Letter from Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., St. Francis Hospital, Santa Barbara, California, to Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap. referring to his declining health. He writes 'Tis a desperate fight I'm making for life. ... I was more a corpse than alive when brought in here [hospital]. I have anaemia & ulceration of stomach. Though [the] former more serious, the latter would almost kills a bull'. Bibby adds 'When I think of Fr. Peter and his 4 Def[initors] I find it hard not to be bitter, but I try as best to have patience and offer up this suffering in expatiation of my sins’. He also refers to on-going work at the mission in Santa Inés.
Letter from Margaret 'Aggie' Bibby to Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap. She writes that she has met ‘friends of poor Tomás [Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap.] who had just come from America. Immediately after his death the leaders of A.A.R.I.R. made a request on superior Fr. Joseph [Fenlon] to be allowed ship his body to Ireland as Tomás wished. He cabled to Fr. Peter [Bowe]. Reply came two days later: "Bury Fr. Albert in Santa Inez in the usual way". She later notes that care was taken to ensure that Fr. Albert's body was buried in a ‘metal casket hermetically sealed’. She concludes by expressing the hope that her brother's ‘bones will rest in the land he loved so well. Never shall we forget the Franciscan tyrants’.
Photographic print of Terence MacSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork, Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap., Rector of Rochestown College; Fr. Berchmans Cantillon OFM Cap.; Fr. Colman Griffin OFM Cap., Superior, Rochestown Capuchin Friary; Fr. Francis Hayes OFM Cap. The original print is pasted onto card with the title: ‘Terence MacSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork at the College, May 1920’. With three later reproductions.
Letter from Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap., Church Street, to Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap., guardian, enclosing a copy of the mission list and querying an item in the accounts furnished from Capuchin General Curia in Rome.
An image of a large group of Capuchin friars. A cover annotation reads: ‘Fr. Edwin and students’. Identifiable individuals include: Second row, second from the right: Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap. (1874-1938) Second row, third from the right: Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. (1877-1925) First row, second from the right: Fr. Ignatius Collins OFM Cap. (1885-1961) Third row, first from the right: Fr. Colman Griffin OFM Cap. (1886-1971) Third row, third from the right: Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap. (1880-1968) Third row, fifth from the right: Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. (1883-1935)
A group of Capuchin friars and students at Rochestown Friary, County Cork, in c.1928. The group includes (first row, third from the right) Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap. (1874-1938) and (front row, second from the left) Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap. (1880-1968).
Correspondence of John J. Robinson & R.C. Keeffe, architects, 8 Merrion Square, Dublin, Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap., guardian, Messrs W.K. Cleere & Son, 8 Ormonde Road, Kilkenny, regarding the design, dimensions, and installation of new confessional boxes in the Church of St. Francis, Kilkenny. The enclosed designs of the new confessionals by John J. Robinson are extant at CA KK/2/3/17.
Letter from Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. to Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap. expressing his relief at being able to work again and affirming that he would like to do more preaching. He also refers to communications from Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. and to his distress on not having access to Irish newspapers. Reference is also made to the troubled state of Ireland. He writes ‘the greatest opportunity that came for nearly 800 years lost: it would make one’s blood boil’.
Letter from Fr. Albert Bibby to Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap., confirming that a letter has arrived from the Provincial Minister stating that he has arranged for his travelling to Abbottstown in Pennsylvania. Fr. Albert writes ‘I simply dread the saying good-bye here. But I see I must face it and rely on God’s help to bring me through this as he has brought me through other unpleasant experiences in the past’.
Letter from Fr. Albert Bibby, St. Benedict’s Rectory, 320 West End Street, New York, to Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap., re his arrival in New York and to his meeting with Fr. Solanus Casey OFM Cap. He describes Casey as ‘a New Yorker, a great worker in the cause and a grand Friar of genial but somewhat ascetic type. He speaks at meetings, writes in [the] Press, and is the friend and trusted confidant of the right people’. Fr. Albert also refers to divisions in the Irish community in New York and notes that ‘our friends are split up into pieces – too bad. I’m speaking with a grand type of man who with tears in his eyes spoke of Liam M[ellows] … English gold and English diplomacy is at work in sowing the seeds of discord here’. He concludes that ‘the more I see here the greater my appreciation of Ireland’.
