Showing 197 results

Edward Patrick Holmes was born in Kirkwall, the largest town on Orkney, on 1 November 1886. He joined the Capuchin Franciscans in September 1906 and took Anthony as his religious name. He was ordained to the priesthood on 5 July 1914. A year later, he was transferred to the United States mission. In July 1920 he was ministering in Fort Bragg in California. He spent most of his time in ministry on the American Pacific Coast, working in churches around his vast parish of the Blessed Sacrament in Elk, California. Elk (originally known as Greenwood) was a lumber town situated on the coastal region of Mendocino County, north of San Francisco. The Blessed Sacrament Parish had been served by English Capuchin missionaries since 1903 and included churches built on various Indian reservations in the region. Fr. Anthony died (suddenly) in Elk on 12 June 1947.

Baptismal name: Edward Patrick Holmes
Religious name: Fr. Anthony Holmes OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 1 Nov. 1886
Place of birth: Kirkwall, Orkney Islands (Diocese of Aberdeen)
Name of father: Michael Holmes
Name of mother: Catherine Holmes (née Hennebery)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 8 Sept. 1906
Date of first profession: 17 Sept. 1907
Date of final profession: 21 Jan. 1912
Date of ordination (as priest): 5 July 1914
Missionary activities: Travelled to the United States mission in Sept. 1915
Date of death: 11 June 1947
Place of death: Elk, California

James MacRory was born in Belfast on 26 May 1925, the son of John MacRory and Anne Margaret MacRory. He was received as a Capuchin Franciscan novice in Rochestown Friary in County Cork in October 1943. He took Camillius as his religious name upon joining the Order. He made his solemn profession in 1947 in Ard Mhuire Friary in County Donegal where he was also ordained to the priesthood on 25 May 1951. Following his ordination, Fr. Camillus was assigned to teach at Rochestown College, from August 1951 to October 1952. He was then sent to California where he worked as an Associate Pastor at Our Lady of Angels in Burlingame from 1952 to 1960. For the next eighteen years Camillus ministered as an Associate Pastor at St. Joseph’s Parish (Roseburg, Oregon), as Pastor at St. Aloysius (Point Arena, California), and Old Mission Santa Inés (Solvang, California), and at St. Francis of Assisi (Los Angeles, California). After his return from Oxford in England where he participated in special studies from 1978-80, he once again served as an Associate Pastor at Our Lady of Angels in Burlingame. After that last assignment he became Director of On-going Education for the Western America Capuchin Province, a member of the Peace, Justice and Ecology Committee, and the National Spiritual Assistant for the Secular Franciscan Organisation (SFO). He was also spiritual assistant to the Secular Franciscans at Our Lady of Angels Parish in Burlingame, California. He also served as a priest at Mater Dolorosa Parish in San Francisco. He died on 25 December 2011 at Mercy Care and Retirement Centre in Oakland, California, after suffering from respiratory complications. He was buried in the cemetery adjoining San Lorenzo Friary, Santa Inés, California.

Baptismal name: James MacRory
Religious name: Fr. Camillus MacRory OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 26 May 1925
Place of birth: Belfast, County Antrim (Diocese of Down & Connor)
Name of father: John MacRory
Name of mother: Anne Margaret MacRory (née Farnan)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 26 Oct. 1943
Date of first profession: 29 Oct. 1944
Date of final profession: 29 Oct. 1947
Date of ordination (as priest): 24 May 1951
Educational attainments: BSc (1947)
Missionary activities: Travelled to the Western United States mission custody in 1952
Date of death: 25 Dec. 2011
Place of death: Mercy Care and Retirement Centre, Oakland, California
Place of burial: Cemetery, San Lorenzo Seminary, Santa Inés, California

Patrick O’Callaghan was born in Cork on 8 December 1880. He joined the Capuchin Franciscans in September 1898 and took Brendan as his religious name. He was ordained on 16 March 1907. In late 1913 he was transferred to the newly established mission custody in the Western United States. He was initially assigned as assistant pastor to St. Francis Parish in Bend, Oregon. After just one year in ministry there he was transferred to Hermiston, Oregon, to assist Fr. Casimir Butler OFM Cap. and Fr. Malachy Hynes OFM Cap. At the time, the Irish friars were investigating the prospects of a new location somewhere on the east coast. A friary there would serve as a midway point for the arduous journey from Ireland to the American Pacific Coast. Fr. Brendan was appointed to find a location for this new foundation. At the invitation of Archbishop Michael Joseph Curley (1879-1947), Fr. Brendan and Fr. Fabian Reynolds OFM Cap. arrived to work in the Immaculate Conception Parish in Towson, Maryland. There stay there was short, however, as problems arose with the Pittsburgh Capuchin Province over jurisdiction. Finally, it was discovered that Delaware was not included in any Capuchin Provincial jurisdiction and a location was chosen in Wilmington. Fr. Brendan was appointed the first guardian (local superior) of the new foundation (St. Patrick’s Friary). In 1935, a novitiate was established in Wilmington. Fr. Brendan returned to Ireland in 1937. He spent his remaining years as a member of the Holy Trinity Capuchin community in Cork city. He died on 10 June 1952 and was buried in the cemetery adjoining Rochestown Capuchin Friary in County Cork.

