number of sermons MS.
A serjeant of the Irish Brigade was sent to bring him to a Continental College.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
According to the tradition of his granduncles (Fathers Robert and John St Leger who died last century) he was brought to Spain by a sergeant of the Irish Brigade sent over to Ireland for the purpose
1731-1737 After First Vows he studied Philosophy at Oropesa and was then sent to Murcia for Theology and was Ordained there 1737
1737-1738 Made Tertianship at Murcia
1738-1742 He was sent to teach Humanities at Villarejo
1742 Sent to Ireland and Waterford where he spent the rest of his life. He served at St Patrick’s Parish, a Church which 200 years later still serves local needs. At the Suppression he was incardinated into the local Diocese. He became PP in succession to Simon Shee, and at the Suppression of the Society was incardinated into the local Diocese. He died 07 June 1783 (as per tombstone at St Patrick’s in Waterford) and was buried at St Patrick’s in the St Leger tomb (His death was recorded in the Dublin Evening Post of 07 June 1783)

◆ Fr Joseph McDonnell SJ Past and Present Notes :
There were seventeen Jesuits in Ireland at the Suppression : John Ward, Clement Kelly, Edward Keating, John St Leger, Nicholas Barron, John Austin, Peter Berrill, James Moroney, Michael Cawood, Michael Fitzgerald, John Fullam, Paul Power, John Barron, Joseph O’Halloran, James Mulcaile, Richard O’Callaghan and Thomas Betagh. These men believed in the future restoration, and they husbanded their resources and succeeded in handing down to their successors a considerable sum of money, which had been saved by them.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father John St Leger 1713-1783
Fr John St Leger was born in Waterford on August 23rd 1713, and entered the Society in Toulouse in 1729. Having taught Humanities in Spain for five years he came back to the Irish Mission in 1742.

With the aid of his friends in Spain he built the Church and Residence of St Patrick in Waterford, and for 31 years had charge of the parishes of St Patrick and St Olave in that city.

At the Suppression of the Society, the Bishop Dr William Egan declared St Patrick’s a Parish Church, and appointed Fr St Leger as its Parish Priest, with Fr Paul Power as his curate.

He died in 1783 aged 70 years, beloved and esteemed by all, as the vast concourse at his funeral testified.

◆ MacErlean Cat Miss HIB SJ 1670-1770
Loose Note :
John St Leger
Those marked with * were working in Dublin when on 07 February 1774 they subscribed their submission to the Brief of Suppression
John Ward was unavoidably absent and subscribed later
Michael Fitzgerald, John St Leger and Paul Power were stationed at Waterford
Nicholas Barron and Joseph Morony were stationed at Cork
Edward Keating was then PP in Wexford

Took the Oath of Allegiance 13 December 1775

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
ST. LEGER, JOHN ( Salingerus, Uncle to FF. Robert St. Leger, D.D,), and Vicar Apostolic of Calcutta, and his brother F. John St. Leger) born at Waterford, on the 23rd of August, 1713; entered the Society in the Province of Thoulouse, on the 25th of April, 1729, and came to the Irish Mission thirteen years later. With the assistance of his Irish friends in Spain, he built at Waterford a Chapel for the Residence of the Society, and a good dwelling House. It was called St. Patrick’s. At the Suppression of the Order, Dr. William Egan, then Bishop of the Diocese, declared it a Parish Church, and appointed F. St. Leger its first Parish Priest and F. Paul Power his associate. To this day, the memory of these holy Men is in benediction. To the credit of the Bishops of Waterford, let it be remembered that whilst an Ex-Jesuit was living, no other was appointed Parish Priest of St. Patrick’s.

Born: 25 January 1798, Waterford City, County Waterford
Entered: 07 September 1818, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 16 June 1825, Stanhope Street, Dublin (Irish Sisters of Charity) by Archbishop Murray
Final Vows: 15 August 1832
Died: 27 December 1868, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

Brother of Robert St Leger - RIP 1856, and a nephew of John St Leger RIP 1783

by 1839 in Calcutta Mission

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Brother of Robert St Leger, and a nephew of John St Leger RIP 1783

◆ HIB Menologies SJ : Nephew of John St Leger RIP 1783, and a brother of Robert St Leger RIP 1856

Early education was at Clongowes in Humanities and Rhetoric.

He made his Philosophy and Theology studies at Tullabeg, and was duly Ordained and worked in Priestly Ministry. he was admired as an energetic and eloquent Preacher, possessing an unusual ability to insert in his words, the forcible language of others, without allowing it to be perceived.
1834 He accompanied his brother Robert to India, and for some time exercised the ministry of Chaplain to the British Forces stationed at Dumdum, near Calcutta. Here his eloquence was also noted.
1840 He returned to Ireland, and took up the office of Rector at Tullabeg for one year, having previously held this position before he went to India. he was remarkable for his management of temporal affairs, his rigid economy and attachment to poverty.
Before going to India, he had suffered a lot from neuralgia.
When he left Tullabeg, he spent some months with his brother Robert at Killiney, before being sent to Gardiner St with him, and he worked as an Operarius there. He worked there with great zeal and edification for many years.
His death was sudden and caused by paralysis. He died at Gardiner St 27 December 1868

Note from Robert St Leger Entry :
1817 Sent to Tullabeg to establish a Novitiate there, and to open a small school, which later became St Stanislaus College. For some years this house suffered from extreme poverty, and it was almost as though he could not appear for a time without being in danger of being arrested. His brother John, having completed his Noviceship, displayed considerable talent for economy and the management of the school, so the debts were cleared and the number of pupils increased. It was possibly an error that Robert appointed John as procurator, as his economies were rather severe. A Visitor was sent from England, and Robert was soon removed.
1834 He was appointed Vicar Apostolic in Calcutta, India, and his brother John accompanied him.

Born: 08 February 1788,Waterford City, County Waterford
Entered: 07 September 1807, Hodder, Stonyhurst, England - Angliae Province (ANG)
Final Vows: 09 December 1821, Palermo, Sicily
Died: 22 June 1856, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

Brother of John St Leger - RIP 1868, and a nephew of John St Leger RIP 1783

Superior of St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly: 7 July 1818-1831
First Vice-Provincial of Irish Vice-Province of the Society of Jesus: May 1830-1834; 1841-1850

in Clongowes 1817
in Tullabeg 1818/9
1st Vice Provincial 1830
by 1839 in Calcutta Mission

◆ ◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Nephew of John St Leger RIP 1783, and a brother of another John St Leger RIP 1868
1830 Vice-Provincial and again in 1841.
1834 Vicar Apostolic in Calcutta, India. (cf “Mission du Bengale” Fr H Josson SJ, 1924, pp 162-185)
He was remarkable for his gentleness of disposition, clearness of mind, and accurate knowledge of Theology, which he had studied and graduated DD at Palermo.

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Nephew of John St Leger RIP 1783
Early education in Humanities and Rhetoric at Stonyhurst before Ent.
One of a band that were sent to Sicily after First Vows, where he studied Philosophy and Theology for six years Graduating DD.
1815 Sent to Ireland and on the Waterford Mission for a while.
1817 Sent to Tullabeg to establish a Novitiate there, and to open a small school, which later became St Stanislaus College. For some years this house suffered from extreme poverty, and it was almost as though he could not appear for a time without being in danger of being arrested. His brother John, having completed his Noviceship, displayed considerable talent for economy and the management of the school, so the debts were cleared and the number of pupils increased. It was possibly an error that Robert appointed John as procurator, as his economies were rather severe. A Visitor was sent from England, and Robert was soon removed.
1830 Appointed Vice-Provincial
1834 He was appointed Vicar Apostolic in Calcutta, India, and his brother John accompanied him. It was unfortunate that ANG opened a school in Calcutta at the same time as Robert, and both he and the ANG Rector were at variance in their views. Complaints were sent to Rome, and perhaps too readily accepted by the General. Robert was unhappy with the position he found himself in, and so he returned to Ireland.
1840 He was appointed Rector of Clongowes which was in sever financial debt at the time
1841 Appointed Vice-Provincial again, holding the position for nine years, and entertained Father General Roothaan in 1849. He was succeeded in 1851 by John Curtis.
1851 He went to live in a house in Killiney, which had been bought with the view of opening a chapel there. This didn’t work out, so he moved to Gardiner St and remained there until his death. His health had been failing, and he was less able to work.
He was a saintly and spiritual man, always held in high esteem by Ours and externs.
The suavity of his manners won over all whom he encountered. When he first came to Ireland from Sicily, his austerity was so great that he applied for permission to refrain from eating meat, and this was refused. He loved the Cross, and asked other to pray for that Grace for him.
He was, at the same time, a man of strong will, and was thought to perhaps stick too rigidly to his own views. He was a man of great erudition and literary knowledge and was also a good Theologian. He was remarkable for his gentleness of disposition, clearness of mind, and accurate knowledge.
His mind became weak in his last illness, which was protracted and severe. He died 22 June 1856

◆ Fr Joseph McDonnell SJ Past and Present Notes :
16th February 1811 At the advance ages of 73, Father Betagh, PP of the St Michael Rosemary Lane Parish Dublin, Vicar General of the Dublin Archdiocese died. His death was looked upon as almost a national calamity. Shops and businesses were closed on the day of his funeral. His name and qualities were on the lips of everyone. He was an ex-Jesuit, the link between the Old and New Society in Ireland.

Among his many works was the foundation of two schools for boys : one a Classical school in Sall’s Court, the other a Night School in Skinner’s Row. One pupil received particular care - Peter Kenney - as he believed there might be great things to come from him in the future. “I have not long to be with you, but never fear, I’m rearing up a cock that will crow louder and sweeter for you than I ever did” he told his parishioners. Peter Kenney was to be “founder” of the restored Society in Ireland.

There were seventeen Jesuits in Ireland at the Suppression : John Ward, Clement Kelly, Edward Keating, John St Leger, Nicholas Barron, John Austin, Peter Berrill, James Moroney, Michael Cawood, Michael Fitzgerald, John Fullam, Paul Power, John Barron, Joseph O’Halloran, James Mulcaile, Richard O’Callaghan and Thomas Betagh. These men believed in the future restoration, and they husbanded their resources and succeeded in handing down to their successors a considerable sum of money, which had been saved by them.

A letter from the Acting General Father Thaddeus Brezozowski, dated St Petersburg 14 June 1806 was addressed to the only two survivors, Betagh and O'Callaghan. He thanked them for their work and their union with those in Russia, and suggested that the restoration was close at hand.

A letter from Nicholas Sewell, dated Stonyhurst 07 July 1809 to Betagh gives details of Irishmen being sent to Sicily for studies : Bartholomew Esmonde, Paul Ferley, Charles Aylmer, Robert St Leger, Edmund Cogan and James Butler. Peter Kenney and Matthew Gahan had preceded them. These were the foundation stones of the Restored Society.

Returning to Ireland, Kenney, Gahan and John Ryan took residence at No3 George’s Hill. Two years later, with the monies saved for them, Kenney bought Clongowes as a College for boys and a House of Studies for Jesuits. From a diary fragment of Aylmer, we learn that Kenney was Superior of the Irish Mission and Prefect of Studies, Aylmer was Minister, Claude Jautard, a survivor of the old Society in France was Spiritual Father, Butler was Professor of Moral and Dogmatic Theology, Ferley was professor of Logic and Metaphysics, Esmonde was Superior of Scholastics and they were joined by St Leger and William Dinan. Gahan was described as a Missioner at Francis St Dublin and Confessor to the Poor Clares and Irish Sisters of Charity at Harold’s Cross and Summerhill. Ryan was a Missioner in St Paul’s, Arran Quay, Dublin. Among the Scholastics, Brothers and Masters were : Brothers Fraser, Levins, Connor, Bracken, Sherlock, Moran, Mullen and McGlade.

