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Letters of Fr. Casimir Butler OFM Cap. (1876-1958). The correspondents include: Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, Fr. Kieran O’Callaghan OFM Cap.; Fr. Colman Griffin OFM Cap., Provincial Vicar. Most of the correspondence relates to the establishment of missions in South Africa and later in Barotseland, Northern Rhodesia. The subjects include: Fr. Casimir’s first impressions of Cape Province (23 Oct. 1929); the journey to Barotseland (30 May 1930); requesting permission to retain Parow parish (26 Feb. 1931); discussions with Monsignor Bruno Wolnik SJ (1882-1960) to establish a local mission a few miles from Livingstone (16 June 1931); the necessity of wearing a white habit. Fr. Casimir wrote: ‘It is almost impossible to wear brown during the hot weather. The Conventual Fathers at Ndola wear white. The Jesuits wear any old things. I suggest a light cream-coloured habit’ (27 Nov. 1931); the need to speak the language in Barotseland ‘before we can hope to gain the hearts of the natives’. (30 Nov. 1931); on the study of the Lozi language (26 Jan. 1932); suggesting that a foundation be established in Barotseland ‘to which Catholics can look to with pride – a large church and school, sufficient for a fifty-mile area’. (3 May 1932); affirming that ‘mission work in Barotseland is going to be a slow business, the obstacles look insurmountable’. Fr. Casimir added: ‘it is a great consolation to know that it can never become a white man’s country’ (23 May 1932); confirming that the new church at Livingstone will cost £3,500 (6 Sept. 1932); referring to the work of Fr. Declan McFadden OFM Cap. and his father (30 Oct. 1932); arrangements for the impending visitation by Fr. James O’Mahony OFM Cap. (3 Dec. 1934); the activities of the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society. (18 Dec. 1934); Fr. Casimir’s arrangements to travel to Ireland via Marseilles on-board the Italian ship, SS 'Giulio Cesare' (5 May 1938). References are also made to the following Capuchin friars: Fr. Oliver O’Hanlon OFM Cap.; Fr. Killian Flynn OFM Cap.; Fr. Seraphin Nesdale OFM Cap.; Fr. Timothy Phelim O’Shea OFM Cap.; Fr. Declan McFadden OFM Cap. The file includes a letter from Fr. C. C. Martindale SJ to Fr. Cuthbert McCann OFM Cap. offering to collect £100 for Fr. Casimir’s missionary work in Barotseland (16 June 1931).

Letters of Fr. Seraphin Nesdale OFM Cap. (1897-1980). The correspondents include Fr. Kieran O’Callaghan OFM Cap.; Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister. Reference is made to the activities of Fr. Declan McFadden OFM Cap., Fr. Killian Flynn OFM Cap., Fr. Oliver O’Hanlon OFM Cap. and Fr. Casimir Butler OFM Cap. The subjects include efforts to establish missionary stations in Northern Rhodesia and to the difficulties and frustrations with on-going work in the parishes of Parow and Athlone in Cape Town, South Africa. Fr. Seraphin also refers to the need for mass stipends and funds and to the physical hardships in adjusting to the African climate, customs and languages. He recounts Fr. Killian Flynn’s efforts to ‘discover which is the language most commonly used in our territory around Livingstone’ (25 Dec. 1931).

Letters from the Most Rev. Owen McCann (1907-1994), Archbishop of Cape Town, to Fr. James O’Mahony OFM Cap., Fr. Conrad O’Donovan OFM Cap., Fr. Berard Creed OFM Cap. (1923-2004) , Fr. Eustace McSweeney OFM Cap., Provincial Ministers, and Fr. Jarlath Gough OFM Cap. (1902-1983) reporting on the missionary efforts of the Irish Capuchins in Parow (Parish of the Immaculate Conception); Matroosfontein (Parish of the Holy Trinity); Athlone (St. Mary of the Angels); Welcome Estate (St. Theresa’s); Langa (St. Anthony’s). The Archbishop also requests that an Irish Capuchin priest (Fr. Jarlath Gough OFM Cap.) be sent to St. Helena and Ascension Island – part of the Cape Town Archdiocese. He writes: ‘There are 5,000 persons on [St. Helena] Island but only 3 to 4 Catholics at present … the prospect of conversions is uncertain. The Anglicans are well established. The schools are under the Government, as also the hospital’. Reference is also made to an application of Ronald Hinrichsen, a convert from the Dutch Reformed Church, to join the Capuchin Franciscan Order (24 Sept. 1952); to the death of Fr. Oliver O’Hanlon OFM Cap. and the resulting vacancy in Parow parish (16 Aug. 1957); to a draft agreement with the Capuchins re Belgravia parish which has been separated from Parow (1 July 1961); to the need for new priests to meet the growing population in the Cape Flats district (20 June 1966); to Archbishop McCann’s desire to see Fr. Carthage Ruth OFM Cap. return to South Africa (4 Nov. 1968). Later, Archbishop McCann expresses his condolences on hearing of the death of Fr. Christopher Crowley OFM Cap. (22 Mar. 1984).