Baptismal name: Patrick O’Callaghan
Religious name: Fr. Brendan O’Callaghan OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 8 Dec. 1880
Place of birth: Cork
Name of father: William O’Callaghan
Name of mother: Catherine O’Callaghan (née O’Brien)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 17 Sept. 1898
Date of first profession: 17 Sept. 1899
Date of final profession: 25 Sept. 1904
Date of ordination (as priest): 16 Mar. 1907
Educational attainments: BA (RUI), 1904
Missionary activities: Travelled to the United States mission in Nov. 1913. He returned to Ireland in 1937.
Leadership positions: Custos General, 1946-9
Date of death: 10 June 1952
Place of death: Cork
Place of burial: Cemetery, Rochestown Capuchin Friary, Cork

Baptismal name: Thomas Hyland
Religious name: Fr. Macartan Hyland OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 31 May 1939
Place of birth: Dublin
Name of father: Richard Hyland
Name of mother: Mary Hyland (née Ní Shoinnion)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 3 Oct. 1956
Date of first profession: 4 Oct. 1957
Date of final profession: 4 Oct. 1960
Date of ordination (as priest): 28 May 1964
Educational attainments: BA (1960)
Missionary activities: Travelled to Livingstone, Zambia, on 3 Sept. 1964. He went to the South African mission in July 1982.
Date of death: 27 Dec. 2000
Place of death: Parow, Cape Town, South Africa
Place of burial: Maitland Cemetery, Cape Town, South Africa

Richard Henebry (Risteard de Hindeberg) was born on 18 September 1863 in Portlaw, County Waterford, the fourth of six children of Pierce Henebry, a farmer, and Ellen Henebry (née Cashen) of Clogheen in County Tipperary. At the age of twenty-one, Richard Henebry entered St. John’s College in Waterford to study for the priesthood, where Canon Patrick Power (1862-1951) was among his contemporaries. He subsequently won a scholarship to finish his studies in St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth. He graduated from All Hallows College in Dublin in 1892. Henebry briefly served on the English mission before he was offered the inaugural Chair of Celtic Studies at the Catholic University in Washington in 1895. The Ancient Order of Hibernians, an Irish American Catholic organization, had funded the chair and Henebry was proposed by classmates Canon Patrick Augustine Sheehan and Fr. Michael Hickey for the appointment. To fully prepare for his role Henebry was given special leave to go to Germany to study, again with effective lobbying on his behalf by Hickey and Sheehan. He studied for his doctoral degree in Celtic philology in Freiburg and Greifswald with the acclaimed celticists Rudolf Thurneysen and Heinrich Zimmer.

Henebry took up his appointment at the Catholic University in Washington in 1898 only to be relieved of his duties within two years. Though he was suffering from ill-health, Henebry had also seemingly fallen out with his colleagues and superiors in Washington. A diagnosis of tuberculosis forced him to spend a year recuperating in a sanatorium in Denver, Colorado. While in America, he edited and translated a large part of the life of Colum Cille by Manus Ó Donnell which he published in ‘Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie’ (1901-05). Following his return to Ireland, Henebry taught Irish in a variety of places in the Waterford area, notably during the summers from 1906 at Ring College (Coláiste na Rinne), which he had helped establish in 1905. Various diocesan appointments followed within Waterford and Lismore, before he put his name forward for the Chair of Irish Language and Literature at University College Cork (UCC) in 1909, again an inaugural position.