Trouble was not long coming. Protestants were upset that the Jesuits were in Ireland and sent a petition was sent to Parliament, suggesting that the Vow of Obedience to the Pope meant they could not have an Oath of Allegiance to the King. In addition, the expulsion of Jesuits from all of Europe had been a good thing. Kenney’s influence and diplomatic skills resulted in gaining support from Protestants in the locality of Clongowes, and a counter petition was presented by the Duke of Leinster on behalf of the Jesuits. This moment passed, but anti Jesuit feelings were mounting, such as in the Orange faction, and they managed to get an enquiry into the Jesuits and Peter Kenney and they appeared before the Irish Chief Secretary and Privy Council. Peter Kenney’s persuasive and oratorical skills won the day and the enquiry group said they were satisfied and impressed.

Over the years the Mission grew into a Province with Joseph Lentaigne as first Provincial in 1860. In 1885 the first outward undertaking was the setting up of an Irish Mission to Australia by Lentaigne and William Kelly, and this Mission grew exponentially from very humble beginnings.

Later the performance of the Jesuits in managing UCD with little or no money, and then outperforming what were known as the “Queen’s Colleges” forced the issue of injustice against Catholics in Ireland in the matter of University education. It is William Delaney who headed up the effort and create the National University of Ireland under endowment from the Government.from the Government.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Robert St Leger SJ 1788-1856
Robert St Leger came from a family that lived in Waterford, where he was born February 8th 1788. He was a nephew of John St Leger of the old Society, and had a younger bother John who was also a Jesuit.

In 1817 Fr Robert was sent to the newly acquired property at Tullabeg to open a novitiate and a small school there. It was a difficult undertaking financially. Indeed, it was said that at one period the College was so heavily in debt, that Fr Robert could not appear in public for fear of arrest.

He became Vice-Provincial in 1830, and again in 1841. He was also for some time Vicar Apostolic in Calcutta.

In 1851, he opened a new house, Druid Lodge in Killiney, but the venture was not a success.

He played a big part in the founding of the Irish Sisters of Charity, being the spiritual director of Mary Aikenhead. When he was Rector of Tullabeg, she came to Rahan Lodge to be in touch with him while writing the Constitutions,

His last years he spent in Gardiner Street and he died there June 22nd 1856.

Born: 1599, County Kilkenny
Entered: 08 October 1621, Tournai, Belgium - Belgicae Province (BELG)
Ordained: 20 March 1627, Cambrai, France
Final vows: 15 August 1635
Died: 09 June 1665, Irish College, Santiago de Compostella, Spain - Castellanae Province (CAST)

Alias Salinger
Superior of Mission 29 June 1652-December 1652 and 16 July 1661-09 June 1665

Mother was Margaret Duingyn (Duigin?)
Studied Humanities at home and at Antwerp, Philosophy at Douai, was MA
1625 in 1st year Theology at Douai
1637 ROM Catalogue Good in all, fit to teach Humanities
1649 In Kilkenny (50 after his name)
1650 Catalogue DOB 1697. A Confessor and Director of Sodality BVM. Prefect of Residence many years and Consultor of Mission. Age 53, Superior of Kilkenny Residence and of Seminary at Compostella for 6 years
1654 Exiled from Clonmel
1655 Rector of Irish Seminary St Iago CAST
1658 At Compostella Age 57 Soc 36. A Superior at various times in Ireland. Rector and Provincial in Ireland. Rector Irish College. Taught Grammar.

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Studied Humanities, two years Philosophy and four years Theology in Sicily before Ent. Knew French, English, Irish and Latin.
Taught Humanities for many years; Was Confessor and Director of BVM Sodality; Superior of Residences and Consultor of Irish Mission for many years.
1650 Superior at Kilkenny College, and then moved to Galway when Kilkenny was captured.
1651 He was obliged to flee Ireland, escaped to Spain and succeeded John Lombard as Rector at Compostella, and he died there 09 June 1665 aged 66
He wrote the life of Archbishop of Cashel, Thomas Walsh. 4to Antwerp 1655 (Oliver, Stonyhurst MSS)
Writer; Prisoner; Exiled with great cruelty; Professor of Humanities; Rector of Compostella Residence; Superior of the Irish Mission; Of great gentleness and prudence; Educated in Sicily and Belgium (cf Foley’s Collectanea)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan :
Son of Thomas and Margaret née Duigan
Early education was at Antwerp. He also graduated MA and D Phil at Douai before Ent 08 October 1621 Tournai
1623-1627 After First Vows he was sent a year of Regency at Douai and then stayed there for Theology, and was Ordained at Cambrai 20 March 1627
1628 Sent to Ireland and Kilkenny, and was later Superior at the Kilkenny Residence, and then Rector of the College. He identified himself with the small group of Ormondist partisans in the Kilkenny community whose approval of the Supreme Council's defiance of Rinuccini was reported to Rome and caused the General to send Mercure Verdier on Visitation to the Irish Mission.
1652 Superior of the Mission on 29 June 1652, but six months later was deported to Spain. He arrived in San Sebastián and was then sent to the Irish College Santiago, where he continued as Superior of the Irish Mission until 27 June 1654.
1654-1661 Rector of Irish College Santiago an Office he held for seven years
1661 Reappointed Superior of the Irish Mission 16 July 1661 but ill health prevented him from returning to Ireland. This meant there were two Superiors of the Irish Mission - William in Spain, and Richard Shelton in Ireland. He died at Santiago 09 June 1665

◆ Royal Irish Academy : Dictionary of Irish Biography, Cambridge University Press online :
St Leger, William
by Terry Clavin

St Leger, William (1599–1665), Jesuit, was born in Co. Kilkenny in September 1599, the son of Thomas St Leger and his wife Margaret Duignan. He left Ireland to study classics at Antwerp and philosophy at Douai and graduated MA and D.Phil. On 8 October 1621 he entered the Society of Jesus at Tournai. Ordained a priest at Cambrai on 20 March 1627, he was professed of the four vows of his order on 15 August 1635. In 1628 he had returned to Ireland, where he taught at Kilkenny city. Following the 1641 rebellion and the establishment in 1642 of the Catholic Confederation of Ireland, St Leger was prominent as a supporter of an alliance with the protestant royalists led by James Butler (qv), earl of Ormond. Nonetheless, in 1646 St Leger supported the decision by GianBattista Rinuccini (qv), papal nuncio to Ireland, to excommunicate those who adhered to the peace between the supreme council of the confederation and Ormond.

However, when Rinuccini excommunicated the supporters of the supreme council's cessation with the protestant forces in Munster in the summer of 1648, St Leger strongly opposed him. Rinuccini was particularly bitter over the refusal of St Leger, and the Jesuit order in general, to back him in 1648. After the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland (1649–52), St Leger was appointed superior of the Irish Jesuits on 29 June 1652, but he was obliged to flee to Spain in January 1653 after the authorities banished all catholic clergy from Ireland upon pain of death. He settled in Spain, where he became rector of the Irish college at Compostela. In 1655 he published a life of Thomas Walsh (qv), archbishop of Cashel during the confederate period. This work was criticised by Rinuccini's supporters for failing to mention the controversies of 1648 and St Leger's own role in them. In 1661 he was re-appointed head of the Jesuit mission in Ireland but ill health prevented him from returning home to assume this position. He died 9 June 1665 at Compostela.

Comment. Rinucc., vi, 188; Edmund Hogan, Chronological catalogue of the Irish members of the Society of Jesus (n.d.), 30; The whole works of Sir James Ware concerning Ireland, ed. and trans. W. Harris (1764), ii, 144; Gilbert, Contemp. hist., i, 277; Gilbert, Ir. confed., vi, 69, 277, 314; Michael J. Hynes, The mission of Rinuccini (1932), 131, 265; ODNB

◆ James B Stephenson SJ The Irish Jesuits Vol 1 1962
William St Leger (1652-1654)
William St Leger, son of Thomas St Leger, or Salinger, and Margaret Duigin, was born in the county of Kilkenny in September, 1599. He went to Belgium in 1617; studied rhetoric at Antwerp and philosophy at Douay, where he gained the degrees of Licentiate and Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy. He entered the Novitiate of the Society at Tournay on 8th October, 1621. After teaching grammar a year at Douay, he studied theology there for four years, and was ordained on 20th March, 1627, at Cambray. He returned to Ireland in 1628, and was usually stationed at Kilkenny, where he made his solemn profession of four vows on 5th August, 1639. He was Superior of the Kilkenny Residence and Director of the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin for many years. Then he became Rector of the College at Kilkenny, Consultor of the Mssion, and, finally, on 29th June, 1652, Superior of the Mission. When on 6th January, 1653, an edict banishing all priests from Ireland within ten days was published, Fr St Leger was lying ill in a friend's house at Kilkenny, but his weakness won him no respite. He had to be carried on a stretcher for twenty Irish miles to a seaport, where he was put on board a ship bound for San Sebastian, where he arrived before 26th April, 1653. After some time he took up his residence at the Irish College of Santiago. He continued Superior of the Mission, though resident in Spain, until 27th June, 1654, when he became Rector of the Irish College of Santiago, a position he held for the next seven years.

William St Leger (1661-1663)
Fr William St Leger (for whom vide supra 1652-54) was appointed Superior of the Irish Mission on 16th July, 1661, but was prevented by ill-health from returning, so that for the next two years there were two Superiors of the Irish Mission, one in Spain, Fr William St Leger, and one in Ireland, Fr Richard Shelton. Fr St Leger died at the Irish College of Santiago on 9th June, 1665. He was an accomplished Latinist, and to his pen we are indebted for many treatises which throw light on the state of the Catholic religion in general, and on the history of the activities of the Society of Jesus in Ireland in particular, from the earliest times down to the year 1662.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father William St Leger 1599-1665
William St Leger was born in Kilkenny in 1599.

Having joined the Society at Tournai he returned to Ireland after his ordination in 1628. He was a fluent speaker of English, Latin and Irish and taught classics for many years. He became Superior of the Kilkenny Residence, Director of the Sodality, Consultor of the Mission, and finally Superior in 1652. His zeal for souls made him a special object of hatred for the Puritans.

When an edict was published in 1653 banishing all priests from Ireland within ten days. Fr William was lying ill at a friends house, He was transported on a stretcher to the nearest seaport and put on a ship bound for San Sebastian. He made port in April, having been at sea since January. He took up residence at the Irish College Santiago, where he became Rector for seven years.

In 1661 he was again appointed Superior of the Irish Mission, but through ill health never returned to Ireland. For two years there were two Superiors, Fr St Leger in Spain and Fr Richard Shelton in Ireland. The difficulty was resolved by Fr St Leger’s death at Santiago on June 9th 1665.

We are indebted to him for many treatises on the State of the Catholic Religion and of the Society of Jesus in Ireland at that period. He is also the author of a life of Thomas Walsh, Archbishop of Cashel who died in Compostella.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
ST. LEGER, WILLIAM. The 1st time that I meet with him is in a letter written by him from his native place, Kilkenny, on the 3rd of January, 1646-7, wherein he speaks in the highest terms of the merits of Peter Francis Scarampi, the Oratorian, and Envoy of the Holy See to the Irish Nation. Pere Verdier found him two years later superior of the College at Kilkenny. When that City was taken, he removed to Galway. In 1651, the success of the Puritan faction compelled him to seek safety in flight. Retiring to Compostella, he ended his days in peace, on the 9th of June, 1665, aet. 66. We have from his pen the Life of Thomas Walsh, Archbishop of Caascll, 4to. Antwerp, 1655, who died at Compostella.

