Born: 24 April 1874, Honeymount, Roscrea, County Tipperary
Entered: 07 October 1891, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 1904, Petworth, Sussex, England
Final Vows: 02 February 1915, St Ignatius College, Riverview, Sydney, Australia
Died: 14 May 1940, Xavier College, Kew, Melbourne, Australia - Australiae Province (ASL)

Transcribed HIB to ASL : 05 April 1931

Younger Brother of Timothy Corcoran - RIP 1943

Early education at Clongowes Wood College SJ

by 1895 at St Aloysius, Jersey Channel Islands (FRA) studying
by 1903 at Petworth, Sussex (ANG) health
by 1904 in San Luigi, Napoli-Posilipo, Italy (NAP) studying
by 1905 at Petworth, Sussex (ANG) health
Came to Australia 1905

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280 :
His parents were Irish, and whilst they left Australia to return to Ireland, he later joined the Society at St Stanislaus College Tullabeg.

His studies were in Dublin and Jersey, Channel Islands, and then he was sent to teach mathematics at Mungret College Limerick and Belvedere College Dublin. He then became ill and was sent to Petworth, Sussex, England where he made Theology studies. He was Ordained there in 1904 and then sent to Australia.
1904-1906 He arrived in Australia and was sent to the Norwood Parish
1906-1913 He was sent to St Ignatius College Riverview
1913-1914 He returned to Ireland and St Stanislaus College Tullabeg to make his Tertianship.
1915-1919 He came back to Australia and Riverview
1919-1940 He was appointed Novice Master and remained in that position at Xavier College Kew until his death in 1940. He was highly regarded by the Jesuits whom he trained.

When he was at Riverview he was given the task of Minister and so had responsibility for the wellbeing of the boarders. He was considered very adept in catching any boy who returned later after leave in the city, or in posting or receiving letters in an unorthodox way. He was known as the “Hawk”, but this name was given with the utmost respect for him, as the boys experienced him as a most charming man who went about his duties very quietly and thoroughly. They also liked his sermons.

His Novices appreciated his thirty days Retreat. He addressed them four times a day, sometimes speaking for an hour without the Novices losing interest. He spoke with considerable eloquence and feeling, slowly, pausing between sentences, and from time to time emphasising something dramatically. While Novice Master he hardly ever left the house. He lived for the Novices. His life was quietly and regularly ascetic. He went to bed around midnight at rose at 5.25am. He loved the garden, especially his dahlias.

His companionableness was memorable. The Novices enjoyed his company on their walks. He was unobtrusive and yet part of it, a most welcome presence. He was an unforgettable person, a wise and gentle director of souls. He taught a personal love of Jesus and was deeply loyal to the Society. he considered the rules for modesty to be among the great treasures of the Society, and gave the Novices true freedom of heart to make wise decisions.

He was a cheerful man, optimistic in outlook and easy to approach. People at once felt at home with him. He was experienced as a striking personality, a kind man with a sense of fun who spoke little about himself.

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 15th Year No 3 1940
Obituary :
Father John Corcoran
1874 Born 24th, near Roscrea, Co. Tipperary Educated Clongowes
1891 Entered. Tullabeg 7th October
1892 Tullabeg, Novice
1893 Milltown, Junior
1894-1896 Jersey, Philosophy
1897-1900 Mungret, Doc
1901 Belvedere. Doc
1902 Petworth. Cur. Val
1903 Naples, Thel.
1904 Petworth, Cur. Val. Ordained 1904
1905 Norwood (Australia) Cur. Val
1906-1907 Riverview, Adj, proc, Doc. Stud. theol. mor.
1908-1912 Riverview, Minister, Adj. proc., etc.
1913 Tullabeg, Tertian
1914 Richmond (Australia), Oper
1915-1918 Riverview, Minister &c.; Doc. 17 an. mag
1919-1940 Mag. Nov. First at Loyola, Sydney; then at Victoria. For a time he was. in addition. Lect phil. in Univ., and for a great many years Cons. Miss. Sydney, as well as lending a hand in many other ways.

Fr Bernard O'Brien, one of Fr Corcoran's novices, kindly sent us the following :
Half the members of the Australian Vice-Province have done their noviceship under Fr Corcoran, and it seems strange to think that the noviceship is no longer under his kindly care.
His health was always weak, and his heart gave him trouble, he used to chuckle as he recalled how his ordination had been hastened for fear that he might die at any moment.
He could be extremely stern. He had no patience with deliberate wrong-doing, with irreverence or contempt of holy things. The novices sometimes' received electric shocks, as when after retreat points on sin that grew more and more heated he turned back from the door and burst out “There is no omnibus marked Jesuit for heaven”.
He kept himself, however, remarkably under control. Though at times the blood would rush to his face, he would say nothing at the moment, but sleep on the matter before acting, a practice he frequently recommended to his novices. Often nothing came of it at all, but the dead silence and the suspense of anticipation was a punishment severe enough to sober any culprit.
He became more and more kindly and sympathetic as time went on. “Gently Brother!” was a favourite remark of his.
He came to rely less and less on external regulations and reproofs, and to form his novices by personal contact and encouragement. In his first years he used to check all trace of slang, but later it became common to hear a novice who had received an order leave him with a cheery “Good-O Father!”
He gave and aroused great personal affection. The timid first probationer, whatever his age, was at once called by his Christian name and adopted among his “babies”. As the noviceship was usually small, he could give each novice individual attention. Even the candidates who left remained strongly attached to the Society.
Fr Corcoran was a man of strong emotion and imagination. He disliked giving the more abstract exercises of the long retreat, and was happiest when he came to the early life of Our Lord. He had made a thorough study of historical Palestine and one heard much about the Vale of Esdraelon and Little Hermon. Some of the other Fathers in the house were shocked to see coloured pictures of camels crossing the sandy desert appear at this time on the novices' notice board.
United with this imagination and emotion went a deep spiritual life. He may not have supplied very clear notions of Church and Society legislation, but he gave his novices strong draughts of the true Jesuit spirit : devotion to Our Lord, constant striving to give God greater glory and better service, love of the Passion and zeal for souls.
One Christmas he gave a remarkable series of points for meditation. He took as subjects the crib, the straw, the cave, the star and so on. The points began with homely remarks and simple reflections, but almost imperceptibly the objects described became symbols and we were on a high level of contemplation.
In his deep and gentle affection, his preference for the concrete and his high spirituality there was much to remind one of St. John, whose name he bore.

◆ The Clongownian, 1940

Obituary

Father John Corcoran SJ

Father Corcoran was born near Roscrea, in Tipperary, on the 24th of April, 1874. In October, 1891, soon after leaving Clongowes, he entered the Jesuit Novitiate at Tullabeg, where he had been preceded by his brother, Rev T Corcoran SJ, whose fame as an educationalist is world-wide. Ill-health. limited Father John's literary studies at Milltown Park to a single year, and from 1894 until 1897 he studied philosophy with the French Fathers at Jersey. The next five years were spent in teaching-four at Mungret, and one at Belvedere. His great understanding of boys, and his bright, genial sympathy made him a great favourite with all.

It was now time to study Theology (1902). His health had been seriously impaired by tuberculosis, which was to give rise to grave fears for a number of years, and Theology requires hard work and strength. But, to quote a phrase which Father Corcoran loved to repeat in later years, “difficulties are things to be overcome”, and at Petworth, in England, and at Naples, he overcame them sufficiently to be ordained priest in September, 1904.

The following year he was sent to Australia, and under its sunny skies he regained the health and strength required for his future work. After recuperating for a year at Norwood, he spent the years 1906-1913 on the staff of Riverview College.

In 1913 he returned to Tullabeg for his Tertianship; and twelve months later said a last good-bye to his native land, whose green fields and limpid streams lingered in his memory, and gave him “heartaches”, as he put it, even during his last years. After a year at Richmond, he once more became the Father Minister at Riverview, in 1915. In May, 1919, he was given the responsible position of Master of Novices at Loyola, Sydney, a position which he filled for the remaining twenty-one years of his life. Henceforth all his energies were to be devoted unsparingly to the religious formation of Jesuits. He used laughingly to speak of his novices as his “babes”, and he was in truth the spiritual father of the whole generation of post-war Jesuits in Australia.