Henebry remained at UCC until his death in 1916, but it was not a wholly successful appointment. His efforts to embed his model of Irish language teaching in the university were met with resistance, from students and others. His efforts to establish an archive of Irish traditional music were also thwarted, and his continuing ill-health compromised his own ability to achieve these objectives. During his lifetime, Henebry was recognized as a leading linguist, and his works on the Déise dialect of Irish were widely acclaimed in academic circles. Pedagogically (and perhaps culturally) an enduring part of his legacy was his role as a teacher at, and supporter of, Coláiste na Rinne, in the Waterford Gaeltacht. In addition to his language instruction, Henebry also taught Irish traditional music to any students who were interested. He also relished his role as a contributor to various papers and periodicals, however the longest of his musical works published during his lifetime was a booklet, ‘Irish Music: Being an Examination of the Matter of Scales, Modes and Keys with Practical Instructions and Examples for Players’ (1903). Henebry died on 17 March 1916 in Portlaw, County Waterford, and was buried in Carrickbeg near Carrick-on-Suir. Henebry’s analytical monograph, ‘A Handbook of Irish Music’ (1928), published by University College Cork, appeared posthumously, and was edited by Professor Tadhg Ó Donnchadha (1874-1949), his successor in the Department of Irish in UCC.

John Francis O’Connor was born on 13 Feb. 1883 in County Cork. He was born into a devoutly Catholic family. His father, John O’Connor, a teacher, and his mother, Mary Ann Sheehan, were both tertiaries of the Third Order of St. Francis attached to Holy Trinity Capuchin Church, Cork. A brother of Many Ann Sheehan had already joined the Capuchin Franciscan Order. Fr. Luke Sheehan OFM Cap. was one of the first Catholic missionaries to minister in the American state of Oregon. A good number of John’s siblings also entered religious life. John entered Rochestown College, Cork, in the Autumn of 1897. Having successfully completed his secondary education, he entered the Capuchin novitiate on 1 Oct. 1899 and received the religious name of Dominic. A year later he took his simple vows and in the Autumn of the same year began studying for a philosophy degree in the Royal University, Cork. He was ordained a priest on 17 Mar. 1906 in the Capuchin Friary in Kilkenny. He later enrolled in the Catholic University in Louvain where he obtained a Sacrae Theologiae Baccalaureus (Bachelor of Sacred Theology). In response to a call from Cardinal Michael Logue, Archbishop of Armagh, Fr. Dominic volunteered for chaplaincy work with the British armed forces during the First World War. After spending two months with a Scottish brigade in England, he transferred to a hospital unit bound for Salonika, Greece. After approximately two years of service, Fr. Dominic resigned his post in 1917, returned to Ireland and was appointed to the Capuchin community in Holy Trinity Friary, Cork. Fr. Dominic soon attained notoriety in nationalist circles and was appointed chaplain to the Cork Brigade of IRA Volunteers by Tomas MacCurtain. As chaplain, Fr. Dominic was the first to appear at the MacCurtain home in Blackpool, Cork, on the morning the Sinn Féin Lord Mayor was killed by British forces (20 Mar. 1920). He also served as chaplain to MacCurtain’s successor as Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney, who was arrested on 12 Aug. 1920. Fr. Dominic ministered to MacSwiney throughout his hunger strike in Brixton Prison and was present for his death on 25 Oct. 1920. Soon after his return to Ireland, Fr. Dominic was arrested at the Capuchin Friary on Church Street, Dublin. He was taken to Dublin Castle and in January 1921 was court martialled and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. During his confinement, he became acquainted with two notable republican detainees, Ernie O’Malley and Pádraig Ó Caoimh. Fr. Dominic served about a year of his imprisonment in Parkhurst Prison. Following the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1921, there was a general amnesty for prisoners and Fr. Dominic was released in January 1922. On 25 February 1922, he was granted the freedom of Cork ‘as a mark of respect for his valuable services rendered to the first two Republican Lord Mayors of Cork’. With the onset of the Civil War the Capuchins in Church Street were once more involved in ministering to besieged republicans. In June 1922 the Four Courts, located only a couple of hundred meters from the Church Street Friary, was attacked by Free State forces. Fr. Dominic (assisted by Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap.) provided spiritual comfort, assisted in the evacuation of the wounded, and later facilitated the surrender of the defeated garrison. Soon afterwards, Fr. Dominic returned to Holy Trinity Friary, Cork. On 26 Nov. 1922 a decision was made by the Provincial Definitory of the Irish Capuchins to have Fr. Dominic transferred to the Province’s Mission in Bend, Oregon, United States. This was the location of Fr. Luke Sheehan’s (Fr. Dominic’s uncle) pioneering missionary work some years before. For the remainder of his life Fr. Dominic performed routine duties associated with the missionary apostolate of a Capuchin friar. He was appointed temporary rector of St. Francis de Sales Cathedral and published the first of a two-volume history of the Diocese of Baker in 1930. In August 1935 he sustained serious injuries in a car accident from which he never fully recovered. He died on 17 Oct. 1935 and was buried in Bend, Oregon. His remains (along with those of Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap.) were later repatriated to Ireland and he was buried in the cemetery of Rochestown Capuchin Friary, Cork, on 14 June 1958

