Ireland

102 Name results for Ireland

88 results directly related Exclude narrower terms

Carroll, James, 1717-1756, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1020
  • Person
  • 05 August 1717-12 November 1756

Born: 05 August 1717, Ireland
Entered: 07 September 1741, Watten, Belgium - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 1747
Final Vows: 02 February 1752
Died: 12 November 1756, Newtown, Maryland, USA - Angliae Province (ANG)

1746 at Münster in Westphalia in 3rd Year Theology

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
1749 Sent to Maryland Mission
RIP 12 November 1756 Maryland aged 39 (Peter Kenney’s papers)

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
CARROLL, JAMES,was born on the 5th of August, 1717. He joined the Order in 1741, and died in the Maryland Mission on the 12th of November, 1756

Carroll, Patrick, 1801-1860, Jesuit brother

  • IE IJA J/1024
  • Person
  • 26 July 1801-22 July 1860

Born: 26 July 1801, Ireland
Entered: 01 September 1843, Frederick, MD, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Professed: 15 August 1854
Died: 22 July 1860, Georgetown College, Washington DC, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)

Cassidy, Bernard, 1714-1788, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1034
  • Person
  • 29 September 1714-11 June 1788

Born: 29 September 1714, Ireland
Entered: 07 September 1735, Watten, Belgium - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 24 March 1742
Final Vows: 02 February 1753
Died: 11 June 1788, Thame Park, Oxfordshire, England - Angliae Province (ANG)

Alias Stafford

1768 was at Wackworth, Banbury, England (poss Warkworth)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Cassidy alias Stafford (Uncertainty about his real name, the Provincial’s Note-book says vere Stafford, and the 1754 Catalogue says vere Cassidy)
Educated at St Omer before Ent
1746 On the London Mission
1758 On the Mission of Oxburgh, Norfolk
1771 Superior of St Mary’s Residence, Oxford (cf Foley’s Collectanea)
1779 On the Dorchester Mission, near Oxford
On his tombstone “IHS, Bernard Stafford, died July 12th, 1788, aged 76” (Reverend TG Lee, DCL, FSA) and a copy of that inscription on the floor of the chapel at Thame Park. As it is most improbable that he would have been buried under his assumed name, this monumental inscription may be taken as convincing evidence that his real name was Stafford. In the brief notice of Warkworth, Northampton, which formerly belonged to the Holman family, and then passed by an heiress to the Eyres of Derbyshire, it is stated that the only Father of the Society that could be traced there was father Bernard Stafford alias or vere Cassidy, who was residing at Warkworth 1764, and subsequent years, finally at Thame Park, where he died June 11 1788. It is further stated that Mr Holman, the Squire of Warkworth, married the Lady Anastasia Stafford, probably a sister or near relative of Father Stafford. The family connection may have been a reason for Lady Holman’s retaining Father Bernard as Chaplain.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
STAFFORD, BERNARD, (his true name was Cassidy) : he was born in Ireland during the month of December, 1713. At the age of 22 he entered the Novitiate at Watten : and was admitted to the Profession of the Four Vows in London in 1753. For some time he resided at Thame Park, where he died on the 11th of June, 1788. His services on the Mission well deserve remembrance and imitation.

Clery, Fergal, 1657-1720, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1058
  • Person
  • 06 January 1657-21 November 1720

Born: 06 January 1657, Ireland
Entered: 24 September 1674, Toulouse, France - Tolosanae Province (TOLO)
Ordained: 1687. Tournon-sur-Rhône, France
Final Vows: 15 August 1691
Died: 21 November 1720, Tournon-sur-Rhône, France - Tolosanae Province (TOLO)

1686 was in TOLO and asked for in Irish Mission
1690-1691 at Irish College in Poitiers

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Was in TOLO in 1686, and asked for in the Irish Home Mission (cf Foley’s Collectanea)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan Sj :
1676-1684 After First Vows studied Philosophy for 2 years at Toulouse and then six years Regency at Billom College.
1684-1687 He resumed Philosophy at Rodez and then to Tournon for Theology where he was Ordained 1687
His abilities were much sought after in TOLO and Irish Mission and the Mission Superior requested he be sent to Ireland because there was thought to be great opportunities for the Mission to expand during the reign of James II, especially in the area of education, but ill health prevented that, and some evidence for this is that the General allowed him to do a very short Tertianship, which he made (1690-1691) at Irish College Poitiers
1691-1697 He returned to TOLO and held a Chair in Philosophy successively at Carcassone, Albi and Le Puy
1697 He was sent as Professor of Philosophy and Prefect of Studies for Scholastics to Tournon, and he remained for 23 years there, also exercising ministry in the Church attached to the College at and he died at Tournon 21 November 1720.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
CLERY, FERDINAND, was certainly in the Thoulouse Province in the Spring of 1686. His services were then petitioned for in Ireland. Probably he came over, and in the Revolutionary storm was driven back to the Continent.

Comerford, James, d 31 December 1678, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1076
  • Person
  • d 31 December 1678

James Comerford

Entered: 1657
Died: 31 December 1678 Ireland

Three Entries : Some confused dated between James Comerford 2 and James Comerford Jr

Connolly, John William, 1779-1818, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1091
  • Person
  • 1779-05 September 1818

Born: 1779, Ireland
Entered: 31 August 1807, Hodder, Stonyhurst, England - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 1810, Stonyhurst
Died: 05 September 1818, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England - Angliae Province (ANG)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
1812 Succeeded Charles Leslie at the Oxford Mission. He died there from a rupture of a blood vessel 05 September 1818 aged 39. He was buried in the old chapel of St Clement’s, Oxford, where a small tablet was erected to his memory.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
CONOLLY, JOHN. This Irish Father succeeded Rev. James Leslie at Oxford, in the autumn of 1812, but was cut off in the prime of life, on the 5th of September, 1818. A small Tablet in the Chapel states that the mortal remains of Rev. John William Conolly are deposited there - that he had been the Incumbent from 1812, to 1818, and that he was aged 39 years at the date of his death.

Conway, William, 1683-1741, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1097
  • Person
  • 14 July 1683-13 September 1741

Born: 14 July 1683, Flintshire or Ireland
Entered: 1702, Watten, Belgium - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 1710
Died: 13 September 1741, St Omer, France - - Angliae Province (ANG)

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
CONWAY, WILLIAM, admitted in 1702 : was living at Ghent 26 years later, “sine officio” died at St. Omer, 13th September, 1741, set. 59.

Conway, William, 1659-1689, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1098
  • Person
  • 1659-25 February 1689

Born: 1659, Flintshire or Ireland
Entered: 14/10/1679, Watten, Belgium - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 1688
Died: 25 February 1689, England - Angliae Province (ANG)

Creedon, Joseph, 1821-1847, Jesuit brother novice

  • IE IJA J/1124
  • Person
  • 26 April 1821-10 July 1847

Born: 26 April 1821, Ireland
Entered: 02 May 1847, Fordham College, New York, NY, USA - Franciae Province (FRA)
Died: 10 July 1847, Fordham College, New York, NY, USA - Franciae Province (FRA)

Cullen, Charles, 1657-1703, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1136
  • Person
  • 1657-22 July 1703

Born: 1657, Ireland
Entered: 1677, Lisbon, Portugal - Lusitaniae Province (LUS)
Ordained: 1681, Évora, Portugal
Died: 22 July 1703, Tuticorin (Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu), India - Lusitaniae Province (LUS)

Alias Colan

Nephew (?) of Hugh Hughes (Cullen) - RIP 1705

1681 Went to the Indies (Franco’s synopsis)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Possibly a nephew of Hugo Cullen (alias Hues, Hughs)
Had already begun Philosophy before Ent 1677 Lisbon
After First Vows he was sent to Évora for studies, but only remained until 1681 when he was Ordained and was heading for the Indian Mission
In India he worked at Travancore (Thiruvithamkoor) in Tamil Nadu and the Malabar Region, and he died in Tuticorin (Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu) 22 July 1703

Davock, John, 1599-1635, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1168
  • Person
  • 1599-03 November 1635

Born: 1599, Ireland
Entered: 17 November 1621, St Andrea, Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)
Ordained: 1629, Rome, Italy
Died: 03 November 1635, Killaloe, County Clare

1622 Studied 3 years Philosophy
1625 Was at Perugia College teaching Grammar 2 years
1630 Goes to Ireland from Rome in September, leaving some books belonging to the Irish Mission in the Chiesa del Gesù.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Had already completed his Philosophy studies at Douai before Ent 17 November 1621 Rome
After First Vows he was sent on Regency to Fermo and Perugia.
1629-1629 He was sent to Rome for studies and was Ordained there 1629
1630 Sent to Ireland, but did not arrive until Spring 1631. He was sent to the diocese of Killaloe, where he was befriended by Bishop John O’Molony, and he died there 03 November 1635.

Downing, Thomas, 1794-1820, Jesuit scholastic

  • IE IJA J/1209
  • Person
  • 05 February 1794-07 September 1820

Born: 05 February 1794, Ireland
Entered: 22 October 1812 - Marylandiae Mission (MAR)
Died: 07 September 1820, Georgetown - Marylandiae Mission (MAR)

Doyle, John, 1796-1822, Jesuit brother

  • IE IJA J/1213
  • Person
  • 1796-27 January 1822

Born: 1796, Dublin, County Dublin
Entered: 1819, Clongowes Wood College, Naas, County Kildare
Died: 27 January 1822, Clongowes Wood College, Naas, County Kildare

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Brother Doyle was most useful. he kept God ever present to his mind by the constant use of mental prayer. From this fountain his other virtues were derived as from their source, and all his virtues seemed to tend towards the development of his interior spirit. He was remarkable for his humility, being never known to utter a word in his own praise, and he was most diligent and faithful in his observance of the virtue of obedience. It was his delight to speak of the advantages and blessings that flow from the cultivation of this virtue. So modest was he that, even in a passing way he studiously avoided making any mention of the opposite sex. In short, in the faithful and exact discharge of every duty, and in the perfect performance of his spiritual exercises, he was a remarkable and edifying example to his religious brethren.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
DOYLE, JOHN : a very exemplary lay brother, who died at Clongowes 27th of January, 1822, Soc.2.

Drain, John, 1788-1831, Jesuit brother

  • IE IJA J/1219
  • Person
  • 10 October 1788-06 July 1831

Born: 10 October 1788, Ireland
Entered: 12 July 1814 - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Final Vows: 02 February 1826
Died: 06 July 1831, Georgetown, Washington DC, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)

Duggin, John Baptist, 1584-1642, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1232
  • Person
  • 1584-13 March 1642

Born: 1584, Ossory, County Kilkenny
Entered: 18 December 1603, Évora, Portugal - Lusitania Province (LUS)
Ordained: 1612/3, Évora, Portugal
Died: 13 March 1642, Galway Residence, Galway City, County Galway

Alias Duigin

1606 Student at Évora and called “John Baptist Doulgar”
1614-19 Teaching Arts at Irish Seminary in Lisbon
Was Rector of Irish College at Lisbon
1626 Was in Ireland
1634 Reading Theology at Lisbon
“Often accompanied Dr Kirwan on his visitation of the Tuam Diocese. He was 20 years Superior of the Galway Residence”.
“So profound his learning, piety and judgement, his opinions and decisions were at all times considered as oracles of the best of the people (Lynch on Life of Dr Kirwan)”
Known to have forfeited his estates at Cloncoise Castle a slab of which is now in gardens of Mundrehid House, Co Laois

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Nephew of Peter Lombard, Archbishop of Armagh
He was Professor of Belles Lettres, Philosophy and Theology - his learning, prudence and piety are extolled by Dr Lynch.
1620-1642 He was a zealous Missioner in Connaught and Rector of Galway Residence (cf Foley’s Collectanea)
1607-1642 On Irish Mission. He was reported by the Mission Superior to have been “distinguished for the example of religious life, and for laborious industry during the many years he cultivated the vineyard” (Oliver, Stonyhurst MSS)
(cf “Pii Antistitis Icon, or Life of Bishop Kirwan)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Had studied at the Irish College Lisbon before Ent 18 December 1603 Évora
After First Vows he completed Philosophy studies, did a short Regency and then studied at Évora where he was Ordained there 1612/1613
1613 Sent to Lisbon to teach Philosophy
1619-1622 Rector of Irish College Lisbon succeeding Cornelius Carrick, but was keen to be sent on the Irish Mission
1622 Sent to Ireland and to the Galway Residence.
1630-1641 Superior of Galway Residence for eleven years and died there 13 March 1642
In 1625 - three years after his return to Ireland - trouble broke out at the Irish College Lisbon because of the appointment of a Portuguese Rector to replace William McGrath. The Portuguese Provincial appealed to Fr General to have Fr Duggin returned and there is much correspondence between them in the succeeding four years. Fr Duggin in the end was not sent back because he was too valuable in Galway.
A great friend of Bishop Francis Kirwan of Killala, whom he accompanied on his first visitation of his Diocese
The Mission Superior Robert Nugent paid tribute in his notification of death to the General “ for his exemplary religious life and indefatigable labours in this vineyard for many years”

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
DUIGUIN, JOHN BAPTIST. From F. Robert Nugent’s letter, dated Ireland, 24th of April, 1642, I collect that his friend had died on the preceding 13th of March, religiosae vitae exemplo et multorum annorum exantlatis in hac vinea laboribits insignis.

Dungan, William, d 14 March 1745, Jesuit scholastic

  • IE IJA J/1235
  • Person
  • d 14 March 1745

Born: Ireland
Entered: 15 October 1736, Toulouse, France - Tolosanae Province (TOLO)
Died: 14 March 1745, Rodez, France - Tolosanae Province (TOLO)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ:
Year of his birth cannot be determined - according to the TOLO CAT he did not know the year of is birth
1638-1640 After First Vows he spent some years Regency in Billom
1640-1642 Sent to Tournon for Philosophy
1742-1744 Sent for further Regency at Perpignan
1744 He then went to study Philosophy at Rodez where he died 14 March 1745
According to TOLO CAT he was a Scholastic of great promise, not only for his intellect but also his character

Edmunds, Edward, 1578-1643, Jesuit brother

  • IE IJA J/1251
  • Person
  • 1578-20 September 1643

Born: 1578, Ireland
Entered: 1614, England - Angliae Province (ANG)
Final vows: 1630
Died: 20 September 1643, Ghent, Belgium - Angliae Province (ANG)

Alias FitzEdmund
1628 Socius of the Procurator of ANG

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
1628 In Madrid
Latin name of Edwardus is Edmundus.
He is called an Irishman in Catalogue ANG 1628 (cf Foley’s "Collectanea")

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
EDMUNDS, EDMUND, of Devonshire. This confidential lay-brother died at Ghent, 20th September, 1643, aet.75, Rel. 27.

Ferriter, Peter, 1667-1693, Jesuit scholastic

  • IE IJA J/1284
  • Person
  • 14 June 1667-24 October 1693

Born: 14 June 1667, Ireland
Entered: 15 January 1688, Bordeaux, France - Aquitaniae Province (AQUIT)
Died: 24 October 1693, Fontenay, France - Aquitaniae Province (AQUIT)

1688 Taught Grammar at Angoulême
1689-1693 Taught Grammar at La Rochelle AQUIT
First Vows at La Rochelle 16 January 1690

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Probably had some studies done before Ent 15 January 1688 Bordeaux
1690 After First Vows sent to La Rochelle for Regency but then transferred to Fontenoy where he died 24 October 1693

Fitzgerald, John, 1799-1855, Jesuit brother

  • IE IJA J/1299
  • Person
  • 01 April 1799-09 June 1855

Born: 01 April 1799, Ireland
Entered: 06 June 1834, Florissant MO USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Died: 09 June 1855, Loyola College, Baltimore, MD, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

Fitzpatrick, Patrick, 1828-1865, Jesuit brother

  • IE IJA J/1307
  • Person
  • 17 March 1828-28 February 1865

Born: 17 March 1828, Leinster
Entered: 03 December 1850, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Final Vows: 15 August 1862
Died: 28 February 1865, St Louis University, St Louis MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

Gately, John, 1846-1910, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1351
  • Person
  • 21 March 1846-08 August 1910

Born: 21 March 1846, Co Roscommon
Entered: 14 August 1878, Milltown Park
Ordained: Pre Entry
Final Vows: 15 August 1889, Sacred Heart College SJ, Limerick
Died: 08 August 1910, St Ignatius, Richmond, Melbourne, Australia

Came to Australia 1896

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He had been a Priest of the Elphin Diocese before Ent, and had taught in the Colleges of Sligo and Athlone (Summerhill).

He made his Noviceship at Milltown under Charles McKenna.
1880 he was sent to Tullabeg as a teacher, and remained there until it amalgamated with Clongowes. He continued there then as Operarius and Minister.
1896 He was sent to Australia with James Colgan and Henry Lynch.
1897 He was Minister at St Patrick’s Melbourne
1898 He taught at St Aloysius Sydney.
1899 He was Operarius at Hawthorne
1901 He was Operarius at St Mary’s, Sydney
1908 He was Minister at Miller St Nth Sydney
1909 he was Minister at St Mary’s Sydney

A short time before his death he moved to St Ignatius, Richmond in failing health, where he died 08 August 1910. A letter from Sydney recounts details of his death :
“Father Gately worked up to the end. He heard Confessions up to 10pm and was dead by 2am. Four hours, and perhaps most of that sleeping! Father Charles Morrough heard groaning and went down, and Father Joseph Hearn, Superior, gave him the Last Sacraments. There was a very great deal of feeling shown by his old parishioners at Lavender Bay, Sydney. Several insisted on having a special Mass, and each of the Sodalities had a Mass offered for him. The people on whose corns he had trodden missed him most, and all speak well of him.”

He was a most zealous man and greatly devoted to the Confessional.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280 :
He entered the Society as a Priest of the Diocese of Elphin at Milltown Park aged 32. He had been a teacher at the Colleges of Sligo and Athlone.

1880-1886 After one year of Noviciate and a year making Tertianship, he was sent to St Stanislaus College Tullabeg as a teacher of Arithmetic and English
1886-1887 He was sent to Oña in Spain for a year of Theology
1887-1896 He was sent teaching at Clongowes Wood College and Crescent College Limerick
1896-1899 He was sent to Australia and taught at St Patrick’s College Melbourne and St Aloysius College Sydney
1899-1902 He was sent to work in the Hawthorn Parish
1902-1908 He was sent to St Mary’s, North Sydney Parish
1908-1909 He was at St Francis Xavier Lavender Bay Parish
1909-1910 He was back working at St Mary’s Parish

He died suddenly after hearing confessions at the Richmond Parish. He was described as a fiery person, but appreciated by the people.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

Bonum Certamen ... A Biographical Index of Former Members of the Limerick Jesuit Commnnity

Father John Gately (1946-1910)

A native of Roscommon, entered the Society as a priest in 1878, and was at the Crescent from 1888 to 1896. In 1896 he left for the mission in Australia where he laboured until his death.

Geary, Michael, 1830-1856, Jesuit novice

  • IE IJA J/1357
  • Person
  • 25 November 1830-24 June 1856

Born: 25 November 1830, Ireland
Entered: 16 March 1855, Lyons, France - Lugdunensis Province (LUGD)
Died: 24 June 1856, Lyons, France - Lugdunensis Province (LUGD)

Grace, James, 1644-1673, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1383
  • Person
  • 1644-10 April 1673

Born: 1644, Ireland
Entered: 07 December 1664, Lisbon, Portugal - Lusitaniae Province (LUS)
Died: 10 April 1673, At Sea in transit to Goa - - Lusitaniae Province (LUS)

Alias Didacus Garcez

1664 Mentioned
1673 at Port Indes

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
He went from Portugal to the Indies in 1673 (Franco’s “Hist of the Province of Portugal”)

◆ Fr John MacErlean SJ :
1673 After studies set sail for GOA with a large number of Jesuits. Twelve Jesuits died of sickness on the voyage and the first was James Grace. Buried at Sea

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father James Grace SJ 1644-1673
Fr James Grace was born in Ireland in 1644, and entered the Society at Lisbon in 1664.

After finishing his studies he set sail for Goa early in 1673 with a large number of Jesuit Fathers. Sickness broke out on the voyage, and twelve missioners died. The first to die was Fr Grace on April 10th 1673. He was buried at sea.