Born: 07 September 1884, Dromcolliher, County Limerick
Entered: 06 September 1902, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 28 June 1917, Woodstock College, MD, USA
Final vows: 02 February 1921
Died: 15 January 1959, Loyola High School, Los Angeles, CA, USA - Oregonensis Province (ORE)

Transcribed HIB to TAUR : 1904; TAUR to CAL : 1909; CAL to ORE

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 34th Year No 3 1959
Obituary :
Fr Daniel J Stack (1884-1959)

(From the Oregon- Jesuit, March 1959)

Rev. Daniel J. Stack, S.J. suffered a stroke at Loyola High School, Los Angeles, California, on 13th January, 1959 and died two days later of a cerebral haemorrhage.
Fr. Stack was widely known in the Northwest, where he served as assistant pastor at St. Leo's Parish, Tacoma, WA., 1930-2 and at St. Francis Xavier Parish, Missoula, MT., 1932-3, and where he was pastor both at St. Stanislaus, Lewiston, Idaho, 1933-6, and at St. Aloysius, Spokane, WA., 1936-40.
Fr. Stack was born at Dromcollogher, Co. Limerick, Ireland on 8th September, 1884. He attended Jesuit schools in Limerick and entered the Jesuit Novitiate in Ireland on 6th September, 1902. From there, he transferred to the Novitiate at St. Andrews-on-the-Hudson, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., to continue for the mission work on the Rocky Mountain Missions. He taught school at Spokane and Seattle, Wn., for a number of years and on 28th June, 1917, was ordained to the priesthood at Woodstock College MD. The ten years after his tertianship were spent in teaching at Seattle, Spokane and Santa Fe, California.
In 1943 Fr. Stack was assigned as a teacher at Loyola High School, Los Angeles, a position he filled until 1948, when he became an assistant at Blessed Sacrament Parish, Hollywood. Ill health in 1955 led to his return to Loyola High School, where he was assigned as spiritual father for the community and confessor for several neighbouring convents.
Fr. Stack has three sisters living in Ireland, Sr. M. Stanislaus, Sr. M. Aloysius and Sr. M. Celsus. A fourth sister was overtaken by death as she was about to enter the religious life. Three of his five brothers were priests and all are now deceased, the last, Fr. James Stack, C.Ss.R. having died in Ireland in 1958.
Fr. Daniel Stack was a member of that now dwindling band of pioneers from foreign shores who volunteered for apostolic labours on the old Rocky Mountain Missions. He and those hardy veterans of the past founded the missions, schools and parishes which have been handed on to the Society. We owe them a debt of great gratitude.

Entered: 21 August 1564, St Andrea, Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)
Died: 27 September 1586, Chambéry, France - Lugdunensis Province (LUGD)

David Dinnis, Maurice Halley and Edmund Daniel were received in the Roman Novitiate 11 September 1651
David Dinnis may be “David Stackpoole” son of Denis Stackpole

1577: Age c28 at Paris studying Theology
1584: At Billom (LUGD) on Tertianship
Did 4 years Theology and taught Grammar for some years in Germany. Was Minister and Confessor
At Mayence “promotus artibus”. Not a formed Coadjutor. Age 40, not a strong man

“Mr David Stackpoll on 22 April 1577 asks to go to Ireland to dispose of his inheritance. Give him a companion, a letters patent and good advice for so distant a journey. When he has done his business he shall go to Charles and Robert who are in Ireland and give them the enclosed letters”

Born: 10 May 1698, Wexford Town, County Wexford
Entered: 17 October 1723, Villagarcía, Galicia, Spain - Castellanae Province (CAST)
Ordained: 27 November 1729, Salamanca, Spain
Final Vows: 15 August 1738, Salamanca, Spain
Died: 21 February 1743, Irish College, Salamanca, Spain - Castellanae Province (CAST)

1732 Rector of Salamanca

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Writer
1730-1743 Rector of Salamanca and Professor
1739 One of the Examiners of Father Lisward (Dr McDonald and de Backer “Biblioth. des Écrivains SJ”)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Son of James and Maria née Devereux
Had begun his Priestly studies at Irish College Salamanca before Ent 17 October 1723 Villagarcía
1725-1727After First Vows he was sent to teach Humanities.
1727-1729 He was then sent to Royal College Salamanca for Theology. He was Ordained there 27 November 1729
1729-1731 Sent to San Sebastián to teach Humanities
1731 Rector of Irish College Salamanca, and he died in Office 21 February 1743
Father Stafford's apostolic zeal and sound learning were well known to contemporary superiors of the mission and many requests were made to the General to have him sent back to Ireland. His Spanish Superiors fought for and held on to him.

Born: 27 January 1663, A Coruña, Spain
Entered: 28 March 1680, Villagarcía, Galicia, Spain - Castellanae Province (CAST)
Ordained: c 1686, Valladolid, Spain
Died: 10 August 1695, Irish College, Santiago de Compostela, Spain - Castellanae Province (CAST)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
(cf Father Morris’s Louvain Transcripts “Catal. Defunctorum”)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Son of Philip and Catalina
After First Vows he was sent for studies to Valladolid and was Ordained there c 1686
After his formation was complete he taught Humanities for a while at La Coruña, and later sent to teach Philosophy at Logroño
1692 He was sent to teach Philosophy at Irish College Santiago, where he died 10 August 1695

His “carta necrologica” mentioned his zeal for the preservation of the Faith in Northern Europe, and the example of sincere piety which so impressed the students from Ireland

Born: 11 December 1619, Wexford Town, County Wexford
Entered: 30 July 1648, St Andrea, Rome, Italy (ROM)
Ordained: Rome, Italy - pre Entry
Died: 19 August 1654, College of Orta San Giulio, Piedmont, Italy

Had studied Philosophy and Theology before Ent
1651 At College of Sezze ROM

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Had already studied and was Ordained at Irish College Rome before Ent 30 July 1648 Rome
1650 After First Vows he was sent to teach Humanities at Sezze and then Orta where he died 19 August 1654
James Relly, historian of the Irish College, Rome, mentions Richard Stafford in his work and paid tribute to his virtuous life which proved so tragically short.

Born: 01 November 1599, Brussels, Belgium
Entered: 18 September 1616, Mechelen, Belgium - Flanders Province (FLAN)
Ordained; 15 March 1625, Antwerp, Belgium
Died: 27 May 1627, San Sebastian, Spain - Flanders Province (FLAN)

Brother of William - RIP 1663

Son or Richard and Ellen Copley (Richard - -RIP Brussels 1618 - studied for 6 years after the death of his wife) brother of William
Fellow Novice of Jan Berchmans
1626 A P Stanihurst is in the FLAN-BEL Province
In 1639 he wrote 10 “distichs in Theobald Stapleton’s “Irish Catechism” where he signs P Stanihurstus, Societ. Jesu, Hibernus
An Eloquium on him in “Arch de l’état, Brussels", Carton 1005 I, died 29 June 1627

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Son of Richard and Helen née Copley and cousin of Protestant Bishop Ussher. Brother of William
Studied Humanities at Brussels under the Jesuits before Entry.
Fellow Novice of Jan Berchmans
Irish Mission Superior asked the General to send hoim or his brother William to teach at the irish College Compostella
Death date RIP 27 May 1627 Spain (before FV - Carton 1005 I. Archives de l’État, Brussels; Hogan’s Irish List; Mechelen Album)

Note regarding Peter and William Stanihurst taken from the leaves of Oliver, Stonyhurst MSS by Fr Morris SJ :
1644 Stanihurst : since about the year 1630, a good Father of the Society that lived in this town (Louvain) preached here on holidays. He was cousin german to the Superioress and her sister; he was named Father Stanihurst, whose mother was their father’s own sister, married to an Irish gentleman of good worth in his own country (St Monica’s Chronicle p 497) The Superioress, elected 25/02/1637, was Sister Mary Copley (St Monica’s Chronicle p 497). She and her sister Helen were daughters of William Copley of Gatton, Surrey, and heir of Lord Thomas Copley, Baron of Wells (ibid p120), that is Sir Thomas Copley who claimed the Barony of Wells. Richard Stanihurst, the father of Peter and William, became Chaplain to their Royal Highnesses, the Duke and Duchess Albert and Isabella, after the death of his wife Helen Copley (ita P Waldack). Of James Stanihurst, the father of Richard, Father Edmund Campion says in the preface to his “History of Ireland” : “Notwithstanding, simple and naked as it is, it could never have growen to any proportion in such post haste, except I had enterd into such familiar societie and daylie table talke with the worshipful esquire, James Stanihurst, Recorder of Dublin, who beside all courtesie and hospitality, and a thousand loving turnes not heere to be recited, both by word and written monuments, and y the benefit of his own library, nourished most effectively mine endeavours. Dublin 1633, reprinted 1809”
Richard Stanihurst was uncle to Ussher and cousin to Henry Fitzsimon. He wrote several works on which we see Sir J Ware’s “Irish Writers”, Webb’s Irish Biography. he became a priest upon his wife’s death, and Chaplain to the Archduke of Austria.
Barnaby Rich, Gent, in his “Description of Ireland” says R Stanihurst was a great alchymist. Father Holiwood often wrote to the General to have Peter and William sent to Ireland (Hogan)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Son of Richard and Helen née Copley. Brother of William. His Grandfather James was sometime Recorder of Dublin.
Contemporary in Noviceship of Jan Berchmans
1618-1623 After First Vows he was sent first to Antwerp and then to Bruges for studies. The he was sent on a year of Regency at Bergues Saint Winoc. Although born in Belgium, he was considered eligible for the Irish Mission, and in fact the Irish Mission Superior had hoped that he might do a Regency at the Irish College Santiago.
1623-1625 He was then sent back to Antwerp for Theology and he was Ordained there 1625
1625 He was then appointed a Naval Chaplain and so was living at Dunkirk. During the year 1626/27, when his ship put in at San Sebastian, he set out for Madrid. It is known that he preached to the sailors in Holy Week (Easter Sunday was on 4 April 1627, and that he died shortly after.

