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Born: 10 April 1648, Waterford City, County Waterford
Entered: 12 June 1666, Santiago de Compostella, Spain - Castellanae Province (CAST)
Ordained: 1675, Salamanca, Spain
Final Vows: 15 August 1684
Died: 14 August 1727, Waterford City, County Waterford - Romanae Province (ROM)

Alias Sherlock
Superior of Mission 15 May 1694-14 August 1727

In Society Studied 3 years Philosophy and 4 Theology. Taught Grammar, Moral Theology and Philosophy
“Thrifts Index to Irish Wills iii.60 give date 1731 of will of Rev Anthgony Knowles R Catholic priest, Waterford”
12/06/1666 Compostella CAST; FV Sherlock and Sherlog 15 August 1684 at Monforte - “Sherlogus” 18 August 1684; RIP 14 August 1727 Ireland
1672 “de Sherloque” at Tuetensi
1675 “de Sherloque” at Salamanca in Theology
1678 “Sherlog” at Medina CAST
1681 “Sherlog” at Valladolid
1685 “Sherlog” at Monforte College teaching Philosophy and Moral Theology. Was a Missionary. Talent for higher subjects. Not 1690 Catalogue
1708 1714 1717 Catalogue Was Minister and Vice-Rector, now Superior of Mission
“Anthony Knowles SJ, Superior of the Jesuits in Ireland sends John Higgins to Rector of Irish Seminary in Rome, praying that he may be admitted as soon as possible 07 November 1720. He sent Henry Marshall 04 June 1721; Thomas Stritch 21 July 1724. He always begins “cum studiorum causa Romam mittanus” (Arch Rom Coll Lib 19 pp46, 47, 49)
“Sherlog in Bibliotheca Hispan was highly esteemed for the excellence of his erudition at the time when we were in the same school.”

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Professor of Belles-lettres, Theology and Philosophy for fifteen years.
1694-1727 Superior of Irish Mission
1727 Imprisoned
Short abstracts from his letters 1694-1714, dated mostly from Waterford are given in Oliver, Stonyhurst MSS. These letters expose a terrible system of cruel persecution carried on against Catholics, especially against the education of their children. In one letter dated 26 December 1696, he says that he had been committed to prison with all the clergy of Waterford diocese four weeks previously, and the same had happened in other parts of Ireland. The imprisonment appears to have lasted over thirteen weeks.
The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, March 1874, mentions a letter from Father Roche, dated 13 June 1727, which states : Here we are, few and frail. Father Knowles is incapable of doing anything, unless suffer. Tamburini has relieved him of his poor mission, and has placed it on my shoulders, and I assure you I am tired of it”.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
After First Vows he spent a short Regency at Santander and was then sent for studies in Philosophy to Oviedo and in Theology to Royal College Salamanca and he was Ordained there 1675.
1676-1679 Sent to Medina del Campo teaching Latin
1679-1680 Minister and Vice-Rector at Monforte
1680-1682 Sent successively to St Ignatius Valladolid
1682-1686 Sent back to Monforte to teach Philosophy and Moral Theology
1687 Sent to Ireland and to Waterford.
1694 Appointed Superior of Irish Mission 15 May 1694 by the General, Tirso González de Santalla. He remained in office for the rest of his life (33 years) was carried out in the darkest of penal times. Yet he not only maintained a foot-hold for the mission in face of overwhelming odds but assured the succession of the Jesuits through the recruitment of worthy candidates.
General Tirso González de Santalla said of him “I knew him well in Spain, and I know him to be a learned, industrious, religious and pious man, eminently equipped with all the talents and virtues attributed to him”. The Superiorship of Knoles was one that might daunt the bravest spirit, but for thirty three years he withstood the first fury of the Penal Laws against religion. He was arrested in November 1596 at Waterford and imprisoned for thirteen months. At the start of 1713 he was in the strictest hiding, and by 1714 known to be hiding at New Ross. In spite of all this hardship, be built up the Irish Mission again slowly. On 06/12/1675 he used his influence abroad to prevent the King’s assent being given to a shameful Bill passed by the Irish Parliament against Catholic Clergy. In 1725 when his health was failing he secured as Secretary and Assistant Ignatius Daniel Kelly with right of succession. Not long after he was stricken by a deep paralysis and he died in Waterford 14 August 1727.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ The Irish Jesuits Vol 1 1962
Anthony Knoles (1694-1727)
Antony Knoles was born in Waterford on 10th April, 1648. In Spain he was called Sherlock, which was probably his mother's surname. He was admitted into the Society at Santiago on 12th June, 1666. After teaching Latin at Santander, he studied philosophy at Oviedo and theology in the Royal College of Salamanca. On the completion of these studies in 1676, he taught Latin at Medina del Campo for three years, acted as Minister and Vice-Rector of the College of Monforte for one year, and taught philosophy in the College of St Ignatius at Valladolid for two years. He then returned to Monforte, where he lectured on moral theology for four years (1682-86), and made his solemn profession of four vows on 15th August, 1684. He arrived in Ireland early in 1687, and was stationed at Waterford. He was appointed Superior of the Mission on 15th May, 1694, by the General, Fr Thyrsus Gonzalez, who says of him: “I knew him well in Spain, and I know him to be a learned, industrious, religious, and pious man, eminently equipped with all the talents and virtues attributed to him”. The future Fr Knoles had to face was one to daunt the bravest spirit, but for thirty-three years he withstood the first fury of the penal laws against religion. He himself was arrested in November, 1696, at Waterford, and imprisoned for thirteen months. At the beginning of 1713 he was in strict concealment, and early in 1714 he was hiding near New Ross. Yet, in spite of persecution and great poverty, he maintained his ground and built up the Mission again slowly. On 6th December, 1723, he used his influence abroad, not without success, to prevent the King of England's assent being given to a shameful bill passed by the Irish Parliament against the Catholic clergy. In 1725, when his health was fast failing, he secured the appointment of Fr Ignatius Roche as Secretary and Assistant, with right of succession. Not long after he was stricken down with paralysis, and after lingering on for several months he died at Waterford on 14th August, 1727.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Antony Knoles 1648-1727
Antony Knoles was born in Waterford in 1646 and entered the Society at Santiago in 1666. He spent some years professing philosophy and theology until 1687 when he returned to Ireland.

Appointed Superior of the Mission his term of office lasted the unprecedented length of 33 years, the lifetime of his Master. He suffered the first fury of the Penal Laws against the Catholic religion.

Arrested in Waterford in 1696, he was imprisoned for 13 months. The years 1713 and 1714 he spent in hiding, yet in spite of persecution he built up the Mission. By means of the Society on the continent and through the interventions of the Catholic powers, France Spain and Portugal, in 1723 he prevented a very obnoxious Bill being passed by the Irish Parliament against the Catholic clergy.

In 1727 he laid down the burden of office and not long after on August 15th the worn out warrior of Christ died from paralysis.

Fr Peter Hans Kolvenbach SJ was a Dutch Jesuit priest who served as the twenty-ninth Superior General (Father General) of the Society of Jesus (1983-2008).

Born: 02 June 1924, Murska Sobota, Slovenia
Entered: 07 September 1953, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois, HIB for Japonicae Province (JPN)
Ordained: 10 October 1950, pre Entry
Final Vows: 02 February 1964
Died: 18 July 2022, Loyola House, Nerima-ku, Tokyo, Japan , Japonicae Province (JPN)

by 1954 came to Emo (HIB) Novitiate 1953-1955

Father was the head of a commercial business. Family lived at Poska Ulica, Maribor, Slovenia

Eldest of three boys with two sisters.

Education was at a Gymnasium in Ljubljana, Slovenia and entered a seminary there in 1945. He was ordained priest in October 1950, where he studied from 1945 to 1953, at the Gregorian University, and as a member of the German-Hungarian College.

He was accepted by Peter van Gestel, Assistant of the Northern German Province. He was assigned to the Japanese Province and sent to ireland for Novitiate.

Even though he was a Jesuit for less than a year when he died, Stanislaus Kostka (Stanislaw Kostka, 1550-1568) is known for his youthful holiness and iron determination to follow God's call despite family obstacles. He was a Polish noble by birth (his father being castellan of Zakroczym and a senator of the realm) and was destined for public life. In 1564 his parents sent Stanislaus and his older brother Paul to study at the newly opened Jesuit college in Vienna. Initially the two young nobles boarded in the Jesuit residence at the college, but moved to the house of Senator Kimberker after seven months. Kimberker was a staunch Lutheran who would not allow a priest to enter his home with the Blessed Eucharist. That became an issue when Stanislaus unexpectedly fell ill with an undiagnosed sickness in mid-December 1565. Stanislaus kept asking for Viaticum, but his brother put him off. Stanislaus prayed to the patron of the sodality to which he belonged, St. Barbara, to intercede with God so he could receive Viaticum before he died. He had a mystical experience of Mary visiting him and placing the Christ Child in Stanislaus' arms, which he interpreted as meaning that he was to enter the Society of Jesus.

After this extraordinary experience, the young nobleman recovered and then approached the Jesuit provincial in Vienna to ask entrance into the Society. The provincial was favorable but said that he could not accept Stanislaus without his parents' approval, which Stanislaus knew they would not give. The determined student talked to another Jesuit who suggested he go to Augsburg, Germany to ask the provincial there, Father Peter Canisius, to accept him. Stanislaus decided to follow the suggestion and slipped out of Vienna on the morning of Aug. 10, 1567. He left behind his fine clothes and donned coarse pilgrim's robes, which hid him from his angry brother who had followed him on the road but did not recognize him dressed so poorly.

Stanislaus trudged 450 miles to Augusburg and then another day to Dillingen where Fr. Canisius had gone. He explained his desire and offered a letter of introduction from a Jesuit in Vienna. Canisius recognized his sincerity and spiritual qualities and decided to accept him. He also arranged for him to accompany two young Jesuits about to travel to Rome which was further from Poland than Germany, far enough to prevent the family from stopping Stanislaus. Kostka and the two Jesuits left Germany in late September and arrived in Rome on Oct. 25, making their way to the residence of the superior general, Father Francis Borgia.

Stanislaus gave Canisius' letter of recommendation to Borgia, who had the young man remain at the Gesú for three months before going briefly to the Roman College and then to the novitiate of Sant'Andrea. Stanislaus's novitiate would only last 10 months. In early August 1568 he had a premonition he would soon die. He became sick with a fever. Since he did not seem to be gravely ill, the brother infirmarian discounted his premonition. On Aug. 14 Stanislaus told the infirmarian he would die the next day but the remark was not taken seriously. Later that afternoon he took a turn for the worse and lost all strength. He received viaticum and prayed with the novices and other Jesuits who were with him. About three in the morning of the feast of our Lady's Assumption on August 15, he announced that Mary was approaching with angels to take him to heaven and soon died.

Appointed Apostolic Administrator of the new Prefecture of Lusaka in 1950

Born: 14 April 1817, Stans, Tyrol, Austria
Entered: 21 September 1836, Graz Austria - Austriacae-Gallicianae Province (ASR-GAL)
Ordained: 1847
Professed: 15 April 1859
Died: 25 August 1880, Heidelberg, Victoria - Austriacae-Gallicianae Province (ASR-GAL)

Part of the St Ignatius, Richmond Melbourne, Australia community at the time of death

Irish Mission only begins in 1901, but joins new Irish Missioners in 1870 at Melbourne;

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
1849 he accompanied a group of German emigrants, most of whom settled in South Australia. they settled in areas which at the time were deserts and are now flourishing orchards, vineyards and farms. He was the first Jesuit to land in Australia, and he was Pastor to this flock until he was joined by other Jesuits from the Austrian Province, and together they built the College and Church at Sevenhill.
1870 The Jesuits of the Irish Province, who had been in Melbourne since 1856, asked for one of the Austrians to come work with them to tend to many Germans who were in their district, in and around Victoria. Aloysius volunteered and went to live at St Ignatius Richmond. he spent ten years with the Irish Jesuits, which were full of hard work, and he won universal esteem. He was a model religious, cheerful and exact in everything, of tender piety and gentle as a child. He was beloved by his penitents, who made it their mission to encourage many to choose him as their Confessor.
1879 A wetting he received whilst in a rural district saying Mass brought on an illness which affected his lungs, and consumption caused his death in less than a year. He was removed to Heidelberg, a village near Richmond for a change of air, a few days before he died. On the day of his death he asked by telegram to be relieved of the obligation of reciting the Divine Office. he also said that he was feeling much weaker, but that there was no need for anyone to visit him just yet. As he grew weaker he was encouraged to send another telegram, but he declined saying “God is good, He will, take care of me”. His confidence was well placed, because as soon as the first message arrived at Richmond, Joseph Mulhall decided to go to Heidelberg anyway. As he entered, Aloysius uttered “Thanks be to God that you are here!”. A short time afterwards he died. His last hours were spent in prayer, and his death was very peaceful. he died 25 August 1880.
During his funeral, the people gave many tokens of their sorrow both in the Church and Cemetery, and his name was sure to be long remembered with affection and gratitude in Richmond and South Australia.

◆ Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University online
Kranewitter, Aloysius (1817–1880)
by G. J. O'Kelly
G. J. O'Kelly, 'Kranewitter, Aloysius (1817–1880)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/kranewitter-aloysius-3970/text6267, published first in hardcopy 1974

Catholic pries; grape grower

Died : 25 August 1880, Heidelberg, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Aloysius Kranewitter (1817-1880), Jesuit priest, was born on 14 April 1817 in Innsbruck, Austria, and entered the Society of Jesus on 21 September 1836. He was ordained priest in 1847 but in the revolutions of 1848 the Jesuits were expelled from many of the German-speaking states. Opportunely, a wealthy Silesian farmer, Franz Weikert, asked for a chaplain to accompany German migrants whom he wished to settle in South Australia. Kranewitter and Maximilian Klinkowstroem, a Viennese Jesuit, volunteered. Weikert sold his properties to underwrite the passages of the group who were to work for him in forming a settlement near Clare, but dissensions split the party on the voyage and when they arrived at Port Adelaide in December 1848 only fourteen of the original eighty stayed with Weikert. The arrival of the two Jesuits was a welcome surprise to Bishop Francis Murphy. The thinly-scattered and polyglot nature of the Catholic community presented many difficulties. Murphy asked Klinkowstroem to assist Dr George Backhaus in the care of German Catholics around Adelaide, but ill health soon forced him to return to Europe. Kranewitter moved north with Weikert to Clare. In 1853 he bought a property some miles from Clare, named it Sevenhill and planted the first vines there.

Kranewitter's letters to Rome in these years are valuable accounts of pioneering in the mid-north of South Australia. In 1852 he accompanied a large group of diggers from the Clare district to the Victorian goldfields. On his return he established the settlement at Sevenhill on a European pattern, with houses and farms around a large church and college. Local German Catholics moved into the area to escape the bigotry to which they had been exposed at Tanunda but copper discoveries further north proved a strong attraction to many settlers. By 1856 four other Austrian Jesuits had joined Kranewitter and St Aloysius College was opened. In 1858 Kranewitter was recalled to Europe for his last year of Jesuit studies, and he returned next year with three more companions. In May 1870 he was sent to Richmond to minister to the German-speaking Catholics in and around Melbourne. For ten years he worked mainly in the semi-rural districts of Nunawading and of Heidelberg where he died suddenly on 25 August 1880.

Kranewitter was an affable priest, deeply dedicated to his people and receiving great devotion in return. His chief memorial was Sevenhill, which became a complex of boarding school, seminary for diocesan students, Jesuit novitiate and scholasticate, wine cellars and the base from which the priests made their circuits of the mid-north. These journeys covered 25,000 sq. miles (64,750 km²), from Morgan to Blinman, across to Wallaroo, Port Pirie, Port Augusta and even down to Port Lincoln. From Sevenhill more than forty stone churches and schools were built. Some 450 pupils passed through the college in 1856-86 and seminarians ordained to the priesthood included Julian Tenison-Woods, Christopher Reynolds and Frederick Byrne (vicar-general). In 1882 the Daly River Mission in the Northern Territory was founded from Sevenhill and lasted till 1899. By 1901 some fifty-nine Austrian priests and brothers had worked in South Australia and the Northern Territory, a tribute to the initiator, Aloysius Kranewitter.

Select Bibliography
M. Watson, The Society of Jesus in Australia (Melb, 1910)
P. Dalton, A History of the Jesuits in South Australia and the Northern Territory (State Library of New South Wales)
Australian Jesuit Provincial Archives (Hawthorn, Melbourne).

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Aloysius Kranewitter entered the Austrian province of the Society, 21 September 1836, and 1846-48 was spent prefecting and studying theology in the Theresianum College, Innsbruck. He was ordained in 1848 and set out for South Australia, the same year wide Maximilian Klinkowstrm and a group of German migrants under the leadership of Franz Weikert, who wanted a chaplain for the group. The life of Klinkowstrom details the planning for this journey.
They arrived in Port Adelaide, 8 December 1848, and on 14 December he and his German companions set out for the area of Clare in the north. On 20 December, land was selected at Sevenhill, two miles south of Clare. Kranewitter worked among the farmers in the area for the next few years, being the only priest in the region that included Clare, Burra, Undalya, and Saddleworth.
On 28 January 1851 a site was chosen for a residence at Sevenhill, then called the Barnburnie region, and building began in 1853 after the arrival of Brothers George Sadler and John Schreiner. Mass was celebrated in a weatherboard chapel built that year. Vines were planted very early on and the first grapes were served on Easter Sunday 1852.
These were the days of the gold rushes in Victoria, and so, in 1852, travelling overland, Kranewitter visited the largely Irish miners working in the area of Bendigo.
When Pallhuber arrived early 1856, Kranewitter left Sevenhill, 28 March 1856, for Austria to complete his theology and tertianship. On 5 April 1859 he took final vows at Baumgartenberg Austria, arrived back in Melbourne on 21 August, and reached Sevenhill on 6 September. On this journey Joseph Moser and two brothers, John B. Schneider and James Matuchewsld accompanied him.
Upon his return, Kranewitter engaged in pastoral work until1870, chiefly at Burra, Saddleworth and Undalya. He was also minister at Sevenhill, 1866-70, and did some teaching in the new school. In 1870 he was sent to the Irish Mission to evangelise Germans in Melbourne and its neighborhood and left Sevenhill, 21 May 1870. The South Australian Germans rendered some assistance. He resided in the parish of Richmond, but was constantly engaged in missionary work, especially in the semi-rural area of Nunawading.
In 1876, Kranewitter, distressed at the sufferings of the Catholic clergy of Germany under the Kulturkampf originated by Bismarck, organised the German Catholics of Melbourne to
contribute generously to a fund to assist them. All the churches of the diocese had sermons preached and funds were collected for this cause; £640 was raised.
While giving a retreat in 1880 he died in the presbytery at Heidelberg of an inflammation of the lungs.
His contemporaries acknowledged Kranewitter as a model religious, childlike and simple. He showed good judgment and prudence in secular affairs, and was a good spiritual director of his people. His chief memorial was Sevenhill, which becaine a complex of boarding school, seminary for diocesan students, Jesuit noviciate and scholasticate, wine cellars and the base from which the priests made their circuits of the mid-north. These journeys covered 25,000 square miles, from Morgan to Blinman, across to Wallaroo, Port Pirie, Port Augusta and even down to Port Lincoln. From Sevenhill more than 40 stone churches and schools were built.
The Australian province owes much to this first Jesuit in Australia who worked as a missionary for over 30 years.

Note from Patrick Dalton Entry
He translated many of the early German documents, such as the letters of Father Kranewitter and the diary of Brother Pölzl.

◆ The Aloysian, Sydney, 1933

Jesuit Pioneers

A Page of Australian Mission History (1848-1901)

To the lover of the few “antiquities” we have in Australia a visit to the wine country near Adelaide is well worth while. There, in the midst of sweetly undulating fields and sun-kissed vine yards, are “remains” that tell a story of great deeds of forgotten heroes. To day, the motorist, as he speeds northwards from the beautiful “garden city”, little dreams that where now the broad North Road stretches straight before him, some eighty years ago a lonely Jesuit Missionary urged on his faltering horse through trackless bush seeking for the Highland shepherd's hut or, more rare, for the few rude farm houses of the Austrian settlers. And yet, if he only knew it, these woods and hills and vineyards could tell a story, quite unknown to most Australians, but worthy of an undying record in our history. Hidden in their midst, the modest buildings of rough-hewn stone built by the Jesuit Missionaries and their own silent graves, remind us to-day of these men, who left home and Fatherland and sailed away into the great Southern Sea to lay the foundation of God's Church in this “lovely morning land”.

It was in May last that I drove from Adelaide to the old Jesuit College at Sevenhill; a drive of some ninety miles through the autumn-tinted vine yards; and it was then that I longed to let others share with me the thrill I felt on hearing of the labours of the men who had toiled for fifty-three years ministering to the scattered Catholic population and founding a diocese to hand over to others when time was ripe.