His genial simplicity and kindness won the veneration and deep affection of all with whom he had to deal. He had the happy gift of making people feel at once at home with him; but perhaps his strong influence over others came mainly from his intense but child-like spirit of faith, which made him converse as familiarly with the Holy Family as with his novices, and which transformed the world for him into a temple of God. He was an enthusiastic gardener who loved weeding his flower beds, and tending his dahlias - but a gardener who could describe the garden as one of the best teachers of the spiritual life. It is often said that Christ's life was full of sorrow from the beginning; but, for Father Corcoran, “the rafters of the Holy House must often have rung with the sweet laughter of the Boy Christ” characteristic illustration of the joyful spontaneity of his own character and outlook.

He could be stern when occasion required; but those he trained treasure the memory of his remarkable gentleness - a trait which became more and more pronounced during the last years of his life. A prominent Jesuit remarked of him that he was an outstanding example of the transforming power of the Jesuit rule when it is lived and sincerely loved in all its fullness; and those who knew him during the latter part of his life were astonished at the constant mellowing of his sanctity. The Society of Jesus in Australia has suffered a great loss by his death, but he himself has surely passed to the happy state which he delighted to think of as “home”.

◆ Mungret Annual, 1939

Obituary

Father John Corcoran SJ

As we go to press a cablegram from Australia announces the death of Father Corcoran at the age of sixty six. Of these years forty-eight had been spent as a Jesuit. For the last twenty-two years he fulfilled the important office of Master of Novices and had given retreats to the clergy both in Australia and New Zealand. Father Corcoran's connection with Mungret was not very long - 1897-1901 - but the boys of these years never forgot the kindly scholastic who played with them and who prayed with them and who always found time to give them a word of encouragement in their trials. He was always ready to smooth out their difficulties and to lighten their load. He treasured to the end of his life, a kindly message from Florida that reached him through the “Annual” in 1907. It was as follows:

“If Father John Corcoran is still in this vale of tears, let him rest assured that the lads of 1900 loved him. In him we ever found a sincere sympathiser in our little troubles and I could not restrain my tears when I grasped his hand for the last time at Naples in 1902”.

Father Corcoran said that since the day of his ordination he never forgot these “boys” in his daily Mass. They are now priests and we ask them and indeed all Mungret priests, to pray for the repose of the kindly soul of Father John Corcoran. May he rest in peace,

Born: 27 July 1805, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 25 November 1843, Avignon, France - Lugdunensis Province (LUGD)
Ordained: 17 June 1849, Cathédrale Notre-Dame-du-Puy, Le Puy-en-Velay, Auvergne, France
Final Vows: 02 February 1858
Died: 23 December 1884, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

Uncle of Victor Lentaigne - RIP 1922

First Provincial of the Irish Province of the Society of Jesus: 8 December 1860 - [ ] 1863;
Vice Provincial: 11 February 1858-1860
Superior of the Irish Jesuit Mission to Australia Mission: 1865-1866;

by 1847 at Vals (LUGD) studying
1st Missioner to Australia with William Kelly 1865

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Brother of Sir John Lentaigne (Lawyer and Privy Counsellor and one of the first Clongowes students); Uncle of Joseph Lentaigne - RIP 1922

1849 Ordained at Vals France, by Dr Morlhaer (?) 17 June 1849
1850-1858 Arrived at Clongowes, and was Prefect of Studies and Teacher until his appointment as Rector in November 1855.
1858-1863 He was appointed Vice-Provincial, and then on 08 September 1860 the First HIB Provincial, in which office he served until 1863.
1863-1865 Appointed Rector and Master of Novices at Milltown.
1865-1866 He sailed with William Kelly to Australia to found the Irish Australian Mission.
1866-1871 He returned to Ireland and Gardiner St.
1871-1872 he was sent to Clongowes as Spiritual Father.
1872-1873 Appointed Rector of Belvedere.
1873 He went back to Gardiner St, and remained there until his death 23 December 1884.
During the last years of his life he suffered a lot from bronchial trouble, and it ended up rendering him a complete invalid. The July before his death he was sent by the Provincial Thomas Browne to Milltown, but this never came to pass. Interestingly, that same summer, John Gaffney was sent to Limerick, William Fortescue to Galway, John Norton to Milltown and John Keogh to Tullabeg. (not sure why this is recorded, perhaps because none of them moved??)

Note from Peter Freeman Entry
By a strange coincidence, Fr Joseph Lentaigne, who had received him as Provincial, died in the same community the day before. Both coffins were laid on the High Altar on 26 December 1884.

◆ Jesuits in Ireland : https://www.jesuit.ie/news/commemorating-the-sesquicentenary-of-the-arrival-of-irish-jesuits-in-australia/

Commemorating the sesquicentenary of the arrival of Irish Jesuits in Australia
This year the Australian Province of the Jesuits are commemorating the sesquicentenary of the arrival of Irish Jesuits in Australia. Australia became the first overseas mission of the Irish Jesuit Province. To mark the occasion the Archdiocese of Melbourne are organising a special thanksgiving Mass in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne 27 September. On 20 June Damien Burke, Assistant Archivist, Irish Jesuit Archives gave a talk at the 21st Australasian Irish Studies conference, Maynooth University, titled “The archives of the Irish Jesuit Mission to Australia, 1865-1931”. In his address Damien described the work of this mission with reference to a number of documents and photographs concerning it that are held at the Irish Jesuit Archives.
Irish Jesuits worked mainly as missionaries, and educators in the urban communities of eastern Australia. The mission began when two Irish Jesuits Frs. William Lentaigne and William Kelly, arrived in Melbourne in 1865 at the invitation of Bishop James Alipius Goold, the first Catholic bishop of Melbourne. They were invited by the Bishop to re-open St. Patrick’s College, Melbourne, a secondary school, and to undertake the Richmond mission. From 1865 onwards, the Irish Jesuits formed parishes and established schools while working as missionaries, writers, chaplains, theologians, scientists and directors of retreats, mainly in the urban communities of eastern Australia. By 1890, 30% of the Irish Province resided in Australia.
By 1931, this resulted in five schools, eight residences, a regional seminary in Melbourne and a novitiate in Sydney. Dr Daniel Mannix, archbishop of Melbourne, showed a special predication for the Jesuits and requested that they be involved with Newman College, University of Melbourne in 1918. Six Jesuits (five were Irish-born) served as chaplains with the Australian Forces in the First World War and two died, Frs Michael Bergin and Edwards Sydes. Both Michael Bergin and 62 year-old Joe Hearn, earned the Military Cross. Bergin was the only Catholic chaplain serving with the Australian Imperial Force to have died as a result of enemy action in the First World War.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Joseph Lentaigne, after studying law at Trinity College and serving at the Irish bar, entered the Society at Lyons in his 38th year on 25 November 1843. He studied at Vals, and was ordained priest, 17 June 1849. He arrived at Clongowes about the year 1850, where he acted as prefect of studies and taught until his appointment as rector in November 1855. In 1858 he became the first Vice-Provincial, an office he held until 1863. From 1863-65 he was rector and master of novices at Milltown Park, and during 1865 sailed to Australia with Father William Kelly to found the Irish Australian Mission.
On 21 September 1865, after 58 days at sea, Lentaigne and Kelly disembarked at Melbourne. They had been fortunate to secure a passage on the “Great Britain”, Brunel's steamship which four years earlier had carried the first all England cricket eleven to tour Australia. Compared with the sailing vessels that sometimes took up to or over 100 days to reach Australia, it had been luxury travel. There were 100 Catholics on board, and the two priests administered to their spiritual and sacramental needs.
On the evening of their arrival Kelly preached at St Francis' Church in the city centre where Bishop Gould was conducting a mission. The climate, Lentaigne reported, was like that of the south of France, but food, clothing and housing were expensive, perhaps twice as much as in Ireland.
The arrival of the Jesuits appears to have caused little comment from the people of Melbourne. “We have never met any incivility, our being Jesuits has not excited any attacks”, wrote Lentaigne.
He was not slow to comment on Australian society. He believed that Melbourne was particularly corrupt, with heretics, Jews and idolatrous Chinese. In addition, he was concerned that the Protestant colleges flourished in Melbourne, and Catholics needed to retain the faith, so great need existed for a boarding school. He found it difficult to raise funds, as the Catholics were generally poor, small business people.
Lentaigne praised the Catholic boys as “affectionate, manly but wild creatures. Great liberty has been allowed them by their parents. The mixture with Protestants, Jews and infidels is most dangerous to them”. Furthermore, he believed that Melbourne Catholics suffered from mixing with these people and they were not good at approaching the Sacraments, or hearing Mass. He was concerned about much drunkenness and immorality in Melbourne society.
In March 1868 Lentaigne was recalled to Ireland, as he suffered from bronchial trouble.
During his time in Melbourne he had been responsible for making the original agreement with Bishop Goold, and in fact laid the juridical foundation of the Irish Mission for both missionary and educational work.
He spent the rest of his life, except for two years as rector of Belvedere College, 1872-73, at Gardiner Street, where he died. He was a member of a famous, old Anglo-Norman family, a real gentlman, and a prominent Jesuit.

