Born: 23 July 1711, Kilmacthomas, County Waterford
Entered: 22 September 1737, Madrid, Spain - Toletanae Province (TOLE)
Ordained: 1740, Alcalá, Spain
Final Vows: 15 August 1755
Died: 09 January 1771, Ireland

1755-1757 At Villareal College, Master of Rhetoric, Admonitor and Spiritual Father, Prefect of Sodality
1764 Rector of Navalcarnero College (Madrid) TOLE - had also been Minister
1765 Not in TOLE Catalogue (Ireland??)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
He was public Professor of Rhetoric in TOLE.
1747-1755 In Clonmel (1747-1752) and back in TOLE in 1755 (HIB Catalogues 1752 and 1755)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Had studied Philosophy at Madrid and Theology at Salamanca before Ent there 22 September 1737
After First Vows sent to Alcalá to complete studies and was Ordained there 1740
1740-1741 Sent to College of Nobles, Madrid to teach Rhetoric
1741-1724 Sent to Alcalá as Minister
1724-1747 Sent to Villarejo teaching Rhetoric to Jesuit Scholastics
1747 Sent to Ireland and to St Mary’s Clonmel, and was Superior of the Residence for a while until the parish was taken by secular clergy
1753-1758 Sent to Villarejo to teach
1758-1762 Rector of Ocaña
1762 Sent as Superior of the Residence and Church at Navalcarnero (South of Madrid)
1767 Jesuits expelled from Spain
1771 Left for Ireland on 10 July 1771
Nothing further known
(Note: the catalogi of the Toledo province assign three different birthplaces for James Hennessy:-
(1) 'Balligrimminensis', diocese of Cashel; (2) Clonmel; (3) ' Kilnemackensis' of the diocese of Lismore.)

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
HENNESSEY, JAMES, was born in Munster,on the 16th of January, 1720, and became a candidate for the Society at Madrid, in 1737. Ten years later he came on the Irish Mission, and was stationed at Clonmel; but after a few years labor returned to Spain, where 1 find him in 1755 after which time he eludes my observation.

Born: 18 June 1808, Munster
Entered: 23 July 1849, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Ordained: - pre Entry
Died: 22 November 1856, St Louis College, St Louis, MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

Born: 01 January 1672, Munster, Ireland
Entered: 17 March 1693, Bologna, Italy - Venetae Province (VEM)
Ordained: 1705, Rome, Italy
Final Vows: 15 August 1709
Died: 04 November 1733, Irish College, Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)

Alias de Rupe

1705 At Roman College in 4th year Theology
1710-1714 At Roman College Penitentiary (or Loreto College. Good talent and judgement. Well versed in Moral things. Taught Grammar, Humanities and Rhetoric
1715 to 1719 & 1723-1724 & 1729-1740 & 1742-1743 Rector of Irish College Rome (said to be so in 1667, but this must be another Alex)
In a letter regarding a sale of an item he signs himself “de Roche”

(cf Alexander Roche a century earlier)
“St Jan Berchmans died 13 August 1621. The day before he died Fr Nicholas Radkaï and Alexander Rocca (Roche an Irish Jesuit) entered his room. When he perceived them he said eagerly : ‘Come in, Come in my very dear brother Rocca. I want to bid you farewell as it is probable that I shall depart tomorrow. Take good care to prove yourself a true son of the Society and to defend vigorously the Holy Roman Church against the heretics of your northern lands’. ‘I earnestly wish you to do so, but you for your part obtain for me from heaven the virtues and qualities necessary for the missionaries in this region, and do not forget the immense needs of my poor fatherland, you know them well enough.’ ‘Yes, yes, very well’ said the dying man ‘we will remember all that in heaven’” Vanderspeetens on the life of Jan Berchmans p 255

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Dr Burke in his “Hibernia Dominicana” says “I have often heard that respectable religious, Father Alexander Roche, the most worthy Rector of the Irish College Rome, say that Benedict XIII was a munificent benefactor of that College”. (Burke was in Rome 1724-1743)
1727 He was rector of Irish College Rome. He was praised in Marefoschi’s “Relazione” of his visit to the Irish College in 1771.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
1695-1702 After First Vows he was sent on Regency to Forli and Piacenza
1702-1706 Sent for Theology to the Roman College and was Ordained there 1705.
1706-1708 He then spent two years as Prefect of Studies first at the Maronite College and then the Irish College in Rome
1708-1709 Made Tertianship at Florence
1708-1714 After Tertianship he was substitute Penitentiary for the English at St Peter’s in Rome
1714-1744 Initially Vice-Rector, and then a month later appointed Rector of Irish College Rome, and he held this Office until his death 04 November 1744. His was the longest Rectorate in the history of the College.
He was regarded as a potential member of the Irish Jesuit Mission and his name was sub- mitted to the General for nomination to the Superiorship in Ireland. During his long residence in Rome, he acted as Procurator of the Irish mission.

Born: 1526 Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 09 June 1565, Professed House Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)
Left: 13 November 1571, Milan, Italy
Died: 04 June 1579, Munster

On 28 June 1567 Fr Borgia writes to Fr P Canisius that he was thinking of sending him to help at the University at Dillingen. Fr Womanstadt especially thought of sending a Theologian to Ireland - a priest would be a very good thing. see many things about Tanner in Vol VI of Canisius. (Spic oss III 35)
12 August 1567 Borgia to Germany : “Edmund an Irishman, a man of mature age and good parts will be sent to Würzburg. We have sent him to Würzburg or Dillingen where he will be useful. He is a Theologian” (Fr Nadal’s Epistolae Vol iii 509, 526)
On 20 August 1565 Fr Polanco writes to Primate Creagh : “We have elected Fr Borgia as General at our General Congregation. Among the Fathers who have come to Rome is Edmund the Irishman (Tanner), vir probitatis et doctinae non vulgaris qui nunc in probabtionibus nostrae Societatis exercetur” (Borgia Vol IV 68).

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
A Writer; A profound divine (Stanihurst); A Prisonere; A Bishop of Cork (cf "Hibernia Ignatiana").
He was once arrested but had escaped by the aid of friends. The heretics were bent on his destruction. God had blessed his labours, and many would be reconciled, to the Church, should the violence of the persecution subside. (cf Oliver, Stonyhurst MSS).

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Edmund Tanner, Bishop of Cork 1530-1579
Edmund Tanner was born in Dublin in 1530 and entered the Society at Rome in 1566. With Fr Rochford, he went to Dilingen for his studies. Owing to ill-health and with the blessing iof his Superiors, he left the Society. On Fr David Wolfe’s recommendation, he was appointed Bishop of Cork in 1574.In 1576 he received special faculties for Cork, Dublin and Cashel, and for this reason he is referred to in contemporary documents as Commissionary Apostolic.

Fr Houling SJ records that Bishop Tanner was arrested at Clonmel and thrown into prison. There he was visited by a Protestant prelate whom he finally converted. He then escaped and continued his labours for four years. Worn out by prison and toil, he died a veritable martyr in January 1579.

There is extant a famous letter of his to Rome in which he praised very highly the work of Frs Rochford and Lee in our school at Youghal.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
TANNER, EDMUND. A brief letter of this Father, addressed from Cork, the 11th of October, 1577, is extant. He states that he had once been arrested; but by the industry of his friends, had effected his escape, and that the enemies of Catholic Faith were constantly intent on his destruction; that God blessed his labours in the vineyard, and that many would be reconciled to the Church, if the violence of Persecution should subside. I suspect this Father is the person mentioned by Harris, p.97, Book, I. Writers of Ireland, who wrote “Lectiones in Summam D. Thomae”.