And here fortune came to my aid. For treasured in the old library in Sevenhill, in the original German, are the letters and relations of the early missionaries, and these were being translated by one of the Fathers residing there to-day. A few extracts from these, chosen here and there, will reveal, far better than anything else, the noble story of self-sacrifice and zeal.

Father Peter Sinthern SJ, an Austrian, writing on the occasion of the Centenary of the restoration of his Province, begins his “Memoir of the Mission in Australia” with words that we may well echo to-day:

“On the 8th December, 1848, the first Jesuit Missionaries, two Austrian Fathers, set foot on Australian soil; in 1901 the last Austrian Superior handed over the Mission to his Jesuit Brethren of the Irish Province, and returned to his Austrian homeland. To-day, when missionary activities have everywhere received such a mighty impetus, it is certainly fitting that these 53 years work of the Austrian Jesuit Mission should be known to a wider circle. They fill a page of glory in the mission history of Austria, and of the Austrian Province of the Society of Jesus”.

Father Sinthern recalls the circum stances which led to the foundation of the Austrian Jesuit Mission:

“Founded in 1836, the colony (of South Australia) ten years later was already in a position to export a considerable amount of grain. The discovery of the copper mines at Kapunda and Burra-Burra gave a strong stimulus towards its further development. Great efforts were made to entice townsfolk, tradesmen, and farmers to emigrate to the colony from Germany and from England. Among the newcomers were a number of German protestant families, who settled in the neighbourhood of Tanunda and Angaston, The good news sent home by these induced other Germans to follow in their footsteps, and the resolution to emigrate was made more easily in the midst of the confusion of 1848, the year of revolutions

A well-to-do Catholic of Silesia, Franz Weikert, allowed himself to be persuaded to act as the leader of a group of emigrants. He sold his large farm in order to be able to pay the passage money for all the group, a matter of £1000, there were to be none but Catholics among the company of travellers, ... Weikert, who was a thoroughly practical Catholic, did not wish to find himself and those who shared his destiny, without a priest in his new home. To secure a priest he approached the Superior of the St Ludwig Mission-Verein in Bavaria, the Reverend Hofkaplan Muller, of Munich, who referred him to the Provincial of the Austrian Jesuits, and thus it was that the Austrian Jesuits secured their Australian Mission. The General of the Jesuits approved of the Mission but insisted on two conditions, that not one, but two Fathers should go, and that, as far as possible, they should remain together in Australia. It was at Innsbruck that the Pro vincial communicated the decision of the General to the assembled Fathers, and then asked who was ready to go. There was silence for a minute, and then a young Viennese, Father Max Klinkowstrom, came forward and said, “Ecce ego, mitte me”. (Here am I, send me.) And he was sent. Then a second announced his readiness to go, a young man, Father Aloysius Kranewitter, a Tyrolese, who at his first Mass had begged God to send him wherever the need of priests was greatest. He was the second one chosen for the Mission, ... The good ship ‘Alfred’ took all the travelling companions on board at Hamburg on the 15th August, 1848, the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady. On the next great feast of Mary, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the 8th December, at Adelaide, the first Austrian Missioner set foot for the first time on Australian soil”.

Fortunately, Father Aloysius Kranewitter was a good letter-writer, and the story of the early days of the Mis sion is best told in the letters he wrote to his Provincial at home in Austria:

“On the 4th December we heard the cry, ‘Land! Land!’ and could you describe the emotions in the hearts of all of us at the cry? It was Kangaroo Island that lay straight in front of us. On the 5th December we lay in the Outer Harbour of Adelaide; we had still to go up a narrow bight to reach Port Adelaide, the harbour of South Australia proper. This inlet of the sea follows a serpentine course inland for about two English miles and the water is very shallow. A good - tide and wind are necessary to sail up it, and often a ship must lay in wait for eight days for a favourable chance. We reached Adelaide on the 8th December, having left Hamburg on the 15th August.

Having more than enough of ship life, we seized the first opportunity of landing. We wore fortunate enough to be able to do this in the afterncon. A launch lay alongside the ‘Alfred’ and its pilot agreed to bring the passengers to land at a reasonable price. At four o'clock Father Klinkowstrom and I, Mr Weikert and three other of our company, stood on Australian soil; in front lay a broad stretch of deep sea and behind was a plain bounded by hills covered with green trees stretching right across in bow shape from side to side. The first thing we noted was the sand with its mussels and cockles, and then the plant life, all new and unknown to us. Not a shrub, plant or tree like those at home, except perhaps the red stock-gilliflower that grew wild in the sand ridges.

Adelaide is situated about two German miles inland. Hackney-coaches ply constantly between the harbour and the city, and these brought us there by eight o'clock in the evening. It was only after much trouble that we found the ‘Catholic Chapel’, and the residence of the Bishop, as well as that of the Right Reverend Dr Bockhaus.

Great was our joy to have reached the goal of our voyage, and it was a great consolation to us to have completed the journey on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, and on the next day to be able to say Holy Mass again after such a long interruption. ... Weikert, a simple, honest countryman, the father of eight children, and a fervent Christian, leased a piece of land about 60 miles north of Adelaide, near a little hamlet called Clare Village. Most of the inhabitants of the village are Irish Catholics, and they have built a small church, which the Bishop will consecrate soon. Since I, as far as the languages go, could help at the same time the German family of Weikert and the Irish Catholics, I decided to accompany him. The Bishop approved of the plan. He thanked Weikert for bringing us with him, and commissioned me to give especial attention to the German catholics, who live scattered about the country. I was to visit them and often go the rounds of my district, and if at any place there were a good many living together he would secure me an altar stone and Mass vestments for them; up to the present, owing to the scarcity of priests who could take care of them, often, for a very long time they had had no opportunity of attending to their religious duties, and this put many of them in danger of losing their faith. I very gladly undertook this task and on the 14th December (1848). I set off with Weikert for Clare Village.

It was midsummer, all the grass was dried up with the heat and the sun burnt fiercely, though the heat of it was tempered by a slight cool breeze. Even in our own Tyrol it is more fatiguing to travel on foot in the summer heat than it is here. The heat is not so oppressive, since it is freshened by a prevalent sea breeze, and heavy dew falls every night, although often for months on end there is not a drop of rain. On the 20th we arrived at Clare Village, and took up our residence in a perfectly new house which an Irish Catholic had built on a section of land a little off the road in a low-lying valley”.

Father Kranewitter's companion, Father Max Klinkowstrom, after but a few months labour among the Catholics in Adelaide, was compelled by ill-health to return to Europe. He sailed on 17th March, 1849. Happily Father Kranewitter was not left alone for very long, for in the month of April, 1849, two Jesuit Laybrothers, Brothers Schreiner and Sadler, arrived in Australia to help him in his Mission.

“Our little house, of split tree trunks bound together, with a roof of thatch, has only two rooms, but all the same we three live in it with a German doctor quite satisfactorily.... We are living about half a mile from Clare in a delightful valley, quite alone, in peaceful isolation. Brothers Sadler and Schreiner are active at work on the farm, I see to the spiritual ministrations for all of us, and every first Sunday make a missionary visitation to the German settlements. My flock here is certainly a small one, but in the German villages I have already found more than fifty Catholics. The poor people are planted in the midst of Protestants of a fanatical and pietistic stamp, and hardly have the courage to proclaim themselves openly as Catholics. But already much of that has been changed. The Protestants do not dare to mock so constantly as they used to do at the Catholic Church, and a young man who through cowardice had allowed himself to be taken up by one of their congregations came back after my third visit to his good mother the Catholic Church. I find the good people most zealous in their attendance at Mass, and although many live two or three leagues from the house in which I say Mass, they are always most regular in attendance, and the delight that they always show at having their spiritual director once more with them, is always a rich reward for the tiring journey. I travel about 30 leagues to these people, and on the way I rarely meet a soul, and still more rarely a human habitation; and as one finds here instead of fresh springs and murmuring brooks, only now and then a tank of collected rain water, the heat of the sun and the thirst is very trying during one's travels. ...

This so far is the scope of my missionary work. It is a small beginning, but in the course of time we may easily advance much further than that. This rests largely with my superiors and depends on the hidden de signs of eternal Providence. The colony is in process of growth and the number of its mines are a guarantee of abiding prosperity. It is probable that the number of German Catholics will soon greatly increase, and what has been done in America may soon be accomplished in South Australia too; to say nothing of the aboriginals the conversion of whom will give work for us to do of no small magnitude. All the attempts made on them by the Protestants of the various sects have so far proved useless. ... The conversion of our blacks will always remain a difficult and repulsive task - here; for all the evil conditions that men found among the lowest tribes in America are to be found amongst these people. They have no fixed place of abode, but wander over the country in small groups, they are divided into many different tribes, they either have no chiefs or have little respect for them, they are not at all numerous, and yet every second hundred of them will have their own peculiar language; so little is the idea of a Supreme Being developed amongst them that you would hardly credit their ignorance. They are not of evil disposition, you would rather say that they are of a kindly nature; they are not a warlike race, and in general are devoid of any outstanding sign of real character. They shun work like lazy children and for a little bit of work they want ‘Plenty to eat’; but in spite of all this I believe that a missioner of the True Church would not work without profit among them”.

Inscrutable are the ways of Divine Providence. Reading these lines of the Jesuit Missioner eighty years after he penned them, we wish that his dream of a great and populous Catholic land had come true. But he had not reckoned with the greed and folly of men. The poor aboriginals are gone, and gone because unchristian men denied them the right to live and refused to them the civilizing message of Christian Truth. Gone also are the prosperous German villages because the call of the “accursed gold” lured the simple farmer from his vine-garlanded cottage to the reeking “diggings” of Victoria.

Bitter, indeed, are the thoughts of what might have been but for the folly and the greed of men.

Father Kranewitter, it is true, even early in his Mission work, experienced many disappointments and saw the promise of failure, nevertheless he planned and prayed with his eyes fixed on a glorious future. His letters home show him as a man of God and as a shrewd and prudent man of affairs; to his foresight we owe the founding of the German and Polish settlement at Sevenhill and the College and lands that gave stability to the Jesuit Mission and served as a spiritual centre from which radiated through the South the life-giving light of the Faith.

“As I told you before we bought a piece of land on which to found a permanent station, and here again I must say that God in His loving Providence has blessed our plan and prospered it. ... The Mission now owns 700 acres of land of which a part is over grown with stout gum trees, while a part consists of rich soil suitable for tilling and pasture, but most of all for the planting of vines.

‘What a beautiful place for a college!’ said a protestant on a visit to us, rightly guessing, even though he was not a prophet, at the thoughts which we, however, had not yet openly expressed. The fine healthy position of the place beside a spring of water which one so rarely finds in Australia marks it off as especially appropriate for such a purpose, and one could hardly undertake anything more profitable to the good cause in Australia than the cpening of a college to train up men in the true Catholic spirit.

But in these times when the hire of labour is so costly, since the discovery of gold mines, when one nust give an ordinary labouring man $50 a year and his keep, and pay a brick layer 14/- for a day's work, building is not to be lightly undertaken. But, when in the second half of 1855, as we had expected, the price of labour became more moderate, we set our hands to the work in God's Name, and started to build a house to satisfy our immediate pressing needs, and to accommodate a few pupils”.

In October, 1852, there had joined Fr Kranewitter one who was to become the best known and best beloved priest in South Australia, Father JosephTappeiner. This heroic missionary at first, owing to his as yet imperfect knowledge of the English language, restricted his labours to the German population, while Father Kranewitter atterded the distant stations and looked after the Irish Catholics in Clare, the Burra, Undalya and Saddleworth. From 1853 to 1855, Father Tappeiner visited regularly Tanunda, Adelaide and Romburnie.

Father John Pallhuber arrived in the beginning of 1856 He was destined to do strenuous work as a missionary, for which he had been prepared by a seven years' residence in the Province of SJ Maryland. USA. His arrival was opnortune, for Father Kranewitter left Sevenhill on March 28th, 1856, to proceed to Austria for the completion of his theological studies and the making of his third year of probation. Of his recall Father Kranewitter writes:

“In November, 1855, my fellow-worker, Father Tappeiner, made his first mission journey 100 English miles to the north, and visited afterwards all the scattered Catholics of German speech south of here. At Christmas he stayed in Adelaide to assist in the work there. On his return he brought the news that my successor, Father Pallhuber, sent by our superiors, had arrived in Adelaide from North America. My orders were to return to Europe to complete my studies and prepare for my profession. On the 28th March on board an English ship I was carried out on to the high seas once more, we rounded Cape Horn and under the loving protection of God reached London after a voyage of 100 days. At the beginning of August, 1856, I stood once more on my native soil, which I had left eight years before”.

In 1859 Father Kranewitter returned to Australia where he worked on the South Australian Mission until 1870. when he was sent to take care of the German Catholics in Melbourne. For ten years as a member of the Jesuit Community at St Ignatius', Richmond, he discharged this duty faithfully, winning for himself universal esteem. The History of the Society of Jesus in Australia says of him:

“A model religious, cheerful, exact in all details of duty, of tender piety and gentle as a child, he was beloved by his penitents, who made it their mission to induce others to choose him as confessor. A wetting received during a visit which he paid to a country district to say Mass and administer the Sacraments, brought on an illness which affected his lungs, and consumption caused his death in less than a year. He removed for changes of air a few days before he died to Heidelberg, a village near Richmond. On the day of his death he asked by telegram to be relieved from the obligation of reciting the Divine Office. He also sent word that he felt much weaker, but thought there was no necessity for any Father to visit him just then. As he grew worse he was urged to have another telegram sent, but he shook his head, saying, ‘God is good, He will take care of me’. His trust in the Divine goodness was not in vain; for as soon as the first message reached Richmond, Father Mulhall determined to go at once to Heidelberg. He did so, and on entering the sick man's room, the latter exclaimed: ‘Thanks be to God that you are here’. A short time afterward's Father Kranewitter died”.

The College of St Aloysius, Seven hill, founded by Father Kranewitter, was therefore the first Jesuit College in Australia. For thirty years it struggled against difficulties of every kind, the great distance from any centre of population, the scattered nature of the Catholic stations and the lack of funds, until finally in 1886, when the colleges in other States were opened, it was closed. It became, what it is to-day, the Church and Residence of St Aloysius.

We must not forget, however, that in spite of its chequered career, nearly 400 pupils had passed through its classes during these 30 years, and some of these achieved distinction in after life, One of the first pupils was Julian Tennison Woods, afterwards so well known as a priest and scholar.

For a time Sevenhill served as the Novitiate of the Society of Jesus, and in 1866 there came to St Aloysius' College to enter the Society, Thomas O'Brien, a native of Sydney, the first Australian to enrol under the banner of St Ignatius. It is interesting to note that as Father Thomas O'Brien he was the last Rector of the old College when it closed its doors in 1886.

In the meantime, as year by year missioners arrived from Europe, the work of spreading the Gospel went forward steadily: from the rough stone fortress at Sevenhill the “White Horse men of Christ”, as so many valiant knights, sallied forth bearing the Stand ard of the Cross, preaching, teaching, healing and by their selfless lives win ning the love of the simple pioneers and kindling in their hearts the love of Christ. Churches and schools and stations they raise as they push farther and farther into the unknown, following in the wake of the intrepid settlers. I cannot name them all, but just a few to show how far-flung and how thorough was the work of these Jesuit Missioners: Mintaro, the musical Spanish of its name recalling the rapture of the muleteers as they drove their teams on to the mines at Burra-Burra; Tanunda with its glorious grapes; Wakefield; Kooringa of the mines; Bomburnie with its model German Village; Undalya and Farrell's Flat; then far away to the north, Jamestown and Port Augusta.

Of this rapid spread of Catholicism Father Tappeiner tells in a few vivid lines in a letter to the home land:

“When the foundation was laid of the church at Mintaro there wore only three Catholic families with their dependants in the place, now it is our strongest station. The whole district, especially towards the north, is dotted with the homes of practising Catholics so that the larger number of them find it necessary to assist at Mass outside the doors of the Church”.

At the end of the letter he adds: “What I say of Mintaro is true, more or less, of the other stations, no church can hold all the faithful. Fifty or more are obliged to hear Mass at the church door..”.

Among all the missioners the personality of Father John Pallhuber stands out as being that of a Xavier or an Anchieta. A scholar to whom the direction of the studies at the College at Sevenhills were entrusted, and who was the wonder of all for the breath and versatility of his learning, theologian and classical scholar; and, as an Apostle. one who counted as naught toil and danger in the quest of souls.

From Sevenhill he writes:

“Every month I cover, at the very least, 1000 English miles. Here is the routine I follow: On Thursday morning I leave on horseback or by the waggon, taking with me everything I shall need on the journey, including a chalice and wine for Mass.

I have two routes to choose from, one of which will secure me a night's lodging once on my way, and the other perhaps three. Either way I must go through fields and scrub and even forests, some of them stretching for more than 20 English miles. As for water, there is scarcely a drop, and what there is, is | foul or salty; at times I lodge at a shepherd's hut, where I say Mass and baptize the children, Before my track was well-worn and familiar, I got lost sometimes, but, thanks be to God, I have always been fortunate enough to find my way again; not everyone has been so fortunate, for several have met disaster on this trail.

On Friday evening, as a rule, I reach Kadina, a little town of two to three thousand inhabitants, about 60 miles from Sevenhills. Here for the last five years I have invariably lodged with the same family. As soon as I arrive I visit the sick and transact any business that awaits me; then on Saturday morning, at half past nine, I hear confessions and say Holy Mass, after which I visit the good folk and settle their little troubles. I then go to Port Wallaroo, six miles away to the west by a rough horse track; in this small place of some 3000 souls I first made known my arrival and arrange for the morrow, and in the evening make my way back to Kadina. At six o'clock on Sunday morning I ride or drive to Wallaroo, where I hear confessions and say Mass, give an instruction and baptize the children; at ten back as fast as I can to Kadina, where I do the same. I have some thing to eat at midday and at about two o'clock I set out for Moonta, another town of three or four thousand people, twelve miles to the south, where I go through the same round of work. At midday, according to the needs of the case, I return to Kadina or to Wallaroo. Then lest my normal work at Sevenhill should suffer, I must, sometimes on Monday evening, more usually on Tuesday, and in exceptional cases on Wednesday, set off on my return journey.

It was only the tall gums and the laugh of the Kookaburra that reminded me, as I stood waiting for the high power car that was to whisk me back to the ugliness of modern life, that I was in Australia and in the twentieth century. Surely this old stone house, with its high gables and its dormer windows, its stone-flagged passages and its dungeon-like cellars, is a little bit of medieval Europe that has lost its way in the bush or has slept or wandered for centuries in the manner of the fables ! And this old Gothic church, built by the hands of religious brethren, surely it has watched over the fortunes of some Austrian village and seen the centuries slip by, seen Crusaders ride past and heard the toscin sound as armies, like the ages, rolled on! And I thought of the more than thirty heroes that sleep their last sleep in the vault beneath the old church, of Pallhuber the scholar, a peer of the grandest mis sionaries, of the beloved Tappeiner, of Rogalski of the Poles, whose little church I had seen abandoned at Hill River, its door ajar and still the glorious oil-painting of St Stanislaus over the altar, sent it was from Poland to raise the hearts of the exiles; I thought of them all, how far away from home and friends and from their beloved Fatherland, they had dreamed a great dream of founding another great Catholic land, had prayed for strength in this same stone church, before this same tabernacle over which hung, as it hangs to-day, the great Madonna sent them by King Ludwig of Bavaria, and how strengthened to bear the heats and burden of the day, they had gone forth, from their very door at which I stood, down that same straggling path, out into the bush”.

Of such men and of such a work as they have done there can be no thought of failure.

AK

◆ The Aloysian, Sydney, 1934

The First Jesuit in Australia

Early Letters (1849-1851)

The splendid story of the pioneer priests of Australia should be better known. We love to trace the story of our pioneers, and in fact, are inclined to surround them with a certain halo of romance: none deserve better our study and our respect than those brave men, who left home and friends, and faced the hardships and the dangers of an un known continent, to spread the Kingdom of Christ in this our great South Land.

As I read, for the first time, last year, the letters of the first Jesuit in Australia, written to his Superiors at home in Austria and published by them in 1851, I felt that here was a man, whose person ality would surely call forth the admir ation of others as it had done mine, and whose achievement was worthy of being placed on record in the land of his adoption.

Aloysius Kranewitter was born near Stams in the Tyrol on the 4th April, 1817. The beauty and the majesty of the mountains that nurtured the lofty spirit of Andreas Hofer, did not fail to inspire the soul of young Kranewitter, for when he had completed his studies in the Gymnasium of Meran, he felt drawn to consecrate his life to a great ideal, and entered the Novitiate of the Society of Jesus at Gratz in 1836. Until his ordination in 1848 his course was the usual one followed by the Jesuit Scholastics; he studied the Classics and then Philosophy; taught for five years . in the College at Innsbruck and finally went through his theology. At his First Mass, we are told, he prayed that God would choose him for a mission in that part of the world where priests were needed most. Events which followed, little expected as they surely must have been, show how fully his prayer was answered. In the year 1848, amidst the turmoil of universal revolution, the Jesuits were expelled from the Austrian Empire. Many sought refuge and a field to work in, far away in the missions of the United States and Canada and of South America, while the rest were dispersed among the provinces of Europe.