Born: 15 June 1601, Brussels, Belgium
Entered: 25 September 1617, Mechelen, Belgium - Flanders Province (FLAN)
Ordained: 30 March 1630, Mechelen, Belgium
Final Vows: 11 June 1634
Died: 10 January 1663, Brussels, Belgium - Flanders Province (FLAN)

Brother of Peter - RIP 1627

Son or Richard and Ellen Copley (Richard - -RIP Brussels 1618 - studied for 6 years after the death of his wife) brother of Peter
Fellow Novice of Jan Berchmans
1646 Catalogue Taught Humanities. Minister of Philosophers. Preacher in Flemish and English; Prefect of Sodality
Name is in 1619 and 1626 HIB Catalogue

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Son of Richard and Helen née Copley and cousin of Protestant Bishop Ussher. Brother of Peter - RIP 1627
Studied Humanities at Brussels under the Jesuits before Ent.
Fellow Novice of Jan Berchmans
Writer; Preacher; Man of great piety
He resided mostly at Brussels, and for twenty-five years was a zealous preacher in the English and Flemish languages. Full of modesty, charity and tender piety, he was the delight of his brethren, and the grace and ornament of religion. (Oliver, Stonyhurst MSS; Hogan’s Irish list; de Backer “Biblioth. des Écrivains SJ”)
He wrote seven or eight books, which went through many editions, and one translated into French, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, German, Polish and Hungarian.
1626 HIB Catalogue named

Note regarding Peter and William Stanihurst taken from the leaves of Oliver, Stonyhurst MSS by Fr Morris SJ :
1644 Stanihurst : since about the year 1630, a good Father of the Society that lived in this town (Louvain) preached here on holidays. He was cousin german to the Superioress and her sister; he was named Father Stanihurst, whose mother was their father’s own sister, married to an Irish gentleman of good worth in his own country (St Monica’s Chronicle p 497) The Superioress, elected 25/02/1637, was Sister Mary Copley (St Monica’s Chronicle p 497). She and her sister Helen were daughters of William Copley of Gatton, Surrey, and heir of Lord Thomas Copley, Baron of Wells (ibid p120), that is Sir Thomas Copley who claimed the Barony of Wells. Richard Stanihurst, the father of Peter and William, became Chaplain to their Royal Highnesses, the Duke and Duchess Albert and Isabella, after the death of his wife Helen Copley (ita P Waldack). Of James Stanihurst, the father of Richard, Father Edmund Campion says in the preface to his “History of Ireland” : “Notwithstanding, simple and naked as it is, it could never have growen to any proportion in such post haste, except I had enterd into such familiar societie and daylie table talke with the worshipful esquire, James Stanihurst, Recorder of Dublin, who beside all courtesie and hospitality, and a thousand loving turnes not heere to be recited, both by word and written monuments, and y the benefit of his own library, nourished most effectively mine endeavours. Dublin 1633, reprinted 1809”
Richard Stanihurst was uncle to Ussher and cousin to Henry Fitzsimon. He wrote several works on which we see Sir J Ware’s “Irish Writers”, Webb’s Irish Biography. he became a priest upon his wife’s death, and Chaplain to the Archduke of Austria.
Barnaby Rich, Gent, in his “Description of Ireland” says R Stanihurst was a great alchymist. Father Holiwood often wrote to the General to have Peter and William sent to Ireland (Hogan)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Son of Richard and Helen née Copley. Brother of Peter. His Grandfather James was sometime Recorder of Dublin.
1619-1626 After First Vows he was sent for Philosophy first to Antwerp and then Louvain. He was then sent for four years Regency to Oudenaarde and Courtrai (Kortrijk).
1626-1630 He was then sent to Louvain for Theology and was ordained at Mechelen 30 March 1630
1631-1632 Made Tertianship at Lier.
Over the next fifteen years the Superior of the Irish Mission made strenuous efforts to have William transcribed to Ireland. The Belgian Superiors said he didn’t know any Irish, and so this was used as a reason not to send him.
1632-1650 He was sent as Operarius to Louvain where he gained some reputation as a Director of a Sodality for jurists.
1650-1662 Sent to work at the Church in Antwerp, and was Spiritual Father to the Irish Seminarians there (1654-1662)
He died at Brussels 10 January 1663
Like his brother, he was a contemporary at Mechelen with Jan Berchmans and during the diocesan process of enquiry into the virtues of Jan, he was was summoned to give evidence before the Episcopal Tribunal.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father William Stanihurst SJ 1601-1663
In Brussels in the year 1601 was born William Stanihurst, of Irish parentage. Together with his brother Peter, he entered the noviceship at Mechlin, where they wewre fellow novices of St John Berchmans.

As a priest, Fr William resided chiefly at Brussels, where for twenty five years he was a renowned and zealous preacher, both in Flemish and English.

In 1630 he was transferred to Louvain, where for nearly thirty years he had charge of the famous Sodality of Our Lady. He was a writer as well as a preacher, one of his works being translated into seven different European languages.

He was a man of great piety, modesty and charity, and was spoken of as “the delight of his brethren and the ornament of religion”.

His father was Richard Stanihurst the uncle of James Usher, and cousin of Fr Henry Fitzsimon, kinsman of the martyr Jesuit poet, Robert Southwell, and friend of Blessed Edmund Campion.

When the plague broke out in Louvain, Fr William devoted himself to the care of the sick and was struck down by the pestilence. As he lay at the point of death, he made a vow to St Ignatius and immediately recovered. He was sent to Brussels where he died soon after on 10th January 1662.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
STANIHURST, WILLIAM, of Irish parents, but was actually born at Brussels. There he chiefly resided, and for 25 years was a zealous preacher in the English and Dutch languages. Full of modesty, charity, and tender piety, he was the delight of his Brethren, and the grace and ornament of Religion. He died on the 10th of January, 1663, aet. 61. Soc. 40. He has left as monuments of his piety and industry,

1. “Album Marianum”. Folio, Louvain, 1641.
2. “Regio Mortis”. 8vo. Antwerp, 1652.
3. “Thesaurus Moralis Francisci Labatae, noris commentationibus auctus”. Folio, Antwerp, 1652.
4. “De infernorum Ergastulo.” Antwerp, 1655
5. “Dei immortalis in mortali corpore Patientis Historia” 8vo. Antwerp, 1660, pp. 408.
6. “Quotidiana Christiani hominis Tessera”. 4to. Antwerp, 1661.
7. “Veteris hominis per expensa Quatuor Novissima Metamorphosis”. 8vo. Antwerp, 1661.
   F. Archdeacon (who must well have known the pious author) mentions two other works; but which perhaps were only ready for the press : “Thesaurus Concionum” and “de Passionc Domini”.

Born: 1570, County Meath
Entered: 25 November 1595, St Andrea, Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)
Died: 04 March 1597, Professed House, Rome, Italy, Romanae Province (ROM)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Had made Priestly studies in Belgium before Entry 25 November 1595 Rome. He died while still a Novice at Rome 04 March 1597.

Born: 22 September 1795, Ballymacoda, County Cork
Entered: 08 September 1835, Frederick, MD, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Final vows: 15 August 1846
Died: 23 October 1870, Boston College, Boston MA, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)

Born: 01 July 1810, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Entered: 16 December 1832, Nivelles, Belgium - Belgicae Province (BELG)
Ordained: 1843
Final vows: 28 August 1849
Died: 07 September 1881, St Kilda College, Sydney, Australia - Neerlandicae province (NER)

Archbishop of Auckland, died at St Kilda College on way to Europe for medical treatment.

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He had studied at Amiens and Fribourg, Switzerland before Entry
His Entry to the Society caused some stir in Holland because of the social position of his father, a well known merchant in Amsterdam.

After First Vows he got permission to go on the Borneo Mission. However, Providence or otherwise meant he ended up not in Borneo, but in Bombay India. After years of hard work there he was made Bishop of Bombay in 1861. He made great progress here, and he managed to persuade the local Governor to match any funding for a College he wanted to build. The said Governor was astonished at how much he raised, as he got money from Protestants, Muslims and Hindus as well as his own flock! The College was superb and named after St Francis de Sales
1867 He was translated to Calcutta as Bishop there. The he founded another College attached to a University, founded the Daughters of the Cross Nuns, and founded the Refuge of St Vincent’s Home, along with a large number of schools and orphanages. Under his rule began the successful Bengali Mission, as well as Missions to the Southals and Koles tribes living in the mountains. Once when returning from a missionary journey, he suffered injuries from a fall and the doctors recommended he return to Europe. He did so in 1878, but improved so rapidly that he applied to the Holy See for fresh work. He was appointed to the vacant See of Auckland, New Zealand, and he headed off immediately.
While in Auckland he won universal respect and endearment among the people there, but his health began to suffer from over exertion. On St Patrick’s Day he preached a sermon in three languages - English, French and German, and was so exhausted he retired to bed. It was the start of a fatal illness.
1881 Acting on medical advice he set sail for Europe on May 1st, but suffered on the voyage. So, when he arrived in Sydney he went straight to the house in St Kilda. his condition deteriorated, but he managed to say Mass in his room up to June 30th. After that others said Mass in his room for and with him. On August 4th, William Kelly, the Superior said the Mass assisted by the Archbishop. When Mass was over he sat in his armchair and received the Last Rites. Later that day he expressed gratitude to the community for the loving care they had taken of him, adding that they would soon assist in another more solemn ceremony for him. During his illness, though in severe pain, he showed great resignation. At times his mind wandered, but mostly he was clear minded. He gradually declined and died 07/09/1881.
William Kelly preached a fine Oration, and the Archbishop, assisted but four other dignitaries did the Final Commendation. He was buried on the North Shore Cemetery, an excellent Bishop and remained a true Son of the Society.

Note from John J O’Carroll Entry
William Delaney SJ : “Being in Rome in the year 1866, I was present on many occasions at conversations between JJ O’Carrol and a Dutch clergyman named Steins and also a Dalmatian named Jeramaz, with whom he conversed in the Dutch and Slavonic languages. I know these gentlemen intimately, and they assured me that Father O’Carroll spoke their languages with extraordinary ease and correctness.”

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Walter Steins did studies in Amiens and Fribourg before joining the Society in 1832 for the Dutch province. At final vows in 1849 he volunteered for overseas mission work and was sent to Borneo, but was derailed to Bombay (Mumbai) on the way. After many years of successful ministry he was appointed bishop of that city in 1861. In 1867 he was raised to an archbishop and moved to Calcutta where he founded numerous schools and orphanages, an order of nuns and began the famous Bengali Mission.
His health finally failed and he resigned and returned to Europe in 1878. At home his health recovered so quickly that he asked the Holy See for another appointment and was sent to Auckland. Here he quickly won the respect of everyone in the city but again his health failed and after preaching three sermons on St Patrick's Day (English, German and French), he collapsed. Under medical advice he sailed for Europe on 4 May, but was forced to break his journey in Sydney, and went to St Kilda House. Here his condition became worse, and on 4 August, William Kelly said Mass, administered extreme unction and gave him viaticum. Steins held on for a few more weeks until he finally died.

Born: 13 November 1842, Drumshambo, County Leitrim
Entered: 06 August 1860, St Stanislaus, Florissant, MO, USA - Missourianae Province (MIS)
Ordained: 1875
Final Vows: 15 August 1877
Died: 26 April 1889, Xavier College, Cincinnati, OH, USA - Missourianae Province (MIS)

Born: 13 July 1602, Worcester or Gloucester, England
Entered: 17 November 1624, Watten, Belgium - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 1633, Liège, Belgium
Final Vows: 04 May 1640
Died: 06 March 1671, Ghent, Belgium - Angliae Province (ANG)

Alias Campion and Scripsam

◆ The English Jesuits 1650-1829 Geoffrey Holt SJ : Catholic Record Society 1984
1646-1648 Sent to Ireland

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
STEVENS, JOHN. I meet with two Members of this name. The first was a Reverend Father and an able Scholar, born in Gloucestershire A.D. 1603 : was admitted into the Society at the age of 21 : was professed on the 4th of May, 1640 : was Rector of the English College at Rome from 1659 to 1663 : at the expiration of his office was called to Liege to govern his brethren there for the space of three years. I think he died there on the 10th of February, 1667.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
POYNTZ, JOHN frequently called Stephens. His death at Ghent, 6 March 1671 is thus recorded in the Annual Letters of that year :

“E domesticis unus P Johannes Stephans i Poynesius longa agritudine ad maciem confectus et laurea, eximae, patientiae donatues post nulla obita in Soc. munia et vitam innocentissime actam, Prof 4 Vot et omnibus Sacramentis rite munitus, morti tandem concessit, aeternum uti speramus victurus”.

When Fr Poyntz quitted the English Mission, he brought over to St Omer, as I find by Fr Richard Barton’s Certificate, 1 October 1668, the grteat bone of the arm of St Thomas, Bishop of Hereford. This venerable relick was placed in the front of the altar of the Sodality Chapel at St Omer’s College. The Provincial, Fr Joseph Simeons, in the Annual letters of 1670, records the blessing bestowed on the College by the Saint’s intercession: “Variis morbis in Valetudinario detinebanturomnino octodecim et ex iis aliqui periclitabantur et vita, tres afflictabantur Variolis et merito timebatur, ne in tanta juventuteea anni tempestate plurimos is morbus pervaderet. Indictus proinde est dies Precum 2 Octobris coram Ven. Sacramento, expositye etiam brachio S Thomae, Herefordiensis Epicsopi 60 mortuorum quondam suscitatione clari, cujus eo die Festum agebantur. Mirum dictu! ne unum quibus abeo die Variolas contraxit, et inter breve tempus omnes convaluere”.

