Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1826-1889 (Creation)
Level of description
File
Extent and medium
21 pp; Manuscript, typescript, newspaper cutting and printed
Name of creator
Biographical history
John Kavanagh was born in Mountmellick in Queen’s County (later County Laois) on 12 June 1876. Having spent some years in the Seraphic College in Rochestown, County Cork, he was received into the Capuchin Order in March 1893. He was ordained a priest in Dublin on 23 February 1902. Soon after his ordination he was stationed in Kilkenny as a Professor of Philosophy, but most of his life as a priest was spent in Dublin and in Cork. An accomplished scholar, Kavanagh spent many years in libraries and archives in England, France, Italy, Spain and Belgium, transcribing thousands of documents in a very clear hand, recording everything relating to the Irish Capuchins which could be discovered overseas. His work in transcribing the seventeenth-century Latin text, the ‘Commentarius Rinuccinianus’, published by the Irish Manuscripts Commission in six volumes between 1932 and 1949, is well known. His extremely important corpus of manuscripts, surrogate copies and transcribed materials for early Capuchin history are now extant in the Irish Capuchin Archives. He served as Provincial Archivist for the Capuchin Order in Ireland from 1919 to 1958. In 1918 he was appointed to investigate the cause of two seventeenth century Irish Capuchin martyrs, Fr. Fiacre Tobin OSFC (d. 1656) and Fr. John Baptist Dowdall OSFC (d. 1710). Kavanagh also had a life-long interest in Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC (1790-1856) and amassed a huge quantity of research and documentary material relating to his life and nineteenth-century temperance campaign. In recognition of his contribution to Irish historical scholarship, the National University of Ireland awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Literature (D. Litt.) in 1947. Outside of academia, Kavanagh was a well-known preacher, missionary, and retreat-giver. In 1924 he was asked to travel to the United States where he spent several months assisting Irish Capuchin friars in missionary and preaching work. He was also a long-time incumbent of the position of Secretary of the Irish Capuchin Province (1922-31; 1937-55) and was elected Provincial Deifintor (Councillor) in 1931. His later years were blighted by dementia and he died on 16 May 1965 in the Bon Secours Hospital in Dublin. He was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.
Baptismal name: John Kavanagh
Religious name: Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 12 June 1876
Place of birth: Mountmellick, Queen’s County (County Laois), Diocese of Kildare & Leighlin
Name of father: Edward Kavanagh
Name of mother: Joanna Kavanagh (née Costello)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 20 Mar. 1893
Date of first profession: 2 July 1894
Date of final profession: 25 Dec. 1897
Date of ordination (as priest): 23 Feb. 1902
Educational attainments: Doctor of Literature (D. Litt.), 1947
Leadership positions: Provincial Definitor, 1931-4; Provincial Secretary, 1922-31, 1937-55; Provincial Archivist, 1919-1958
Date of death: 16 May 1965
Place of death: Bon Secours Hospital, Glasnevin, Dublin
Place of burial: Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin
Repository
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Scope and content
• Notes by Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. re letters written by Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC to the Rev. Dr. Paul Cullen and the Rev. Dr. Tobias Kirby, Pontifical Irish College, Rome, from 1840-7. See the Correspondence of Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC (Irish Capuchin Archives, CA FM-COR). Manuscript, 2 pp.
• A physical description of Fr. Mathew by the Very Rev. M.B. O’Shea, Archdeacon and Pastor of St. Patrick’s Church, Cork, in 1826 taken from John Francis Maguire’s biography of the Apostle of Temperance. Typescript, 1p.
• Copy cutting of an article from the 'Cork Examiner', 11 Oct. 1850, relating to the opening of Holy Trinity (Father Mathew Memorial) Church, Charlotte Quay, Cork. Copy cutting, 3 pp.
• Extracts from Asenath Nicholson, 'Ireland’s Welcome to the Stranger: Or An Excursion Through Ireland, in 1844 & 1845, for the Purpose of Personally Investigating the Condition of the Poor' (1847). The extracts were compiled by Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. and refer to Fr. Mathew’s role in famine relief. Manuscript and typescript, 5 pp.
• Extracts from Rev. Wallace Clare, 'A Young Irishman’s Diary, 1836-1847, Being Extracts from the Early Journal of John Keegan of Moate. Edited with Preface and Notes' (1928). Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. notes that Rev. Wallace Clare was a grandson of the diarist (John Keegan). The extracts refer to the life and temperance campaign of Fr. Mathew. Typescript, 4 pp.
• Extracts from D. Owen-Madden, 'Revelations of Ireland in the Past Generation' (Dublin: James McGlashan, 21 D’Olier Street, 1848). The extracts were compiled by Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. and refer to Fr. Mathew. Manuscript, 1 p.
• Extract from John J. O’Shea, 'The Two Kendrick’s' (Philadelphia, 1904). The extract (p. 255) refers to the arrival of Fr. Mathew in Philadelphia on 28 Nov. 1849. Typescript, 1 p.
• Photocopy of an extract titled ‘Apostle of Temperance / The Story of a Crusade’ from 'The Valley Near Slievenamon: A Kickham Anthology: the Poems, Memoirs, Diary, Letters, Essays, Addresses of Charles J. Kickham' (1942), pp 130-3. Copy print, 1 p.
• Copy letter of Fr. Theobald Mathew to J. McHugh re the ‘Washington Branch of the great Temperance Tree that now overshadows nearly the whole earth …’. 28 Mar. 1845. With an annotation by Fr. Nessan Shaw OFM Cap. indicating that the letter was given to him by Fr. Vivan O’Connell OFM Cap. Typescript, 2 pp.
• Copy extract from a newspaper referring the generosity of Fr. Mathew during the famine. The extract reads ‘The money which was intended to finish the church [Holy Trinity, Cork] was doled out by him to the famine stricken’. An annotation reads ‘No name of paper, nor date given. Letter to the Editor, headed “The Father Mathew Memorial Church” in a News Gleanings book in the Archives’. [c.1889]. Typescript, 1 p.