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 1st Year No 1 1925

St Patrick’s College, Melbourne has just celebrated its Diamond Jubilee as a Jesuit College. It is the mother house of the Australian Mission.
On September 21st 1865, Fathers Joseph Lentaigne and William Kelly, the pioneer Missioners of the Society in Victoria, landed in Melbourne and took over the College.
On September 17th, 1866 , the second contingent of Irish priests arrived - Fr. Joseph Dalton, Fr. Edmund Nolan, Fr. David McKiniry and two lay brothers - Br. Michael Scully and Br. Michael Goodwin.

Born: 26 February 1871, Ross, South Island, New Zealand
Entered: 02 June 1897, Loyola, Greenwich, Australia (HIB)
Ordained: 26 July 1910, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1912, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Died: 10 October 1948, Manresa, Toowong, Brisbane, Australia - Australiae Province (ASL)

Transcribed HIB to ASL 05/04/1931

by 1901 at St Aloysius Jersey Channel Islands (FRA) studying
by 1902 at Stonyhurst England (ANG) studying
by 1911 at St Andrew on Hudson NY, USA (NEB) making Tertianship
Superior of the Irish Jesuit Mission to Australia Mission: 24 January 1917

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Note from Raphaël Gennarelli Entry :
Father William Lockington invited him to Australia from Naples for his health. He died at Sevenhill a few years after his arrival.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280 :

Note from Arthur (Frank) Burke Entry
He feel foul of the Rector William Lockington when he took photos of the Chapel roof falling down on morning during Mass - it was thought the original design was the result of an impetuous decision by the Rector.

Note from George Byrne Entry
He was sent to Australia as Superior and Master of Novices at Loyola College Greenwich. He was also a Consultor of the Sydney Mission and gave Retreats and taught the Juniors.. This occurred at a time when it was decided to reopen the Noviceship in Australia. As such he was “lent” to the Australian Mission for three years, but the outbreak of war and some delaying tactics on the part of the Mission Superior Willliam Lockington, he remained longer than expected.

Note from Edward Carlile Entry
He was a convert from Anglicanism at the age of 25, as a result of the preaching of William Lockington, and was 28 years of age when he entered at Loyola Greenwich

Note from John Carpenter Entry
When the Superior of the Mission - William Lockington - visited Lester House, Osterley, London, he impressed three seminarians, John Carpenter, Laurence Hessian and Hugo Quigley. All three joined the Austraian Province.

Note from James Farrell Entry
He was sent to St Ignatius College Riverview. The Rector there at the time was William Lockington and he tried to take him in hand endeavouring to effect a cure, and not entirely in vain.

◆ Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University onlne :
Lockington, William Joseph (1871–1948)
by G. J. O'Kelly
G. J. O'Kelly, 'Lockington, William Joseph (1871–1948)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/lockington-william-joseph-7216/text12489, published first in hardcopy 1986

anti-conscriptionist; Catholic priest; school principal

Died : 10 October 1948, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

William Joseph Lockington (1871-1948), Jesuit priest, was born on 23 February 1871 at Ross, New Zealand, eldest of eight children of Elisha Lockington, carpenter and later sawmiller from Derbyshire, England, and his wife Mary, née Canfield. Elisha had migrated to the Beechworth, Victoria, goldfields in the 1850s, moving to Ross in 1862; Mary, a milliner, had arrived in New Zealand from England in 1868.

After primary education at the Convent of Mercy, Hokitika, William at 14 became a pupil-teacher at Ross and at 18 head-teacher of the public school at Capleston; his wide reading and retentive memory, talent for music and passion for physical exercise made him a highly esteemed schoolmaster. He was also a well-known racing cyclist. On 2 June 1896 he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus at Greenwich, Sydney, where Aloysius Sturzo, the former superior of the Australian Jesuit communities and then master of novices, disseminated a feeling for internationalism and concern for the poor. Lockington subsequently studied at Tullamore, King's County, Ireland, in Jersey, Channel Islands, and at Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, England. He taught at The Crescent College, Limerick, Ireland, in 1902-07 and undertook his tertianship at Milltown Park, Dublin, and Poughkeepsie, New York. Ordained in July 1910, he returned to Ireland to assist at Milltown Park in the training of novices and tertians in 1911-13. A course of his lectures, published in 1913 as Bodily Health and Spiritual Vigour and reprinted and translated several times, illustrates his continued emphasis on physical fitness. His admiration for Ireland resulted in his book, The Soul of Ireland (1919).

Recalled to Australia in 1913, Lockington worked as parish priest at Richmond, Melbourne, until his appointment in 1916 as rector of St Patrick's College, East Melbourne. In 1917-23 he was superior of the eleven Australian Jesuit communities; in addition to overseeing four secondary colleges, one seminary and six parishes, he helped to establish Newman College at the University of Melbourne and a seminary at Werribee, Corpus Christi College, for the training of priests from three States.

During this period in Victoria, Lockington gained a reputation as controversialist in the tradition of William Kelly. This partly sprang from his association with Archbishop Mannix whom he drilled in oratory, requiring him to practise declaiming from one end of the cathedral grounds to the other. Lockington was described by a colleague as 'the best platform orator in Australia'. His topics covered religion, temperance, education and the plight of working people; many of his addresses were published. He worked hard to further the growth of the Australian Catholic Federation and was regarded by the Protestant press as a principal in the 1917 anti-conscriptionist 'Jesuit scare'. In 1916 he founded the Catholic Women's Social Guild (later, Catholic Women's League). With Mannix presiding, he was a key speaker in the federation's mid-1917 lecture series which drew a Melbourne audience of thousands; his accusations of sweated labour in confectioners' establishments occasioned debate in the Legislative Assembly. In 1921 the town of Lockington was named after 'the noted author, preacher and lecturer'. His most famous panegyric was yet to come—that for Marshal Foch at St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, in April 1929.

Lockington was headmaster of St Ignatius' College, Riverview, Sydney, in 1923-32. Despite the Depression, he resumed a massive building programme, halted since 1901, to complete the main features of the college. He promoted religious music, drama and physical vigour; open-air dormitories bear his stamp. After 1932 he undertook parish duties at Toowong, Brisbane, until 1936 and at Richmond and Hawthorn, Melbourne, until 1947. He was a committee-member of the Catholic Broadcasting Co. and, particularly on Archbishop Duhig's urgings, gave numerous retreats and lectures.

On his way to one such retreat, Lockington died in Brisbane on 10 October 1948. One of the best-known Catholic priests in Australia, and to Mannix 'the friend of half a lifetime', he was buried in Nudgee cemetery.

Select Bibliography
U. M. L. Bygott, With Pen and Tongue (Melb, 1980)
Jesuit Life, no 7, Dec 1981
Lockington papers (Society of Jesus Provincial Archives, Hawthorn, Melbourne).