Born: 24 April 1877, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 23 May 1896, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Died: 23 January 1897, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He lost his father at a very young age and his mother remarried, a man named Judge. He was then known as William Judge, until such time as he Entered the Society when he resumed his original name of Joe Stephens.

He had been befriended by Michael Waters who got him a place in Belvedere and he completed his studies there. In the same class as him were two Scholastic Novices who were Novices at the same time as he was a Brother Novice.

From Belvedere he went to the Apostolic School at Mungret, but his ever delicate health forced him to leave Mungret. Some months later, in the autumn of 1895 he went to Tullabeg as a Postulant, and Entered formally there 23 May 1896.

Seven months after his admission he died at Tullabeg 23 January 1897, after a very short illness of two weeks.

In spite of his very small size, weak frame and health he gave great edification to all as a Postulant and Novice. He was a model to all for his attitude of obligingness, willingness, unsparing hard work, and he was universally liked and respected by all. He was constantly fearful that ill health would cause him to be dismissed, and he wished to die in the Novitiate rather than have to leave.

He is buried in the graveyard at Tullabeg at the feet of Br Patrick Cooney.

Died: 20 May 1734, Lisbon, Portugal - Lusitaniae Province (LUS)

◆ In Chronological Catalogue Sheet
◆ CATSJ I-Y has “Esteves or Stephens”; RIP 20 May 1734 Lisbon

Born: 16 April 1906, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 01 September 1925, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 24 June 1937, Innsbruck, Austria
Final Vows: 02 February 1941, Belvedere College SJ, Dublin
Died: 11 April 1979, James Connolly Memorial Hospital, Blanchardstown, Dublin

Part of the University Hall, Hatch Street, Dublin community at the time of death

Early education at O’Connell’s School, Dublin; 1st year Arts at UCD and 1 yeat Philosophy at Holy Cross College, Clonliffe, Dublin before entry

by 1936 at Innsbruck, Tirol, Austria (ASR) studying

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - Holy Cross College Clonliffe before entry

Born: 15 December 1905, Carrick-on-Suir, County Waterford
Entered: 22 September 1923, Roehampton London - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 24 June 1937, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final vows: 02 February 1940
Died: 17 November 1981, Lechdale, Gloucestershire, England - Angliae Province (ANG)

by 1935 came to Milltown (HIB) studying 1934-1938

Born: 16 March 1896, Dunkitt, County Kilkenny
Entered: 31 August 1914, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 26 August 1928, Fourvière, Lyon, France
Final Vows: 02 February 1931
Died: 05 May 1990, Caritas Christi Hospice, Kew - Australiae Province (ASL)

Part of the Xavier College, Kew, Melbourne, Australia community at the time of death

Patrick was a relative of William Stephenson - RIP 1980

Early education at Clongowes Wood College SJ

Transcribed HIB to ASL : 05 April 1931

by 1923 in Australia - Regency
by 1927 at Paray-le-Monial, France (LUGD) studying
by 1929 at Lyon, France (LUGD) studying
by 1930 at Paray-le-Monial, France (LUGD) making Tertianship

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Patrick Stephenson was educated at Clongowes College, Dublin, and entered the Society 31 August 1914. After philosophy studies at Milltown Park, 1918-21, he was sent to Xavier College for regency in 1921, returned to England and France for theology in 1925, and was ordained at Lyons in 1928. Tertianship followed immediately at Paray-Ie-Monial.
He returned to Xavier College in 1930, and remained there for the rest of his life, except for a year as headmaster of Kostka Hall. For a few years, 1933-34, he was minister at the senior school.
Stephenson is best known for his teaching of geography or 'topography', as his subject was irreverently called. Students started the rumor that he dropped the exam papers from just outside his room on the top floor above second division, and the first paper to hit the floor was awarded First place. He also taught religion and French at various times.
His sermonettes on the missions on first Fridays were memorable as was his love for St Vincent de Paul. He ran a monthly meeting of this Society for 60 years, encouraging members to visit the sick and the poor. In addition, he edited the college annual, “The Xavierian”, for 47 years, and recorded news of generations of Old Boys. This was particularly important during the Second World War, when he became the “postbox and scribe to the world”. He would write to Old Boys on active service and their families each evening (his daily letter writing average was twelve), bringing much comfort to the men. Many letters that he received from the war were included in “The Xavierian” for all to read.
Stephenson was a great affirmer of people. His memory was prodigious of whole families for many generations, and he kept a card index system with the names of every boy and his family He was particularly caring for families in trouble, and good at obtaining jobs for ex-students through his long list of contacts.
During school vacations he visited major towns, country or interstate, catching up with Old Xaverians. He never stayed long, suggesting that he should go home about 9 pm. He was always very proud of Old Xaverians who did well, especially those who became judges, lawyers and doctors.
He grew old buoyantly. At the age of 80 he moved from his room in the attic to a room on the ground floor near the infirmary. At the age of 92, when he could no longer look after himself or handle the stairs, he moved to Caritas Christi, the hospice for the elderly. The move gave him a new life, exercising his legs as best he could and ringing up Old Boys from Sister Wallbridge's office when she was otherwise engaged.
He was a small man, but had a large heart and was open to change. He accepted Vatican II and began to wear a tie instead of the clerical collar soon after the Council.
Stephenson was never a good teacher, but was a memorable educator. For his services to education he was awarded an Order of the British Empire by the Queen. He had extraordinary influence on generations of Old Xaverians. His gentle humanity and love of people more than compensated for his lack of academic achievements. He was good company and his stories always enlivened community recreation. His funeral, which packed St Patrick's Cathedral, was a moving tribute to his influence.
In 2016 Xavier College removed Stephenson's name from its sports centre. The rector wrote to the Xavier community that there were some complaints against Stephenson, and that “the Province does not believe that the complaints made against Stephenson have been substantiated, but nor has it dismissed the allegations as being wrong. It believed that, on the available evidence there is room for genuine misunderstanding as to his intentions, as is explicitly acknowledged by one complainant ..., and that in the light of the complexity and seriousness of the issue, we accept that it is appropriate to change the name' of the sports centre”.

Note from William Stephenson Entry
William was a relative of Patrick Stephenson of the Australian province, and entered the Society at Tullabeg in 1898.

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 23rd Year No 3 1948

Extracts from a letter from Fr. P. J. Stephenson, Xavier College, Kew, Melbourne :
“... We had brilliant results last year. Xavier boys won 28 1st Class Honours and 68 2nd Class Honours in the December Examinations, 1947. Besides that, they won Exhibitions in Greek, French and Physics ; and four General Exhibitions and 2 Free Places in the University. That was a fine record for a class of about 40 boys. Five Xavierians joined the Noviceship this year : four were boys just left school. An Old Xavierian took his LL.B. Degree and became a Dominican.
Fr. Mansfield has been kept going since his arrival. He will be a great addition to our staff as he can take over the Business Class and the Economic Class. Fr. Lawler came over from W.A. about three weeks ago and has taken up the duties of Socius to Fr. Provincial. Fr. Boylan and his assistant Editor of the Messenger leave for Ireland and Rome soon”.

Born: 29 December 1882, Tramore, County Waterford
Entered: 07 September 1898, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 26 July 1914, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1917, Sacred Heart College SJ, Limerick
Died: 06 January 1980, Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin

William was a relative of Patrick Stephenson (RIP 1990) of the Australian province, and entered the Society at Tullabeg in 1898.

by 1903 at St Aloysius Jersey Channel Islands (FRA) studying
Came to Australia for Regency 1905

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
William was a relative of Patrick Stephenson of the Australian province, and entered the Society at Tullabeg in 1898. After juniorate and philosophy at Jersey, he arrived at Riverview in October 1905. He remained there until early in 1911, teaching, being assistant prefect of discipline, and for a couple of years, junior rowing master. He spent most of the rest of his life working in parish ministry and doing some pamphlet writing in Ireland.

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 55th Year No 2 1980

Obituary

Fr William Stephenson (1882-1898-1980)

The memorial card of Fr Willie Stephenson, which has been distributed to the whole Province, gives one a glimpse of the life of the man whose obituary I have been asked to write. He died at night on 6th January 1980 in his 98th year.
At the time of his death he had completed and sent to his printers a revised edition of one of his many booklets, Days with our Lady. Ninety six pages which he wrote in clearest manuscript before having it typed and corrected before sending it first for censorship and then to his printers. He died before the estimate for printing was returned. While engaged in this gigantic task, he was also coping with his usual “fan mail”, his Christmas post, and meeting a continuous stream of visitors.
He had a set routine of life: breakfast, meditation, Mass, divine Office, spiritual reading, recreation. From this routine he never diverged until about the Friday before the Sunday of the Epiphany. Then he was confined to bed and began to go downhill rapidly, but still fighting and believing that he would get back on his feet again to continue his life's work.
Though fighting for life, he had no fear of death and was fully aware that it might be at hand for him. After his doctor had seen him on the Saturday, I approached him and suggested that I would anoint him. He immediately said, “Very well, I was going to ask you yesterday to do it”, and he immediately put out his two hands over the blankets. I had brought the holy oils with me, and without any ordeal I proceeded with the anointing. He thanked me for it and went on without any sign of distress or emotion,
In the same way he regarded the announcement of other people's deaths, no matter how closely related they might have been to him. It was a matter of fact: a fact of life. I accompanied him to visit the remains of his sister at her home not many years ago. He mounted the stairs, went over to the bedside, took a brief glance at the remains, beautifully laid out, and then turned away saying to me, “She's the image of my mother”. There wasn't another word. He came to the church, did not meet many people or look for any sympathy. The words “O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?” were a reality both for himself and for those near and dear to him.
A letter written to him by a university student in London arrived after his death. It gives a very true picture of a younger Father Willie and shows the influence he had on many young men who had gone away from the Church and from religious practices. The letter begins, “Dearest Willie”, and the writer goes on to say: “My only sadness, my dear Willie, is that I never knew you as an adult. I feel sadness within me that I missed a guiding light in this sea of currents that can sweep one away to shores one did not consciously choose. I feel that you are a true man of God, even though I do not practise the faith. I know that you remember me, but I don't have such a clear picture of you. I remember walking up by Murray’s forge with you one day when I was about seven years old and you were reading your black book. The cuffs of your jacket were thread bare, and you were tall and thin with piercing eyes. I knew that you were a nice man, but I was also frightened of you. I see you now as a light. I know that I am out in the Arctic circle in terms of Catholic faith, but I see your light, Willie: I see it shining out there in the darkness, but it's a long way off”.
Monsignor Tom Cullen, a past pupil of Mungret and taught there by Father Stephenson, also wrote to him: “You are one of the greatest priests I have known in all my life. You are the very best. I remember you in Mungret: you were great to the Apostolics”.
Father Stephenson knew no barriers of class, creed, age or life-style. He was the friend of all and was truly “all things to all men”. In the prime of his life he worked in Galway, and was a “live wire” both in the school and in the church for twenty-five years; his principal work being the Holy Hour and the men’s sodality of our Lady. He spent the last thirty years of his life in the Rathfarnham community. Here he is greatly missed, both as a member of the community and as a confessor ad jan., and by a countless number of clients both young and old who constantly visited him. In the room which he occupied, everything spoke of centuries past. The older and more worn-out his garments became, the more he became attached to them - almost in every sense. He loved his game of cards, and we feel particularly indebted to his young friends in the Society who were so good to him and dropped in occasionally for a game'. .
Finally, of all the places he dwelt in during his long life - Jersey, where he did his philosophy; Sydney, his regency; Galway; Mungret, where he was first as pupil and later as sub mod of the Apostolic School, etc., - Tramore, his native spot, took pride of place. The following letter, signed by Michael Cullen, town clerk, came from Tramore Town Commissioners:
“Dear Father,
At the meeting of the Commissioners on 8th January, a vote of sincere sympathy was adopted to you and the Jesuit order on the regretted death of the late Father William Stephenson, SJ RIP.
Not alone did the Commissioners express their own regret but also the sense of loss of the whole community here who knew, respected and loved Father Stephenson who was born here and always expressed his affection for the town: he was one of our most valuable tourist ambassadors.
He was a personal friend to me and my family, and we were very closely associated with him during his holidays each summer: we shall never forget him.
The County Manager asked to be associated with this expression of sympathy,
May God grant Father Willie eternal rest, and consolation to all who mourn him.'