John Kavanagh was born in Mountmellick in Queen’s County (later County Laois) on 12 June 1876. Having spent some years in the Seraphic College in Rochestown, County Cork, he was received into the Capuchin Order in March 1893. He was ordained a priest in Dublin on 23 February 1902. Soon after his ordination he was stationed in Kilkenny as a Professor of Philosophy, but most of his life as a priest was spent in Dublin and in Cork. An accomplished scholar, Kavanagh spent many years in libraries and archives in England, France, Italy, Spain and Belgium, transcribing thousands of documents in a very clear hand, recording everything relating to the Irish Capuchins which could be discovered overseas. His work in transcribing the seventeenth-century Latin text, the ‘Commentarius Rinuccinianus’, published by the Irish Manuscripts Commission in six volumes between 1932 and 1949, is well known. His extremely important corpus of manuscripts, surrogate copies and transcribed materials for early Capuchin history are now extant in the Irish Capuchin Archives. He served as Provincial Archivist for the Capuchin Order in Ireland from 1919 to 1958. In 1918 he was appointed to investigate the cause of two seventeenth century Irish Capuchin martyrs, Fr. Fiacre Tobin OSFC (d. 1656) and Fr. John Baptist Dowdall OSFC (d. 1710). Kavanagh also had a life-long interest in Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC (1790-1856) and amassed a huge quantity of research and documentary material relating to his life and nineteenth-century temperance campaign. In recognition of his contribution to Irish historical scholarship, the National University of Ireland awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Literature (D. Litt.) in 1947. Outside of academia, Kavanagh was a well-known preacher, missionary, and retreat-giver. In 1924 he was asked to travel to the United States where he spent several months assisting Irish Capuchin friars in missionary and preaching work. He was also a long-time incumbent of the position of Secretary of the Irish Capuchin Province (1922-31; 1937-55) and was elected Provincial Deifintor (Councillor) in 1931. His later years were blighted by dementia and he died on 16 May 1965 in the Bon Secours Hospital in Dublin. He was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.

Baptismal name: John Kavanagh
Religious name: Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 12 June 1876
Place of birth: Mountmellick, Queen’s County (County Laois), Diocese of Kildare & Leighlin
Name of father: Edward Kavanagh
Name of mother: Joanna Kavanagh (née Costello)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 20 Mar. 1893
Date of first profession: 2 July 1894
Date of final profession: 25 Dec. 1897
Date of ordination (as priest): 23 Feb. 1902
Educational attainments: Doctor of Literature (D. Litt.), 1947
Leadership positions: Provincial Definitor, 1931-4; Provincial Secretary, 1922-31, 1937-55; Provincial Archivist, 1919-1958
Date of death: 16 May 1965
Place of death: Bon Secours Hospital, Glasnevin, Dublin
Place of burial: Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin

Patrick Butler was born in Sheastown, County Kilkenny, on 6 February 1873. He joined the Capuchins in 1890 (taking John as his religious name) and was ordained a priest in January 1899. For the following three years he worked as a science teacher in the Capuchin College in Rochestown, County Cork. He subsequently joined the missionary staff and was involved in giving missions and retreats throughout Ireland. In 1914, he travelled to Harrisburg in Pennsylvania. He spent nearly two years in the United States assisting Irish Capuchin missionaries in preaching activities. Following the outbreak of the First World War, he returned to Ireland, and in April 1916 was appointed a chaplain in the British Army with the rank of Captain. He served for a short time with the home garrisons in Canterbury and in Blackpool. He was later sent to the Middle East and Palestine as part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF), an Allied military formation which fought the Ottoman Turks for control of this strategically important region. He was present at the Battle of Gaza (March 1917), and at the capture of Jerusalem (December 1917), and later acted as chaplain in a casualty clearing station in Damascus. Fr. John returned to Ireland in 1919 and spent the following eleven years in the Capuchin Friary on Church Street in Dublin. In 1930 he moved to Cork and was attached to the community at Holy Trinity Friary. He remained in Cork until his death on 3 October 1950.

Baptismal name: John Butler
Religious name: Fr. John Butler OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 6 February 1873
Place of birth: Sheastown, County Kilkenny (Diocese of Ossory)
Name of father: Tobias Butler
Name of mother: Catherine Butler (née Murphy)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 23 June 1890
Date of first profession: 15 Aug. 1891
Date of final profession: 11 Oct. 1896
Date of ordination (as priest): 8 Jan. 1899
Missionary activity: Travelled to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United States on 18 May 1914; Returned to Ireland on 25 Mar. 1916.
Educational attainments: BA (RUI)
Date of death: 3 Oct. 1950
Place of death: Cork
Place of burial: Cemetery, Rochestown Capuchin Friary, Cork
Note: Fr. Casimir Butler OFM Cap. (1876-1958) was a younger brother of Fr. John Butler OFM Cap.