It was just at this moment that a strange request was made to the Father Provincial of Austria, Father James Pierling. He was asked to supply two Fathers to accompany a band of Catholic emigrants from Silesia, leaving home to settle in the recently-established colony of South Australia. A bold request certainly was this, made in the simplicity of his Faith by Francis Weikert, the leader of the venture. To send two fathers to an unknown land, with a party of farmers, of their own Faith and Fatherland, it is true, but going to seek their fortune among strangers and with out any certainty of what the future might bring, would seem to us rash, indeed. Yet this was the means Divine Providence employed to send the sons of St Ignatius to this great South Land.

Father Pierling called together the Fathers at Innsbruck and asked for volunteers, and then it was that Father Kranewitter stepped forward and offered himself for this mission, joining himself to a young Viennese, Father Max Klinkowstrom, who had first expressed his readiness to go. They boarded the good ship “Alfred” at Hamburg and set sail on the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, 1848. Their voyage is described by Father Kranewitter in his first letter to his Provincial, written 10th June, 1849.

“The whole sea voyage comes back to me iike an unpleasant dream, the remembrance of which bring's little that is joyful, for nothing is more disagreeable than to be tossed for months on end on the wide desert sea, which one has already been gazing on to satiety. Certainly one learns from experience inore than from a thousand books, but the study is painful. On the 15th August our ship left Hanburg harbour, and on the 19th we left the mouth of the Elbe. We were hardly foating on the waves of the sea before its al most magic power displayed itself. In about an hour nearly half the passengers Were afflicted with sea-sickness. Our course lies by the Gulf Stream and the Trade Winds towards Rio de Janeiro, then we make for the Cape of Good Hope, and from there direct to Adelaide with the West Trade Winds, which always blow more strongly toward the South. The reckoning is about 90 to 100 days to Port Adelaide. On the 20th August, as we sailed past Heligoland, a Danish frigate, which tay at anchor off the south of the Elbe, caught sight of us. She at once set after us with full sail. But as she had seen us a little too late, and was stationed north of the island, though she exerted her self for an hour, she could not overtake us, and at 1 pm regretfully she turned back on her course.

On the 23rd I had to baptize a child of Protestant parents; and the day before, after I had blessed it, a child was plunged into the depths of the stormy waves. At 12 o'clock that night I was called to the bedside of another child struggling with death. It was carried off with convulsions next day. The last day of our first month out, we had the misfortune to discover that in our cabin there were some who were practically nothing but Christian pagans. An historical discussion which occurred at table revealed the fact. One of our cabin mates declared that quite a number of historical assertions had as little truth in them as the Bible itself. This declaration naturally led to others, and it became quite plain that those unfortunate men had long suffered shipwreck in matters of faith. On another occasion one of these gentlemen maintained that were the Catholic religion logically consistent in all its teachings, real belief would not be found any more among its members; the Protestants were already taught in their schools to cast off all belief, I was ready to argue with him on this matter, after I had instructed hin as to what faith and religion really was; we could not engage in any argument regarding religion unless that were clearly settled.

The 2nd September was a Sunday, the Feast of the Guardian Angels. It was the first day on which we were able to preach on deck to our ship's company, consisting of Catholics, Protestants, Jews and Christian heathens. After that, my companion, Father Max Klinkowstrom, preached overy Sunday when the weather was fine and the sea calm, and he was always sympathetically listened to. ... I had time on my hands in abundance to cast my thoughts back to you and all my be loved friends at Innsbruck, to my homeland, and those dear to me there. Hardly a night passed that I did not dream that I was just as near to you as I really was far away, and with every minute was going farther away from you all. Still this was not home-sickness, nor regret, nor a longing to go back again; it was simply a painful feeling deep down in the soul.

On the 11th October we stood before Rio's lovely harbour. The finest art could not produce a more beautiful picture. On the right and on the left at its entrance, rocky heights rise up, separated only by a narrow strait, the veritable pillars of the harbour fashioned by Nature itself. On each side, on three terraces strong forts frown, with 30 cannon on each terrace. Our three-master ran up the German flag and the favouring breeze soon brought her between two lines of forts. We were questioned as to who we were and where we came from. The German flag had not yet been seen in these waters, so we had to declare this also. Then a cannon from the left hand fort announced our arrival. A general permission was given for us to land.

Of course we availed ourselves of the opportunity. Four negroes rowed us ashore. Rio is a city of 190,000 inhabitants, of whom about two-thirds are blacks. These do all the hard labour, for it is considered a disgrace for a white man even to carry anything through the streets of Rio; you see niggers in swarms loaded like beasts of burden, and they sing a howling kind of alternating chant as they haul things along. It is a doleful sight. Our first trip was to a German hostel, and the first thing we asked for was fruit. They brought us oranges and Musa paradisiaca (Bananas. Translator's note). These last were a novelty to us. They are round and long in shape, not unlike very long potatoes, about three to four inches in length, of a dark-yellow colour when ripe, with a skin about the thickness of the back of a knife, light and soft; the fruit is rather mealy, with little juice, but with a very pleasant flavour. It is quite a common fruit here.

We had a pleasant surprise when we met the only German priest to be found in the whole of Brazil, who happened to be here at the time. He is called Reis, and comes from Vienna. He was formerly a Redemptorist, but of late years he has been settled in the neighbourhood of Rio, about 10 miles from the city, and he comes, from time to time, to town for the confessions of the large number of German Catholics who live in Rio. He was very kind and obliging to us, and was able to give us reliable information about religious conditions here. We were not a little shocked by the picture he drew for us, and if he were not a priest we would not have believed half of what he told us. There is a general indifference and neglect in matters of religion, though there are four or five religious houses in the city, and the Italian Capuchins on a hill near the city are real men of God. He recommended a visit to these last, but it was too late to do so that evening, as we had to stay the night in the German hostel. Later in the day, how ever, we visited the Church of the Carmelites, where there were devotions in honour of St Theresa. But little was the devotion we found there! When we entered the brightly-lit church, it was like going into a café; people stood in groups engaged in open conversation, while loud music of a very inferior type resounded from the choir. Hardly anyone knelt, except some few, these mostly negroes, at the communion rail. The next morning, in nasty weather, we visited the Capuchin Fathers. Our route led up to a pretty hill, one of four in the city, on three of which are the homes of religious, The one to which we climbed rose in terraces, and I could see on it a small church with two towers, on the left of which was a large building like a monastery. I thought this must be where the Fathers lived whom we were going to visit, but the church was shut up, and all around I saw Brazilian soldiers. I was told I must go on further, Finally I found a second small church on the very top of the hill and a new building beside it; this was what I sought. I was received very kindly, and I had the great delight of saying Mass once more. The little Italian that I knew proved very useful to me in making myself understood by the Father Superior. His whole appearance was one of kindliness, piety and mortification, and when I told him who we were he invited us to stay with him. Nothing could have been more welcome to us, and even yet, whenever I think of it, there comes vividly back to my memory, standing there on its hill, the little monastery and church where we were so courteously received. I shall never forget the kindness of these sons of St Francis; only God in His charity can repay them for it. The Capuchin Father's have a residence in Rio which they recruit with subjects from Italy. There are four priests and a lay brother there at present, distinguished by the poverty and simplicity everywhere found among the Franciscans, and most kind and obliging, My companion (Father Max) was suffering from a severe earache and had to keep his bed. But the kindness of the Fathers made it possible for me to visit the city on several occasions. The streets are very dirty; they have pavements at the side, but one is in constant danger of tripping on them, as they are so badly built and full of holes. The houses are all low lying, only a few two stories high, so that with its large population the city is spread out over a large area. It has hardly any noteworthy buildings. There is a museum, but it is badly arranged, and has only a small collection. Near the entrance are two wire cages in which are kept Brazilian snakes of about 12 feet long; most of the Portuguese do not go any further than these, and they seem to take the greatest pleasure in teasing the poor beasts with little sticks. The way to and from the town always took me past that little church, so that I naturally was anxious to have a closer view of it, I found that it had once had a building attached to it at one side, and this had either been pulled down or fallen down in decay. The stones that lay round about showed that it had been a building with a broad pillared en trance. The church, of no great size to look at, had two little towers over the entrance, and over the door was a date, 1565, and a little above the date the word Jesus. You can imagine what I conjectured from this. And my conjectures were confirmed by what I learnt from the Capuchin Fathers. it was the first and the last residence of the Society of Jesus in Rio, the church itself built perhaps by Father Anchieta. It was the most beautiful site that Blessed Anchieta could have chosen for a residence. Built on a terrace on the hill side, the building had one of the best positions in Rio; in front was a fine view of the beautiful harbour and the whole city, and behind was a fertile slope suitable for a nice garden.

But now the church is closed - there are only left now in Brazil two establishments of the Jesuits, away in the interior, the nearest being S Catarina, 40 miles from Rio. How gladly would I have flown there! But the time was too short; we had to be on board ship by next Sunday evening.

It was the Sunday of the dedication of the church, the Feast of St Theresa, and I was delighted to be able to say Mass still on that day, the best way in the circumstances of celebrating the dedication. That Sunday we had our last meal with the Fathers. My colleague was so much better that he was in a condition to continue the voyage. As the time for our departure approached, the good Fathers did not wish to let us go, and wanted us to stay longer with them; my colleague should first completely recover from his illness. We excused ourselves by saying that our destination was Australia; the Fathers undertook to get us berths on another ship, and even to pay for them! Surely the argument that we could not leave our own people unaided was sufficient to persuade us not to go away yet? This was a plea that had its attractiveness indeed. We could visit our bro thers at S Catarina, we could see Brazil with its primitive forests, we could recreate ourselves by a pleasant journey, we could stay for a time with people so worthy of a visit, and perhaps we could do quite an aniount of good. work among the many Germans to be found in Rio and else where! But our call was further afield. We had quite a tender leave-taking, and the kind Fathers were moved to tears at our departure”.

On the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady, the 8th December, 1848, Father Kranewitter and his companions landed at Port Adelaide. Weikert who had sold his fine property in Silesia and had paid the passage of nearly all the little band of exiles, found him self, soon after landing, abandoned by them and in serious financial straits. He was compelled, therefore, to lease a piece of land about 60 miles north of Adelaide, near a little hamlet called Clare Village.

What was Father Kranewitter to do? The plan of the little Catholic Settlement had fallen to pieces. He consulted the Bishop of Adelaide, Dr Murphy, who arranged that Father Klinkowstrom should stay in Adelaide, but that Father Kranewitter should go north with Weikert and his family and share their home, making of it a centre from which he could sally forth to attend to the spiritual needs of the Catholics scat ered thinly in the surrounding country. He became, indeed, a shepherd, who had to go in search of his flock, As he had no horse, nor money to buy one, he travelled on foot, seeking for his fellow emigrants. He found many of them sett led near Angaston and east of Gawler, some fifty miles from Clare Village.

“On the first Sunday of the month I pay a missionary visit to the German settlements. My congregation is as yet very small. I have found about forty Catholics, who live in the midst of bitter Protestants and hardly dare to profess their faith. However, a change for the better is apparent. Protestants are becom ing more tolerant and the Catholics come regu. larly to Mass, wherever it is said, even from a distance of eight or ten miles”.

After some months of this life, alone in the household of the farmer, the welcome news came to the missionary that help would soon arrive. Great was the Father's joy when two good Brothers of his own religious family arrived to share his labours !

“On the 20th we arrived at Clare Village, and took up our residence in a perfectly new house that an Irish Catholic had built on a section of land a little off the road in a low lying little valley. As people speak here it is a large liouse, though it is only one storey high with five rooms and no windows. Though this dwelling seemed to us mean and narrow, it was the best in the neighbourhood, and its pretty setting, together with the pleasant mildness of the climate, made it quite a tolerable place to live. We found the church only half finished, and, so I had to hold Divine Service on Sundays and Feast Days in the house of an Irishman. I could not start on my rounds as soon as I should have wished, for the winter rains came on too soon, and I had no horse at my disposal. I have now remedied that defect, and next week I hope, under the protection of the most Blessed Virgin after the Feast of her Assumption, which I intend to celebrate here, to begin my first mission journey. May the Holy Mother and our loving Father Ignatius secure blessings from heaven for the enterprise.

My companion, Father Max Klinkowstrom, remained in Adelaide to attend to the spiritual needs of the German Catholics in the city; he carried out this duty conscientiously until he was compelled to return to Europe. The climate of Australia was quite unsuitable for him, and the doctor in Adelaide, Dr Bayer, a German, told him that the Australian sun played havoc with such as have trouble with the liver, that it was like poison for him, and that he must go back. Violent head pains and diarrhoea had nearly brought him to the edge of the grave already. On the 17th March, 1849, as an English ship sailed that day for London, he took ship back to Europe, God in His love so arranged matters that the news of his departure reached me at the same time that your letter to me arrived. I received your letter before Holy Mass, and at once recognised the handwriting of the address, but did not open it then I, first seeing myself left so deserted in union with the Holy Sacrifice, united my will with that of the all-beneficent God. After Mass I opened the letter and what a surprise I had! I am not to be left alone; for your letter informed of the arrival in the near future of two helpers from Europe. Think with what delight I devoured the lines of your dear script full of fatherly affection. Was it not the merciful providence of God that brought together the sad depar ture of my dear companion and the consoling news of the near arrival of two others. How happy I was to see good Brothers Schreiner and Sadler arrive here in April, quite hale and hearty, just at the time that we needed hands for our work. We are building on to our house a hut in which will serve as a sleeping com partment for the two new-comers; they are now having plenty of hand work and much discomfort; but soon things will be better and their work will be richly rewarded. I have inade a contract with Weikert to share with him for some years labour and attention to the property and profits, expenses and receipts. Our neighbour who has a lease of the better part of the block of land on which we live is going back to Adelaide and has handed over to -: us his small house and his lease under very favourable terms. And so we have living accommodation which is sufficient for our means, though not attractive in appearance, and sufficient income to live on. For this year then we have two pieces of land for cultivation and so are quite safe financially. We intend to keep house with Weikert for two years, and meanwhile look round for an opportunity and then buy from the Government a fertile piece. of land in a good position. If this plan is not unpleasing to God and has His blessing, I am quite sure that it will prosper. Unless I am much mistaken, in four years I should be in the position to send you the passage money for those who would be pleased to come to us, especially if you would send us some inore help ers, for labour is very costly here. These should not look for easy conditions at first, and must be ready for hard work; but, as I said before, labour reaps a quick profit here.

Make whatever arrangements seem best to you, and let us know of your intentions. With my heart full of gratitude I kiss your hands for sending me here, and for the help that you have sent me too. If it should please you to make any changes in our disposition, or send us anywhere else, we would gladly exert our selves to obey the slightest indication of your wishes; if we should receive further helpers it i would be an inexpressible consolation. Mean while, we act according to the first suggestions you gave us, making no change, which was to aim at securing a good piece of land with fertile soil, and to get our good brothers to cultivate it.

You might think that this country is al most over supplied with priests, seeing that a bishop and ten priests have charge of a Catholic population of only about 4000 souls; but that is not so at all. South Australia is a colony in process of very fast development. The first settlers only came here about 19 years ago, and already the population has grown to 40,000. Every month ships come from England with immigrants, and every year from Germany, and of the immigrants a small number set themselves up in the city, while the greater number settle on the land.

If the growth in population continues I shall soon need priests for a college. Any helpers who are coming to us or intend to come in the future should bring with them, above all things, all that is needed for saying Mass. We have a small church without a tabernacle or altar pictures, and, except for the set of Mass Vestments that I brought with me, there are hardly any serviceable ones to be got.

I shall now tell you something about the financial side of our farming. All the soil is wonderfully fruitful here. The first year, without any help from manure, it produces a very fine crop of wheat. A section of land cuch as the immigrants usually buy or lease here is 80 acres forming a square, so that each acre runs for 200 feet in both directions. The work of cultivating a piece of new land is certainly hard and constant, but the return is great; to take an example, a ton of potatoes cost £10, or 100 florins of English money, and a good acre gives a return of five to six tons, and often eight to nine. A ton of oaten hay is worth £5. Wheat is, at the least. al ways a profitable crop, good land giving 20 to 30 bushels (a bushel is equivalent to a tyrolese staar) per acre, and a bushel of wheat is sold for 37. The climate is extremely mild, so that the keeping of cattle practically costs nothing, as they can be let run freely on the pasture lands during the whole of the year without the need of stalls for shelter; you only have to milk the cows morning and evening in an enclosure of some kind. It is winter here now, but it is little different from a summer in the Tyrol. On the coldest day we have had there was some ice in the morning, but the sun soon made it melt. The winter here merely serves to provide the soil with moisture so that it may be in a condition to produce its various types of fruit. One finds practically no fruit growth here, but whatever one plants and cultivates gives a good crop, especially vines and Southern European fruit trees. No one, then, will have a reason to re gret tilling this soil, But whoever expects to find everything here already will be bitterly disappointed. Hence it is necessary to bring with one house and land implements, and seeds of all kinds.

As regards the black natives living here, they are, in a word, just grown-up children. They are swarming at this moment all around our house with a number of scraggy-looking dogs; but as I can make nothing yet of their language, I am not in a position to announce the gospel to them. They are very like our gipsy folk in Europe in appearance, and the only beggars in the country. I intend to write sone more about them in my next letter, when I have got to know them better myself, and also after I have learnt more about them from the German Catholics whom I shall meet on my mission round. It is possible to send let ters to Europe every month from Australia now, and there are prospects of a fast steamship service between Australia and Europe; I would make good use of this for sending letters.

The struggle for very existence which absorbed so much of the missionaries' time, must have caused Father Kranewitter to chafe at the slow development of their spiritual work. Two plans he had at heart, with which he hoped to lay the foundations of an enduring apostolate; firstly he wished to form a purely Catholic settlement with its church and school and secondly he longed to establish a College of the Society of Jesus. To realise both these projects he prayed and worked, and thanks to his trust in God and his courage and foresight, realise them both he did, before he was recalled to Europe in 1856. He writes to his Provincial on 2nd May, 1850:

“I have just made my mission visitation of the German settlements for the first Sunday in April, after which I went on about 30 Eng lish miles to Adelaide to pay a visit to an old Catholic lady and her daughter who arrived in Australia about four months ago to strengthen their Faith, which had met with various strong trials; I got back on the sec ond Sunday to the station where I always say Mass on that day. A few minutes before I began, a letter from overseas was handed to me, sent to my address by Dr Backhaus, What a delightful surprise it was to receive a letter from Your Reverence! I opened the envelope - there were two enclosures - and in one of them two most valuable money bills. This was quite beyond my expectations. At once the thought flew to iny mind - Is it the passage money? I did not read the letters then, but laid then quietly together, and first at the Mass that I was on the point of celebrating I availed myself of the opportunity of begging God to make me fully resigned to whatever the letter might bring me. After my devotions I could not wait long before opening the letter I was longing so much to read. You I could not easily realise the effect that your beloved writing and your fatherly words had on me under the circumstances in which I was, I still less could I put it in words. We send you our most heartfelt thanks for the generous gift of all that the letter contained. We shall consider it as a treasure entrusted to us, and make use of it in the very best way we can. As I was not more than 50 Erglish miles from Adelaide, I decided to make the most of my opportunity and to return to Adelaide, to cash the draft, to have an interview with the Bishop, Dr Murphy, and communicate the whole matter to him, and to find out from him in person what way I might act most in accordance with his wishes, so that I should be able to send you news at once about the matter. What an improvement has been made in our affairs in the course of a year Your Reverence will already have seen from my other letter. We are in such a fortunate condition that very soon we may hope to have a proper German Mission Station; what our hampered circumstances have so far made impossible, will certainly be a reality in the course of a year, if God so wills.

Most of the German settlers that I visit at present on my rounds are to be found in a place which is very unprofitable to them, where they settled on their first arrival, owing to their ignorance of the condition of the land. All this can be remedied now at one stroke. It is quite easy to se

Born: 30 March 1929, Brzezinki, Masovian Voivodeship, Poland
Entered: St Mary’s Emo, County Laois (HIB for POL Mi)
Final Vows: 15 August 1957
Died: 21 September 2019, Gdynia, Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland - Poloniae Meridionalis Province (PME)

by 1953 came to Emo (HIB) Novitiate 1952-1955
by 1956 came to Tullabeg (HIB) working 1955-1957
by 1958 came to Rathfarnham (HIB) working 1957-1959
by 1966 at Tullabeg (HIB) making Tertianship

Born: 26 April 1899, Kufstein, Tyrol, Austria
Entered: 24 August 1917, Sankt Andrä, Austria - Austriae Province (ASR)
Ordained: 26 July 1928
Professed: 02 February 1935
Died: 01 February 1997, Taipei, Taiwan - Sinensis Province (CHN)

by 1954 came to Aberdeen Hong Kong (HIB) teaching 1953-1960

Born: 03 June 1923, London, England
Entered: 07 September 1961, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois (HIB forPOL Mi)

Left Society of Jesus: 14 November 1961

Brother Novice
Note on file to say Peter left on 14 November 1961 to learn English

Born: 11 March 1809, Calcutta, Bengal, India (on journey)
Entered: 04 September 1825, Montrouge near Paris Galliae Province (GALL)
Ordained: 24 December 1839, Clongowes Wood College SJ, County Kildare
Final vows: 02 February 1848
Died 31 December 1879, Milltown Park, Dublin

He was a son of a Major Francis Kyan (1752–1814) of the East India Company. Elder brother, Esmond Kyan was hanged as a rebel in 1798.

by 1829 in Clongowes
by 1839 Theol 3 in Vals (LUGD)
by 1868 at St Wilfred’s Preston (ANG) working
by 1870 at Bristol (ANG) working
by 1871 at Frome, Somerset (ANG) working
by 1877 at Wells (ANG) working
by 1878 at Husbands, Bosworth, Rugby (ANG) working

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He was a son of an Indian Officer.