No account of the life of Fr William Stephenson would be complete without putting on record his vast contribution to the Province through his writings published by the Irish Messenger Office. In all, he had fourteen booklets published, many of which went into several editions. His great work, however, was the Child of Mary Prayer Book, which has seen forty editions, twelve of which he edited (1930-1975). He not only edited and compiled these booklets, but in many cases - especially in his latter years - contributed substantially towards the printing. His object in devoting his time and energy to this work was to do good and to help the seminary fund for the education of Jesuits.
He was always interested in finding and helping candidates for the priesthood, and kept up contact with them and with their families all through life. With youth of all kinds he had a special charism and could make instant contact with them when much younger men would be utterly inadequate. About six years ago, when he was ninety-two, an incident occurred which brought this home to me. I was called to the parlour to meet four youths. They had finished school and were just “browned off”, as they put it. Obviously I was not their man: after all I was over sixty. They asked me if there was any younger man they could talk to. I made an arrangement with them for the following day. They were satisfied, and as I was showing them out I saw the Old Man in the distance. He was coming up the avenue with a bundle of sticks for his fire under his arm.
I pointed him out to the youths and told them that only a few days previously he had celebrated his sixtieth year in the priesthood and was ninety-two years of age. I told them to stop him and congratulate him. Soon I saw a huddle down the avenue. He had his arms on their shoulders and was in deep conversation with them. I did not wait. Next morning I asked him “How did you get on with those lads you met on the avenue last evening?” “Great lads”, he said. He had all their names; knew where they lived and where they had been at school. “They are all going to Mass and holy Communion this morning”, he added. “How did this happen?” I asked him. “I asked them were they saying their prayers (no!); were they going to Mass (no!). I brought them in behind the laurel bushes and heard their confessions. They are going to Mass and holy Communion this morning, and tonight they are coming up to me for a game of Switch.
Fr Stephenson's life was not without its trials. He went through some very rough times and was let down by some who were his friends and to help whom he had gone to endless trouble. One of these robbed him of all his savings. But he had a maxim which he frequently repeated: “let nothing disturb thee”. This may be more easily said than done. He did it. He could shut out from his mind anything that was beyond his power to remedy and never refer to it once it was over. This gave him constant serenity of mind and the power to help troubled souls. He radiated peace and cheerfulness and optimism. This was the Great Old Man - the true man of God. RIP

◆ The Mungret Annual, 1949

Our Past

Father William Stephenson SJ

Father William Stephenson SJ (95-98), celebrated his Golden Jubilee as a Jesuit last year. Father William came here as a small boy and was the youngest of that group of novices to join the Society of Jesus in 1898. A mature boy he plumbed the depths of spiritual wisdom under the direction of Fr James Murphy, the famous novice master, He went to Jersey for his philosophy where he acquired a great facility in the happy French idiom. Repairing to Australia for his regency, there, he spent three years having a magnetic influence for good over the boys who were under his charge. He returned to Milltown Park for theology and was ordained there in 1915. His next appointment was to the Crescent College, and Mungret was privileged to have him on the staff the following year. He was responsible under God for the vocations of many of our Past. In 1920 he was transferred to St Ignatius, Galway, where he remained for 25 years. During that quarter of a century he built up a great Men's Sodality-one of the finest in Ireland. The memory of his fruitful work in Galway occasioned a striking presentation of a gift of a chalice from those whom he had guided so zealously. His name is familiar as an author of spiritual works. Innumerable pamphlets, prayer-books and leaflets by his hand grace the book-stalls of our churches. We congratulate him on his more recent book “Christ Our Light”, a review of which we publish in this issue. Fr Stephenson is now a member of the Community at Manresa, Clontarf - the retreat house for workmen. We offer him wealth of blessings.

Born: 30 January 1906, Rathmines, Dublin
Entered: 31 August 1923, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 24 June 1937, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1940, Coláiste Iognáid, Galway
Died: 01 April 1977, Tuam, County Galway

Part of the Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin community at the time of death

by 1929 at Valkenburg, Limburg, Netherlands (GER I) studying
by 1939 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) making Tertianship

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 52nd Year No 3 1977

Obituary :

Fr Robert L Stevenson (1906-1977)
Father Robert L Stevenson was born in Dublin, June 30th 1906, and after some education privately, went to the Christian Brothers, Synge Street. He entered the Noviceship at Tullabeg on August 31st 1923. Beginning his studies for the BA at Rathfarnham in 1925, he passed through the usual course and was ordained at Milltown Park, June 24th 1937. He had gone to Valkenburg for Philosophy, 1928 1931, and his Tertianship was spent at St Beuno's, 1938-1939. The years 1939-1941 were spent in Galway as Prefect of Studies and teaching, and his work was similar at the Crescent, Limerick, 1941 1946. From 1938 to his death in 1977 he was a missioner, stationed successively at Emo, Belvedere, Tullabeg, Emo and Rathfarnham. His years at Rathfarnham (1969-1977) were brought to a close by his death “in harness” at Tuam, April 1st 1977.

Of his years immediately after the Tertianship we have a clear picture from what Father James Stephenson, The Hall writes:
Bob Steve when I knew him and lived with him in his early years in the Society was what would be called in those days, “a good Community man”. He had a ready wit and was endowed with a felicity of expression and vividness of imagery that was most entertaining and more than usually amusing.
What made him “tick over” was an intense zeal for souls or to put it in modern jargon, his motivation was the betterment of the spiritually" underprivileged". However, after his tertianship, it was some years before he was able to put his ambition into operation. During those early years as a priest he was assigned to administration, and acted for many years as Minister in the Sacred Heart Church, Limerick. It was a post he naturally disliked but he carried on his duties faithfully and effectively. Of course, what made this post tolerable was that he was Prefect of the Church and so had plenty of Church work to do, sermons, confessions, counselling and sodality direction. He was for many years Director of the Ignatian Sodality and a very popular and energetic Director at that. He went to great pains in preparing his talks and sermons, having his eye, I suppose, on the type of work he desired, namely the Mission Staff. This care in preparation of talks and sermons served him in good stead during his life as a Missioner when he had the leisure to write and publish in addition to some pamphlets, a book on the Holy Land and also a biography of a Jesuit he most admired, Father Leonard Shiel.
As a preacher and retreat giver he worked among the Irish in Great Britain. Towards the end of his life he also devoted much of his zeal and energy to mission work in the United States.
It may be of interest to mention in passing that as a scholastic teacher in Belvedere he took a great interest in the Newsboys Club, an interest he translated into practice when making his renunciation before his final vows.
Some years ago he had trouble with his heart and it was that way God took him when giving a mission in Tuam Cathedral. Death came as a thief but it did not find him unprepared. He went to his Maker full of merit and good works. May he rest in peace.

Father Kevin Laheen writes: My first contact with Fr Bob Stevenson was in Belvedere in the thirties when he taught Irish and RK. He was an excellent teacher, had a gift of keeping discipline in a pleasant sort of way, and his ability to impart his knowledge to the boys was something which we, in our youth, could appreciate, and often did publicly admire.
But he did ambition a life of specifically priestly work, as opposed to an administrative job which after all does not call for the sacrament of Holy Orders. Though as Minister in the Crescent he did is job well, his heart was in the pulpit, in the confessional and on the altar.
At length he got the job (as a missioner) for which he was suited, which he loved, and at which there was no way in which it could be said that he was anything but a complete success. An eloquent and - fluent speaker, he could hold an audience in the palm of his hand for anything up to forty minutes, and that in the days when the TV has conditioned people to accept things in capsule form. Although uncompromising in the pulpit in proclaiming the teaching of Christ and the Church (often being accused of being too far right of centre) he could be a most compassionate man when dealing with the weaknesses of those who often lapsed from the strictest following of Christ.
His kindness to women, especially to nuns, was a side of Bob that was not generally known. In the days when the lay sister was regarded as the unpaid servant of the community, Bob was her champion, and I have met many such sisters who have sounded his praises and her own gratitude to him for his understanding sympathy and kindness, to say nothing of his courage in defending these sisters, when to have done so would have risked being “blacked” in the convent where such defence was registered.

In the early forties, just after the war, or even during the last years of it, Fr Leonard Shiel and Father Bob started the mission to the Irish in Britain literally single-handed. Leonard had the ideal that if the Irish brought none of this world's wealth to the land of adoption, they certainly brought their strong Irish faith, and his aim, aided by Father Bob, was to make sure that their faith suffered no injury by the new materialistic surroundings in which they found themselves, so but in addition that these same Irish would be apostles of the faith spreading it among those with whom they lived and worked. An ideal like this took courage. Many a patronising and openly hostile comment was made about this work. But neither of these men could be turned aside from their ideal; and by degrees they were joined by Frs M Bodkin, R Maguire, B Prendergast, B Hogan, T Kilbride and many others, until the thing took on the nature of a crusade. Then the Irish bishops were approached, and nothing happened for some years, Leonard Shiel then approached the English bishops, and at last the two hierarchies got together and other orders came in to help. This work has now virtually passed out of the hands of the Society but its flourishing success, and the immense good it has done, must be ascribed to the inspiration and devotion and zeal of these two men. Without the support of Father Bob I think the scheme would have remained a one man apostolate of Father Shiel. This is a chapter of history that so many younger members of the staff, and indeed of the Province, know nothing about. It took a zeal and single-minded dedication that I have often felt would have cheered the heart of Saint Ignatius. (See, however, Father Bob's book about Fr Leonard Shiel, “Who Travels Alone”, especially Chapters four and five-Ed.).
In the last ten years, Bob was definitely low key, as they would say these days. His preaching was just as eloquent and gripping. His zeal was untiring, but he liked to get back to base a great deal more, and devote so much of his time to writing. He was a man of great linguistic gifts, and apart from having a reading knowledge (and in some cases a speaking knowledge, too) of most European languages, he had also mastered Russian.
I think he was a little worried in recent years about the direction the Society was taking. In his own mind I don't think he was convinced that the balance between the vertical and horizontal approach to the service of God has been found. I also feel that he had some idea that his life was running out, and-looking back over certain things he said to me-I feel he was preparing for the end. Sickness was a thing he never knew nor liked, though to the sick he was devoted and kind. God took him mercifully in the arms of a fellow Jesuit, anointed by another, and receiving expert first aid treatment from the fourth member of the mission team at Tuam.
In the course of his second last mission, in his own native parish of Beechwood Avenue, a lady told me that on many occasions in the course of the mission he said, “Remember, if you knock daily on the Gate of Heaven by saying your daily prayers, when you knock for the last time in death, Our Lord will keep His promise and open for you”. After his devoted life, I have a feeling that the door was always open, awaiting him.