Hackett, Edward, 1595-1632, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1398
  • Person
  • 1595-22 September 1632

Born 1595: Ireland
Entered: 1615, Coimbra, Portugal - Lusitania Province (LUS)
Ordained: c 1623, Coimbra, Portugal
Died: 22 September 1632, Évora, Portugal - Lusitania Province (LUS)

Alias Duarte de Loyola

1626 LUS Catalogue in Portugal

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
1626 in LUS Catalogue

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Had studied Philosophy at University of Coimbra before Ent there 1615
After First Vows he was sent on regency, initially teaching Humanities at Coimbra, and then as proof reader to Francisco Soares in the preparation of the latter's works for printing. He completed his Theology at Coimbra and was Ordained there c 1623.
After his formation was complete he was sent as Operarius to Portalegre, Portugal and then to Évora where he died 22 September 1632

Hackett, Edmund, d 1741, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1400
  • Person
  • d 17 January 1741

Born: Ireland
Entered: 20 June 1738, St Andrea, Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)
Ordained:, Rome - pre Entry
Died: 17 January 1741, Teramo, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Edmund studied at the Irish College in Rome and was Ordained before Ent 20 June 1738 Rome
After First Vows he was sent to Leghorn (Livorno) and then Teramo to teach, and he died at Teramo 17 January 1741

Hayes, William, 1825-1852, Jesuit brother

  • IE IJA J/1424
  • Person
  • 01 March 1825-15 June 1852

Born: 01 March 1825, Ireland
Entered: 02 December 1847, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Professed:
Died: 15 June 1852, St Xavier College, Cincinnati, OH, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

de Colgrave, Andrew George, 1717-1768, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1432
  • Person
  • 17 November 1717-19 October 1768,

Born: 17 September 1717, Ireland / France
Entered: 02 September 1734, Rheims, Champagne, France - Campaniae Province (CAMP)
Final Vows: 02 February 1752
Died: 19 October 1768, Spetchley Park, Worcs, England - Angliae Province (ANG)

1746 was in 3rd year Theology
1752 at Dijon where he took 4 Vows on 02 February 1752
1754 Before this had taught Humanities and Philosophy for 5 years
In 1761 and 1763 Catalogue

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
1746 In Third year Theology
1748-1754 Taught Philosophy in CAMP at Dijon
1754 Sent to ANG

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
COLGRAVE, ANDREW, a native of Ireland : joined the Society in 1734 : was numbered amongst the Professed Fathers, 18 years later : taught Philosophy in the province of Campania : ended his days at Spetchley, in Worcestershire, on the 19th of October, 1768, aet. 51.

Henessy, James, 1711-1771, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1441
  • Person
  • 23 July 1711-09 January 1771

Born: 23 July 1711, Kilmacthomas, County Waterford
Entered: 22 September 1737, Madrid, Spain - Toletanae Province (TOLE)
Ordained: 1740, Alcalá, Spain
Final Vows: 15 August 1755
Died: 09 January 1771, Ireland

1755-1757 At Villareal College, Master of Rhetoric, Admonitor and Spiritual Father, Prefect of Sodality
1764 Rector of Navalcarnero College (Madrid) TOLE - had also been Minister
1765 Not in TOLE Catalogue (Ireland??)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
He was public Professor of Rhetoric in TOLE.
1747-1755 In Clonmel (1747-1752) and back in TOLE in 1755 (HIB Catalogues 1752 and 1755)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Had studied Philosophy at Madrid and Theology at Salamanca before Ent there 22 September 1737
After First Vows sent to Alcalá to complete studies and was Ordained there 1740
1740-1741 Sent to College of Nobles, Madrid to teach Rhetoric
1741-1724 Sent to Alcalá as Minister
1724-1747 Sent to Villarejo teaching Rhetoric to Jesuit Scholastics
1747 Sent to Ireland and to St Mary’s Clonmel, and was Superior of the Residence for a while until the parish was taken by secular clergy
1753-1758 Sent to Villarejo to teach
1758-1762 Rector of Ocaña
1762 Sent as Superior of the Residence and Church at Navalcarnero (South of Madrid)
1767 Jesuits expelled from Spain
1771 Left for Ireland on 10 July 1771
Nothing further known
(Note: the catalogi of the Toledo province assign three different birthplaces for James Hennessy:-
(1) 'Balligrimminensis', diocese of Cashel; (2) Clonmel; (3) ' Kilnemackensis' of the diocese of Lismore.)

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
HENNESSEY, JAMES, was born in Munster,on the 16th of January, 1720, and became a candidate for the Society at Madrid, in 1737. Ten years later he came on the Irish Mission, and was stationed at Clonmel; but after a few years labor returned to Spain, where 1 find him in 1755 after which time he eludes my observation.

Hudson, James, 1669-1749, Jesuit brother

  • IE IJA J/1462
  • Person
  • 1669-14 May 1749

Born: 1669, County Wexford
Entered: 1689, Belgium - Belgicae Province (BELG)
Died: 14 May 1749, Douai, France - Belgicae Province (BELG)

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
HUDSON, JAMES, born 17th June, 1665: entered the Society at Bologna, 27th September, 1689. After completing all the higher studies in Italy, and teaching Humanities there, he returned to his native country on the 4th June, 1704. This Professed Father resided with the Earl of Nithsdale, and is described in a letter of the 9th September, 1712, as “Vir prudens et religiosus qui suum munus omni cum diligentia obit, Multis utilis, omnibus charus?” Whilst Superior of his brethren, he was apprehended in 1715, as Chaplain to the nobleman above-mentioned, and committed to close custody. On his discharge he retired to Douay, where he died full of days and merits on the 14th May, 1749.

Johnson, Patrick, 1812-1851, Jesuit brother

  • IE IJA J/1478
  • Person
  • 15 March 1812-21 January 1851

Born: 15 March 1812, Ireland
Entered: 06 August 1848, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Died: 21 January 1851, St Louis College, MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

Jones, James, 1785-1809, Jesuit novice

  • IE IJA J/1485
  • Person
  • 1785-30 September 1809

Born: 1785, Ireland
Entered: 30 September 1809, Liverpool, England "in articulo mortis" - Angliae Province (ANG)
Died: 30 September 1809, Liverpool, England - Angliae Province (ANG)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Was sent to Stonyhurst from Carlow College to complete his Humanities in the Summer of 1805. He passed through the classes from Grammar to Rhetoric with the highest credit, but ill health prevented his entering the Novitiate. In the last week of 1809, he was admitted to Vows in the Society “in articulo mortis” at Liverpool.

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Died a Novice (Scholastic inserted in pen)

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
JONES, JAMES. This talented native ot Ireland, was sent from the College of Carlow to Stonyhurst in the summer of 1805. For the next two years I had the honour of being his master in Grammar and Syntax. On my quitting the College, he pursued the studies of Poetry and Rhetorick with the highest credit, but bad health would not permit him to join the Novitiate. Just before his death in the last week of September, 1809, F. Sewall received the Vows of this most pious and promising youth at Liverpool.

Jordan, Richard, 1796-1828, Jesuit brother

  • IE IJA J/1488
  • Person
  • 15 June 1796-10 October 1828

Born: 15 June 1796, Ireland
Entered: 08 June 1815 - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Died: 10 October 1828, Newtown, Maryland, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)

Kelly, James, 1712-1762, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1513
  • Person
  • 01 May 1712-13 January 1762

Born: 01 May 1712, Ireland or France
Entered: 11 October 1732, Bordeaux, France - Aquitaniae Province (AQUIT)
Ordained: 21 December 1745, Bordeaux, France
Final Vows: 02 February 1749
Died: 13 January 1762, Unknown

Distinguished talent - aptitude for all the sciences. Judgement and prudence beyond his years
1734-1739 Taught Grammar, Rhetoric, Humanities at Bordeaux College
1740 At La Rochelle College teaching
1743 At Bordeaux College taught Rhetoric, Humanities
1749-1761 At Poitiers teaching Rhetoric, Humanities - Talent and proficiency far above the average. Vice-Rector in 1762 at time of suppression

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
1755 Professor of Rhetoric at Grand Collège Poitiers. He was also Vice-rector of the Seminary and of the Irish College. (cf Arrêt de la Cour du Parlement de Paris, 1763).
On 11 December 1755 he delivered an address with the view of proving that “To admit all prejudices is an excess of weakness; to reject them all is an excess of rashness” (Mercure de France, April 1756, Vil i, pp 118-120)
1762 Vice-Rector at Irish College Poitiers.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
The fact that his name is never considered in correspondence for the Irish Mission, suggests that he was born or brought up in France of Irish parents but spoke neither English nor Irish.
1734-1736 After First Vows he was sent for Regency to Angoulême
1736-1738 He was then sent to Bordeaux for Philosophy studies, and received Minor Orders there 06 April 1737.
1738-1742 Sent to La Rochelle for further Regency
1742-1746 He was then sent to Bordeaux again for Theology where he was Ordained 1745
The next three years are a little unclear, but at the end of formation he was sent to Grand Collège Poitiers where initially he taught Rhetoric, but later Philosophy and Theology. He was still at Poitiers on the eve of the dissolution of the Society in France. With other Jesuit professors of the Grand Collège Poitiers he was accused by the Gallican and Jansenists on the faculty of Poitiers University of teaching false doctrines. On the death of Stephen Ussher the last Rector, he was briefly appointed Superior before the confiscation.
His name disappears from CATS after 01 February 1762
To judge from the estimates of his character and ability to be found in contemporary catalogi, James Kelly was a highly talented man with extraordinary intellectual ability.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
KELLY, JAMES. I meet with him as Superior of his brethren in Ireland on the 2nd of October, 1684. He was then residing in Dublin. In the years 1697, 1698, 1699, he occurs Rector of the Seminary at Poitiers. In a letter of the 6th of April, 1714, it is stated in general terms that he had died abroad some time before, “indefcssus in Vinca laborator”.

Kiernan, Peter, d 09 September 1822, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1537
  • Person
  • d 09 September 1822

Born: Ireland
Entered: 07 July 1808 - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Professed: 02 February 1821
Died: 09 September 1822, Georgetown, Washington DC, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)

Kirwan, Francis, 1589-1661, Roman Catholic Bishop of Killala and deathbed Jesuit

  • IE IJA J/1544
  • Person
  • 1589-27 August 1661

Born: 1589, Galway City, County Galway
Entered: 27/08/1661, Rennes, France (”in articulo mortis”)
Ordained: 1614, Cashel, Co Tipperary
Died: 27 August 1661, Rennes, France

Parents Matthew and Juliana Lynch both from distinguished families.
Received early education from his uncle Fr Arthur Lynch. Higher education at Lisbon
1614 Ordained by AB Kearney of Cashel
1618 At Dieppe College teaching Philosophy
1620 Appointed VG by DR Conry AB of Tuam and later by AB Malachy O’Queely
1645 Consecrated Bishop of Killala at Paris 07 May 1645. Member of Supreme Council of Kilkenny. Opposed to Nuncio on Censures, but later publicly renounced opposition.
1649-1652 Worked zealously and had to evade capture,, by hiding in cellars of friends home in Galway 14 months.
1655 Exiled with AB of Tuam and others till death. Lived mostly at Nantes in poverty and prayer, Wrote that the Society had always been loved by him. His funeral was described as more like a canonisation than a funeral. A Jesuit delivered the homily and he is buried in Society grave at Rennes. Reputed to be a “saint”, and miracles attributed to him (Fr General.
Left monies in Ireland for the purchase of a Residence/School for the Society

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Bishop of Killala
His life was written by Dr Lynch “Pii Antistitis Icon”
1660 Father Quin writes to Father General “Dr Kirwan is reputed a saint here”. Miracles were performed by him.
The saintly Father Yong says his obsequies were more like a canonisation than a funeral.
Received into the Society by General Vitelleschi pro articulo mortis 15 January 1640, since he could not be received otherwise at that time.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Son of Matthew and Julia née Lynch
Early studies under an uncle Arthur Lynch and later priestly studies at the Irish College Lisbon.
Ordained in Ireland by Archbishop Kearney of Cashel 1614
1614-1620 Teaching Philosophy in France and spent some time in Louvain, before being appointed Vicar General of Tuam by the exiled Bishop. e exercised this ministry assiduously, visiting many priests and regularly accompanied by various Jesuits, as he was very attached to the Society.
1645 Became Bishop of Killala 06 February 1645.
Exiled under the “Commonwealth” he found refuge with the Jesuits at Rennes. Before or on his death (”in articulo mortis”) he was received into the Society. He died at Rennes and was buried in the Jesuit church of that city

◆ Royal Irish Academy : Dictionary of Irish Biography, Cambridge University Press online :
Kirwan, Francis
by Terry Clavin

Kirwan, Francis (1589–1661), catholic bishop of Killala, was the son of Matthew Kirwan and his wife, Juliana Lynch, both of Galway city. He was taught at Galway by his maternal uncle, Arthur Lynch, who was a priest, and subsequently studied at Lisbon. In 1614 he was ordained a priest by David Kearney (qv), archbishop of Cashel, before travelling to France where he was teaching philosophy at Rouen by 1618. Subsequently, his uncle William Lynch removed Kirwan (against his wishes) to Louvain in the Spanish Netherlands. There he impressed Florence Conry (qv), archbishop of Tuam, who sent Kirwan back to Ireland in 1620 to act as vicar general of the archdiocese of Tuam.

Kirwan was indefatigable in attending to his duties as vicar general and effective head of the catholic church in Connacht, travelling to the most remote areas of the archdiocese. His ascetic lifestyle and modest demeanour earned him the respect and awe of the catholic laity, although he was criticised for his tendency to favour the hospitality of wealthy catholics. He worked particularly hard to ensure that his clergy met strict counter-reformation standards, stipulating that each priest could have only one parish, and supervising those training to become priests. Generally the local authorities turned a blind eye to his activities and Kirwan seems to have been on friendly terms with William Daniel (qv), the protestant archbishop of Tuam. Indeed, his main opposition came from his own clergy, many of whom preferred a more lax brand of catholicism.

Conry died in 1629, but his successor as archbishop of Tuam, Malachy O'Queely (qv), retained Kirwan as vicar general. About 1637 he decided to depart for France to preside over the education of a group of Irish youths there. They settled at Caen and were maintained for several years by funds sent from Ireland. However, the beginning of a long period of warfare in Ireland in 1641 meant that this revenue source was cut off. Kirwan's scholars dispersed and he travelled again to France, where he attempted unsuccessfully to gather together the Irish students under his leadership and tried to organise the sending of arms to the catholics in Ireland. During this period he also befriended Vincent de Paul.

As early as 1625 Kirwan had been recommended for a bishopric, and on 7 May 1645 he was consecrated bishop of Killala at the church of St Lazarus in Paris. He travelled to Ireland and, after being warmly received by the supreme council of the Catholic Confederation at Kilkenny, took possession of his see in October 1646. The most powerful local lord was Ulick Burke (qv), marquess of Clanricard, a strong royalist with whom Kirwan became close. As well as attending to his pastoral duties, he frequently travelled to Kilkenny and Waterford to participate in the confederate assemblies.

In June 1646, along with the rest of the catholic hierarchy, Kirwan supported the decision of the papal nuncio GianBattista Rinuccini (qv) to excommunicate those who adhered to the alliance between the Catholic Confederation and the protestant royalists. However, his association with Clanricard put him on the moderate wing of the church and increasingly at odds with the nuncio. In May 1648 he was among the minority of bishops who opposed Rinuccini's excommunication of those who supported the truce between the confederates and Murrough O'Brien (qv), Lord Inchiquin, the commander of the protestant forces in Munster. Later that year he helped Archbishop John Bourke (qv) of Tuam celebrate mass at the collegiate church in Galway, in defiance of the nuncio's interdict. His stance was vociferously opposed by his own diocesan clergy, who complained against him to Rinuccini.

From 1649 to 1652 he was active in the last struggles of the confederates and strongly supported Clanricard, who became royalist lord deputy of Ireland in 1650, against the more hard-line members of the hierarchy. He was also involved in efforts to persuade the duke of Lorraine to intervene in Ireland on behalf of the catholics. After the Cromwellian forces had completed their conquest of Connacht in the summer of 1652, he spent nearly two years in hiding, constantly pursued by the authorities. Weary and in poor health, he gave himself up in Galway in 1654, before being freed in December that year on condition that he left Ireland within two months. In the event, he sailed into Nantes with other exiled catholic clergy in August 1655. He spent two years there before settling in Brittany. Virtually destitute on his arrival in Nantes, he was maintained by grants from the French clergy and by the patronage of noblewomen. He also repented of his past opposition to Rinuccini, and in 1655 appealed to Rome for absolution, which he received two years later. He died 27 August 1661 at Rennes and was buried in the Jesuit church there. Long an admirer of the Jesuits, he was admitted as a member of their order on his deathbed.

Laurence Renehan, Collections on Irish church history (1861), i, 397–8; G. Aiazzi, The embassy in Ireland of Monsignor G. B. Rinuccini, trans. A. Hutton (1873), 468; J. T. Gilbert, A contemporary history of affairs in Ireland. . . (3 vols, 1879), i, 653; ii, 141, 191; iii, 124, 178; John Lynch, The portrait of a pious bishop; or the life and death of Francis Kirwan (1884), passim; J. T. Gilbert, History of the Irish confederation. . . (7 vols, 1882–91), iii, 183; vi, 211–12, 226; vii, 58, 213; Comment. Rinucc., vi, 126, 191–2; Patrick Corish, ‘Rinuccini's censure of 27 May 1648’, Ir. Theol. Quart., xviii, no. 4 (Oct. 1951), 322–37; Peter Beresford-Ellis, Hell or Connaught (1988), 106–8; T. Ó hAnnracháin, Catholic reformation in Ireland (2002), 238

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
Francis Kirwan, Bishop of Killala (his Lordship had obtained to be admitted into the Society “pro bona mortis”, and was buried in the Jesuits Church at Rennes)

Kyne, Rupert, 1620-1675, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1550
  • Person
  • 1620-25 July 1675

Born: 1620, Ireland
Entered: 06 January 1641 - Nuevo Reino Mission (NEU REI)
Ordained: 1654, Santa Fé de Bogotá, Colombia
Final Vows: 01 November 1661
Died: 25 July 1675, Santa Fé de Bogotá - Nuevo Reino Mission (NEU REI)

Alias De Acuña

◆ Fr John MacErlean SJ :
1641-1654 At College of Santa Fé de Bogotá studying and teaching to Ordination in 1654
1654-1675 Working on the Indian Missions surrounding Santa Fé de Bogotá

Lane, Bartholomew, 1820-1847, Jesuit brother

  • IE IJA J/1554
  • Person
  • 23 December 1820-14 January 1847

Born: 23 December 1820, Ireland
Entered: 31 January 1844, Frederick, MD, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Died: 14 January 1847, St Inigo’s, MD, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)

Tanner, Edmund, 1526-1579, Roman Catholic Bishop of Cork and former Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1615
  • Person
  • 1526-04 June 1579

Born: 1526 Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 09 June 1565, Professed House Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)
Left: 13 November 1571, Milan, Italy
Died: 04 June 1579, Munster

On 28 June 1567 Fr Borgia writes to Fr P Canisius that he was thinking of sending him to help at the University at Dillingen. Fr Womanstadt especially thought of sending a Theologian to Ireland - a priest would be a very good thing. see many things about Tanner in Vol VI of Canisius. (Spic oss III 35)
12 August 1567 Borgia to Germany : “Edmund an Irishman, a man of mature age and good parts will be sent to Würzburg. We have sent him to Würzburg or Dillingen where he will be useful. He is a Theologian” (Fr Nadal’s Epistolae Vol iii 509, 526)
On 20 August 1565 Fr Polanco writes to Primate Creagh : “We have elected Fr Borgia as General at our General Congregation. Among the Fathers who have come to Rome is Edmund the Irishman (Tanner), vir probitatis et doctinae non vulgaris qui nunc in probabtionibus nostrae Societatis exercetur” (Borgia Vol IV 68).

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
A Writer; A profound divine (Stanihurst); A Prisonere; A Bishop of Cork (cf "Hibernia Ignatiana").
He was once arrested but had escaped by the aid of friends. The heretics were bent on his destruction. God had blessed his labours, and many would be reconciled, to the Church, should the violence of the persecution subside. (cf Oliver, Stonyhurst MSS).

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Edmund Tanner, Bishop of Cork 1530-1579
Edmund Tanner was born in Dublin in 1530 and entered the Society at Rome in 1566. With Fr Rochford, he went to Dilingen for his studies. Owing to ill-health and with the blessing iof his Superiors, he left the Society. On Fr David Wolfe’s recommendation, he was appointed Bishop of Cork in 1574.In 1576 he received special faculties for Cork, Dublin and Cashel, and for this reason he is referred to in contemporary documents as Commissionary Apostolic.

Fr Houling SJ records that Bishop Tanner was arrested at Clonmel and thrown into prison. There he was visited by a Protestant prelate whom he finally converted. He then escaped and continued his labours for four years. Worn out by prison and toil, he died a veritable martyr in January 1579.

There is extant a famous letter of his to Rome in which he praised very highly the work of Frs Rochford and Lee in our school at Youghal.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
TANNER, EDMUND. A brief letter of this Father, addressed from Cork, the 11th of October, 1577, is extant. He states that he had once been arrested; but by the industry of his friends, had effected his escape, and that the enemies of Catholic Faith were constantly intent on his destruction; that God blessed his labours in the vineyard, and that many would be reconciled to the Church, if the violence of Persecution should subside. I suspect this Father is the person mentioned by Harris, p.97, Book, I. Writers of Ireland, who wrote “Lectiones in Summam D. Thomae”.

