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Coyne, John J, 1889-1978, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/42
  • Person
  • 28 April 1889-17 March 1978

Born: 28 April 1889, Dunmore, County Galway
Entered: 07 September 1906, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 15 August 1922, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1926, Chiesa del Gesù, Rome, Italy
Died: 17 March 1978, Milltown Park, Dublin - Zambiae Province (ZAM)

Transcribed : HIB to ZAM 03 December 1969

Unlce of Jimmy McPolin - RIP 2005 and John Russell - RIP 2023

Early education at Christian Brothers College Cork and Clongowes Wood College SJ
Studied for an MA in Classics at UCD and awarded a Studentship in 1912-1913

by 1914 at Innsbruck Austria (ASR-HUN) studying
by 1919 at Nowy Sącz Collège, Poland (GALI) studying
by 1925 at Baexem, Limburg, Netherlands (GER I) making Tertianship
by 1927 at Rome Italy (ROM) Socius English Assistant (Substitute English Assistant)
by 1966 at Loyola Lusaka (POL Mi) Diocesan Archivist

◆ Companions in Mission1880- Zambia-Malawi (ZAM) Obituaries :
Fr John Coyne was born in Dromore, Co Galway, Ireland on 28th April 1889, where both his father and mother were teachers. Within a couple of years, his father became an inspector of schools and as a young inspector he was kept on the move: after a period in Dublin he was posted to Tralee, then to Cavan and then on to Cork in 1902. After three years with the Christian Brothers in Cork, John came to Clongowes in 1905.

He entered the Society in Tullabeg on the 7th September 1906. After vows, he attended the university taking a classics degree, also taking an M.A. in 1912. He won a traveling scholarship and was posted to Innsbruck in Austria. Later he moved to Vienna as the First World War had broken out. Then he went on to Poland for a year to Nowy Sacz to prepare for his final philosophical examination. Returning to Ireland, he completed his studies and was ordained priest on 15 August 1922.

Assigned to Rome after tertianship, he became substitute secretary to the English Assistant from 1925 to 1929. Fr Wladimir Ledochowski, the General of the Jesuits, told him that he had learned as much in the Curia as he was likely to learn and that he was sending him back to Ireland to become rector of Belvedere College in Dublin.

He was master of novices from 1931 to 1934. One of his novices said of him later, "I think it would not be unfair to describe Fr John as a Christian stoic rather than as a Christian humanist".

Then came a long period of 24 years (1935 to 1959) as socius to the provincial, not just to one Provincial but to four of them – Frs L Kieran, J R Mac Mahon, T Byrne and L O’Grady (who for reasons of health and temperament 'left Province decisions rest far too much on his socius, Fr John'). He worked for a few years in Gardiner Street Church after being socius.

In 1964 at the age of 75, he accepted an invitation of the Polish Archbishop Kozlowiecki of Lusaka to come and set the diocesan archives in order. Though his provincial suggested a stay of six months, Fr John spent about 8 years in Zambia.

Returning to Ireland, he spent a lot of time translating works of German into English. He was prevailed upon to write his memoirs. 'Memoirs of a Jesuit priest 1906 to 1977: Grafted on the Olive Tree’. He died a year after this on 17 March 1978 in Dublin.

Of Fr Coyne’s time in Zambia, Fr Max Prokoph writes:
‘In spite of his age, he tried to make himself useful in every way possible. For a man who had a finger in every pie in his home province for so many years, it was quite remarkable that he never tried to interfere in the province of his adoption, but spent his time in all sorts of projects for which a younger person would neither have the time nor the inclination. Having put the archives of the Lusaka Archdiocese in order and separated what belonged to the newly erected diocese of Monze (1962). He got down to gathering material for a history of the mission in the days of the Zambesi Mission. Since there was only one full-time priest available for the parish of St Ignatius (Fr Des 0’Loghlen) he gave a hand wherever he could, in the confessional, extra Masses, keeping the parish registers and not least by regular systematic parish visiting, house by house, as far as he could get on foot, perhaps the most systematic visiting the neighbourhood ever had. Quite a few were brought back to the church’.

Fr Michael Moloney writes:
‘Fr Coyne took a very keen interest in what Jesuits had done in Zambia since the coming of Frs Moreau and Torrend for whom he had a deep admiration. Admiration for people who did "great things for Christ" was a permanent attitude of his. His standard for a Jesuit was that he should be "a saint, a scholar and a gentleman" and he clearly tried to exemplify that in his own life. He was a kindly man yet at the same time a puzzle to many. Many wondered what "the real John Coyne was like" because externally he seemed to be set in a conventional spiritual mould and to be rather formal in much of his behaviour, so much so that one cannot escape the conclusion that he was a man with a conflict between his personality traits and what he considered Jesuit spirituality demanded of him. In Zambia he was faithful to his afternoon stroll during which he would meet people and through which he made some friends whose hospitality he was pleased to accept".

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 6th Year No 1 1931
Brussels Congress :
Fr. Rector (John Coyne) and Fr. J. O'Meara (Louvain) represented the College at the First International Gongress of Catholic Secondary Education, held at Brussels July 28 . August 2. Fr, O'Meara read a paper on State Aid in Irish Secondary Education. Our Irish Jesuit Colleges were well represented in the Exhibition organised by Fr. Corcoran S. J.

Irish Province News 34th Year No 4 1959

GENERAL
On 17th June Very Reverend Fr. General appointed Fr. Brendan Barry as Socius to Fr. Provincial in succession to Father John Coyne. Thus came to an end a term of office which had lasted for nearly a quarter of a century. This surely must be an easy record. Many members of the Province had known no other Socius and some of the younger generation might not have been able to name any of Fr. Coyne's predecessors. Provincials might come and go but Fr. Coyne remained, an abiding element in a changing world. In all, he worked under four Provincials; Fr. Kieran, during whose period of office he became Socius (22nd February, 1935), Fr. J. R. MacMahon, Fr. T. Byrne and Fr. M. O’Grady. On more than one occasion he deputised as Vice-Provincial. He had come to be regarded as an almost indispensable appendage of government, and then in June the appointment of a new Fr. Socius came as a reminder that even Socii are, after all, subject to the law of mutability.
At the celebration of his golden jubilee in 1956, Fr. Coyne said that his career in the Society had been a series of false starts and changes of direction. But these seemingly false starts, his interrupted classical studies, his years as Substitute to the English Assistant, as Rector of Belvedere and as Master of Novices were preparing him for what was to be the great work of his life. These experiences gave him an understanding of the day-to-day business of the government of the Society and of individual houses, and, of course, his impeccable Latin prose and mastery of curial style. At the same jubilee celebrations the Provincial for the time being and two former Provincials paid tribute to his skill in the dispatch of business, his loyalty, generosity and other personal qualities. To these the Province may add: his courtesy, tact, sympathy and good sense. The timid or diffident who considered a personal interview with Fr. Provincial too formidable found in Fr. Coyne the perfect intermediary. To all who had permissions to ask or MSS. for censorship or other small business to transact he was always approachable and gracious. The province takes this opportunity of thanking him and of expressing its admiration, Not to say amazement, at the cheerfulness with which year after year he went about the infinity of his important but monotonous tasks. It also extends a warm welcome to Fr. Barry in his new work.

Irish Province News 53rd Year No 3 1978

Obituary :

Fr John Coyne (1889-1978)

Father John Coyne was born in Dunmore, Co. Galway on 28 April 1889 where both his father and mother were teaching. Within a couple of years his father became an inspector of schools, and as a young inspector he was kept on the move: after a brief spell in Dublin he was posted to Tralee, then Cavan and then in 1902 to Cork. After three years with the Christian Brothers on Patrick’s Hill, John came to Clongowes in 1905. He used to say that he felt the first feeble stirrings of vocation while in St Patrick’s College, Cavan, but that the call was peremptory one night in his cubicle in Clongowes when he felt “visited” by an overpowering grace of God: “a wave of deep peace and brightest light flooded my soul to its deepest”.
Two aspects of his youth will surprise those of us who came to know him only after his curial training in Rome: his mother whose parents were English found her favourite reading in John Mitchell's “Jail Journal”; secondly one of the greatest disappointments of his youth was in losing the Junior Munster Final, in which he played as a forward, to Presentation College when at the last moment a sturdy Presentation full-back dropped a goal from half-way which soared between the posts. That he took exhibitions, medals and prizes in his stride is what one expects; his father used to con a chapter of St Luke’s Greek with him every Sunday.
Though only one year in Clongowes he was much in luck to find among his masters four scholastics: Tim Corcoran, Charlie Mulcahy, Patrick Connolly and William O’Keeffe. Among his classmates in that year’s Rhetoric were Paddy McGilligan, Tom Arkins, Tom O'Malley and J B O'Connell, later to become an authority on matters liturgical. Paddy McGilliagan beat him by 25 marks for a medal in Latin.
When he decided to offer himself to the Society the then Provincial, Father John S Conmee, began his chat in this way: “Well John, what makes you want to join the ‘crafties’: that is how Dublin priest speak of us?” Later Father Conmee visited I Rhetoric during Latin class, and John was asked to construe “O fons Bandusiae”.
In the following September eight novices turned up in Tullabeg: among them Hugh Kelly from Westport, John Deevy from Waterford, Henry Johnson from Belfast, Michael Meeney from Limerick, Denis Nerney and John from Cork. In Tullabeg for a year and a half Father James Murphy was his novice master: John liked to tell how Father Murphy, like an Old Testament Prophet, summoned all his novices round his bed, recalling for the last time the great principles of Ignatian spirituality by which his novices were to live. Father Murphy died on 28th March 1908, and his Socius, Fr Tighe took over until Father Michael Browne was appointed in August,
After his first vows on 8 September 1908, he and his fellows moved to another table and wore their birettas. For his first two years he was coached by Fr John Keane and Mr Dan Finn in Tullabeg, going to Dublin only to sit for the Royal University exams. In his third year 86 St Stephen's Green had become the Dublin College of the new National University, so the Juniors moved up to Milltown. His Greek Professor was Father Henry Browne and for Latin Paddy Semple.
He took his MA In 1912: his thesis dealt with Hellenism as a force in Eastern life and thought; he spent most of this year in Trinity Library as facilities in 86 were understandably limited. He spent the Christmas term teaching English and Latin in Belvedere, but early in the new year Father T V Nolan, recently appointed Provincial, sent him back to Milltown to prepare himself for the travelling studentship in Classics coming up in the following September.
John won the studentship and was posted to Innsbruck. By a stroke of luck he met on the Holyhead boat the extern examiner for his thesis and his oral, Professor J S Reid, a notable Ciceronian scholar; generously the Professor gave him a letter of introduction to Professor Rudolf von Scala in Innsbruck, chief expert on Polybius, the Greek historian of Rome. Scala gave him a warm welcome, the run of his library and welcome to his lectures. With disappointment on John’s part he suggested as the subject of his Bodenpreise (Ground Rents). As sources for his thesis in Innsbruck were thin, John moved to Munich after Christmas where there was a flourishing centre for the study of papyri under the direction of an Austrian named Wenger. Occasionally Wenger invited small groups to his home for a beer evening where his wife proved a charming hostess. Here he used to meet from time to time Hermann Grisar, then the authority on Luther, and Peter Lippart.
Summer vacation drew him back to Innsbruck; fortunately he had a fortnight's villa before the war broke out. The Jesuits undertook care of the wounded, beginning to trickle back from the Serbian front. With a crash course from a Viennese doctor, they took over a large building to serve as a hospital. In May 1915 British subjects had to get out of Innsbruck as Italy had entered the war and was planning to force the Brenner Pass. Three Irish Jesuits Fr Tim Halpin, recently ordained, John and Dan Finn made their way to Vienna.
John was drafted to Kalksburg, where he spent three years as a spare tyre: “parratus ad omnia” as he loved to quote to us, novices. One year on returning from Christmas holidays Prince Liechtenstein brought the mumps with him; spreading through the school rapidly some 150 boys were affected. As the Brothers had all been called to the colours, John spent from January to May as a nurse: more serious were one case of scarlatina, one of typhoid, and the most critically ill of all was the Archduke Godfrey of Salsburg down with serious pneumonia. Trying enough as the nursing with its broken nights was, John preferred it to being gallery prefect, sitting in a glass box, regulating traffic, ringing bells or covering a sick or weary prefect’s beat. Sanctions were difficult: no corporal punishment to deter slackers or offenders-only detention or, for the younger boys, putting them in the booby corner. One Pole, called the Black Prince because of his dark features, had been recalled from an English public school and found Kalksburg considerably more to his liking,
His next move was to Poland to finish his philosophy at Nowy Sacz (now Sardac), a town two hours journey south of Cracow. His main task was to prepare for his “de universa”, and in keeping with Jesuit custom, to learn the language of the house of studies in which he lived: this time a Slav language.
On returning from Poland he taught in Clongowes for the year 1919-20, and liked to tell that one of his boys later broke his gavel in a vain attempt to stem Kruschev’s eloquence at UNO in New York - and subsequently became the first Catholic Chancellor of Trinity.
In the Autumn of 1920 he went to Milltown for theology: by a war-time privilege he was ordained at the end of his second year on 15 August 1922. After two more years in theology he went to Exaten in eastern Holland to do his tertianship in a German community (1924-5).
On the status of 1925 he was assigned to study Scripture in Rome but at the last moment he was asked to fill a gap by becoming substitute secretary to the English Assistant, Fr Joseph Welsby, previously Tertian instructor in Tullabeg. For his first year and a half he lived in the German College while the new curia on the Borgo Santo Spirito was being built. He quickly learned the “stylus Curiae” and after three years Fr Wladimir Ledochowski, the General, told him that he had learned as much in the Curia as he was likely to learn and that he was sending him back to Ireland to become Rector of Belvedere.
Fr Martin Maher, a long-time novice master, was beginning to fail and John was appointed to replace him in the Spring of 1931. The present writer entered the novicehsip the following September; we were the only group to have him alone for our master. He was a dedicated Ledochowski man, as indeed was his then Provincial, Fr Larry Kieran, whose contact with Fr General was 99% epistolatry. Fr John had an outstanding devotion to Our Lord, at times over emotional in its expression; eager to tell us that we had not real Ignatian indifference unless we kept one foot in the air; insistent on the 'magis' of the Exercises which meant his novices must be grounded in “agere contra”, and, at least, have a desire to live in the third degree. I think it would not be unfair to describe him as a Christian stoic rather than as a Christian humanist. His war-time experiences had taken a great deal out of him and one sensed the strain. Many of us found it difficult to feel relaxed in our regular visits to him: we waited for an opening as he gazed out the window at Dairy hill and played rather nervously with a paper knife. He found “priming the pump” difficult.
Not that he was inhuman but he didn't believe in showing that side to his novices. He did to his Provincial when he wrote to say that, for days on end, apart form the Community, all he ever saw was the postman and, occasionally, a stray dog. A few months break from Emo towards the end of 1933 didn't help to reduce the tension under which he was living; he was simple and humble enough to ask his Provincial to accept his resignation.
If his first three appointments were each three years long, his next one was to last almost twenty-five years: February 1935 until mid June 1959. Over that span he served as Socius to four Provincials. I think he would like to be described as “idus Achates”; but a Socius in the Society is much more than a secretary; ex officio he is one of the four Province consultors. In Fr Kieran’s reign both he and his Socius were too like-minded. Though Fr Kieran met Fr Ledochowski only once in the General Congregation of 1938, from his appointment as Provincial in 1931 he was an all-out Ledochowski man: “actio in distans non repugnat”. His successor in the difficult war years, Fr John R MacMahon, knew his own mind as did his successor Fr Tommy Byrne who founded three houses and took on commitments in Northern Rhodesia - the Zambia of today. Father Louis O’Grady, for reasons of health and temperament, left Province decisions rest far too much on his Socius, Father John.
On retiring from his unselfish devotion to a typewriter for twenty five years, from letters and forms to Rome, from Collecting informations for fitness for Hong kong or Zambia, for suitability for ordinations, and for government, and, perhaps, most tedious of all, bringing out the annual “Catalogus”, he was posted to Gardiner Street as operarius. Even as Socius pastoral work appealed to him: for years he guided two praesidia of the Legion of Mary, his first experience of it being in Rome when an ecumenical praesidium was formed in the mid-twenties: it didn't last long as the non-Catholics couldn't stomach the rigidity of the Handbook. He struck up a real friendship with Paddy Reynolds, Lord Wicklow's astute partner in Clonmore and Reynolds. Though Paddy had a heart of gold, in language he’d outdo any trooper. As a result John translated a number of German books which, to his delight, Reynolds managed to sell- despite the fact that John had a taste fot the “turgid” German.
Five years later (1964) carrying out what he had taught us in Emo, the “magis” of the Exercises, he accepted the invitation of the Polish Archbishop of Lusaka to set the Mission Archives in order. Though his Provincial, Fr Charlie O'Connor, suggested a stay of six months, John, apart from one furlough, spent almost ten years in Zambia where he wished to leave his bones.
By 1966 a new presbytery had been built adjoining the modern Church of St Ignatius. With his work on the archives completed he joined the Irish parish community, taking on the duties of a curate at the age of 77: baptisms, marriages, pre-marriage courses, keeping the parish registers. As most of the community was working outside the house, he acted as porter, answered the phone, dealt with callers. One of the Community - no great admirer of John in his Socius days - prevailed on him to take a glass of grog every night, and so he learned to relax.
Returning to Zambia in 1969 after a break in Ireland, he was able to spend four days in Greece - from the human point of view the highlight of his life. Less than three years later he had to return to Ireland on stringent medical advice, but he refused to hang up his boots. Between bouts in hospital he continued translation work, was no “laudator temporis acti” but had a warm welcome, a keen interest in the theologians whose régime was so different to what he had experienced when Fr Peter Finlay and Matt Devitt were the stars in his student days (1920-1924).
May the Lord reward him for his enthusiasm and generosity; may he win for his two Jesuit nephews of whom he was so proud, for his three sisters and all the family, abundant grace.
RBS.
PS. For most of the facts in this notice I have drawn from a sixty-one page typescript which Father John was prevailed upon to write in his last year in Milltown (1977): It is, in the main, Province history with little personal comment and remarkably restrained in passing judgments “discreta caritas”. (RBS).

