Showing 244 results

Baptismal name: Michael Browne
Religious name: Fr. Luke Browne OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 12 Sept. 1920
Place of birth: Kilcorney, Mallow, County Cork (Diocese of Cloyne)
Name of father: John Browne (Publican and Farmer)
Name of mother: Hannah Brown (née Herlihy)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 3 Oct. 1939
Date of first profession: 4 Oct. 1940
Date of final profession: 4 Oct. 1943
Date of ordination (as priest): 27 May 1948
Educational attainments: BA, 1st class hons. (1943); MA, 2nd class hons. (1944)
Missionary activities: Travelled to Barotseland, Northern Rhodesia (later Zambia), on 11 Nov. 1949. He returned to Ireland on 15 Nov. 2004.
Date of death: 11 Apr. 2008
Place of death: Cork
Place of burial: Cemetery, Rochestown Capuchin Friary, Cork

Francis Kennedy was born on Fingal Street in Dublin on 15 June 1904. He joined the Capuchin Franciscan Order in September 1935 and took James as his religious name. He spent the greater part of his apostolate working the land on the farm attached to the Capuchin Friary in Rochestown, County Cork. After several years in Rochestown, Brother James took up residence with the community of friars in Holy Trinity in Cork city. He was transferred to the Kilkenny Friary in July 1960 in which year he celebrated his silver jubilee. He died in Kilkenny on 6 June 1967 and was buried in Foulkstown Cemetery.

Baptismal name: Francis Kennedy
Religious name: Br. James Kennedy OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 15 June 1904
Place of birth: Dublin
Name of father: John Kennedy (Builders’ Labourer)
Name of mother: Ellen (Dora) Kennedy (née Purcell)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 18 Sept. 1935
Date of first profession: 19 Sept. 1936
Date of final profession: 19 Sept. 1939
Date of death: 6 June 1967
Place of death: Capuchin Friary, Kilkenny
Place of burial: Foulkstown Cemetery, County Kilkenny

William Grace was born in Dublin on 18 July 1936. He was received into the Capuchin Franciscan Order on 3 October 1953 and took John as his religious name. He spent his novitiate years in Rochestown Friary and obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from University College Cork. He was ordained to the priesthood in County Donegal in June 1961. Following his ordination, he volunteered for missionary work and arrived in Livingstone in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) in September 1961. He remained a missionary friar in Zambia for the rest of his life (aside from year spent in St. Patrick’s College in Maynooth, County Kildare, taking a higher diploma in education). He returned to Zambia and took up a staff position at the Teachers’ Training College in Malengwa near Mongu in Western Zambia. He also acted as superior and parish priest in Malengwa, a location covering approximately two hundred and fifty square miles with a Catholic populace of about four thousand. He was appointed Vicar General in Mongu, the capital of the Western Province of Zambia, in 1997. He died in Lusaka, Zambia, on 2 October 2013. He was buried in the cemetery attached to the Capuchin novitiate at the Camerino Friary in Lusaka.

Baptismal name: William Grace
Religious name: Fr. John Grace OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 18 July 1936
Place of birth: Dublin
Name of father: John Grace
Name of mother: Catherine (Kathleen) Grace (née Hyland)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 3 Oct. 1953
Date of first profession: 4 Oct. 1954
Date of solemn profession: 4 Oct. 1957
Date of ordination (as priest): 1 June 1961
Educational attainments: BA (1957); Higher Diploma in Education (1973)
Missionary activities: Travelled to Northern Rhodesia (later Zambia) on 26 Sept. 1961; Appointed Vicar General (Mongu, Zambia) on 14 June 1997.
Date of death: 2 Oct. 2013
Place of death: Lusaka, Zambia
Place of burial: Cemetery, Capuchin Novitiate, Camerino Friary, Lusaka, Zambia