McLaughlin, Patrick, 1768-1837, Jesuit brother

  • IE IJA J/1637
  • Person
  • 17 March 1768-04 October 1837

Born: 17 March 1768, Ireland
Entered: 10 October 1806 Georgetown College MD, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR))
Professed: 02 February 1821
Died: 04 October 1837, St Thomas, Port Tobacco, Maryland, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)

MacLeod, Bernard, 1807-1857, Jesuit brother

  • IE IJA J/1638
  • Person
  • 04 July 1807-10 May 1857

Born: 04 July 1807, Ireland
Entered: 24 November 1837, Frederick, MD, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Professed: 02 February 1851
Died: 10 May 1857, Georgetown College, Washington DC, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)

McCaffrey, Hugo, 1826-1846, Jesuit scholastic

  • IE IJA J/1688
  • Person
  • 07 December 1826-20 September 1846

Born: 07 December 1826, Ireland
Entered: 09 April 1844, Frederick, MD, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Died: 20 September 1846, Bohemia (Chesapeake City), MD, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)

Part of the Georgetown College, Washington DC, USA community at the time of death

Mead, Thomas, 1785-1848, Jesuit brother

  • IE IJA J/1736
  • Person
  • 24 May 1785-10 June 1848

Born: 24 May 1785, Ireland
Entered: 17 March 1817, Richmond, Virginia, USA - Marylandiae Mission (MAR)
Final vows: 15 August 1929
Died: 10 June 1848, Georgetown, U.S.A. - Marylandiae Province (MAR)

Meagher, Thomas, 1600-1640, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1740
  • Person
  • 1600-24 November 1640

Born: 1600, Cashel, County Tipperary
Entered: 19 November 1618, Mechelen, Belgium - Belgicae Province (BELG)
Ordained: 1630, Louvain, Belgium
Died: 24 November 1640, Ireland

Alias O’Meagher

Son of William Macarius and Catherine Butler. Father ordained a priest in 1616 (after mother’s death?) free from all clerical duties and supporting his family.
Thomas studied in Hungary, Ireland and Mechelen under Jesuits - 6 years at Mechelen before Entry
Fellow novice of St Jan Berchmans
Wrote a “MS Treatise de voto” which in in the Salamanca Library
1628 At Louvain, but not in 1633
1637 ROM Catalogue Teacher of Greek, Rhetoric and Poetry. Mediocre in all and fit to teach Humanities

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Son of William Macharius and Catherine née Butler. Following Catherine’s death (1615), William entered the Priesthood, and was Ordained 1616. He was exempted from duties to look after his family.
Thomas made his studies in Ireland and at Mechelen under the Jesuits before Ent there 19 November 1618 (Mechelen Novitiate Album).
He is named in a report of Robert Nugent to the General in 1640, as an eminent scholar, a pious and prudent man, well versed in Greek and Hebrew literature, and in sacred and profane history; A good Preacher.
Had prepared for the press a volume of “Inscriptions, concerning the heroes of the Old and New Testament”.
1640 Was sent with two companions to act as Chaplains in the Royal Army, and died of fever in the same year. (cf Oliver, Stonyhurst MSS; Foley’s Collectanea)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Son of William and Catherine née Butler
After First Vows he was sent for Philosophy to Louvain, and then in Regency showed himself a schoolmaster of ability. He returned to Louvain to study Theology and was Ordained there 1630
1630 Sent to Ireland. No account of his missionary career has survived but he was attracted by scriptural studies and was about to travel Belgium, 1640, to have a book-published when he was appointed Military Chaplain. He died that year in Ireland 24 November 1640
His father, William, on the death of his wife also became a priest

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
MAC-GUIRE, THOMAS, (sometimes called Maccharius) was educated it seems in Flanders. F. Robert Nugent reports of him in 1640, that all the Consultors (assembled to consider his degree in the Society) agreed that F. Mac-Guire was a very superior classic scholar, well versed in Greek and Hebrew Literature, and in Sacred and profane History, and a good preacher; that he had ready for the press “a volume of inscriptions, concerning the Heroes of the Old and New Testament” that the work had been much commended by those who read it in Flanders, and prays permission for its publication there. About two months later. F. MacGuire was ordered, with FF. Michael Chamberlain, and Matthew Hartegan, to attend the Royal army. This fatiguing duty brought on Fever; and I find from a postscript of a letter of the said Superior, dated the 22nd of November, 1640, that he had just received intelligence that “this upright, learned, zealous and indefatigable Missionary”, had sunk under it.

Moore, Laurence, 1655-1684, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1760
  • Person
  • 1655-04 October 1684

Born: 1655, Ireland
Entered: 24 September 1674, Toulouse, France - Tolosanae Province (TOLO)
Ordained: 17 April 1683
Died: 04 October 1684, Irish Sea in transit to Ireland

“Laurence Poore (”Boore”) an Irish Jesuit died in the Irish Sea, Oct 1684” (From p91 E vid)
“Laurence Poore (Boore); Irish; RIP Oct 1684 in the Irish Sea

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
1684 Because of delicate health he was allowed to leave the Society. He was commended by the General to the Mission Superior in Ireland, but on his journey to Ireland he died 04 October 1684

Morris, Christopher W, 1607-1667, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1771
  • Person
  • 1607-01 August 1667

Born: 1605, Monmouth, Monmouthshire, Wales
Entered: 1626 Watten, Belgium - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 1635 Liège, Belgium
Final Vows: 19 October 1642, Liège, Belgium
Died: 01 August 1667, St Omer France - Angliae Province (ANG)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Very learned Theologian, knew twelve languages and music.
Of ANG, he was about six years in Ireland.
1636 Tertian at Ghent.
1639 Professor of Philosophy for some years at Liège.
He does not appear in the 1649 ANG CAT, as he was taken prisoner on his way to Spain by an English pirate ship, and carried off to Ireland.
Mercure Verdier - Visitor to the Irish Mission - met him and mentioned him in a letter to General Caraffa 24 June 1649, as a truly religious and exceedingly learned man, both in Theology and Philosophy, a great linguist, being acquainted with eleven languages, besides Greek, skilled in music, of a modest demeanour and robust health. He added “We have few Missioners in our Province like him, ready for everything”. He laboured in Ireland for about five years.
1651 and 1655 He was again at Liège
1660 Professor of Theology at Brussels, and died at St Omer’s College 01 August 1667 aged 64

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
MORRIS, CHRISTOPHER, born in Wales in 1607 : at the age of 19 joined the Society and became a Professed Father on the 19th of October, 1642. After filling the chair of Philosophy at Liege, he was ordered to Spain; but was taken by an English ship and carried, to Ireland, where he was engaged as a Tutor to a Nobleman’s son who little profited by his advice and instruction. Pere Verdier who met him in Ireland, reports him to the General, Vincent Caraffa, on the 24th of June 1649, as “vir vere religiosus, et eximié doclus in Theologicis et Philosophicis disciplinis en linguarum undecim praesertim Graeece peritus : scit Musicam : est modesto vultu : robusta vatetudine; and he adds : in nostra Provincia paucos similes habemus operarios ad omnia, instar illius, paratus”. It is painful to conclude with saying, that I can offer the indulgent Reader no further information of this worthy and highly gifted Father, excepting that he died at St. Omer on the 1st of August, 1667.

Murcote, Walter, d 1759, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1794
  • Person
  • d 28 May 1759

Entered: 1698
Died: 28 May 1759, Porto, Portugal - Lusitaniae Province (LUS)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
DOB probably Ireland; Ent c 1698
1719 Rector of St Francis Xavier College Lisbon (Franco)
Gualter Murcote seems to be Walter Murphy

◆ In Old/15 (1) and Chronological Catalogue Sheet

Murphy, John, 1792-1826, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1799
  • Person
  • 05 January 1792-21 September 1826

Born: 05 January 1792, Ireland
Entered: 16 November 1816 - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Died: 21 September 1826, St Inigo’s, Maryland, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)

Nugent, Christopher, 1603-1627, Jesuit scholastic

  • IE IJA J/1840
  • Person
  • 1603-23 October 1627

Born: 1603, Ireland
Entered: 09 July 1624, Seville, Spain - Baeticae Province (BAE)
Died: 23 October 1627 Coll San Hermenegildo, Seville, Spain - Baeticae Province (BAE)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
After First Vows he was sent to San Hermengildo in Seville for studies. he died there 23 October 1627

O'Brien, Peter, 1735-1807, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1861
  • Person
  • 28 March 1735-05 March 1807

Born: 28 March 1735, Ireland
Entered: 07 February 1754, Watten, Belgium - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 1759
Final Vows: 02 February 1770
Died: 05 March 1807, Newhall, Chelmsford, Essex, England - Angliae Province (ANG)

Readmitted to Society 1803

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :

Two Entries
Brian or O’Brien or Briant
DOB 28 March 1735 Ireland; Ent 07 February 1754 Watten; FV 02 February 1770; RIP 28/02 or 05 March 1807 Newhall, Chelmsford aged 72
1766 He was a Missioner in Liverpool.
He spent ten years in the West India Mission, and in 1773 was in Antigua. Returning to England on account of ill health, he was sent to Newhall, Chelmsford, and died there 18/02 or 05 March 1807 aged 72
He had re-entered and renewed his Vows in the Restored Society when he died.

◆ In Old/15 (1) and Chronological Catalogue Sheet

◆ CATSJ A-H has “Briant alias O’Brien”; DOB 28 March 1735; Ent 1754 pr 1752
In ANG Cat of 1763
1767 Missionary

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
O’BRIEN, PETER, was born on the 28th of March, 1735, and entered the Novitiate at Watten, on the 7th of September, 1754, after defending Philosophy with great credit. Losing sight of him for many years, I renew acquaintance with him at Newhall, Essex, where the venerable Father rendered his soul to God, in July, 1807, or as another account in forms me, on the 28th of February, that year.

O'Connell, Michael, 1688-1726, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1876
  • Person
  • 28 September 1688-29 December 1726

Born: 28 September 1688, Ireland
Entered: 07 September 1707, Hodder, Stonyhurst, England - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 1715
Died: 29 December 1726, St Ignatius College, London, England - Angliae Province (ANG)

1714 at Liège studying Theology

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Three Entries (1) Michael O’Connell; (2) No Ch Name Connell; (3) Michael Connell
(1) Michael O’Connell
DOB 28 23 September 1688 Ireland; Ent 07 September 1707; RIP 1726 England
1714 Second year Theology at Liège
1723 Procurator at Ghent
Minister at Valladolid; Of good talent and singular prudence (Foley’s Collectanea)
(2) No Ch Name Connell
DOB Ireland; Ent pre 1716; RIP post 1716
(3) Michael Connell
DOB 23 September 1688 Ireland; Ent 07 September 1707 ANG; RIP 1726 England
1719-1724 Minister and Procurator at Ghent
1724 Minister at Valladolid

O'Connell, Samuel, 1818-1861, Jesuit brother

  • IE IJA J/1879
  • Person
  • 05 March 1818-10 April 1861

Born: 05 March 1818, Ireland
Entered: 14 August 1848, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Final Vows: 15 August 1859
Died: 10 April 1861, Ste Marie, Bardstown, KY, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

O'Loghlen, Duncan, 1808-1856, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1921
  • Person
  • 18 June 1808-22 November 1856

Born: 18 June 1808, Munster
Entered: 23 July 1849, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Ordained: - pre Entry
Died: 22 November 1856, St Louis College, St Louis, MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

O'Neill, Stephen, 1765-1826, Jesuit brother

  • IE IJA J/1941
  • Person
  • 01 May 1765-18 July 1826

Born: 01 May 1765, Ireland
Entered: 26 September 1803, Hodder, England - Angliae Province (ANG)
Final vows: 08 December 1818
Died: 18 July 1826, Stonyhurst, Lancashire, England - Angliae Province (ANG)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Ent soon after Restoration and died at an advanced age in Stonyhurst where he had always resided

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
O’NEIL, STEPHEN. This Temporal Coadjutor, who walked simply and confidently before God, died at Stonyhurst, on the 18th of July, 1826.

Petre, Charles, 1646-1712, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1980
  • Person
  • 04 November 1646-18 January 1712

Born: 04 November 1646, Cranham, Essex, England
Entered: 07 September 1667, Watten, Belgium - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 04 April 1673
Died: 18 January 1712, St Omer’s College, St Omer, Hauts-de-France, France - Angliae Province (ANG)

Alias Spencer
Son of Sir Francis, 1st Bart and Elizabeth (Gage) of Cranham; brother of Sir Edward alias Spencer (ANG) RIP 15 May 1699 and William alias Gage (ANG) RIP 22 February 1722

◆ The English Jesuits 1650-1829 Geoffrey Holt SJ : Catholic Record Society 1984
1687 London (Fenchurch Street school, Superior)
1688 In prison in Dover
1690 Ireland

Came with three others (Joseph Plowden, Andrew Poulton and Matthew Wright) under former ANG Provincial, John Warner, in 1689-1690 and was a Missioner in Ireland, Fr Warner as Confessor, the others in schools, and preaching in the country

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
PETRE, CHARLES, was younger brother of the celebrated F. Edward Petre. Under the article Charles Palmer, we have mentioned the Savoy College. Besides this, another College was founded by King James II, in nearly the heart of London, and attached to the Bavarian Chapel. At Lady-day, 1688, seven members of the Society began their residence here, and F. Charles Petre was appointed Superior of his Brethren regular discipline was observed. The morning and Evening discourses, every Sunday, were frequented by eager audiences : upwards of 200 persons were reconciled to the Catholic Church. The school indeed was not so frequented as the Savoy College, but promised well, when the destructive revolution burst forth. F. Charles P. consulted his safety by flight, but was discovered and committed to Dover Jail; yet was treated with humanity, and discharged shortly after. Retiring to St. Omer, he filled the office of Procurator, and ended his days there on the 18th of Jan. 1712.
N.B. I suspect several of the Petres who entered the society, were the descendants from Thomas (third son of John, 1st Lord,) Petre, who was seated at Cranham and Fidlers, in Essex.

Power, William I, 1855-1934, Jesuit priest and visitor

  • IE IJA J/2008
  • Person
  • 19 April 1855-28 March 1934

Born: 19 April 1855, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 22 July 1873, Clermont, France - Lugdunensis Province (LUGD)
Ordained: 1884
Final Vows: 02 February 1894
Died: 28 March 1934, St Mary's, Key West FL, USA - Neo-Aurelianensis Province (NOR)

Came to Irish Province (HIB) as VISITOR in 11 July 1921
Came to Australia (HIB) as VISITOR in 01 November 1922

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 9th Year No 3 1934
RIP
The prayers of the Province are earnestly asked for Father Wm. Power, S..J (Visitor of the Jesuit Houses in Canada, Belgium, Ireland, Australia) who died at St. Mary's Rectory, Key West. Florida on March 28th, less than a month before his seventy-ninth birthday. His death followed the recurrence of a February attack of pneumonia from which he had recovered, and heart complications.

Quinlan, Edmund, 1797-1846, Jesuit brother

  • IE IJA J/2020
  • Person
  • 06 June 1797-06 June 1846

Born: 06 June 1797, Ireland
Entered: 04 September 1833, White Marsh, MD USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Final vows: 02 February 1844
Died: 06 June 1846, Alexandria, Washington DC, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)

Reilly, Thomas, d 1708, Jesuit scholastic

  • IE IJA J/2041
  • Person
  • Died 16 August 1708

Born: Ireland
Entered: 7 September 1669, Watten, Belgium - Angliae Province (ANG)
Died 16 August 1708, Liege, Belgium - Angliae Province (ANG)

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
RILEY, THOMAS, of Lancashire. This model of Temporal Coadjutors was admitted 7th September, 1669, and died at Liege College, 16th August, 1708, aet. 68. “Sartorem agebat et exequebatur diligentissime : Nunquam otiosus fuit, nunqnamnon muneri suo intentus - Fuerat ille per annos 35 sociorum Excitator matutinus, et ita quidem accurate statute tempore surrecturis pulsum dabat, ut externus quispiam petierit aliquando, mini forte nobis machina aliqua esset vel instrumenti genus, quodprotinus certis peractis horis, Campanae pulsandae inserviret”. An. Lit.

Roche, John, 1592-1624, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/2045
  • Person
  • 1592-10 April 1624

Born: 1592, Ireland
Entered: 1619, Seville, Spain - Baeticae Province (BAE)
Ordained: Seville, Spain - pre Entry
Died: 10 April 1624, Cadiz, Spain - Baeticae Province (BAE)

1622 At Seville studying Theology Age 30 Soc 3

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Had studied at the Irish College Seville and was Ordained there before Ent 1619 Seville
1621-1622 After First Vows he was sent to San Hermengildo at Seville to continue studies
1622-1623 Sent as Spiritual Father to Irish College Seville. He was already suffering from Consumption, and so given permission by Fr General to return to Ireland in October 1623
1623 For the next few months he waited for a ship to Ireland but when at last he was on board, the ship was forced back by a storm and he died shortly afterwards at Cadiz, 10 April 1624
His obituary notice which is extant mentions his exemplary life both as a student at the Irish College and as a Jesuit. He had shown outstanding ability in his studies and was mature in all the virtues.

Riordan, Florence, 1811-1838, Jesuit novice

  • IE IJA J/2051
  • Person
  • 01 January 1811-08 October 1838

Born: 01 January 1811 Ireland
Entered: 24 January 1838, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Died: 08 October 1838, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

Roche, Alexander, 1672-1744, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/2053
  • Person
  • 01 January 1672-04 November 1733

Born: 01 January 1672, Munster, Ireland
Entered: 17 March 1693, Bologna, Italy - Venetae Province (VEM)
Ordained: 1705, Rome, Italy
Final Vows: 15 August 1709
Died: 04 November 1733, Irish College, Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)

Alias de Rupe

1705 At Roman College in 4th year Theology
1710-1714 At Roman College Penitentiary (or Loreto College. Good talent and judgement. Well versed in Moral things. Taught Grammar, Humanities and Rhetoric
1715 to 1719 & 1723-1724 & 1729-1740 & 1742-1743 Rector of Irish College Rome (said to be so in 1667, but this must be another Alex)
In a letter regarding a sale of an item he signs himself “de Roche”

(cf Alexander Roche a century earlier)
“St Jan Berchmans died 13 August 1621. The day before he died Fr Nicholas Radkaï and Alexander Rocca (Roche an Irish Jesuit) entered his room. When he perceived them he said eagerly : ‘Come in, Come in my very dear brother Rocca. I want to bid you farewell as it is probable that I shall depart tomorrow. Take good care to prove yourself a true son of the Society and to defend vigorously the Holy Roman Church against the heretics of your northern lands’. ‘I earnestly wish you to do so, but you for your part obtain for me from heaven the virtues and qualities necessary for the missionaries in this region, and do not forget the immense needs of my poor fatherland, you know them well enough.’ ‘Yes, yes, very well’ said the dying man ‘we will remember all that in heaven’” Vanderspeetens on the life of Jan Berchmans p 255

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Dr Burke in his “Hibernia Dominicana” says “I have often heard that respectable religious, Father Alexander Roche, the most worthy Rector of the Irish College Rome, say that Benedict XIII was a munificent benefactor of that College”. (Burke was in Rome 1724-1743)
1727 He was rector of Irish College Rome. He was praised in Marefoschi’s “Relazione” of his visit to the Irish College in 1771.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
1695-1702 After First Vows he was sent on Regency to Forli and Piacenza
1702-1706 Sent for Theology to the Roman College and was Ordained there 1705.
1706-1708 He then spent two years as Prefect of Studies first at the Maronite College and then the Irish College in Rome
1708-1709 Made Tertianship at Florence
1708-1714 After Tertianship he was substitute Penitentiary for the English at St Peter’s in Rome
1714-1744 Initially Vice-Rector, and then a month later appointed Rector of Irish College Rome, and he held this Office until his death 04 November 1744. His was the longest Rectorate in the history of the College.
He was regarded as a potential member of the Irish Jesuit Mission and his name was sub- mitted to the General for nomination to the Superiorship in Ireland. During his long residence in Rome, he acted as Procurator of the Irish mission.

Roche, Alexander, d 1629, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/2054
  • Person

Born: Ireland
Entered: 01 October 1616, St Andrea, Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)
Died: 09 June 1629, Graz, Austria - - Romanae Province (ROM)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
DOB Ireland; Ent c 1615; RIP post August 1621
He was at the death bed of Jan Berchmans, and asked him to “pray for his poor country”.
A full namesake of his was Rector of the Irish College Rome a century later.

◆ “St Jan Berchmans died 13 August 1621. The day before he died Fr Nicholas Radkaï and Alexander Rocca (Roche an Irish Jesuit) entered his room. When he perceived them he said eagerly : ‘Come in, Come in my very dear brother Rocca. I want to bid you farewell as it is probable that I shall depart tomorrow. Take good care to prove yourself a true son of the Society and to defend vigorously the Holy Roman Church against the heretics of your northern lands’. ‘I earnestly wish you to do so, but you for your part obtain for me from heaven the virtues and qualities necessary for the missionaries in this region, and do not forget the immense needs of my poor fatherland, you know them well enough.’ ‘Yes, yes, very well’ said the dying man ‘we will remember all that in heaven’” Vanderspeetens on the life of Jan Berchmans p 255

◆ In Old/15 (1), Old/16 and In Chronological Catalogue Sheet
◆ CATSJ I-Y has “Alessandro Rocha" A pupil of the German College Age 20

Roney, Daniel, 1801-1861, Jesuit brother

  • IE IJA J/2068
  • Person
  • 1801-22 March 1861

Born: 1801, Ireland
Entered: 09 November 1857, Grand Coteau, LA, USA - Lugdunensis Province (LUGD)
Died: 22 March 1861, St Charles College, Grand Coteau, LA, USA - Lugdunensis Province (LUGD)

Salmerón, Alonzo, 1515-1541, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/2087
  • Person
  • 08 September 1516-13 May 1585

Born: 08 September 1516, Toledo, Spain
Entered: 15 August 1534, Paris France
Ordained: October/November 1537, Venice, Italy
Final Vows: 22 April 1541, Rome, Italy
Died: 13 May 1585, Naples, Italy - Neapolitaniae Province (NAP)

◆ The English Jesuits 1550-1650 Thomas M McCoog SJ : Catholic Record Society 1994
With Paschase Bröet and Francisco Zapata, Salmerón stopped in unspecified English ports on their trip to Ireland via Scotland 1541.