◆ The Clongownian, 1978

Obituary

Father John Coyne SJ

John Coyne had moved round Ireland more than most of hie generation when he joined Rhetoric in September 1905; His father was an Inspector of Schools, so John Moved from Dunmore to Dublin, then to Tralee, next to Cavan and finally to Cork. His contemporaries in class included Paddy McGilligan, Tom Arkins, Canon J B O'Connell and Tom O'Malley who moved furthest afield to Malaya, as it then was. A formidable team of Scholastics stretched them to good effect: Messrs Tim Corcoran, Charlie Mulcahy, Patrick Connolly and William O'Keeffe. Paddy McGilligan beat John for the Latin medal by 25 marks.

One readily associates exhibitions, medals, prizes, even a travelling studentship with Fr John, but it will come as a surprise to those who knew him in later life that one of the greatest disappointments of his youth was when as a dashing forward the Munster Schools Junior Cup was snatched from his team when at the last moment the Pres full back dropped a goal from half way.

As a young Jesuit he had rather a unique travelling studentship: he spent his first term in Innsbruck, after Christmas moved to Munich, and was lucky enough to have a fortnight's holiday in the Austrian Alps before war broke out. Until Italy entered the war in May 1915 he worked in a make-shift hospital the Jesuits set up in Innsbruck, but with the Italians forcing the Brenner Pass he had to move to Vienna, and then to Poland for three years in Nowy Sacz, south of Cracow. On returning from Poland he taught for a year in Clongowes (1919-20). After four years Theology in Milltown he did his Tertianship in Exaten in eastern Holland.

Destined for Scripture study in Rome, at the last minute he was switched to a secretarial post in the Jesuit Curia. Three years later he was sent back to Ireland as Rector of Belvedere; then he was named Novice-master at Emo. So many switches were to be followed by an unprecedented stint of almost 25 years as Socius to four Provincials.

At the age of 75 he went out to Lusaka and spent almost ten years in Zambia. He came home on stringent medical advice but, though two or three times at death's door, he continued to keep alert and, more than occupied, in his favourite hobby, translating from German. He died within a few months of his eighty-ninth birthday, quite at home in the world of post-Vatican II.

We offer our sympathy especially to his three sorrowing sisters and all his family, not forgetting his nephew Fr John Russell SJ (OC 1941-43) who has recently completed his term as Vice-Provincial of Hong Kong.

Dietel, Karl, 1844-1905, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1183
  • Person
  • 25 March 1844-23 March 1905

Born: 25 March 1844, Mikulov, Czechoslovakia
Entered: 28 September 1867, Sankt Andrä Austria - Austriae Province (ASR)
Ordained: 1880
Final vows: 25 March 1878
Died: 23 March 1905, St Aloysius, Sevenhill, Adelaide, Australia

Transcribed ASR to HIB : 01 January 1901

Joined with Irish Australian missioners is 1880

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He belonged to the original Austrian Jesuit Mission, and then he transcribed to HIB in 1901 when they took over responsibility for the Mission.

Note from William Hughes Entry :
When his health began to fail he was sent to Sevenhill to prepare for death under the care of an old friend Charles Dietel, who was Superior there at that time.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280 :
Karl Entered the Austrian Province 1867

1870-1871 He was sent to Collegium Posoniense, Bratislava, Slovakia for Philosophy
1872-1874 He was sent for Regency to Kalksburg College Vienna and Mariaschein College Czechoslovakia teaching younger students.
1874-1876 He was sent to Innsbruck for Theology
1876-1877 He made tertianship at Drongen Belgium
1877-1879 He came to Australia and firstly to teach at St Aloysius Sevenhill
1879-1881 He was sent to work at the Richmond Parish of St Ignatius
1881-1885 He was sent to Xavier College Kew where he was Minister, Hall Prefect and taught German.
1885-1889 He did some parish work at Manoora, SA
1889-1891 He was back teaching at Xavier College
1891-1897 He was sent to Norwood Parish of St Ignatius
1897-1899 He was appointed Superior at Kooringa, SA
1899-1905 He was sent as Superior and Prefect of the Church to St Aloysius, Sevenhill

Finn, Daniel J, 1886-1936, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/150
  • Person
  • 24 March 1886-01 November 1936

Born: 24 March 1886, Cork City, County Cork
Entered: 06 September 1902, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 24 January 1919, Zakopane, Poland
Final Vows: 02 February 1924, St Ignatius College Riverview, Sydney, Australia
Died: 01 November 1936, London, England

Part of the Holy Spirit Seminary community, Aberdeen, Hong Kong at time of his death.

by 1910 at Oxford, England (ANG) studying
by 1914 at Innsbruck, Austria (ASR-HUN) studying
by 1919 at Zakopane, Poland (GALI) working
by 1920 at Petworth, Sussex (ANG) health
by 1928 second batch Hong Kong Missioners

◆ 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 Presentation Brothers College Cork. While still underage he won first place in Ireland in the Preparatory Grade, 1896, against over 2.600 competitors, securing 90% all round in his subjects. He was presented with a large gold medal and chaired through the College by his school fellows. Two years later he came second in the Junior Grade, winning four first composition prizes in Latin, French, German and Italian. He obtained a First Class Exhibition in his Middle and Senior Grades, while still underage, and in the Middle Grade, a gold medal for first place in three modern languages. During these years he also showed special devotion to Our Lady, and was noted for a certain gravity and cheerfulness of disposition, which he never lost.

He Entered the Society under Michael Browne in 1902 at St Stanislaus College Tullabeg
1904-1907 He remained at Tullabeg for his Juniorate.
1907-1909 He was sent to Rathfarnham Castle and University College Dublin gaining a BA in Archaeology.
1909-1910 He taught the Juniors at Tullabeg and went to St John’s College Oxford, where he gained a Diploma in Archaeology, and working under Sir Percy Gardner.
1910-1913 He was sent to Clongowes for regency, teaching Bookkeeping, Latin and Greek. His lectures to the community at this time on the great works of painting and sculpture were much appreciated.
1913-1917 He was sent to Innsbruck for Philosophy, and while there he learned Hungarian and some Slavic languages. His first sermon was in Irish on St Brigid, and while there he continued his interest in art and archaeology. Then because of the Italian entry into the war he was banished from the Tyrol and went to Kollegium Kalksberg close to Vienna, and he began Theology there in private, and gaining a sound knowledge of Hebrew.
1917-1920 He joined the Polish Theologate at Dzieddzice in Prussian Silesia. As a result of a severe cold here he contracted TB and was sent to the Jesuit residence at Zakopane, a famous health resort. He was Ordained there on 24 January 1919, in order to have consolation of dying a Priest. However, he was able to return to Ireland at the end of June that year, after spending the winder of 1919-1920 at Petworth Sussex in England.
1920-1922 He was sent to Australia and completed his Theology studies there and made Tertianship at Loyola Greenwich, whilst at the same time teaching the Juniors.
1922-1926 He was sent to St Ignatius College Riverview as a Teacher and Prefect of Studies. Here he was remembered for swimming in the baths, rowing on the river in the Gladstone skiff of a four, or throwing himself into a production of the Passion Play. Meanwhile, he taught one boy Japanese. During his time in Riverview he volunteered for the Japanese Mission, but he was diverted by Superiors to the Hong Kong Mission.
1926-1928 He resided in Hong Kong, engaged with the language and was employed at the University as a lecturer in pedagogy
1928-1931 He was in Canton in charge of the studied at Bishop Fourquet’s Sacred Heart School. There he also began the study of Chinese archaeology. He also translated several volumes of “Researches into Chinese Superstition” written by Fr Henri Doré SJ.
1931 He returned to Hong Kong he was appointed Spiritual Director of the Seminarians, Professor of Church History, and also a Lecturer in Geography at the University. In addition he found time for the research for which he would be chiefly remembered - his archaeological research in Lamma Island and other regions around Hong Kong which greatly enhanced the reputation of the Church in the Far East.
He represented the University and the Government at an International Congress in Manila and Oslo in 1936. His paper at Oslo was entitles “Crucial Doubts about the Most Important Finds in the Hong Kong Region”. At this same time he also managed to have published thirteen articles in the Hong Kong “Naturalist” entitled “Archaeological Finds on Lamma Island 1932-1936”
1936 he left Dublin for the British Museum on October 05, to continue his reading and discussion of the prehistoric specimens he had brought home with him. He was engaged in this work up to the 10th when he developed a carbuncle which indicated a general blood infection. He was transferred to hospital on the 16th, where despite expert treatment he failed to respond and he died.

He carried his learning lightly, and he laughed amusedly at the pedantic and ponderous. He was extremely humble, unassuming and simple, though a man of intense intellectual concentration and power for work. He was gifted with a strong robust character that knew no temporising or equivocation. His literary gifts were of a high order, as appeared from the little that was left in the way of letters written during his first years in China. He was an extraordinarily fine linguist, speaking Chinese, Irish, Latin, Greek, French, German, Polish and Japanese.

His early death saddened both his Jesuit and scientific colleagues.

◆ Hong Kong Catholic Archives :
Father Daniel Finn, S.J.
(1886-1936)
By Thomas. F. Ryan SJ

The news of Father Finn’s death came as a shock to all who knew him even by name, and it was a painful blow to those who knew him personally. He was one of those rare characters that are equally conspicuous for qualities of heart and of head, and among all who came in contact with him his genial disposition will be as well remembered as his brilliant intellect. His death is a loss to science and especially to Hong Kong, and it is particularly tragic that he should have died abroad while on a scientific mission, representing both the Government and the University of Hong Kong.

It is close on forty years since I first met Father Finn, and I can still remember the first occasion on which I heard his name. It was at the first distribution of prizes which I attended at school. As a new boy and a very diminutive member of the lowest class, I listened with awe to the Headmaster’s account of the successes of the year, and I can recall his attitude and the tone of his voice as he told how one Daniel Finn found himself in a very enviable dilemma after his first public examination - he had to choose which of two gold medals he would accept. He had qualified for two, one for being first in Ireland in whole examination, and the other for being first in modern languages, but even in those amazing nineties when gold medals were awarded so liberally, no student in this examination could receive more than one. I forget which he chose, but I remember that the Headmaster fully approved of it - as headmasters always do on such occasions.

It was not long before the “Daniel” of the Headmaster’s speech gave place to “Dan.” Three years is a considerable gap between school-boy ages and to me Dan Finn was one of the Olympians, but he was a very cheerful divinity and was as much a hero to the smaller boys as if he were a proud athlete who never passed an examination. He never changed much in appearance from what he was as a boy. He was of the same build then as later, short and sturdy, with the same quizzical look about his eyes, and the same pucker of the lips, and the same odd angle of the head when he was hesitating about something. He grew careless about his clothes as the years went on, but as a boy in Cork forty years ago he was neatness itself, and the wide white collar above the Norfolk coat of those days was always spotless. He took no active part in games, but his best friend was a prominent athlete, and at school football-matches he was constantly to be seen on the touchline, leaning on the shoulder of some companion, and talking incessantly.

He had many family sorrows during his school-days, but they left no scars, and his good-humoured disposition never varied. His success in studies was phenomenal. It was commonly said of him in our school-days that he got first in every examination for which he sat. I am sure that this was an exaggeration, but it cannot have been very far from the truth. He was the only boy I remember whose photograph was hung in the school immediately after he left it. It was put over the fireplace in my classroom, and as we sat around the fire before class or during recess, remarks were often made about him.
“Where is he now?” someone asked one day.
“He is gone to be a Jesuit,” someone else answered.
That was the first time that I heard of anyone I knew becoming a Jesuit.

After a few years he began his University studies in Dublin, and before long the name of Rev. D. Finn, S.J., began to head the lists of examination results. As a boy he had taken up modern languages - French, German and Italian - for no other reason than that the school which we both attended cultivated them particularly. At the University he took up classics, and it was classics that formed the basis of the wide culture that was afterwards his. His entrance into classical studies was almost sensational, for after six months study of Greek he won a scholarship and first place in Greek and Latin in the University entrance examination. First with first-class honours in every examination, and every scholarship within reach, would be a correct summing up of this university career.

Recording examination successes is a monotonous thing, and in the case of Father Finn the less said about examinations the better if a proper estimate of him is to be given. He hated examinations. The humdrum work which they demanded was nauseating to him, and it was fortunate that preparation for them demanded such little effort on his part. He was always at his best when off the beaten track. I remember once meeting him in a country place when he was resting after a bout of examinations. He had a geologist’s hammer in his hand and was off to a railway cutting to look for fossils. The byways of the classics soon interested him. He stopped his first reading of Homer to make a model of a trireme, and a very ingenious model it was, with the oars made to scale and of a much more reasonable length than some antiquarians suggested. A year later he had developed a new theory for completing the friezes of the Parthenon, and he beguiled a number of people into adopting statuesque poses and allowing themselves to be photographed to demonstrate his theory. I have a vivid recollection of the sheepish look of a village shoe-maker who found himself dressed in a trousers and a long red curtain, standing on one leg and holding his arms at unnatural angles.

Whenever he seemed on the point of demanding a return to modern clothes and village dignity, Father Finn used tactfully to interject a remark about his splendid muscles, and so secure a continuance of the pose for another photograph.

On being awarded a Travelling Studentship from the University in Ireland, Father Finn went to Oxford, and from his time his classical studies were carried on more and more in museums rather than from books. His reading indeed was then as at all times, enormous, but he was by nature an explorer in unusual spheres and henceforth his reading was mainly a background for his explorations. In Oxford he devoted himself to the writing of a thesis on the colouring of Greek sculpture. It won him the highest praise, and one of the professors excused himself from the usual examination on the plea that the reading of the thesis showed that the writer know more about it than he did. When he returned to Ireland the first thing that he did was to look up the Greek professor in Dublin who had whetted his interest in archaeology and suggest to him that they should start some excavations on the hill of Tara.

A few years teaching classics in a secondary school followed. These were undistinguished years, for preparing boys for examinations was emphatically not Father Finn’s strong point. But he interested some of his cleverer pupils in all kinds of strange branches of study, and years later many men acknowledged their indebtedness to him for an interest in intellectual pursuits which they would otherwise never have had.

When it was time for him to go abroad to do further studies I received a letter from him. I was then in Italy and he wanted to know if it would be good for him to go to study in Rome, as was suggested. His idea was that an alternation of lectures in philosophy and visits to museums would be better than whole-time philosophical studies. But before my reply reached him it was decided that residence in a German-speaking house would be most useful for his future studies in the classics. So he was sent to Innsbruck, in the Tyrol. This decision, with which he was delighted, was to prove a fateful one for him.

In the December before the war broke out I was passing through Austria and met him in Innsbruck. I was bewildered by the number of new interests that engrossed him. Munich was near enough for an occasional visit to its museums and picture-galleries, but now the social movements in Germany and Austria had begun to attract him, and Austrian folk-lore was tugging at his attention too. He had always been a student of art, and his special leaning was towards Gothic architecture and Gothic sculpture, and he found time to give considerable time to it in Innsbruck. There was a problem here, too, to attract him, and I was not many hours in the town before he had me standing beside the Emperor Maximilan’s tomb while he expounded his theories about the identity of the famous figures surrounding it.

In the following summer the war broke out and Fr. Finn, from being among friends, became a stranger in a hostile land. Though the Austrians treated the alien residents with all that courtesy in which they excel, yet war is war and conditions were hard. At first things were not so bad, he was allowed to continue his studies, and all that was demanded was that he should report regularly to the police authorities. Then he had to do hospital work; then supplies began to run low - then his health gave out. The remaining years were difficult ones. An effort to get permission for him to leave the country did not succeed. But within the possibilities of wartime conditions he was treated with every consideration. He was moved from place to place, to countries that have since changed their names, and after some time in Lower Austria, in Hungary and in Czechoslovakia he was sent finally to Poland, where he could continue his studies. He was fond of Poland, and spoke more of it than of any of the other countries in which he lived. He learned the Polish language and a certain amount of Russian. It was in Poland that he was ordained to the priesthood.

After the war he returned to Ireland sadly broken in health. He had developed tuberculosis, and the only hope of saving his life was to go to a drier climate. He went to Australia and there he made a rapid recovery. To anyone who knew him in Hong Kong it would seem fantastic to suggest that he was a delicate man, but it is true that his health was never the same after the period of semi-starvation which he had gone through in the last years of the war, and it was only by adopting a special diet that he could keep going. The diet was not an attractive one, but he certainly kept going.

In Australia he became Prefect of Studies in Riverview College, near Sydney, and there as usual he continued his interest in all kinds of side issues. It was one of these latter that eventually brought him to the East. There were some Japanese pupils in this College, and in order to be able to help them in their studies Father Finn began to study Japanese - a language more or less never worried him. Inevitably he soon became interested in Japanese antiquities, and before long he was in communication with some fellow-Jesuits in Japan.

There is a Jesuit University in Tokyo, directed by German Fathers, and when they found that a man of Father Finn’s standing was interested in things Japanese, they declared at once that the place for him was Tokyo, and they made demarches to get him there. After some negotiations everything was arranged, and he left Australia on a boat that was to bring him to Japan. That was in the beginning of 1927.

Then happened one of those things that people say happen only to Jesuits. When the ship was on the high seas and Father Finn was immersed in his Japanese studies, a wireless message came to him, telling him that he was not to go to Japan after all, but that he was to get off at Hong Kong and go no further. It had happened that between the time that arrangements were made for him to go to Tokyo and the end of the Australian school year, when it would be possible for him to start, it had been decided that some Irish Jesuits were to come to Hong Kong, and it was felt that this colony had first claim on the services of Father Finn. So, a little bewildered by the unexpected change that blew all his plans sky-high, Father Finn landed in Hong Kong in February, 1927. He was then forty-one years old.