Early education was at Stonyhurst.

He served as a Teacher and Prefect at Clongowes and Tullabeg for many years. He was Ordained at Clongowes by Dr Haly, Bishop of Kildare 24 December 1839.
In company with Father Haly and Father Fortescue in the Dublin Residence.
1848-1850 He accompanied Patrick Sheehan to India and spent two years there. He went back to the Dublin Residence on his return.
1856 He was sub-Minister in Clongowes.
1868-1878 He found his health was greatly impaired and so he asked to go on the ANG Mission, and he worked at Wells, Frome and Bosworth at different times over these years, except 1876 when he was in Ireland.
1878 He was again called back to Ireland and went to Milltown, where he died 31 December 1879. The Rector James Tuite was with him when he died.

He was a man of imposing presence, fine manners and an innocent mind.

Born: 1620, County Galway
Entered: 06 January 1641 - Nuevo Reino Mission (NEU REI)
Ordained: 1654, Santa Fé de Bogotá, Colombia
Final Vows: 01 November 1661
Died: 25 July 1675, Santa Fé de Bogotá - Nuevo Reino Mission (NEU REI)

Alias De Acuña

◆ Fr John MacErlean SJ :
1641-1654 At College of Santa Fé de Bogotá studying and teaching to Ordination in 1654
1654-1675 Working on the Indian Missions surrounding Santa Fé de Bogotá

Born: 11 May 1906, Northcote, Melbourne, Australia
Entered: 08 March 1925, Loyola, Greenwich, Australia (HIB)
Ordained 30 June 1940, Liverpool, England
Professed: 02 February 1979
Died: 19 March 1991, St Xavier’s, Bokaro Steel City, Hazaribag, Jharkhand, India - Ranchiensis Province (RAN)

Transcribed HIB to ASL 05-April 1931; ASL to RAN 12 March 1956

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :

Note from Francis Keogh Entry :
His death was keenly felt by those who served under him, especially at Sevenhill. Mr Lachal there wrote “He was the kindest of Superiors, a real father to the Novices, keeping a particularly keen eye on their health. I wish I had Father Rector’s ticket to heaven, Father Master once said to his Novices.’

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Lou Lachal received his early education at the local parish school and his secondary education at Xavier College, Kew, where his father had been before him. Though he excelled perhaps more in sports than in studies, he graduated in 1924 with honours in French and Latin in the final examinations.
In March 1925 he joined the Jesuits at Greenwich, Sydney, and in 1927 he went to Rathfarnham for his juniorate studies, gaining a BA from the National University of Ireland. Philosophy studies followed in France, and he did regency at St Ignatius' College, Riverview, from 1933. He was rowing master among other things, and received a reprimand from the general for allowing the boys to mix with non-Catholics in the rowing sheds!
Theology studies followed at Naples, Italy, but World War II broke out and he moved to Liverpool in 1940 with a letter of commendation to any bishop to ordain him. He was ordained in Liverpool, completed his theology at Heythrop, Oxford, and then spent a few months caring for the needs of working class people in the city of Glasgow, Scotland.
Towards the end of 1941 Lachal returned to Australia via the Panama Canal. He was once again sent to Riverview. Tertianship at Loyola College, Watsonia, followed in 1945, after which he taught for two years at St Patrick's College. He worked in the parish of Richmond in 1948. He enjoyed his time there, and they appreciated the tall, strong, modest, pipe-smoking priest who could he relied upon for service at any time of day or night.
Lachal was among the first Australian Jesuits assigned to the mission in the Hazarihag region of India in 1951. He was 45 years old at the time, and was to spend another 40 years in India. He found Hindi studies difficult, but could generally make himself understood. His good humor and friendliness did the rest. Soon after arrival in India he became involved with direct missionary work at Chandwa, then one of the two parishes in the district of Palamau.
Later, he became parish priest of the Chechai region, which stretched for 130 miles, and then at Mahuadanr, followed by Hazaribag, Chandwa, Bhurkunda and Bokaro Steel City
Wherever he worked, his constant aim was first to provide an adequate education system, followed by health and other development projects to uplift poor people.
One of his greatest triumphs was setting up the Christian Centre at Bokaro Steel City in the vanguard of the ecumenical movement, Lachal proposed the Christian Centre as his
solution to the problem of how to share one small piece of real estate allotted by the Steele Authority to no less than ten groups all claiming to be Christian.
He was a caring father to all Jesuits in the Hazaribag diocese and to religious and lay people all over the Daltonganj diocese. Many sought his wise advice, encouragement and
companionship. People meant much to Lachal. He was a great conversationalist with a quick wit. In addition, he wrote thousands of letters, especially to the mission's friends and
supporters in Australia, assuring them of his interest and concern.
Lachal, commonly known as 'Lou', was greatly loved, respected and trusted by everyone, Jesuits and lay friends alike. He had a strong, outgoing personality, a man of immense charm, wisdom and optimism. His life was characterised by his availability to people anywhere at any time. He was rarely seen alone, he always had people around him. He had a solid, simple spirituality with a great devotion to Our Lady. He was regularly seen saying the Rosary, or heard singing Marian hymns during Mass. He regularly said two public Masses a day, even when he could only travel by rickshaw. When asked what he had been doing, he jokingly said that he had been “witnessing”, a constant feature of his long and happy life.

Entered: Aquitaniae Province (AQUIT)
Died: 05 December 1705, Irish College, Poitiers, France - Aquitaniae Province (AQUIT)

Born: 14 January 1914, Diósgyőr, Borsod, Miskolc, Hungary
Entered: 30 July 1936, Hungariae Province (HUN)
Ordained: 08 June 1946, Shanghai, China
Professed: 15 August 1952
Died: 23 September 1990, Canossa Hospital, Hong Kong - Sinensis Province (CHN)

Part of the Ricci Hall, Hong Kong community at the time of death

Transcribed HUN to ExOr; Applied ExOR to HK 1950
by 1949 came to Ricci Hall, Hong Kong (HIB) working 1949-1967

◆ Hong Kong Catholic Archives :
Veteran China Watcher
Father Laszlo Ladányi Dies

Father Laszlo Ladányi S.J., veteran China watcher died of lung cancer on 23 September 1990 at the Canossa Hospital, Hong Kong, aged 76 years.

Laszlo Ladányi was born in Hungary in 1914. He later graduated from the University of Budapest and he also received training in the violin at the Music Academy in Budapest. He entered the Society of Jesus at the age of 22 and arrived in Beijing, China in 1939. He was later transferred to Shanghai where he was ordained to the priesthood in 1946. In mid 1949, Fr. Ladányi came to Hong Kong and was appointed chaplain to university students at the Ricci Hall.

In 1953 Fr. Ladányi founded the China News Analysis (CNA) in Hong Kong, a weekly and later a fortnightly newsletter. Ever since then, he worked as Editor to this publication for the following 30 years. The main purpose of the CNA is to keep missionary circles informed of Mainland China’s developments. The CNA is widely subscribed by those who are interested in the Mainland China affairs.

In 1982, the editorship of the China News Analysis was passed over to the present team of Jesuit priests, but Fr. Ladnay was still deeply engaged in his China studies up to the time he was admitted to Hospital last month.

The funeral took place at 10am on 26 September with a Mass of the Resurrection concelebrated by his Jesuit confreres and friends at St. Margaret’s Church, Happy Valley, Hong Kong. He was buried in the St. Michael’s Catholic Cemetery.
Sunday Examiner Hong Kong - 5 October 1990

In Memory of Father Laszlo Ladany, S.J.
R.I.P.

On 23 September 1990, 9:35am, our beloved Father Ladányi left this world. My mother phoned me from Hong Kong, weeping, and informed me about his death. As soon as the news came, the Chinese Catholics in America passed the information round and all expressed their affection and remembrance of him, as well as their sorrow and prayer for him…

Father Ladányi was a Hungarian, ordained priest in China in 1946. When he was a missionary in China, he already had deep love for China. After mainland China was taken over by the Communists, he was expelled and sent to Hong Kong. He always wanted to be near China and so he stayed in Hong Kong and began his work there. Diligently, spending 40 years as one day, he studied the problem of China with total dedication. In this way, he worked silently for the Church in China to the end of his life.

He was an outstanding political observer. He had a unique understanding of the problem of China. No one could match him for penetrating understanding, foresight, the depth and width of his study in the problem of China. He was a gifted writer, scholar and commentator. He wrote many analyses about China and the present and past situation of the Church in China. His sources made his information very accurate, looking at the question from every angle and written with simple precision so that his Analysis became an essential source of information for others and had much authority. All the Embassies bought and used his China News Analysis for reference. Libraries throughout the world have his writings, which are of the greatest historical value.

But, we are not only commemorating his outstanding work or his life, but paying tribute to his heart which really understood, loved and sympathised with the Church in China - this heart was precious as gold and as bright and crystal-clear as water. This is what we most cherish today and find most worthy of remembrance. His clear and firm stand-point and views always harmonised with the spirit of the faithful Church in China. His sense of Justice, experience and solid knowledge of the facts, moved him to speak from a sense of Justice. He never left anything unsaid which he knew could be said and he always said everything without fear of human respect. He worked with dedication and spoke up for the faithful Church in China. His heart beat as one with the faithful Church in China. He was the intimate companion of the faithful Church in China, and the good understanding teacher and friend of the faithful Church in China.

In the 1950’s the Catholic Church in mainland China was severely crushed. Bishop Kung of Shanghai was arrested. Many priests and Catholics were imprisoned. Only a few Catholic had the chance to flee abroad. It was he, the good shepherd, who organised these exiled sheep, cared for them, gave them guidance in their spiritual life and helped them to keep their faith. When the Trappist Monastery in Yang Jai-ping was persecuted, some of the monks fled to Hong Kong. It was he, their spiritual brother, who consoled them and later helped them to build the monastery and restore their community life.

When my younger sister became very sick in Shanghai Prison, she was allowed to leave the prison for medical treatment and died a year later. It was father Ladányi who crossed to Kowloon during the night to console my sorrowful parents. It was he who always opened wide his arms to embrace with affection the suffering Chinese Catholics. In his simple office, he used to talk intimately with these exiled faithful so that they might enjoy the warmth of a family spirit.

When I arrived Hong Kong in 1979, I carried within myself all the wounds as well as a loving memory of the faithful Church in China. He said to me; “Write it down! Write it down as soon as possible!” I said reluctantly, “I have been imprisoned for so long, I don’t know how to write freely. Also, I have no experience in writing.” He said very earnestly: “Write! When you begin to write, as you go along, you will discover how to write!” So with his encouragement, I finished writing the book entitled “Catholic Children in the Labour Camp” within half a year.

I visited him in his office a number of times, listening to all he had to say. He spoke Mandarin perfectly, sometimes mixed with a few sentences of Cantonese. There was no difference of nationality between us. Sometimes when I saw him two hands trembling because of his sickness, I wanted to give him a helping hand but he always made every effort to arrange everything himself. Sometimes when I saw his desk was in disorder and wanted to put in order for him, he would said, “Not necessary. I am accustomed to it.” Yes, even if your desk was disordered, this would not affect your clear mind and thinking, nor your keen eye-sight. His tall, thin frame conveyed an impression of profound wisdom. His ageing face expressed the warm affection of his heart. It would not be easy to find another good missionary like him, an understanding priest!

Good-bye, Father Ladányi! Best wishes for your journey. The memory of you will never fade from our hearts. But now, your long journey, this important long journey, has made us in this world, think so much of you and your life.

You are another Father Lebbe, the glory of missionaries. May you still continue from Heaven, to protect the Church in China. Bless our faithful brothers and sisters who are still suffering now, who are crushed to the ground and are not understood! Bless those who are exiled in other countries, waiting for the mercy of God to re-establish the Church in China.
By Ho Hoi-ling from America
Sunday Examiner Hong Kong - 9 November 1990

◆ Biographical Notes of the Jesuits in Hong Kong 1926-2000, by Frederick Hok-ming Cheung PhD, Wonder Press Company 2013 ISBN 978 9881223814 :
He was a scholar who published many articles and books which include :
“The Catholic Church in China” (Freedom Press, New York 1987); “The Communist Part of China and Marxism : A Self-Portrait” (Hoover Institute Press, Stanford, 1988); “Law and Legality in China : The Testament of a China-Watcher” (Hurst, London, 1992).

His books are scholarly and influential to the study of modern and contemporary China.

Note from Alan Birmingham Entry
He was the Editor of the “Sunday Examiner” for almost 33 years (1957-1991). For more than twenty years he edited the English writings of László Ladányi in the “China News Analysis”

◆ Interfuse

Interfuse No 64 : Easter 1991
DEATH OF A CHINA-WATCHER - Fr Laszlo Ladany
Jurgen Domes

For several decades, Hungarian Jesuit Fr Laszlo Ladany edited in Hong Kong his China News Analysis: the publication attempted, by comparing different versions of official reports, by noting omissions and changes, to outline the true trajectory of events within China. He died on 23rd September, 1990, and is recalled in a commemorative issue of the periodical (kindly sent by Michel Massan, S.J.).

Robert Elegant, journalist, writes:
He was very proud and fiercely defensive of his work. He had contempt for journalists who rewrote his reports under their own names. Still, he had pity for those, sometimes the same individuals, who could not make the intellectual and imaginative jump that would enable them to see what was happening in China with the same clarity he did.

That incapacity was particularly marked during the Cultural Revolution, which, as we later discovered, outdid in horror even our most daring reports. Nonetheless only four professional China Watchers came close to the true story: Laszlo Ladany in the van; Burton Levin of the American Foreign Service, later Ambassador to Burma; Knobby Clark of the Regional Information Office; and myself with Ladany's guidance. Almost everyone else first believed that Chairman Mao Zedong had everything under control - and later refused to believe the enormity of the cataclysm.

Simone de Beauvoir called him “a fanatic anti-communist full of hatred”. After many accusations in the same vein, Han Suyin eventually remembered him as her “Hong Kong Jesuit Friend”, “tall and dignified and admirably versed in Chinese”, “owner of uncommon intellect” who spoke “with eloquence and restraint” and had “humour, zest and knowledge”.

For the many sycophants and apologists of totalitarian communist dictatorship in American and West European Contemporary China Studies, he was hardly quotable. They tried to ignore him as much as possible. But for all of us who ventured the attempt to develop a distanced and sober view of the Peoples' Republic of China, he had assumed an unprecedented prestige as a China scholar. Indeed he was the dean of the international trade which observes contemporary politics in the Peoples Republic of China.

With Fr. Ladany, we lose a brilliant analyst, a steadfast Christian, and warm-hearted friend.

For almost forty years of continuous observation of the developments on the Chinese mainland, thirty years of which were dedicated to the regular publication of China News Analysis, he succeeded in submitting, with very few exceptions, a correct and precise picture of the Peoples' Republic of China as well as projections of her future perspectives which have proven much more often right than wrong. When thinking back, we remember that he was the first among the very few observers who, at that time, realized that the “Great Leap Forward” resulted in economic chaos, and in the greatest famine in this century. In January 1967, he suggested that the military leaders in the provinces were the men to watch in the following years. And in his last conceptual January edition of China News Analysis entitled “Deja Vu”, he drew the first comparison between the developing features of communist collapse and the final years of Kuomintang rule on the Chinese mainland.

What made him so correct in his descriptions and so reliable in his analysis? Three observations provide the answer to this question. First, he knew China and the Chinese very well. His sovereign command of Chinese among altogether eight languages which he spoke fluently gave him access to all available sources including the extremely important interviews with recent refugees from the Peoples' Republic of China. Second, he had a firm and deep understanding of Marxism-Leninism. Philosophically trained, he had developed the ability to divest the communist ideology of its fallacious prophecies and to penetrate the rosy fog of the doctrine to unveil the realities of totalitarian rule. Third, he had a deep compassion for humanity, for the joys, trials and tribulations which affect human beings everywhere in the world.

These three elements produced his unique analytical approach, the method of qualitative content analysis which is based on rigid and uncompromising Textkritik.

But apart from his fundamental contribution to the understanding of China, he was also a wonderful person. While never propagandizing his Christian beliefs in a patronizing manner, his life as a Christian has been convincing for many and decisive for some.

Hence, we have lost a great scholar and a passionate man. Hong Kong changed, and the international community of China specialists changed when God called him. It is a small consolation in this moment of grief that Fr Ladany could still be alive when his Hungarian motherland was liberated from Communism.

Born: 24 June 1916, Nephin Road, Cabra, Dublin
Entered: 23 March 1940, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Died: 17 September 2012, Kerlogue Nursing Home, Rocksborough, Kerlogue, County Wexford

Left Society of Jesus: 24 April 1945

Christopher Joseph Thomas Laheen

Son of John Laheen and Elizabeth (Smyth), brother of Kevin A Laheen - RIP 2019. Parents were supported by private busines. Family moved to Bray, County Wicklow and then back to Dublin.

Educated at Presentation Brothers College Bray.

Before joining he was in business with his father and a brother in a boot mending business in Stoneybatter, Dublin as well as good experience in farming.

Baptised at the Holy Family, Aughrim Street, 30/06/1916
Confirmed at Holy Redeemer, Bray, by Dr Byrne of Dublin, 20/05/1930

1940-1942: St Mary's, Emo, Novitiate
1942-1945: Clongowes Wood College SJ, working

Address 2000: St Xavier’s, Station Road, Rosslare Harbour, County Wexford

https://rip.ie/death-notice/christopher-laheen-wexford-rosslare-harbour-165649

The death has occurred of

Christopher Laheen
Station Road, Rosslare Harbour, Wexford

Laheen (Station Road, Rosslare Harbour, Co. Wexford), September 17, 2012, at Kerlogue Nursing Home, Christopher, beloved husband of the late Eileen and father of John, Patrick and David;deeply regretted by his loving family, in-laws, grandchildren, great-granddaughter, nephews, nieces, relatives and friends. R. I. P. Reposing at Mulligans Funeral Home, The Faythe, Wexford from 11o’c, Tuesday with removal at 7o’c, to St Patrick’s Church Rosslare Harbour. Funeral Mass on Wednesday at 11o’c, burial afterwards in St. Aidan’s Cemetery Kilrane. Family flowers only. Donations in lieu if desired to Kerlogue Nursing Home.

Born: 18 February 1919, Dublin City, County Dublin & Bray, County Wicklow
Entered: 16 September 1938, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1952, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1955, Mungret College SJ, Limerick
Died: 26 March 2019, Highfield Healthcare, Whitehall, Dublin

Part of the St Ignatius, Lower Leeson Street, Dublin community at the time of death.

Brother of Br Christopher J Laheen Ent 23/03/1940 - LEFT 24/04/1945

Parents are supported by private business. Family moved to Bray, County Wicklow and then back to Dublin.
Youngest of three boys with two sisters.
Early education was at Presentation College Bray. Then he went to Belvedere College SJ.

Born: 14 June 1848, Luxembourg
Entered: 31 May 1885, Loyola House, Dromore, County Down
Final Vows: 15 August 1895, Milltown Park, Dublin
Died: 02 March 1925, Milltown Park, Dublin

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He was German by birth, born at Luxembourg and had fought at the Franco-German war.

He made his Novitiate at Dromore under John Colgan.
He was an excellent carpenter.
During the Great War he went for rest to Galway. The local police became aware of his presence and brought him to the station. He was disturbed by this incident and returned to Dublin the following day.
He died at Milltown 02 March 1925.

Milltown Park, Dublin

Born: 23 December 1820, Ireland
Entered: 31 January 1844, Frederick, MD, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Died: 14 January 1847, St Inigo’s, MD, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)

Born: 29 July 1931, Convent Road, Tullamore, County Offaly
Entered: 07 September 1950, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1964, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1967, Canisius College, Chikuni, Zambia
Died: 09 January 1998, Chikuni, Zambia - Zambia-Malawi province (ZAM)

Part of the St Ignatius, Lusaka, Zambia community at the time of death

Transcribed HIB to ZAM : 02 February 1967

Son of Mr Frank Lane Mrs Lane of Tullamore. Father was a commercial traveller.