◆ Jesuits in Ireland

https://www.jesuit.ie/news/jesuitica-a-town-called-lockington/
Some 200 km north of Melbourne, Australia, is a town called Lockington, one of the few towns called after a Jesuit, Will Lockington (1871-1948). He was a tough West Coast New Zealander whose wide reading and retentive memory, talent for music and passion for physical exercise (he was a well-known racing cyclist) made him a highly esteemed schoolmaster – he was Principal of a local school at 18, and later, as a Jesuit, Headmaster of St Ignatius College, Riverview for nine years. He was a lifelong friend of Archbishop Mannix whom he drilled in oratory, requiring him to practise declaiming from one end of the cathedral grounds to the other. During his ten years in Ireland, he taught in Crescent College, studied in Tullabeg, and published “Bodily health and spiritual vigour”, a book well ahead of its time.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
William Lockington, the eldest of eight, received his early education in New Zealand with the Sisters of Mercy at Hokitika. He had no formal secondary education, but the pupil-teacher system appealed to him from the first.
He became a teacher in 1891 and was appointed headmaster of the school at Capleston, a school with about 80 children. He joined in the activities of the local community, played the violin at entertainments and acted in dramatic productions. By 1896 he had decided to join the Jesuits as a brother.
He joined the noviciate at Greenwich, Sydney, 2 June 1896, aged 25. During his noviciate the novice master, Aloysius Sturzo, convinced him to become a priest and so he took his vows as a scholastic in June 1898.
After a year of Latin and Greek in Sydney, he was sent to the Irish juniorate at Tullabeg. He found these studies too difficult, and never matriculated. He was sent to Jersey for
philosophy, and also studied French. However, he only stayed a year, and was sent to Stonyhurst, England, to complete his studies. He became a powerful force in community life, gave lectures on New Zealand, played in the orchestra, helped with plays, and was a promoter of games and sport.
Next he taught at the Crescent College, Limerick, 1902-07. He conducted a choir, and helped produce musicals. He was reported to be a good teacher, and was prefect of studies, 1905-07. He fell in love with Ireland, and later expressed that affection in his book, “The Soul of lreland”.
In 1907 he went to Miiltown Park for theology, and was ordained, 26 July 1910. He did tertianship at Poughkeepsie, New York. In 1911 he returned to Ireland as socius to the master of novices at Tullabeg, and it was during this time that he wrote his more celebrated book, “Bodily Health and Spiritual Vigor”. The work, developed out of a course of lectures he gave to the tertians, reflected Lockington's spirituality - religious life implies a total dedication of oneself to the love and service of God and one's fellow human beings, and that body was included as well as soul.
He was sent back to Australia in 1913, was briefly at Xavier College, and in 1914 was made superior at St Ignatius' Church, Richmond. He was to remain a superior until 1947. He was rector of St Patrick's College in 1916, and at once made plans for its renovation and extension.
However, the next year he was appointed superior of the Mission until 1923. Newman College and Corpus Christi, Werribee were negotiated at this time. It was during these years that he became a national Church figure, lecturing, preaching and giving retreats from Brownsville to Perth, and in New Zealand. He was a powerful preacher, long and loud. His topics included religion, temperance, education and the plight of working people. He even had a town in Victoria named after him in 1921.
He did well to make the name of the Society of Jesus acceptable to the parish clergy in the country, and became a good friend of Dr Mannix, the archbishop. They were both fighters and thought alike on most issues One of their joint ventures in 1917 was the “National Foundation Stones”, a series of seventeen lectures, three of which were given by Lockington. Twenty thousand attended the last lecture given by Mannix at the Melbourne Town Hall.
Lockington had two important qualities, his passion for social justice and his deep sympathy for women. in 1916 he founded the Catholic Women's Social Guild. He valued the contribution women could make to the Church and society.
When his term as Mission Superior ended, he was appointed Rector of Riverview in October 1923 for eight years. Some believe that he built the College from a small school into a “Great Public' school”. The main south front was then not much more than half finished. He completed the main front and the first bays of the east wing. Open air dormitories bear his stamp. He also pulled down the old wooden hall and the original stone cottage.
Internally, he reformed the choir and the performance of the liturgy. He revived the tradition of drama. He was not a popular rector, but respected, trusted and even revered. He never stood on his dignity, as he did not need to. He played handball with the senior boys, and worked with axe or crowbar, pick or hammer. He had no time for mere ceremonial. He was simple and straightforward. All during this time he continued preaching, lecturing and giving retreats.
In 1932, aged 61, he went to Brisbane, to the parish of Toowong. Here he continued his usual round of retreats, lectures and sermons. One lecture lasted one hour and 25 minutes. It was in Brisbane that he developed angina and expected to live a quieter life. He recovered sufficiently to become parish priest in 1933, and in 1936 was appointed parish priest of Richmond, Melbourne. Here he remained until 1947, and at 76, returned to Toowong. However, his heart gave out and he died in the midst of a visitation of religious houses for the archbishop. He was buried in Nudgee cemetery.
He was not a man of great intellect or learning, but he made the best use of his talents. He cared little for reputation, for his own dignity for pomp or circumstance of any kind. He could be overbearing. He was not a good organiser. He had too much contempt for public relations. Yet for all this he was a man totally developed, body and soul, and totally dedicated to Christ, a man, wholly man, Catholic and Jesuit, all for God's greater glory

Note from Arthur (Frank) Burke Entry
He fell foul of the Rector William Lockington when he took photos of the Chapel roof falling down on during Mass - it was thought the original design was the result of an impetuous decision by the Rector.

Note from George Byrne Entry
He was sent to Australia as Superior and Master of Novices at Loyola College Greenwich. He was also a Consultor of the Sydney Mission and gave Retreats and taught the Juniors.. This occurred at a time when it was decided to reopen the Noviceship in Australia. As such he was “lent” to the Australian Mission for three years, but the outbreak of war and some delaying tactics on the part of the Mission Superior William Lockington, he remained longer than expected.

Note from Edward Carlile Entry
He was a convert from Anglicanism at the age of 25, as a result of the preaching of William Lockington, and was 28 years of age when he entered at Loyola Greenwich

Note from John Carpenter Entry
When the Superior of the Mission - William Lockington - visited Lester House, Osterley, London, he impressed three seminarians, John Carpenter, Laurence Hessian and Hugo Quigley. All three joined the Australian Province.

Note from James Farrell Entry
He was sent to St Ignatius College Riverview. The Rector there at the time was William Lockington and he tried to take him in hand endeavouring to effect a cure, and not entirely in vain.

Note from Thomas Forster Entry
When William Lockington embarked on his building programme in 1928, he used Thomas as clerk of works with excellent results. His sudden death from a stroke was a severe blow to Lockington.

Note from Michael O’Brien (ASL) Entry
He did not take kindly to Charles Fraser shooting his cows in the rose garden, nor in William Lockington showing him how to do his work. One recreation he enjoyed was to attend meetings of the Irish in Sydney, details of which he kept close to himself.

Note from Hugo Quigley Entry
He was enrolled at Osterly, the house for “late vocations” conducted by the English Jesuits to prepare students for entry into various seminaries. There, with John Carpenter and Laurence Hession, he answered the appeal of the then superior of the Australian Mission, William Lockington, for men willing to volunteer for the Society in Australia.