It happened that during his years in Australia his position as Prefect of Studies in a large college had brought him a good deal into educational circles and aroused his interest in pedagogical matters. As interest for him found expression in deep study, he set to work to master the theory of education. In a few years whatever he had to say on matters connected with education was listened to with respect, and when he was leaving Sydney there was public expression of regret that New South Wales was losing a leading authority on education. Hong Kong at that time was looking for a substitute for Professor Forster, to take his place as Professor of Education in the University while he was on leave, and the result was that Father Finn was only a few days in the Colony when he was asked to take the position, So his connection with the Hong Kong University began.

Always a conscientious worker, Father Finn took the greatest care to do his work in the University in a way that was worthy of his position, and this was little short of heroic on his part, for, having come to China, his one desire was to go as deeply and as quickly as possible into the new field of antiquities that was open to him. He found time to begin the study of Chinese, however, but it was not until his temporary occupancy of the professorship was at an end that he was able to devote himself with all the intensity that he desired to his new studies. But he was not long free, and his next move was to Canton, where he taught, and later directed, the studies in the Sacred Heart College. Here his colleagues had an opportunity of seeing the way in which he worked, for, while most of his day was given to work in the classroom, he managed at the same time to give from five to seven hours each day to the study of Chinese. He made rapid strides in the language and, though he never acquired a good pronunciation, he learned to speak fluently Cantonese and some other local dialects and to read Chinese with such ease as is rarely acquired by a foreigner.

From that time forward Chinese antiquities occupied every moment that was free from his regular duties. When he spent some time in Shanghai, part of it was given to translating some of the Recherches sur les Superstitions en Chine, by P. Doré, S.J., and in whatever house he lived in Hong Kong his room soon took on the appearance of a museum. There was never any such thing as leisure time in his programme-study of one kind or another filled every available moment. He worked with great rapidity. He got to the “inside” of a book in a very short time, and every book that he read was a work of reference to him ever after, for at a moment’s notice he seemed to be able to trace any passage or any illustration in any book that he had read. In the few years that he had it was remarkable how much ground he covered in Chinese antiquities. On this subject his reading extended to practically every work of note in English, German and French, and to a considerable number of books also in Chinese and Japanese-for he had worked hard at Japanese when he realized that it was necessary for his antiquarian studies. His appointment as Lecturer in Geography in the Hong Kong University revealed another side of his interests, for it was only when his name came up in connection with the position that it was realised how fully abreast he was of modern methods of geographical study, and how detailed, in particular, was his knowledge of the geography of China.

His interest was gradually converging on archaeological research in Hong Kong when an accidental circumstance threw him right into the midst of it. He was living in the Seminary at Aberdeen, and one morning, about five years ago, he crossed the creek in the early morning to go to say Mass in the Convent of the Canossian Sisters in the village. As he climbed up from the sampan he saw a pile of sand being unloaded from a junk by the shore. His eye caught a fragment of an arrow-head in the sand. He picked it out, put it in his pocket and went on. But on his return an hour later he stopped to examine the sand, and found that it came from an archaeologist's gold mine, for within a short time he found several other interesting stone fragments and a few pieces of bronze. He questioned the men who were still engaged in unloading it, and found that it came from Lamma Island out in the bay. Further inquiries revealed that the work was being done under Government authority, and the sand was being removed rapidly by shiploads. To him this was vandalism and tragedy combined. He knew already from the work of Professor Shellshear and Mr. Schofield how important were the archaeological remains to be found around Hong Kong, and how illuminating they might be in their relation to many of the unsolved problems of pre-history, and here he found valuable evidence of the past being used to build walls and make drains. He had to act at once if he was to do his part for science and Hong Kong, he got through preliminaries as quickly as possible and within a week he was excavating on Lamma Island.

The results exceeded all expectations. To the uninitiated the stones and bits of earthenware which he handled so reverently were a disappointing result after hours of digging in the glaring sun, but to him and to others that were able to read their message, they were keys to unlock new storehouses of knowledge of the past. He now began to communicate his discoveries to scholars in other lands, and their interest was manifest. The Government of Hong Kong was alive to the importance of this new field of research and it gave a grant towards the expense connected with it. Henceforth Father Finn’s big interest in life was the archaeology of Hong Kong.

It would seem as if all his previous life was a preparation for these few years. Up to this time one might have said of him that he was taking too many things in his line of vision and that he would have done better if he had concentrated on some one branch of study. He had in him the capacity to do really great work in some one direction, but the multitude of his interests made him just a man of encyclopaedic knowledge when he might have been a specialist of eminence. But now all the jigsaw elements of his previous studies seemed to fall together and to make the essential background for his work in an almost unexplored branch of science. His classical training, his long study of classical archaeology, his scientific interests, his close study of history and geography, his knowledge of art-these were all essential to him now, but they could only be utilised because he possessed the archaeologist's flair that made him know what to seek and how to interpret, and gave his work in this field the character of genius. He enlarged the field of knowledge in this particular branch of archeology, even though, as he claimed, his work in it had hardly begun. His numerous articles in the Hong Kong Naturalist, ably illustrated by his esteemed friend Dr. Herklots, and the collection of objects excavated by him are all that remain as a record of his work. What he might have done if he had been spared for a few years more we can only surmise. It is the possibility of great achievement that makes his death so tragic.

And what of the man behind the student and the scholar? I have told of him as a well-liked boy even though of a class rarely conspicuous for popularity. As a man, among his Jesuit associates and with his few other friends, he was known and will always be remembered for his delightful disposition and perennial good humour. I am sure that no one who ever came into contact with Father Finn ever found in him a trace of conceit. The mere suggestion of it is ludicrous to anyone who knew him, and when any were led by ignorance of his own particular field of research to be critical of its utility, he was never provoked-even in their absence-to anything more than a good-humored sally. His wide interests embraced the work of all his companions. He knew what interested each one, and he was genuinely interested in it too. In everything he was always ready to help those who wanted his assistance, and much as he deplored the loss of a moment of time, he gave it unstintingly when the need of another claimed it. His thoughtfulness and sympathetic kindness made him a friend of all who knew him, and it is those who were associated with him most closely that will miss him most.

When writing of a priest-scholar it is often thought enough to add a paragraph at the end stating that, of course, this scholar was also a priest, and that he was all that a priest should be. To do so in the case of Father Finn would leave the picture of him very incomplete. His life was essentially that of a priest and religious devoted to science and scholarship rather than that of a scholar who happened to wear a Roman collar. The principles that moulded his life were visible in his attitude towards every duty assigned him and every branch of his study. If at any time, for any reason, he had been told to drop whatever work he was doing and turn to something completely new, he would have done it without question at a moment’s notice. Everyone who knew him realised that. From the moment he came to China he regarded himself as a missionary. His work was to spread the knowledge of God’s Truth, and he was ready to do it in any way that came within his scope. He did it abundantly by his example alone, and the testimonies about him since his death show that this influence of his example extended over a far wider field that he would ever have imagined.

In June, 1936, he left Hong Kong to attend an Archaeological Congress in Oslo. His report there on the work in Hong Kong attracted wide attention. Invitations poured in on him-to go to various centres of learning in Europe and America, to join in excavations in many lands. He was able to accept only a few, for he had already arranged to join in some research in the Malay Peninsula next spring. But he visited Sweden, Denmark and France, and then made a brief visit to his native Ireland. From there he went to London, to study in the British Museum. While in London he was attacked by some kind of blood poisoning-the result, he believed, of something he contracted in his archaeological work in Hong King, but who can tell? The doctors could not trace the source of the infection, but it proved fatal after a month’s illness.

When the news of his death came to Hong Kong it was felt as a personal sorrow by those whose sympathy he would have valued most. Poor boat-women on the sampans at Aberdeen wept when they were told it, and little children on Lamma Island were sad when they were told that he would not come back. It was the welcome of such as these that would have pleased him most if he returned; it is their regret at his death that most reveals to us his real worth. May he rest in peace.
The Irish Jesuit Directory and Year Book 1938

From Milan to Hong Kong 150 Years of Mission, by Gianni Criveller, Vox Amica Press, 2008.

Note from Thomas Ryan Entry
In 1941 he published “Jesuits under Fire”. He edited “Archaelogical Finds on Lamma Island”, the work of Daniel Finn.

◆ Biographical Notes of the Jesuits in Hong Kong 1926-2000, by Frederick Hok-ming Cheung PhD, Wonder Press Company 2013 ISBN 978 9881223814 :
He excelled at school in modern languages, being awarded Gold medals for French, German and Italian. He did a brilliant thesis on the colouring of statues by the ancient Greeks.
1913 He was sent to Innsbruck Austria for Philosophy. There he took up a keen interest and fascination in Austrian folklore.
1931 Chinese antiquaries absorbed him when he taught at the South China Regional Seminary in Aberdeen. He made a study of the deities and statues of the Aberdeen boat people, ad then he sent these to the Lateran Museum in Rome. In the 1930s he lectured also at The Chinese University of Hong Kong in Geography.
1932 While teaching Theology and Scripture at Aberdeen he came across a fragment of an arrowhead in sand brought from the south western shores of Lamma Island. He traced the source and found stone fragments and bronze pieces along with pottery fragments. This led to his writings on the Pre-Han and Stone Age history of the South China coast, which at the time was new to the archaeological world. He was a pioneer in archaeology in Hong Kong

Note from Thomas Ryan Entry
In 1941 he published “Jesuits under Fire”. He edited “Archaeological Finds on Lamma Island”, the work of Daniel Finn.

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 10th Year No 3 1935

Works by Father Dan Finn SJ :

  1. “Researches into Chinese Superstitions," by Rev. H. Doré, SJ (Shanghai - Translated into English by Father D. Finn, S.J.
  2. Vol IX : Taoist; Taoist Personnages, 1931 - pp xx + 227, 76 plates
  3. Vol X : Boards of heavenly Administration, 1933 - pp ix + 179, 39 plates (Both published at Tusewei Printing Press, Shanghai)
  4. A booklet : “Some Popular Indulgences Explained” - Messenger Office
  5. A series of articles on “Archaeological Finds on Lamma Island” - They appear in the Hong Kong Naturalist (Quarterly), From Vol. III, Parts 3 and 4, Dec. 1954, up to current issue.

Irish Province News 12th Year No 1 1937

Father Daniel Finn

Following so soon on the loss of Father Lyons, the unexpected death of Father Finn in a nursing home in London on Nov. 1st comes as a tragic blow to the Province and the Hong Kong Mission. Had he been allotted the normal span of life he would in all human probability have emerged a savant of the first order. He died just as he was winning a European reputation through his archaeological discoveries in China.
Born in Cork city, 24th March, 1886, he was educated at the Presentation College. When still under age he won 1st Place in Ireland in the Preparatory Grade, 1896, against over 2,600 competitors, securing 90 per cent all round in his subjects, and was awarded by his school a large gold medal, and was chaired through the College by his school-fellows. Two years later he came second in the Junior Grade, winning four first composition prizes in Latin, French, German and Italian. He got first-class exhibitions in Middle and Senior Grades, while still under age and, in the Middle Grade, a gold medal for first place in the three modem languages.
In these youthful days he had a wonderful and outspoken devotion to Our Blessed Lady and was noted for a certain gravity and cheerfulness of disposition which he never lost.
He began his noviceship in Tullabeg 6th September, 1902, remained there for two vicars' juniorate, during which he won 1st Place in the Classical Scholarship Examination (Royal University) and then went to College Green, where he began the study of Archaeology. After getting his B.A. degree he was sent for a year to Tullabeg to teach the juniors. In 1909-10 he studied Archaeology at Oxford, and secured a diploma in that subject. For the next three years he was a master at Clongowes. He could scarcely be pronounced a successful teacher on Intermediate lines and was given other classes. In them, with a number of other subjects, he taught book keeping with characteristic zest and humility. The delightful lectures he gave to the Community during these years reveal an astonishingly detailed acquaintance with all the great works of painting and sculpture.
He began his philosophy at Innsbruck in 1912, and during the three years acquired a certain fluency in Hungarian and in three at least of the Slav languages, keeping up his knowledge of Irish all the time. His first sermon in the refectory on St. Brigid was preached in his native tongue. His first loves, art and archaeology were by no means neglected.
in July 1915, in company with Father Halpin, and with the writer of the present lines, he alas banished from the Tirol by the War authorities, on Italy's entry into the struggle, and went to our College at Kalksberg near Vienna, where he began theology in private. While there he acquired a profound knowledge of Hebrew.
In 1917 he was able to join the Polish theologate at Dziedzice in Prussian Silesia. It was here, as a result of a severe cold he contracted consumption and was sent to the Jesuit Residence at Zakopane, a famous health resort. He was ordained on 24th February, 1919, in order to have the consolation of dying a priest.
However, he was able to return to Ireland at the end of June, and after spending the winter of 1919 at Petworth, when he continued his study of theology, he was sent to Australia. At Loyola he did his “third year”, and spent another year teaching the Juniors, getting completely rid of his delicacy. His chief work in Australia was done as Protect of Studies at Riverview 1922-26.
During that period he volunteered for the Japanese Mission and, after a splendid send-off from Riverview, set sail. A letter of his to Father Fahy best explains that he landed not at Yokohama but at Hong Kong.
For a year he resided at Hong Kong engaged on the language and employed at the University as lecturer in pedagogy. From 1928 to the summer of 1931 he was at Canton in charge of the studies of Bishop Fourquet's College. Just then things were looking bad, and there was a possibility of martyrdom. It was at Canton he began the study of Chinese archaeology. Returning to Hong Kong he was made spiritual director to the Seminarians, their professor in Church History, lecturer in geography at the University. Notwithstanding all this, he found time for that fine work for which he will be chiefly remembered - his archaeological researches on Lamma island and other regions around Hong Kong, by which he greatly enhanced the reputation of the Church in the Far East. He represented the University and the Government at the International Congress of Manila in 1935. and at Oslo in 1936. This latter was the occasion of his return to Europe, His paper read at Oslo was entitled - “Crucial Doubts about the Most Important Finds in the Hong Kong Region”. The full bearing of his discoveries he had not yet been able with certainty to divine, and herein lies the full tragedy of his untimely death. However, we have an enduring monument of his powers of research in the thirteen articles printed in the “Hong Kong Naturalist”, entitled “Archaeological Finds on Lamma Island”. They date from December, 1932, to 1936.
On October 5th Father Finn left Dublin for the British Museum to continue his reading and discussion of the prehistoric specimens he had brought home with him. He was engaged in this work up to the 10th when he was attacked by a carbuncle trouble which indicated a general blood infection. On the 16th he was transferred to SS. John and Elizabeth's Hospital, where, despite expert treatment, he failed to put up an effective resistance, and died at 10.10 am. on Sunday, 1st November, having received Holy Viaticum for the last time about an hour before his death. He was buried in Kensal Green cemetery on 3rd November.
Father Dan carried his learning lightly. He laughed amusedly at the pedantic and ponderous when he met them, he was extremely humble unassuming and simple, though a man of intense intellectual concentration and power of work. He was gifted with a strong, robust character which knew no temporising or equivocation. His literary gifts were of a high order, as appears from the little he has left in the way of letters written during his first years in China and preserved in the Province News of that period - in them are best mirrored his character and gifts of imagination and heart, his profound humility, his Ignatian spirit of obedience, his exquisite sensibility, his love of Christ and souls.
We owe the above appreciation and record of Father Finn's life to the great kindness of Father john Coyne, Socius to Father Provincial.

Irish Province News 12th Year No 2 1937

Father Dan Finn - Hong Kong Letters
News of Father Finn's death came as a very severe blow. It is unnecessary to say how much the Mission feels his loss. both as a member of the community and as a worker who had won for the Society very considerable honour by his industry and erudition.
Many letters have been received from all sections expressing their sympathy. The following is that received from the Vice Chancellor and Council of the University :
Dear Father Cooney,
There is no need for me to write to tell you how profoundly affected I am by Father Finn's death. Father Finn was a great scholar and his was an all-winning personality. His death is a
severe loss to this University, to this Colony, to China, and indeed to the rapidly disappearing world of scholarship and culture. What Father Finn’s death means to his fellow Jesuits in Hong Kong I can faintly imagine but am totally unable to express. The University Council will, at its next meeting, record a resolution. Meanwhile, on behalf not only of myself, but also of the University. will you please precept my sincerest sympathy.
Yours Sincerely,
W. W. HORNELL

Extract from the minutes of the seventh meeting of the Council held 6th November :
The Council learned, with great regret, of the death of the Rev. D. J. Finn SJ, the University lecturer in Geography, and passed the following resolution - “The Council wished to place on record its poignant regret at the death of the Rev. Father Finn of the Society of Jesus. The Council realises the devoted work which Father Finn did not only for the Colony of Hong Kong and its University but also for the world of scholarship, learning and culture, and is painfully conscious of the loss which his untimely death involves. The Council hereby instructs the Registrar to convey to the Superior and Procurator of the Jesuit Mission in Hong Kong its profound sympathy with the Mission in its heavy loss. The Council will be grateful if the Superior would convey to the members of Father Finn's family the assurance that the University shares with them the affliction of their bereavement.” The members indicated the adoption of the resolution by standing in silence.

On 7th November there was a Sung Office and Solemn Requiem Mass at the Seminary. The Bishop presided at the special invitation of the Italian Fathers, who said that they regarded Father Finn as “one of their own priests,” a Solemn Requiem Mass was celebrated in the Cathedral on 26th November. Amongst those present were His Excellency, the Governor of Hong Kong, the Vice-Chancellor and Professors of the University, and many friends, both Catholic and non-Catholic. The newspapers gave a full account with the title “Tribute paid to Jesuit - Governor attends Requiem Mass for Father Finn” “Indicative of the high esteem in which Hong Kong held the late Rev. Daniel Finn, S.J., who died in Europe three weeks ago, was the big attendance of distinguished non Catholic mourners who attended the Requiem Mass for the repose of his soul in the Catholic Cathedral this morning. Among them was His Excellency the Governor, Sir Andrew Caldecott, who took his seat with Sir William Hornell, Vice-Chancellor of the University, near the impressive catafalque” etc.

