Born: 04 October 1626, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 12 May 1650, Villagarcía, Galicia, Spain - Castellanae Province (CAST)
Ordained: 1656,
Final Vows: 19 April 1661
Died: 03 March 1702, Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain - Castellanae Province (CAST)

1665 at Pontevedra College
1690 Taught Gramnar for 34 years at Pontevedra

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Had studied Philosophy and begun Theology before Ent 12 May 1650 Villagarcía
After First Vows he did a brief Regency at Ávila and then completed his Theology being Ordained c 1656
1656-1702 Taught Humanities at Pontevedra College for twenty six years, and the last six years of his life was an Operarius in the Church and he died there 03 March 1702
The Superior of the Irish Mission, Francis White, asked the General to have him sent back to Ireland from Spain but his plea proved unsuccessful, or at least sent to the office of the Irish Mission Procurator at Madrid. This came to nothing, and his Spanish Superiors fought hard to keep him, as they recognised his real quality as a teacher and were also chaired by his agreeable character.

Born: 28 January 1668, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 07 September 1685, Villagarcía, Galicia, Spain - Castellanae Province (CAST)
Ordained: 1692, Salamanca, Spain
Final Vows: 02 February 1702
Died: 19 October 1728, Irish College, Salamanca, Spain - Castellanae Province (CAST)

Was Rector of Irish Seminary Salamanca
His portrait is at Salamanca - represented holding a pen

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
The De La Mers or De La Mares were a well known family of Westmeath.
Writer;
Stationed at Coruña before 1708
1708-1728 Second Founder and Rector of Salamanca (cf Foley’s Collectanea, where he is incorrectly called Delawer)
1709 He presented a petition to the King of Spain and narrates the following fruits of the College :
“ Almost all the students in this College have complied with their obligations - the exceptions indeed are very few - of going to the Missions in Ireland, and have supplied their own Island, and even England and Scotland with eminent prelates , missioners and martyrs, as is well known to the natives of those kingdoms, to the number 510. Among those were men illustrious for their virtue, learning and apostolic preaching, learned writers, controversialists etc, who often shed their blood for their faith. More than 130 others became conspicuous members of different religious orders in your Majesty’s dominions, as for instance 3 OSB, one of whom became General; 12 of the Cistercian Order; 17 OP; 1 Trinitarian; 26 OsF; 20 OSA; and more than 50 of the Society of Jesus. Each are more famous than another for their piety and their valuable writings. I pass over in silence 12 more Provincials it has given to these Orders, and to the Secular branch of Ireland, 4 Archbishops, 1 Primate, 5 Bishops, 2 Protonotaries Apostolic, 5 Vicars General, 18 graduates of Theology in the most celebrated Universities of Europe, and finally more than 30 Masters of Theology and Sacred Scripture, famed as Professors in those great theatres of learning.”
He may be called the “founder” of the College, having completely rebuilt it and largely increased its revenues. He died there 09/10/1728

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
After First Vows he studied at the Royal College Salamanca and was Ordained there 1693
1694-1708 After Tertianship he was sent to teach at the College of León for a year and then to the College La Caruña, where as well as teaching he was also at times Minister and Procurator.
1708-1728 Appointed Rector of Irish College Salamanca 20th May and he was to die in office twenty years later 19 October 1728. His Rectorship was was the longest in the history of that College. He laboured zealously at Salamanca for the temporal and spiritual well-being of the students, and it owed him an immense debt of gratitude for pushing to make the College worthy of its purpose : a training ground for learned and zealous priests to work in the dark days of the Penal times in Ireland.
The eulogy composed after his death rightly stated “justamente se le llame restaurador del seminario”

Born: 13 March 1646, County Louth
Entered: 24 February 1668. Salamanca, Spain - Castellanae Province (CAST)
Ordained: 01 May 1678, Salamanca, Spain
Final Vows: 15 August 1685
Died: 22 May 1710, Irish College, Santiago de Compostella, Spain - Castellanae Province (CAST)

Alias MacTiernan

1678 At Salamanca
1681 Teaching Grammar at Compostella
His “Sodality Book” was sold as waste paper and is at Clongowes

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Two Entries (1) Bernard Kiernan, (2) Bryan McTernan
Bernard Kiernan
1686 Teaching at Drogheda
1696 In Dublin as Superior and Prefect of Sodality - his Sodality Book is at Clongowes.
1708 In Dublin, but deported. He died 1710 of the plague at Compostella
Bryan McTernan
1697 In Dublin, living in the Parish of St Catherine’s (Report of a spy, in St Patrick’s Library, Dublin V 3.1.18)
Possibly is the same as Bernard Kiernan

