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Thomas Brennan was born (to Irish parents) in the town of Tow Law in County Durham in England on 9 December 1861. He joined the English Province of the Capuchin Franciscan Order at Pantasaph Friary in North Wales in May 1879, taking Sebastian as his religious name. He was ordained to the priesthood in September 1886. In the following years he was appointed to several pastoral positions in England. He was engaged in mission work in Peckham in London and held the position of vice-master of novices. At the Provincial Chapter of 1890 he was appointed spiritual director to the students and chaplain at a nearby convent, orphanage, and boarding school in Pantasaph. In June 1892 he was appointed Lector of Philosophy and Vicar of the House of Studies at Olton in Birmingham. In December 1897 he resigned from his position as guardian (local superior) of Olton to take up missionary work in the United States but was recalled and asked to finish out his term as guardian. Finally, in October 1901, he travelled to America and laboured there in ministry for the rest of his life. He ministered for some time in the Diocese of Lincoln in Nebraska. In September 1903 he and several other friars made their way to Mendocino County in California. Fr. Sebastian initially took charge of Fort Bragg and the area north to the county line. In December 1912 he moved to St. Mary’s Parish in Ukiah. He was appointed superior of the California mission in December 1910 and held this position until June 1920. In 1920 the English Capuchins were given a choice by the Minister General as to whether to remain in California or undertake missionary work in India. Fr. Sebastian opted to remain in the United States while the Irish Capuchins accepted a request from Archbishop Edward Joseph Hanna to take over pastoral work in Mendocino County. Fr. Luke Sheehan OFM Cap. arrived in June 1920 to take charge and Fr. Sebastian moved to Mendocino City. Fr. Sebastian was formally affiliated with the Irish Capuchin Province in 1924. In January 1923 he assumed parochial duties in Greenwood, Elk, and was posted to Willits in October 1928. His final assignment (from 1934) was at Mission Santa Inez near Solvang in California. He died in Santa Inez on 29 January 1937 and was buried in the adjoining mission cemetery.

Baptismal name: Thomas Brennan
Religious name: Fr. Sebastian Brennan OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 9 Dec. 1861
Place of birth: Tow Law, Durham, England
Name of father: Thomas Brennan
Name of mother: Mary Brennan (née Waters)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 18 May 1879
Date of first profession: 23 May 1880
Date of final profession: 23 May 1883
Date of ordination (as priest): 18 Sept. 1886
Missionary assignments: Travelled to California, United States, in 1901 and remained there until his death.
Date of death: 29 January 1937
Place of death: California, United States
Place of burial, Cemetery, Mission Santa Inez, California

Baptismal name: Matthew Brennan
Religious name: Fr. Crispin Brennan OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 5 Jan. 1917
Place of birth: Carnew, County Wicklow (Diocese of Ferns)
Name of father: Thomas Brennan
Name of mother: Sara Brennan (née Quin)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 3 Oct. 1937
Date of first profession: 4 Oct. 1938
Date of final profession: 4 Oct. 1941
Date of ordination (as priest): 20 June 1946
Educational attainments: BA (1942)
Missionary activity: Travelled to the Prefecture of Victoria Falls, Northern Rhodesia (later Zambia) on 29 Nov. 1946. He acted as Secretary for Education for the Zambian Capuchin mission and was diocesan consultor for Bishop Timohty Phelim O’Shea OFM Cap. in Livingstone. He returned to Ireland on 19 May 1977.
Date of death: 3 Aug. 2009
Place of burial: Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin

Baptismal name: Thomas Brennan
Religious name: Br. Crispin Brennan OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 19 Dec. 1871
Place of birth: Carlow (Diocese of Kildare & Leighlin)
Name of father: John Brennan (Labourer)
Name of mother: Margaret Brennan (née Dowling)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 29 June 1896
Date of first profession: 29 June 1897
Date of final profession: 17 Sept. 1900
Date of death: 3 July 1949
Place of death: Bon Secours Home, Cork
Place of burial: Cemetery, Rochestown Capuchin Friary, County Cork