Father Finn's last letter to Father Cooney, dated London, 10th October, ran :
“Here I am enjoying myself as usual. Most days at the British Museum from I0 am. to 5.30 pm. l have developed some boil trouble which I am getting a local doctor to overhaul. I suppose it will be nothing.”
At the Mass the Seminarians. from Aberdeen formed the choir. Father G. Bvrne preached a short panegyric.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Daniel Finn 1886-1936
Fr Daniel Finn, a native of Cork, entered the Society in 1902. With his University studies over, he went to the continent for his philosophical and theological studies.

In 1919 he returned to Ireland in poor health, and for this reason he was sent to Australia, where for seven years he was Prefect of Studies. He was on his way to Japan in 1926 when notified of his attachment to the Hong Kong Mission. Here he turned to what was really the big work of his life, for from his University days in Oxford he had excelled in Archaeology.

In spite of all his work, travels and successes, he never forgot the primary object of his life – God’s greater glory, and he always had a notable devotion to Our Lady.

He went, on his way to an Archaelogical Congress to in Oslo, when he fell ill in London, and he died there on the Feast of All Saints 1956, being only fifty years of age.

◆ Our Alma Mater, St Ignatius Riverview, Sydney, Australia, 1928

Letter from Father Finn

Dear Mr Editor,
Here I am living this past month under the comforting shadows of a pair of Gothic spires in the heart of a fascinating Chinese city - and I have been too lazy to stir out! I have settled down again to being a school-master-and a very uneventful schoolmaster at that.

It is over a year and a half since I left 'View and since then I have seen many a new sight in China - yet it is always China. There are the full-breasted waterways with their traffic of ill-assorted craft where the Western built steamer hustles about the little sampans or the statelier junks; then there is the setting of the rivers, amid vast fertile alluvial plains, or cutting through crowded. hills. But these rivers have come thousands of miles and they bring down timber, produce, refuse, the living and the dead. Even the very earth itself. On them live people in their hundreds of thousands, even millions, who never quit them; their boats are their homes. I have only to walk two short streets to reach the Canton Bund, and there I can see one of the most characteristic sights of all China. It is a long quay beside the water-way that runs be tween the City proper and its suburb - Ho-nam. How many miles long, I don't know, but it is a very long way to the Railway station at the one end and it is over a quarter of an hour to Shameen at the other end, and this latter we count as near, All that long stretch is lined thick at both sides with craft, mostly small things, a little bigger than a Lane Cove fisherman's boat, but covered over for about half the length by a tunnel-like cover of matting. Down towards Shameen, every day when the Hongkong steamer comes in, there is a sudden scattering of these like the disturbance of an ant's nest, when the big river-boat makes for her berth. At places these boats merely cater for the pleasures of the Cantonese, and on them you can have meals-music-opium perhaps, but far more interesting are the other boats that earn a hard-won livelihood as passenger or cargo boats.

On board you can see all the members of a family, from the grandfather and grandmother down; all of them work. You will see an old woman at an oar, and on her back is strapped one of the newest members of the family. whose neck seems to be made of rubber, to judge by the case with which he sleeps amid all sorts of movements to which his head bobs about. The younger limbs of the household who can crawl about or walk for themselves are usually clad in full costumes of sun-tanned skin with a little crust of dirt to deepen it. Perhaps a charm hangs about the neck, but almost certainly a gourd or a kind of wooden drum will be hanging about the waist, with perhaps a bell tied at the child's ankles; still more cautious parents have a light rope tying their valuable offspring to some post.on board; such methods help to lessen the inevitable risk of tumbling overboard. A further stage of boyhood hops in itself for a swim in the yellow brown water, but that is not yet and it needs no precautions. Domestic animals dogs, cats, hens, pigs, are equally carefully guarded against the useless process of getting into the water.

Life is lived in all its stages on board: sleep at night on a mat-spread floor and completely under a padded quilt; the meals of rice with scraps of fish and vegetables - all washed down with tea - are cooked in an ingenious kitchen-well on board, and often eaten under the oar-handles in very movement. But it was the rowing that interested me. Here, I said to myself, is the solution for 'View. They have a style - of course it is not for outrigged racing boats - but it is a “style”. They row facing the direction in which the boat is going--and only in difficult currents do they need a steersman aft; they row standing and they fling their weight on to the long oar or sweep when it is fairly deep; the oar handle is then as high as their heads. To secure their rhythmic swing of the body, there is a definite scheme of foot-work, resembling, too, that of the Chinese carpenter as he uses his long saw with a similar movement. Now, actually the youngsters of four, five and six have got that body swing and foot-work by imitating their father and mother in play before ever they can contribute to the driving force of the boat. Hence the lesson! Put your “Eight”
into the boat from say four years of age - let them pick up “style” while they are young! The Prefect of Studies would be happier later on.

The social life of these people reproduces the life on land. They have their floating shops, mostly for comforts or food things, cakes, fruit, cigarettes, and wonderful brews; they have their beggars afloat in their own tubs; they have religious rites for marriages and deaths with the same squealing music and the droning chants; they have magic decorations in red with the fascinating characters; they probably have the wise-acres, who will write letters for them or tell their fortunes. Even just as you see men and women on the road ways tugging huge loaded trucks (where we are accustomed to see only draught animals at work), so you will see the boat people towing from the bank their boats up some river. against a heavy current. I don't know whether they have schools afloat; usually the people know enough characters for ordinary purposes - but there is no place for a library. We hope later to get into closer touch with these people when we have our place at Aberdeen (Small Hong Kong); perhaps then, we shall have to rig up a floating church. Up in the Shanghai Mission, however, they get such Catholics to bring their boats in groups to certain churches situated convenient for them.

But what is the use of all this writing? One must leave half the scene untouched. The accompaniment of unending chatter, of warning shouts, of abuse at times, of bumping boats, of creaking oars, the yelling in emergencies, the monotonous two-note chant of the coolies loading or unloading cannot be produced in ink. The heat, the glistening perspiration, the strange smells - tobacco being one and joss sticks another - the streams of rickshaws moving along the Bund, the thick current of white or black clad pedestrians, the big buildings and their green, red or blue signs with gold characters; you cannot get all in the picture if you want the Canton Bund on paper.

Now you see how long it takes me to get finished once I start with one thing here in China. So I must jettison all the notes I wrote on the back of your letter. I then intended to make “a short article” (your words) on the Hongkong New Year (Chinese) Fair which comes about the end of January; if anybody wants to get something distinctive let him come himself and see its booths, its crowds, its varieties. or again, if I were to start on Zi-ka-wei Shanghai with its Ignatius Church and College, I should take pages to tell you of the Communion rails crowded daily and of the Corpus Christi procession, wonderful displays of Chinese Catholicity. No Sydney man would feel homesick in Shanghai - but of its European flavour I shall not waste space. Personally, I prefer the Chinese town with its three-century-old Church (which has been in one interval a pagoda), its quaint tea-house in a gold fish pond, its temple with a stream of men worshippers. But there I am again! I seem to discover bits of myself in different places - -a library in Zi-ka-wei, ruins in Macao, unbroken quiet in the rice fields of Tai Wan or the snug village of Wong Tung, art at Tsat-Shing-Ngam, sea and hill at Hongkong, mediaevalism at Wai Chan - and I love to rehandle the fragments. And yet - and yet - the Riverview fragment still gets mixed up with the others, and somehow blends with the scheme. If Riverview but helps with prayer, it will fit in perfectly.

Yours,

DJF.

◆ Our Alma Mater, St Ignatius Riverview, Sydney, Australia, 1936

Obituary

Father Daniel Finn

A cable announcing the death of Father Daniel J Finn SJ, on November 2nd, arrived as the Alma Mater was due to go to press. It is fitting that some account, how ever inadequate, should appear of a remarkable man and one to whom Riverview owes much,

Memories of a quarter of a century's friendship call up many varied scenes, some lived through together, others known from delightful letters and from reminiscences in later years - a Greek class in Clongowes (Ireland) clustered round Mr Finn's desk while he expounded the glories of Greek architecture and sculpture and coinage, as a change from reading Euripides and Thucydides; Mr Finn in his shirt sleeves arranging the Greek antiquities in the University museum in Dublin; revelling in the beauties of the mountain scenery and the historical associations of the Tyrol; teaching youthful Grafs and Freiherrs in Vienna; adventures in the midst of great battles on the Polish-Russian frontier during the war; at Riverview, swimming in the baths, on the river in the Gladstone skiff or in a four (Joe Alagna and other small boys of the time will remember coxing on these occasions); throwing himself heart and soul into the production of the Passion Play; then years later at Hong Kong, lecturing to Chinese students; with his gang of coolies excavating on Lammas Island; in his museum expatiating on the significance of the prehistoric pottery and arrow heads and rings he had discovered, or hunting in the glorious confusion of his room to find some notes on the ancient Chinese constellations.

Fr Finn was born in Cork just fifty years ago, After a brilliant career at Oxford, where he acquired a reputation in Greek archaeology, he taught for some years at Clongowes. In 1913 he went to Innsbruck to study philosophy and was interned in Austria, and later in Poland, during the war. For some time he taught at the College of Kalksburg, Vienna, then was sent to the college of Hieruf in Poland. This college was the chief building for many miles around, and, during the fierce battles that raged there, was used as headquarters by Russians, Austrians and Germans in alternation as the tide of war ebbed and flowed. Fr Finn was not ill-treated - that is not the Austrian way. He was not put in prison or in a concentration camp. Nevertheless, the privations he underwent, in common with the rest of the population, undermined his health so seriously that the doctors did not give him long to live. He went to the Carpathian mountains, where he studied theology and was ordained very soon, so that he might die as a priest. However, he was able to leave Austria in 1919, though quite broken in health.

He came to Australia in 1920, and in time his health was completely restored. During his five years as Prefect of Studies at Riverview (1922–1926) he got through an amazing amount of work. Many Old Boys will recall with gratitude now much their education owes to him. In addition to the ordinary routine of teaching and work as Prefect of Studies, he maintained a number of other activities. Each year saw a play excellently staged, due largely to his untiring exertions (as Mr. Harry Thomas testifies)—Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Hamlet, and, culminating triumph, the Passion Play in 1925.

A boy wanted to learn Japanese. Father Finn agreed to teach him. That was the overt reason why he undertook the study of Japanese. The main reason was not known until later.

For some years Fr Finn had been interested in missionary work in Japan. From a close friend of his, a German Jesuit, who worked for years in Tokyo, he obtained detailed information about the tasks and prospects of Catholic missions in Japan. He was fired with the desire to devote his life to helping on the conversion of Japan. The difficulties of the work, about which he had no illusions, did not deter him. The first of these difficulties, the language, he tackled vigorously in the intervals of his work at Riverview. When he had mastered it sufficiently, he obtained leave from Father General to transfer himself to the Japanese mission and sailed for Tokyo at the end of 1926.

At Brisbane a cable from the General reached him to say that the Irish Jesuit Province had been commissioned by the Pope to undertake a Mission in Hong Kong, and that his services would be wel comed there. Father General realised, however, that it would be hard, after lab ouring for years to prepare himself for work in Japan, to abandon that work and start all over again on the extremely difficult Chinese language. Accordingly, Father Finn was left perfectiy free to go on to Japan if he thought well. He left the ship forthwith and took the next boat to Hong Kong.

On arrival at Hong Kong he was at once offered a temporary chair in the (State) University. Later on he was given a regular professorship there. He acquired a profound knowledge of Chinese, and in particular of ancient Chinese characters (incidentally, he already spoke Irish, Latin, Greek, French, German, Polish, Japanese). He has produced several learned volumes on Chinese religion and mythology. The branch of learning which owes most to him during these years is archaeology. His thorough training under expert archaeologists, his wide learning and real flair for the subject were given adequate scope. He carried out systematic excavations on Lammas Island, near Hong Kong. One day each week was spent on this island, directing the operations of some thirty coolies which the Government put at his disposal. He made many important discoveries, and seems to have opened up a whole new phase in the prehistory of Southern China.

In Hong Kong, Father Finn lived in the Seminary in which the Irish Jesuits educate for the priesthood Chirese students from all Southern China: He did his share in this work of training.
This year he went to Norway to attend an archaeological congress. Apparently he died while still in Europe, but no details have reached us so far. The results he achieved in the short space of not quite ten years in Hong Kong gave promise of a truly remarkable output had he been granted the normal span of life. Talents and labours and labours were devoted unstintingiy to the service of God. For that he has earned his reward, but the Chinese mission and the learned world are the losers by his early death. His learning was tempered by modesty, humour and charm, and friends in many parts of the world will mourn his loss.

D O’C SJ

◆ The Clongownian, 1937

Obituary

Father Daniel Finn SJ

The Irish Province of the Society of Jesus was deprived of one of its ablest members by the death of Father Finn on 1st November last. Although he was not at school at Clongowes, he spent three years here as a master (1910-13) and during that time the boys knew him as a man of extraordinarily varied interests with a particular flair for archæology and a deep enthusiasm for the study of Greek and Roman antiquities. He wrote several articles for “The Clongownian” in which he described the Clongowes Museurn and gave an exhaustive account of some classical coins in the collection.

At the National University he specialized in Classics, and won distinctions innumerable. Afterwards he went to Oxford to write a thesis on the colouring of Greek sculpture, a work that brought him the highest praise from the professors there. He began theology in Austria, but owing to the outbreak of the Great War he was transferred to Hungary and finally to Poland. Through this period, his genius in mastering languages enabled him to add Polish and Russian to his knowledge of French, German and Italian, in all of which he had been proficient since his schooldays. However, on his return to Ireland, it was found that he had contracted tuberculosis, and the only hope of saying his life was to go to a drier climate. Accordingly he went to Australia and spent some time in Riverview College as Prefect of Studies. But here he became interested in Japanese antiquities, and the staff of the Jesuit University of Tokyo hearing of him obtained permission to have him transferred to Japan. It was while he was on his way there that he got orders to change his destination for Hong Kong where the Irish Jesuits were just starting a mission.

In this seemingly fortuitous way he came to be living in a land teeming with relics of bygone ages. With the kind assistance of the Government, he carried out extensive excavations on Lamma Island close at hand, and made numerous valuable finds. His reports on the new field of discovery won world-wide attention at the Archælogical Congress held in Oslo last year, which he attended as the representative of the Government and University of Hong Kong. It was shortly after the Congress, when he was working in the British Museum that he began to suffer from some curious type of blood-poisoning of which he died within a month.

The fifty years of his life had been years of unceasing toil, not merely as a student and archæologist, but also in his later years as a priest and missionary. No more fitting tribute could be paid him than that at the Requiem Mass for the repose of his soul offered in Hong Kong, the congregation numbered people of all classes; HE the Governor, University officials, merchants, boat-women and little children: a truly representative gathering of many who esteemed him as a friend as well as a scholar. RIP

FitzGerald, Richard, 1624-1678, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1294
  • Person
  • 25 November 1624-09 March 1678

Born: 25 November 1624, Vienna, Austria
Entered: 1640, Vienna, Austria - Austriacae Province (ASR)
Ordained: 1655, Rome, Italy
Final Vows: 01 November 1658
Died: 09 March 1678, Vienna, Austria - Austriacae Province (ASR)

Alias Geraldine

Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Born of illustrious Irish parents
Writer; Professor of Theology and Philosophy (cf Balthazar Geraldini in de Backer “Biblioth. des Écrivains SJ”)

Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
After First Vows studied Rhetoric and Philosophy at Vienna. He was so talented that he was chosen to make a public defence of his Philosophical theses.
He then went on Regency to Tyrnau and Sopron (now in Hungary)
Then he went to the Roman College for Theology, showing outstanding ability, and was Ordained there 1655 and graduated D Phil
He then held a Chair of Philosophy at Vienna and also taught Theology there and later at Munich
1671-1674 Rector at Linz College
1674-1678 At Vienna until he died there 09 March 1678

Fleury, Augustin, 1855-1931, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1315
  • Person
  • 11 January 1855-29 January 1931

Born: 11 January 1855, Delémont, Jura, Switzerland
Entered: 31 October 1873, Sankt Andrä, Austria - Austriaco-Hungaricae Province (ASR-HUN)
Ordained: 1888
Final Vows: 02 February 1891
Died: 29 January 1931, St Aloysius, Sevenhill, Adelaide, Australia

Transcribed ASR-HUN to HIB : 01 January 1901

◆ 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 at Sankt Andrä, Austria in 1891.

1878-1880 After First Vows he studied Rhetoric at Posen (Poznań, Poland), Autria
1881-1884 He was sent for Regency to Kollegium Kalksburg teaching French and Prefect of boarders.
1884-1887 He was sent to Innsbruck for Theology
1888-1897 He was sent back to Kollegium Kalksburg
1898 He was sent on the Australian Mission, immediately being posted to the Northern Territory to work with Aborigines. A few years after this Mission Station closed, he spent a year at Riverview and a couple of years at Sevenhill.
1905-1916 He was sent to the Richmond Parish
1916-1921 He was back working at Sevenhill
1921-1928 He was sent back to the Richmond Parish
1928-1931 He returned to Sevenhill

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 6th Year No 2 1931
Obituary :
Fr Augustin Fleury

Fr. A. Fleury died at Sevenhills 29 Jan. 1931.