Note from Jeremiah Sullivan Entry
The province liked him more than either his predecessor, William Lockington, or his successor, John Fahy

Note from Vincente Guimera Entry
Vincente Guimera entered the 'Society in 1890, and after studies and some teaching, he was sent to New Guinea in the 1920s to help find a solution to the problems in a mission that had been acquired from die German Franciscans. The superior general asked the Australian superior, William Lockington, to settle the matter, and he sent Joseph A. Brennan to New Guinea. They closed the mission and gave it to the SVDs. Three Spanish Jesuits then came to Sydney briefly and stayed at Loyola. Guimera subsequently lived and taught at St Aloysius' College, 1924-25

Note from Gerard Guinane Entry
Gerard Guinane was only sixteen when he entered the Society at Tullabeg, and following early studies he was sent to Riverview in 1926. He taught in the school, was prefect of the study hall and, for a while, was assistant rowing master. He was very successful as a teacher and highly regarded by William Lockington.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 6th Year No 1 1931
From 23 to 27 August, Riverview celebrated the Golden Jubilee of its foundation... The College was founded in 1880 by Fr. Joseph Dalton, He was “wisely daring enough” to purchase a fine property on Lane Cove from Judge Josephson, The property consisted of a cottage containing eight or nine rooms with substantial out offices, and 44 acres of land, at a cost of £4 500. 54 acres were soon added for £1 ,080, and an additional 20 acres later on completed the transaction. This little cottage was the Riverview College of 1880. The modesty of the start may be measured by the facts, that the founder of Riverview, and its first Rector, shared his own bed-room with three of his little pupils , and when the College played its first cricket out match, it could muster only ten boys to meet the opposing team. By the end of the year the number had increased to 15.
In addition to Fr. Dalton's, two other names are inseparably connected with the foundation of Riverview. The first is that of His Grace, Archbishop Vaughan, who invited the Jesuits to Sydney, formally opened the College and gave the Fathers every encouragement.
The second is the name of the great Australian pioneer, the Archpriest Therry. “One hundred years ago”, says one account : “Fr Therry was dreaming of a Jesuit College in Sydney... and when he went to his reward in 1865 he gave it a special place in his final testament”. Fr Lockington called Frs. Dalton and Therry the “co-founders” of Riverview, and added
that it was the wish of the latter to see Irish Jesuits established at Sydney.
An extract from the Catalogue of 1881 will interest many. It is the first time that Riverview is mentioned as a College in the Catalogue :
Collegium et Convictus S. Ignatius
R. P, Josephus Dalton, Sup a die 1 Dec 1879, Proc_ Oper
P. Thomas Gartlan, Min, etc
P. Joannes Ryan, Doc. 2 class. etc
Henricus O'Neill Praef. mor. etc
Domini Auxiliairii duo
Fr. Tom Gartlan is still amongst us, and, thank God, going strong. Soon a brick building (comprising study hall, class rooms and dormitories) wooden chapel, a wooden refectory, were added to the cottage, and in three years the numbers had swelled to 100, most of them day-boys.
The first stage in the history of Riverview was reached in 1889, when the fine block, that up to a recent date served as the College, was opened and blessed by Cardinal Moran.
The second stage was closed last August, when, amidst the enthusiastic cheering of a great gathering of Old Boys, the splendid building put up by Fr. Lockington was officially declared ready to receive the ever increasing crowd of boys that are flocking into Riverview. The College can now accommodate three times as many students as did the old block finished in 1889. Not the least striking part of the new building is the Great Assembly Hall erected by the Old Boys as a memorial to their school-fellows who died during the Great War.

Irish Province News 24th Year No 1 1949
Obituary

Fr. William Lockington (1871-1897-1948) – Vice Province of Australia
Tho' born in New Zealand in 1871 Fr. Lockington came of English stock, his father being a former scholar of St. Paul's, London who after his conversion emigrated to New Zealand as a young man. Fr. Lockington was a primary teacher before entering the Society at the age of 26. He made his novitiate at Greenwich under Fr. Sturzo and studied rhetoric at Tullabeg. He made his philosophy at Jersey and Stonyhurst and taught at the Crescent from 1902 to 1907. He studied theology at Milltown Park, where he was ordained in 1910. He made his tertianship in St. Andrew-on-Hudson in the U.S.A and on his return to Ireland was Socius to the Master of Novices and Minister at Tullabeg. In the autumn of 1913 he returned to Australia and was Superior of St. Ignatius, Richmond and St. Patrick's, Melbourne from 1914-1917 and in the latter year was appointed Superior of the Mission of Australia, a post he held till 1923 when he became Rector of Riverview, Sydney. From 1932 to 1936 he was Superior of the Brisbane Residence and from 1937 to 1937 of St. Ignatius, Richmond. He was the author of “The Soul of Ireland” and “Bodily Health and Spiritual Vigour”, and a popular retreat director and as a preacher was in the first rank of pulpit orators in Australia. R.I.P.

Irish Province News 24th Year No 2 1949
A further notice of Fr. W. Lockington reached us in February, drawing attention to the remarkable fact that two Archbishops preached panegyrics at his obsequies. Archbishop J. Dhuhig of Brisbane preaching in the Church of St. Ignatius, Toowong, Brisbane on October 12th, called him a militant priest in the best sense of the term," and compared his spirit with that of SS. Paul and Ignatius.'' Archbishop Mannix of Melbourne preaching in St. Ignatius Church, Richmond on 21st October paid tribute to him as the “friend of half a lifetime- as preacher and director. A manly, zealous, broadminded, big- hearted Jesuit has gone to his reward”, said His Grace, “may God deal gently with his noble soul”.

◆ Our Alma Mater, St Ignatius Riverview, Sydney, Australia, 1932

Father Lockington

Eight years of unparalleled progress and a new school; there you have a retrospect of Father Lockington's term of office at Riverview. That he had had little association with the College prior to assuming the reins of government was, strangely enough, a very distinct gain to the school; being unfamiliar with the past he was free to concentrate the whole of his broad vision on the future. He read the destiny of Riverview at a glance, and compared it with the state of the College as he found it. To him the discrepancy was all the more striking. Those who have been for any length of time associated with the Old Riverview would have easily been lulled into a contentment with the established order of things, a contentment, not altogether inexcusable, but only too apt to dim one's view of the future. Father Lockington was altogether free from such a prejudice; he therefore refused to adapt the ideal to existing conditions, but rather made it his purpose to impress on the school in indelible characters the seal of its destined development.

Father Lockington forthwith drew up plans; being essentially a man of action, plans as such meant nothing to him unless he could see his way clear to carry them out; he was gifted besides with indomit able courage, hence it was that his bold schemes materialised.

The completed front facing south is his most valued addition to the permanent structure of the College. It is built to correspond exactly with the Refectory wing: the same architectural features carried out in carefully selected ornate stone; the whole presenting an appearance of stateliness, beauty and stability unrivalled anywhere.

Father Lockington has justified in a very signal manner the wisdom and foresight of those old pioneers who designed a college appropriate to so magnificent a site. The interior of the new wing is his own design: the open-air dormitory is the finest of its kind; the Senior Study is spacious, bright and well-aired, and the MemoriaỈ Hall on the ground floor worthy of its purpose.

Whether the additions were intended to meet the demand for increased accommodation, or new pupils were attracted by these, the fact is that during the late Rector's term the school rolls were exactly doubled. If we may be permitted to express our own opinion, we have no hesitation in saying that Father Lockington's personality was the main factor in this remarkable increase. The Chapel was found to be too small: it was extended in two directions and the interior suitably decorated,

These substantial changes, pointing as they do to the part Riverview is destined to play in the scheme of Catholic education in NSW, inspired a most generous benefactor to erect the present Community wing. Thus in a mere handful of years the original school has spread its handsome lines to its full length along the river frontage and now faces the city on the eastern side.

These are the changes that mark the period of Father Lockington's stay at Riverview; they are a lasting memorial to the indefatigable labours of one man wholly animated with zeal for the glory of God.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father William Lockington (1871-1948)

One of the best remembered of former masters at the Crescent, was a native of New Zealand and had been a trained primary teacher when he entered the Society in his twenty-seventh year. He pursued his higher studies with the French Jesuits in Jersey and later in Milltown Park where he was ordained in 1910. Father Lockington spent his regency at Sacred Heart College, 1902-07. He was an efficient and kindly master who won the affection and respect of his pupils. He fell in love with this country and wrote a widely popular book entitled “The Soul of Ireland” for which the late G K Chesterton wrote the preface. As a teacher, Father Lockington brought original ideas to his classroom - or were his ideas so really original? They could be summed up in the adage “Mens Sana in Corpore Sano”. Idlers and sleepy boys, according to Father Lockington, were not so many culprits to be dealt severely with. Rather, he considered, they were the victims of badly run-down physique. So, he was a strong believer in the parallel bars and physical jerks for stirring the dormant into awareness of their responsibilities. So, the hours after class were devotedly given to helping the backward. Shortly after his return to Australia in 1913, Father Lockington was appointed rector of St Patrick's, Melbourne. From this post he was summoned to the higher responsibility of superior of the Australian Jesuit Mission, an office he discharged with tact and efficiency from 1917 to 1923. He was afterwards rector of Riverview and until his last years held other positions of high responsibility. To these onerous duties, he found time for an enormous number of retreats and occasional sermons and until the end was esteemed one of the finest preachers in Australia.