Baptismal name: James Brady
Religious name: Fr. Conor Brady OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 21 Aug. 1923
Place of birth: Crosskeys, County Cavan (Diocese of Kilmore)
Name of father: Eugene Brady
Name of mother: Mary Brady (née Finnegan)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 3 Oct. 1942
Date of first profession: 4 Oct. 1943
Date of final profession: 4 Oct. 1946
Date of ordination: 8 June 1950
Educational attainments: BA (1946)
Missionary activities: Travelled to Barotseland, Northern Rhodesia (later Zambia), on 26 Dec. 1993
Date of death: 20 Apr. 1993
Place of death: Kaoma, Zambia
Place of burial: Kaoma, Zambia

Baptismal name: Edward Bowe
Religious name: Fr. Peter Bowe OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 19 Sept. 1856
Place of birth: Tullaroan, County Kilkenny
Name of father: Thomas Bowe (b. 3 Nov. 1816)
Name of mother: Ellen Bowe (née Maher) (b. 1815)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 8 Apr. 1877
Date of first profession: 21 Apr. 1878
Date of final profession: 8 Sept. 1881
Date of ordination (as priest): 27 Aug. 1882
Leadership positions: Provincial Minister: 1901-4, 1907-10, 1916-9, 1922-5; Provincial Definitor (Councillor): 1887-90, 1890-3, 1893-6, 1895-8, 1898-1901, 1913-6; Custos: 1904, 1910, 1919, 1925
Date of death: 25 Nov. 1926
Place of death: Church Street Friary, Dublin
Place of burial: Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin

Edward Bourke was born in Kilkenny city on 27 February 1890. He studied at the Seraphic College in Rochestown, County Cork, and joined the Capuchin Franciscan Order in 1906 taking Canice as his religious name. He was ordained to the priesthood in August 1906. He earned a BA degree from University College Cork in 1911. He was appointed guardian (local superior) of Holy Trinity Friary in Cork in 1933. He also served as superior of St. Bonaventure’s Hostel in Cork in 1946 and was instrumental in establishing the Capuchin House of Studies in Raheny in Dublin in the late 1940s. He was elected Provincial Definitor (Councillor) on several occasions. He returned to his native Kilkenny in 1959. Fr. Canice spent much of his ministry giving missions and retreats and was well known for his effective and energetic preaching. For many years, he served as Commissary Provincial of the Third Order of St. Francis confraternity. A fluent Irish speaker, he was also the author of several devotional texts including ‘Mary / A study of the Mother of God’ (1936), ‘Humility / the foundation of spiritual life’ (1951), and ‘Mary’s Rosary / Its devout recital’ (1960). He died in Dublin on 2 October 1969 and was buried on the Feast of St. Francis (4 October) in Glasnevin Cemetery.

Baptismal name: Edward Bourke
Religious name: Fr. Canice Bourke OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 27 Feb. 1890
Place of birth: High Street, Kilkenny (Diocese of Ossory)
Name of father: James Bourke (Draper)
Name of mother: Catherine Walsh
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 26 Aug. 1906
Date of first profession: 17 Sept. 1907
Date of final profession: 21 Jan. 1912
Date of ordination (as priest): 5 July 1914
Educational attainments: BA (NUI), 1911
Leadership positions: Provincial Definitor: 1928-31, 1937-41, 1943-6, 1946-9, 1949-51, 1952-5; Custos General: 1940-3, 1955-8.
Date of death: 2 Oct. 1969
Place of death: St. Michael’s Hospital, Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin
Place of burial: Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin

Richard Bodkin was born in Limerick in 1846.
He died 29 March 1925.