He was born 11 Jan. 1855, and entered the Austrian Province at St. Andra, Lavanttal, Kärten (Carinthia), where he also made his Juniorate. After phil., Theol., Tertianship he spent a great many years as Prefect at Kalksburg, and in 1889 started for Australia. The final transfer of the South Australian Mission from the Austrian to the Irish Province took place in 1901 , and in that year Fr. Fleury was working among the Blacks at Port Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. He joined the Irish Province, and in the following year was changed to Riverview. In 1903 he became Minister at the Sevenhills Residence, From that date to his death he worked in Residences, spending 13 years in Richmond, 6 at St. James', Somerset St., 9 at Sevenhills. He was Minister for 5 years at Sevenhills, and for 5 more at Richmond. The Mission to the Blacks in Northern Territory, mentioned above, entrusted to the Society in 1882. When Dr. Reynolds, Bishop of Adelaide, was in Europe Pope Leo XIII exhorted him to give to some religious order the work of converting the Australian aborigines. The Bishop approached our Father General on the subject. He consented and entrusted the new Mission to the Austrian Fathers. Fr. Strele was appointed Superior, and on 3. Sept. 1882 he started for Post Darwin, accompanied by Fr. Neubauer and John Francis O'Brien, and Br. Eberhard, all of the Austrian Province.
Notwithstanding a good round sum that had been collected before leaving the South, the Fathers soon found their efforts hampered for want of funds up in that destitute northern region, and in 1886 Fr. Strele went on a begging tour, for the sake of his Blacks through the United States. The effort was not a success, and he then tried Austria with better results. While he was away the Bishop of the Northern Territory, resigned his see, and Leo XIII insisted on Fr. Strele becoming provisional Administrator. To lessen his work Fr. D. McKillop was appointed in 1890 to take charge of the Mission.
Failing health compelled Fr. Strele to return to the South in 1892. He lived on for three years and died a holy death in 1897.
In 1899 an extraordinary flood nearly ruined the Mission Establishment. At that time there was a Plenipotentiary, Fr. Milz, S. J., in Australia who had come to arrange the transfer of the South Australian Mission from the Austrian to the Irish Province. He hastened to the scene of the disaster and after mature deliberation decided to abandon the Mission altogether.
He sent most of the Fathers and Brothers hack to Austria, leaving two Fathers and one Brother to work the place until the Bishop of Geraldton to whom the district had been confided, should make due provision. This took place in July 1899.
In the Irish Catalogue of 1902 we find the following :
Residentia spud Port Darwin
(Port Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia)
R. P. Franciscus Ser. O’Brien. Admin. Dioec. Port Victoriae
P. Augustinus Fleury, Oper (pro Nigritis)
Coadjutor
Augustinus Melzer, Coq. Ad dorn
Next year (1903) P. Franciscus Ser. O'Brien (without the “R” before his name) was stationed at Sevenhill, Fr. Fleury, at Riverview, Br. Melzer at Miller St. our connection with the Northern Territory had come to an end.

Gerrot, John, 1558-1614, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1361
  • Person
  • 1558-02 February 1614

Born: 1558, Wexford Town, County Wexford
Entered: 23 April 1580, St Andrea, Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)
Ordained: 1589, Vienna, Austria
Final: Vows: 02 February 1597
Died: 02 February 1614, County Wexford

1584 Was in Jesuit Seminary in Rome 26 March 1584, as Prefect of the Dormitory. Has studied Humanities and Philosophy
1586 Was sent to Germany
1587 Was at Vienna since 25 December 1586. Has studied Philosophy and theology 3 years each. Talent for preaching
1590-1600 At Vienna College teaching. Very erudite in Philosophy and Theology
1603-1606 At Graz College teaching Philosophy and Ethics, Spiritual Director and Confessor.
There is a note probably by Fr Aquaviva lamenting that fit for the Mission cannot be admitted

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronolgica” :
He was a learned man; In Vienna AD 1593; He was the twenty-second professed in order of antiquity at the Provincial Congregation at Olmütz (Olomouc) in 1597 - and sixteenth in 1603;
In Wexford AD 1609 and 1611; Of great zeal and mortification. (cf Foley’s Collectanea)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Had already begun his studies before Ent 23 April 1580 Rome
1582-1586 After First Vows he was sent on Regency as a Prefect at the Roman College.
1586-1589 He was sent to Austria for Theology, and was Ordained at Vienna 1589
1589-1609 He held a Chair of Philosophy and also Controversial Theology at Vienna and in 1603 was sent to teach at Graz and where he was the Dean of Philosophy.
1609 Sent to Ireland. This was very much against the wishes of the Austrian Provincial who highly valued not only his teaching, but also his skill as a Spiritual Director for the Scholastics. The General decided the needs in Ireland were more pressing, and so he set out on a long journey, seeing him arrive at the Dublin Residence in 1610. he was ill equipped for Missionary work, as he had no knowledge of Irish. He worked in the town of Wexford for a while, but left there to go to the countryside in Co Wexford among English speakers. He died there 02 February 1614.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
GEROT, JOHN. His Superior F. Holiwood, soon after his return to Ireland, applied that F. Gerot might be sent over to him, as his services could be use fully employed at Wexford.

Halpin, Timothy, 1879-1951, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/174
  • Person
  • 24 January 1879-11 December 1951

Born: 24 January 1879, Crough, Kilmacthomas, County Waterford
Entered: 07 September 1901, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 30 June 1915, Innsbruck, Austria
Final Vows: 15 August 1919, Milltown Park, Dublin
Died: 11 December 1951, Milltown Park, Dublin

by 1905 at St Aloysius, Jersey, Channel Islands (FRA) studying
Came to Australia for Regency 1908
by 1913 at Innsbruck, Austria (ASR-HUN) studying
by 1917 at Innsbruck, Austria (ASR) making Tertianship
by 1918 at Innsbruck, Austria (ASR-HUN) studying

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
After novitiate, juniorate and philosophy, and a year teaching at Clongowes, 1907-08, Halpin arrived at Xavier College, Melbourne, in September of that year. He had an effective but not spectacular career as a teacher, and hall prefect, 1911-12.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 27th Year No 2 1952
Obituary :
Father Timothy Halpin
Died December 11th, 1951
A sturdy figure, shod with galoshes and protected with a reliable umbrella against possible vagaries of even a fine June day, is a picture that would readily present itself to those who have lived with the late Father Halpin. To a word of friendly banter he would reply : “the Irish climate is uncertain, we must be prepared for eventualities”.
Small, as this detail may seem, it is characteristic of the man, and it reveals a trait in his character which goes far to explain the success which crowned Fr. Halpin's priestly work - consistent attention to detail.
Born in Kilmacthomas in 1879, he felt an early attraction to ecclesiastical life. In 1893 he entered the junior scholasticate, Blackrock, but, on his return for the summer holidays, his parents were opposed to his continuing there. Instead, he went to Mount Melleray with the fixed idea, in his own words, “of preparing himself for the Jesuit priesthood”. The urgent need of Australian dioceses was brought to his notice, so he offered himself to Dr. Maher for Port Augusta. The Bishop arranged that, on completion of his Philosophy at Melleray, he should go to the Collegio Brigoli, Genoa.
In 1898, having finished philosophical studies with 2nd place, he was admitted to theology. At the end of three years - theology, scripture, canon law - his examination mark was “optime”, but the old determination of the “Jesuit priesthood” came back, and, with Dr. Maher's full approval, he returned to Ireland, and entered the noviceship at Tullabeg, September 7th, 1901.
From his novice-master, Fr. Michael Browne, he learnt above all the value of obedience. One who worked much with him said : “once he knew what his superiors wanted, he just set aside his own will and did as directed”.
In spite of previous studies, Superiors allowed him the full course of philosophy, at Jersey 1904-1907; after which he taught for one year at Clongowes, and four at Kew College, Melbourne.
In 1912 he went to Innsbruck for theology, where he was ordained in 1915. His first Mass was served by the late Fr. Dan Finn and Fr. John Coyne, scholastics at the time. The war upset the normal course of studies. His fourth year theology was done in private at Kalksburg College, near Vienna and for his Ad Grad, he appeared before a board from Vienna, which included the veteran Fr. Straub, author of a tract De Ecclesia. He made his Third Probation at Starawies in Galicia, a house of the Polish Province. The long period abroad made him a master of many languages, and gave him an insight into Church problems, and Society methods of organisation, which remained a permanent inspiration for his later work.
Vienna was noted for the Sodality movement. Of this he made a careful study, applying the principles in the post of Sodality Director, which he held for some years, when he had returned to his Province. Indeed our Lady's Sodality always seemed to him the best guarantee of fruitful missionary work, if well established in a parish.
A former Superior of the Mission Staff paid this tribute : “I always felt sure that he would give his best, and was never disappointed. He would write to P.P.s for details of the coming work, which he would, then send on to his fellow missioners. Nothing would be left to chance”. The trait with which we opened “consistent attention to detail” was carried out in the big things of his life, because it ruled the little programme of each day. The same fellow-labourer said : “I could never think of him as missing a spiritual duty, His views on everything were supernatural”.
“The Jesuit Priesthood” was the tessera of Fr. Halpin's life, reading into the words, of course, all that the Kingdom of Christ involved : the special service of the Ignatian volunteers. So it was that an intense application to work followed him to the end of his life. He has left behind in neatly labelled envelopes a whole series of notes for mission sermons, proof positive of his thorough preparation.
“Inquisitive” is an adjective that might easily be attached to him. He seemed happy extracting information. But, the information thus gleaned entered into the wide array of facts to be used, some way or another, for the interests of the Church and the Order. Generals' letters. foreign mission Publications, Province News and Letters, from all these he had accumulated a vast stock of information. This he was ready to put at your disposal. Originality was not one of his characteristics, but he knew how to turn to best account what he had assimilated from other sources. This he did to the full in the mission field and the retreats. His life was spent at these works. He is still remembered as a forceful preacher and a stimulating retreat giver. Only God's Angel could tell the souls won to God by the kindly spirit incorporated in the pamphlet “Heaven Open to Souls”. To the end this was the consistent inspiration of Fr. Halpin, and we are sure that the welcome of many souls awaited him, when the Master's summons “Well done, good and faithful servant”, came.

Joy, Patrick, 1892-1970, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/53
  • Person
  • 12 November 1892-19 February 1970

Born: 12 November 1892, Killorglin, County Kerry
Entered: 07 September 1910, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1924, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final vows: 02 February 1928
Died: 19 February 1970, Mater Hospital, Dublin

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

Superior of the Irish Jesuit Mission to Hong Kong Mission : 09 October 1941

Middle brother of John C - RIP 1950, Francis - RIP 1977

Early education at Clongowes Wood College SJ

Studied for BA at UCD

by 1915 at Stonyhurst England (ANG) studying
by 1927 at At Vienna, Austria (ASR) making Tertianship
by 1928 second batch Hong Kong Missioners
Mission Superior Hong Kong 09/10/1941
by 1954 came to Singapore (HIB) working - 1st group in Singapore A Aizier, A Bérubé, A Joliet (CAMP) & J Kearney (ORE)

◆ Hong Kong Catholic Archives :
Death of Father Joy

Father Patrick Joy, from 1927 to 1951, one of the best known Jesuits in Hong Kong, died in Dublin of 20 February 1970, aged 77.

Father Joy was born in 1892. He entered the Jesuit novitiate there in 1910, following an elder brother and to be followed by a younger brother. He was ordained priest in 1926, and after a period of socio-economic studies in Vienna, came to Hong Kong in 1927.

In his early years here he edited The Rock, took part in the long-remembered 1929 lecture-course that ended a bitter anti-Catholic and anti-Christian campaign here, and did general priestly work.

When the Regional Seminary for South China was opened in 1931 in what is now Holy Spirit Seminary, Aberdeen, Father Joy was appointed Professor of Moral Theology and held that post till he left Hong Kong in 1951, with the exception of the years when he was Regional Superior of Jesuits in Hong Kong.

He was appointed Regional Superior in the summer of 1941. His wide-ranging mind and his courageous spirit seemed to promise a large expansion of Jesuit activity in Hong Kong. Instead, within a few months, he was restricted to the agonising duties that weighed on all who had to bear responsibility in the days of the Japanese occupation. As an Irishman he escaped the ordinary internment, but he was arrested individually in 1945. The end of the war found him in prison, very doubtful about the future of his neck.

For two years after the war he supervised the restarting of activities that had been interrupted by hostilities and the occupation. He encouraged or initiated various kinds of work demanded by the needs of reconstruction; but there were so many repairs to be done so many men to be restored to full health and vigour, that there was little opportunity for him to give himself to the large-scale planning that his character seemed to demand. In 1947 he returned to the teaching of moral theology in Aberdeen. By now he was very widely known as a wide, warmhearted and widely informed counsellor in difficulties of every kind Constant appeals for advice made very heavy demands on his time and energy, but he delighted in meeting these demands. His surname was an appropriate one: he had zest and took joy in all that he did.

In 1951 he was appointed to lead the little band of Jesuits that branching out from Hong Kong to work in Singapore and what was then called Malaya. Usually a younger man is chosen for such a task, but Father Joy at 59 retained the initiative and the courageous exuberance of youth. The opportunity that had been denied to him in Hong Kong by the war was granted to him now though on a smaller scale. The work being done by Jesuits in Singapore and Malaysia still bears the stamp set upon it by Father Joy.

In 1959 he was recalled to Ireland to teach Moral Theology in the Jesuit scholasticate in Dublin. This was not retirement. At the age of 67, he brought a fresh breeze into the lecture room. His years of teaching in Aberdeen, Hong Kong. Had made him a seasoned professor of moral theology and his varied life had given him a breadth of experience that few professors could rival. He had moreover one special advantage. Throughout almost all his time in Hong Kong he had shared with Father A. Granelli, P.I.M.E., the labours of the very busy Diocesan Tribunal. This had given him an insight into the workings of Church law and the vicissitude of marriage such as he could never have gained from study. In Dublin he soon became what he had been in Hong Kong and Singapore, a man to be consulted by anyone who had a problem that no one else seemed able to solve.

In his last years he contracted leukaemia. It was arrested for a time, but in 1968 he had to give up lecturing, though he remained a universal consultor as long as any energy lasted. His life slowly ebbed away and he died on Saturday, 21 February.

Requiem Mass for the repose of his soul will be celebrated in the chapel of Wah Yan College, Kowloon, at 6pm on Monday 2 March.
Sunday Examiner Hong Kong - 27 February 1970

◆ Biographical Notes of the Jesuits in Hong Kong 1926-2000, by Frederick Hok-ming Cheung PhD, Wonder Press Company 2013 ISBN 978 9881223814 :
He was one of the second group of Jesuits to arrive on the Hong Kong Mission in 1927. He soon worked on the “Rock” which forst appeared as a Jesuit publication in 1928. He presented some updated statistics -the population of Hong Kong at that time was estimated at a little over 900,000, of whom 16,000 were Europeans, and the Catholic population - mostly Portuguese - was about 10,000.
He soon took up work at the seminary in Aberdeen for 16 years before heading to Singapore in 1951. At the Seminary he was Professor of Moral Theology. During the years of the Japanese occupation, he carried on with a small group of men at the old Wah Yan. He was also appointed a sort of honorary Irish Consul, to look after the interedts of about 70 Irish nationals there.
In late May 1943, along with Fr Gerry Casey he was arrested by the Japanese and interned at Stanley unti August 7.
With his lecturing, writing and public debating in the pre war years he became a public figure in Hong Kong. He was already closely associated with Catholic life in the colony in many ways, and was a personal friend and advisor to Mgr Valtorta who was running the diocese.
According to Fr Caey “The dominant feature in Paddy Joy’s character was his solicitude, primarily for the conversion of pagans Though he couldn’t speak Chinese well, he pointed out one prisoner to me that he thought could be instructed and baptised, and I found he was right...... he had an observant eye and a keen mind. In public debate about moral matters such as birth control, he was quick and effective,”
According to Fr Thomas Ryan, Fr Joy’s outstanding qualities were “devotion to his task and solid common sense........ He probably was the Irish Province’s greatest gift to the Hong Kong Mission.”
According to Father Patrick Grogan “....... in Moral Theology and Canon Law, and especially in making the right approach t the right authorities, there was no one to equal him. I think he was at his best as our Mission Superior during the siege of Hong Kong”
According to Fr Patrick McGovern “Fr Joy was a great man..... his virtue was that although he was an intellectual heavyweight, he stepped so lightly through this morass of problems that no toe was trod on. On the contrary, wounds and hurts, both personal and canonical were bound up so deftly that the cured patients not only improved relations with one another, but in the process of being helped gave their universal and unstinting respect to the man who did the helping. He became the focus of a vast diversity, and from all sides won confidence, respect and affection”.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 16th Year No 4 1941
General :
Fr. John R. MacMahon, Rector of Milltown Park since August. 1938. was appointed Provincial by Very Rev. Fr. General on 8th September. The best wishes and fervent prayers of the Province are tendered to him on his elevation to his new post of responsibility.
The best thanks of the Province follow the outgoing Provincial Fr Kieran, whose fidelity to duty, understanding ways and kindly charity during the many wears in which he guided the destinies of our Province will long be remembered with gratitude and appreciation. A special feature of his humanity was the quite remarkable devotion and charity which he ever showed to our sick.
We wish him many years of fruitful work for God’s glory and much happiness in his new post as Director of the Retreat, House Rathfarnham Castle.
Fr. Patrick Joy was appointed Vice-Superior of the Hong Kong Mission on 29th July.

Irish Province News 21st Year No 4 1946

Leeson St :
We were very glad to have several members of the Hong Kong mission with us for some time: Frs. P. Joy, T. Fitzgerald, and H. O'Brien, while Fr. George Byrne has joined us as one of the community.

Milltown Park :
Fr. P. Joy, Superior of the Hong Kong Mission, gave us a very inspiring lecture entitled: "The Building of a Mission,” in which he treated of the growth, progress and future prospects of our efforts in South China.
In connection with the Mission we were very glad to welcome home Frs. McAsey, Wood and Corbally, who stayed here for some time before going to tertianship.