Savage, Patrick, 1716-1746, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/2093
  • Person
  • 18 April 1716-15 December 1746

Born: 18 April 1716, Ireland
Entered: 17 November 1740, Paris, France/La Flèche, France - Franciae Province (FRA)
Ordained: 1745/6, Bourges, France
Died: 15 December 1746, Bourges, France - Franciae Province (FRA)

1743-1746 At Bourges College FRA teaching Grammar (FRA Catalogue)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
1746 Teaching Grammar at Bourges

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Had done a lot of his studies at Paris already before Ent 17 November 1740 Paris
1740-1742 He made his Noviceship for one year at Paris and the second at La Flèche
1742-1744 After First Vows he was sent to Bourges to complete his studies. He was not Ordained at the ed of his studies as he was not yet 5 years in the Society. So, he was appointed Prefect of Studies at Bourges College and then was Ordained there 1745/46. However he died there 15 December 1746

Seton, Alexander, d 1612, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/2106
  • Person
  • d 01 November 1612

◆ CATSJ I-Y has
1612 Sent from German Province to Ireland on July 18th. While on the way he died at Rouen in Oct

◆ In Old/15 (1) and Chronological Catalogue Sheet

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
SETON, ALEXANDER. I meet with two Fathers of this name. The first was in Germany, 11th March, 1612, when F. Gordon recommended to the General C. Aquaviva to recall him, and send him to cultivate the mission of Scotland “qui omnium aptissimus ad hanc Missionem videtur”.

Died: 01 November 1612, Rouen, on way to Ireland - Franciae Province (FRA)

Smith, J Walmesley, 1904-1989, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/2138
  • Person
  • 02 April 1904-05 April 1989

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.

Stephens, John, 1602-1671, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/2153
  • Person
  • 13 July 1602-06 March 1671

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”.

Sweeny, Philip, 1786-1848, Jesuit brother

  • IE IJA J/2167
  • Person
  • 15 August 1786-02 June 1848

Born: 15 August 1786, Ireland
Entered: 12 November 1812 - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Final vows: 02 February 1826
Died: 02 June 1848, Georgetown, Washington DC, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)

Verdier, Mercure, 1603-1679, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/2204
  • Person
  • 1603-20 June 1679

Born: 1603
Entered: 1646
Died: 20 June 1679, Pali, France - Aquitaniae Province (AQUIT)

◆ Catalogus Defuncti 1641-1740 has Mercurius Verdier RIP 20/06/1679 Pali (HS49 182v Aguit)

Walter, Ignatius, 1625-1672, Jesuit brother

  • IE IJA J/2228
  • Person
  • 1625-04 June 1672

Born: 07 February 1625, Ireland
Entered: 26 May 1669, Mechelen, Belgium - for Peruvianae Province (PER)
Died: 04 June 1672, St Paul’s College, Lima, Peru - Peruvianae Province (PER)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica”
Three years after entry he became ill and died at College of St Paul, Lima Peru 1672

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Brother Ignatius Walter 1625-1672
Br Ignatius Walter was born in Ireland in 1625. He entered the Society at Lima, Peru.

Three years after he entered he fell into bad health, and died at the College of St Paul Lima on June 4th 1672.

Warner, John, 1628-1692, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/2232
  • Person
  • 1628-21 November 1692

Born: 1628, Warwickshire, England
Entered: 30 December 1662, Watten, Belgium - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 1653 pre entry
Died: 21 November 1692, St Germain-en-Laye, France - Angliae Province (ANG)

Son of Robert of Ratley, Warwickshire

Father Provincial of English Province (ANG) 1679-1683

◆ MacErlean Cat Miss HIB SJ 1670-1770
Came with four others (Charles Petre, Joseph Plowden, Andrew Poulton and Matthew Wright) in 1689-1690 and was a Missioner in Ireland, Fr Warner as Confessor, the others in schools, and preaching in the country

◆ The English Jesuits 1650-1829 Geoffrey Holt SJ : Catholic Record Society 1984
1687 College of St Ignatius (Royal Chaplain)
1688 London then Maidstone prison then St Germain
1689 Ireland

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
WARNER, JOHN, of Warwickshire: after teaching Philosophy and Divinity in the English College at Douay, and publishing under the name of Jonas Thamon, the refutation of the Errors of Thomas White in a 4to Vol. intitled “Vindicicae Censurae Duacenae” 1661, he embraced the pious Institute of St. Ignatius, towards the end of December, 1663. For four years he was Professor of Theology at Liege : was then sent to the English Mission, whence he was recalled to be Rector of Liege, in 1678. On the 4th of December, the year following, he was declared successor to the martyred Provincial F. Whitbread, (alias Harcourt.) He assisted in that capacity at the l2th General Congregation of the Society at Rome, which began its Sessions on the 21st of June, 1682, and concluded on the 6th of September, that year. On this occasion he supplied to F. Matthias Tanner copious materials for his “Brevis Relatio” a work so often referred to in these pages. This fact is distinctly stated by F. Henry Sheldon, to the General Charles de la Noyelle in the year 1700, where speaking of F. M. Tanner literary labors, he says “adjutus maxime a P. Joanne Warner Provinciale Angliae, cum simul Congregationi XII Romae intercssent”. At the expiration of his triennial Government the Ex Provincial was named Rector of St. Omer’s College. Towards the end of December, 1684, a fire broke out in the night which consumed the greater part of the College; but as the Annual Letters state “nemo adolescentium qui istic non exiguo numero supra 180 litteris operam dant, in summa consternatione ac perturbatione, detrimentum quid piam ab improvisa flamma passus est quod singulari Deipae, cut illi devotissimi sunt, Patrocinio adscribitur”. The Rector exerted himself wonderfully in its Restoration : he had the comfort and delight of witnessing its rapid resurrection like the Phenix from its ashes in every respect more commodious and splendid than before “novum jam Collegium multo splcndidus, multoque commodius est excitatum”. Ann. Litt.
In the course of the year 1686, King James II selected F. Warner for his Confessor : and he could not have chosen a man of more integrity, moderation and prudence, and more averse to political intrigue. When the Revolution burst into a conflagration, F. Warner was exposed to imminent danger. He was twice a prisoner, 1st. at Gravesend, then at Maidstone; and would have been consigned to the Tower if a nobleman had not managed under a forged Pass, to convey him safely abroad. Rejoining the King in France, he afterwards accompanied his Majesty to Ireland, and finally to St. Germain, where he died on the 2nd of November, 1692, aet. 61. “maximumque sui desiderium el Serenissimo Regi et toti Aulae reliquit."
Whilst a Jesuit, this learned Divine published a Treatise entitled

  1. “Stillingfleet still against Stillingfleet, or the examination of Dr. Stillingfleet against Dr. S. examined” By I. W. 8vo. 1675, pp.279.
  2. “A Revision of Dr. George Morlei s Judgment in matters of Religion, or an answer to several Treatises written by him upon several occasions, concerning the Church of Rome, and most of the Doctrines controverted betwixt her and the Church of England. To which is annext a Treatise on Pagan Idolatry”. 4to. 1683, pp. 286.
    From p. 129, to the end of the work is in Latin.
  3. “Ecclesiae Primitivae Clericus”. 4to. 1686, pp. 233. A luminous and valuable work. Whilst it inspires in Priests a love of their holy vocation, it encourages peace, kindness and concord amongst all ranks of the Clergy, Secular and Regular. “Reddat nobis Dominus omnibus labium electum, ut invcemus omncs in nomine Dei et scrviamus in Humero Uno”. Sophoniae, iii. 9.
  4. His last work “A Defence of the Doctrine and Holy Rites of the Roman Catholic Church, from the Calumnies and Cavils of Dr. Burnett’s Mystery of Iniquity unveiled”. The 2nd Edition, with a Postscript to Dr. R. Cudworth, appeared in 1688, London. 8vo. pp. 323.

White, William, 1632-1688, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/2258
  • Person
  • 1632-26 February 1688

Born: 1632, Ireland or Carnarvonshire, Wales
Entered: 4 December 1658, Ireland or Watten, Belgium - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 21 May 1657 pre entry
Died: 26 February 1688 England - Angliae Province (ANG)

Son of John and Mary (Eswards) of Neigwl, LLandegwwning, Caernarvonshire, Wales

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
He is mentioned in Fr Morris’s Louvain Transcripts.

(Note the William White who Ent 1601 and was “valetudinarius” in 1621.)

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
WHITE, WILLIAM, is said to have died in England on the 26th of February, 1688.

Woulfe, Gaspar, 1673-1748, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/2269
  • Person
  • 04 January 1673-29 October 1748

Born: 04 January 1673, Ireland
Entered: 27 August 1691Bologna, Italy - Venetae Province (VEM)
Ordained: c 1701, Mantua, Italy
Final Vows: 02 February 1709
Died: 29 October 1748, Bologna, Italy - Venetae Province (VEM)

Alias de Lupis

1724 Went to Rome 24 March 1724

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
1693-1700 After First Vows he was sent for studies in Rheotoric and Philosophy to Parma, and then to Mantua for Theology, and Ordained c 1701. After Ordination he was not sent to teaching due to frail health,mainly his eyesight, but became known as a prudent Spiritual Director in Bologna
1701-1714 Sent as Minister to Ravenna, Brescia and the Noviciate at Novellara.
1714-1724 He was sent as Operarius at the Church in Bologna.
1724-1731 Sent to Scots College Rome as Prefect of Studies
1731-1732 Sent to Spain for health reasons and became Spiritual Director at the Irish College Salamanca. Rector at Irish College Salamanca where he was able to restore some peace in the College after the deposition of John Harrison, not least because he was seen as something of an outsider. he remained in this job for about eighteen months,
1732 He returned to Bologna and ministered in that city until his death while visiting one of the Churches 29 October 1748. His was considered to be an excellent Spiritual Director.

Wright, Matthew, 1647-1711, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/2271
  • Person
  • 20 September 1647-22 August 1711

Born: 20 September 1647, Madrid, Spain
Entered: 18 February 1668, Watten, Belgium - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 09 April 1678
Died: 22 August 1711, Dunkirk, Hauts-de-France, France - Angliae Province (ANG)

Son of Sir Benjamin and Jane (Williams) of Cranham Hall, Essex

◆ Came with three others (Charles Petre, Joseph Plowden and Andrew Poulton) under former ANG Provincial, John Warner, in 1689-1690 and was a Missioner in Ireland, Fr Warner as Confessor, the others in schools, and preaching in the country
(Cousin of Charles Petre??)

◆ The English Jesuits 1650-1829 Geoffrey Holt SJ : Catholic Record Society 1984
1684-1687 St Omer
1689-1690 Ireland
1691-1692 Ghent

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
WRIGHT, MATTHEW, admitted on the 18th of February, 1668: was rector of Watten from 1694 to 1698 : occurs Prefect of Studies at St. Omer s College in 1704 : for the Four last years of his life was Rector of Ghent, but actually died at Dunkirk, on the 22nd of August, 1711, aet. 64.

Broët, Paschase, c1500-1562, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/2288
  • Person
  • c.1500 - 14 September 1562

Born: Bertrancourt, Amiens, France
Entered: 15 August 1535, Rome Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)
Ordained: 12 March 1524, Paris
Final Vows: 22 April 1541, Rome, Italy
Died: 14 Septembver 1562, Paris, France - Galliae Province (GALL)

Ignatius of Loyola sent two Jesuits - Paschase Broët and Alfonso Salmerón - to Ireland in 1541. The legates arrived in Ulster, Ireland, on 23 February 1542, and after thirty-four grim days encountering innumerable and insurmountable difficulties, they left Ireland without accomplishing the purpose of their visit.

◆ The English Jesuits 1550-1650 Thomas M McCoog SJ : Catholic Record Society 1994
One of the first followers of St Ignatius Loyola in Paris
He, Alfonso Salmerón and the future Jesuit brother Francisco Zapata, were obliged to seek shelter in unspecified English ports on their way from the continent to Ireland via Scotland, in December 1541
Born Berteancourt France (Colpo, Broët, 239)

Chamberlain, John Baptist, d 1760, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/2298
  • Person
  • d 01 March 1760

Born: Ireland
Entered: 1699 - Venetae Province (VEM)
Died: 01 March 1760, Parma, Italy - Venetae Province (VEM)

CATSJ A-H has a “Ciamberlani (Chamberlain) Irish?”; RIP Venetian Province 1760

Conway, John, 1625-1689, Jesuit brother

  • IE IJA J/2305
  • Person
  • 1625-08 October 1689

Born: 1625, Dunkirk or Ireland
Entered: 17 March 1651, Watten, Belgium - Angliae Province (ANG)
Died: 08 October 1689, Ghent, Belgium - Angliae Province (ANG)

Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
DOB Ireland; Ent c 1660 as Brother; RIP 09 Novmber 1689 Ghent
In Father Morris’s Transcripts, he is called an Irishman.

(There is another Br John Conway - DOB 1597; Ent 1620; RIP 10 August 1642 Galway)

In Old/16

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
CONWAY, JOHN, born in Flanders : died at Ghent, 9th November,1689, aet. 64, Rel. 38.

Harrison, Henry, 1652-1701, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/2332
  • Person
  • 1652-01 January 1701

Born: 1652, Antwerp, Belgium
Entered: 07 September 1673, Watten, Belgium - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 1682
Final Vows: 02 February 1691
Died: 01 January 1701, Maryland, USA or at Sea - Angliae Province (ANG)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
1684 In MAR CAT mentions him with Thomas Hervey, in the New York Mission.
1690 MAR CAT records him as in Ireland
1695 Left Rome for Loreto to take the place of Philip Wright there as English Penitentiary 28 April 1695
1697 Reappears in MAR CAT, but seems to have been sent again on some commission, as CAT 1700 says that “he was on his way, but nothing had then been heard of him”.
1701 MAR CAT records his death, without mentioning day or place.

◆ CATSJ A-H has Has been a missioner in Watten, America, England and Ireland

◆ In Chronological Catalogue Sheet

https://jesuitonlinelibrary.bc.edu/?a=d&d=wlet19530501-01.2.4&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------

◆ The English Jesuits 1650-1829 Geoffrey Holt SJ : Catholic Record Society 1984
RIP c 1701, place not recorded - perhaps lost at sea before that date.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
HARRISON, HENRY. All that I can collect of him is, that he died in 1701, set 49. Soc. 28.

https://jesuitonlinelibrary.bc.edu/?a=d&d=wlet19530501-01.2.4&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------

Henriquez, John, 1603-1678, Jesuit brother

  • IE IJA J/2335
  • Person
  • 20 September 1603-12 June 1678

Born: 20 December 1603, Ireland
Entered: 03 July 1640, Parayuayensis Province (PAR)
Final Vows: 05 February 1653, Córdoba, Mexico
Died: 12 June 1678, Corduba, Paraguay - Parayuayensis Province (PAR)

Mathews, Edmund, 1653-1667

  • IE IJA J/2343
  • Person
  • 1653-27 September 1667

Born: 1653, Ireland
Entered: 27 September 1667, St Omer’s College, France - Angliae Province (ANG)
Died: 27 September 1667, St Omer’s College, France - Angliae Province (ANG) - in articulo mortis

alias Poyntz

Matthews, Peter, 1692-1752, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/2344
  • Person
  • 02 February 1692-02 February 1728

Born: 02 February 1692, London, England or Ireland
Entered: 07 September 1711 Watten, Belgium - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 1722, Liège, Belgium
Final Vows: 02 February 1728
Died: 13 January 1752 Grafton Manor, Worcester, England - Angliae Province (ANG)

◆ CATSJ I-Y has Taught Philosophy, S Scripture and Controversies (CAT ANG)

◆ In Old/15 (1) and Chronological Catalogue Sheet

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
MATTHEWS, PETER, born on the 2nd oF September, 1692 : at the age of 19 consecrated himself to God in Religion; and at the usual period took his station amongst the Professed Fathers. For a time he was Professor Holy Scripture at Liege; on the Mission he often passed by the name of Nevill. At Christmas, 1748, he succeeded F. Carpenter at Brin, in Lancashire, and died at Garswood on the 13th of January, 1752.

Devereux, Anthony, 1632-1660, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/2372
  • Person
  • 1632-08 September 1660

Born: 1632, Ireland
Entered: 22 January 1658, Portugal - Lusitaniae Province (LUS)
Ordained: pre entry
Died: 08 September 1660, Angola - Lusitaniae Province (LUS)

Catalogus Defuncti 1641-1740 has Antonius Ferreira RIP 01 August 1663 Angola (HS48 12v Lusit)

Catalogus Defuncti 1640-1670 says Antonius Voras (al de Veras) RIP 08 September 1650 Angola (HS48 63v et Foley, Hibern)

and

Catalogus Defuncti 1640-1670 says Antonius Veras (de) (al de Veras) (hibern n 1632, ingr 1658) RIP 08/09/1660 in Angola (HS48 10v - cfr. Lus.45:222v (catal, I, 1658): Pater Ant. d'Veras - Transtag)

Flynn, Michael, 1778-1809, Jesuit scholastic

  • IE IJA J/2375
  • Person

Born: 1778, Ireland
Entered: 1807, Hodder, Stonyhurst, England - Angliae Province (ANG)
Died: 04 November, 1809 - Hodder, Stonyhurst, England - Angliae Province (ANG)

Irwin, John, d.1670, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/2377
  • Person
  • d.17 February 1670

Born: Ireland
Entered: 1658
Died: 17 February 1670, Lucerne, Switzerland - Germaniae Septentrionalis Province (GER S)

Catalogus Defuncti 1641-1740 has Joannes Irvinus RIP 17 February 1670 Lucerne (HS49 112r Germ S)

Reardon, Florence, 1811-1838, Jesuit novice

  • IE IJA J/2383
  • Person
  • 01 January 1811-08 October 1838

Born: 01 January 1811, Ireland
Entered: 24 January 1838, St Stanislaus, Florissant MO, USA
Died: 08 October 1838, St Stanislaus, Florissant MO, USA

Haly, Robert, 1796-1882, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/473
  • Person
  • 11 April 1796-01 September 1882

Born: 11 April 1796, Cork City, County Cork
Entered: 07 September 1814, Hodder, Stonyhurst, England - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 28 September 1828, Fribourg, Switzerland
Final Vows: 02 February 1833
Died: 01 September 1882, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

in Clongowes 1817
in Friburg Switzerland 1826
by 1840 Vice Provincial

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Son of James Haly and Elizabeth née Flyn
Educated at Stonyhurst, where according to Hon R More O’Ferrall, a contemporary, he was the most talented and most popular in a class of thirty-six boys.
1829 Sent to Ireland, and brought with him a letter from the Bishop of Geneva, in which he is said to be “pietate, doctrina, aliisque virtuum meritis maxime commendabilis”.
1839-1857 Consultor of the Vice-Province
1839 Appointed Rector of Clongowes 19 May 1839
1840 Appointed Rector of the College and Residence of Dublin, 15 October 1840.
1844 Sent to Rome as Procurator of the Irish Province
1851-1857 Appointed Rector of the College and Residence of Dublin
1857-1879 Superior of the Missionary Staff
1859-1864 Superior of the Galway Residence.
“Almost every Bishop and Priest in Ireland, and many outside Ireland, with thousands of Irish Catholics at home ad in exile, will receive, like tidings of the loss of a personal friend, the announcement of the death of Father Haly..........The most of his life was devoted to Apostolic toils in almost every Parish in Ireland, either by himself or as Head of a band of Missionaries. Though the hoary head and bent frame of age distinguished Father Haly a great many years ago, his vigorous constitution enabled him to continue the works of the pulpit and the confessional till his years had fully numbered four score. His brethren in the sacred ministry will remember at the Altar this most venerable Priest and most amiable saint” (The Freeman’s Journal, 02 September 1882)
He certainly was most amiable and friendly at all times and to every one - “mitis et humilis corde”.

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
The following story is told of Robert Haly by Joseph Dalton :
“During a Mission in Waterford in 1849, some of the ‘salters’ in the bacon store had no chance of getting to the ‘Holy Fathers’. They were kept busy all day and the crowds were too great at night. A group of them hit on the following plan to get to Confession : Father Haly was going home to the Parish Priest’s house, Annhill, after a hard day’s work. It was, I suppose, about 11pm. His road lay through a street in which a number of “salters’ lived. His attention was attracted by a strong light from one of the houses in front of him. On reaching the house, he found two men at the door. They accosted him very respectfully, apologised for delaying him, but asked him to walk in, as they had something to say to him. As soon as he entered, one locked the door, and the other told him plainly that they were poor ‘salters’ (about a dozen men in the room) who had no chance of getting the benefit of the Mission, unless ‘His reverence would forgive them for kidnapping him, and then sit down and hear their Confessions’. “And, your Reverence, we won’t let you out until you hear everyone of us’. Father Haly commenced at once and finished them all off. They went to their duty the next morning.”
Note from Edmund Cogan Entry :
There is an interesting letter of his in the Irish Archives, written from Palermo to Master Robert Haly (afterwards Father), then a boy at Hodder, Stonyhurst

◆ Royal Irish Academy : Dictionary of Irish Biography, Cambridge University Press online :
Haly, James
by David Murphy and Patrick Long

Robert Haly (1796–1882), Jesuit priest, rector of Clongowes Wood College, and missioner, was born 11 April 1796 in Cork city and baptised at SS Peter and Paul's, Cork, on 16 April. Educated at Stonyhurst, he entered the Society of Jesus on 7 September 1814 at Hodder, where he spent his noviciate, being professed of his first vows in 1816. He studied and also taught at Clongowes Wood College (established in 1814 as an Irish counterpart to Stonyhurst), before travelling (1825) to Fribourg, Switzerland, to study theology. Ordained on 29 September 1828, he undertook mission work in Geneva before returning in September 1829 to Ireland, where he joined the Jesuit community in Hardwicke St., Dublin.