Younger of two boys with two sisters.

Early education was with the Christian Brothers in Tullamore for nine years. He then went to UCD studying engineering for a year before entry.

by 1959 at Chivuna, Monze, N Rhodesia - studying language Regency

◆ Companions in Mission 1880- Zambia-Malawi (ZAM) Obituaries :
Not long before Fr Bill Lane died, he was chatting with Fr Bob Kelly at St lgnatius, Lusaka. A young lady whom they both knew had died in a very sudden manner at U.T.H. Fr Bill remarked, ‘You know, Bob, that's the way I'd like to go, quickly and without fuss’. And that is the way it happened. On Friday, 9 January 1998, Bill was on his way to Chilalantambo with Fr Jim Carroll to give some Scripture talks to the parishioners. As they drove on that bumpy road, Bill suddenly stopped talking. Fr Jim was shocked to find that Bill was dead beside him. There seems to have been no intervening period of sickness or pain. His departure was, as he had wished, ‘quickly and without fuss’.

Bill was born in Tullamore, Co Offaly, Ireland in 1931. After school with the Christian Brothers, he went to Dublin University to study engineering for a year. At the end of that year he joined the Society in 1950. For his regency he was sent to Zambia and taught at Canisius for a year as well as learning ciTonga. After the usual course of studies, he was ordained priest in 1964 at Milltown Park, Dublin.

Returning to Zambia he worked in the Kasiya parish, then Mukasa Minor Seminary at Choma. From 1969 to 1973, he was education secretary in the diocese of Monze, responsible for a network of 80 primary schools. His organizing and administrative talents were recognized at this time. He was the last expatriate Education Secretary in the Monze diocese as the primary schools were handed back to Government.

Bill was moved to the Archdiocese of Lusaka. The late Fr Dominic Nchete asked, ‘Why are they moving our best men away from the diocese? Fr Lane knows how to work with our people’. He was asked to become secretary for communications (1978-85). He combined the job with the office of province bursar (1982-88). From 1990 until his untimely death, Bill worked for the Zambia Episcopal Conference first as secretary for catechetics and then as coordinator of the Bible apostolate.

Publishing was big in his life during all these years, to help people come to grips with Sacred Scripture, with methods of prayer and with the history of the Church in Zambia. His writing was clear and concise and very practical in the many booklets he produced. All Bill's activities were carried out with wit and good humour which made him a popular member of any group he was in. He could also be a devastating critic when aroused by what he considered hypocrisy. Bill considered himself to be politically incorrect in that he expressed his views honestly, rather than resort to making the right noises in the right places and he was aware that this did not enhance his chances for advancement through the hierarchy of the Society. In fact he never was a superior.

The number of people whose lives he touched was great indeed. He had a rare gift for reaching out to those whom others might have considered black sheep. His sensitivity to those who were ill at one time or another was another remarkable facet of his life. Bill was a gifted person who gave generously of his time and talents to the Church and people of Zambia for the forty years he worked in the country.

Throughout his years in Zambia, he preached and directed numerous retreats as well as helping at Kalundu Study Centre and in the Major Seminary. In his busy career he was always willing to help out in the parish, supplying Masses and other church services when needed. He was a good confessor and a no nonsense preacher.

Note from Fred Moriarty Entry
Fr Fred was a radio program coordinator. He recorded many programs in ciTonga and English for ZNBC. He coordinated with Fr Bill Lane and Fr Max Prokoph in this area.

Born: 1591, Naas, County Kildare
Entered: 05 April 1625, St Andrea, Rome, Italy - Romanae province (ROM)
Ordained: - pre Entry
Died: 17 January 1647, Unknown

1626 ROM Catalogue Novice in Rome
1637 Catalogue Mediocre in all and choleric - has experience
Kildare Arch Journal Vol III p190

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Of the Morristown-Lattin family (cf Foley’s Collectanea)
1627 Came to Irish Mission
1642 Living and working in Dublin in disguise.
1643 Imprisoned
Named in two letters, Waterford 10 October 1642 and Galway 03 August 1643
Though many Priests and Religious had been seized and executed by Puritans, James Latin and two of his Brethren braved every danger and were indefatigable in consoling and assisting suffering Catholics.
In the postscript, of the first letter the writer had just received intelligence of Latin’s arrest and committal to gaol. In the second letter it says he was still in prison, and had been arrested in the street while on his way to administer the Sacrament of the Sick. (cf Oliver, Stonyhurst MSS)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Already Ordained on Ent 08 April 1625 Rome
1627/28 Sent to Ireland and Dublin Residence after only eighteen months in Novitiate. He arrived in Rouen to get a passage to Ireland, but while there the Mission Superior Christopher Holywood asked him to head for Paris on some Irish Mission business. So it was probably around 1628 by the time he arrived in Dublin. Once there he stayed in Dublin and along with Thomas Quin and John Purcell, survived the expulsion of clergy there by the Puritans of 1641-1642. However, he was then arrested and thrown into prison, Autumn 1642 or Spring 1643, and was still in prison a year later. For a while in prison he was able to say Mass and receive visitors, but these privileges were eventually revoked.
He was still living 10 June, 1647 when he managed to say Mass but was after the consecration stripped him naked and scourged him in the presence of bystanders by parliamentarians who profaned the Sacred Species, but the bystanders out of compassion prevailed on the torturers to spare him further ill treatment.
It is likely that he died soon after. He is not mentioned in Verdier’s report 'of the mission in 1649
About ten years after his arrival on the Mission he came into a sizeable fortune, sufficient to found a Residence and support two Jesuits at Naas.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
LATIN, JAMES. All that I can gather concerning this zealous Father is from two letters, one dated from Waterford, (Manapia) 10th of October, 1642, the other from Galway, the 3rd of August, 1643. The first informs me, that though many Priests and Religious had been seized and executed by the Puritans, yet F. James Latin, and two of his Brethren braved every danger, and were indefatigable in assisting and consoling the Catholics groaning under Puritanical despotism. In the Postscript the writer says, he had just received intelligence of F. Latin s apprehension and commitment to gaol. The second States, that he was still a prisoner, and that he had been apprehended in the street in the act of proceeding to administer the sacraments to the sick.

2021 notes:
3 July 1614 James Lattin, youngest son of John Lattin & Alson Ashe from Morristown Lattin, Co. Kildare, was ordained in Rome. He joined the Jesuit order in 1625 and became a coadjutor in Dublin. He was arrested & deported in 1642 #localhistory

Born: 08 April 1924, Portersize, Grange Con, County Wicklow
Entered: 18 December 1946, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois

Left Society of Jesus: 31 October 1955

Parents were farmers. Father, Edward, RIP at time of entry, and mother was Elizabeth Beckett. Parents separated and mother brought John to live in new family, in which six children were born. When his father died in 1944, mother legally married the father of her six other children.

Address at time of entry: Coolavah House, Narraghmore, Ballitore, Athy, County Kildare

Had worked on family farm and as a lorry driver for a Mr Reddy in Carlow before entry.

Educated ay St Laurence’s National School, Crookstown, Ballytore, County Kildare.

Baptised at Moore Church (Most Holy Trinity), Castledermot, County Kildare, 12/04/1924
Confirmed at Ss Mary and Laurence, Crookstown, County Kildare 27/06/1934

1946-1948: St Mary's, Emo, Novitiate
1948-1950: St Mary's, Emo, working
1950-1955: Chikuni, Chisekesi, N Rhodesia (POL Mi) working

Having left he was understood to be working in Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia

Born: 24 November 1655, Cork City, County Cork
Entered: 05 September 1675, Paris, France - Franciae Province (FRA)
Ordained: 1686, La Flèche, France
Final Vows: 15 August 1691, Rouen
Died: 13 January 1726, Irish College, Poitiers, France - Aquitaniae Province (AQUIT)

1685 At La Flèche teaching Humanities and Rhetoric
1690 Gone to Ireland for 3 years
1693 At Quimper College teaching Grammar, Rhetoric, Philosophy
1696 At Brest. MA in University of Nantes. Teaching Philosophy.
1705 At Blois College teaching Grammar, Philosophy. Spiritual Father, Minister and Procurator 4 years
1709-1720 At Irish College Poitiers. Rector 1718-1710
1724-1725 Infirmus

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
1717 Rector at Poitiers
Said to have been a learned man; Professor of Philosophy; Of pleasing address; He had been on the Irish Mission (cf Foley’s Collectanea)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Had previously studied at Nantes graduating MA before Ent 05 September 1675 Paris
After First Vows he was sent to Hesdin for Regency, and then to La Flèche for Theology where he was Ordained 1686
1687-1691 Sent to Ireland, but four years later was deported to France
1691-1695 Sent to Quimper and holding a Chair in Philosophy
1695-1696 Missioner at Brest where he was also chaplain to the French navy in the Mediterranean for a year.
1696-1709 Sent to Blois College as Minister and Procurator
1709 Rector of Irish College Poitiers for two terms 1709-1717 and 1722-1724. he died there 13 January 1726

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Walter Lavallin 1655-1726
Fr Walter Lavallin a native of Ireland, was appointed Rector of the Irish College at Poitiers in 1709. He was still Rector in 1714, when he wrote to the Superior that he had erected a new public chapel for the use of the College, that the expense had exceeded his expectations, but that hen would not contract any debt that he was not able to discharge.

He died at Poitiers on the 10th or 13th of January 1726.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
LAVALLIN, WALTER, was certainly appointed Rector of the Seminary at Poitiers in 1709. He was still filling the same office on the 6th of September, 1714, when he addressed a letter to his Superior, acquainting him of his having erected a new public Chapel for the use of the College; and that the expenses had exceeded his original calculation, but that he had not contracted, nor would contract, any debt, which he was not able to discharge.

Born: 09 April 1932, Ard na Gréine, Castleknock, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 07 September 1950, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1964, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1967, St Ignatius, München, Germany
Died: 12 September 2019, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin

Part of the Milltown Park, Dublin community at the time of death.

by 1961 at Heythrop, Oxford (ANG) studying
by 1965 at Münster, Germany (GER S) making Tertianship
by 1966 at Munich, Germany (GER S) studying
by 1985 at Vocation Sisters, Angmering Sussex, England (ANG) working
by 1999 at St Augustine’s Priory, Hassocks, Sussex, England (ANG) working

Son of Richard Lavelle and Patricia O’Mara. Father was a doctor.

Third of four boys with one sister.

Early education was at Ballinasloe NS, County Galway, he went then to Belvedere College SJ for eight years.

Born: 1670, Magheralin, County Down
Entered: 06 January 1698, Bordeaux, France - Aquitaniae Province (AQUIT)
Ordained: 1697, Rome, Italy - pre Entry
Final Vows: 02 February 1709
Died: 07 August 1725, Dublin City, County Dublin - Romanae Province (ROM)

Completed his studies before Ent
1700 At Bordeaux College teaching Grammar
1705 At Xaintes (Saintes) College (AQUIT) teaching Humanities and Philosophy and studying Philosophy and Theology
1706-1708 At Poitiers
1714-1717 At Poitiers Spiritual Father
1717 CAT Good talent, learned and speaks elegantly. It is wished he had greater love of poverty. When on Mission people complained he was irascible and wanting in meekness and humility

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Son of Patrick and Mary of Ulster. Probably a brother of Susan Lavery OSB, a nun, of Dunkirk (Foley’s Collectanea Vol vi p 439)
He was one of James II Demies sent to Magdalen College, Oxford, 1687
Entered the English College Rome for Higher Studies 30 March 1689.
Professor of Philosophy; Eloquent Preacher; Charming in conversation
1708 and 1714 In Ireland (HIB Catalogues)
1717 At Poitiers

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Had studied Irish College Rome and was already a Priest 1697 Rome, before Ent 06 January 1698 Bordeaux
1700-1707 After First Vows he taught Humanities at Bordeaux, Nantes and Poitiers
1707-1714 Sent to Ireland and Dublin and worked in the Dublin district.
1714-1717 Sent to Irish College Poitiers as Spiritual Father
1717 Sent to Dublin and worked as an Assistant Priest until his death there 07 August 1725

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Charles Lavery SJ 1670-1717
Fr Charles Lavery was born at Magheralin County Down in 1670. He entered Magdalen College Oxford, as one of James II demie or foundationers At this time great efforts were being made to obtain for the Fathers a firm footing in the University. Although both Christ Church and University College were governed by Catholics, the chief hope was placed in Magdalen, which had been given by the King to his Catholic subjects. In 1688 however, all fifteen demies at the College were expelled. Charles Lavery first went to Rome and entered the English College. He returned to Ireland without taking orders, and he entered the Society in 1697.

He was appointed Professor of Philosophy. In addition, he was an eloquent preacher and a gifted conversationalist. His name is found as having been in Ireland in 1708 and 1714.

He died in Poitiers in 1717.

Director of Player Wills.

Born: 05 June 1927, Gurteen, Knapton Road, Monkstown, County Dublin
Entered: 22 September 1948, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 28 July 1960, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 05 November 1977, Clongowes Wood College SJ
Died: 04 February 2012, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin

Part of the Clongowes Wood College, Naas, Co Kildare community at the time of death

Father was a District Justice

Early education was at local preparatory schools in Dublin and then at Clongowes Wood College SJ for six years. He then attended lectures at the Kings Inns for three years.

by 1951 at Laval France (FRA) studying
by 1976 at Loyola Hall, Lahore, Pakistan (PAK MISS) working

Born: 29 October 1909, Main Street, Newtownbarry, Bunclody, County Wexford
Entered: 01 September 1926, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 17 July 1938, Innsbruck, Austria
Final Vows: 02 February 1944, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Died: 16 June 1993, Our Lady’s Hospice, Dublin

Part of the Milltown Park, Dublin community at the time of death.

Eldest Brother of Donald - RIP 1984

Early education at Clongowes Wood College Sj

by 1933 at Valkenburg, Limburg, Netherlands (GER I) studying
by 1936 at Innsbruck, Tirol, Austria (ASR) studying

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 8th Year No 4 1933

Father T. Corcoran's labours in connection with the examinations for the Higher Diploma had scarcely concluded when he had to betake himself to Holland to preside at the second International Congress of Catholic Secondary Education. The meetings of the Congress took place at the Hague each day from 31st .July to 5th August.
Their Excellencies, the Bishops of Holland, were patrons of the Congress, which was attended by some 350 delegates representing the leading Catholic countries. Among the delegates were about 45 members of the Society from lands outside Holland. Prominent among the visitors were the Provincial of the Paris Province, with various Rectors and Prefects of Studies from our French Colleges. Père Yoes de la Brière, the Rectors of Brussels, Namur, Liege and other Belgian Colleges, Fathers Errandonea, Herrera and others from Spain,the French Oratorian Sabatier and various distinguished lay-men from Germany and Italy.
Cardinal Pacelli, in the name of the Holy Father, sent a long and cordial telegram of good wishes to the Congress , also the Nuncio Apostolic in Holland, who was prevented by serious illness from attending in person.
In the absence of the Nuncio the final allocution was delivered by the Bishop of Haarlem, after the Rector Magnificus of the University of Nijmegen and Father Corcoran, as President of the Congress had already spoken. Mr. J. O'Meara from Louvain Messrs. B. Lawler and C. Lonergan from Valkenburg acted as assistants to Father Corcoran at the Hague.
A splendid paper on “The Present Condition of Secondary Education in Ireland” was read by Dr. John McQuaid, the President of Blackrock College. All accounts agree in stating that the Congress was a brilliant success.
As the proceedings at the Hague coincided with the Biennial Conference of the World Federation of Education Associations, Father Corcoran was unable to be present at the functions in Dublin, but an important paper from his pen was read by Mrs McCarville, Lecturer in English in University College, Dublin. This paper expounded the Catholic philosophy of Education.

◆ Interfuse

Interfuse No 77 : Summer 1994 & Interfuse No 82 : September 1995
Obituary
Brendan Lawler (1909-1993)

29th Oct. 1909; Born, Bunclody, Co. Wexford
Early education: Clongowes Wood College
Ist Sept. 1926: Entered the Society at Tullabeg
1928 - 1932: Rathfarnham - studying Science (biology) at UCD
1932 - 1935: Valkenburg, Holland, studying Philosophy
1935 - 1938: Innsbruck, studying Theology
17th July 1938: Ordained at Innsbruck
1939 - 1940: Tertianship, Rathfarnham
1940 - 1941: Tullabeg, Professor of Cosmology and Biology
1941 - 1943: 35 Lower Leeson Street, Private Study
1943 - 1962: Tullabeg - Professor of Cosmology and Biology. (From 1953 - '59 he was Rector)
1962 - 1968: Loyola House - Socius to Provincial
1968 - 1992; Milltown Park: Secretary, Institute of Theology/Philosophy, and Lecturer (Philosophy), (1982 Assistant Registrar)
1993: Cherryfield Lodge. Hospitalised in The Royal, Donnybrook and then in Our Lady's Hospice.
16th June 1993. Died Our Lady's Hospice.

For many members of the Irish Province the name of Brendan Lawlor is synonymous with memories of the philosophate in Tullabeg, Once can see him still on a dark day in the tiered lecture-room, reading from the yellowing pages of his cosmology notes or play-acting as to whether the continuum could be found in the drawer or under the table. These memories can be crowned with those of drowsy afternoon sessions with diverting slides portraying the innards of the amoeba. In retrospect one can only admire the patience and endurance of those who, after years of no mean scholastic attainment, accepted from the Society the “world without event” of life in Tullabeg.

Brendan had a distinguished scholastic career behind him when he came to Tullabeg as Professor of Cosmology and Biology in the autumn of 1943. He was one of those “stars” who had been picked out for a four-year Juniorate (1928-1932), ending up with a MSc in biology. In the autumn of 1932 he made his way with Con Lonergan to do his philosophy with the exiled Germans in Valkenburg, and then in 1935 both of them went on to join Donal O'Sullivan for theology in Innsbruck. It was typical of the man that he could spend those years so close to the drama of the rise of Hitler and the Anschluss of Austria and so rarely speak of these momentous events afterwards. Even the theology of the times was rarely mentioned by him, though Innsbruck in those years was the centre of “kerygmatic theology” and of the liturgical and catechetical renewal spearheaded by JA Jungmann. Within a short time of Brendan's leaving Innsbruck the house in Sillgasse was turned into the headquarters of the Gestapo, but Brendan by that time was safely back in Ireland doing further studies in Leeson Street.

It will come as a surprise to most people to realize that by far the longest period Brendan spent in one place was not Tullabeg but Milltown Park. He spent nineteen years in Tullabeg at a stretch, being Rector there from 1953 to 1959. He left the midlands in 1962 to become Socius to the Provincial (1962-68), and after those six years in Eglinton Road was assigned to Milltown Park, where he was to spend the next quarter of a century. For many years during this period he did some teaching in the area of logic, but his principal task was to look after the administrative staff of the Institute and to keep the scholastic records of the students. He was also responsible for organizing what came to be called “Saturday Theology”, a very successful programme of lectures for extra-mural students which, over a period of twenty years, introduced innumerable religious and laity to the mysteries of Vatican II.

For a person who in many respects was the quintessence of predictability, Brendan could be a source of hidden talents. The last instance of this came about only a few weeks before his death, when his community was presented with an amazingly competent landscape which Brendan had painted during occupational therapy in the hospice. Who would have thought that we had another Paul Henry in our midst? Then there was his early interest in the scriptures, which eventually bore fruit in his book, Epistles in Focus, widely read in Ireland at the time, and for many years the only scholarly book on scripture by a member of the Province. During his years as Professor in Tullabeg, he rarely, if ever, published anything in philosophy, but in his final years in Milltown he had some published work in Milltown Studies, including one article of which he was particularly proud, “The Star of Implication” (Milltown Studies, no.5).

Those who knew Brendan in the two main periods of his life, that in Tullabeg and that in Milltown, will have been struck by the contrast between the two, especially if one was a scholastic in the earlier period. In Tullabeg he seemed constrained by the stricter regime of the times. In Milltown his natural humour and spirit of companionship blossomed, so that he became one of the most appreciated members of the community. He maintained amazingly good health, even after retirement, and took a great interest in all that was happening in the world, not least in the world of sport, Brendan before the television-set, with cigarette in hand, was one of the fixtures of Milltown life during those years. This continued up to the time that the onset of Parkinson's necessitated his hospitalization. The decline that set in developed with a speed that surprised us all. The disease took him from us within a matter of months, and so he died at the impressive age of 83. May he rest
in peace.

Ray Moloney

Born: 02 March 1911, Main Street, Newtownbarry, Bunclody, County Wexford
Entered: 01 September 1928, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 08 January 1944, St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, Australia
Final Vows: 03 February 1947, Wah Yan College, Hong Kong
Died: 04 December 1984, Lisheen, Rathcoole, County Dublin

Chaplain in the Second World War.

Younger Brother of Brendan - RIP

Father was a business man and died in 1914

Youngest of three brothers.

Early education at Dominican Convent Wicklow for two years and then at Clongowes Wood College SJ for seven years.