Irish Province News 45th Year No 2 1970

Obituary :

Fr Patrick Joy SJ (1892-1970)

Father P. Joy died after a prolonged illness borne with great fortitude, nonchalance, one might say, in the Mater Nursing Home, Dublin on Thursday, February 19th. His remains were conveyed to Gardiner St. where the obsequies, including concelebrated Mass were observed on Saturday, February 21st. Fr. F. Joy, to whom we offer sincerest sympathy on his brother's death, participated with Fr. Provincial, Fr. J. Brennan, Rector of Milltown (principal concelebrant) and several other members of the Milltown staff at the concelebration. The congregation of ours and others was very representative. Father Patrick Joy was born in Killorglin, Co. Kerry on November 12th, 1892. He entered the Society in Tullabeg from Clongowes on September 7th, 1910 - one of five novices; after pronouncing his vows on September 8th 1912 he joined the Juniorate (then in Milltown Park) and the following year was one of the 14 foundation members of the community at Rathfarnham whence he secured a B.A. degree in U.C.D. This was followed by three years in Stonyhurst where he was one of 14 Irish Philosophers. He taught in Clongowes from 1917 to 1922 when he proceeded to Milltown, where he was ordained in 1925. Tertianship followed in 1926 near Vienna in Austria where he acquired a knowledge of German. In October 1927 he sailed for Hong Kong with Fr. Daniel MacDonald and Fr. Richard Gallagher.
Fr. Joy was one of the second group of Irish Jesuits to arrive in the newly-founded Mission, on 27th October 1927. Within a week he was working on the Rock which first appeared as a Jesuit publication at the beginning of 1928, and writing letters home appealing for articles and books. He gave some just-published statistics : the population of Hong Kong at that time was estimated at a little over 900,000, of whom about 16,000 were Europeans; the Catholic population, mostly Portuguese, was about 10,000. Soon the seminary work for which he was destined took up more of his time, as Aberdeen began to take shape, first in negotiations and planning and then in building. For 16 years, until he went to Singapore in late 1951, Fr. Joy was on the Status as professor of Moral at the regional seminary. Those years didn't include the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during the war, at which time Fr. Joy held the difficult position of Superior of the Mission to which he'd been appointed in October 1941, two months before the war hit Hong Kong; he'd been Vice-superior since the previous July. He had to see to the safe dispersal into China and elsewhere of most of the mission personnel, keeping alive what work could be done in Hong Kong, carrying on with a small group of men at the old Wah Yan. He was also appointed an honorary Consul to look after the interests of about 70 Irish nationals in Hong Kong. At the end of May 1943, together with Fr. Gerry Casey, Fr. Joy was arrested by the Japanese authorities and interned until August 7th with many others in the basement of the Supreme Court. “Laetitia est in carcere” was how Fr. Tom Cooney circulated this news to the dispersi in China. With his lecturing, public debating and writing in the pre-war years, Fr. Paddy had become a public figure in Hong Kong; he was closely associated with Catholic life in the colony in many ways, and with the diocese under Mgr. Valtorta to whom he was a personal friend and adviser.
Sent to Singapore in 1951, he quickly became absorbed with the work of the Church there and in Malaya, again reaching prominence in Catholic life and activity. He pioneered single-handed the Malaysia-Singapore part of the present vice-province, leaving many friends and his heart there when he retired to Ireland and the Moral chair again at Milltown in November 1958. “I shall know the Malay Peninsula well before they put me under the sod”, he wrote in August 1953 just before the tenders for Kingsmead Hall. were in. “I have already been through it from end to end about 20 times”. When Kingsmead was completed and became a house of the Hong Kong Mission, Fr. Joy was appointed Superior there. His next objective was Kuala Lumpur, where he finally became established in 1957 during the long drawn out negotiations and difficulties concerning the proposed social centre in Petaling Jaya. But though Fr. Paddy had left Asia before the present church and hostel there had taken shape, he continued to take keen interest in Malaysia and its affairs, and in other problems of the continent during his final years in Ireland.
“On January 16th 1959 Fr. Joy took his first Moral Lecture in Milltown - he marked the date in his Milltown Calendar. I was a second year theologian in his class. For ten years, until he was 76, he worked as Prof. Mor.; he was loved by his students, by the whole community. We learnt from him; we admired him; we respected him; to us he was “Paddy Happy”. He taught through stories about himself. He never told us of his prison sufferings; he never mentioned the commendations of the C. in C. or the Governor in Hong Kong - which I discovered among his papers. His stories illustrated some point in moral, even if in later years they tended to miss the point at issue; they showed his zeal, his charity, his compassion; they were never expressions of vanity.
A crowded decade. Dozens of weekend retreats; tridua; 8 day retreats; Vice Rector between Bishop Corboy and Fr. Brendan Barry; Provincial Procurator to Rome; House and faculty consultor; innumerable clients, by phone, by letter, in the parlour; dozens of lectures, in England and Ireland, to Pax Romana, to medical societies, to legal groups, to mission groups, to Jesuits and to others. He joined a sub-committee of Gorta and helped it enormously. He encouraged the struggle for women's rights through friends in St. Joan's Alliance.
His transistor was on many times a day for the news BBC and SRE. This was a symbol of his up-to-dateness. Though he was 73 when Vatican II ended he made it all his own, carefully annotating his own copy of the documents, just as he did those of the 31st Congregation when he got them two years later, or with a 1966 basic article in Periodica on renewing moral theology. In hospital he learnt to appreciate the changes in the Mass and started practising the new rite.
He was 72 when I joined the staff in Milltown. You pick what you want to teach and I'll do the rest', he said. He did not expect me to have identical views, and he encouraged me to do my job my way. A selfless senior partner.
He respected everyone, believed in everyone-because of his faith in Christ the Redeemer. He already rests in peace.
J. HEALY

Appreciations
“The dominant feature in Fr. Paddy Joy's character was his solicitude - solicitude for the conversion of pagans; I remember in prison, though he couldn't speak Chinese well, he pointed out to me one prisoner that he thought could be instructed and baptised, and I found he was right. Again, solicitude about small matters, of security such as locking doors or keeping away from windows during an air-raid. Along with this, he had an observant eye and a keen mind, In public debate about moral matters such as birth control he was quick and effective:. (Fr. G. Casey.)
“Devotion to his task and solid common sense there were the outstanding qualities of Fr. Paddy Joy. A deceptive exterior concealed a sharp brain made more acute by years of experience as professor of moral theology and consultant on moral problems for the clergy of South China. It made him equally effective whether seeking a sympathetic solution for a tangled marriage problem or protesting against Japanese conquerors who had never heard of Irish citizenship. He was probably the Irish province's greatest gift to the young Hong Kong mission. The eagles are felled, caws and daws!” (Fr. T. Ryan.)
“I think Fr. Paddy was at his best as our Superior during the siege of Hong Kong. He had come across from Kowloon to be with the majority of his subjects and he lived at Wah Yan, Hong Kong. In the evenings some would come back with stories of hair raising experiences. The norm given by Fr. Joy was ‘Go anywhere and take any risk if it is for the good of souls. Otherwise keep under cover?’ (Fr. P. Grogan.)
“As the first Jesuit to live in Malaya proper (as distinct from Singapore), I came into territory which had been almost untouched by Jesuits from the time of Francis Xavier's immediate successors until after World War II. By far the most striking feature for a Jesuit to run into was the universal warmth of the relationship which already existed between us and the local clergy and religious. Everywhere without exception I was welcomed as a Jesuit for the same reason - Fr. Joy was a Jesuit, and Fr. Joy was a great man. He had established this extraordinary reputation in circumstances which were difficult and complicated. In a huge territory with only one Bishop and a sparse distribution of a small number of priests, the aftermath of war had naturally left a back log of work undone. There were marriage problems to be sorted out, there were tensions in several directions. Fr. Joy's virtue was that although he was an intellectual heavyweight he stepped so lightly through a morass of problems that no toe was trod on. On the contrary, wounds and hurts both personal and canonical were bound up so deftly that the cured patients not only improved relations with one another, but in the process of being helped gave their unstinted respect to the man who did the helping. He be came the focus of a vast diversity, and from all sides won confidence, respect and affection. (Fr. P. McGovern.)

◆ The Clongownian, 1972

Obituary

Father Patrick Joy SJ

Fr Paddy Joy when he died after a prolonged illness on February 19th, 1970, was in his 78th year, having been born in Killorglin, Co. Kerry, on November 12th, 1892, He was the fourth of eight brothers, who were all in Clongowes. There was a Joy on the roll every year from 1895 when Maurice came until 1920, when Frank left, except for the four years 1902 to 1906. When Frank left in 1920, Paddy was here as a Scholastic until 1922. John was here as Rector and Prefect of Studies from 1922 until 1930. Frank was back as a Scholastic from 1927 to 1931. In 1932 Maurice Junior began the second generation Joys and Tempanys - and they were here every year until 1953. So that in all the family had a representative here, except for two breatks totalling five years, from 1895 to 1953, a period of 58 continuous years.

Paddy Joy spent four years in Clongowes, from 1906 to 1910; he matriculated and passed his First Arts examinations the last to be lield in CWC under the Royal University. “Apart from that”, he wrote later, “the only distinction I received was the Rugby XV”.

From 1910 to 1912 he was in the Noviceship in Tullabeg. He began his Juniorate in Milltown Park, attending the lectures of the National University from there. In 1914 he took his degree and went to Stonyhurst for his philosophy. While there he was a protégé of Fr Charles Plater, and to this he owed a lifelong interest in Social Studies, co operating as a Scholastic with Frs Plater and Martindale in retreats for the troops of the First World War, at Oxford.

He was back in CWC from 1917 to 1922, as Gallery Prefect, Maths teacher, Prefect of the big Study Hall, and Editor of the “Clongownian”. His number of the “Clongownian” made history with an exhaustive contribution on Clongownians on the Run - the school's contribution to the War of Independence.

He began theology in 1922 in Milltown, and was ordained in 1924.

In 1927 he was one of the second batch of Irish Jesuits to reach the newly-founded Hong Kong Mission. He was immediately employed in giving philosophy lectures, and had to resuscitate “The Rock” - a Catholic periodical which was to achieve fame later in the years between the first and second World Wars. He took part in a famous controversy with the Rationalists.

In 1931 theology was started in the new Seminary, and for ten years Fr Joy professed Moral theology there. In that capacity he was a clearing house for Moral Theology problems from the Missions all over China, and Defensor Vinculi of the Hong Kong Court.

In 1941 he was made Superior of the Hong Kong Mission and was appointed Honorary Consul to look after the interests of the Irish Colony there - numbering about 70. When the Japanese siege of Hong Kong began, he was in Wah Yan College. The story of the siege has been told in Fr T Ryan's “Jesuits Under Fire”.

The Irish Colony in Hong Kong formed themselves into a Third Nationals Committee and elected Fr Joy as their Chairman. In this capacity he was able to have many Irish released from internment most of them got out of the colony. He also succeeded in having a school in Macao for the sons of refugees from Hong Kong. Although the Japanese gave permission for relief work in Hong Kong and Macao, they were always suspicious about it.

On May 24th 1943 Frs Joy and G Casey were arrested and lodged in the “cells” beneath the Supreme Court Building. About 45 others were arrested at the same time. Frs Joy and Casey were detained for three months, “Conditions were indescribable”, he wrote later, “There were 80 of us in the ‘cells’, no direct ventilation, no sunlight, food very meagre. Ten died of beri beri while we were there. All day, every day prisoners were taken out for questioning and torture, and the shouts of the tortured could be heard in the cells. Men taken out for questioning returned a few hours later more or less human wrecks, and after they had a day or two to recover, they were taken out and tortured again. The questioning was a trying experience. It took the form of a three-hour session in the forenoon, followed by another 3-hour session in the afternoon. It was done to the accompaniment of shouts and threats without ceasing, I had eight such days of questioning, but neither Fr Casey nor I were tortured”.

Fr Joy was sent to Singapore in 1951 and became absorbed in the work of the Church there and in Malaya. He pioneered single-handedly the work of establishing the Malaya-Singapore part of the present Vice-province. He was made Superior of the newly built Kingmead Hall, and established the Society in Kuala Lumpur in 1957.

On the death of Fr Coyne in 1958, Fr Joy came back to Milltown Park, and was Professor of Moral Theology there until his final illness. During these last years he gave dozens of week-end retreats, tridua, 8-day retreats. He was Vice Rector of Milltown Park between the departure of Bishop Corboy for Rhodesia and the appointment Fr B Barty as Rector. He was elected to represent the Irish Province at the Procurators Congregation in Rome.

After his death, Fr T Ryan wrote: “He was probably the Irish Province's greatest gift to the young Hong Kong Mission” - that is perhaps his fittest epitaph.

Lenz, Franz, 1833-1906, Jesuit brother

  • IE IJA J/1570
  • Person
  • 06 October 1833-14 January 1906

Born: 06 October 1833, Fernitz (Fernitz-Mellach), Styria, Austria
Entered: 17 January 1857, Vienna, Austria - Austriae Province (ASR)
Professed: 02 February 1868
Died: 14 January 1906, Manresa, Norwood, Adelaide, Australia - Austriaco-Hungaricae Province (ASR-HUN)

Transcribed ASR-HUN to HIB : 01 January 1901

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Belonged to the ASR Mission in Australia up to 1901 when HIB took responsibility for the Mission, and he decided to stay with the HIB Jesuits.

Note from Franz Pölzl Entry :
1863 Franz arrived on the Austrian Mission to Australia at Adelaide 04/11/1863 with Francis Lenz and Ignacy Danielwicz. They were all skilled in various branches of domestic service.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Francis Lenz entered the Society in Austria, 6 January 1857. He arrived at Sevenhill, 4 November 1863, and worked as a farrier and smith. In 1869 he went to Norwood to inaugurate the new residence, but returned to Sevenhill in 1871, as baker and gardener, and performed general house duties. He was cook at Norwood. 1889-93 and 1904-06. and also at Sevenhill. 1894-04, doing similar duties.

Madden, Francis Xavier, 1627-1667, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1645
  • Person
  • 03 May 1627-06 September 1667

Born: 03 May 1627, County Waterford
Entered: 29 October 1649, Vienna, Austria - Austriacae Province (ASR)
Ordained: 1658/9, Graz, Austria
Died: 06 September 1667, Gorizia, Italy - Austriacae Province (ASR)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Had studied Philosophy, probably in Rome, before being admitted to the Society at Rome and Ent 29 October 1649 Vienna
1651-1655 After First Vows he spent four years Regency at the ASR Colleges
1655 Sent to Theology at Graz where he was Ordained 1658/59
1659 Sent to Gortz (Goritz / Gorizia?) to teach Mathematics, in which he was reputed to possess considerable ability.
1665 Fr General gave permission for him to be sent to Ireland, but he was detained by his Austrian Superiors. He died in an epidemic at Gorizia 06 September 1667

Maher, Thomas, 1859-1917, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1659
  • Person
  • 29 September 1859-27 March 1917

Born: 29 September 1859, Paulstown, County Kilkenny
Entered: 09 September 1876, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1892
Final Vows: 02 February 1897, Sacred Heart College SJ, Limerick
Died: 27 March 1917, Willesden, England

Part of the St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin community at the time of death.
Older Brother of Martin Maher - RIP 1942
Early education at St Stanislaus College SJ, Tullabeg

by 1896 at Vienna Austria (ASR-HUN) making Tertianship

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Came from a very respected family and two sons were in the Jesuits. A younger brother Martin was in the Society - RIP 1942.

Early education was at Carlow College and later at Tullabeg under William Delany.

he did his Philosophy and Theology at Milltown, and also did Regency at Clongowes, Belvedere.
After Tertianship under Father Bulow at Vienna, he was at Crescent, and became Vice-Rector.
1897 He was appointed Rector at Crescent 01 November 1897, and continued in that role until March 1902. During his rectorship he erected a new facade on the Church, purchased the magnificent bell and tried to improve the schools in Limerick.
He was on the Mission Staff for a while and then joined the Gardiner St community. He spent many years there and was particularly successful in his Catechism classes.
1914 Towards the middle of this year he began to show signs of failing health. He went for a short time to London as a Military Chaplain.
He returned to Ireland and took charge of the Public retreats.
Continuing to suffer poor health it was recommended that he go to Petworth in Sussex. He went from there to Willesden in London, and he died there 27 March 1917. His brother, Martin said the requiem Mass.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Thomas Maher (1859-1917)

Brother of the preceding (Martin), entered the Society in 1876. He spent three years of his regency here, 1876-89 and returned later as prefect of studies in 1894. He was appointed vice-rector of the college in 1897 and later, rector, which office he held until 1902. From that year until his death, Father Maher was a member of the Gardiner St community.

Meagh, John, 1600-1639, Jesuit priest and Martyr

  • IE IJA J/1738
  • Person
  • 1600-31 May 1639

Born: 1600, County Cork
Entered: 25 October 1626, Naples, Italy - Neapolitanae Province (NAP)
Ordained: - pre Entry
Died: 31 May 1639, Kuttenburg (Kutná Hora), Czech Republic - Austriacae Province (ASR) - described as "Martyr"

Studied Rhetoric and Philosophy
“Gio Meagh of the city of Cork in Ireland. 27 years of age more or less, entered Soc on 25/10/1626” (written by himself, Naples Novice Book)
1628 In NAP
1632 Sent to Bohemia
1639 Martyr RIP 31/05/1639 at Kuttenburg BOH. So it is stated in Annals of Kuttemburg for year 1639. According to corrections made with pencil, hardly had he pronounced the salutary names of Jesus and Mary. He was destined for Ireland. A man of very great zeal and some with pious curiosity took notice of him while celebrating the sacred mysteries, and because they had observed his devotion they assisted attentively at his Mass. With externs his conversation was of God and he spoke with such unction and if permissible they would enjoy his conversation a whole day without weariness. He was much grieved when required to speak of common subjects. Known for his integrity of life and spirit of prayer.
Studied 1st year Theology at Rome and 2nd at Naples. 1632 went to Germany and Bohemia
“Shot 30/05/1639”

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Son of William Meagh or Mede, a celebrated citizen of Cork, who died in exile 1614.
Sent as a Missioner to Bohemia, he was shot out of hatred of religion by Swedish soldiers near Kuttenburg and was on his way to Ireland. (cf Tanner’s “Martyrs” and Drew’s “Fasti SJ”)
Imprisoned in Naples on a false accusation; Of great zeal and piety; A good Scholar, and knew Virgil and Imitation by heart;
He had knowledge of his Martyrdom twelve years previously

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Ordained before Entry without having done the usual studies in Theology
1628-1629 After First Vows he was sent to study Rhetoric in the Novitiate
1629 He was then sent for Theology successively to Naples, Roman College and Vienna. His transfer to Vienna was affected in order to enable him to make temporal provision for his niece, who was a member of a Religious Order which had been dissolved by Papal authority. She was shortly married, but it turned out her husband had severe mental health problems. So, he was able to get his nice taken under the wing of the Queen Of Hungary. Meanwhile his nieces’ husband starting issuing defamatory statements about Meagh, but his integrity was upheld. At this time he had also inherited a sizeable sum, and he got permission from the General to sign over most of it to his brother, but also he was planning to allot part of this inheritance to found an Irish Jesuit House in Austria.
1634 While in Vienna he was allowed by the General to serve as a Military Chaplain in the Imperial Army until he could go to Ireland. When he was asked to go his Colonel refused to part with him, and over the next four years he was stationed mostly at Prague but he saw service also in Pomerania and Saxony. By 1638 he was stationed at Guttenburg and eventually given permission to go to Ireland. But as he set out he was killed by Calvinists 31 May 1639
The cause of his beatification with that of the martyrs of Bohemia is before the Holy See

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father John Meagh 1598-1639
In the neighbourhood of Guttenburg, near Prague, Fr John Meagh died a martyr at the hands of some Swedish soldiers, out of hatred for the faith.