Professed of his final vows in February 1833, he undertook his first parish mission in Ireland at Celbridge, and soon established a reputation as a preacher of some eloquence. In 1830 he was appointed as minister of his community while still working as a missioner, and in 1836 was appointed rector of Clongowes Wood College, Co. Kildare. Returning to Dublin in 1841, he worked as rector of the college and community in Dublin, before being appointed as procurator of the Irish province in Rome. A second term as rector at Clongowes began in 1842, a position he held until 1850. He served as the superior of St Francis Xavier's church, Dublin (1851–6), before moving to Galway as superior of the Jesuit community there in 1859. Alongside this appointment as superior in Galway (1859–65), he also served as superior of the newly established province mission staff (1859–76), restarting his career as a parish missioner.

During the next seventeen years he toured the parishes of Ireland and also travelled to England, where he supervised parish missions. By the end of his missionary career he had preached in almost every parish in Ireland and enjoyed a great public following. On one occasion in 1849, while he was engaged in mission work in Waterford city, a group of bacon factory workers kidnapped him. They could not attend his meetings due to their long work hours, and after he had preached a sermon and confessed the workers, he was released unhurt. In July 1857 he was appointed vicar general of the diocese of Killaloe. He was also involved in the erection of commemorative mission crosses in the parishes he visited, over fifty of these being erected during his term as mission superior.

In 1877 he suffered a severe stroke and, moving to the Gardiner St. community in Dublin, confined himself to light duties for the rest of his life. He died in Gardiner St. on 1 September 1882 and was buried in the Jesuit plot in Glasnevin cemetery. He has left a substantial collection of papers in the Jesuit archives in Dublin, giving details of his missionary work and parish life in Ireland in the nineteenth century. Kevin A. Laheen, SJ, published a study of this collection in Collectanea Hibernica (1997–2000).

Times, Cork Examiner, 7 Jan. 1850; Freeman's Journal, 2 Sept. 1882; ‘Memorials of the Irish Province, SJ’, Cork Hist. Soc. Jn., i, no. 3 (June 1900), 163–4; Cork Hist. Soc. Jn., viii (1902), 95–6; Henry Browne, ‘Father Haly’, John Healy (ed.), A roll of honour (1905), 247–94; Peadar McCann, ‘Charity-schooling in Cork city in the late 18th & early 19th centuries’, Cork Hist. Soc. Jn., lxxxvi (1981), 33, 109–15; lxxvii (1982), 51–7; Hugh Fenning, ‘Cork imprints of catholic historical interest 1723–1804’, Cork Hist. Soc. Jn., c (1995), 129–48; ci (1996), 115–42; Kevin A. Laheen, SJ, ‘Jesuit parish mission memoirs, 1863–76’, Collect. Hib., xxxix–xl (1997–8), 272–311; xli (1999), 153–223; xlii (2000), 120–80; Tim Cadogan and Jeremiah Falvey, A biographical dictionary of Cork (2006); WorldCat online database (www.worldcat.org) (accessed Nov. 2007); information from Fr Fergus O'Donoghue, SJ, Jesuit Archives, Dublin; John Paul II Library, NUI, Maynooth, information from Andrew Sliney; Russell Library, Maynooth, information from Penelope Woods; information from Christopher Woods

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Robert Haly SJ 1796-1882
Fr Robert Haly was our most renowned and universally loved missioner of the early days.

He was born in Cork on April 11th 1796, and entered the Society on its Restoration in 1814. He held many administrative posts, Rector of Clongowes in 1839, Procurator in Rome in 1844, Superior of the Mission Staff 1857-1879, Superior of Galway 1859-1864. But it is on his work as a Missioner that his fame rests.

During one of his Missions in Waterford in 1849, some of the “salters” from the bacon stores had no chance of getting to the “Holy Fathers”. They were kept busy all day and the crowds were too big at night. A party of them hit on the following plan to get confession. Father Haly was going home to the Parish Priest’s house, Anhill, after a hard day’s work at about 11 o’clock. His road lay through a street in which a number of the salters lived. His attention was drawn by a strong light coming from one of the houses in front of him. On reaching the house he found two men at the door. They greeted him respectfully, apologised for delaying him, but asked him to step in as they had something to say to him. As soon as he entered one man locked the door, and the other man explained that they were poor salters (about a dozen) who had no chance of doing the Mission, unless
“His Reverence would forgive them kidnapping him and then hear their confessions. And Your Reverence, we won’t let you out until you hear every one of us”.
Father Haly, though tired, was touched by their simplicity and faith, and he gladly heard them all.

He died in the residence at Gardiner Street on September 1st 1882, at the age of 86.

Kenney, Peter J, 1779-1841, Jesuit priest and educator

  • IE IJA J/474
  • Person
  • 07 July 1779-19 November 1841

Born: 07 July 1779, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 20 September 1804, Hodder, Stonyhurst, England - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 04 December 1808, Palermo, Sicily, Italy
Final Vows: 16 June 1819
Died: 19 November 1841, Professed House, Rome, Italy

Superior of the Jesuit Mission in Ireland : 30 September 1812- 28 September 1817; 29 September 1821- May 1830;
Visitor to Maryland Mission : 1819 - 1822; 14 November 1830 - 1833;
Vice-Provincial: April 1834 - May 1836;
Vice-President Maynooth College : 1813 - 1814;

Peter Kenney was an Irish Jesuit credited with restoring the Society of Jesus in Ireland after their suppression, as well as with establishing several colleges and devoting much of his life to the education of youth.
There were seventeen Jesuits at the time of the suppression in Ireland. No longer members of the Society, they were forced to act as diocesan priests. One of these last remaining Jesuits, Fr Thomas Betagh, taught children of poor families in Dublin. One of his students was Peter Kenney, the son of a coachmaker. Sponsored by Betagh, Kenney entered Maynooth College. From here he travelled to Palermo in Sicily to continue his religious training, as Sicily was allowed to maintain its branch of the Society of Jesus. Here in 1808 he was ordained as a priest.
Kenney travelled back to Ireland in 1811, the same year that Fr Betagh, the last remaining Jesuit in Ireland, died. Kenney arrived intent on re-establishing the Jesuits in his home country. Using money that had been put aside by the previous Jesuits, he bought Castle Brown in 1813. This would become the site of a new Jesuit school, Clongowes Wood College, which opened the following year. In 1818 a further school was opened in Tullabeg, Offaly. Tullabeg College was originally planned as a noviciate for the Society but became in time a proper college.
In 1822 Kenney travelled to America to visit the missions. In Missouri he met Jesuit farmers and was appalled that they owned slaves, ordering them to set their slaves free. Back in Ireland, Kenney and three others founded the Jesuit Church of St. Francis Xavier in Dublin after the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 was passed. For his remaining years, he continued his work across Ireland, both as a preacher and as an educator, until he passed away in 1841, worn down by constant toil and travel.

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” : :
Early education in Humanities at Carlow and Stonyhurst. Father Betagh was the first to discover his abilities. Priests used to go listen to him teaching Catechism while he was an apprentice coach-builder. Betagh and O’Callaghan, ex-Jesuits, sent him to Carlow College, and he was loudly applauded by fellow students, and even the venerable President. In the Novitiate - as per fellow Novice Father Postlethwaite - he was asked to leave the Refectory pulpit by Father Charles Plowden, as the Novices interrupted their meal as they were spellbound and astounded by his exordium. At Stonyhurst, he distinguished himself in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy.
He completed his Higher Studies and Theology at Palermo, where he defended his theses of Divinity with applause, and was Ordained there. In a letter from the Procurator General to Father General, he calls him “l’incomparabile Kenny”. Father Angolini writes to Father Plowden from Palermo in 1809 “in the public disputations vel maxime excelluit P Kenny”. In 1810 he says “P Kenny excellit supra omnes; dona habet ingenii, virium, zeli animarum, activitas et efficaciae in agendo simulet prudentiae vere insignia. Deus illum ad sui gloriam Hibernorumsque Missionis incrementum conservit”. Father Provincial writes in 1810 “P Kenny ingenio pollet prompto et acri”, and again in 1811 “P Kenny acerrimi et ingenii, studiique amans, ut optimam de se spem faciat. Tum religiosum colit disciplinam, ingenio ipse nimis vivido, quandoque judicii, sui tenacior apparet”.
1811 Sent to Ireland in November, and served at the Chapel of St Michan, Dublin, the ancient Residence of the Society. He was vice-President of Maynooth for a short while at the request of Archbishop Murray, and his portrait is preserved there.
1815-1817 Destined by Providence as an instrument to revive the ancient Irish Mission SJ, he was joined by four Fathers and several Scholastics from Stonyhurst, and was Superior until 1817. He bought Castle Brown, or Clongowes Wood Co Kildare, and took possession 04/03/1814 and opened it as a school on 15 May 1816, himself being the Rector.
1819 He was sent as Visitor to the American Mission SJ, and returning again to Ireland, was declared Superior of the Mission, 27/08/1822, and its first Vice-Provincial, in its being erected into a Vice-Province in 1829. He remained Vice-Provincial until 1836.
1830-1833 He was again sent as Visitor to the American Mission SJ, where he rendered signal services, and in July 1833, published the General’s Decree for constituting the American Mission into a Province, installing Fr William McSherry as its first Provincial. During his years in America, he was constantly Preaching and Confessing, kept diaries of his travels, and had a very extensive correspondence with people of all ranks and conditions. His Retreats and Sermons were spoke of by Priests fifty and sixty years later, and long eloquent passages quoted with enthusiasm.
Tullabeg, and St Francis Xavier’s Residence Dublin are principally indebted to him for their foundation and erection.
Recommended by medical men to winter in warmer climates, he made his way to Rome with great difficulty, and died at the Gesù of an attack of apoplexy aged 62. He is buried at the Gesù. (Oliver, Stonyhurst MSS). Archbishop Murray of Dublin was overwhelmed with grief at his passing, and considered him a national loss. He and the other Bishops celebrated High Mass and said the Office for the repose of his soul.
He tried several times to write the history of the Irish Mission. Of his own life, short sketches have been written in Oliver, Stonyhurst MSS and Foley’s Collectanea, as well as Mgr Meagher in his “Life of Dr Murray” and by Father Hogan in some numbers of the Limerick Reporter.

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
His mother was said to have been a woman of remarkable piety and high intellect. She trained him in piety. he soon proved himself an apt scholar of virtue. Even as a young boy, he joined one of the sodalities for young men, which, in spite of Penal times, were flourishing in Dublin at the time. Their custom was to gather after nightfall, say prayers together and listen to a pious reading. It was Peter’s custom to regularly give ferverinos to his young companions which moved them so much, and even the priests - encouraged by Father Betagh - would stop to listen to him. This was a forerunner perhaps of his reputation later on as one of the foremost English speaking pulpit orators of his day.
1802 he was at Carlow College studying Logic and Metaphysics, and here too, his oratory was highly thought of, as it was usual for the students to preach in turn to each other. A famous talk he gave was on “The Dignity of the Priesthood” which was met with applause, even from the Superior.
1804 He went to Stonyhurst and completed his Noviceship. After First Vows he remained and studied Mathematics and Physics. His health troubled him, especially his eyes, and his Superiors decided to send him to a milder climate in Sicily for Theology. He duly completed his Theology to much acclaim and graduating DD (document of record of achievement from the University of Palermo preserved at Clongowes).
After Ordination he offered some support to Irish and English soldiers stationed at Sicily. At the same time, the King of Sicily was anxious to give refuge to Pope Pius VII, and Cajetan Angiolini SJ was commissioned to negotiate the matter with the Pope. He chose Peter Kenney as his assistant. The Pope refused to leave Rome.
1811 he left Sicily for Ireland. On the way he spent some time at Malta, ministering to English soldiers there. His name remained for a long time in fond memory.
1812 He arrived in Ireland to begin his long and fruitful career. The timing saw a Catholic Church beginning to emerge from the strictures of Penal Laws, though they were still in force.
He is described as the “foundation stone” of the Restored Society in Ireland. Father Betagh had just died the previous year, and since he was so beloved, Kenney was received with open arms by the Archbishop and priesthood in Dublin. He quickly earned a reputation as a great Preacher, and on all the great occasions, was called upon, including the funeral of the Archbishop and the Jubilee of 1825. He was then asked by Maynooth College, supported by the Archbishop to become the President. He accepted, only on condition that the Archbishop should be declared President, and he the Vice-President, but only for one year. His real desire was to found a Jesuit College.
1814 He purchased Clongowes. The money used to purchase it had been carefully handed down from the time of the Suppression. The College opened that year, and students flocked from all parts of the country. Due to overcrowding, a fever broke out at the College, and it had to be disbanded for a while.
1817 He left Clongowes to Bartholomew Esmonde, and took his place in Hardwicke St, Dublin, and he remained working there until 1819.
1819 Fr General Thaddeus Brzodowski entrusted the task of Visitor to the new Maryland Mission to Peter Kenney. It was a difficult task, but his work was approved of by all.
1821 He returned to Ireland, and initially back at Hardwicke St, but was then appointed Rector of Clongowes again, and later Mission Superior. This was a difficult period for the Church in the country, and some focus was on the Jesuits, with the old accusations of intrigue etc, being spoken of to the point where a petition was sent to Parliament by a group of zealous Irish Protestants asking that measures be taken to check the dangerous machinations of the Jesuits. Kenney’s diplomatic skills, particularly among influential Protestants in the Kildare area resulted in Lord Leinster moving a counter petition, suggesting the opposite, and this position was supported in the Irish press. Nonetheless, the Government set up an inquiry on the influence of the Jesuits, and Peter Kenney was summoned before the Chief Secretary and Privy Council. Again his skills won the day and the admiration of the Council which had summoned him.
1829 He went to a General Congregation, and there it was announced that Ireland would become a Vice-Province, and he the first Vice-Provincial. He was again sent as Visitor to American Provinces, and achieved much in that position, to the point where there were efforts to keep him in the US.
1833 On his return, his health was beginning to suffer, to the point that he found it difficult to be about, but he nonetheless stuck to his task to the end. He ran a Provincial Congregation in 1841 and he was even elected himself as Procurator of the Vice-Province to go to Rome. In spite of appalling weather conditions which made travel very difficult, especially for one in such health, he made the journey, but once in Rome succumbed to a fever. He is buried in the Gesù in Rome.
News of his death was issued at Gardiner St, and vast crowds assembled there in sorrow. The Archbishop wrote of the great loss to the Society and Church, in a letter of condolence. Many clergy and bishops attended his funeral, and a similar memorial event at Maynooth.
He was a man of exceptional powers as an administrator and Superior. In addition, he was known as a remarkable Preacher.
Note on excerpts from Mgr MacCaffrey, President Maynooth, “The Holy Eucharist in Modern Ireland” at the International Eucharistic Congress, Dublin 1932 - Book of Congress p 160 :
“There is not wanting evidence to indicate that even in the lifetime of St Margaret Mary (Alacocque) devotion to the Sacred Heart found many warm adherents in Ireland, and amongst them ...Blessed Oliver Plunkett. But whatever about individuals, the first Sodality of the Sacred Heart in Ireland of which we have an authentic record was founded at Maynooth College in the year 1813 by the eminent Jesuit Father Peter Kenney, Vice-President of Maynooth and founder of Clongowes. This new Society was regarded as important and so dangerous that it was denounced in English newspapers and reviews, was warmly debated in the House of Commons, and was even deemed worthy of investigation by a Royal Commission. But that Father Kenney’s work bore fruit in spite of much hostile criticism is proved by the fact that when years later Pope Gregory XVI granted an extension of the Mass of the Sacred Heart to Ireland, he did so, as he says, in consequence of the great devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus that prevails in that Kingdom.”

◆ 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.

◆ Royal Irish Academy : Dictionary of Irish Biography, Cambridge University Press online :
Kenney, Peter
by Patrick Maume

Kenney, Peter (1779–1841), Jesuit priest and educationist, was born in Dublin, probably at 28 Drogheda Street, on 7 July 1779, the son of Peter Kenney, a businessman, and his wife, Ellen (née Molloy). He had one sister (who became a nun) and a much older brother (possibly a half-brother by a previous marriage of his father). Kenney attended schools conducted by the former Jesuit Thomas Betagh (qv), who became his principal mentor, at Saul's Court and Skinner's Row; after being briefly apprenticed to a coach-maker, he became Betagh's assistant in his schools. In 1799 Kenney took a leading role in the foundation of the first Young Men's Confraternity in Dublin.

On 6 June 1801 Kenney entered St Patrick's College, Carlow, to study for the priesthood. He was one of a group of young men who had their fees paid from the residual funds of the Irish Jesuit mission (administered by Irish former Jesuits) in return for a commitment to enter a revived Society of Jesus. The Jesuit order had been suppressed by the papacy in 1773, but survived unofficially in Russia. In 1801 the holy see granted official recognition to the Russian province of the order and allowed Jesuits elsewhere to attach themselves to it. Former Jesuits in England took advantage of this dispensation to reestablish the English province of the society under the jurisdiction of the vicar general in Russia, but the legality of this remained uncertain until the formal restoration of the society in 1814.

In September 1804 Kenney went to Stonyhurst College, Lancashire (founded 1794), to undertake his novitiate. He was recognised as an outstanding student, particularly in theology and philosophy. After developing asthma and eye problems he was sent to Palermo in April 1808 to complete his studies. This also allowed him to take his vows with the surety of being recognised as a Jesuit by church law, since the society had been formally reestablished in the kingdom of Naples in 1804. Shortly after his arrival Kenney served as interpreter on a secret and unsuccessful mission to persuade Pope Pius VII to leave French-occupied Rome and place himself under the protection of British forces in Sicily. Kenney received his tonsure and minor orders in June 1808, was ordained deacon and subdeacon in November, and received priestly orders on 4 December 1808. He carried on his studies at the Jesuit college in Palermo (completing them in April 1811, though he did not receive a degree for technical reasons), while ministering to catholics in the British garrison, despite obstruction from their superior officers.

Kenney returned to Ireland in August 1811 as acting superior of the Jesuits’ Irish mission (whose independence from the English province he successfully asserted). He ministered in Dublin with three other newly admitted Jesuits, and rapidly acquired a reputation as a calmly eloquent preacher. For the rest of his life he was much in demand as a preacher of charity sermons and as principal speaker on major ecclesiastical occasions; the Maynooth professor Patrick Murray (qv) compared his style and eminence as a pulpit orator to those of Daniel O'Connell (qv) as a public speaker. Between August 1812 and 1813 Kenney acted as vice-president of Maynooth at the insistence of Daniel Murray (qv), co-adjutor archbishop of Dublin, who had been asked to serve as temporary president. Kenney appears to have undertaken most of the administrative duties because of Murray's other commitments, but his principal impact was as a spiritual guide and retreat leader to the seminarians.

In 1813 Kenney used much of the money inherited from the former Irish Jesuit funds to purchase Castle Browne House, Clane, Co. Kildare; in summer 1814 this opened as Clongowes Wood College, which became the most celebrated school run by Irish Jesuits. In managing the new school and overseeing the implementation of the traditional Jesuit curriculum, Kenney showed himself a capable organiser. At the same time he lobbied against calls by ultra-protestant politicians for the passage of new anti-Jesuit legislation, acquired a chapel in Hardwicke Street, Dublin (from which Gardiner Street church and Belvedere College later developed), and negotiated the purchase of the site of the future Jesuit novitiate at Tullabeg, near Tullamore, King's County (Offaly).

In September 1817 Kenney (whose career was punctuated by lamentations over the burdens of leadership and expressions of desire to devote himself to pastoral work) resigned as rector of Clongowes and superior of the mission. The acceptance of his resignation was encouraged by tensions among the Irish Jesuits, which were aggravated by his frequent absences owing to other commitments. He spent the next year and a half at the Jesuit chapel in Hardwicke Street, adding to his lifelong reputation as a skilled (though perhaps somewhat strict) confessor to all classes of penitents and a leader of retreats.

In April 1819 Kenney was appointed visitor to the North American Jesuits. As a preliminary, he took his four solemn vows as a fully professed Jesuit on 16 June 1819 and sailed on 31 July, thereby avoiding an attempt by the secular clergy of Kerry to secure him for their vacant bishopric. During his first mission to America (September 1819 to August 1820) Kenney reorganised the struggling Jesuit college at Georgetown, and reported on the financial and pastoral problems created by the American Jesuits’ badly managed slave plantations in Maryland. His Irish and continental experience enabled him to mediate effectively between older European-born Jesuits and their native American confreres (who combined ignorance of Europe with pride in republican institutions). Evading efforts to nominate him for the sees of Philadelphia and New York, Kenney returned to Europe in August 1820 to participate in the election of a new Jesuit general and report to the general congregation on the state of the order in America.