Father Niall O'Neill writes:
Imperial Hotel, Tuam: 1st April 1977:

Supper in the Hotel was at 6 pm. The Missioners Frs Séamus MacAmhlaoibh, Noel Holden and myself - Niall O'Neill - started almost immediately. Fr Bob who had been out of sorts for a day or two came down later and sat with his book at his favourite spot Fr. Seamus MacA gave Fr Bob some notices to be announced at the out-church-Lavally (Leath Bhaile) as we left the dining-room. Bob seemed in good form and gave his usual “OK”.
We went to get ready for confessions in the Cathedral at 7.00 pm, as it was the 1st Friday. Noel went back down to discuss something with Bob at about 6.45. They were talking on the way up the stairs which were very steep, about the closing of the Mission. Noel's room was No.24 at the end of a short corridor at the top of the stairs. At Noel’s room Bob put his hand on the handle of the door and gasped and slumped. Noel caught him and shouted, “Niall, quick, quick”. Séamus and I were together round the corner about 15 feet away; as we arrived Noel was holding Bob in his arms. We brought him to the bed in No 24. Seamus and Noel looked after him spiritually - Absolution and Anointing. While they were doing this I opened collar, thumped his chest and gave artificial respiration (mouth to mouth). A lady came to the top of the stairs and we asked her to ring for a Doctor. Noel said he could feel no pulse. We prayed and gave more resuscitation and respiration. I went for some whiskey and asked at the Desk if they had rung the Doctor - he was on his way. The whiskey wasn't used. I took over the respiration again from Séamus. Noel said, “he's gone”. I went down again and asked at the desk that they would ring Fr Greally, the Administrator. He came on the phone and I told him Bob had had an “attack”. As I was on the phone the Doctor (Cunningham) arrived-it was only 7.05 pm. He confirmed our fears. He left to order the ambulance. Fr Greally arrived at 7.7. We decided that Séamus would go to Lavally. As Noel had had the brunt of the shock he would stay and ring the Provincial and Rathfarnham. 7.10 I went to the Order of Malta Ambulance Unit. As there was to be a Dinner at the Hotel at 7.30 I hurried on the Ambulance, although it was already under way. I went into the Cathedral and started the Rosary for the Mission at 7.20: “This Rosary will be offered for Father Robert Louis Stevenson our Senior Missioner who has been taken ill and has been removed to Hospital”. After the Rosary I found the Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Joseph Cunnane in the Sacristy. He presided at my Mass, I preached on the Sacred Heart and after the sermon His Grace came to the Ambo and announced the death of “Fr. Robert Louis Stevenson”. He paid a tremendous tribute to Bob as priest, missioner, fellow-organizer with Father Leonard Shiel of the mission to the emigrants in England, writer and staunch up-holder of the faith.
In the meantime the Ambulance had arrived at the Hotel at 7.25, and took Bob to the “Grove” Hospital in Tuam which is run by the Bon Secours Sisters. They were marvellous. Bob was laid out in a beautiful private room; they provided a lace Alb, White Vestments (The Resurrection), and arranged the room very attractively: the table with Crucifix, lighted candles on one side of the bed, on the other a table with an exquisite vase of freshly cut Daffodils.
At Lavally Seamus announced the sad news, and Mass was said for Bob at 7.30 and 8.00 pm.
Noel had been trying to contact our Dublin Houses, by phone. When Mass and confessions were over Bob and I removed all Bob’s things from his room in the Hotel and returned the key to the desk. We then went to the Hospital, and with Frs Greally and Gleason joined two nuns (Sr. Loreto, Superioress and another), saying the Rosary, and then said another - the Glorious Mysteries - taking a decade each.
Later at the Presbytery the Priests served tea. Noel had failed to contact Fr Meade, who was absent when he rang Rathfarnham. Eglinton Road, when contacted, deferred any decisions until Fr. Meade had been consulted. At 11.10 Fr. Provincial was on the phone, and later Fr Meade rang. Arrangements were made for a funeral from Gardiner St - the remains to arrive on Saturday at 5 pm. It was now 11.30 pm, and undertakers had to be contacted to arrange for a removal from the Hospital at 10.15 next day, Saturday. Mass was arranged for 11 o'clock at the Cathedral, the departure from Tuam to Dublin to be immediately afterwards.
Near 12.00 midnight lots were drawn to choose an undertaker without favouritism. McCormicks were drawn. We went to his house and aroused him from bed. Then back to the Hotel to compose an Obituary Notice for the papers. After 1 o’clock Noel went back to the Undertaker with the Notice, and so to bed at 1.30 am.
April 2nd, Saturday: As I had to preach at the 8 am Mass, and say the 10 o'clock Mass, while Seamus was at Lavally, Noel attended the removal from the Hospital at 10.15. The Archbishop arrived during the Rosary and joined in; he recited the removal prayers, and the coffin was carried out by the Administrator Fr Greally, Fr Concannon CC, Fr Gleason, CC, and the Doctor on duty. The Archbishop, Noel and all the priests walked in the funeral through the town after the hearse. The shops closed and pulled their blinds. There was a huge crowd at the Cathedral. The coffin was placed in front of the High Altar and a concelebrated Mass followed. The Archbishop was the Principal Celebrant, and Fr Holden preached a particularly fine eulogy of 7 minutes, in which he included sincere thanks to the Archbishop, clergy and people for their sincere sympathy. The Galway community was represented by Frs McGrath and J Humphreys, and Brs Crowe and Doyle. After Mass the Archbishop recited all the prayers over the coffin and led us in the “In Paridisum”...as we walked down the aisle of the Cathedral. In his last sermon Bob had said, “I will never see you again ...” and this had made a deep impression on the men. After our unvesting the funeral moved off at about 11.50 am. The hearse was escorted to the boundary of the parish by the Galway Jesuits, and Fr Concannon CC. drove us three missioners in his car.
After early lunch in the Hotel we talked about Bob's favourite prayer which Noel had mentioned in his eulogy, “I'll talk with God”: “There is no death, though eyes grow dim. There is no fear while I'm with Him...”
It seemed fitting that the Archdiocese of Tuam should have been the last place for Bob to preach his last Mission, and begin his New Mission with our departed fellow Jesuits in the Communion of Saints: It had large Irish-speaking areas, and Ballintubber Abbey - “The Church that refused to Die”. The End-of-Mission Confessions began at 1.30 p.m. That evening Noel went to Lavally. Seamus gave a Penitential Service in the Cathedral followed by Mass and Confessions. Next day-Sunday, 3rd we spoke at all the Masses, inviting the congregation to the end-of-Mission ceremonies at 7.30 pm. At concelebrated Mass at 7.30 pm. His Grace, Noel and I were concelebrants. Noel preached. Séamus MacA closed in Lavally. Our supper ended at 10.30, and so to bed at 11.00.
April 4th: Monday. Up at 6.00: After breakfast in the Presbytery I drove the ADM to the funeral in Gardiner Street, where Fr Hanley received us and gave the ADM every hospitality. After the funeral we had dinner in SFX where Fr Greally seemed very pleased.
Introducing the requiem Mass in Gardiner Street Church on the morning of Monday, April 14th, Father Matthew Meade, Superior of Rathfarnham Castle where Father Robert Stevenson was stationed, expressed the sympathy of all present--of his brother Jesuits and all those whom Father Stevenson had helped in so many ways - with Father Stevenson’s sister who was present, having crossed over from Richmond, Surrey. Father Stevenson’s life, said Father Meade, was simply summed up in one word: He was a Missioner. A most gifted and eloquent preacher, he had spent some thirty years preaching the Word of God in many lands. He was a tireless worker. Never, Father Meade said, since he first knew him forty years ago, both as a fellow worker with him on the missions and as Director of the Mission and Retreats Apostolate, had he ever known Father Robert Stevenson to refuse any assignment given to him or to fail to answer any call made upon his services on the grounds of being tired or over-worked or unfit to undertake any work to which he was assigned. The circumstances of his death are proof of this generous spirit. While he was engaged in giving a mission in Tuam Cathedral, he died in the arms of his fellow missioners. It was a glorious ending to a life lived out to the full in god's service,
Some little glimpse of Father Stevenson's spirit is seen in something Father Meade related to the Editor : “I cannot lay my hands upon an edition of the Province News which must have come out in 1965/67 when I wrote notes on the work of the Mission. In one of these editions, I remember, I wrote about an extraordinary achievement of Bob’s, which showed his remarkable versatility. I was asked to supply a priest for a mission: I think it was in Kerry or Co. Cork. There were in this place three workers' camps on some big scheme. One camp was of Germans; another of Irish Speakers, and the third English speaking men and women of the locality. The missioner would have to preach to one section in German; to another in Irish and to the third in English. Bob took on the whole mission by himself and did the whole mission as requested. I think I published a letter from the priest there, giving an account of this remarkable achievement on Bob's part and how well he did it all”.
Father Noel Holden, in whose arms Father Stevenson died in the Hotel where the Missioners were staying while giving a mission in Tuam, said that it was clear that Father Stevenson was unwell for some time before he died. Indeed during lunch on that First Friday (April 1st) the Archbishop of Tuam (Dr. Cunnane) by phone had invited Father Stevenson to stay with the Archbishop for the rest of the Mission. His Grace could see that Father Stevenson was very unwell. At the Requiem Mass in Tuam, the chief concelebrant was His Grace the Archbishop of Tuam. At the Mass Father Holden spoke few words. He drew attention to the fact that when Father Bob died the notes were in his pocket for the sermon he was to have preached that day concerning the Sacred Heart. The concluding words of the sermon were to have been: “No stranger of God”. Father Holden reminded his hearers that these words were very true of Father Stevenson himself. His missionary work was the work of a man whose prayer kept him close to God from whom he sought continually for guidance and help in his work for souls.
Fr Holden said that Fr Stevenson had a big 'mail' from people whom he had at some time directed spiritually during his missions. Father Stevenson never preached without having with him a summary of that special sermon: each such occasion, each such congregation, was new, different. And this in spite of the fact that he had so crowded a programme. Fr Holden noted the programme of Fr Stevenson's closing months. In January he had given a mission in Corby, England; from February 6th to 20th he preached at Knock;from February 27th to March 13th his work was in Beechwood Avenue - where he had been born. He died “in harness” in Tuam on April 1st during a Mission which with three other Fathers he had begun on March 20th. He was very proficient in preaching in the three Irish dialects: that of Donegal - whose Hills he loved - of Connaught and of Munster.
Father Holden reminds us that Father Stevenson wrote a lot. He published many Messenger Office Pamphlets. In 1975 he published a book on Father Leonard Shiel entitled “Who Travels Alone”. His foreword ended with the words: “I have chosen to call his memory - WHO TRAVELS ALONE, for I think it sums up a man both restless and still reserved, a riddle to all of us, his friends”. Fr Holden said that the core of this tribute could be applied also to Father Stevenson himself, for his life was one of restless thought and work in his efforts to help souls to God.
Father Holden could also show that Fr Stevenson did not easily relinquish any project he had turned his attention to. Fr Stevenson had visited the Holy Land some years ago. He made many written notes and also took many photos with the intention that his impressions and reflections when published might help others who wished to study and visit Our Lord's “Native Land”. The following summer Father Stevenson was in Los Angeles where he prepared his book for publication; but when back in Ireland he found that the case containing his manuscript notes and diaries had got lost. But he would not allow his spiritually helpful undertaking to be frustrated. Between his missions during the next year he made use of free intervals to recall his impressions of the Holy Land and wrote-from memory therefore-his helpful and successful Book: “Where Christ Walked”.
Father Holden adds the small but significant addition which helped Fr Stevenson very much to understand and attract Christians other than Catholics: Father Stevenson's father was a Scotch Presbyterian. His mother's people were from Graiguenamanagh, which he had visited as late as last May when giving a Mission at nearby Loughlinbridge.

