A short history by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. of the Capuchin community in the late nineteenth century. Fr. Angelus refers to the Cork house being ‘staffed by Italian Friars. The Superior in 1873 was the Very Rev. Cherubini Mazzini OSFC who had been there since 1868’. Fr. Angelus notes that the Cork and Rochestown houses were restored to the Irish Capuchin Custody in 1875.
Photographic print of the graves of Fr. Martin St. John (d. 6 Oct. 1780) and Fr. Bryan McDonell (d. 3 July 1782) who were buried alongside Fr. Philip Forestall OFM (d. Dec. 1829) in St. John’s Old Churchyard, Dublin Road, Kilkenny. The print is annotated on the reverse in the hand of Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap.: ‘Graves of two OFM Caps and one OFM in graveyard, St. John’s, Maudlin Street, Kilkenny’. With a plan and notes re said plot by Fr. Angelus. See newspaper cutting re the modern refurbishment of these gravestones ('Kilkenny People', 13 June 2003) at CA KK/11/26.
A history of the Capuchin novitiate in Kilkenny, 1875-77 by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. Referring to the decision to found a novitiate, Fr. Angelus wrote ‘In the month of May 1875 a visitation of the Irish Custody was made by Very Rev. Arsenius, the Provincial of Paris Province. At the conclusion of the visitation he called the Custos [Fr. Patrick O’Reilly OSFC] and his two assistants [Fr. Edward Tommins OSFC and Fr. Aloysius Hennessy OSFC]. They met in our Convent at Dublin on May 25th. At this meeting it was decided to apply to our Superiors General in Rome, for permission to establish a Novitiate for the Irish Custody’. The novitiate was transferred from Kilkenny to Rochestown on 14 Feb. 1877. Fr. Angelus concludes by noting that the ‘account of the Novitiate in Rochestown from 1877 to 1886, when it returned to Kilkenny may be given in another paper’.
Chronology (probably compiled by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap.) of important events associated with the Capuchin presence in Kilkenny dating from 1643 to 1876. Many of the later entries are references from local newspapers.
A history of the Capuchins in Kilkenny by Fr. Angelus Healy OSFC. The text covers the period from the arrival of the Order in the city in 1643 to about 1825. The text includes transcripts and extracts from contemporary sources including: • The petition of the Capuchins in Kilkenny to the General Assembly of the Irish Catholic Confederation [c.1645/6]. In Latin. • Reply of the General Assembly of the Irish Catholic Confederation ‘fully admitting the Capuchins to establish themselves as members of the regular clergy in Ireland …’. [c.1645/6]. In Latin. • Letters and petitions from the Franciscans and Dominicans to the Most Rev. David Rothe, Bishop of Ossory stating their opposition to the establishment by the Capuchins of a foundation in Kilkenny. [c.1647]. In Latin. • Letter from Fr. Inocencio de Caltagirone OSFC, Minister General of the Capuchin Order, to Fr. Barnabas Barnewall OSFC, Commissary General, Kilkenny, reporting on the favourable conduct of the Capuchins in Ireland. 22 Apr. 1650. In Latin. • Extracts from The Laffan Papers re the Capuchins in Kilkenny (1689). • Declaration of the state of the Irish Capuchin mission signed by Fr. Cyprian of Armagh. 1 Dec. 1689. • Report on the state of the Diocese of Ossory sent to Propaganda Fide, Rome. 1769.
Notes by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. on Robert Wilkinson, a liberal-Protestant Alderman of Kilkenny who accompanied Fr. Peter Joseph Mulligan OSFC as he passed ‘through Walkin Street on his penny-a-week collection'. Reference is also made to Rev. Peter Roe, Minister of St. Mary’s, who sharply criticised Wilkinson for his ‘espousal of Popery’, and to the history of the Walkin Street Friary in the early to mid-nineteenth century.