Born: 08 May 1920, St Patrick’s Road, Drumcondra, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 07 September 1939, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 04 January 1956, Sydney, Australia
Final Vows: 03 December 1977
Died: 08 December 1993, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin - Australiae Province (ASL)

Part of the St Joseph’s, Hawthorn, Melbourne, Australia community at the time of death

Transcribed HIB to ASL : 05 April 1951

Father was a Civil Servant.

Eldest in a family of six, three boys and three girls.

Early education was at St Pat’s BNS, Drumcoindra and then at Belvedere College SJ.

by 1948 at Australia (ASL) - Regency

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Seán Monahan's family attended St Francis Xavier's Church, Gardiner Street, and he received his secondary education at Belvedere College nearby. On 7 September 1939 he entered the Irish noviciate at St Mary's, Portarlington, and then did juniorate studies in arts, studying English, French, Latin and Irish, at the Irish National University, while living at Rathfarnham. He developed tuberculosis during this time and never completed the course. For the next three years he was an invalid, and the decision was made for him to go to Australia.
At the beginning of 1948 Monahan arrived in Australia and began the three year philosophy course at Loyola College, Watsonia. He was a wonderful companion with his sense of humour, his gift for mimicry and his talent for friendship. He enjoyed participating in the scholastic dramatic performances, particularly the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. He produced Iolanthe.
For regency he spent some time at St Louis School, Perth, teaching and working in the boarding house, but he found the heat did not benefit his health, so in 1953 he began theology
studies at Canisius College, Pymble. After ordination in 1956, Monahan became a member of the Australian province. Tertianship followed in 1957 at Sevenhill, SA, under Henry Johnston, his theology rector.
His first priestly appointment was to Corpus Christi College, Werribee, where he was minister, bursar, prefect of liturgy and librarian. In 1958, there were 189 diocesan students; 42 in the first year. Monahan was a good administrator, shrewd, diplomatic, and with a care for detail. His special eye for individuals was much appreciated. He soon became involved in spiritual direction and the students found him a most warm and understanding confessor. He kept contact with many of these men in later years, either as priests or laymen. He was probably one of the best known Jesuits among the Melbourne diocesan priests.
Monahan's special talent for spiritual direction became well known, so he was sent to Loyola College, Watsonia, in 1960, first as socius to the master of novices and later as master of novices. In his first year as master there were 36 novices. Monahan was a most successful and highly acclaimed novice master. Despite his obvious garishness, he understood Australian young people and the contemporary needs of the Church and Society, and initiated many sensible changes into the life of the Jesuit novice. In many ways, he was a significant turning point in the formation of Jesuits in the Australian province, and the last of the Irish novice masters. At the time of his death, 42 of his novices were still members of the Society.
Monahan spent 1971 as spiritual father to Jesuit University scholastics at the Dominican house of studies in Canberra. In 1972 he was recalled to Victoria to become rector of Corpus Christi College, Werribee. It was the last year of the college at that place, the Society handing over its administration to the diocesan clergy.
For the next two years Monahan was spiritual director to the ]suit scholastics at Campion College, and in 1976 he was appointed socius to the provincial and lived at the provincial residence, Hawthorn. Having made his mark as socius, he was given the job, in 1977, of secretary to the South East Asian assistant in Rome, Robert Rush. However, the Roman climate affected his health, and he had difficulty learning Italian, so Paul Gardiner replaced him. He returned to Australia in 1978. At this time the archbishop of Melbourne, Frank Little, asked for him as vicar for religious in the archdiocese.
On his return he took up residence at the provincial house, and was superior from 1979-85, secretary of the province, giving wise advice to the provincial, while continuing his work as spiritual director to many in Melbourne. He was a most hospitable man, and Jesuits enjoyed being invited to Power Street for some Jesuit celebration. During this time his health continued to deteriorate.
In 1993 his health improved a little and Monahan was keen to revisit Ireland. He went and stayed at Cherryfield Lodge, Milltown Park, Dublin, where he received many visitors. He related by mail that he was very happy to be in Dublin. However, his health further declined, his return to Australia was postponed, and he finally died there in December.
Monahan was much loved in the Australian province for his personal humanity and charm, his loving care of others, his encouragement and cheeriness, his sense of fun and wit. He was one of the great storytellers and was a good companion. He loved news, enjoyed being consulted and gave wise advice. Above all he engendered love of, and confidence in, the Society.

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 23rd Year No 1 1948

Fr. Peyton left for Australia on the “Mauretania” on 31st October in company with Fr. Conway, a member of the Viceprovince. Fr. Kevin Carroll, also a member of the Viceprovince, left Shannon Airport on 3rd November for New York, bound for San Francisco and Sydney. Mr. Monahan left Southampton on the “Queen Mary” on 20th November for New York; he took boat at San Francisco on 12th December for Sydney which he reached on 4th January. He will be doing his first year's philosophy at Loyola, Watsonia in the coming year.

Irish Province News 48th Year No 1 1973

A recent letter from Fr Seán Monahan, Corpus Christi College, Werribee, conveys the new that the Seminary is being replaced; “After just 50 years in Jesuit hands; the diocesan authorities have to find a buyer for a property a bit like Emo. A new Seminary is a building and though scheduled to be ready for the opening of this year on February 26th it will not in fact be ready in time. We have handed over the administration to the diocese but there will be Jesuits on the staff of the new establishment as academic and spiritual directors. It is in this latter capacity that I go there together with the present spiritual director here, Fr Paul Keenan. Altogether there will be five of us working with the same number of diocesan priests for 161 students following an 8 year course”.

◆ Interfuse No 77 : Summer 1994 & Interfuse No 82 : September 1995 & ◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1995

Obituary
John (Seán) Monahan (1920-1993)

During the six decades of my life, an unbelievable number of people have crossed my path, some friends, others mere acquaintances.

Out of this vast galaxy of people, some have shone like stars to light my way, a select few have been guiding lights that have helped me to believe in myself and to keep on course when I was in danger of losing my way or of being overwhelmed by what confronted me. These latter luminaries have exerted a colossal impact on my life, and I am ever conscious of my debt to them.

On this occasion I want to talk about one that I treasure very specially, one who died on the 8th of December last year after a life of extraordinary dedication to God and to people who needed him. He was John (Seán) Monahan, and I met him first in my last year in the seminary 1958. He had been born in Dublin, Ireland, on 8th May 1920, and had entered the Society of Jesus just prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, on 7th September 1939.

Interestingly enough, he had been ordained a priest only two years before our own group, on 6th January 1956. Because of health reasons he was sent to work in Australia where he spent over thirty years; ironically enough, for the latter part of this period he was contending quietly and courageously with a debilitating illness.

I was thinking back, as I was putting these thoughts together, about how we first met, and I can't quite recollect exactly how that meeting took place. What I do recall, however, is the fact that during the space of a few short months we established a bond that was to link us in friendship every since that time.

As I indicated earlier, I saw him as one of those luminaries who exerted a colossal impact on my life. Whether our contacts were frequent or separated by long intervals, those points at which our lives touched each other, either by letter or in person, exerted a considerable influence on me, both as a man and as a priest. All this was so profound and leaves me so indebted to him that I would like to tell you about at least a few of the riches that I derived from my friendship with Father John Monahan.

My first comment might well sound extraordinary, but I believe it to be the truth; in John Monahan I met Jesus. He was a person in whom I perceived, particularly at a time I needed it, that he really cared about me. He was unhurried as he walked with me on my journey.

There was an extraordinary warmth in him. He had a graciousness, a charm that was not artificial but from the heart. It wasn't a performance designed to impress, it was a natural outflow from his personality. Quite obviously, I wasn't the only one to have experienced this Monahan touch. From the testimonies of others ! know that he endeared himself to an incredible number of people, who were, like myself, influenced and enriched by his part in their life.