Transcribed HIB to HK - 03 December 1966; HK to MAC-HK; MAC-HK to CHN

by 1937 at Aberdeen, Hong Kong - Regency
by 1941 at Pymble NSW, Australia - studying

◆ Hong Kong Catholic Archives :
Death of Father Donald Lawler, S.J.
R.I.P.

Father Donald Lawler, SJ, formerly of Wah Yan College, Hong Kong, died in Ireland on Tuesday, 4 December 1984, after a very long illness, aged 73.

Father Lawler was born in Ireland in 1911 and joined the Jesuits in 1928. He came to Hong Kong in 1936. After two years of study of Cantonese, he taught for two years in Wah Yan College, Hong Kong. He then studied theology in Australia and was ordained priest there in 1944. After a final year of Jesuit formation in Ireland, he returned to Hong Kong in 1946 and was senior Science Master in Wah Yan College, Hong Kong, for thirty years. He suffered a stroke in 1976, and for the rest of his life was as invalid sinking steadily into ever more complete helplessness as the years went by. About five years ago he was brought by hospital plane to Ireland, where the care of his elder brother, also a Jesuit, helped to mitigate the hardship imposed such prolonged illness.

Death came gently.
Sunday Examiner Hong Kong - 14 December 1984

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 20th Year No 2 1945

Frs. J. Collins, D. Lawler and P. Toner, of the Hong Kong Mission, who finished theology at Pymble last January, were able to leave for Ireland some time ago, and are expected in Dublin after Easter.

Irish Province News 22nd Year No 1 1947

Departures for Mission Fields in 1946 :
4th January : Frs. P. J. O'Brien and Walsh, to North Rhodesia
25th January: Frs. C. Egan, Foley, Garland, Howatson, Morahan, Sheridan, Turner, to Hong Kong
25th July: Fr. Dermot Donnelly, to Calcutta Mission
5th August: Frs, J. Collins, T. FitzGerald, Gallagher, D. Lawler, Moran, J. O'Mara, Pelly, Toner, to Hong Kong Mid-August (from Cairo, where he was demobilised from the Army): Fr. Cronin, to Hong Kong
6th November: Frs. Harris, Jer. McCarthy, H. O'Brien, to Hong Kong

Irish Province News 60th Year No 1 2 1985

Obituary

Fr Donald Lawlor (1911-1928-1984) (Macau-Hong Kong)

2nd March 1911: born in Bunclody, Co Wexford. 1st September 1928: entered SJ. 1928-30 Tullabeg, noviciate. 1930-33 Rathfarnham, juniorate (physics and chemistry to B. Sc.), 1933-36 Tullabeg, philosophy. 1936-40 Hong Kong (study of Cantonese. 1938-40 teaching in Wah Yan College, Hong Kong). 1940-45 Australia, theology (Pymble, NSW: ordained priest in 1944). 1945-46 Rathfarnham, tertianship. 1946-78 Wah Yan College, Hong Kong, teaching science chiefly. 1979-84 Lisheen nursing home, Rathcoole, Co Dublin.

The following notice of Fr Lawler, written by Fr Alan Birmingham (M-HK), has been copied from Macau-Hong Kong Province Letter no. 265 (12: 1984):

On Tuesday 4th December, Fr Vincent Murphy telephoned from Ireland to tell us that Don Lawler had died a few hours earlier. Everyone's first reaction was one of gratitude for the ending of Don's long Purgatory on earth. There was of course shock in learning that the companion of so many years was no longer in this world, but it would have been hypocritical conventionalism to pretend to sorrow over his death. The Don of the crystal clear mind, the Don of the lithe vigorous body, the Don of unquestioning independence, had gone years before. Death had brought to an end joyless years of fading powers.
Don Lawler received his schooling at Wicklow Convent and at Clongowes Wood College. I first met him when we arrived together to start our noviceship at Tullabeg. His elder brother Brendan took his first vows on the morning after our arrival and he stayed on in Tullabeg for a short time to act as Don's angelus, The Don of noviceship days was in most ways very like the Don of full maturity. He already had a sturdy distaste for loose thinking and for conventional expression or manifestation of piety. Eschewing gush, he had an unrivalled grasp of the theological and spiritual principles underlying noviceship training and the whole Jesuit life. He took his vows in the ambulacrum in Emo Park (newly acquired as the noviciate house) on 2nd September 1930.
He might have been miserable if he had been asked to do an arts degree in the juniorate. It is hard to imagine Don labouring over Wordsworth or Mrs Gaskell. In fact, he worked for a BSc in physics and chemistry. Clear theory derived from exact experiment was what he seemed made for. Philosophy also suited him; Platonism would have seemed to him to be merely sublime vagueness. If he had been born in another age, Descartes' clear and distinct ideas' might have won him: but as it was he found satisfaction in the highly rational Aristotelianism taught by Fr E Coyne. Philosophy always remained one of his major interests.
He had always been deeply interested in the missions, and he felt that one of his dearest dreams was being fulfilled when he was chosen for Hong Kong, along with Paddy Walsh and.me, in 1936.
My abiding friendship with Don dates from that time. In earlier years I had been mildly alarmed by his ruthless intellectualism and his black-and-white judgements on right and wrong, beauty and ugliness, sense and folly. A month with him in a two-man cabin in the Sua Maru was enough to teach me that I had found a true comrade, able to take peculiarities in his stride, and ready to depend on others and to have others depend on him. I never had to alter that judgement.
After two years of not very successful drudgery in the language school, there came the year in Wah Yan in the old Robinson Road building. In that year Don was not merely a teacher. He was a vigorous sportsmaster. He was deeply interested in the boys. He took part in nearly every school activity. In addition he began to make numerous friends round the city. Already, on the way to Hong Kong, he had been the social centre of the ship. Now he seemed to be on to becoming one of the people that everyone knows, almost a second and more scientific Fr George Byrne. The vitality he showed in that year was something unimagined by those who knew him only in later years..
In the summer of 1939, he and I were expecting to sail for Ireland, but the necessary documents did not arrive until later than the date on which Joe Howatson and Seán Turner had sailed in the previous year. When the documents did arrive, late in June, they contained bad news. Don was offered either immediate return to Ireland with removal from the Hong Kong Mission, or a ‘fourth year’ in Wah Yan. Without hesitation he chose the second alternative, and at once set about organising the tasks of the coming year, notably the forthcoming St Vincent de Paul Bazaar (the predecessor of the Caritas Bazaar).
Normally a fourth year in the colleges is a relatively unimportant setback not worthy of obituary mention. Don's fourth year was an exceptionally hard blow, and seems to have changed his whole life. In summer 1939, war was certain. If he did not sail at once, he would not return to Ireland for theology, and the suddenness of the change made this hard to bear. More important probably was the suggestion that he should consider leaving the Mission. He had always cherished missionary hopes; now a cloud had come over them. Joe Howatson, who probably knew Don better than any other Hong Kong Jesuit, once told me that Don had taken the fourth year as a condemnation of all his past expansiveness. Certainly, when I met him again after tertianship, all that side of his life seemed to have vanished, and he had largely withdrawn from the city into Wah Yan. He made friends through his educational committee work and through his abiding interest in games, but the old expansiveness was gone. I never discovered why he got the fourth year. To me he had seemed a model of what a scholastic in the way a college should be. My guess was some of his superiors had worked through mild suggestions and gentle hints, regarding these as sufficient indications of what they wanted to be done. Don, however, was never sensitive to hints. Anything less scientific than a clear and direct statement seemed contumacious when he was quite unconscious of ignoring orders.This, however, is only a guess.
In 1940, he went to Australia for theology, and he was ordained there in January 1944. He liked Australia, and he had many friends there from juniorate and philosophy days. In 1945 he went to Ireland for tertianship.
In 1946 he returned to Hong Kong to start the long career as senior science master that was to last till his strength ailed thirty years later. This was the main work of his Jesuit life, but there is little to be said about it. He was an outstanding and extremely conscientious teacher of physics to the higher forms, and he played a considerable part in the organisation of scientific teaching in the schools of Hong Kong. He was also always ready to take on the instruction of more intellectual converts whom others regarded as formidable. One of these converts is now a Dominican priest. In the 1960s one of the professors in the University of Hong Kong was waging an all too successful war for atheism. Don took him on in a radio debate and by cool and courteous logic won a striking victory that helped to diminish the professor's influence. This debate was almost his only dramatic incursion into public life in his long years as a priest-teacher.
In community life, however, he was no hermit. He was always ready to expound at length any theological, philosophical or scientific theory that came up. Sometimes his expositions would develop nearly into a lecture, but it was a good lecture, clear, orderly, full, and devoid of rhetorical irrelevance or dialectical tricks.
Over the years he was an unremitting student of the Bible, reading it over and over again. He was also careful to keep abreast of scientific progress. For diversion, more and more as the years went by, he turned to scientific fiction, the frivolous counterpart of his work. to him mere whimsy.
No account of Don would be completed without some reference to his congenital tidiness with both time and things. Every action seemed to have its exact unchangeable time - his shower for instance at exactly 6.30 pm. If any visitor to his room moved an ashtray on his desk, Don would put it back where it had been, not chidingly, but because the ashtray had its own unchangeable place. In 1976 he had his first stroke. For a time he tried to carry on, hoping that by using a microphone he could still talk to his classes, but this proved impossible. After a second stroke he was given generous hospitality for some months by the ever-generous Columban Sisters in Ruttonjee Sanatorium. He returned to Wah Yan and was able to take a slight part in community life. He managed to attend his Golden Jubilee dinner for a short period. He was able to concelebrate Mass on extreme invalid terms. He could still read, and a fading memory enabled him to read and reread his favourite scientific fiction books with fresh interest at every reading. Another stroke transformed him into a complete invalid, and he was brought to St Paul's Hospital, Causeway Bay. His hospital room was comfortable and he had plenty of visitors, the Columban Sisters being exceptionally kind. Yet his complete dependence on others must have been galling to one of his independent character. His Cantonese had never been very good, and as his voice was failing he found it almost impossible to communicate with the hospital staff. It was decided that he would be happier in Ireland. He was far too ill to travel by an ordinary plane, but helpful authorities agreed to give him space in a space in a military Red Cross hospital plane. In Ireland, he went first to St Vincent's Hospital and then to Lisheen Nursing Home, Rathcoole, co. Dublin. His brother Brendan and Fr Vincent Murphy were assiduous visitors, despite ever increasing difficulty in communication.
He sank slowly but steadily. Those who visited him during holidays in Ireland brought sadder and sadder news, yet he did not seem to suffer much physically and the gradual dimming of his consciousness of this world probably lessened mental suffering. Always we were waiting for the last news. It came on December 4th.
He worked hard. He suffered much. God be with him. May he be with God.

◆ The Clongownian, 1986

Obituary

Father Donald Lawler SJ

Don Lawler received his schooling at Wicklow Convent before coming on to Clongowes. His elder brother Brendan took his first vows in Tullabeg on the morning after Don's arrival and he stayed on for a short time to act as Don's angelus. The Don of noviceship days was in most ways very like the Don of full maturity. He already had a sturdy distaste for loose thinking and for conventional expression or manifestation of piety. Eschewing gush, he had an unrivalled grasp of the theological and spiritual principles underlying noviceship training and the whole Jesuit life. He took his vows in the abulacrum in Emo Park (newly acquired as the noviciate house) on 2nd September 1930.

He might have been miserable if he had been asked to do an arts degree in the juniorate. It is hard to imagine Don labouring over Wordsworth or Mrs Gaskell. In fact, he worked for a BSc in physics and chemistry. Clear theory from exact experiment was what he seemned made for. Philosophy also suited him; Platonism would have seem to have to be merely sublime vagueness. If he had been born in another age, Descartes clear and distinct ideas might have won him: but as it was he found satisfaction in the highly Aristotelianism taught by Fr E Coyne. Philosophy always remained one of his major interests.

He had always been deeply interested in the missions, and he felt that one of his dearest dreams was being fulfilled when he was chosen for Hong Kong, along with Paddy Walsh in 1936. After two years of not very successful drudgery in the language school, there came the year in Wah Yah in the old Robinson Road building. In that year Don was not merely a teacher. He was a vigorous sportsmaster. He was deeply interested in the boys. He took part in nearly every school activity. In addition he began to make numerous friends around the city. Already, on the way to Hong Kong, he had been the social centre of the ship. Now he seemed to be on the way to becoming one of the people everyone knows, almost a second and more scientific Fr George Byrne. The vitality he showed in that year was something unimagined by those who knew him only in years later.

In 1940 he went to Australia for theology, and he was ordained there in January 1944.

He liked Australia, and he had many friends. there from juniorate and philosophy days. In 1945 he went to Ireland for tertianship.

In 1946 he returned to Hong Kong to start the long career as senior science master that was to last till his strength failed thirty years later. This was the main work of his Jesuit life, but there is little to be said about it. He was an outstanding and extremely conscientious teacher of physics to the Higher forms, and he played a considerable part in the organisation of scientific teaching in the schools of Hong Kong. He was also always ready to take on the instruction of more intellectual converts whom others regarded as formidable.

In community life, however, he was not a. hermit. He was also always ready to expound at length any theological, philosophical or scientific theory that came up. Sometimes his expositions would develop nearly into a lecture, but it was a good lecture, clear, orderly, full and devoid or rhetorcal irrelevance or dialectical tricks.

Over the years he was an unremitting student of the bible, reading it over and over again. He was also careful to keep abreast of scientific progress. For diversion, more and more as the years went by, he returned to scientific fiction, the frivolous counterpart of his scientific work.

In 1976 he had his first stroke. For a time he tried to carry on, hoping that by using a microphone he could still talk to his classes, but this proved impossible. After a second stroke he was given generous hospitality for some months by the ever-generous Columban Sisters in Ruttonjee Sanatorium.

It was decided that he would be happier in Ireland. He was far too ill to travel by an ordinary plane, but helpful authorities agreed to give him space in a military Red Cross hospital plane. In Ireland, he went first to St Vincent's Hospital and then to Lisheen Nursing Home Rathcoole, Co Dublin. His brother Brendan and Fr Vincent Murphy were assiduous visitors, despite ever-increasing difficulty in communication, He sank slowly but steadily.

Alan Birmingham

Born: 28 May 1921, Riverview, Newtownbarry, Bunclody, County Wexford
Entered: 07 September 1938, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1952, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1956, Clongowes Wood College SJ
Died: 14 April 2001, Clongowes Wood College, Naas, Co Kildare

Father was a doctor and died in 1935. Mother died in 1924. Father remarried.

Second of three boys with one sister.

Early education at Dominican Convent Wicklow he went to Clongowes Wood College SJ (1932-1938)

by 1982 at Regis Toronto, Canada (CAN S) Sabbatical

◆ Companions in Mission 1880- Zambia-Malawi (ZAM) Obituaries :
Fr Raymond Lawler was born in Co. Wexford, Ireland on 28 May 1921. Fr Raymond (Ray) came to Clongowes Wood College, a Jesuit boarding school, as a small boy of eleven years. Little did he realise that he would spend almost half of his life there as teacher, prefect of studies, higher line prefect, and finally as third line Spiritual Father which he was when he died at the age of 80. Clongowes (CWC) was the love of his life (apart from golf) and it was a mutual relationship between him and the successive generations of boys – always a difficult and critical body, who held him in high esteem. After the funeral Mass, members of his family and students of the school carried his coffin along the Third Line gallery where he had passed so often in the final six years of his ministry. A guard of honour was formed by present and past pupils in a moving tribute to someone who had come to mean so much to so many young people over so many years.

Ray followed the normal formation of the Society: humanities (BA honours in Latin and French), philosophy, regency in Crescent, Limerick and CWC, and theology in Milltown Park where he was ordained on the feast of St Ignatius in 1952. After tertianship, he was posted to CWC as teacher and then prefect of studies for eight years. An official visitor from Rome to the Province did some shuffling of personnel and Ray found himself changed to Belvedere College for two years. He returned quietly to CWC in 1964 again as higher line prefect (1964 - 68) and teacher from 1968 to 1981.

Now at the age of sixty, Ray had a sabbatical in Toronto. Then came a big change in his life when he opted to come to Zambia, Africa where he spent two years teaching French and Scripture to the novices in Lusaka. Fr Bob Kelly went on sabbatical for a year and left his gleaming new car in charge of Ray whose talents did not extend to motor maintenance! But this was ideal for Ray to ferry himself and his clubs to the nearby golf course. He had a passion for birds and was appreciative of anyone who helped him add to his beautiful collection of Zambian bird stamps.

When he returned to Ireland he worked in Tullabeg as Director of the Spiritual Exercises for a year followed by ten years at Gardiner Street Church as parish chaplain. Like a captain viewing the horizon from the bridge of his ship, Ray looked south to his beloved CWC and at the age 74 moved there to be third line spiritual Father.

He enjoyed good health to the end. He preached on Holy Thursday to the past pupils who were on retreat in CWC and played golf all Good Friday afternoon. He died in his room on Holy Saturday following a massive heart attack, on the 14 April 2001 at the age of 80.

Ray was a man who found God in all things whether playing cards, scrabble, chess, whether on the golf course, whether teaching, whatever he was doing he was never far from God. Before he left for Zambia, the school made him a presentation of a set of golf clubs. The school secretary said in his speech, ‘If there were a university degree for gentleness, I think that Father Lawler would have a PhD’. His character was summed up in the phrase “a lovable and loving person”.

◆ Interfuse

Interfuse No 108 : Special Edition 2001

Obituary
Fr Raymond (Ray) Lawler (1921-2001)
28th May 1921: Born in Bunclody
Early education at Clongowes Wood College
7th Sept 1938: Entered the Society at Emo
8th Sept 1940: First Vows at Emo
1940 - 1943: Rathfarnham - Studying Arts at UCD
1943 - 1946: Tullabeg - Studying Philosophy
1946 - 1948: Crescent College - Regency
1948 - 1949: Clongowes Wood College - Regency
1949 - 1953: Milltown - Studying Theology
31 July 1952: Ordained at Milltown
1953 - 1954: Tertianship at Rathfarnham
1954 - 1962: Clongowes Wood College - Teacher
2nd Feb 1956: Final Vows
1956 - 1962: Clongowes - Prefect of Studies
1962 - 1964: Belvedere - Teacher
1964 - 1968: Clongowes - Higher Line Prefect
1968 - 1981: Clongowes - Teacher
1981 - 1982: Sabbatical Year
1982 - 1984: Zambia
1984 - 1985: Tullabeg - Director of Spiritual Exercises
1985 - 1995: Gardiner Street - Parish Chaplain
1995 - 2001: Clongowes - Third Line Spiritual Father; Assisted in Cherryfield
14th April 2001: Died Clongowes Wood College

Ray enjoyed good health to the end. He preached on Holy Thursday to the Past Pupils, who were on Retreat in Clongowes, and played golf on Good Friday afternoon. He died in his room on Holy Saturday following a massive heart attack. He will be greatly missed by all, but particularly by his beloved Third Liners.

Michael Sheil writes

When Ray Lawler came to Clongowes as a young boy of 11 in 1932, he had already spent 7 years in boarding school. At the tender age of 4 he had started his academic career in Dominican Convent, Wicklow. When he died suddenly in Clongowes at Easter, he had experienced over three-quarters of a century of institutional living.

He once described his birthplace, Bunclody, as the back of beyond (he was preaching at the funeral Mass of his neighbour and friend Dr Tom Murphy, former President of UCD, who lived “a bit beyond that”!) But he was always loyal to Wexford and rejoiced when good fortune came the way of their teams,

After leaving Clongowes, where he figured prominently at cricket and rugby, Ray followed the usual pattern of Jesuit formation in the 40s and 50s, studying Arts at UCD, philosophy in Tullabeg. He did his regency in Crescent College and Clongowes and was ordained on 31 July 1952. Afterwards Tertianship in Rathfarnham followed and then began his long association with his beloved Clongowes.

He filled a number of posts there, beginning as a Teacher for 5 years and then as Prefect of Studies for a further 3, until in the general mass migrations which signalled Fr Visitor's (McMahon) passage through the Province in 1962, Ray moved to Belvedere,

My own memories of him go way back to 1949 when, in my first year in the Third Line in Clongowes, we used to hear everyone talking about the marvellous Mr Lawler, who had left the year before. For he had just finished his regency there. In my last two years, I had him for Latin and French and Religion - and was able to realize for myself just why he had been held in such high esteem by that most discerning - if not downright difficult, critical body - the students themselves!

After two short years in Belvedere, Ray returned for what was to be his longest stint in Clongowes - 17 years, until 1981. He began as Higher Line Prefect ( 4 years) and rejoined the teaching staff for the remainder of that time. He was an excellent teacher of French and duly coached rugby and cricket (he played cricket regularly for the local club, North Kildare.) But it was during this time that he fell in love...he discovered the joys of golf! He became a regular sight on the College's golf course and competed frequently in competitions in Naas Golf Club. One year he came home with no less than 5 turkeys won there. And the school's S.R.P.A. (The Society for the Relief of the Poor and Aged - founded by Fr Brian Cullen) was the happy beneficiary.