Kenney returned to Ireland in 1821 and in 1822 was reappointed to the rectorship of Clongowes and the leadership of the Irish Jesuits (whose status had been raised to that of a vice-province in 1819) [This is incorrect Vice-Province 1830; . In this period he experienced tensions with Bishop James Warren Doyle (qv) on such issues as Jesuit social aspirations and the perceived desertion of parish clergy by penitents seeking lenient Jesuit confessors. He testified before a royal commission on Irish education and advised Edmund Ignatius Rice (qv), Mother Mary Teresa (Frances) Ball (qv), and Mary Aikenhead (qv) on drawing up the constitutions of their nascent religious orders. He later experienced tensions with Aikenhead and Rice over disputes within the Irish Sisters of Charity and the Christian Brothers.

In 1830 Kenney was relieved of his offices at his own request and thereafter the positions of Clongowes rector and vice-provincial were separated. But this respite was brief as he was promptly sent on a second mission to America as temporary Jesuit superior as well as visitor. On this visit, which concluded with his receipt and formal promulgation of the Vatican decree constituting the Maryland Jesuits a full province, covering much of the eastern United States, he implemented further reforms in Georgetown, reclaimed a church formerly run by the Jesuits in Philadelphia, and visited the Jesuit mission in Missouri, which had been founded by Belgian Jesuits in 1823 with the intention of evangelising the indigenous population. In Missouri he greatly raised the standing of the Jesuit college at St Louis, which became the first university west of the Mississippi, and attempted to diminish the harsh discipline exercised by the local superiors. His support for the continuing independence of the Missouri mission from the Maryland province was one of the achievements that mark his two visitations as a watershed in the development of the American Jesuits and, by extension, of the whole catholic church in America. His memory was revered among his American brethren for decades.

After his return to Ireland in September 1833 (having refused the bishopric of Cincinnati on health grounds) Kenney was reappointed vice-provincial in 1834, but stepped down in 1836 as he was no longer able to combine this role with his pastoral duties as superior of the Gardiner Street community, where the Dublin Jesuits had moved when their new church was constructed in the early 1830s; the Hardwicke Street chapel became the site of a school, which later moved to Belvedere House. Kenney remained superior at Gardiner Street until 1840, though he was now suffering from heart problems complicated by asthma, overwork, and obesity. In this period he strongly supported Archbishop Murray's acceptance of the national schools, writing to Rome in rebuttal of the position of Archbishop MacHale (qv).

In 1840 Kenney was relieved of his superiorship, having asked permission to spend some time in southern Italy for the good of his health and to undertake historical research on the history of the Irish Jesuits. He reached Rome in October 1841 but died on 19 November 1841 of a stroke, his condition exacerbated by poor medical treatment; he was buried at the Jesuit church of the Gesù in Rome. Kenney was a significant force in the nineteenth-century revival of institutional Irish catholicism, the key figure in the revival of the Irish Jesuits, and an important presence in the American church; but perhaps his greatest influence was wielded through his labours in pulpit and confessional, which led Archbishop Murray's eulogist to call Kenney ‘the apostle of modern Dublin’.

Louis McRedmond, To the greater glory: a history of the Irish Jesuits (1991); Patrick J. Corish, Maynooth College, 1795–1995 (1995); Thomas Morrissey, As one sent: Peter Kenney SJ 1779–1841, his mission in Ireland and North America (1996); ODNB

◆ Jesuits in Ireland : https://www.jesuit.ie/news/jesuitica-going-multi-denominational/

JESUITICA: Going multi-denominational
In founding Clongowes, Fr Peter Kenney told Sir Robert Peel that he intended to establish a lay school for education of Protestants as well as Catholics. Jesuits had made such moves before. In 1687, with royal sponsorship, they opened a school in the Chancellor’s House in the Royal Palace of Holyrood House, Edinburgh. It lasted only a year, but its prospectus is an object lesson in the virtues of religious tolerance and educational opportunity. Its book of rules begins with the welcome news that the scholars shall be taught gratis; nor shall they be at any farther charges or expenses than the buying of their own pens, ink, paper and books. The prospectus was copied in founding other Jesuit schools, and remains instructive today. Read more “Although youths of different professions, whether Catholics or Protestants, come to these schools, yet in teaching all, there shall be no distinction made, but all shall be taught with equal diligence and care, and every one shall be promoted according to his deserts. There shall not be, either by masters or scholars, any tampering or meddling to persuade any one from the profession of his own religion; but there shall be all freedom for every one to practise what religion he shall please, and none shall be less esteemed or favoured for being of a different religion from others. None shall upbraid or reproach any one on the account of religion; and when the exercise of religion shall be practised, as hearing Mass, catechising, or preaching, or any other, it shall be lawful for any Protestant, without any molestation or trouble to absent himself from such public exercise, if he please.”
Behind this were agreed moral norms: “All shall be taught to keep God’s Commandments, and therefore none shall be permitted to lie, swear or curse, or talk uncivil discourse. None shall fight or quarrel with one another.”

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 7th Year No 3 1932

Father Peter Kenney Saves the Scholastic Method

On the occasion of the Congregation of 1829 the Fathers had to deal with the question of the direction of studies, and with the means of bringing the old Ratio Studiorum into line with the requirements of modern times. The principal matter under discussion was the use of the scientific method in dealing with sacred studies. The majority, having completed their studies in seminaries or in lay universities, according to the system then in vogue, showed themselves hostile to the “metodo scolastico” and favored the “metodo dissertivo”.
But Father Kenny, a gifted orator, at that time Superior of the Irish mission, addressing the Fathers, made a spirited and vigorous defence of the Scholastic method. He recalled
how deeply the Church and the Society were indebted to it, how the most distinguished men had been trained on that system, and how the enemies of religion had belittled and assailed it precisely because of its force and perfection. He concluded by affirming that by rejecting the Scholastic method they should not have carried out a work of construction but one of destruction.
All were carried away by the eloquent words of Father Kenny so much so that the Congregation declared unanimously that as in the past, the Scholastic method should remain as a sacred patrimony of the Society, and that the questions of “scientist media” and others commonly held by the theologians of the Society, should be considered as anything but useless and obsolete.
It were difficult to describe with what warmth Father Roothan applauded the eloquent words of the orator, He entertained for Father Kenny such affection and gratitude that he declared him to be a signal benefactor of the Society, and attributed to him the merit of having replaced the Society's true method and, true doctrine in its honoured position. He concluded by saying that were it not contrary to the practices of the Society a monument should be erected to him as a mark of that Society's everlasting gratitude.
The above is taken from a “Life of Very Rev. J. Roothan General of the Society”, written in Italian by Father P. Pirri.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ The Irish Jesuits Vol 1 1962

A MODERN APOSTLE OF DUBLIN
FR PETER KENNEY SJ (1779-1841)
Just a hundred years ago, on 19th November 1841, Father Peter Kenney, S.J., the founder of the Irish Province of the restored Society of Jesus, died in Rome. Few men played so large a part in the Catholic Renaissance which marked the opening half of the nineteenth century in Ireland. On his death Dr. Murray, then Archbishop of Dublin, said that Rome alone was worthy to be the scene of Fr. Kenney's death; some ten years later Mgr. Meagher, in a sketch of the dead Archbishop's life, called Fr. Peter Kenney the Apostle of Dublin.(1) To-day, one hundred years after his death, Dublin has forgotten almost all but the name of her great Apostle.

I.
Peter Kenney was born a Dubliner on 7th July, 1779, just six years after the Suppression of the Society of Jesus. Of his early years we have no very full record; he was already a young man of twenty-three when he entered Carlow College to begin his philosophy in 1802. While quite a boy he was apprenticed to a coach-builder and spent his days in the work-shop. Like many another ambitious lad he profited by Dr. Betagh's evening school in Saul's Court, off Fishamble Street, and every evening when his work was done he took his place in the old cellar where Dr. Betagh taught his free school, and where, as Dr. Blake, Bishop of Dromore, tells us “three hundred boys, poor in everything but genius and spirit, receive their education every evening, and where more than 3,000 have been already educated”. Dr. Betagh, carrying on the work of his confrère, Fr. John Austin, S.J., rewarded the more diligent of his pupils with a full classical education ; his school in fact did duty for a Diocesan Seminary for Dublin and Meath, and besides Peter Kenney numbered among its pupils Dr. Murray, Dr. Blake, Mgr. Yore and many others who did so much for the Church in the early nineteenth century.
The future Apostle of Dublin early showed his marked talent for preaching. While still an apprentice he used to treat his fellow-workers to versions of the sermon he had heard the previous Sunday. One day his master entered the work-shop and found young Kenney, mounted on a chair, preaching a sermon to his fellows who were gathered round him. “This will never do”, cried the master in a rage, “idling the apprentices! You'll be sure to be at it again. Walk off now; and never show your face here again”. Thus a sudden end was brought to his youthful apostolate and poor Peter's zeal had lost him his job. Much put out by his dismissal he stayed away from the evening school. But Dr. Betagh soon missed him and decided to find out what had happened to him. He feared that there had been some trouble at home, but when he questioned Peter the young lad admitted that he had been trying to preach to his fellow-workers and had been dismissed for his pains. From that day Peter and Dr. Betagh became fast friends. Realising the great zeal and ability of the boy he decided to give him every chance to become a real preacher, and, perhaps if God willed it, he might yet become a worker for Christ in Dr. Betagh's old Society now slowly rising from the tomb. (2)
In 1802 Dr. Betagh sent him to Carlow College to begin his higher studies. Here his powers as a preacher were more appreciated. It was customary for the students to preach in turn before their professors and companions. Young Kenney was chosen to preach On “The Dignity of the Priesthood” and so well did he grip his audience that at the end of the sermon they greeted him with rounds of applause in which the President joined heartily.
On 20th September 1804, he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus at Hodder near Stonyhurst. Of his noviceship we have little record; his future life seems to point to the thoroughness with which he made it. But once again his powers as an orator proved troublesome. On the authority of Fr, Postlewhite, a fellow-novice of his, we know that he was told to leave the refectory pulpit by Fr. Charles Plowden, his novice-master, as the novices were spell-bound by his sermon and listened to him intently at the expense of their dinner. After his noviceship he studied mathematics and natural philosophy at Stonyhurst with much success. His health, however, became poor, and he suffered a great deal from his eyes. His Superiors thought a change of climate would prove beneficial and so he was sent to Palermo in Sicily to read his course in theology.
In Palermo he quickly made his mark; in a letter of the Procurator General of the Society of Jesus to Fr. Plowden he is referred to as “l'incomparabile Kenney” and even in his first year's theology he is said to have spoken “da maestro”. At the end of his course he defended his theology in a public disputation with great distinction. And yet while working at his theology he found time also for apostolic work. Ordained in 1808 he was shortly afterwards appointed chaplain to the British soldiers in Sicily. The Governor of Malta objected to this and asked him to give up his work among the soldiers. Fr. Kenney replied that as he was ordered by his General to act as chaplain he could not abandon his work unless he received a written order from the Governor to do so. As the Governor was determined to force him to give up his ministry he wrote the necessary order forbidding him to act as chaplain to the troops. Later Grattan raised the question at Westminster; the Prime Minister, Perceval, denied that any such order was ever given. Fortunately, however, the document had been preserved and was forwarded to the Prime Minister by Dr. Troy. As a result Catholic soldiers were from that time given liberty of conscience.
Sicily at this period was occupied by British troops who were defending it for the King of Naples against the French who had already driven the King out of his kingdom of Naples. The Pope, Pius VII, was a prisoner of the French in Rome and a daring attempt to free him was determined upon in which Fr. Kenney was invited to play a leading part. He was told by his Superior to be ready to set sail within an hour's time on a British man-of-war, bound for Civita Vecchia. When the frigate, which was commanded by Captain (afterwards Admiral) Cockburn, reached the Papal port Fr. Kenney remained aboard while his companion Fr. Angiolini went on to Rome to propose to the Pope that he should leave Rome, come aboard the man-of War and sail for England where the British Government were willing to put a residence at his disposal until the French were driven out of Rome. However, the Pope preferred to remain with his stricken flock and so the project fell through. Captain Cockburn was charmed with his two Jesuit guests and was afterwards fond of recounting that he alone of His Majesty's Navy could boast of the honour of being ordered to hold himself and his ship at the disposal of two Jesuits with a view of bringing the Pope to England.

II
Dr. Betagh died on the 16th February, 1811; he was the last surviving Irish member of the old Society of Jesus. Towards the close of his life his friends often used to say to him: “Oh! Dr. Betagh, what will become of us all when you go to heaven?” To such questionings Dr. Betagh, it is said, always answered : “No matter; I am old and stupid ; but there is a young cock coming from Sicily that will crow ten times as loudly as ever I could”.
Just ten months after his death in November 1811, Fr. Peter Kenney, accompanied by ty. Dinan and Fr. Gahan, arrived in Dublin from Palermo to prepare the way for the new Irish mission of the restored Society of Jesus. He took a house on George's Hill, beside the Presentation Convent which his old friend and former master in Dr. Betagh's classical Academy, Fr. James Philip Mulcaile S.J., had helped to found ; thus the first Residence of the restored Society was in the middle of St. Michan's parish which had been so faithfully served by the Jesuits of earlier times.
Dr. Betagh had succeeded Fr. Mulcaile as Vicar-General of the Diocese and by his great sanctity, learning and zeal had become one of the greatest figures of the Irish Church. Dr. Troy and his clergy were, therefore, doubly warm in their welcome of Fr. Kenney to whom they looked to carry on the Venerable Betagh's work. On his arrival in Dublin in 1811 Fr. Kenney was a young man of thirty-two. Between 5 foot 7 inches and 5 foot 8 inches in height he looked a good deal taller because of his large build and his majestic bearing. His face was not regular, though some of his features were very fine; his forehead noble, his eyebrows massive, his eyes most brilliant and piercing, though winning, his mouth and the under portion of his face full of strength, it up at times with a sweet smile. Though his limbs were irregularly formed yet few seem to have noticed this so carried away were they by the sweeping effect of his strong personality. Richard Lalor Sheil wrote this description of him ; “His rectilinear forehead is strongly indented, satire sits upon his thin lips, and a livid hue is spread over a quadrangular face the sunken cheeks of which exhibit the united effects of monastic abstinence and meditation”. (3)
Fr. Kenney lost no time in getting to work; preaching, hearing confessions, giving missions, all these he undertook and with great fruit. He was not long in Dublin, however, before the Archbishop, Dr. Troy, and his co-adjutor, Dr. Murray, began to beg of him to take on the Presidency of Maynooth. For many reasons Fr. Kenney was slow to accept this responsible position, in the end he consented to act as Vice-President for one year during which time Dr Murray was to act as President. Writing to the Archbishop in October, 1812, Fr. Kenney pointed out : “Nothing could be more foreign to my intention and to the wishes of my religious brethren than a situation in Maynooth College. I, however, yield to your Grace's desire and opinion that in my actual circumstances, the greater glory of God may be more effectually procured there than in my present situation, Your Grace's anxiety on this head is now removed, since I promise to go for the ensuing year, provided a duty more directly mine does not necessarily call me thence before the expiration of that time. I must, however, earnestly request that if your Grace meet in the interim with a person who would accept the proposed situation I may be allowed to spend in the humble domestic library of George's Hill, not as yet arranged, the hours that I can spare from missionary labours”. (4)
The Archbishop was glad to have Fr. Kenney's services even for a year and he had every reason to be delighted with his prudent and skilful rule which was most fruitful in the fervent spirit of piety and study and in the exact observance of discipline which he instilled into the students. His memory has long been held in grateful and kindly memory in Maynooth where his portrait hangs in the Students' Refectory. Besides his year of office he had frequent contacts with the College in later years giving retreats to the Students and to the Priests from time to time. While Vice-President he proposed points for meditation to the students regularly and these were eagerly copied down and continued to circulate in Maynooth for many years afterwards. I have one copy-book of these meditations before me as I write these lines. Dr. Patrick Murray, the great Maynooth theologian, in some MSS. reminiscences of Fr. Kenney, published after his death, in 1869, states : “The first trace of his (Fr. Kenney's) luminous and powerful mind I saw was in some MSS, meditations which he composed during the short period of his holding the office of Vice-President in Maynooth November, 1812 November, 1813), and copies of which were handed down through some of the College officials. It was in the second or third year of my course (I entered College at the end of August, 1829) that I was fortunate enough to obtain the loan of a copy of some of these meditations - how I now utterly forget. But I remember well that I was quite enchanted with them; they were so different from any thing I had up to that time seen. I transcribed as many of them as I could—they were given me only for a short time-into a blank paper-book which I still have in my possession”. (5)
Fr. Kenney's reluctance to remain longer than a year in Maynooth was due to his anxiety to establish as soon as possible a Jesuit College for boys. The Fathers of the old Society had always believed that the day would come when the Society would once more flourish. To provide for this new dawn they had carefully husbanded the resources of the old mission and these with some legacies and the accumulated interest now amounted to the goodly sum of £32,000. With this capital behind him Fr. Kenney began to look about for a suitable home for his new College. The Jesuit tradition had been to have their schools in the cities or near them, and from this point of view Rathfarnham Castle seemed a good site. However, it was thought that it would be more prudent not to open a Jesuit school so near Dublin Castle. Fr. Kenney wrote to Dr. Plunkett, the Bishop of Meath, about his plans and the difficulties in the way; the following is part of Dr. Plunkett's reply, dated 25th January, 1813 :
"My dear and Rev. Vice-President,
Having been so long honoured with the very obliging letter you were so good as to write to me, I cannot suffer the bearer, Mr. Rourke, who is going to place himself under your care, to withdraw from us without a line of thanks for your late communication. I have been educated in this kingdom by the pious and amiable Mr. Austin. afterwards in a seminary ever attached to your Society, the seminary in Paris which gave you the venerable Mr. Mulcaile. I naturally feel a most sincere desire of seeing your revival commence amongst us in one shape or other, as soon as circumstances will allow. That a combination of such favourable circumstances approaches rather slowly I am not surprised. Few great undertakings advance fast to maturity ; obstacles of various kinds stand in the way. Active zeal is a powerful instrument well calculated to remove them, but must be accompanied with patience, prudence, caution and foresight. Dunboyne Castle, for the reason you mention, cannot be thought of at present; it is perhaps, also, too near Maynooth. Balbriggan, as to situation, would suit you better, not however, without considerable expense. I mean the house at Inch. I saw it some years ago. No striking idea of it remains in my mind. A convenient extensive building would appear there to great advantage. To the price or rent asked for the ground I should not very much object; we pay here higher for chosen spots of land. I should prefer purchasing if it could be done. Building, whatever advantages might attend it, would be tedious. There are in this county a few ancient mansions, some one of which your cordial friend Mr. Grainger, my most excellent neighbour, thinks ere long may be disposed of. It would afford you every thing desirable. Divine Providence is perhaps preparing a place of this sort for you. Your friends in England are, perhaps, waiting to be informed that such a place is attainable. It would, I humbly imagine, be worth waiting for. In the meantime your actual highly respectable occupations do not estrange you from your vocation ; out of your own sphere scarcely could they be more conformable to it. I am inclined to think that the esteem and respect entertained for you in the College, and the reputation you there and throughout the kingdom enjoy, have a closer connection than is apprehended with the designs of the Divine Founder of our holy religion. It has at times occurred to me that the Capital would be the situation most advantageous for your principal residence; because the means of cultivating learning, and kindling the fire of the true religion, which the Saviour of the world came to spread on earth, abound chiefly in great cities. ...” (6)
Towards the close of the same year, Fr. Kenney decided that the Wogan Browne's family seat, Castle Browne, formerly known as Clongowes Wood, would provide a suitable home for the first College of the Society. Details of the purchase were hardly fixed before the alarm that the Jesuits were plotting against the Government went abroad. Fr. Kenney was summoned before Peel, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, to explain his position. Dr. Corcoran, S.J., has printed an account of part of this interview in The Clongowes Record to which we also refer the reader for a full account of the early years of Clongowes, whose history is inseparably linked with that of Fr. Kenney. The following less well-known account of the interview from Lord Colechester's Diary will show how good a match Fr. Kenney was for Peel.
“May 29th, 1814 : Peel called by appointment. Talked over the Church fermentation about Quarantotti's letter and Dr. Kenney's foundation of the school of Clongowes Wood, late Castle Browne. Kenney's conversation with him asserting the £16,000 to be his own funds, though how obtained he refused to disclose and that when his vow of poverty was objected to him in bar of his being the proprietor of such funds he said that his vow was simple not solemn. (7) To all questions he generally answered by putting some other question instead of giving an affirmative or negative. He admitted that he was in early expectation of two Jesuits from Sicily, Wolfe and Esmonde, whose fathers and brothers respectively had been hanged in Ireland as traitors, and that he proposed to employ these two men as Professors in the College. (8)
Despite the refusal of the Protestant Bishop of Kildare to grant a licence for the new school and the lively interest of Dublin Castle in all his proceedings, Fr. Kenney opened Clongowes in May, 1814; by December, 1816, there were 200 pupils in the house. Fr. Plowden, S.J., of Stonyhurst wrote in October of that year: “I must tell you that the most heartfelt comfort which I have enjoyed these many years comes from Mr. Simpson's report (which fills Stonyhurst) of the excellent arrangements, order, progress, and success of your new establishment. It shows what one intelligent and active man can achieve”. (9)
The boys in Clongowes both then and later always called him "”he great Kenney”; his Sunday instructions were indescribably impressive, according to some of his pupils; he seems to have been able to grip their attention completely and to have won their confidence as the kindest of fathers. He loved talking to boys and engaging them in discussions. On one occasion probably after his return from America, “he was heard to give a brilliant exposition of the American constitution, which he very much admired, and he unconsciously delivered for twenty minutes before a large company what might be called a masterly statement that would have carried the admiration of any Senate - all were amazed and enchanted”.
Besides being Rector of Clongowes he was also Superior of the Irish Mission. Plans for a Residence in Dublin and for a novitiate occupied his attention but did not prevent him from satisfying the constant demand from Bishops and priests for retreats, missions, sermons and advice. In a short account like this his varied activities can only be barely indicated, but the reader will easily gather from their mere mention how closely Fr. Kenney was bound up with the life and development of the Irish Church. In February, 1815, Mary Aikenhead and her companion Mother Catherine Walsh returned from the Bar Convent in York to begin, under Dr. Murray's direction, the founding of the Irish Sisters of Charity. In all his plans for this new institute Dr. Murray constantly consulted Fr. Kenney, and when in September 1815, he had to return to Rome to give the opinion of the Irish Bishops on the Veto question he entrusted the care of the infant Congregation to Fr. Kenney. In September, 1817, Fr. Kenney preached on the occasion of the first public clothing of novices of the new Congregation; taking as his text the words of St. Paul : Caritas Christi urget nos (2 Cor. 7 v14) - “The Charity of Christ urgeth us”. From that day to this the text of that sermon has been used as the motto of the Irish Sisters of Charity. Later on Fr. Kenney introduced Fr. Robert St. Leger, the first Rector of the College of St. Stanislaus, Tullabeg, to Mother Aikenhead; in Fr. St. Leger, Fr. Kenney gave to the new Congregation a staunch and learned friend, to whom the Sisters owe their Rules and Constitutions which he modelled on those of St. Ignatius. (10)
The only criticism levelled against Fr. Kenney was that he was inclined to take on too much work. And yet in this matter of accepting extra work, though Superior of the Mission, he consulted his brethren. Fr. Aylmer records in his diary : “The letter from Mr. Kenney on the 3rd was to desire the opinions of Frs. Ferley, Butler and Aylmer with regard to his preaching a charity sermon in Cork at the request of the Bishop, Dr. Murphy, and, consequent to his accepting that of Cork, another in Limerick. The two former were of opinion that both ought to be accepted; the latter said that he did not entirely agree with them, because he thought that Fr. Kenney's frequent absence from the College, where he had so often declared that all were too young and not to be depended upon, was highly injurious. As to the propriety of preaching both sermons, Mr. Kenney himself could alone determine, as he alone knew the circumstances and situation of affairs”. (11)
Fr. Kenney seems to have followed Fr. Aylmer's opinion and to have declined the sermons but in so gracious a way as to win this reply from Cork : “Your apology (for not preaching for the Poor Schools) was calculated to produce a different effect from what you intended, for the more the Committee heard of it, the more they seemed eager to hear yourself”. However his over-activity was soon forgiven him for, if we may anticipate a little, Fr. Plowden wrote to him when on visitation in America in 1820 :
“The General, or rather Fr. Rosaven remarks as an inconsistency, that while you governed Clongowes complaints used to arrive of your conduct, and that now all Clongowes re-demands you loudly, as indispensably necessary for the support of the Irish mission”. (12)
Before Fr. Kenney left Ireland to make his first Visitation of the Maryland Mission in July, 1819, he had founded besides Clongowes, the Jesuit Residence attached to Hardwicke St. Church and the College at Tullabeg, but we shall have to reserve details of these foundations for some other occasion.