While in the service of the Duke of Ossuna, Viceroy of the King of Spain John Meagh had been converted from a worldly life through reading the life of St Dympna. During his preparations to enter religious life, he was wrongly accused and cast into prison. Observing therein a statue of St Ignatius, he recalled how that Saint had also been wrongfully imprisoned. He invoked him and soon after was set free. His devotion led him to visit Rome during the Jubilee, and there he met with an accident, seriously injuring his leg. The Jesuit Fathers kindly received him into their house, and recalling that St Ignatius had also been injured in the leg, he came to the conclusion that he was called to the Society. He applied and was admitted at Naples in 1625.

After his ordination he was sent to Bohemia. He was on the point of returning to the Irish Mission, when the Swedes, in the course of the Thirty Years War, invaded Bohemia. The Fathers thought it wise to remove to the College at Guttenburg, and it was on the road thither that Fr Meagh fell into the hands of the heretical Swedes and was killed by a bullet in the chest.

This happened on the 31st of May 1639, when he was 41 years old, having been born in Cork in 1598.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
MEAGH, JOHN, made his Noviceship at Naples. As a preparation for the Irish Mission, he was ordered to cultivate the vineyard in Bohemia. There he was massacred “odio Rcligionis” by some Swedish soldiers, on the 31st of May, 1639, aet. 41. See the life of this Irish Father in Tanner, also his notice in F. John Drews Fasti, S. J.*

  • This posthumous work was printed in 1723, at Brunsberg, and contains 516 pages.

Murphy, Denis, 1833-1896, Jesuit priest and historian

  • IE IJA J/464
  • Person
  • 16 January 1833-18 May 1896

Born: 16 January 1833, Scarteen, County Cork
Entered: 26 October 1848, Dôle France - Lugdunensis Province (LUGD)
Ordained: 1862
Final vows: 02 February 1869
Died: 18 May 1896, University College, Dublin

by 1849 in Vals, France (LUGD) studying
by 1859 at Bonn, Germany (GER) studying Philosophy
by 1860 at Paderborn, Germany (GER) studying Theology
by 1861 at St Beuno’s, Wales (ANG) studying Theology 3
by 1867 at Manresa, Spain (ARA) making Tertianship

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
When he was five years old the family moved to Kanturk, where he had his early education before going to Clongowes.

1852-1858 After First Vows and some studies he was sent for Regency to Clongowes as a Teacher of all years.
1859 He studied his Second Year of Philosophy at Bonn.
1860-1863 He began his Theology at Paderborn, but after one year was transferred to St Beuno’s.
Returning to Ireland he taught Humanities and Rhetoric as well as Logic at Clongowes.
1867 he made Tertianship at Manresa, Spain
1868 He was sent to Tullabeg teaching Rhetoric.
1869-1874 He was sent to teach at Crescent Limerick.
1874-1882 he was attached to the Missionary Staff, and was Superior of that Staff for seven years.
1883-1888 He taught at UCD
1888 he was sent to Milltown to teach Canon Law.
1892-1896 He was back at UCD, mainly as a Writer. He died unexpectedly during the night of 17 May 1896 in his 64th year and 48th in Religious Life.

Ten years before he died he had been appointed by the Bishops of Ireland as promoter of the Causes of those who had died for their faith during the Penal Times. His last work as entitled “Our Martyrs” which was not published until after his death, though he had seen the last sheet through the press!
His other works include : “The Life of Red Hugh O’Donnell”; The History of Holy Cross Abbey”; “School History of Ireland”

◆ Royal Irish Academy : Dictionary of Irish Biography, Cambridge University Press online :
Murphy, Denis
by David Murphy

Murphy, Denis (1833–96), priest and historian, was born 12 January 1833 at Scarteen, near Newmarket, Co. Cork, the eldest son of Timothy Murphy and his wife Joanna (née O'Connell). He was educated at Mr Curran's school in Kanturk before attending Clongowes Wood College, Co. Kildare. Entering the Society of Jesus on 26 October 1848, he made his noviceship at Dôle and then returned to Clongowes and taught history and literature (1852–8). He undertook further philosophical and theological studies in Bonn, Paderborn, and St. Beuno's in Wales and, returning to Ireland in 1863, taught rhetoric and logic at Clongowes (1863–7). In 1867 he made his tertianship at Manresa in Spain and later taught at St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, and the College of the Sacred Heart, Limerick. In 1874 he was attached to the society's missionary staff. He established a reputation as an excellent conductor of religious retreats and was appointed superior of the missionary staff in 1873. He began teaching French language and literature in 1883 at University College, St Stephen's Green, Dublin, and, in 1888, was appointed to teach moral theology, and later canon law, at Milltown Park. In 1892 he returned to his teaching duties at University College and also served as an examiner in Spanish for the RUI.

Best known for his historical researches and writings, Murphy was a prominent member of several learned societies including the Kildare Archaeological Society, the RSAI, and the RIA (1884), and contributed to their journals. His articles in the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland include ‘Mungret Abbey’ (1894), ‘The castle of Roscommon’ (1891), ‘The ornamentation of the Lough Erne shrine’ (1892), and ‘The Irish Franciscans at Louvain’ (1893). His best known historical work is Cromwell in Ireland (1883), a scholarly and balanced account of the military campaign of 1649–51 written to refute the many myths associated with Oliver Cromwell (qv); new editions were published in 1885 and 1897. Murphy gave credit to Cromwell for his courage and military effectiveness, but condemned his religious bigotry and cruelty, and agreed with the 1st earl of Clarendon's saying ‘that he was a great, bad man’ (Cromwell in Ireland, p. ix). In 1893 Murphy translated into English and published Lughaidh Ó Cléirigh's (qv) manuscript life of Red Hugh O'Donnell (qv) with an extensive historical introduction and parallel bilingual text (The life of Hugh Roe O'Donnell (1893)). The translation, however, was severely criticised by some Irish scholars for its lack of precision. His widely used School history of Ireland (1894) gave a concise bird's eye view of Irish history from the arrival in Ireland in the 3rd century BC of Ceasair, granddaughter of Noah, ‘forty days before the deluge’, up to his own day.

At the request of the Irish bishops, in 1886 Murphy began researching a history of the martyrdom of Irish catholics since the reign of Henry VIII. He carried out extensive researches in the Vatican and other continental archives for over a decade, the result of which was the posthumously published Our martyrs: a record of those who suffered for the catholic faith under the penal laws in Ireland (1896) which he completed only days before his death. His edition of The annals of Clonmacnoise (1896), based on the translation of Conall Mageoghegan (qv), was also published posthumously.

He was elected to the RIA's committee of polite literature and antiquities (1891) and became vice-president of the RSAI (1894) and editor of the Journal of the Kildare Archaeological Society. He received an honorary doctorate from the RUI in recognition of his historical research. A kindly and cheerful man, he enjoyed playing the bass violin to relax from his scholarly pursuits. He died suddenly 18 May 1896 in his rooms at University College, and was buried in the Jesuit plot in Glasnevin cemetery. There is a substantial collection of his papers in the Jesuit archives in Dublin which includes research notes for Our martyrs and lists of Irish manuscripts in archives in Rome and Spain.

Times, 25 May 1896; Irish Catholic, 23 May 1896; RSAI Jn. (1896); Journal of the Kildare Archaeological Society, ii (1896), 81–3; Irish Monthly, xxiv (1896), 328–31; DNB; Boase, supp. iii; Cork Hist. Soc. Jn., xv (1909), 90–92; Beathaisnéis 1882–1982, i, 90; papers of Denis Murphy, Jesuit Archives, Dublin

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Denis Murphy 1833-1896
Fr Denis Murphy was born at Scarteen County Cork on the 16th January 1833. Having received his education at Clongowes, he entered the Society in 1848, making his novitiate in Dôle, France.

After his ordination and tertianship he taught in our Colleges, Clongowes, Crescent and Tullabeg. From 1874-1882 he was attached to the Mission Staff. From 1883-1896 he taught at University College, St Stephen’s Green, wit a break in between as Professor ar Milltown Park.

He had been appointed by the Bishops of Ireland as Promoter of the Causes of the Irish Martyrs. This led to his book “Our Irish Martyrs”. His other published works are “The Life of Red Hugh O’Donnell”, “The History of Holy Cross Abbey”, “Cromwell in Ireland” and “The Annals of Clonmacnoise”.

He died rather suddenly on May 17th 1896, being 64 years of age and 48 years a Jesuit.

◆ The Clongownian, 1896

Obituary

Father Denis Murphy SJ

Clongowes was still lamenting the loss of one of her most distinguished sons, Dr William J Fitzpatrick, when another, of those who have won fame for their Alma Mater in the world of letters was called away to his account. Born at Newmarket, County Cork, in 1833; Denis. Murphy went first to school at Kanturk; and then came to Clongowes, so young and so clever, that he is said to have finished the class of rhetoric at the earliest age recorded except in the case of Chief Baron Palles. Before his sixteenth birthday he had entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus, and after spending some years in England and on the Continent returned to Clongowes as professor of classics.

As a writer and a lecturer; Father Murphy soon made a name for himself; as an antiquary he stood in the foremost rank in this country, and in recognition of his great services to Irish literature and history, the Royal University conferred upon him the honorary degree of LLD.

Many noble tributes were paid to his memory by the Press, and we cannot do better than give our readers the notice which the “Independent” gave of his life and labours :-

The announcement of the death of the distinguished Jesuit, Father Denis Murphy, will come with tragic suddenness on his numerous friends in Ireland. Father Murphy had not been strong for some time past, but there was no premonition of the approach of his death. Last week he might have been met working among, as was his wont, the manuscript materials in the Royal Irish Academy. On Sunday, as usual, he performed his sacerdotal duties, and in the evening, apparently in the best of health, beguiled the time revising the final proofs of his “History of the Irish Martyrs”, which was promised from the printing press next month. On Monday morning he was found dead in his bed, evidently having passed quietly away in his sleep a few hours previously. By the death of the Rev Denis Murphy, Ireland is deprived of the services of an untiring, faithful-hearted son, who loved her with love “far brought from out the storied past”, used in the present and transfused for future times; and the Jesuits lose a useful member, whose work has added lustre to the Irish Province, for his name will be placed on the bead-roll with that of the Blessed Edmund Campion SJ, and those of the Bollandist Fathers.

Father Murphy was born in 1833; and shortly after the Famine Year joined the Society. He was educated: in England, Spain, and Germany, as well as at the Irish houses belonging to his Order. The little town of Newmarket, County Cork, where he was born, is famous as the birthplace of John Philpot Curran, and is hallowed by the memory that there too Thomas Davis spent much of his boyhood's years. It lies in the heart of one of the most historically interesting and romantic districts in that county which Sir Walter Scott estimated contained more romance than all Scotland. Not very far from Father Murphy's early home the brave MacAlistrum had fallen in fight against Murragh-au Theathaun, as the peasants still call the Cromwellian commander, and Phelix O’Sullivan, the vindicator of the Irish Catholics, had broken battle with the English in the Raven's Gleng, and crossed the Blackwater by dint of his long spears; in his historic march into Connaught. Such and similar surroundings possibly first formed the historic faculty which, in later years, developed and trained as it became, distinguished Father Murphy's career. Besides, lectures on side-lights of history, feuilletons and fugitive, magazine articles innumerable, he published several volumes of rare value as contributions to the history of Ireland, although dealing with periods and individual persons. His life of Hugh. O'Donnell deserves a place in every Irish home. It is a bilingual text, and side by side wish the Gaelic original of the pious Scribe O'Clery, we have an English translation copiously imitated. By this scholarly book probably Father Denis Murphy will “be best known to the future students of our country's history. The story of Red Hugh, the bright brand foretold of Fanult, is. a revelation of purity of motive and single-hearted. I purpose which teaches mighty lessons to all Irishmen, and its publication as such. apart from its historic value, was a most important event. Nothing in drama or epic of any age or country can exceed the pathos and tragedy contained in this simple record of facts which Father. Murphy was the first to render into the English tongue. Sir William Wilde used to lament that Cromwell's campaignings in Ireland were the most defective portion of modern Irish history. To remedy this Father Murphy set himself to work, and did so effectually in his book “Cromwell in Ireland”, which gives in detail an account of that memorable campaign which began in August, 1648, and ended in May, 1649. He follows Cromwell step by step in his progress through the country, and traces his march with a blood-red line upon the map. He is even at pains to rescue Cromwell's memory from some things set down in malice, but he musters facts enough to show him the great bad man Clarendon maintained he was. Among his other substantial works are his “History of Holy Cross Abbey”, “The Annals of Clonmacnoise”, and his compendium of Irish history, The work he was engaged on when death took him to his reward is entitled “Our Martyrs”, and is a detailed account of those who died for the Faith in the different religious persecutions in Ireland from the period which is styled the Reformation. This book was the carrying out of part of the work he under took a few years ago at the suggestion of the Irish bishops - viz, the promotion of the claims to canonization of those Irishmen and women who had suffered death for religion's sake. “The School History of Ireland”, which was published in 1893, fulfils a useful work, This little book, which was brought up to date from the earliest periods, contains on its last page a graceful allusion to Mr Parnell's honoured name, and the services he rendered Ireland, which is, perhaps, remarkable when we remember the position of the writer and how high party seeling ran at the year of the publication of the book. Besides faithfully discharging the duties of a missionary priest, and a teacher in several schools and colleges, Father Murphy managed to make time in his busy life to fill with credit to himself positions of responsibility in many learned societies. He was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, a Vice-President of the Royal Academy and a Council member of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, and of the National Literary Society. He was editor of the “Kildare Archaeological Journal”, and took a particular interest in similar publications in Cork, Waterford, and Belfast. Such are Father Murphy's services as a historical researcher and a reliable interpreter of records difficult of access as to cause abiding regret that his books are so few. His place as an Irish scholar will not easily be filled ; his place as a thoughtful, ever faithful friend never can”.

His funeral was attended by a large number of clergymen and other citizens of Dublin, the coffin being covered with numerous beautiful wreaths. One in particular calls for our notice. The staff at the establishment of Father Murphy's printers (Messrs Sealy, Bryers, and Walker), subscribed for and forwarded a costly wreath to be laid on his coffin. The gift was accompanied by a large card bearing the imprint of an open book, the left hand page of which bore the following inscription :

IN MEMORIAM.
REV DENIS MURPHY SJ, LLD,
Died May 18th, 1896
Aged 63
RIP

A Tribute of great Respect
and Affection
From the Staff of his Printers,
Messrs SEALY, BRYERS, and WALKER,
Middle Abbey Street.

The other page contained the following :

The concluding sentences of a corrected proof found at his death-bedside addressed to the Printer -

“But he chose the better part, he finished his course, and kept the faith. As to the rest, there was laid up for him a crown of justice which the just Judge gave him, and will give to all that love His coming”.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959
Bonum Certamen ... A Biographical Index of Former Members of the Limerick Jesuit Community

Father Denis Murphy (1833-1896)

Was born at Scarteen, Newmarket, Co Cork. He was educated at Clongowes and, on being admitted to the Society, was sent to France for his noviceship. He pursued his higher studies at Bonn, and Paderborn, and was ordained at St Beuno's, in Wales in 1862. On his return to Ireland he was appointed to the teaching staff at Clongowes where he remained until 1867 when he set out for Spain to make his tertianship at Manresa. On his return from Spain, Father Murphy began his long association with the Crescent. From 1868 to 1874 he was a member of the teaching staff while he was also minister of the house, and in charge of the church choir. In 1874 he joined the mission staff then resident in Limerick and remained a member of it until 1883. During his years in Limerick, Father Murphy was held in the deepest respect and affection by all who knew him. He was known and appreciated as a man of versatile intellectual qualities. But this incident shows something of his very practical bent. During his years at the Crescent, it came to his notice that the widowed mother of two Crescent boys was having trouble with a leaking roof. She had seen better days and was in receipt of an annuity just enough to cover up the poverty of herself and children. She told Father Murphy that the estimates for repairs were beyond her resources short of going deeply into debt. Father Murphy, to calm her anxiety, went off to the builders, bought the wood at wholesale and with the help of the elder son of the widow, carried out the repairs on the roof with such skill that the next repairs became necessary only some forty years after Father Murphy's death.