Joseph Anglin, the son of John and Julia Anglin, was born in Aherla, County Cork, on 29 April 1910. Andrew Anglin (b. 11 Feb. 1900), an elder half-brother of Joseph, joined the Capuchin Franciscans in 1918 and took Terence as his religious name. He later became a missionary friar, first in the United States (from 1929), and later in Africa (from 1943). He died on 12 September 1947 in Livingstone, Northern Rhodesia (later Zambia), where the Irish Capuchins had established a missionary custody. The Anglin family were devoutly Catholic, and Joseph followed in his elder half-brother’s footsteps by joining the Capuchins in Cork in October 1927, taking Henry as his religious name upon his reception into the Order. He took his final vows and was solemnly professed as a friar in October 1931. By this time, he had obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from University College Cork. Following four additional years of clerical studies at Ard Mhuire Friary in County Donegal, he was ordained to the priesthood in St. Eunan’s Cathedral in Letterkenny on 23 June 1935. In the years following his ordination, Fr. Henry served as an assistant to Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap., the founding-editor of ‘The Capuchin Annual’ periodical. Following the Provincial Chapter of 1955, Fr. Henry was appointed editor of the ‘Annual’ with Fr. Felix Guihen OFM Cap. (1898-1981) taking on the role as manager of the Capuchin Publications Office. The appointment of Fr. Henry as editor of the ‘Annual’ elicited no real change in the ethos of the publication which continued to include an eclectic mix of articles on a wide range of topical, political, historical, artistic, literary, and spiritual subjects. Although the work of collating and editing articles for the yearly publication was strenuous and occasioned frequent bouts of stress-related ill-health, Fr. Henry succeeded in maintaining the scholarly content of the publication. Crippling financial losses brought about the demise of ‘The Capuchin Annual’ in 1977. Fr. Henry died on 30 May 1977 just a few months after completing his work on the final edition of the ‘Annual’. He was buried in the Capuchin plot in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.

William Neary, the son of John Leary and Brigid Neary (née Dowling), was born on 24 May 1857 in Freshford, County Kilkenny. Michael Neary, an older brother, joined the Capuchins in 1875 and took the religious name of Fidelis. William followed in his brother’s footsteps and joined the Order in Kilkenny a year later in May 1876. He took Paul as his religious name and was solemnly professed as a friar in October 1881. Following his profession, he was sent to France to continue his studies. He returned to Ireland and was ordained a priest in April 1881. In 1884, the Irish friars succeeded in re-establishing administrative autonomy by reconstituting a canonical Irish Capuchin Province with a Belgian-born friar, Fr. Seraphin Van Damme OSFC (1820-1887), appointed as Provincial Minister (Superior). In January 1887, Fr. Paul was summoned to Rome and was appointed the first Irish-born Provincial Minister of the reconstituted Irish Capuchin Province. Fr. Paul played a key role in the organisation of the celebrations of the centenary of the birth of Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC (1790-1856) in 1890 and in the campaign to secure funds to complete the church named in his honour (Holy Trinity, or Father Mathew Memorial Church in Cork). As Provincial Minister, and later as Vice-President of Father Mathew Hall in Dublin, he campaigned widely for the promotion of temperance. When the Catholic hierarchy invited the Irish Capuchins to undertake a nationwide crusade for the revival of temperance in 1905, Fr. Paul was the principal organiser and facilitator of this missionary campaign. Plagued by regular bouts of ill-health in his latter years, Fr. Paul Neary died in the Capuchin Friary on Church Street in Dublin on 20 June 1939 and was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.

Baptismal name: William Neary
Religious name: Fr. Paul Neary OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 24 May 1857
Place of birth: Freshford, County Kilkenny (Diocese of Ossory)
Name of father: John Neary
Name of mother: Brigid Neary (née Dowling)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 24 May 1876
Date of first profession: 27 May 1877
Date of final profession: 4 Oct. 1880
Date of ordination: 4 Apr. 1881
Date of death: 20 June 1939
Place of death: Capuchin Friary, Church Street, Dublin
Place of burial: Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin
Leadership positions: Provincial Minister, 1887-90, 1890-3, 1904-7; Provincial Definitor, 1885-8, 1895-8, 1901-4, 1913-7.
Note: Fr. Fidelis (Michael) Neary OFM Cap. (1855-1932) was a brother of Fr. Paul Neary OFM Cap.