III
The new Mission in Maryland needed help in its difficult task of reorganisation and Fr. Kenney's great skill as an administrator, coupled with his prudence and discretion, made him ideally suited for the difficult position of Visitor. During the few months he remained in the United States he did excellent work the full fruits of which he was to witness ten years later when Fr. John Roothaan sent him to make a second visitation of the Mission in 1830. Though absent from Ireland for less than a year on this first visitation he was greatly missed. Fr. Plowden writes to him on September 24th, 1819 : “You are much missed and wanted in Ireland. As soon as I heard of your being elected by the diocesan clergy Co-adjutor to Dr. Sughrue (Bishop of Kerry), I wrote to Rome to engage our friends to frustrate the measure by every means in their power. We know now that the Lord Lieutenant has publicly notified that the election of Mr. Kenney to a bishopric is disapproved of by the Government. What a dreadful man you are! It seems your conference with Mr. Peel terrified the Ministers. All this makes me smile....” (13)
But the bishopric of Kerry was not the only honour which Fr. Kenney had to take steps to avoid; later on we shall see how anxious the American bishops were to have him as a confrère. Even now on his first visit to the States many influential people were anxious to keep him there. He wrote to Fr. Aylmer from Georgetown on October 5th, 1819 :
“I arrived at New York on the 9th ult. Matters are not so bad as they were made to appear. The General has been more plagued than he ought to have been.
All parties seem glad that a visitation has been instituted by the General.
I assure you that I have not the least intention or wish that you should take any measure to prevent the success of the Archbishop's efforts. In strict impartiality, after contrasting the wants of this country with my obligations to the Irish Mission, I have resolved to guard cautiously that religious indifference that leaves the subject sicut baculum in manu senis. Were I at my own disposal, I should think it almost a crime to return from any motive of affection or attachment to those comforts and sympathies which I shall never enjoy outside Ireland.
Were a man fit to do no more than catechize the children and slaves he ought to consider his being on the spot, by the will of God, a proof that it is most pleasing to God to remain amongst them, and so sacrifice every gratification under heaven to the existing wants of Catholicity, I shall not even lift my hand to influence the General one way or the other, because I am unwilling and unable to decide between the claims of the Irish Mission and the wants of this, when I am myself the subject of discussion”. (14)
However Ireland was not to be deprived of so valued a son and in the following August (1820) he returned to Dublin. On his arrival he took up duties as Superior of Hardwicke Street; in the next year he was reappointed Superior of the Mission and Rector of Clongowes. His work in Clongowes has been treated of elsewhere, and so here we shall give it scant mention; there were many worrying moments when the old outcry against the Jesuits was raised again, and it took all Fr. Kenney's influence and tact to avert the storm.
It was during this period between his American visitations that Fr. Kenney's greatest work as a preacher was done. On almost every big occasion he was invited to fill the pulpit. Thus he preached the panegyric of Dr. Troy in 1823, the consecration sermon of Dr. Crolly in 1825, the first appeal for the Propagation of the Faith ever preached in Dublin, and the great Jubilee of 1826. Dr. Murray opened the Jubilee on 8th March, 1826, in the new Church of the Immaculate Conception (the Pro Cathedral). Every day for a month Fr. Kenney addressed the faithful with commanding eloquence which achieved the most astonishing conversions. Mgr. Meagher tells us that the confessionals were crowded almost without interruption by unprecedented multitudes. On the first morning of General Communion the Pro-Cathedral presented a spectacle such as Dublin had never before witnessed. The Church was packed to overflowing and every member of the vast congregation received Holy Communion. At the conclusion of the ceremonies Fr. Kenney led the people in a renovation of their Baptismal vows. Beholding the sight that met him as he ascended the pulpit he“burst forth into such strains of jubilation and thanksgiving, as made his overflowing audience almost beside themselves, while with uplifted hands and streaming eyes they literally shouted aloud their eternal renunciation of Satan and his works”. (15)
Dr. Patrick Murray, the Maynooth Professor, has left us his opinions of Fr. Kenney's powers :

“Fr. Kenney aimed not at the ear or the fancy but through the understanding at the heart. Not to steal it; he seized it at once and in his firm grasp held it beating quick in its rapt and willing captivity. ... The only other orator to whom I thought of comparing him was Daniel O'Connell. I recollect that while both were yet living I remarked in a conversation with a very intelligent friend on Fr. Kenney's great powers that he was ‘the O'Connell of the pulpit’. My friend not only agreed with me but expressed his surprise that the resemblance had never occurred to himself. The reason it did not occur to him was, no doubt, that ordinarily men do not think of searching for such comparisons out of the species; but set off pulpit orators against pulpit orators as they set bar orators against bar orators, and parliamentary against parliamentary.
Overwhelming strength and all-subduing pathos were the leading, as they were the common, characteristics of these two extraordinary men. I say nothing of clearness, precision, and those other conditions which must be found in all good composition, whether written or spoken, and especially in oratory addressed to the many; without which all seeming or so-called eloquence is mere hurdy gurdy clattering. Also I say nothing of O'Connell's inimitable and irresistible humour. There are undoubtedly certain occasions on which this talent may be exercised in the pulpit. But Fr. Kenney, if he possessed it, never in the least degree displayed it. I never saw a more serious countenance than his was on every occasion of my hearing him. Not solemn, not severe, but serious and attractively and winningly so. There he stood - or sat as the case might be - as if he had a special commission direct from heaven on the due discharge of which might depend his own salvation and that of every soul present. Indeed so deeply did he seem to be penetrated with the importance of his sacred theme, so entirely did the persuasion of that importance display itself in his whole manner that his discourses appeared to be the simple utterances of what his heart and soul had learned and digested in a long and absorbing meditation before the crucifix. That they were often in fact such utterances I have no doubt whatever ; one instance of this I once, by mere accident, happened to witness with my own eyes.
In another point he also strikingly resembled O'Connell. He never indulged in those poetic flights of mere fancy which delight only or mainly for their own sake. Imagination, of course, he had and of a high order, too; otherwise he could never have been a true orator. But it was imagination subservient not dominant; penetrating the main idea as a kindling spark of life, not glittering idly round about it; the woof interwoven with the warp not the gaudy fringe dangling at the end of the texture. You will find none of these poetic flights to which I allude, in Demosthenes, or Cicero in Chrysostome or Bourdaloue; and where they are found in modern orators of high name they are blemishes not beauties. Of course, too, he had great felicity of diction, which is equally essential - using the very words and phrases which above all others exactly suited the thought and set it off in its best light, so that the substitution of any words would be at once felt as an injury like the touch of an inferior artist covering the delicate lines of a master....
Fr. Kenney, like O'Connell, attained the highest perfection of his art which consists in so appearing that no. one ever dreams of any culture or art having been used at all, according to the hackneyed phrase summae artis autem celare artem. So perfect was O'Connell in this respect that though I heard him very often in the winter of 1837-8 and the following years it never once entered my mind to suspect that he had ever given any great attention to oratory as an art; his delivery always appearing to me spontaneous and unstudied as are the movements and prattle of a child. It was only after his death that I learned from some published memorials of him, and was at the time surprised to learn, that in early life he had taken great pains in forming his manner, and in particular that he had marked and studied with care the tones and modulations of voice for which the younger Pitt was so famous. Fr. Kenney, like O'Connell, hardly used any gestures. His voice was powerful and at the same time pleasing, but I I do not ever remember to have heard from him any of those soft pathetic tones sometimes used by O'Connell which winged his words to the heart and the sound of which even at this distant period still seems to vibrate in my ears.
Fr. Kenney was eminently a theological preacher, and this too without the slightest tinge of that pedantry and affectation always so offensive to good taste, but particularly so in the pulpit. Indeed he was the only preacher I ever heard who possessed the marvellous power of fusing the hardest and most abstruse scholasticisms into forms that.at once imparted to them clearness and simplicity and beauty without in the least degree lessening their weight and dignity.....” (16)

Dr. Murray was not alone in thinking Fr. Kenney an outstanding orator. One old bishop used to recall the over mastering tenderness and vehemence of his apostrophes to the crucifix, which he delivered with streaming eyes on some occasions ; this same bishop declared that his vivid recollection of Fr. Kenney's preaching had made him unable to relish any other preacher however eminent, even Fr. Tom Burke himself. Fr. Aylmer, who was an effective preacher, used to say that his greatest humiliation was to have to preach from the same altar steps from which Fr. Kenney had electrified the congregation on the previous Sunday, So packed was the church when he preached that the congregation overflowed out on to the street; his following numbered all classes. It is said that Grattan used to admire his eloquence greatly and used to attend his sermons at Hardwicke Street.
As this account of Fr. Kenney's career has already grown too long we can make no mention of Fr. Kenney's close connection with the Presentation Convent on George's Hill. We must, however

Holden, Noel, 1920-1990, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/499
  • Person
  • 19 December 1920-09 January 1990

Born: 19 December 1920, Moate, County Westmeath
Entered: 20 September 1938, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1952, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 22 April 1989, John Austin House, Dublin
Died: 09 January 1990, Fuengirola, Spain

Part of the John Austin community, North Circular Road, Dublin at the time of death.

by 1979 at Toronto ONT, Canada (CAN S) sabbatical

◆ Interfuse
Interfuse No 77 : Summer 1994 & Interfuse No 82 : September 1995

Obituary
Noel Holden (1920-1990)

19th Dec. 1920: Born, Moate, Co. Westmeath
Educated by the Marist Brothers in Athlone
20th Sept.1938: Entered Jesuit Novitiate at Emo
1940 - 1943: Rathfarnham (studies U.C.D.)
1943 - 1946: Tullabeg - Philosophy
1946 - 1949: Belvedere - teaching
1949 - 1954: Milltown Park - Theology
1954 - 1969: Crescent College - teaching
1969 - 1978: Milltown Park, engaged in Missions/Retreats
1979 - 1980: Sabbatical in Canada (M.A. Theology in Toronto)
1980 - 1989: North Circular Road, while continuing work in Missions/Retreats, Apostleship of Prayer work.
1989: Fuengirola, Spain, as Chaplain
9th Jan. 1990: Died in Fuengirola

Noel was born in Moate, Co. Westmeath, on 19 December, 1920, with Irish midlands roots on his mother's side and north English roots on his father's. He received his secondary education from the Marist Brothers, Athlone. He told me that his school-days were lonely: the lessons-conscious Moate boy among the Athlone aliens; the double cycle-ride (thirty miles); no time for school games. Evidence here of that dogged sense of duty which was to characterise his life. He was encouraged to enter the Society by the famous Moate parish priest Monsignor Langan, and he came to Emo in 1938.

He suffered (if not entirely in silence) the prickly probation of the then juniorate. There was philosophy in Tullabeg, regency in Belvedere, theology and ordination (1952) in Militown and tertianship in Rathfarnham. From 1954 to 1969 he taught in the Crescent. He became deeply interested in preaching and retreat work and it was hardly a surprise when he was appointed to the mission and retreat staff.

Except for a sabbatical year this was to be his assignment for the rest of his life and along with parish supply work it was to bring him to various parts of Ireland, to Britain, the United States, France, Spain, Israel, Jordan. His favourite mission-ground was in the diocese of Down and Connor. He felt at home in the North, he said: he found the northern temperament akin to his own. The people of Carnlough, Co. Antrim, virtually adopted him and he them. His sabbatical in Toronto gave him a Master's degree in theology and an aggiornamento that flowed into his ministry. He zealously promoted devotion to the Sacred Heart and strongly preached the unconditional love of God for us.

In December 1989 he went to Fuengirola, Spain, as Christmas time chaplain to Irish residents there. He reported that the weather was bad: “I'll have to say goodbye to the swimming”. Unfortunately he didn't. About 11 a.m. on 9 January 1990 he went swimming off the beach and was drowned.

Noel was a hard worker and was happiest when on the ministry trail. The work was often done despite some ill-health: he was subject to headaches. He did not like to be “grounded” for long. I remember a tense few days when he was house-bound following the theft of his car. Fortunately the car was found and he zoomed away to his own and everyone else's relief.

He was not averse to recounting his apostolic achievements. It would be facile to see this as just boasting: there was a certain simplicity, perhaps a sort of humility about it: surely a way of unwinding and sharing. He could irritate you and then charm you with a simple act of kindness.

He was notable in pietas towards his family: very much the parent-remembering son, the concerned brother, the interested uncle. The teaching of Tony de Mello and Billy Johnston appealed to him. There was an inherited psychic side to him. With this went a well-informed love of nature: he tended the garden, and David Attenborough programmes absorbed him.

And this nature-Noel concordance seemed to show itself remarkably on the last day of his life. Years before he had planted two trees in the John Austin garden. Just before he went to Spain it was decided with his consent to remove them. The trees were felled on the morning of 9 January. Requiescat.

Stephen Redmond

Finn, Cornelius P, 1910-1993, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/658
  • Person
  • 07 November 1910-

Born: 07 November 1910, Mallow, County Cork
Entered: 01 September 1928, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1939, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1978
Died: 29 August 1993, Manresa, Toowong, Brisbane, Australia - Australiae Province (ASL)

Transcribed : HIB to ASL 05/04/1931

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280 :
His early education was at Mungret College Limerick, and he lived in the Apostolic School there, where boys interested in priesthood lived. he Entered the Society in 1928 at St Stanislaus College Tullabeg.

1930-1933 After First Vows he was sent to Rathfarnham Castle to study at University College Dublin, majoring in Latin and English.
1933-1936 He was sent to Leuven for Philosophy where he also learned French and Flemish
1936-1938 He was sent immediately from Leuven to Innsbruck for Theology, where he learned German as well and made the acquaintance of Karl Rahner.
1938-1940 As war was begin in Europe he was brought back to Milltown Park Dublin to complete his Theology, and was Ordained there in 1939.
1940-1941 He made Tertianship at Rathfarnham Castle under Henry Keane, the former English Provincial.
1941-1942 He spent this year in Liverpool at a parish awaiting a ship to Australia. He finally made the journey, but it was a dangerous trip, involving dodging German submarines, but he and his Jesuit companions arrived safely.
1943-1949 He was appointed Minister of Juniors at Loyola Watsonia where he remained for seven years. He was like by the Scholastics for his youth - only 33 years of age - and he was full of bright ideas and encouragement. He taught English, Latin and French there. He was also a great raconteur and rarely lost for a word. He was also engaged in giving Retreats at Watsonia to many groups who passed through Loyola. His cheerful presentation of the spiritual life had a wide appeal.
Among his innovations at the Juniorate was the introduction of a course in education (pedagogy) to prepare Scholastics for Regency. To prepare himself for this course he undertook a Diploma in Education himself at University of Melbourne, which included a six week training at Geelong Grammar School. He also instituted a Summer School on education for the Scholastics, inviting various experts to come and address them.
1949-1950 He began an MA himself at University of Melbourne focusing on the influence of the Spiritual Exercises on the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins. However at this time he was also appointed Dean of Students at Newman College left him not time to complete this MA.
1950-1952 He was appointed Rector at Aquinas College, Adelaide and was expected to develop this College. A stately home was purchased at North Adelaide and a new residential wing erected. By 1952 Aquinas had 40 resident students and 50 non-residents. During this time he also tutored students in French, English, Latin and Philosophy as well as carrying out chaplain duties. By the end of that year he had something of a breakdown and was given a rest.(1952-1953)
1953-1960 He was considered to have recovered his health sufficiently to be appointed the founding Rector at St Thomas More College in Perth. During 1954 he was expected to fundraise for new buildings there and this proved difficult. Meanwhile Archbishop Prendiville asked him to take over a new Parish at Attadale, where land hand been donated for a Jesuit school. He supervised the building of a parish school, St Joseph Pignatelli. By 1955 he was relieved of his parish duties to focus exclusively on the Newman College, which was due to open in March 1955. While unable to effect much influence on the grand design of the College, he did see to some of the finer details, such as the stained glass windows in the Chapel, the work of the Irish artist Richard King. He gave the College its motto “God's Servant First”, chose the first students and welded them into a community.
He was a very energetic chaplain to the Newman Society, holding the Annual Catholic Federation of Australia conference in 1958 - the first time for Perth. For some years he conducted “The Catholic Answer” programme on radio, and he continued to be in demand for Retreats and sermons. Overall he spent six years at this work.
1960-1968. He returned to Loyola Watsonia, somewhat tired to resume his former work as Minister of Juniors and Retreats. He spent much of these years between Loyola Watsonia and Campion College, including being appointed Rector at Campion for a new community for Scholastics attending University at the Dominican House of Studies in Canberra.
1969-1973 He began his long association with Corpus Christi College at Werribee and Clayton. It was to last 17 years. There he did what he had usually done, teaching English together with Liturgy and Scripture, and giving Spiritual Direction and retreats.
Between the end of Werribee and Clayton, he was given a sabbatical year in 1972, taking courses in San Francisco, Glasgow, Ireland and Rome. He was preparing for a position at the Catholic Education Office in Sydney helping teachers with catechetics. He took up this position in 1973 and resided at St John’s College.
1974-1986 His work at Clayton began in 1974. His first years were as Spiritual Director and then as Moderator of the Second Year students. This role involved tutoring. Students experienced him as quiet, diffident even, but sincere with integrity and deep spirituality.
1986 Following retirement his health and confidence deteriorated. After a year at Thomas More College and the Hawthorn Parish he spent his last four years at Toowong, where the climate was more suitable. He would return to Hawthorn and Queenscliff during the more oppressive Brisbane summers.

He was remembered for his Irish wit, his friendliness, his kindness, his wisdom and gentleness as a spiritual director, his “marketing” of the “discernment of spirits”, his preaching and his zeal in promoting vocations to the Society. he was a man of many talents but very humble.

Note from Michael Moloney Entry
Michael Moloney came to Australia as director of the retreat house at Loyola College, Watsonia, and worked with Conn Finn, 1964-66.