He was still here when I returned as Higher Line Prefect in 1975 and was a marvellous companion in Community .... and I don't ever remember getting the better of him in a game of golf! Before the golf course was as good as it is today, he used to practise hitting golf balls from the Third Line rugby pitches on to the cricket oval - in all kinds of weather. I remember one day taking a Senior Rugby Practice in miserable, cold, sleety weather. After a while the Captain dared to suggest that we were only wasting our time, for it was too cold to do anything really useful. But I insisted that we might have to play a Cup match in such conditions (as indeed turned out to be the case - it even snowed!). So we battled on. However, after a while, the Captain approached me again and said, “Look, Fr Lawler has gone in!” “All right”, I said, “if it's too cold for Fr Lawler, then it's too cold for us!” And so in we went!

Six years ago we both returned together for what was to be such a wonderful Indian summer of his life. The story is told of how a fellow-Jesuit, on meeting Ray shortly after that change to CWC was announced, said that he had heard that it had taken him only 5 minutes to accept to come back here as Spiritual Father to the Third Line. The story goes that Ray got quite angry at the suggestion and protested that that was an awful thing to say about him. His companion - unused to see the usually placid Ray showing anger - back-pedalled a bit and said that it was only what he had heard from someone else. But Ray was only having him on - and to put him out his agony explained that 5 minutes was a gross exaggeration - it had taken him only 5 seconds! Just after he died, someone said: Surely he is in heaven - to which the reply came back: Sure he arrived in heaven when he came back to Clongowes! That speaks wonders for the spirit which he helped to encourage. It also means that the boys themselves had a part to play in making him so happy - in making him what he was - a lovable and loving person.

When he left CWC in 1981 to go to Zambia - the school made Fr Lawler a presentation of - surprise, surprise! - a set of clubs ... for that, even then, was his great pastime love. In his speech in the Concourse, the School Secretary said something which I never forgot - and which summed Ray up to perfection. “If there were a University degree for gentleness - I think that Fr Lawler would have a PhD.!” For that was indeed one of his great qualities.

On his return to Clongowes in 1995 he became Spiritual Father (or, as some used to say, Spiritual Grandfather!) and he became a central figure in the lives of very many young boys - some of them desperately homesick - and of their parents. The testimony of the great number of letters of sympathy written to the Community bears witness to this. His night prayer with Third Line was spiritual and deeply thought out - informal and always interesting - relevant and touching the lives of Third Liners where they were. How appropriate was it - however much it brought a lump to the throat - to see him on the recent RTE programme, leading this year's Opening Assembly last September, for what was to be the last time - reminding the assembled school of the importance of what really brought the school community together - when they gather to give thanks and glory to God.

St Ignatius of Loyola wanted his companions to be able to find God in all things. And, surely, didn't Ray do just that?! Whether playing cards - scrabble - chess - whether on the golf-course (as he was on the very day before he died) - whether teaching the yoyo (the very first online purchase made by CWC on the internet was yoyo string!) whatever Ray was doing - wherever he was - he was never far from God. For God was never far from him. Psalm 138 (139) was his favourite and he often quoted the lines: “It was you who created my being... ...I thank you for the wonder of my being, for the wonders of all your creation”. The Psalm ends with the words: “See that I follow not the wrong path and lead me in the path of life eternal”.

And so God did come to lead Ray home - as quietly as he had lived - in the silence of a Holy Saturday morning. As the Church waited to celebrate again the great Feast of Christ's Resurrection Ray left for a better place. Although his funeral took place during the school holidays at Easter, the College Chapel was full for Mass. Afterwards, members of his family and students of the school carried his coffin along the Third Line gallery (where he had passed so often in the final six years of his ministry.) A guard of honour was formed by present and past pupils in a moving tribute to someone who had come to mean so much to so many young people over so many years. In Clongowes Ray continues to be an inspiration to his Brethren who remember with gratitude and affection his pleasant companionship. And his memory will long be held in reverence in the school where he spent nearly half of his long and full life.

Born: 04 January 1829, Naas, County Kildare
Entered: 16 November 1859, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Professed: 15 August 1870
Died: 15 July 1894, St Mary’s, KS, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

Born: 01 January 1787, County Wicklow
Entered: 09 October 1821, Clongowes Wood College, Naas, County Kildare
Died: 09 January 1831, Clongowes Wood College, Naas, County Kildare

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He was singularly honourable and straightforward. His one thought seemed to be the diligent discharge of his duties. He was most careful to avoid anything that might give offence to others, or wound charity in any degree.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
LAWLESS, PETER. This meek and humble Temporal Coadjutor died at Clongowes on the 9th of January, 1831, Soc.9.

Maretimo, Blackrock, County Dublin

Born: 15 March 1907, Durham Place, Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin
Entered: 05 January 1925, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1939, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1979
Died: 17 January 1994, St Xavier’s College, Bihar, India - Ranchi Province (RAN)

Transcribed HIB to ASL : 05 April 1931; ASL to RAN : 12 March 1956

Father was a journalist with the Irish Times. Parents live at Guanamara, Dalkey, County Dublin

One of five boys with two sisters.

Early education at Prentation Brothers College, Dun Laoghaire (Glasthule)

Socius to Vice-Provincial Austin Kelly in Australia

by 1930 at Chieri Italy (TAUR) studying

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Gerald Lawlor was the fifth and youngest son of seven children. His father, James, had lived in London as a young man and had trained as a stenographer. His mother, Frances Teasdale, was born of a Protestant family, but later became a Catholic. His early education was entrusted to the Presentation Brothers in Dublin, and through the instrumentality of a Loreto Sister he came to experience Jesuit mission-preacher. Lawlor decided to become a Jesuit. He entered the Society at Tullabeg, 5 January 1925. His juniorate studies were at Rathfarnham Dublin, when he studied for a BA at the National University of lreland, graduating with honors. He studied philosophy at Chieri, Italy and at Tullabeg. During these years, Lawlor had a growing desire to become a missionary. He was at first interested in China, then Russia, and finally Australia. He was sent to Australia for regency for four years at St Aloysius' College, Sydney. He was a memorable teacher and well liked by the boys. In the autumn of 1936 Lawlor went to England for his theology studies at Heythrop College. He was ordained, 31 July 1939, just weeks before the outbreak of World War II, and returned a year later to Australia. The story of his trip on the boat, which rammed an enemy submarine, was recalled with exciting detail. After his return, he worked in the parish of North Sydney, taught philosophy at Loyola College Watsonia, and taught secondary students at St Louis School, Perth. He was then appointed socius to the vice-provincial, Austin Kelly, in 1947. In mid-January 1952 Lawlor was assigned to the new mission in India, where he was head of the department of English at St Xavier's College, Ranchi. Except for short periods, he was to remain at the college for the rest of his life. Lawlor was experienced as a man of genuine culture and innate courtesy, as well as a distracted, wistful person. He was a remarkable teacher, dramatising what was dull and making it come alive, by illustrating whatever seemed too abstruse or complex. He was also interested in and successful in directing a variety of plays with his own personal flair. He even wrote his own dramas that were well received. Another important ministry of Lawlor's was pastoral care for the English-speaking Catholics of Ranchi. He was experienced as a caring, assiduous pastor, compassionate to all. He was always available to people, his door always open, and his alms giving was most generous, even to the apparently undeserving poor. He was called the “Messiah of the Shunned”, a title given to him for his work with the Missionaries of Charity and for the rehabilitation of leprosy sufferers. He rejoiced in Vatican II, claiming that it gave him a real sense of freedom, but the movement of the Spirit never gave him fluency in Hindi. He was a true charismatic whose usual mode in every relationship was the theatrical-dramatic. Added to that was his personal aura, the air of mystery that seemed to surround him no matter where he went or what he did. The end result was that he always made an impact on people and situations. It was never easy to challenge his ideas and never easy for him to accept those of others. He was a man once encountered, never forgotten.

Note from John Phillips Entry
Regency was at Riverview, where, with Gerald Lawlor, he produced a notebook called “Notes on European History”, designed to remedy deficiencies in the presentation of Catholic aspects of history.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 23rd Year No 3 1948
Extracts from a letter from Fr. P. J. Stephenson, Xavier College, Kew, Melbourne :
“... We had brilliant results last year. Xavier boys won 28 1st Class Honours and 68 2nd Class Honours in the December Examinations, 1947. Besides that, they won Exhibitions in Greek, French and Physics ; and four General Exhibitions and 2 Free Places in the University. That was a fine record for a class of about 40 boys. Five Xavierians joined the Noviceship this year : four were boys just left school. An Old Xavierian took his LL.B. Degree and became a Dominican.
Fr. Mansfield has been kept going since his arrival. He will be a great addition to our staff as he can take over the Business Class and the Economic Class. Fr. Lawlor came over from W.A. about three weeks ago and has taken up the duties of Socius to Fr. Provincial. Fr. Boylan and his assistant Editor of the Messenger leave for Ireland and Rome soon”.

Irish Province News 52nd Year No 2 1977

Calcutta Province

Extract from a letter from a Jesuit of Calcutta Province, Darjeeling Region (Fr. Edward Hayden, St. Joseph's College, North Point, Darjeeling, Western Bengal)

I was one of the old “Intermediate” boys of the Christian Brothers, Carlow. I left off in 1910, 67 years ago, at the end of June. Yes, we learnt the Gaeilge. The Brothers - or some I met, one in particular, a Brother Doyle, was very keen on it. The others didn't teach it as it was only in the “Academy” that they began with languages: French, Gaeilge, Algebra, Euclid and of course English. (5th Book - Senior Elementary Class - was followed by the “Academy”). The Brothers had dropped Latin just before I joined the “Academy”. We were living at a distance of 5 Irish miles from Carlow, and I was delicate, so I often fell a victim of 'flu, which didn't help me to make progress in studies - made it very hard: but at that time the rule was “do or die”. There was only one excuse for not having home work done – you were dead! That was the training we had: it stood me in good stead through life; it is the one thing I am grateful for.
We had a number of Irishmen here, a handful: Fr Jos Shiel, Mayo, died in Patna. Fr James Comerford, Queen's County, died in Bihar. I met the Donnelly brothers, they were Dubliners. The one who died (Don) was Editor of the Sacred Heart Messenger. Many of his stories were about horse-racing - he must have read plenty of Nat Gould when he was a boy! (Nat wrote a number of horse-racing stories supposed to have been in Australia). There are three Irishmen in Ranchi: Frs Donnelly, Phelan and Lawlor. Fr Phelan has spent nearly his whole life in India. As a boy he was in North Point, and after his Senior Cambridge he joined the Society. At that time there was only the Missio Maior Bengalensis of the Belgian Province. The Mission took in half or more of north-east India - Patna, Ranchi and south of it, Assam, Bhutan and Sikkim - an area four or five times that of Ireland! Needless to say, there were parts of it which had no SJ within a hundred miles ...Down here in the Terai where I am “hibernating” out of the cold of Darjeeling, some forty-five years ago there was no priest. One or two of the professors of theology from Kurseong, some 40 miles away, used to visit this district at Christmas and Easter. It was very malarious. Catholics from Ranchi came here to work on the tea plantations. Then a Jesuit was sent to reside in it. Now the district has schools and Jesuits galore, also non-Jesuits. Great progress has been made. The Salesians took up Assam, the American SJs took over Patna. The Northern Belgians took over Ranchi and the Southern Belgians took Calcutta. (The Belgian Province grew till its numbers reached 1400. Then, about 1935, Belgian separated into Flemings - North - and Walloons - South). Ranchi was given to the North and Calcutta to the South. On the 15th August last year (1976) Calcutta was raised from being a Vice Province to be a full-blown Province. 100% of those joining the SJ now are sons of India. Madura in the south has been a Province for years. Nearly all the Europeans are dead: no more are allowed to come permanently unless for a very, very special reason, India has begun to send her sons to East Africa in recent years.
Fr Lawlor is Irish-born but somehow joined the Australian Province about the time it started a half-century or so ago.
Brother Carl Kruil is at present in charge of an ashram: a place for destitutes, in Siliguri. Silguri is a city which grew up in the last forty years around the terminus of the broad gauge railway and the narrow (two-foot) toy railway joining the plains with Darjeeling - one of the most wonderful lines in the world, rising from 300 feet above sea-level, 7,200 feet in about 50 miles and then dropping down to about 5,500 feet in another ten. Three times it loops the loop and three times climbs up by zig-zags. I seem to remember having met Fr Conor Naughton during the war. Quite a number of wartime chaplains came to Darjeeling. The mention of Siliguri set me off rambling. Br Krull remembers his visit to Limerick. (He stayed at the Crescent, 11th 13th June, 1969). He is a born mechanic. Anything in the line of machinery captivates him. He has to repair all the motors and oil engines – some places like this have small diesel generators which have to be seen to from time to time and all other kinds of machinery: cameras, typewriters etc. At present he comes here to do spot welding (electric welding of iron instead of bolts and nuts.
The PP, here is replacing an old simple shed with a corrugated iron roof by a very fine one with brick walls and asbestos-cement roof. Two years ago or so, the roof was lifted by a sudden whirlwind clean off the wooden pillars on which it rested. Since then he has been saying the Sunday Masses on the veranda of a primary school. In this school 235 children receive daily lessons and a small mid-day meal. The Sisters are those of St. Joseph of Cluny – all from South India. They are really heroines: no work is too difficult for them. They do all their own work and cook for us. Their Vice-Provincial is from somewhere in the centre of the “Emerald Gem”. They are growing in numbers and do great work, running a dispensary amongst other things. The church is very broad, approximately 90 by 60 feet. As no benches are used - people sit on the floor - it will hold nearly 450 people at a time. The altar is in one corner. :
Fr Robert Phelan (Ranchi Province) had a visit one night from dacoits (armed robbers), but with help managed to beat them off.
Ranchi had several of these raids last year. In nearly every case the dacoits managed to get some cash.
One night about two weeks ago a rogue elephant (one that is wild and roaming away from the herd) came to a small group of houses close by. A man heard the noise and came out. The elephant caught him by the leg and threw him on to a corn stack - fortunately. The corn stack of rice waiting to be thrashed was quite broad and flat on top! He was very little the worse for the experience. And that is the end of the news.
One more item: please ask the new Editor of the Irish Province News to let me have copies as (?) and send them by overland (surface mail). Even if they are three months coming, they will be news. God bless you and reward you handsomely.
Yours in our Lord,
Edward Hayden, SJ (born 15th October 1893, entered S.J. Ist February 1925, ordained 21st November 1933, took final vows on 2nd February 1936. Now conf. dom. et alumn. and script. hist. dom. at the above address).

Born: 28 October 1911, Mary Street, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 12 November 1934, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1946, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1949, Mungret College SJ, Limerick
Died: 06 December 1989, St John’s Hospital, Limerick

Part of the Sacred Heart, Limerick community at the time of death

Father was a tailor’s cutter.Family moved to Ballinacurra, Limerick City, County Limerick.

Third of five boys with five sisters.

Educated at Christian Brothers in Limerick (Sexton Street). He then went to the De La Salle Training College in Waterford., and became a National School Teacher. He then taught at Mungret College SJ for one year.

Grew up, 3 County View Terrace, Ballinacurra, Limerick.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - Teacher at Mungret College before Entry

Born: 31 May 1825, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 26 August 1851, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Ordained: 1856
Final Vows: 25 March 1865
Died: 18 June 1879, St Ignatius College Prep, Chicago, IL, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

Born: 04 April 1912, Richmond Hill, Cork City, County Cork
Entered: 07 September 1929, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 13 May 1942, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1947, Clongowes Wood College SJ
Died: 26 January 1984, Dublin, St Ignatius, Lower Leeson St, Dublin

Father was an accountant.

Youngest of three boys.

Early education at CBC Cork and 1 year of Science at NUI before entry

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 59th Year No 2 1984

Obituary

Fr Hilary Lawton (1912-1929-1984)

Entered Tullabeg 7th September 1929. First vows 8th September 1931.
Juniorate, Rathfarnham 1931-33. Philosophy, Tullabeg 1933-36. Regency, Clongowes 1936-39. Theology, Milltown 1939-43; ordained 13th May 1942. Tertianship. Rathfarnham 1943-34. Apostolate: Clongowes: teaching, 1944-47; Prefect of studies, 1947-59; Rector, 1959-65. Crescent College: teaching, 1965-66; Prefect of studies, 1966-71. Crescent College Comprehensive: Administrative assistant, 1971-74. Loyola: Socius to Provincial, 1974-80. Leeson street: Minister, 1980-81; Superior, 1981-84.
Hilary joined us for First Probation in September 1929 at Tullabeg. I can see him, a spruce slight young man in a bowler hat and light tweed coat, mounting the steps to the hall-door while we sat in the sunshine in the Spiritual meadow'. He was then the youngest of us all in years - and yet, at 17, somehow our senior; for we had, none of us, attained higher academic distinction than a Leaving Certificate or Matriculation, but Hilary had an Honours First Science qualification from UCC to his credit, with all the sophistication, real or imagined, that was festooned around such.
“Festoons” - that word, I think, sums up - one of the most engaging characteristics that we all can recall of Hilary - his festooning of his memoirs and adventures. Though one of the most private of men, he would tell many a tale of his boyhood, youth, and as years went by, of his later experiences - tales that gave rise to much enjoyment in his own family and a certain scepticism among his contemporaries and brethren. Yet there was always, as careful sifting revealed, a hard kernel of fact: the rest was an artistic verisimilitude' festooning the “bald and unconvincing narrative”.
Among the hard facts were indeed his being directed to the Society by the late Archbishop Finbar Ryan, OP, who was prior of the Dominicans in Cork when Hilary was a boy. Another: he played the organ in the Dominican church, Pope’s quay, Cork, being a student of the Royal College of Organists. He must have been quite an exceptionally brilliant school boy. He matriculated at the age of sixteen, was apparently considered by his teachers at “Christians' College, Cork”, suitable material to attempt an Entrance scholarship at Cambridge (this is the fact behind his working in the Cavendish laboratory and his “coxing of the College Eight”). Though he did qualify for an honours Science degree and was an excellent teacher of science in Clongowes, academic ambitions seemingly held no very great attraction for him.
Hilary's interest and competence in music - both organ and piano, and I believe the viola - has left quite a mark on the Province, notably in Clongowes, where he spent so many years. Organist as novice, junior, philosopher; choirmaster as a scholastic in Clongowes (where he followed another little remembered musician of the Irish Province, Fr Sydney Lennon † 1979); organist and choirmaster in Milltown, he trained many of us both in execution and appreciation of classical ecclesiastical music. As one who followed Hilary's footsteps as choirmaster in Clongowes and in Milltown, I can testify to the results of his training of the choirs which I took over from him. He was choirmaster, finally, of the choir of the Sacred Heart Church, The Crescent. Limerick: but then the great days of church music were fading, if they had not already faded, and scope for his gifts and interests were unhappily narrowed. Perhaps it is worth recording (for posterity!) that he and I collaborated in editing a Hymnbook for Clongowes. Mungret and our scholasticates ... Our hopes of a total acceptance of this product were never realised. One man's hymn is another man's horror!
I must leave to others a fuller appreciation of Hilary's work for Clongowes throughout his eighteen years there as Prefect of studies and Rector, (cf, the obituary notice in the Clongownian). One knew by report what he was doing in upbuilding the lay staff, in imaginative curriculum development, in the creation of one of the finest music schools, both choral and orchestral, in the country. Interspersed of course was the occasional account of his own doings from Hilary himself, never wanting in the “festoons” of “corroborative details”.
It would ill become me were I not to record that the burgeoning of Sacred Heart College, The Crescent into Crescent College Comprehensive Dooradoyle, would have been fraught with immense difficulties were it not for Hilary's calm, unperturbed, meticulous planning of the transfer. As the Headmaster's Administrative Assistant' - a post created for him by the Department of Education! - we had flawless “ignition and lift-off”. I think Hilary really enjoyed his short spell in Dooradoyle: and he regretted his return to the metropolis.
So much for his public career, so to speak. He was as I said a most private man, his stories of his life-adventures maybe only covering up his desire for privacy. As a friend he was ever-cheerful and even tempered. He enjoyed company; enjoyed his hobbies of photography and music-making; enjoyed the frequent visits to the ruined abbeys and castles which dot the counties of Limerick, Tipperary and Clare (how many he visited in some eight years!). We could and did go on villa together for twenty-odd years, and could year by year contemplate going (but never did go, unfortunately) on foot to Compostella for the feast of St James.
What more can I say? “He was my friend, faithful and true to me ...” May God have him in his keeping and may we be merry together in heaven.
SH

Born: 1545, Cloyne, County Cork
Entered: 24 June 1570, St Andrea, Rome, Italy - Romanae Provine (ROM)
Died: 23 July 1586, Cork

Alias MacMuiris

1574 General Catalogue Aged 27 in Rome 24 June 1570. Made vows 6 months later. Studied 2 years Theology at Roman College (1573-1584). A prisoner on parole and practising medicine. In Ireland was teaching under the Bishop of Cork

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Son of Dr Morris Lea
Educated at Paris, Oxford and Cologne
Taught School in Youghal in 1575
Was imprisoned for the faith; Was a Physician and Surgeon who gave great relief to Archbishop O’Hurley, who in June 1584 had been tortured by having his legs broiled in a fire.
Perhaps he was “Mauritius”
(cf "Hibernia Ignatiana" p28 and O’Sullivan Beare’s “Hist” p 125)

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Charles Leae SJ 1545-1586
The fellow labourer of Fr Rochfort in the school at Youghal was Fr Leae.