As I said, he really embodied Jesus for me, and I mean that if I were to meet Jesus, he would act towards me as John did. Related to this Christlikeness, he breathed an extraordinary inner peace. Any contact that transpired between us was characterised by this quality. There was this relaxing, disarming approach that he adopted, and it said to you in unmistakable terms, “Just be at home while you're with me”.

Had I been aware that he was going home to Ireland for a final farewell to his relatives, friends and fellow religious, I would have grasped the opportunity of saying my own good byes. Therefore, regret that I failed to say goodbye to him and to thank him for everything.

In a way, this tribute to him is a public goodbye and thanks to John for all he was for me and did to me. That is not to suggest that I have finished what I want to say about him, because there is one other comment that completes the picture, and it is this.

The most indelible and most lasting impression that I will always carry with me is that he was a great affirmer. How often, when important events occurred in my life and I let him know about them, and sometimes when I omitted to do so, through the mail would come, written in his neat and thorough way, a letter that complimented me on what I had achieved, or encouraged and supported me in what I was about to undertake.

So often in regard to this very programme he was a source of endorsement and positive comment which encouraged me to give of my best. He wouldn't hesitate to provide a suggestion, too, of how this or that might be improved, but there was always a sensitivity and enthusiasm that urged me on.

His was a caring ministry and I know from comments of other priests and people how widespread and powerful was the influence for good in their lives. Which means that the greatest kindness would be for us to emulate him and his Christlike behaviour in our daily lives. That is no easy prospect, to absorb all these great qualities of a genuine loving priest, but it would be worth the effort.

I already miss John very much; I was always aware that he was there, selflessly supporting me in the background through his suffering and by his prayer.

I thank our heavenly Father that in his providence our lives did touch each other and that I am so much the richer for that as I share these thoughts with you now.

So, to fittingly conclude these thoughts about the man who was for me my Christlike Character for 1993, I share with you a text of Scripture that John referred to often and which presumably affected his personal and priestly ministry and sustained it.

It was found highlighted in his Bible, following his death. It comes from Paul's Letter to the Colossians, chapter one, verses twenty-six to twenty-nine. As I read it, I can perceive John really reaching into the very depths of his being, and opening himself to the power of the Spirit, seeking to be a true priest - a bridge between us and the Father, in and with our Brother, Jesus.

These are the words that animated and challenged John Monahan, Priest and Member of the Society of Jesus, to be Christlike in character:
“...the mystery is Christ among you, your hope of glory. This is the Christ we proclaim, this is the wisdom in which we thoroughly train everyone and instruct everyone to make them all perfect in Christ. It is for this I struggle wearily on, helped only by his power driving me irresistibly”.

Christopher Gleeson, Riverview Australia

Born: 31 August 1904, Gardiner’s Hill, Cork City, County Cork
Entered: 01 September 1924, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1939, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1942
Died: 02 February 1987, Nazareth House, 16 Cornell St, Camberwell, Melbourne, Australia - Australiae Province (ASL)

Part of Manresa, Hawthorn, Melbourne, Australia community at the time of death.

Father was a Civil Servant (Post office official) and family lived at Egerton Villas, St Luke’s, Cork.

Fourth of five boys with five sisters.

Early education was at a Convent school and then at North Monastery, Cork. He then went to CBC Cork for six years, and then went to St Finbarr’s College. He then went to UCC studying English and History.

Transcribed : HIB to ASL 05/04/1931

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Edward Riordan came from a remarkable Irish family. Of five boys, three became priests and two doctors. All four sisters received a tertiary education. The Christian Brothers in Cork educated him before he entered the Society at Tullabeg, 1 September 1924.
Riordan's Jesuit studies were all in Ireland, and his secular studies in the classics were undertaken at the National University at the colleges in Cork and Dublin. He was sent to Australia for his regency at St Aloysius' College, Milsons Point, 1932-35. He was ordained, 31 July 1939, and arrived back in Australia in 1944. After two years as socius to the master of novices he was appointed master for sixteen years, and more than 100 Jesuits were formed by him. In 1961 he was assigned to profess theology, First in the diocesan seminary at Glen Waverley, then at Canisius College, Pymble. These were not the happiest years for him, as he was well aware of his limitations as a teacher of theology.
At the age of 67 Riordan volunteered to teach English in Lahore, Pakistan, for four years, then returned to Australia to work with the poor at Salisbury North, Adelaide. Living in a housing commission dwelling was not easy, privacy was hard to find, but he loved the people and was loved by them. They called him 'Ned'. After six years in this work he went to live with the homeless men at Corpus Christi Community, Greenville, Victoria, where the men praised him for being a hopeful sign of God's wisdom and true human dignity After four years his memory began to fade and he was forced to retire to the Hawthorn parish community The sisters at Nazareth House eventually cared for him. His memory had practically almost gone.
He was perceived by his novices to combine the rationality of John Fahy with the genuine affective devotion of John Corcoran. He taught his novices the deepest truths of the following of Christ, he lived by those truths as he taught them, and he carried them superbly into the life he led when his term as master of novices was over. His whole life was one of humble service The way he showed was an austere way, one of prayer, self-denial and fidelity He lived a life of great personal poverty and self-sacrifice. Rarely did his novices see the man who in his younger days had been a merry companion and the life of the party. He loved the stage and was a good actor and enjoyed proclaiming poetry and prose. Shakespeare was a particular love.
There was fire in Riordan, there were flashes of merriment but so much was suppressed. It was his understanding of his role. However, he mellowed in his latter years and entered into the spirit of the Second Vatican Council. In himself he was not an aloof person but very companionable. He was not a hard man, but rather had the gift of strong gentleness. He was at peace with himself, and content with his own company, deeply prayerful, and at home with the Blessed Trinity, a priest after the mind of St Ignatius Loyola.

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 62nd Year No 2 1987

Obituary

Fr Edward Riordan (1904-1927-1987) (Australia)

31st October 1904: born. Ist September 1924: entered SJ.
1924-26 Tullabeg, noviciate. 1926-29 Rathfarnham, juniorate. 1929-32 philosophy: 29-'30 Milltown, 1930-32 Tullabeg.
5th April 1931: formally transferred to Australia.
1933-35 (three years) Australia: St Aloysius College, Milson's Point, North Sydney, regency.
1936-'41 Ireland. 1936-'40 Milltown Park, theology, 31st July 1939: ordained a. priest, 1940-41 Rathfarnham, tertianship. (Late 1941: probably travelling to Australia. 1942: the Australian catalogue lists him among its overseas members in Ireland, while the Irish catalogue makes no mention of him, not even among the Australian Jesuits residing in Ireland. He may have been in an intermediate position - on the high seas – when both catalogues were being edited.) .
1943-70, 1975-87 Australia.
1943-61 Loyola College, Watsonia (Melbourne area): 1943-44 socius to the master of novices; 1945-61 Master of novices. 1962 Corpus Christi college, Glen Waverley (Melbourne area), professor of dogma, spiritual father to the seminarians. 1963-68 Canisius college, Pymble (Sydney area), professor of theology (1963-65 minor course, 1966-68 dogma; 1964-67 prefect of studies). 1969-70 Jesuit Theological College, Parkville (Melbourne area), professor of dogma, spiritual father.
1971-74 Pakistan: Loyola Hall, Lahore, pastoral work, giving Exercises.
1975-80 South Australia. Adelaide area, pastoral work, mostly in Salisbury North, while residing in Manresa, Norwood (1975), St Ignatius College, Athelstone (1976-78), and Salisbury North itself (1979-80).
1981-'7 Melbourne area: 1981-84 Corpus Christi men's hostel, Greenvale, pastoral work. 19858-6 Immaculate Conception residence, Hawthorn, praying for Church and Society. 20th February 1987: died.

“Ned came from a remarkable Cork family. Of the five boys, three became priests and two, doctors. All four girls had a tertiary education. His sister Una was due to revisit him in April. (Miss Una Riordan, 5 Egerton villas, Military hill, Cork.)