In 1883, Father Murphy was transferred to University College, Dublin, where he was appointed to the post of bursar and librarian. His new post gave him enough spare time to work on his historical notes, the results of his researches during his scholastic days. For during his early years, he had travelled extensively in Europe to collect historical data on the persecutions for the Faith in Ireland. His researches brought him to the archives of cities so widely separated as Madrid, Lisbon, Douai, Louvain, Paris, Vienna and Prague. In his generation, Father Murphy was probably Ireland's most informed historian. After some five years at University College, Father Murphy was transferred to Milltown Park to take over the chair of moral theology. Fortunately, for Irish historical scholarship he was released from his post and returned to University College where he spent the last four years of his life. His monumental work entitled Our Martyrs was just finished in the press, but not yet published, the day before his death. For the last ten years of his life, he held from the Irish hierarchy the post of official Postulator of the Cause of the Irish Martyrs.

O'More, Florence, 1551-1616, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1930
  • Person
  • 1551-06 August 1616

Born: 1551, Armagh City, County Armagh
Entered: 26 June 1582, Brünn (Brno), Czech Republic - Austriacae Province (ASR)
Ordained: 1577, Cork - before Entered
Final Vows: 29 June 1594
Died: 06 August 1616, Neuhaus (Jindřichův Hradec), Bohemia (Czech Republic) - Austriacae Province (ASR)

1587 At Brünn BOH Age 26 - of middling health.
1590 Vienna CAT At Vienna hearing confessions.
1593-1600 At Turocz (Turóc, Slovakia) ASR Age 42 Soc 11. Minister twice at Brün, has taught Grammar and Syntax in different Colleges and now teaches Greek, is Confessor of College and Consultor of Rector.
1600-1603 At Vienna College Spiritual Father.
1603-1616 At Neuhaus College, Bohemia. Temporary Librarian and Prefect of Health. Confessor of students and Germans.

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronolgica”:
Friend of Primate Creagh;
Educated at Paris and Pont-à-Mousson; Minister of Neuhaus College in Germany (for 24 years confessor of the holy foundress of that College, and of Germans and foreigners)
(cf sketch of his life in “Hist. of Austrian Province AD 1616; and "Hibernia Ignatiana" 28028, 122)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ:
According to himself his baptismal name was Fersi (=Fear sithe, man of peace); The name Florece was given because the baptising priest knew no Irish. He later asked the General if he could be known as Pacficus (Latin) or Solomon (Greek.! The General suggested he use the name he was known by, so he used Florence.
Already a priest before Ent 26 June 1582 Brünn (Brno) ASR
He began life as a page or valet to Archbishop Creagh of Armagh. Having acquired some Latin he wanted to be a Priest, but was discouraged by the Archbishop, who made him promise to drop the idea. Later the Archbishop, when a prisoner, relented and Florence, with little Latin but deep piety - he made the pilgrimage to Lough Derg three times - was Ordained by the Jesuit Bishop Edmund Tanner of Cork in 1577. He then spent four years in Paris where he managed to complete two years of Philosophy under the influence of the Irish Jesuit Richard Fleming, and was received into the Novitiate at 26 June 1582 Brünn (Brno).
After First Vows in the Society, because he was already a Priest, Initially He had been sent to Olomuc, but returned after a few months he returned to Brünn (Brno) to work as an Operarius at the Church there. He was very conscious of his the gaps in his own Priestly formation, and he asked the General to be allowed to remedy this. He was given a year to himself to study cases of conscience, and though by the standards of the Society he was an un- educated priest, he showed himself a man of prudence in spiritual direction
After only five years in the Society he was made Superior of the Jesuit Church at Brünn (Brno).
He exercised his church ministry later as Operarius at Vienna, Turocz (Turiec, Slovakia) and Neuhaus (Jindřichův Hradec, Czech Republic) (1596) and it was here that he was to spend the last 20 years of his life, where he was regarded as a sound spiritual guide, especially by priests and Religious. For a time he was Minister and prefect of the Church, and he died there 04 August 1616.
He volunteered to serve on the Irish mission and Father Holywood was anxious to have him sent to Ireland because of his fluency in Irish. There was a lull in the requests on the arrest of Holywood, but he resumed his efforts after release. But his poor health and increasing deafness saw his Austrian Superiors decide to keep him in the Province,

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Florence Moore 1550-1616
Florence Moore was born in Armagh in 1550. As a boy he had such a love of corporal austerities, that he went three times on pilgrimage to St Patrick’s Purgatory, Lough Derg, and spent nine days each time in severe penances. He was attached to the household of Fr Richard Creagh, Archbishop of Armagh, by whom he was singularly loved, and who promoted his studies for the priesthood. He spent eight years at Paris and Pont-à-Mousson studying. Dr Tanner, Bishop of Cork, former Jesuit, ordained him in 1575. Four or five years later he went to Rome where he was received into the Society by Fr Claude Acquaviva in 1582.

Finally he was sent to the new College at Neuhaus founded by the Viceroy of Bohemia, where he spent the rest of his life. He did such useful work as a confessor that the Jesuits of Bohemia refused to release him for work in Ireland, in spite of repeated requests from the Superior of the Mission.

Before his death he made a general confession of his whole life, and when tempted by the devil with bewildering doubts, he used refer him to that confession, and when the devil appeared in visible form, he banished him by kissing the crucifix.

He died on August 4th 1616.

Parsch, Alois, 1843-1910, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1967
  • Person
  • 05 October 1843-08 November 1910

Born: 05 October 1843, Brunzejf (Ryžoviště), Moravia, Czech Republic
Entered: 21 September 1872, Sankt Andrä Austria - Austriaco-Hungaricae Province (ASR-HUN)
Ordained: 1879
Final vows: 10 October 1883
Died: 08 November 1910, St Ignatius College, Manresa, Norwood, Adelaide, Australia

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
When he was Ordained he was sent to the Austrian Australian Mission.
He was one of the Austrians who remained in Australia after the amalgamation of the Austrian and Irish Missions in 1901.
He worked at Sevenhill and then at Norwood where he did Parish work. He died at Norwood 08 November 1910

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Parsch entered the Society, aged 29, as a diocesan priest, 21 September 1872, at the noviciate at Tyrnau. He studied philosophy at Posen, 1875, and theology at Innsbruck, 1876-'77 before teaching and prefecting at the Kalksburg College, 1878-81.
He left Hamburg on 6 April 1882, arrived in Adelaide on 11 June, and at Sevenhill on 19 June 1882. From 1889-90 he was stationed at Georgetown, and was a missionary in the districts of Gladstone, Laura, Beetaloo, Narridy, Redhill, and Mundoora. For the following two years he worked at Georgetown and then ministered in the Sevenhill area until 1903 when he went to Norwood until his death.

Peifer, Johannes, 1860-1948, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1972
  • Person
  • 16 January 1860-17 November 1948

Born: 16 January 1860, Kanzem, Trier, Germany
Entered: 13 September 1880, Turnov Austria - Austriae Province (ASR)
Ordained; 1894
Final vows: 02 February 1896
Died: 17 November 1948, Manresa, Hawthorn, Melbourne, Australia - Australiae Province (ASL)

Transcribed ASR-HUN to HIB : 01 January 1901

◆ Immaculate Conception Church, Hawthorn, Australia 150 Celebrations : https://www.immaculateconceptionaust.com/150anniversary https://f695c25f-f64b-42f7-be8b-f86c240a0861.filesusr.com/ugd/347de3_02c13bd9e734450881fa4ce539b50d78.pdf

Fr Johannes (John) Peifer, a very special priest
Over 150 years, 23 Jesuits have served as Parish Priests at Hawthorn, two of them twice. Nearly one hundred have served as assistant priest, some briefly, some for decades, nine served as migrant chaplains and about forty lived in the community and largely did other works.
Fr Peifer was born in Germany in 1860 and entered the Austrian Province of the Jesuits in 1880. Ordained in 1894, he came to Australia shortly afterwards. After various ministries around the country, he spent 20 years at St Aloysius College in Sydney, then the last 24 years of his life in Hawthorn, where he actively engaged in sodality work and in sick calls. In the confessional his advice was sought by many in difficulties, and he was a well-known figure throughout Hawthorn. By young and old he was held in affectionate regard, and his death in November 1948, aged 88, deprived the Order of one of its oldest and most beloved priests.
Preaching the panegyric at his funeral, Archbishop Mannix said that his life would scarcely ever be written.
‘He was reticent and self-effacing to an extraordinary degree. Nobody ever thought of celebrating his birthday, because nobody knew it, and he did not tell. Jubilees were celebrated
by members of his own Order and by others, but there was no jubilee for Fr. Peifer, who told nobody the date of his ordination. He lived a comparatively unknown and unostentatious, but very full life, content to do God's work as it fell to his lot. Amongst his colleagues he was always genial and alert, and bubbled over with humour. In Hawthorn, continued the Archbishop, many homes will be desolate and many hearts will grieve because Fr. Peifer will be no longer amongst them to advise and console and sympathize. He spent most of his time in Sydney and Hawthorn. But I think it was in Hawthorn he found his real home and his most congenial work. He came to be regarded as almost a legend in Hawthorn. Everybody knew, respected and loved him, and it was a great sorrow to all when recently he had to retire from active work, when he could do no more than continue to pray for the work that he himself had done so much to promote.
Fr. Peifer was a great believer in the power of the written word. In going about his Hawthorn district he was in the habit of distributing Catholic Truth pamphlets in an unostentatious way. I am sure that many people owed their conversion to this gentle, hidden apostolate of Fr. Peifer. In his last days at Caritas Christi Hospice he was able to get up occasionally and go round amongst the patients in that great institution. With each one who was capable of reading he left a Catholic pamphlet.’
By a remarkable coincidence, while the Jesuits and their friends were celebrating the centenary of the coming of Austrian Jesuits to Australia in 1848, the last link with those heroic Jesuit pioneers should go to his reward in Hawthorn. Although Fr Peifer’s life will never be written, it is timely to remember this humble priest who served our church and the wider Hawthorn community so faithfully, during our 150th year.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
John Peifer was a stout lithe man, very cheerful, and according to all who knew him, a holy priest He entered the Society, 13 September 1880, and did his regency at Kalocsa, Hungary, teaching French and being prefect of discipline. Theology studies were completed at Innsbruck, 1891-94 and tertianship at Lainzerstrasse, Vienna, 1894-95. He returned to Kalocsa, 1895-97, and then 1897-98, went to Szatmar, Hungary. He arrived in Adelaide. 5 December 1898 and worked the Norwood parish for some time.
With his transfer to the Irish province, he taught at Xavier College for a few years and then spent a long period, 1903-23, at St Aloysius' College, Milsons Point, teaching and working at the Star of the Sea Church. He was assigned to the parish of Hawthorn, 1923-48, where he was minister for ten years and directed various sodalities.
He was a well-liked member of the province His manner was charming, his demeanor always cheerful, his humility quite unassumed. Yet he was a man of sound learning, especially linguistically in the classical tongues, in French and in Hungarian, as well as in his native German He was much appreciated both at St Aloysius' College and at Hawthorn, and was the last survivor of the Austrian fathers.

◆ The Aloysian, Sydney, 1923

Obituary

Father John Peifer SJ

Early this year we lost an old and popu lar master in Father Peifer. He had beer connected with the College some twenty years.

Showing talent for languages in his early student days, he made philology his forte. It was really this branch of study that in fuenced his coming to Australia. At that period the Northern Territory Aboriginals' Mission was at its best. Father Peifer was to work and write on their language.

He arrived in South Australia about 1898. After a few years he came on to Sydney, and was stationed at Bourke St., and later on at S.A.C.

While he was on the College staff here, Chris Brennan, of literary and University fame, deemed it a privilege and a pleasure to confer with Father Peifer on literary matters.

On Father Kirwan's transfer to Seven Hills, Father Peifer was given charge of the Kirribilli portion of the Lavender Bay parish. From that period, though not actually on the College staff, he did not lose all connection with the Past and Present. It was always their delight to have a little, word with the genial father.

In July last Father Claffey came to Kirribilli, and Father Peifer was appointed to and left for Glenferrie with that simplicity and absence of formal leave-taking that his reserve dictated,

Quiric, Ignatius, d 1743, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/2023
  • Person
  • d 21 November 1743

Died: 21 November 1743, Vienna, Austria - Angliae Province (ANG)

In Old/15 (1), Old/17, Chronological Catalogue Sheet,
CATSJ I-Y “Querick”; RIP 21 November 1743 Vienna - ANG - It is an Irish name

Reschauer, Anton, 1832-1919, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/373
  • Person
  • 30 December 1832-16 July 1919

Born: 30 December 1832, Münzkirchen, Austria
Entered: 06 September 1855, Baumgartenberg Austria (AUT)
Ordained: 1878
Final vows: 02 February 1873
Died: 16 July 1919, St Aloysius, Sevenhill, Adelaide, Australia

Had a brother Cajan who was a Jesuit brother (ASR)

Mission Superior 1882-1888 and 1890-1897

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He belonged originally to the Austrian Province, and when the Irish province took responsibility for Sevenhill and Adelaide for the Irish Mission, he elected to spend his days with the Irish.
He died at Sevenhill 16 July 1919. He was a perfect religious and very hardworking. At the time of his death he was the oldest member of the Irish-Australian Mission.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Anthony Reshauer's father was a well-to-do baker, and Anthony was educated at the Jesuit school, Freinberg College, Linz. His brother, Cajetan, afterwards became a Jesuit brother.
Reshauer entered the Society 6 September 1855, at Baumgartenberg, and completed his juniorate at the same place, 1857-8. He studied philosophy at Posen, and theology at Innsbruck, Austria, 1864-68, concluding his course with the 'Grand Act'. He later became a professed father. His regency was undertaken at Kalksburg, teaching natural history, physics and mathematics. After theology he taught at Freinberg, Linz, 1868-70, followed by tertianship at St Andra. He returned to Freinberg, 1871-73.
He was sent to Adelaide, Australia, with Josef Peters in early 1874, and went to Sevenhill where he taught Latin, philosophy and theology. in 1876 he was named visitor of the mission, and the following year became superior of the mission from the Adelaide parish of Norwood. He also engaged in parish work, missions and retreats.
From 1880 to 1881 he went to Georgetown and became superior, 1882-88. He was also procurator and a consulter of the mission during this time. In 1885 he attended the episcopal
Plenary Council at Sydney as a theologian to the local bishop, Dr Reynolds. He returned to the parish of Norwood in 1888, and again became superior of the mission, 1890-97. His final years 1897-1919, were spent at Sevenhill. During these years he was extensively engaged in pastoral work.
At die time of the amalgamation of the Austrian and Irish Mission in 1901, Reshauer chose to remain in South Australia as a member of the Irish Mission. In his later years he became gradually more feeble. He was considered a man highly gifted intellectually in many areas, philosophy, theology, natural science, mathematics, and languages, which he combined with deep humility. He was kind and thoughtful of others. He did not relish high office, yet had his fair share of it. Until the end of his life he rose at 4.30 am and was first into the church to visit the Blessed Sacrament. He lived most abstemiously, but was very generous with others. His room contained only the bare essentials. His retreats were greatly liked, especially by priests. His contribution to the Church and Society in Australia was considerable.

Rogalski, Leo, 1890-1906, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/2065
  • Person
  • 11 April 1830-03 June 1906

Born: 11 April 1830, Galicja, Poland (Halych, Ukraine)
Entered: 09 November 1861, Stara Wieś, Poland - Galicanae Province (GALI)
Ordained: 24 August 1855 - pre Entry
Final vows: 25 March 1873
Died: 03 June 1906, St Aloysius, Sevenhill, Adelaide, Australia - Galicanae Province (GALI)

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He arrived in Australia 04 April 1870 and was stationed at Sevenhill as part of the ASR Mission. He devoted himself particularly to the spiritual needs of the Poles there.
He was considered to be a very holy and zealous man.
He was sick for some time and had a number of strokes, the last of which took place six days before he died 03 June 1906 at Sevenhill

◆ Australian Jesuits : http://jesuit.org.au/anniversary-celebration-for-polish-jesuit-chaplain/

Anniversary celebration for Polish Jesuit chaplain

The Polish community in Melbourne gathered in celebration and thanksgiving on Sunday 8 March to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the country’s first Polish chaplain, Fr Leon Rogalski SJ.

Australian Provincial Fr Brian McCoy presided over Mass at St Ignatius’ Church in Richmond. In his homily, Fr McCoy spoke of the enormous undertaking that Fr Rogalski embarked on in accepting his mission to Australia.

‘In this modern time of air travel, it can be hard to imagine the generosity of Rogalski’, said Fr McCoy. ‘He was being asked, like Abraham, to leave his country, his kindred and his father’s house. To go somewhere new and foreign at the far end of the world. A journey so far away that it was most unlikely that he would ever return home.’

Fr Brian said that the anniversary was an opportunity not only to remember and give thanks for Fr Rogalski’s mission, but also to remember and give thanks to the Polish community’s contributions to Australia, and to the Jesuit chaplains who have followed Rogalski in ministering to that community over many years.

‘May we be encouraged by the example of Leon Rogalski, that the faith, generosity and love that he brought to this land 150 years ago may continue to bear fruit.’

Fr McCoy was joined at the Mass by Andrzej Pawel Bies SJ representing the Polish Jesuits, Fr Tony (Wieslaw) Slowik SJ and other members of the Polish Jesuit community in Australia, as well as other Australian Jesuits.

Mass was followed by refreshments in the parish hall. A new biography by Fr Pawel Bies SJ, depicting the life and work of Fr Rogalski SJ, was available for sale, as well as a commemorative Fr Leon Rogalski Sevenhill Cellars Shiraz.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Leo Rogalski entered the Society as a secular priest, 24 August 1855, and was unique among the members of the Austrian Mission in Australia in being sent as a Polish-speaking priest to minister to the Poles, especially to those who had congregated at Hill River. He arrived at Sevenhill on 5 April 1870.
The Polish community was delighted with his arrival, and he immediately gave his people a mission. He also visited them in rural areas. He did this for the next 30 years, mainly stationed at Sevenhill. In 1894 he had a stroke, which left him partially paralysed, and so was unable to give much further service to his community In his latter years he was a vigorous promoter of the Australian “Messenger” among the younger generation of Poles.

Note from Franz Waldmann Entry
He left Vienna for Australia with Leo Rogalski, 3 December 1869