James Tommins was born in Dublin on 29 March 1812. Often, when recounting the difficult conditions in pre-emancipation Ireland, he would tell his younger fellow-friars: ‘You were born free. I was born a slave’. As a youth he was apprenticed to a haberdasher, or, more specifically, a button-manufacturer. He frequently attended religious services at the Capuchin chapel on Church Street. In his late thirties, Tommins expressed a desire to become a Capuchin friar. He went to night school to gain the necessary knowledge of the classics, and, by assiduous study, he soon reached the standard required for the novitiate. Then, in 1849, at the age of 42, he was sent to Bruges, in Belgium, for his novitiate and studies. Having taken Edward as his religious name, he was noted for his strict obedience and generous self-sacrifice, which, together with his profound humility, won him the esteem of the Capuchin community in Belgium, and secured his admission to profession. With the successful completion of his studies and having been ordained priest in 1856 by Jean-Baptiste Malou (1809-1864), Bishop of Bruges, he returned to Ireland. The following year Fr. Theobald Matthew OSFC, then Commissary-General, assigned him to Kilkenny. Except for a short period during which he was guardian (local superior) in Cork in 1861, Fr. Tommins spent his entire priestly life in Kilkenny, most of the time as guardian of a small fraternity of two or three friars. He prepared the way for the establishment of a Capuchin novitiate in Ireland; and, at a later period was appointed Commissary-General. On 23 January 1861, Fr. Edward called a meeting of the people of Kilkenny to arrange for the furnishing of the friary church. The meeting was presided over by the Mayor, Thomas Power, and it was agreed to engage Mr. McCarthy, architect, to oversee the improvements to the church, including the installation of the high altar. Once the church was completed, Fr. Tommins was also responsible for the purchase of the garden as far as Pennyfeather Lane. He also gave occasional missions and retreats notably in Castlecomer, Clough and Urlingford. With a shortage of Capuchin priests in the Irish Province, he sometimes said one Mass in Dublin on a Sunday morning; and then took the train to Kilkenny to say a second Mass there. He was also responsible for the inauguration of the Third Order of St. Francis lay confraternity in Cork in about 1866. Of the first six men he recruited as tertiaries, two joined the Capuchins: Br. Joseph O Mahony OSFC (d. 1902) and Br. Felix Harte OSFC (d. 1935). Fr. Tommins was also one of the first to take the pledge when Bishop (later Cardinal) Francis Moran, founded the Total Abstinence Sodality in Kilkenny. He died at the Capuchin Friary on Walkin Street in Kilkenny on 29 July 1889 and was afforded an elaborate public funeral. He was laid to rest in a tomb adjoining the northern aisle of St. Francis Capuchin Church in Kilkenny.

Baptismal name: James Tommins
Religious name: Fr. James Edward Tommins OSFC
Date of birth: c.29 Mar. 1812
Place of birth: Dublin
Name of father: Nicholas Tommins
Name of mother: Mary Tommins (née Casey)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: c.1830
Date of ordination (as priest): 1856
Date of death: 29 July 1889
Place of death: Capuchin Friary, Walkin Street, Kilkenny

James Doogan was born in Dublin in 1841. He was received into the Capuchin Order in their novitiate in Bologna in 1860 and remained in Italy following his ordination. He arrived in India in about 1867 and was appointed principal of St. George’s School in Mussoorie in the northern state of Uttarakhand. The school had been founded by the Capuchin fathers in 1853. Doogan remained principal until 1873 when the school was entrusted to the care of the Society of the Brothers of St. Patrick (the Irish Patrician Brothers). Afterwards, he was appointed a military chaplain with British forces stationed in India. He served in Nusseerabad (also known as Nasirabad) where he contracted cholera but recovered. He served with distinction during the Anglo-Afghan War (1878-80) and returned to India at the conclusion of the hostilities. He was a life-long temperance campaigner and wrote several pamphlets on the dangers of intoxicating liquor. He contracted influenza in May 1899 which led him to be hospitalised in the Military Station Hospital in Chakrata in Uttarakhand. He died there on 29 July 1899. He was given a ceremonial military funeral by the British Army.

James Doyle was born in Sillagh House, Naas, County Kildare, on 10 November 1922. He entered the postulancy program for the Capuchin Franciscans on 28 June 1954 and was received as a novice in the class of 1955-6 at the Kilkenny Friary. He was given Irenaeus as his religious name upon joining the Order. He made his solemn (final) profession on 2 January 1959. His first assignment was as a farm worker at Rochestown Friary in County Cork. On 12 January 1962 he travelled to the United States and was assigned to the novitiate house in Wilmington in Delaware. He worked as a farmer, groundskeeper, and cook and in 1963 was part of the first community established at San Lorenzo Seminary in Santa Inés in California. He was assigned to San Lorenzo for three terms: 1963-71; 1976-88; and 2007-11. From 1971 to 1976 he worked at St Francis High School in La Cañada Flintridge, California, doing general maintenance for the school and some cooking for the friars. In 1988 he joined the first provincial mission in Yécora, Sonora, Mexico and in 1999 he was at the novitiate San Fidel in Tres Ojitos, Chihuahua. He worked in Mexico for nineteen years before returning to San Lorenzo Seminary. In 2011 he retired from active religious ministry and lived at the Mercy Retirement and Care Center in Oakland, California. He died at the Care Centre on 4 October 2014. He was buried in the cemetery adjoining San Lorenzo Seminary in California.

