Parish report and historical record for St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Roseburg, Oregon, beginning on 21 January 1912, within a local population centre of 4,400 people. It outlines a chronological timeline of three serving pastors: Father Camillus Killian (1912–1913), Father Edward Walsh (1913–1919), and Father Adrian Sharkett, who was serving from 13 October 1919 to the date of the record. The document logs sacramental statistics, counting 300 parishioners, 138 baptisms, 34 marriages, and 16 converts, while noting that the community has one hospital and an eight-grade parish school staffed by two Sisters of Mercy. Financially, it records a substantial parish debt of $6,750.00 that was advanced and paid by the religious Order but is earmarked to be recollected from the parish itself. Finally, the log tracks regional missionary outreach, identifying the Holy Family Church in Glendale alongside five other regional mission stations – Myrtle Creek, Day’s Creek, Perdue, Yoncalla, Anlauf, and Cleaveland – detailing their distances from Roseburg and noting that they receive priestly visits roughly three times a year, or once a year if a church is nearby.
Note from the Most Rev. Abraham Brownrigg, Bishop of Ossory, to Fr. Camillus Killian OSFC, guardian, appointing Fr. Sylvester Mulligan OSFC as extraordinary confessor to the Sisters of Mercy at Callan in County Kilkenny
Letter from Fr. Peter Bowe OSFC, Provincial Minister, to Fr. Camillus Killian OSFC, guardian, regarding arrangements for the impending Provincial Chapter and the canonical visitation by Fr. Anselm, definitor general. Fr. Bowe also reminds Fr. Camillus that the recently established houses in America are ‘attached … to the Irish Province so that the religious sent to them shall have the same rights and privileges as in the houses of the Irish Province’.
Bowe, Peter, 1856-1926, Capuchin priestLetter from Fr. Luke Sheehan OFM Cap., Bend, Oregon, expressing immense relief at the arrival of £1,500 from Ireland. He notes that the money was ‘anxiously expected and needless to say very tenderly received’. Father Luke also provides a personal update on Fr. Malachy Hynes who ‘is still sighing for home’. Malachy apparently fears that ‘matters religious and political’ in Ireland will reach a crisis while he is away.
Letter from Fr. Luke Sheehan OFM Cap., Bend, Oregon, referring to a financial dispute regarding the debt of a local Catholic hospital in Oregon. Father Luke notes that the Archbishop (Alexander Christie of Oregon City) agrees that the debt belongs to the hospital. However, he is refusing to sign the final ‘statement of debts’ until he meets with the Reverend Mother (the head of the nursing sisters), who was in New York at the time.
Letter from Fr. Luke Sheehan OFM Cap., Bend, Oregon, noting that the Bishop (likely Bishop Joseph Francis McGrath of Baker) will be in Bend on the 15th for Confirmations. Immediately after the Bishop’s departure, Father Luke plans to leave for Lincoln, Nebraska. At the Bishop’s request, Fr. Casimir Butler will take temporary charge of The Dalles for a few weeks. In the interim, Fr. Camillus Killian will take over duties in Hermiston.
A clipping of an article giving details of an upcoming mission at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Chicago. Two Irish Capuchin friars (Fr. Benignus Brennan OFM Cap. and Fr. Fr. Camillus Killian OFM Cap.) are scheduled to give the mission. The clipping is taken from ‘The New World’, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Chicago, (3 March 1933).
A photograph of (from left to right) Fr. Gabriel Harrington OFM Cap., Fr. Adrian Sharkett OFM Cap., Fr. Camillus Killian OFM Cap., Br. Francis Treacy OFM Cap., and Fr. Bernardine Harvey OFM Cap. The photograph was most likely taken outside St. Mary of the Angels on Church Street in Dublin.
A photograph of (left) Fr. Camillus Killian OFM Cap. with an unidentified Observant Franciscan (Order of Friars Minor) in the Church Street Friary garden in Dublin.
Scale: 1/8 inch to 1 foot
Floor plans for heating and boiler works at the Capuchin Friary, Kilkenny, by Musgrave & Co. Ltd., St. Ann’s Ironworks, Belfast. The plan is for Fr. Camillus Killian OSFC, guardian. Tracing no.: 35624.