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
After First Vows he was sent Regency for two years and then for Philosophy studies at St Ambrose, Valladolid
He was then sent to Royal College Salamanca, where he was Ordained by 01 May 1678
He then taught Humanities at Compostella and Oviedo until he was sent to Ireland
1686 Sent to Ireland and to Drogheda, where he taught Humanities until the town fell to the Williamites. So he went to Dublin and became Superior at the Dublin Residence. His particular Ministry was the promotion of Christian Doctrine circles and the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin. The Sodality register presented to him in 1696 is at Clongowes archive
1697 After the Proclamation against the regular clergy in 1697 he went into hiding in St Catherine’s parish but was discovered and deported. He was received back into CAST and for the next three years taught philosophy at Pontevedra. He was then sent to the Irish College, Santiago and taught Humanities there until his death 22 May 1710.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
KlERAN, or KlRWAN, BERNARD.This excellent and well disposed Missionary, “insignis operarius et bonae voluntatis”, had returned from Spain to Ireland early in 1686. Twelve years later I find him labouring in the Dublin Mission. This “pious and irreproachable Father” died abroad, early in the last century.

Born: 25 March 1624, Cashel, County Tipperary
Entered: 05 August 1649, Villagarcía, Galicia, Spain - Castellanae Province (CAST)
Ordained: c 1651,
Final Vows: 15 August 1666
Died: 28 September 1691, Limerick

1651 Scholastic at Arévalo Spain (near Avila)
1651 ANG Catalogue Was at Salamanca in 4th year Theology, was a priest before Ent, suitable for rectorship in Irish Seminary in Spain
1655 At Pontevedao College (CAST) teaching Grammar (B)
1666 ROM Catalogue At Cashel : Restored the BV Sodality, preaches, administers Sacs and 5 years PP. Gives satisfaction ro “U Geul”, after whose death he devotes himself to affairs of the Irish Mission. Was 7 years on the Mission (D)
1678 At Poitiers Minister and teaching Humanities

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
1657 Came to Irish Mission and worked from Waterford and Cashel Residences. When Andrew FitzBennet Sall was committed to prison in Waterford, 22/01/1658, Thomas Leary supplied for him in the town and country.
1669 He was in Cashel, and witnessed the miraculous cure of his niece, Elizabeth Xavieria Leri, of Cashel, who was cured by a Novena to Francis Xavier (cf Morris’s Louvain “Excerpts”; Foley’s Collectanea and Oliver, Stonyhurst MSS)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Son of John and Isabel née Young
Had studied Philosophy at Santiago and two years Theology Salamanca before Ent 05 August 1649 Villagarcía
1651-1652 After First Vows he was Ordained and sent on Regency to Arévalo
1652-1658 He then continued studies at Salamanca followed by a period teaching Humanities at Pontevedra
1658 Sent to Ireland and initially probably at Cashel. For a while he replaced Andrew Fitzbennet Sall at Waterford when he had been captured, and deported. After restoration he was sent to Cashel where he ministered at Catechising, Preaching and administering the Sacraments and where he also restored the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin
1674 Appointed Consultor of the Mission and sent to Dublin.
1677 Sent to conduct business for the Mission Superior at Poitiers, investigating complaints brought against the Rector Ignatius Browne. Though it was intended that he return immediately, he was kept in France until the end of the Titus Oates Plot
1680 He returned to Cashel where he remained until the arrival of William's army. He then withdrew to Limerick and died there 28 September 1691

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
LEARY, THOMAS, arrived in Ireland during the latter end of 1657, and “was stationed at Waterford”. When F. Andrew Sall, (of whom we have made mention in a note to the article on Ignatius Brown), was apprehended in that city on the 22nd of January following, and thrown into jail, F. Leary supplied his place in town and country with great spirit and success. In 1669 I meet him at Cashell, where he witnessed the remarkable cure of his niece, Elizabeth Xaverira Leary, of dysentery and deafness, after performing a Novena in honour of St. Francis Xavier. The fact was certified by the grand Vicar of Cashell, as F. Stephen Rice reports it in the Annual letters. After this event I lose sight of him.