Baptismal: James Lawrence Doyle
Religious name: Br. Irenaeus Doyle OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 8 Nov. 1922
Place of birth: Sillagh, Naas, County Kildare
Name of father: Joseph Doyle
Name of mother: Mary Doyle (née Stapleton)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 1 Jan. 1955
Date of first profession: 2 Jan. 1956
Date of final profession: 2 Jan. 1959
Missionary activities: Travelled to the Western United States mission custody in Jan. 1962
Date of death: 4 Oct. 2014
Place of death: Mercy Retirement and Care Center, Oakland, California
Place of burial: Cemetery, San Lorenzo Seminary, Santa Inés, California

Baptismal name: Francis O’Neill
Religious name: Fr. Honorius O’Neill OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 7 February 1925
Place of birth: Dublin
Name of father: Andrew O’Neill
Name of mother: Margaret O’Neill (née O’Connell)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 24 Oct. 1944
Date of first profession: 25 Oct. 1945
Date of final profession: 25 Oct. 1948
Date of ordination (as priest): 12 June 1952
Educational attainments: BA (1948)
Missionary activities: Travelled to Cape Town, South Africa, on 11 Sept. 1957
Date of death: 16 Sept. 1973
Place of death: St. Mary of the Angels Friary, Athlone, Cape Town, South Africa
Place of burial: Maitland Cemetery, Cape Town, South Africa

Baptismal name: Patrick Murphy
Religious name: Fr. Hugh Murphy OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 3 Dec. 1919
Place of birth: Newmarket, County Cork (Diocese of Cloyne)
Name of father: Edmond Murphy (Farmer)
Name of mother: Ellen Murphy (née Riely)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 3 Oct. 1939
Date of first profession: 4 Oct. 1940
Date of final profession: 4 Oct. 1943
Date of ordination (as priest): 5 June 1947
Educational attainments: BA (1943)
Missionary activities: Travelled to Barotseland, Northern Rhodesia (later Zambia), on 24 Dec. 1947.
Date of death: 9 Mar. 1990
Place of death: Livingstone, Zambia
Place of burial: Livingstone, Zambia

Henry Edward George Rope was a writer, poet, editor, and priest widely known in the Catholic Church for his traditionalist views. He was the elder brother of Margaret Agnes Rope, a stained-glass artist, a nephew of Ellen Mary Rope, a sculptor, and George Thomas Rope, a painter, and naturalist, as well as a cousin of M.E. Aldrich Rope, another stained-glass artist. He was ordained at St. John Lateran in Rome on 27 February 1915. He served in the Shrewsbury Diocese up until 1937, in which year, on 30 October, he took up the position of archivist in the Venerable English College in Rome. His positions as a priest included Chester St Werburgh 1915-17, Crewe 1917-18, Plowden, Shropshire 1918-24, Market Drayton 1924-25, and chaplain at Mawley Hall (near Cleobury Mortimer) 1925-37. His tenure in Rome was interrupted by the Second World War, during which he served as a chaplain at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Albrighton Hall, Shrewsbury (1940-44). He re-joined the Venerable English College and on his return to Rome after the war in 1946, again served as archivist, until December 1957. Returning to England, he settled at the Carmelite Monastery, Quidenham, Norfolk, where his sister Margaret Agnes Rope, the stained-glass artist, had died some four years previously. Due to his writings and his work as archivist at the Venerable English College in Rome, he was well known in his lifetime, particularly within church circles. He nurtured friendships with many prominent lay Catholics and clergy which in turn generated a wealth of correspondence. Aside from Benedict Williamson (1868-1948), a church architect and later Catholic priest, on whom he wrote a two-part monograph, Rope is associated with G.K. Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc, John Hawes, and many others. Henry Rope died in London on 1 March 1978 and was buried in the graveyard attached to the Church of St. Michael and the Holy Family in Kesgrave, Suffolk.

Baptismal name: Eugene McSweeney
Religious name: Fr. Gerard McSweeney OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 7 Mar. 1928
Place of birth: Millstreet, County Cork
Name of father: Denis McSweeney
Name of mother: Teresa McSweeney (née O’Sullivan)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 2 Oct. 1947
Date of first profession: 4 Oct. 1948
Date of final profession: 4 Oct. 1951
Date of ordination (as priest): 19 May 1955
Educational attainments: BA (1951)
Date of death: 24 July 1963
Place of death: Richmond Hospital, Dublin
Place of burial: Cemetery, Rochestown Capuchin Friary, County Cork