Adams, James, 1737-1802, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/867
  • Person
  • 03 November 1737-07 December 1802

Born: 03 November 1737, Ireland
Entered: 07 September 1756, Watten, Belgium - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: c1767
Died: 07 December 1802, Dublin - Angliae Province (ANG)

Alias Hacon; Alias Spencer

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Author of some works.

◆ The English Jesuits 1650-1829 Geoffrey Holt SJ : Catholic Record Society 1984
Son of William and Anne or Sarah Spencer
Educated St Omer 1746-1755
1755-1756 Douai
Entered 07/09/1756 Watten
1761Bruges College
1763/4-1767 Liège, Theology
Ordained c 17671767-1768 Ghent, Tertianship
1768 St Aloysius College (Southworth, Croft, Leigh)
1769-1774 St Chad’s College, Aston
1774-1798 London
1798-1802 Dublin

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
ADAMS, JAMES, began his Noviceship at Watten, 7th September, 1756. In the sequel he taught a course of Humanities with distinguished credit at St Omer. After pursuing the quiet tenor of his way as a Missionary for many years, he retired to Dublin in the early part of August, 1802, and died there on the 7th of December, the same year, aged 65. He was the author of the following works :

  1. Early Rules for taking a Likeness. With plates, (from the French of Bonamici), 1 Vol. 8vo. pp. 59, London, 1792.
  2. Oratio Acadcmica, Anglice et Latins conscripta. Octavo, pp. 21, London, 1793.
  3. Euphonologia Linguae Anglicance, Latine et Gallice Scripta. (Inscribed to the Royal Societies of Berlin and London). 1 Vol. Svo. pp. 190, London, 1794. The author was honored with the thanks of the Royal Society, London.
  4. Rule Britannia, or the Flattery of Free Subjects paraphrased and expounded. To which is added, An Academical Discourse in English and Latin, 8vo. pp. 60, London, 1798.
  5. A Sermon preached at the Catholic Chapel of St. Patrick, Sutton Street, Soho Square, on Wednesday, the 7th of March, the Day of Public Fast. 8vo. pp. 34, London, 1798.
  6. The Pronunciation of the English Language Vindicated. 1 vol. 8vo. Edinburgh, 1799.

Q. Was F. Adams the author of the following works mentioned in the catalogue of the British Museum :

  1. The Elements of Reading, 12mo. London, 1791.
  2. The Elements of Useful Knowledge. 12mo. London, 1793.
  3. A View of Universal History. 3 vols. 8vo. London, 1795.
    From a letter of his friend John Moir, dated Edinburgh, 11th Nov. 1801, as well as its answer, it is obvious that the Father had it in contemplation to publish his Tour through the Hebrides. He had been much disgusted with the Tour of that “ungrateful deprecating cynic, Dr. Johnson”.

Allen, William, 1597/8-1621, Jesuit scholastic

  • IE IJA J/871
  • Person
  • 1597/8-26 June 1621

Born: 1597/8, Ireland
Entered: 1617/8, Madrid, Spain - Toletanae Province (TOLE)
Died: 26 June 1621, Oropesa, Spain - Toletanae Province (TOLE)

Ashton, John, 1742-1815, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/879
  • Person
  • 03 May 1742-04 February 1815

Born: 03 May 1742, Ireland
Entered: 07 September 1759, Watten, Belgium - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: c1765
Died: 04 February 1815, Port Tobacco, Maryland, USA - Angliae Province (ANG)

Ent ANG read Theology for 4 years and sent to Marlyand from 1767. Age at death 73

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Sent to the Maryland Mission, where he arrived November 1767, and died there 04 February 1815 aged 73
Note from Ignatius Ashton Entry :
RIP post 1780 Maryland, USA
Probably a brother of John

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
ASHTON, JOHN, was born in Ireland on the 3rd of May, 1742 : was admitted in 1759 : was chiefly employed in the Maryland Mission, where death terminated his zealous labours on the 4th of February, 1815, aet. 73.

Barry, Edmund, 1803-1857, Jesuit brother

  • IE IJA J/903
  • Person
  • 24 February 1803-10 December 1857

Born: 24 February 1803, Ireland
Entered: 08 August 1832, White Marsh, MD USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Final Vows: 30 October 1853
Died: 10 December 1857, Ste Marie, Bardstown, KY, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

Bathe, Christopher, 1624-1653, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/909
  • Person
  • 1624-01 December 1653

Born: 1624, Ireland
Entered: 1643, Watten, Belgium - Angliae Province (ANG)
Died: 01 December 1653, Guadaloupe, East Indies - Angliae Province (ANG)

1645-1651 Studied Logic at English College, Liège
1652 was Ordained and he was sent to St Kitts, East Indies
1653 he died at Guadaloupe, East Indies

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
1652 He was at Liège and had completed his studies, “Ingenium valde bonum”.
1653 Initially he was sent to St Christopher’s Lille, but then to the island of St Kitts.

Boland, Peter, 1802-1835, Jesuit brother novice

  • IE IJA J/929
  • Person
  • 1802-1835

Born: June 1802, Ireland
Entered: 28 November 1833, St Inigo, MD, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Died: 18 July 1835, St Inigo, MD, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)

Burke, William, 1711-1746, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/971
  • Person
  • 05 September 1711-27 March 1746

Born: 05 September 1711, Ireland
Entered: 12 April 1731, Watten, Belgium - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: c1739
Died: 27 March 1746, England - Angliae Province (ANG)

1743 at Bourges College

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Taught Humanities at St Omer
On the ANG Mission

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
BURKE, WILLIAM, was born on the 5th of September, 1711, and entered the Novitiate at Watten on the 12th of April, 1731. After teaching a course of Humanities at St. Omer, he was sent to the English Mission, where he died in the prime of life, on the 27th of March, 1746.

Butler, John, 1727-1786, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/978
  • Person
  • 08 August 1727-23 June 1786

Born: 08 August 1727, County Waterford
Entered: 07 September 1745, Watten, Belgium - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 16 June 1753, Liège, Belgium
Final Vows: 1763
Died: 23 June 1786, Hereford, England - Angliae Province (ANG)

Alias Thompson

Younger Brother of Thomas RIP 1778 (ANG)

Taught at St Omer for 2 years
Missionary

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
1778 Three Archbishops and twelve Bishops, the first President of the Parlement de Paris, and the French Foreign Minister, urged his promotion to the See of Limerick. The Propaganda objected to an ex-Jesuit, but the Pope named him. He wrote to his kinsman, the Archbishop of Cashel “I am determined to oppose such a design by every respectable means in my power” To the bishop of his “native diocese” he writes : “Cruel dilemma! All left me to do is to submit to the will of others. But please take particular notice that my submission and resignation are on this condition, that whenever the Society of Jesus be restored, I shall be at full and perfect liberty to enter the same, and retire again to my College, the seat of virtue and real happiness”.
When the Bull came he was at Cahir Castle, and was so distressed that he wrote to Archbishop Butler (of Cashel) : “I decline the preferred honour, because I really think myself incapable of fulfilling the duties of such a station in the Church”. (cf Foley’s Collectanea)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Son of Thomas, 8th Lord Cahir and Frances, daughter of Sir Theobald Butler
After First Vows he followed the usual formation and was Ordained at Liège 16 June 1753
1775 Went on Missionary work as a member of the ANG Province in England at Hereford
1778 Nominated to the vacant chair as Bishop of Limerick but declined, and he died at Hereford 20 June 1786

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father John Butler 1727-1786
John Butler, ninth Lord Cahir was born in 1727. Having completed his studies at St Omers, he renounced his title and possessions, and entered the English Province of the Society in 1745. He took charge of the little chapel at Hereford.

In 1778, his relative, Dr James Butler, Archbishop of Cashel, informed him that as the Society had been suppressed, three Archbishops and twelve Bishops of Ireland had sent a postulation to Rome, asking that he be promoted to the vacant See of Limerick. In total confusion, he refused the offer as being unworthy. However, the appointment was made, and at the instance of Dr Egan, Bishop of Waterford, Fr John consented, on the condition that if the Society was restored, he should be free to become a Jesuit once more. He travelled to Ireland and got as far as Cahir, and there, overcome once more by reluctance to take office, he resigned the bishopric, and retired to Hereford, where he died in 1786.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
BUTLER, JOHN, son of Thomas,8th Lord Cahir,* by Frances, daughter of Sir Theobald Butler, was born on the 8th of August, 1727 : embraced the pious Institute of St. Ignatius in 1745 ; and was ordained Priest at Liege in 1753. This Rev Father lived to inherit the title of Lord Cahir, and died at Hereford on 20th of June, 1786. It is little known that this humble Jesuit was postulated for Episcopacy. The facts are as follow :
His kinsman, Dr. James Butler, Archbishop of Cashel, by letter dated Thurles, 7th of March, 1778, signified to him, that all the Prelates of Minister, except one, and many other Prelates of the kingdom had cast their eyes upon him, as the most worthy person to fill the See of Limerick, vacant by the death of Dr. (Daniel) Kearney - that he hoped his humility would not be alarmed : and that reading in their joint postulation the will of Almighty God, he would submit to the order of Providence, and resign himself to a burthen which the divine grace would render light to him and advantageous to the Diocese he was invited to govern. To this communication F. Butler returned the annexed answer :

Hereford, March 23, 1778.
Honoured Sir,
I received by the last Post your very friendly letter of the 7th inst. You will not easily conceive my confusion and uneasiness on reading its contents. How flattering soever the prospect of such an honourable Elevation may be, I should act a very bad part indeed, if I did not decline the proffer of such an important station, thoroughly conscious of my incapability, and want of every requisite quality to execute the duties of such an office. I therefore most earnestly beg, and by every sacred motive entreat you, and the other respectable Prelates, will entirely drop all application to his Holiness in behalf of my succeeding to the See of Limerick, as I am determined, by most cogent reasons, to oppose such a design by every respectful means in my power. I request the favor of you to convey in the most grateful and respectful manner, my sincerest thanks to all who have been pleased to entertain so favourable an opinion of me, and hope you will believe me to be, Hond. Sir,
Your most ---
John Butler.

The good Archbishop, in his reply, bearing the Cashell Post mark of April 4th, 1778, informs him that the Postulation had been sent to Rome that it was “backed by the signatures of three Archbishops and twelve Bishops of Ireland, by the Roman Catholic Peerage of Ireland, by the united letters of the Nuncios of Paris and Brussels, of the Archbishop of Paris, of the First President of the Parliament of Paris, and of Monsieur de Vergennes, Ministre des affaires etrangères, to Mousieur de Bernis; and to crown all, by the letters of your most worthy Prelate, Dr. Walraesley, in your favor”. His Grace conjures him “not to hesitate to make a sacrifice of his own private ease and tranquillity to promote more advantageously in a more exalted state, the glory of God, and the welfare of this poor and afflicted Church, and expresses a belief that, when the necessity of acquiesence is so manifest, the Rev. Father would never forgive himself for the fatal consequences that would ensue to Religion from his refusal. The whole of his Grace’s letter, is most earnest and moving; and to conquer the Father’s repugnance, he engaged Dr. Wm Egan, Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, to expostulate with him. He did so in the following beautiful letter :

Honoured Sir,
I have shared with my much esteemed friend, and respected Metropolitan, his Grace of Cashel, in the uneasiness which your letter gave him; and I must beg leave, both from my own inclination, and at his earnest request, to expostulate with you upon the subject of it. By letters which I have just received from Rome, there is no doubt left me of your being appointed to succeed in the See of Limerick, and that in a manner very honourable to you, and to us, notwithstanding a violent opposition as well in behalf of other Candidates, as on account of your particular circumstances. The Propaganda rejected you as an Ex-Jesuit, but his Holiness in attention to the earnest application, which the Prelates of this Province in particular, as well as others, thought it for the interest of Religion, to make in your favor, over-ruled the determination of the Propaganda, and named you. - All this seems to bespeak, that what we so anxiously engaged in, was conformable to the Will of God; He has been graciously pleased to bless with success our endeavours; we were influenced to employ them, from no other motive, than our persuasion, that your being of our Prelacy, would promote his holy service amongst us; the measure had the ardent wishes of all the respectable Catholicks of this kingdom for its success; I know from my Lord Cahir, that this was particularly wished for by him, and that it was equally wished for by the rest of your family. I hope therefore, that you will not attempt to give the least opposition, to what appears, from all these concurrent circumstances, to have been the disposition of heaven; no timidity from your supposed personal disability, no private attachment to a less publick station, no friendly connexions formed elsewhere, but should give way to the call of the Almighty, so manifestly made known to you on this occasion. To judge otherwise would be only the illusion of self-love, and I am so convinced of this, that I pronounce without hesitation to you, that you cannot with a safe conscience decline, however reluctant you may feel yourself, to submit to the charge which you are called upon to undertake. Had the Society to which you once belonged still subsisted, though you could not have sought for an Ecclesiastical Dignity, yet you must have considered yourself conscientiously oblidged to accept of one even at the extremities of the earth, if you had been duly commanded; you would in that case have justly considered the command, as the voice of God, which you ought not to resist : - The voice of God seems to be equally forcible upon you now; you have not sought after the dignity which you are invited to, and if you had sought after it, it might be reasonably suspected that your vocation to it was not from God, but can you, Sir, doubt a moment, but that your vocation to the Episcopacy, which you never thought of aspiring to, is from God, when you are appointed to it by the Vicar of Christ; when you have been postulated for it, by the united unbiassed voices of so many Prelates? I think you cannot reasonably, and I think you would judge with regard to another, as I do with regard to you, were you consulted in similar circumstances. I will own to you, that whilst I rejoice, and you I think ought to acquiesce in our success, from the advantage, which at this most critical moment for religion amongst us, your nomination will be of to it, from your family, and your connexions, to say nothing of your personal qualifications, which I with pleasure hear well spoken of, by those who know you; at the same time 1 say, that I rejoice in our success, from these motives, there is another motive, which ought to make it particularly acceptable to you : it is, that in you, the difficulty which it might be feared, would have continued to prevail against those who had been members of the Society, hath been happily, and for the first time, I believe, in an occasion of this sort, gotten over. Do not then, my dear Sir, disappoint my hopes : lend yourself resignedly and cheerfully to the designs of the Almighty upon you! With the same earnestness with which we have struggled for your promotion, we will give you all the assistance in our power, all the assistance that you can expect from our knowledge and experience of things here, to render your new dignity easy and comfortable to you. You may depend upon every friendship from our good Archbishop, from Dr. Butler, of Cork, from me, from us all. In a word ! The Diocese to which you are appointed, is one of the most respectable in the kingdom, particularly from the consequence, opulence, and number of edifying Catholicks in the City of Limerick, which may be reckoned among the foremost in the British Dominions, for its elegance, riches, trade, and situation; it is but a short, and most charming ride of five and twenty miles from Cahir : but these last are but secondary and human motives; I lay my main stress with you on the glory of God, on the salvation of souls, on the ends of your Ministry, on the good of Religion; and to these motives, surely, every advantage of birth, influence, and talents, with which it hath pleased God to bless you, should be made subservient! You will excuse my writing thus freely to you; besides that my station entitles me to interfere in a matter, wherein the cause of religion appears to me to be so essentially concerned in a matter wherein I took so active a part, I claim a sort of a right with regard to you, to do it, as Bishop of your native Diocese, and from the sincere respect I have for my Lord Cahir, and all his noble family. His Lordship is shortly expected here, at farthest, some time in the next month, and as he will make England, where I suppose him to be actually on his way home, I hope that you will accompany him hither. I flatter myself, that I shall have the pleasure of welcoming you amongst us, at the same time that I will pay my respects to his lordship, I pray in the mean time to be remembered to him, and to the Honorable Mr. Butler with the most respectful attention, I shall say no more to you, I need say no more to you : the Grace and inspiratien of that good God, who gave you to our wishes will, I trust, do the rest with you.
I am with all affection and respect,
Honoured Sir,
Your most obedt. and most hmble. Servt.
WM. EGAN.
My address, if you will honor me with a letter, is
To Dr. Egan, Clonmel, Ireland.

To these appeals the Rev. Father begged leave to express his surprise that such a transaction had been carried on without the least previous intimation to him, adding, “As matters stand, I must sacrifice my tranquillity and happiness in a private station, or subject myself by an opposition to perhaps the severest reflections. Cruel dilemma! Let those then take the blame, who have any ways concurred in such a choice. All left me to do, is to submit to the will of others. I resign myself therefore into your friendly hands, on whom I depend for every assistance. But please to take particular notice, that my submission and resignation are on this condition, that whenever the Society of Jesus be restored, I shall be at full and perfect liberty to re- enter the same, and retire again to my College, the seat of virtue and real happiness”.
On the 25th of April, the Archbishop informed him, that the Sac. Cong, had confirmed on the 29th ult. the choice of the Prelates “and all that is wanting to complete our happiness, is to see you safely arrived in this kingdom to take possession of the See you are named to. I hope you will not delay on the receipt of this. Let nothing alarm you ‘A Domino factum est istud’. Your submission to the Orders of Providence will assure to you every assistance from heaven”.
In May the Rev. Father left England for Ireland in company with his brother Lord Cahir. The Archbishop on the 31st of May, addressed him a note at Cahir Castle of congratulation, promised to wait upon him as soon as possible, and announced the receipt of a letter from Mr. Conwey, Vicar Capitular of Limerick, assuring him that he would meet with the most pleasing reception there both from the Clergy and Laity and that all ranks of People were most impatient for his arrival amongst them. On the 10th July, 1778, the Archbishop, announced that the Bulls so long expected were arrived, and had been forwarded to him from Paris the preceding week; but that an indispensible journey on his part, had prevented him from attending to them before. “I need not tell you the pleasure it gave me to receive them, and how earnestly I wish and hope, that the use which is to be made of them may tend to advance the glory of God and the good of the Diocess of Limerick”. But the arrival of the Bulls served only to distress the humble Priest, and to decide him on declining the proffered dignity, in a mild, most courteous and respectful letter, he cordially thanked the Archbishop for the distinguished zeal and interest he had taken for his promotion; but that he could not make up his mind to accept the heavy responsibility. “I decline the proffered honor, because I really think myself incapable of fulfilling the duties of such a station in the Church”. In the following month, F. Butler returned to Hereford, to the great exultation of his numerous and very attached acquaintance.

  • On the 22nd of January, 1816, Richard Baron Cahir was promoted to the dignity and title of Viscount Cahir and Earl Glengal in the County of Tipperary.

McDowell, Kevin, 1919-,1997 former Jesuit priest

  • Person
  • 25 June 1919-1997

Born: 25 June 1919, Moville, County Donegal / Rathgar, Dublin, County Dublin
Entered: 24 September 1946, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 03 June 1944, pre entry
Final Vows: 02 February 1959, Clongowes Wood College SJ

Left Society of Jesus: 13 November 1974 (Returned to Dublin Diocese)

by 1949 at Villefranche France (FRA) - studying

◆ The Clongownian, 1997

Obituary

Father Kevin McDowell (formerly SJ)

Kevin McDowell was ordained for the Archdiocese of Dublin and joined the Society of Jesus in 1948. He came to Clongowes in the autumn of 1950 fresh from the Noviciate to succeed a relatively elderly Jesuit as Spiritual Father. In those days the Spiritual Father was responsible for the whole school and Kevin struck us immediately by his youthful energy and enthusiasm. We grew to love his Omagh accent and his sense of fun.

Daily Mass at 7.30 am was compulsory for everyone and it was Kevin's duty to say Mass day in day out. In those days of frequent Confession, he was also available in his room every morning before Mass, as well as on every Saturday evening. From time to time he used also to give talks on “topical” matters - occasionally (especially following “Line matches” in rugby which he might have been called on to referee) making pleas for a decrease in unparliamentary language!

Kevin was a great soccer player and - along with Fr Frewen - was a regular companion on “soccer evenings”. Although always very fair and sporting, he was the sort of player who took no prisoners and was a much feared member of the “Community” XI = in those days there was a sufficient number of able-bodied Jesuits to face the Boys XI, with a little help from one or two “Laymasters”!

More than once Kevin played a very important role in pouring oil on troubled waters, acting as negotiator-cum-peacemaker in differences of opinion between the student body and school administration. On one famous occasion he managed to cram all of the 52 members of Sixth Year into the Spiritual Father's room to parley about a possible resolution of a row which had developed on account of “unacceptable behaviour” in the Refectory!

My own personal memory of Kevin is of a pleasant, if shy, person, gifted with immense patience and a great judge of character. His long years of service to Clongowes were interrupted only by the year of his Tertianship (a final year of spiritual formation in a Jesuit's training). When transferred from Clongowes, Kevin spent time in Mungret College, until its closure was announced. At the end of its penultimate year, Kevin left the Jesuits (with a broken heart? - or so it was said) to return to the Dublin Archdiocese. He served as Parish Priest in a number of parishes in and around Dublin and eventually retired from Ringsend, having reached the age of 75.

He had spent some time convalescing in Cherryfield after a serious cancer operation, and it was that terrible illness which carried him off. I used visit him in the Bullock Harbour Retirement Home and he was so grateful to be remembered, appreciating even the most fleeting call. He often surprised me by his detailed recollection of events in Clongowes over 40 years previously. He never lost his youthfulness and zest for life and he regretted his enforced inactivity. But I will always remember Kevin as ever-young and am grateful to have known him and to have been guided by him during my time as a boy in Clongowes in the 1950s. May he rest in peace.

MLS

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