Showing 277 results

Baptismal name: John Van Damme
Religious name: Fr. Seraphin Van Damme OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 1820
Place of birth: Bruges, Belgium
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 1840
Leadership positions: Appointed Commissary General of the Irish Capuchins on 20 May 1882. He held this position until 1885; Provincial Minister, 1885-6.
Date of death: 15 Aug. 1887
Place of death: Cork
Place of burial: Cemetery, Rochestown Capuchin Friary, County Cork

Baptismal name: Hugh Quinn
Religious name: Fr. Salvator Quinn OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 21 Feb. 1918
Place of birth: Ardkeen, Portaferry, County Down (Diocese of Down and Connor)
Name of father: Patrick Quinn (Farmer)
Name of mother: Elizabeth Quinn (née Dynes)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 3 Oct. 1938
Date of first profession: 4 Oct. 1939
Date of final profession: 4 Oct. 1942
Date of ordination (as priest): 20 June 1946
Educational attainments: BA, 2nd class hons, University College Cork (1942)
Missionary activities: Travelled to the Prefecture of Victoria Falls, Northern Rhodesia (later Zambia) on 29 Nov. 1946; Guardian, Christ the King Mission, Maramba, Zambia; Vicar General of the Diocese of Livingstone, 1950-72; Secretary to Bishop Timothy Phelim O’Shea, Bishop Adrian Mung'andu and Bishop Raymond Mpezele in Livingstone.
Date of death: 15 Aug. 2000
Place of death: Raheny, Dublin
Place of burial: Dardistown Cemetery, County Dublin

William Corrigan was born in Dublin on 25 April 1835. He was received into the Capuchin Order in Italy in 1854 as at this time there existed no novitiate for the training of friars in Ireland. He took Salvator Maria as his religious name upon joining the Order. He was ordained a priest in Bologna on 23 April 1859. He returned to Ireland soon afterwards and ministered in Dublin and Cork until 1867. His time in Dublin was marked by a vigorous campaign to secure funds for the construction of St. Mary of the Angels on Church Street. He became a well-known figure in Smithfield Market, appealing to local traders and sellers for funds to aid the completion of the new Gothic-style church. He also travelled to England and Scotland in search of contributions. In 1868 he was sent to the United States to collect money to defray the enormous debt incurred in building the church. He spent approximately seven years traversing America raising funds. He returned to Dublin in 1875 and resumed his ministry in the Church Street Friary. He was present in Dublin when Fr. Gil de Cortona OSFC, General Minister of the Capuchin Order, came to Ireland on visitation in 1876. Having some knowledge of Italian, Corrigan accompanied the Minister General as an interpreter as he travelled around Ireland to visit the various Capuchin houses. In 1884 Corrigan volunteered for missionary work in the diocese of Allahabad in India. Seemingly a popular cleric, musicians from St. James’s Brass Band played before a large crowd from St. Michan’s Parish who had gathered at North Wall as he left for the Indian subcontinent. Failing health and the harsh climate forced him to return to Ireland just two years later. He remained a member of the Church Street community in Dublin until his death on 6 October 1919. He was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.

Baptismal name: William Corrigan
Religious name: Fr. Salvator Maria Corrigan
Date of birth: 25 Oct. 1835
Place of birth: Dublin
Name of father: John Joseph Corrigan
Name of mother: Teresa Corrigan (née Byrne)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 27 Nov. 1854
Date of first profession: 29 Nov. 1855
Date of ordination (as priest): 23 Apr. 1859
Date of death: 6 Oct. 1919
Place of death: Capuchin Friary, Church Street, Dublin
Place of burial: Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin

William Coughlan was born in Passage West in County Cork on 20 September 1925. He was received as a Capuchin Franciscan novice at Rochestown Friary in County Cork in October 1944. He was sent for philosophical studies to St. Bonaventure’s Friary in Cork and was solemnly professed as a Capuchin friar in October 1948. He subsequently travelled to Ard Mhuire Friary in County Donegal for his theological studies. He was ordained to the priesthood on 12 June 1952. Shortly afterward, he went to the United States. During his twenty-three years of ministry in America, he spent two years in Ukiah and a further two years in Bend, Oregon. He also served as assistant pastor for four years in Our Lady of Good Counsel in Fort Bragg in California. He subsequently served as Pastor and Superior for three years in St. Joseph’s Parish in Roseburg and seven years at Our Lady of Angels in Hermiston in Oregon. He suffered a heart attack and died in Hermiston on 29 September 1975. He was buried in the cemetery adjoining San Lorenzo Seminary, Santa Inés Mission, in California.