Biographical notes for him in Colloque No. 58, mentioning the portrait visible above, are as follows:

'Richard Creagh Bodkin (Castleknock, 1925, aged 79) was born in 1846
in Limerick. He was educated in Castleknock, spending eleven years
there from the age of ten till the end of his philosophy! He joined the
community in Paris in 1865. He was ordained in 1870 and was appointed
to St Vincent’s Seminary, Cork. After five years he was appointed to
Castleknock, and remained there until his death fifty-five years later.
He was vice-president for sixteen years and prefect of studies for two,
but most of his half century there was as a teacher. Science was his
main subject and he gradually built up an excellently equipped science
hall, mainly with his personal money. He also used his money for the
purchase of library books. Later on he taught senior religion classes, and
published The Great Fundamental Truths of Religion, of which a new
edition came out in 1911. He also published How to Reason, or the ABC
of Logic (1906) and Logic for All (1911). He stocked the priests’ library
with very well-chosen books. When Monsieur L Beyaert of Bruges (first
name not known to me) was staying in the college painting the Stations
of the Cross he was intrigued by Fr Bodkin, and he used to observe him
closely at meals. He decided to paint his portrait secretly, and when he
had finished the Stations and was leaving, he presented his portrait of Fr
Bodkin to the college.'

Thomas Bibby was born on 24 October 1877 in Bagenalstown, County Carlow. He was baptised on 28 October 1877. His family were proprietors of a woollen mill at Greensbridge and operated two drapery establishments in Kilkenny City, one in Parliament Street and another on High Street. He entered the Capuchin novitiate at Rochestown on 7 July 1894 and took the religious name of Albert. He was solemnly professed on 8 May 1900 and was ordained a priest at St. Mary of the Angels, Church Street, Dublin, on 23 February 1902. A gifted scholar, Fr. Albert was among the first batch of Capuchin students to receive a BA degree from the Royal University. He later became a professor of philosophy and theology and taught these subjects to Capuchin students for some years after his ordination. One of his first students was Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. Fr. Albert was active in the Gaelic revival movement and became a fluent speaker of Irish. He was also engaged in temperance advocacy and gave missions sometimes solely in Irish in Gaeltacht areas. He was also involved in the Columcille branch of Conradh na Gaelige in its early years. Briefly a part of the community of friars in Kilkenny, he moved to Church Street, Dublin, in the early 1900s. In the aftermath of the Easter Rising, Fr. Albert ministered to a number of rebel prisoners in Kilmainham Jail and in other locations. He was present at the execution of Seán Heuston on 8 May 1916 and wrote an account of his final hours. He was later a regular correspondent with prominent republicans and their relations. On 16 December 1920 both Fr. Albert and Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. were arrested by British forces during a raid on the friary on Church Street. Fr. Albert was detained for some hours in Dublin Castle but was afterwards released whilst Fr. Dominic was sentence to five years’ penal servitude. When the Four Courts was attacked on 27 June 1922 in the opening engagement of the Civil War, Fr. Albert was present in the building alongside Fr. Dominic. Both priests remained with the Anti-Treaty irregulars until the Four Courts was evacuated. They then proceeded to administer to Cathal Brugha and other IRA men occupying the Hamman Hotel on O’Connell Street. In June 1924, Fr. Albert was sent to the United States and was eventually appointed Pastor of the Capuchin Mission at Santa Inez in California. He immediately set about restoring both the parish and the structures of the old Franciscan Mission. Modern plumbing and electricity systems were installed at Santa Inez and Fr. Albert was joined by Friars Reginald O’Hanlon and Colmcille Cregan. However, Albert’s health deteriorated and he was soon admitted to St. Francis Hospital in Santa Barbara County. He died on 14 February 1925, a mere three months after his arrival in Santa Inez. He was buried just outside the mission’s chapel. His remains (along with those of his former pupil Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap.) were later repatriated to Ireland and he was buried in the cemetery of Rochestown Capuchin Friary, Cork, on 14 June 1958.