Born: 24 April 1826, Mineo, Catania Sicily, Italy
Entered: 03 November 1840, Palermo Sicily Italy - Siculae Province (SIC)
Ordained: 1857
Professed: 15 August 1859
Died: 17 September 1908, Loyola College, Greenwich, Sydney, Australia - Siculae Province (SIC)

Father Provincial of the Irish Province of the Society of Jesus: 18 March 1877-30 July 1880;
Superior of the Irish Jesuit Mission to Australia: 2 September 1883-5 April 1890;

Irish Provincial 18 March 1877
Australian Irish Mission Superior 02 September 1883; then Mag Nov

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He was a member of SIC and he, along with many Jesuits, was expelled from Sicily in 1860. He and his companions were received with open arms at Milltown. Here he worked as a Master of Novices (he had brought many novices with him from SIC). His brother was also a Jesuit who ended up in Portugal, another was a Priest in Italy, and a cousin was a Bishop of Ancona.
1865 He was loved by all in Milltown and was appointed Rector there in 1865, and built the new Retreat House in 1874.
1877 He was appointed Provincial of HIB, and when he finished that job he was appointed Rector of Tullabeg in 1881.
1883 At the express command of Father General Jan Roothaan, he was sent to Australia as Superior of the Mission. He had been 23 years in Ireland at that stage. When he finished that office, he still took charge of the Novices both in Melbourne and Sydney, until blindness prevented him from continuing.
1908 He died a holy death at Loyola Sydney, 17 September 1908, and he died with the reputation of a Saint.

On his death the following notice appeared in a Sydney newspaper (paraphrased in parts) :
“Australia has lost one of the oldest and notable members of the Society of Jesus, in the person of Luigi Sturzo. For 68 years of his life, which closed at Loyola, Greenwich on Thursday afternoon, he followed in the footsteps of St Ignatius. In the evening of his life, the old Jesuit, who was 82 years of age, and a Sicilian, lived in practical retirement at Loyola. The almost total loss of sight prevented him from doing work for which he was otherwise physically capable, but the giving of instructions to the communities and the private Retreats at the North Sydney Novitiate of the Order brought him some little comfort. Up to the last, his intellect was as vigorous as ever. His funeral was at St Mary’s, Sydney, presided over by Msgr Carroll, with George Kelly at the graveside in Gore Hill, attended by many.
Father Sturzo was a real Jesuit in spirit and deed, and that is saying a good deal. His amiability and genuine kindliness won for him hosts of friends...... although unable to read at Mass, his community read for him. The Church, Rome and the Holy Father and the doings of his Society, these were the subjects that thrilled him.

He was born in Mineo, Sicily. he then went to Caltgirone, where the Society had two houses. Sicilian boys were encouraged to give ‘ferverinos’ to their families, and on one occasion his father remarked ‘Why, Luigi, you are a real Jesuit’. When he finished school, he told his father he wanted to be a Jesuit. Along with a letter of introduction from his Jesuit uncle, his father got him to Palermo, and he was accepted at 14 years and 6 months. This meant he had to wait an extra 6 months to take Vows until he was 17. He subsequently made studies and taught at the Palermo College. He was there when the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception was promulgated in 1854. Garribaldi was in power and came to Palermo, and eventually Luigi found himself in Ireland with the Novices of Sicily and Naples where they had been offered sanctuary. They were nervous going to a country not wholly Catholic, but the warmth of reception and the respect of the people made them feel at once at home. After that he became if anything, more Irish that the Irish! At first they were housed in Tullabeg, and then with the Irish Novices at Milltown. (cf note below of those celebrated Irishmen who were his Novices)

1877 He was made Provincial of HIB, a further proof of the trust reposed in him. In 1881 he was then made Rector at Tullabeg, with William Delaney Rector as Prefect of Studies.

1883 He was sent by the General to Australia as Superior of the Mission, and remained Master of Novices until 1901. So here too the young Australian Jesuits had the privilege of being trained by him.

In Ireland he had spent much time giving retreats, and he had a deep understanding of what lay behind the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius.

His Celebrated Novices : Timothy Kenny and Patrick Keating HIB Provincials and ASL Mission Superiors; James Murphy HIB Provincial and Novice Master; Thomas P Brown HIB Provincial and ASL Mission Superior; John S Conmee ASL Mission Superior; Thomas Gartlan Rector of Riverview; Thomas Fay Rector of St Aloysius; Luke Murphy Rector of Riverview and St Patrick’s; George Kelly Superior North Sydney; James Colgan Superior Hawthorne. In fact all Superiors and prominent Irish Jesuits of the time were either his Novices, or Novices of his Novices, which means he could be called the Father of the Province!

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Aloysius Sturzo was one of four brothers to enter the Society of Jesus, and was the nephew of a well-respected Jesuit, Antonio Ayala. His parents, Don Francesco and Donna Antonia Taranto were traditional pious Catholics, and Luigi followed in the ways of faith of his parents. He entered the Society, 3 November 1840 in Palermo, at the noviciate, which is now the Casa Professa, under the care of the novice master Antonio Vinci. Rhetoric studies followed in the same house for a further two years before two years of philosophy at the Collegio Massimo in Palermo. In his second year he was the beadle of the group.
Regency followed for the next six years at the Collegio Massimo, teaching grammar, history and geography, Italian, Latin and Greek at various times. In his second year he was appointed beadle of the regents.
From 1854-57 Sturzo studied theology at the College Massimo, during which time he was the prefect of the Sodality of Our Lady After ordination he was appointed confessor of the parlour and to prisoners. In 1858 he made his tertianship in the Roman province, and the following year for two years, he returned to Palermo to the House of Probation to be socius to the master of novices, Giuseppe Spedalieri. He was also spiritual father to the young scholastics, and continued his work as confessor of the parlor, and also at the hospital and in the prison. He was solemnly professed of the four vows on 15 August 1859.
In 1860, with the dispersion of many Sicilian Jesuits, together with others, he was invited to Ireland, especially to care for the Italian novices. He became the first novice master of the
Irish province, then rector of Milltown Park, Dublin, 1866-77, followed by provincial of Ireland,1877-80.
He went as rector to St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, 1880-83, and was sent to Australia and was superior of the mission and novice master until 1890, living at Richmond and Xavier College. After that he became rector of Loyola, Greenwich, and was master of novices at the same time, as well as procurator of the mission. He remained rector until his death.
Sturzo had entered the Society six months before the canonical age for the reception of novices, but could not he persuaded to leave. He was highly respected, as he was master of novices at the age of 33. One of his Irish novices and later Irish provincial, John Conmee, praised him for his gentleness, meekness, admirable patience, faith, and ardent love of the Lord. He was greatly respect by all who encountered him, and in his last days, he talked much about Sicily, his family and friends. He never learned to speak English well, but his spiritual sense and inward fervor came through the imperfect utterance. His Australian novices spoke highly of him. As a superior he was mild, but not weak, and was well endowed with prudence and sagacity. He had a sense of humor, and never minded being laughed at for his solecisms in English. He was a truly international Jesuit, highly respected in three countries.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Aloysius Sturzo 1826-1908
Fr Aloysius Sturzo was a Sicilian born in 1826. He entered the Society when only fourteen years of age in 1840. On the expulsion of the Society from Sicily in 1860, Fr Sturzo and his companions were received with open arms by the Irish Province and housed at Milltown Park. Here Fr Sturzo was appointed Master of Novices, becoming Rector of the house in 1865. He was responsible for the erection of the new Retreat House in 1874.

He became Provincial of the Irish province in 1877, and in 1881 was appointed Rector of Tullabeg. At the express command of Fr General he went to Australia in 1883 as Superior of that Mission. He had spent 23 years of must useful administrative labour in Ireland. When he retired from office as Superior, he again became Master of Novices in the noviceship which he himself had founded.

In the evening of his life Fr Sturzo, who was 82 years of age, lived in practical retirement at Loyola. The almost total loss of his sight prevented him from doing work for which he was otherwise capable, though he retained the use of his vigorous intellect right up to the end.

He died a holy death at Loyola, Sydney on September 17th 1908 with the reputation of a saint.