Baptismal name: William Coughlan
Religious name: Fr. Simon Coughlan OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 20 Sept. 1925
Place of birth: Passage West, County Cork
Name of father: John Coughlan
Name of mother: Anne Coughlan (née Hegarty)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 3 Oct. 1944 (Rochestown, County Cork)
Date of first profession: 4 Oct. 1945
Date of final profession: 4 Oct. 1948
Date of ordination (as priest): 12 June 1952
Educational attainments: BA (1948)
Missionary activities: Travelled to the United States mission in 1952
Date of death: 29 Sept. 1975
Place of death: Hermiston, Oregon, United States
Place of burial: Cemetery, San Lorenzo Seminary, Santa Inés Mission, California, United States

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

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.

Baptismal name: Nicholas John Dillane
Religious name: Fr. Raymond Dillane OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 22 Feb. 1916
Place of birth: North Circular Road, Dublin
Name of father: James Dillane (Prison Warder)
Name of mother: Mary Dillane (née Kenny)
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): 29 June 1945
Missionary activities: Travelled to Barotseland, Northern Rhodesia (later Zambia), on 21 Feb. 1946. Transferred to the Cape Town Mission, South Africa, in 1968. He returned to Ireland on 15 Nov. 1991.
Date of death: 10 Jan. 1999
Place of death: St. Francis Hospice, Raheny, Dublin
Place of burial: Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin

Peadar Ó Laoghaire (Peter O’Leary) was born in Lios Carragáin near Macroom in County Cork on 30 April 1839. Born into a bilingual family, he was educated at St. Colman’s College in Fermoy before entering the seminary at St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, County Kildare. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1867. He went on to serve in several parishes in the diocese of Cloyne, spending his final thirty years (from 1891) as parish priest of Castlelyons (Caisleán Ó Liatháin) in County Cork. From 1906 he was officially titled Canon Peter O’Leary, but he was more commonly addressed as ‘an tAthair Peadar’ (or ‘Father Peter’). Although he did not begin writing in earnest until he was in his fifties, the foundation of Conradh na Gaeilge (1893) spurred him on to take up a career as a writer. He was particularly eager to compile accessible Irish language reading material, especially for a younger generation. O’Leary completed nearly five hundred pieces of work including essays, stories, and translations of The Bible and ‘Don Quixote’, in addition to modernisations of early and medieval Irish texts. His best-known works are ‘Séadna’ (1904) and ‘Mo scéal féin’ (1915). ‘Séadna’, a folk tale, is considered a seminal work in the Gaelic revival, epitomizing O’Leary’s championing of ‘caint na ndaoine’ or the language of the people. His pioneering autobiographical work, ‘Mo Sgéal Féin’, was published by the Irish Book Company, founded by Norma Borthwick and Mairéad Ní Raghallaigh, with whom he was closely associated. O’Leary’s contribution to Irish language literature saw him honoured as a freeman of both Dublin and Cork, with Cork Corporation referring to him as ‘the greatest Irish writer of his age’ when granting him the freedom of the city in 1912. O’Leary died in Castlelyons, County Cork, on 21 March 1920 and was buried in the local cemetery.

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.

Baptismal name: John Knaresboro
Religious name: Fr. Patrick Knaresboro OSFC
Date of birth: 1833
Place of birth: Inch, County Kilkenny
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: c.1850
Ministries: He began his missionary work in India in 1859 ministering to Catholic soldiers and civilians in Shimla (Simla), Chakrata and Dagshai.
Date of death: 3 Nov. 1901
Place of death: Dagshai, Himachal Pradesh, India