Letter from Sr. Maria Angela, a Capuchin Poor Clare, to Fr. Colman Griffin OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, seeking copies of the 'Ordo' for the Divine Office. She wrote: ‘Now we are in need since the war began. We have no more connection with our Home Convent and received no more orders from there like we received all the years’. Reference is made in the letter to the kindness shown to the sisters by Fr. Oliver O’Hanlon OFM Cap.

A volume containing letters to Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap. The spine is annotated ‘I’. Contains personal letters and correspondence relating to the Capuchin Publications Office. Includes letters from D.L. Kelleher, Canon Patrick Rogers, George Aloysius Little, Archbishop Sylvester Mulligan OFM Cap., William Frederick Paul Stockley, Michael Knightly (Chief Press Censor, Dublin Castle), Peter F. Anson, Archbishop Redmond Prendiville, Fr. Hugh Morley OFM Cap. (editor, ‘The Cowl / A Capuchin Review’), Archbishop Thomas O’Donnell (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada), Canon Patrick Lyons (Parochial House, Ardee, County Louth), Fr. John Charles McQuaid CSSp. (Blackrock College, County Dublin), Charles E. Kelly, Tadhg Ó Donnchadha (‘Torna’), Francis McCullagh, Domhnall Ó Corcora (Daniel Corkery), S.W. Bourke, Canon Edward Gallen (National Council, Pontifical work of the Propagation of the Faith), Maud Gonne MacBride, T.J. Kiernan, Stanley B. James, Hugh A. MacCartan, Maurice Leahy (Secretary, Catholic Poetry Society), Fr. Oliver O’Hanlon OFM Cap., Fr. Sylvester Mulligan OFM Cap., Aodh de Blacam, L.F. Doyle (Sarsfield Barracks, Limerick), Máirín Allen, Austin Crean (Sheriff’s Office, Ballyhaunis, County Mayo), Bishop William MacNeely, C.P. Curran, Gerald Boland (Minister of Justice), L.G. Redmond-Howard, D. Barry (Secretary, Irish Tourist Association), Eleanor Barnes (Lady Yarrow), The Catholic Study Centre for Animal Welfare, Fr. Killian Flynn OFM Cap., Cahir Healy, Thomas R. Lynch (attorney, 357 South Hill Street, Los Angeles), Art Ó Briain, James Joseph Campbell, Fr. Dermot O’Reilly OFM Cap., Fr. Henry Edward George Rope, Gertrude O’Reilly (‘The Western People’), Alison King, Fr. Terence L. Connolly SJ, lP.W. Assmann, Michael de la Bédoyère (editor of ‘The Catholic Herald’), Michael A. Bowles, Fr. P. O’Neill SMA (St. Augustine’s College, Cape Cape Coast, Ghana), Arthur de Tivoli, Alan Macauley, Michael L. Kelly (Cowell, South Australia), and Seán MacBride. Enclosures include a typescript article titled ‘Septcentenary Study of Saint Anthony of Padua’ by Alice Curtayne and a typescript titled ‘ON P.S. O’Hegarty’s Easter Thoughts’.

Ledger of loans and monies supplied to the Irish Capuchin missions in Africa compiled by Fr. Kieran O’Callaghan OFM Cap., Provincial Secretary. The ledger includes records of money supplied to Fr. Alban Cullen OFM Cap. and Fr. Oliver O’Hanlon OFM Cap. to build parish churches in Athlone and Parow, Cape Town, in March 1933. £1,700 was given to Monsignor Killian Flynn OFM Cap. to build a friary (14 June 1937), and £1,000 was given to Fr. Casimir Butler OFM Cap. for Livingstone Church in Northern Rhodesia. The accounts also include monies derived from the Seraphic Mass Association (SMA) from Aug. 1931-Jan. 1935. The accounts are signed are by Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap. Provincial Minister, 10 Aug. 1937.