Item 26 - Letter to the Editor regarding the late Fr. Simeon Gaudillot

1 p.; clipping

A clipping of a letter to the editor of ‘The Cork Examiner’, written by R. F. O’Connor to expand upon the brief obituary notice for Fr. Simeon Gaudillot OFM Cap. The narrative provides some biographical and institutional history of the Capuchin Order in Munster, tracking Father Simeon's early life in the Diocese of Besançon, his novitiate in Versailles, and his training near Nîmes under a strict Prussian Capuchin. It details his subsequent assignment to Ireland by Father Francis of Villafranca, his tenure as Novice-Master in Kilkenny succeeding Father Albert Mitchell OFM Cap., and his eventual jurisdiction as Commissary-General over Cork and Rochestown following an administrative provincial split orchestrated by Visitor Father Chrysostom of Paris.

The author also highlights Father Simeon’s role in building the church of Rochestown with the help of Brother Stanislaus Walsh, and notes a historical moment in Cork circa 1880, when Father Simeon re-introduced the public wearing of the full Capuchin habit, sandalled feet, and tonsure in city thoroughfares. The letter outlines his advocacy for regular monastic observance, the eventual re-unification of the Irish province under the late Father Seraphim Van Damme of Bruges, and Father Simeon’s final years at the sanctuary of Our Lady at Fourvières in Lyons.