He was born in Cloyne in 1545. His father was a doctor of medicine, Charles Morris Leae. Charles studied at Paris, Oxford and Cologne, and finally entered the Society on June 24th 1570. Rome was the scene of his activities for some years. Then in 1575 he came to Ireland with Bishop Tanner of Cork,

He taught in the school at Youghal till 1579, in which year Bishop Tanner died. Fr Leae was captured and put in prison in Dublin. Hence he was released on account of his skill in medicine and was allowed a certain amount of freedom to move around the city. He was known by his fathers name Charles MacMorris.

In the course of his official duties he attended Archbishop Hurley after his torture by the English : A worthy priest names Charles MacMorris of the Society, skilled in medicine, found access to the archbishop and treated his wounds with such skill that in a few days, he was enabled to sit up in bed”. Fr Leae continued to work in Dublin for some years after the execution of the Archbishop.

His death in 1586 brought to an end the Second Mission of the Society of Jesus to Ireland.

◆ Rev. Edmund Hogan SJ : “Distinguished Irishmen of the Sixteenth Century” - London : Burns and Oates, Limited, New York, Cincinnati : Chicago, Benzinger Brothers, 1894 : Quarterly Series : Volume Ninety

Father Charles Leae

Father Rochfort's fellow-labourer in Youghal was Father Charles Leae; he was born in the town of Cloyne, co. of Cork, in the year 1545; his father was Morris Leae, a doctor of medicine, and probably the same whom Stanihurst called “Leie a learned and expert physician”. His mother's maiden name was Mary Sheehy or Hickey; he had studied literature from his early years, and was educated at Paris, Oxford, and Cologne. He became a Jesuit in Rome on June 24, 1570; in 1575 he came to Ireland with Bishop Tanner and Father Rochfort, and taught school, and preached at Youghal and in the surrounding districts up to the year 1579, when Dr. Tanner died, after having endured great sufferings in prison for eighteen months. Father Leae remained in Ireland, and was captured and imprisoned, as we may gather from the following narrative, if we remember that an Irishman was very often called after his father's Christian name, and that Charles the son of Morris Leae would be named Charles McMorris. On the 4th of June, 1584, Diarmait O’Hurley, Archbishop of Cashel, was hanged in Dublin for the profession of the Faith. Some days before his execution, his feet and legs were forced into boots filled with oil and salt, and a fire was put under them. The oil heated by the flames, penetrating the soles and other parts, tortured him in an intolerable manner, and “his skin fell from the flesh and portions of the flesh from the bare bones”. There happened to be then at Dublin a priest of the Society of Jesus, named Charles MacMorris, who had much experience in medicine and surgery, and who had been himself confined in prison by the English, but was released on account of the skill with which he had treated some noblemen who were dangerously ill. This Father visited the Archbishop and applied some remedies which gave him great relief. The hideous details of the roasting are confirmed by the State Papers, and must for ever brand with infamy the names of Loftus and Wallop. I lose sight of Father Leae after this; I know not whether he was able to remain in Ireland for some time going about under various disguises, and instructing and consoling the Catholics of that country, or whether he was driven away by the fury of persecution, and was sent by his Superiors to teach in the Continental Colleges - a task for which he was well fitted by his University training. He was certainly dead before the year 1609. I was fortunate enough to find the following entry, written by him in the Roman Novice Book on the 24th of June, 1570 : “I was born in the town of Cloyne, diocese of Cork; my father and mother are dead; my father was Maurice Leae, a Doctor of Medicine, my mother's maiden name was Mary Chihi. From my earliest years I have devoted myself to learning; I have studied one year at Paris, then I went to the University of Oxford, and lastly I have read Logic and Philosophy during three years at Cologne, when I took the degree of Master of Logic and Philosophy. I promise to observe all the rules, constitutions, and mode of life of the Society, and to do whatever the Society shall order. In witness of which I subscribe this with my hand, CHARLES LEAE”. In the same book I found these items : Charles Leae, an Irishman, made his first vows. in the Professed House on January 17, 1571, on the 24th of

Born: 1605, County Waterford
Entered: 11 June 1626 - Villarejo, Spain - Castellanae Province (CAST)
Final Vows: 28 March 1644, Paraguay
Died: 15 March 1675, Santa Fé de Bogotá, Colombia - Nuevo Reino Mission : COL, ECU, VEN (NEU REI)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
In pencil 1628 At Villareal

◆ Fr John MacErlean SJ :
Shortly after Entry was sent to South America and was the first Irishman to enter the new Province of “Nuevo Reino” (Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela)
Having completed his studies at Santa Fé de Bogotá, he engaged in missionary work, being a distinguished preacher in Spanish and Indian languages.
1641 Minister at Fontibón Residence (suburb of Bogotá)
1655 Professor of Theology at Santa Fé de Bogotá
1656-1663 Rector of Merida College, Venezuela
1664-1671 Rector of Pamplona College, Colombia

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Francis Lea SJ 1605-1675
Fr Francis Lea of Waterford was the first Irishman to join the Province of Nuevo Reino, comprising the modern South American States of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela.

He was born in 1605 and he entered the Society at Villarejo in Spain in 1626, whence he passed soon to South America.

He did his studies at Santa Fe de Bogota and thereafter was engaged in missionary work. He was a distinguished preacher in Spanish and Indian. Later on in his life he was engaged in administration and professing, being Rector in Venezuela and Colombia.

He died at Santa Fe de Bogota in 1675 after a strenuous life of missionary and administrative activity.

Born: 1619, County Meath
Entered: 25 March 1644, Kilkenny
Ordained: - pre Entry
Died: 27 March 1650, County Kilkenny - described as a Martyr of Charity

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
He was the first Novice to enter at Kilkenny. The foundress of this house was Lady Elizabeth Nugent, sister of the Earl of Westmeath. She died 26 October 1645 “A true mother of the Society in Ireland”, quoted from a letter of Robert Nugent 31 October 1645 (cf Oliver, Stonyhurst MSS).
He died a victim of charity in attending the plague stricken in Kilkenny with four companions.
He is highly eulogised in Drew’s “Fasti SJ”. S great was the opinion of his sanctity, that people would run in crowds from the houses to kiss the hem of his garment as he passed, being attracted by the sweet odour of virtue beaming from his face and entire person.
Besides being distinguished for his learning, he was skilled in the medical science, of which he made full use in his missionary career. He was described as a “doctor by nature, and he seems to have the gift of healing. Taught in Kilkenny 1648, he was a Martyr of Charity. He qualified to profess with éclat Theology, Philosophy and Medicine. A man of extraordinary learning and holiness.
He is also named in Mercure Verdier’s long Report on the Irish Mission 1641-1650 made to the General, a copy of which from the English College in Rome is at the Library of the Public Record Office, London.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Already Ordained before Ent 1646 Kilkenny
His skill as a 'natural doctor' was widely known and commented on by the visitator, Mercure Verdier. But while ministering to the plague-stricken he fell a victim to the disease himself and died at Kilkenny 27/03/1650. Described as being a “Martyr” (of charity?)

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Patrick Lee SJ 1619-1650
Patrick Lee was the first novice admitted to the new Novitiate in Kilkenny in 1644. He died a martyr of charity during a plague which broke out in Kilkenny in 1650. “It is incredible” says Dr Oliver, “how this angel of comfort assisted, relieved and restored so many of his fellow creatures, by his heroic courage and active zeal and medical services; for he was a skilful physician of the body as well as of the soul”. It is interesting to note that he was a physician like his namesake and fellow Jesuit Lea, who attended Archbishop Hurley in his torture and death. It seems to prove that they came from the same old Gaelic stock who were devoted to medicine.

So great was the opinion of the sanctity of Fr Lee amongst the people that they used to run in crowds from their houses to kiss the hem of his garments as he passed. It happened that poor man he was attending died. The body was spreading contagion all around. Ft Lee took up the body in his arms and carried it to a nearby cemetery, and digging a grave he buried it. Owing to the heated conditions he was in and the contact with the corpse, he was stricken down with the fatal disease. As soon as it was known that he was dying, the people hurried to get his blessing and it was said that many were cured by touching his gown.

He had been received into the Society on the eve of the Annunciation and before he went to attend the dying he declared to others that he himself would die on the anniversary of his reception. And so it came to pass.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
LEE, PATRICK, was the first Novice admitted into the house of Probation at Kilkenny. In this Novitiate,* erected under the auspices of the Blessed Virgin Mary, F. Lee imbibed the genuine spirit of the Society, which is essentially the spirit of zeal and charity. Whilst in the prime of life, this fervent and highly gifted Father devoted himself to the care of the infected, when Kilkenny was ravaged with the pestilence. It is incredible how this angel of comfort assisted, relieved and restored so many of his fellow creatures by his heroic courage, active zeal, and medical services : for he was the Physician of body as well as of soul. At length he fell a victim of charity on the 27th of March, 1650, (the day before the town surrendered to the besiegers,) in the most edifying sentiments of piety and joy. His death was justly regarded as a public calamity.

• The founders of the Novitiate was the Lady Elizabeth Nugent, (Countess of Kildare, and sister to the Earl of Westmeath.) who died, after an illness of eight months, most piously, on the 26th of October, 1645. “Haec vere erat Mater Societatis nostrae in hoc Regno”, says F. Robert Nugent in his letter of the 31st of October, 1645. This Novitiate flourished at Kilkenny for four years, under that able master of spirituality, F. John Young. It was then removed to Gal way in 1649, and in the autumn of the year following, the young men were transferred to the Continent, and drafted among the various provinces of the Society.

Born: 12 February 1924, County View Terrace, Limerick
Entered: 07 September 1942, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Died: 18 November 2017, Shelbourne Road, Limerick City, Limerick

Left Society of Jesus: 10 January 1944

Father was a builder.

Fourth in a family of nine with two brothers and six sisters

Educated at a National School and then at Crescent College SJ for nine years.

http://www.ourladyoftherosaryparishlimerick.ie/deathnotices/dr-harry-leahy/

The death has occurred of Dr Harry LEAHY
Shelbourne Road, Limerick City, Limerick

Dr Harry Leahy (Shelbourne Road, Limerick) 18th November 2017, in his 94th year, peacefully at home. Beloved husband of Joan. Dearly loved father of Fiona, Sarah, Criona, Emma, Rebecca, Julie, Harry and the late Geraldine. Dear brother of the late Betty, Fr Maurice SJ, Mary, Kathleen, Nancy and Dr John. Sadly missed by his loving family, sons-in-law, daughter-in-law, grandchildren, sisters Celine and Bernice, nephews, nieces, extended family and friends. Rest in peace.

Founder and editor of The Ireland – American Review.

Born: 22 July 1920, County View Terrace, Limerick City, County Limerick
Entered: 07 September 1937, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1952, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1978, Mazabuka, Seminary, Choma, Zambia
Died: 26 October 2004, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin Dublin - Zambia-Malawi province (ZAM)

Part of the Canisius College, Chikuni, Zambia community at the time of death.

Brother of Henry (Harry) Leahy - LEFT 10 January 1944 for medical reasons; Uncle of Niall Leahy SJ

Transcribed HIB to ZAM : 01 December 1977

Parents were supported by business.

Eldest of three boys with six sisters.

Early education was at a National School in Limerick and then at Crescent College SJ.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - Brother of Henry (Harry) Leahy - LEFT 10 January 1944 for medical reasons

◆ Companions in Mission 1880- Zambia-Malawi (ZAM) Obituaries :
To look at Fr Maurice, a rather frail figure, one would not imagine that he was a fine rugby player on the school team during his schooldays at the Crescent College, Limerick. In a way, Maurice was a Limerick man through and through. He was born there on 22 July 1920, grew up there and went to school there. He was a bright student coming top of his class year by year and winning many prizes. He was a good sportsman and athlete, playing on the school junior and senior rugby teams. With those long thin legs of his he was, not surprisingly, the Boys’ High Jump Champion of Limerick.

He joined the Society in 1937 at Emo Park, took Latin and History at University, studied philosophy at Tullabeg and went back to Limerick for regency to his old school. After ordination at Milltown Park, Dublin, in 1952, he spent six years at Gonzaga College in Dublin teaching and holding the job of minister. From 1960 to 1972 he was back in Limerick, first in Crescent College teaching and then for five years at Mungret College, again teaching and vice-superior at the Apostolic School. His qualities of simplicity and outstanding patience and kindness must have made teaching rather a trial.

1966 seems to have been a turning point in his life as regards work. He moved to the Sacred Heart Church in Limerick as a pastoral worker for six years, functioning quietly and successfully. In 1972 another big change took place in his life, this time he was missioned to Zambia at the age of 52 where he spent the rest of his life at pastoral work. After his ordination he had asked to be sent to the missions (Hong Kong) and twenty years later his wish was answered (Zambia).

To begin with, he studied ciTonga at Chikuni and then moved to Namwala (1973) as parish priest and superior there. Here he had plenty of practice at the language as he worked in the parish with all that that entailed. After nine years there he was transferred to Assumption Parish in Mazabuka for a year before moving to the Sugar Estate at Nakambala, where he worked for eleven years in the parish, ten years of these as superior and eight years as parish priest.

His younger brother Harry singles out his gentleness and simplicity. He was always kindly and thoughtful, never bad-tempered or argumentative. He really was ‘the good peaceable man’ of Thomas a Kempis. Everyone was good in Maurice’s eyes. His brother tells of his happiness during these years in Zambia. He was at home among the villagers in Namwala, the urban dwellers in Mazabuka and Nakambala, as well as the sick and feeble in Chikuni hospital. As one person put it: ‘A man of simple and quaint goodness, who had his heart in the right place’.

In 1994, Maurice now 74, moved to Chikuni again as pastoral worker. He was a very dedicated priest, a man of God and deeply spiritual. This the people recognized in their own perceptive way. He was an easy person to live with as he was so undemanding even as a superior. He became a charismatic, again in his own quiet way and became a much-sought-after giver of directed retreats.

He developed a peculiar up-down characteristic in his speech, one minute bass and the next falsetto. This affected his preaching in public but it did not interfere with his retreat giving. He was a very methodical man. The data on the outstations where he supplied were kept up to-date so that the priest who took over the outstations, when Maurice was transferred to Chikuni, had a clear picture of each of these outstations and of the people there, who were being prepared for baptism, for marriage and so on.

At the end of 2003, he was operated on in Lusaka for a colostomy and moved to John Chula House. While there the doctor remarked that Maurice had the recuperative powers of a man of 25! – Maurice was 83 years of age at the time. The doctor suggested that he return to Ireland for the next operation for a number of reasons. This Maurice did on 14 February 2004. The operation was a success. Later, while at Cherryfield Lodge, he suffered a stroke, unrelated to the operation and he died on 26 October 2004 in Dublin but he was buried in his own beloved Limerick.

Born: 25 August 1846, Ballinasloe, County Galway
Entered: 05 August 1865, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1880, Laval, France
Final Vows: 02 February 1886
Died: 11 February 1908, St Patrick’s, Melbourne, Australia

Educated at Summerhill College, Athlone; St Brendan’s Seminary, Loughrea

by 1868 at Amiens France (CAMP) studying
by 1870 at Leuven Belgium (BELG) studying
by 1871 at Antwerp Institute Belgium (BELG) Regency
by 1879 at Laval France (FRA) studying
by 1885 at Roehampton London (ANG) making Tertianship
Came to Australia in 1887

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Early education at College of Immaculate Conception, Summerhill, Athlone. Here he had as fellow students, Michael Watson SJ, Sir Anthony MacDonnell who became Under-Secretary for Ireland and Mr TP O’Connor, later editor of “MAP” and other Journals.

After First Vows he studied Rhetoric at Amiens, Philosophy at Louvain, Theology at Louvain and he was Ordained there in 1880.
He was a Teacher at various Colleges, Tullabeg, Galway and Belvedere, and later Minister at Crescent.
1880 After Ordination he was sent to Australia.
1890 Appointed Rector of St Patrick’s Melbourne. After his time as Rector he continued on teaching at St Patrick’s, acted as Minister for a time, and remained there until his death 11 February 1908 aged 62.
He was thought gentle and courteous to all, and sometimes called “Silken Thomas”. His death was reported as most edifying.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Thomas Leahy studied at Athlone before entering the Society at Milltown Park, 5 August 1865 . He studied philosophy at Louvain, 1869-70, and theology at Laval, France, 1879-80. He taught mathematics and natural philosophy at the Crescent, Limerick, 1874-76, and French, mathematics and physics at Belvedere College, Dublin, 1880-83. Before tertianship at Roehampton, England, 1884, he was minister at University College, Dublin. Then he was appointed to teach at the Crescent and in Galway, 1885-87, before leaving for Australia in 1887. His first appointment was to prepare students in Classics, French and English for the public examination at Riverview. He became prefect of studies at St Aloysius' College, Bourke Street, 1889-90, and continued his teaching for the public examinations. His first administrative appointment was as rector of St Patrick's College, 1890-97, when he was also procurator and prefect of studies, as well as a teacher. Afterwards he taught in succession at St Aloysius' College, 1897-98, Xavier College as minister, 1898-1901, and St Patrick’s College as minister 1901-08. He was a very gentle, kind man, whom everybody seemed to like, and he did a great deal of good work, but without any fanfare. At Riverview he was considered a fine teacher of classics.

◆ The Xaverian, Xavier College, Melbourne, Australia, 1908

Obituary

Father Thomas Leahy SJ

Xaverians of the early nineties will remember Father Leahy. He was Minister of the College during part of the time in which Father Ryan was Rector. Later he was transferred to St Patrick's. He was remarkable for his kindness and good nature, having al ways a cheerful word, and loving a quiet joke. He died at St Patrick's, after a short illness, on February 11th, RI.P.

◆ Our Alma Mater, St Ignatius Riverview, Sydney, Australia, Golden Jubilee 1880-1930

Riverview in the ‘Eighties - A McDonnell (OR 1866-1888)

Fr Leahy, who came to Riverview at the same time as Fr Tuite, in 1886, was his opposite in many respects.. A big handsome man with a singularly benevolent face. And he was as good as he looked. When he took over the office of Prefect, he addressed us, and announced his policy, and told us what we might expect from him, and what he expected from us. For the first two or three weeks he rather kept us at arm's length, but after that he put unbounded confidence in us, and I think I can fairly say that this attitude was justified. During the half it was not necessary for the Prefect to secure order, the boys relieved him of that duty. Some times one of the “game chaps” would be inclined to play up, but an admonition from the more steady ones to the following effect would secure order: “Don't be a fool, you don't know when you have a good thing on”. Such warning or advice was not couched in formal terms, or strictly correct language, but it was always effective, because it expressed the opinion and the will of the majority. I have said that Fr. Leahy was not to be imposed upon by “leg-pullers”, and the boys soon found that out. They tried it in the playground, and they tried it in class, but he was proof against all their wiles. He was teacher of classics in my class, and a fine teacher, too. His idea of learning any language was to acquire it by ear. Acting on this principle, he used to make the whole class recite, in a good loud voice, declensions and conjugations, he leading. This was soon found to fix the grammar, even into the heads of the inattentive. It also had the effect of imparting a correct idea of “quantity”. When construing a Latin text, he would recite, in his fine style, parallel passages from both Latin and Greek authors, and it was a treat to hear him giving out the sonorous Greek. The artful boys used to “fag up” passages from “word books” of these languages, and put them to him as posers, but he was equal to them. When they attempted to coax him away from the class work, he would say: “Now boys, we have digressed sufficiently, let us return to our work”. Nothing delighted him more during playtime, than to engage the boys in conversation, above all he was anxious to learn all he could about Australia. Its birds, animals and plant life interested him intensely, and he longed to see the conditions of life in the interior.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

Bonum Certamen ... A Biographical Index of Former Members of the Limerick Jesuit Commnnity

Father Thomas Leahy (1846-1908)

A native of Ballinasloe, entered the Society in 1865. He spent four years of his regency at the Crescent, 1874-78. He returned for a year after the completion of his studies when he held the position of minister. The next year was spent in the same office at St. Ignatius', Galway when he was transferred to the Australian mission. The greater part of his career was afterwards spent at Melbourne, where he was rector of St Patrick's College from 1890 to 1896.

Born: 15 March 1798, Edgeworthstown, County Longford
Entered: 23 May 1835, Frederick, MD, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Ordained: - pre Entry
Died: 29 November 1848, Loyola College, Baltimore, MD, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)

Fr Wlodimir Ledóchowski SJ was a Jesuit priest who served as the twenty-sixth Superior General (Father General) of the Society of Jesus (1915-1942).