Letter to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap. from Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap. (21 Oct. 1936) re the financial situation of 'The Capuchin Annual' and 'The Father Mathew Record'. Fr. Senan insists that the publications office is ‘solvent’. He adds ‘I am about half-ways through with the 1937 'Annual'. 21,000 copies will be printed. The gross revenue from this edition will be £4,125. … The total cost of the production will be £2,500. The gross profit £1,625; from £800 to £1,000 net profit’. Several account statements are attached including 'The Father Mathew Record' expenses, Sept. 1931-Aug. 1932; distribution accounts for the St. Anthony of Padua publication; Receipt and expenses for 'The Capuchin Annual', 1930-2; Outstanding advertising accounts for 'The Father Mathew Record' and 'The Capuchin Annual', Aug. 1932.
Copy report by Fr. Killian Flynn OFM Cap. on the mission of Livingstone-Barotseland in the Prefecture of Broken Hill, Northern Rhodesia. The report is divided into the following sections: I. Situation, area, population etc. II. Historical Survey I. Prior to the coming of the Capuchin Fathers II. Coming of the Capuchin Fathers Livingstone Loanja Loanja Out-Schools Momba Mulobezi III. Applications for New Stations Translations of Catechisms IV. Details and Statistics Babemba Church and School, Livingstone Church of the Little Flower, Livingstone Barotse Church and School, Livingstone Loanja Momba Mulobezi V. Sphere of Influence of each Station Loanja Kabompo Lumbi VI. Method of Converting the Locals Results Secured VII. Working of Schools Babemba school, police camp, Livingstone Zambesi Saw-Mills Compound School, Livingstone School at Loanja Mission School at Saw-Mills Compound, Mulobezi VIII. Difficulties Hampering Work Influence of Protestant Missionaries Poverty of Districts Transport IX. Prospects for the Future X. Tribes XI. Languages XII. Financial Outlay of Mission from Beginning A manuscript note by Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap. reads: ‘This amount does not include monies spent in building church and schools in Athlone parish and church in Parow parish, South Africa, amounting to over £7,000’.
Scale: 5 miles to 1 inch Map of the Cape Province, South Africa, by the Roads Branch, Cape Provincial Administration. With mileage table in both Afrikaans and English. Manuscript additions to the map (in pencil) roughly indicate the location of the Irish Capuchin churches in the Cape Province: Langa, Athlone, Parow, the Welcome Estate and Matroosfontein. A distinction is made between locations with both churches and mission schools and areas where only a school is present. A manuscript stamp indicates that the map was sent to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, St. Bonaventure’s Friary, Cork.
Letter from Vincent Boulle, Linda Road, Claremont, Cape Province, to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, re the establishment of a Third Order Sodality in the Cape Province, South Africa. Reference is made to receptions into the Third Order made by Fr. Declan McFadden OFM Cap. (1901-1979) and Fr. Alban Cullen OFM Cap.
Letters from Fr. Sylvester Mulligan OFM Cap., General Definitor, to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, re the canonical establishment of the Irish Capuchin mission in Northern Rhodesia. He also asks for a list of potential candidates for the position of Regular Superior.
Report by Fr. Declan McFadden OFM Cap. sent to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, on the progress of the Irish Capuchin mission in Barotseland, Northern Rhodesia. Reference is made to the difficulties encountered by the first missionaries (including Fr. Timothy Phelim O’Shea OFM Cap., Fr. Killian Flynn OFM Cap., Fr. Seraphin Nesdale OFM Cap. (1897-1980) and Fr. Casimir Butler OFM Cap.); the establishment of the Loanja mission; negotiations with government authorities and tribal leaders; the work of other missionary orders including the White Fathers and the Jesuits. Fr. Declan concludes ‘as regards the mission outlook in general in Barotseland, I must candidly state it is going to be a very tough problem. The whole territory is fearfully primitive and undeveloped. The only transport help of a convenient or modern touch that we have as an ally is a spasmodic lumber train which carries us from Livingstone to the Barotse border’.
The file includes: • Reports of the seventh centenary celebrations of the Franciscan Order at St. Mary of the Angels, Church Street ('Irish Catholic', 5 Jan. 1927; 'Irish Independent', 31 Jan. 1927). Includes photographic prints of Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap. and Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. An image of the High Altar in the Church decorated with a banner (‘Saint Francis / Pray for Us’) is also included. • Report of a talk on ‘Industrial Conciliation Boards’ by Fr. Thomas Dowling OSFC in the Rotary Club, Dublin. 'Evening Herald', 6 Nov. 1922. • An article on the Irish Tertiary Pilgrimage to Rome led by Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap., Fr. Columbus Murphy OFM Cap. and Fr. Canice Bourke OFM Cap. of the Church Street Friary. 'Irish Independent', 12 Oct. 1926. • ‘The Franciscan Year / Solemn Opening / Ceremonies at St. Mary of the Angels, Dublin / Eloquent Sermon by the Most Rev. Sylvester Mulligan OSFC, Definitor General, Rome’. 'Irish Catholic', 7 Aug. 1926. • ‘The Capuchins / A Great Franciscan Reform / Foundation of the Irish Province’. c.1925. • ‘Honouring the memory of the men of Easter Week’. A clipping of a print showing a procession organised by Cumann 1916 which left St. Mary of the Angels, Church Street, for Glasnevin Cemetery. 'Freeman’s Journal', 25 Apr. 1922.
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).
Memorandum by Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap., Provincial Secretary, referring to the discovery in the Church Street Archives in 1922 of a collection of papers labelled ‘Correspondence between Dr. Cullen and the Fathers relative to the New Church in North King Street’. Fr. Stanislaus refers to a loose folio sheet titled ‘Notabilia’ relating to the Baron Hale bequest which was the ‘only authentic expression of an obligation for Masses to be found … in the Archives’. (See CA CS/2/3/2). The memorandum affirms that the ‘Notabilia’ document was submitted by Fr. Stanislaus to a definitory meeting in November 1922 which ordered him to investigate the whereabouts of the investment and interest money referred to in the bequest. The memorandum reports Fr. Stanislaus’s findings in relation to the Hale bequest. It notes that in 1893 the legacy, which had been converted to stocks worth £181 11s 5d, was transferred to the Commissioners for the Reduction of National Debt and was subsequently paid to Jane E. Pratt, lawful sister and next of kin of Fr. Daniel Patrick O’Reilly OSFC, one of the priests in whose name the legacy was invested. Fr. Stanislaus concludes by affirming that ‘interest on the investment was drawn up in 1883 which warrants the assumption that the masses were likewise said up to that time’. With copies of the memorandum and transcription of the ‘Notabilia’ document made by Fr. Stanislaus on 10 Nov. 1921. One of the copies is endorsed by Fr. Stanislaus: ‘submitted to the General Definition, Rome, Decree of Condonation from the Sacred Congregation, dated, Feb. 22, 1927 [and signed by Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap.], appended’. The file also includes a typescript note suggesting that ‘Baron Hale’ may refer to Sir Matthew Hales, Lord Chief Justice of the King’s Bench. Some of the notes by Fr. Stanislaus also refer to the correspondence of Fr. Lawrence Gallerani, Irish Capuchin Commissary General, with Archbishop Paul Cullen, regarding the construction of St. Mary of the Angels.