Born: 19 September 1900, Cape Town, South Africa
Entered: 18 March 1923, Loyola Greenwich, Australia (HIB)
Ordained: 14 June 1932, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1936
Died: 19 August 1972, Canisius College, Pymble, Sydney, Australia - Australiae Province (ASL)

Transcribed HIB to ASL: 05 April 1931

by 1927 at Heythrop, Oxfordshire (ANG) studying

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Arthur Stone had English, Anglican parents, who came to Australia from South Africa. He became a convert when at the parish school at North Sydney at the age of ten. Then he went to the Marist Brothers High School, Darlinghurst, and was head prefect in 1918. He went on to study engineering at the University of Sydney. He later worked as a civil engineer in the NSW Department of Main Roads. He played rugby league with the North Sydney firsts, and joined the Jesuits, 18 March 1923, at Greenwich.
Most of his studies as a Jesuit were in Ireland, at Rathfarnham, as a junior, 1925-26, and theology at Milltown Park, 1929-33. He studied philosophy at Heythrop, England, 1926-29, and did tertianship at St Beuno's, 1933-34.
He returned to Australia and taught at Riverview, 1934-39. But his heart was in pastoral work, working between North Sydney and Lavender Bay, and he was eventually parish priest, of North Sydney, 1947-53, and Lavender Bay, 1953-59. He walked the streets visiting his people, and related well to then. This was shown in the 1950s when he asked the cardinal for permission to attend a concert given by Johnny Ray, the first of the pop stars. The request was so surprising that it was given. The story was well told in the parish magazine. This made up for his lack of conversation in the Jesuit community.
He also worked in the parish of Richmond, 1959-68, and then retired to Canisius College, Pymble, being almost paralysed. He could not say Mass, but heard confessions at St Patrick's Church, Church Hill, in Sydney. At Pymble he enjoyed watching Australian Rules football on television every Saturday during the season.

Born: 24 April 1893, County Wicklow
Entered: 06 October 1917, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Died: 07 March 1919, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He was attacked by a sever influenza at Tullabeg and died after a very short illness 07 March 1919.
He had great promise, and had God spared him, he would have been a very good Brother.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - Waiter before entry; Died of influenza epidemic

Provincial of the English Province

Born: 06 May 1835, County Wicklow
Entered: 12 June 1874, Sevenhill - Austriaco-Hungaricae (ASR-HUN)
Final Vows: 02 October 1884
Died: 29 July 1915, St Aloysius, Sevenhill, Adelaide, Australia

Transcribed ASR-HUN to HIB : 01 January 1901

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He originally belonged to the Austrian Mission in South Australia and then the HIB Mission after amalgamation in 1901.
He had charge of the Vintage cellar at Sevenhill and also worked in the garden.
He was very hardworking and remained at Sevenhill until his death there 29 July 1915.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Patrick Storey migrated from Ireland to Australia and worked as a labourer before entering the Society at Sevenhill, 12 June 1874. He worked at Sevenhill for the rest of his life performing all necessary domestic duties, keeping the books and was in charge of the servants. He was cellarer from 1889-1911, and was the first non-Austrian to have charge of the winery. He greatly enhanced the reputation of the Sevenhill winery producing good quality wines, especially altar wine.
He combined evenness of temperament, good judgment and general reliability with good humour and wit, and so was not only respected but also liked by all who came into contact with him. He had a large funeral, and was one of the more striking figures of the Austrian Mission.

Born: 01 May 1832, Banbridge, County Down
Entered: 21 August 1852, Frederick, MD, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Final Vows: 15 August 1863
Died: 24 April 1889, Holy Cross College, Worcester, MA, USA - Marylandiae Neo-Eboracensis Province (MARNEB)

Staff officer to Principal Chaplain, Roman Catholic

Born: 04 November 1822, Lough Glynn, County Roscommon
Entered: 07 September 1840, Hodder, Stonyhurst, England - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 1850
Died: 22 April 1856, Sevastopol, Crimea

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Studied Humanities at Stonyhurst before Ent.

1841 After a year at Hodder, he was sent to Madeira with his father for a change of air 27 September 1841
1844 Sent to Liverpool School for Regency
The after studies in Philosophy at Vals and a long course in Theology at St Beuno’s, he was Ordained 1850.
1851-1853 Appointed Minister at Stonyhurst
1853-1854 Appointed Superior of the new school in Manchester
1854 Appointed Superior of the new Mission at Accrington

He was appointed Chaplain to the English forces in the Crimean War, for which he had volunteered. He died in a camp there of fever 22 April 1856 aged 34. he was universally beloved for his many virtues, a man of great talent and high promise. he was buried in the Crimea with military honours, and his funeral was accompanied by upwards of 6,000 troops. He had caught the fever while voluntarily attending to the wounded French soldiers. He died before taking Final Vows.

Born: 07 July 1819, Lough Glynn, County Roscommon
Entered: 14 May 1838, Hodder, Stonyhurst, England - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 1850
Final Vows: 02 February 1864
Died: 30 May 1901, Roehampton, London, England - Angliae Province (ANG)

Older Brother of Gerard Strickland - RIP 1856 (33)

Died: 12 November 1773, Faenza, Italy

◆ Fr John MacErlean SJ
Brother Andrew Stritch arrived in Paraguayensis Mission (PAR) in 1767 to be met by the expulsion order for Jesuits. He was deported to Italy where he died at Faenza, Italy, 12 November 1773.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Brother Andrew Stritch ????-1773
Br Andrew Stritch, judging by his name, was a native of Limerick.

On his arrival at Paraguay, he was met with the Royal decree of expulsion in 1767, and he returned to Italy. He died there at Faenza in 1773, the year of the Suppression.

Born: 1616, County Limerick
Entered: 22 July 1640, Bordeaux, France (AQUIT) - Aquitainiae Province
Ordained: 1648, Galway
Died: 11 January 1681, La Rochelle, France - Aquitainiae Province

Alias de Stricke

1646 At La Rochelle teaching Grammar
1648 Went to Ireland with Frs Mercurian and Verdier (Fr Verdier returned before 1649, for in this and the following year he taught Theology at Bordeaux)
1651 AQUIT CAT On the Martinique Mission
1666 CAT Is living at Limerick where he revived the Sodailty of BVM. He teaches Humanities, is Preaching, Catechising and administering the Sacraments. Was on the Mission in the Indies 12 years. On Irish Mission 4 years.
1666 Thomas Stritch SJ teaches school
1670 Fr Stritche was in Ireland, Limerick or Ennis (Arch Ir Coll Rome I 85-87)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
1648 At Bordeaux
1649 Came to Ireland with Mercure Verdier - Visitor to Irish Mission - and was Ordained by the Nuncio
Twelve years a Missioner in West Indies
1662-1666 In Limerick, Preaching, Catechising, administering the Sacraments and teaching Humanities. (HIB CAT 1666 - ARSI)
He had extraordinary adventures, which are told in Hogan’s “Irish Exiles in St Kitt’s”.

◆ Fr John MacErlean SJ :
1647 Teaching at La Rochelle and chosen to accompany Fr Mecure Verdure as Socius and interpreter for his Visitation of the Irish Mission
When the Irish Visitation was finished he returned to France for further studies and then volunteered for the West Indies Mission, where there were thousands of Irish exiles who needed spiritual support.
1650 Arrives in Martinique and went from there to Guadaloupe to work with the Irish, English and negro people
1662 Failing health necessitated return to Europe.
1663-1679 Came to Ireland and worked in Limerick, and then was banished to France at the time of the Titus Oates plot in 1679
1680 Arrived at La Rochelle in poor health and died the following year there

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Had made Priestly studies and graduated MA probably at Bordeaux before Ent 1640 Bordeaux
After First Vows he was sent teaching in AQUIT Colleges for six years, and was then designated as a travelling companion for Mercure Verdier on the occasion of his Visitation of the Irish Mission 1648-1649.
After Verdier and Stritch’s arrival in Ireland, John was Ordained Priest by the Nuncio at Galway.
During the Visitation of the Mission he was interpreter for Father Verdier. At the end of the Visitation, he returned with Verdier to France and was assigned to the task of completing his theological studies at Bordeaux.
1650-1662 He had volunteered for the missions and arrived in Martinique in 1650. From there he travelled on to Guadelupe where he worked among the Irish, the English and the negroes until in 1662 failing health forced him to return to Europe
1663-1679 Came to Ireland and worked in Limerick, and then was banished to France at the time of the Titus Oates plot in 1679
1680 Arrived in poor health at La Rochelle and died there the following year 11 January 1681

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father John Stritch SJ 1616-1681
Fr John Stritch was born in Limerick in 1616. He entered the Society at Bordeaux in 1640.

While teaching at La Rochelle in 1647 he was chosen to act as Socius and interpreter to Fr Mercure Verdier during his Visitation of the Irish Mission.

His studies completed he volunteered for the West Indies Mission. Arriving at St Kitt’s he was welcomed and bless by the Irish slaves there, heard the confessions of 3,000 of them and then passed on disguised as a timber merchant to Mount Serrat where great numbers of Irish were employed as woodcutters. He revealed his real character to the, and he spent the mornings administering the Sactraments, and the day in hewing wood to throw the dust in the eyes of the English. Meanwhile, the heretics, jealous of the religious consolations of the Catholics of St Kitts, transported 150 of them to Crab Island and left them to die of starvation. Fr Stritch got together as many of the Irish in St Kitts as he could, and he passed with them to the French island of Guadeloupe, where he lived a long time with them, now and then going in disguise to help the Irish on the other islands. He converted in his excursions about 80 Protestants a year.

Owing to ill health he retired to Ireland in 1662 and laboured in Limerick where he revived the Sodality of Our Lady.

In 1679 he was banished to France owing to the Titus Oates Plot and he died at La Rochelle in 1681.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
STRICH, JOHN,* quitted Bourdeaux with Pere Verdier, 2nd November, 1648: was obliged to wait at Rochelle for five weeks until a sea-worthy ship could be procured : sailed thence on the 5th of December, and after a rough and stormy voyage reached Galway, on the 28th of December, that year, when I lose sight of him.

Born: 03 February 1564, Waterford City, County Waterford
Entered: 24 July 1614, Mechelen, Belgium - Belgicae Province (BELG)
Ordained: 23 March 1602, Bordeaux, France - pre Entry
Died: 28 August 1629, Waterford Residence, Waterford City, County Waterford

Alias Stronge

Parents Richard and Catherine Walsh
Studied Grammar in the public schools at Waterford
1617 In Ireland Age 50 Soc 3
1621 Age 58 in Soc 6. Not strong. Talent and judgement middling. Is prudent. Rather phlegmatic. Confessor and takes good care of domestic matters
1622 In East Munster
1626 In Ireland
A stray Hogan slip “became a Jesuit in 1614 and died in August 1628

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Son of Richard and Catherine née Walshe
He and John Copinger were educated at Bordeaux (Calendar of State Papers - Irish) and was ordained there by Cardinal Sardis Archbishop of Bordeaux and Agen, and Primate of Bordeaux. He had previously studied Humanities for seven years at Waterford - perhaps that school of the famous Peter White (cf Foley’s Collectanea) All this before Entry in 1614, and he was received by Father Scibani Provincial of Flanders 24 July 1614,
1617 and 1626 On the Irish Mission

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Son of Richard and Catherine née Walsh
He had done his Priestly studies at Bordeaux and was Ordained there 23 March 1602 before Ent 28 July 1614 Mechelen. There is no record of his career between this latter date and his admission to the Society except that in 1604 he was still at Bordeaux and acting there as agent for Father Holywood.
1615 While still a Novice he was sent to Ireland and Waterford, where he worked until his death 28 August 1629