Born: 28 April 1869, Athlone, County Westmeath
Entered: 24 September 1889, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 28 June 1902

Transcribed HIB to Neo-Aurelianensis Province (NOR) 1890

Left Society of Jesus: 02 February 1909

Educated at St Mary’s, Athlone, Diocesan Seminary in Sligo and Mungret College SJ

1889-1891: St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, , Novitiate
1891-1892: St Stanislaus College, Macon GA, USA, studying Rhetoric
1892-1895: St Charles College, Grand Coteau LA, USA, studying Philosophy
1895-1897: Spring Hill College, AL, USA, Regency
1897-1899: College of the Immaculate Conception, New Orleans, LA, USA, Regency
1899-1900: Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA
1900-1902: St Stanislaus College, Macon GA, USA, studying Theology privately
1902-1907: College of the Immaculate Conception, New Orleans, LA, USA, teaching
1907-1908: St Stanuslaus College, Florissant MO, USA, Tertianship
1908-1909: College of the Immaculate Conception, New Orleans, LA, USA, teaching

Letter on file from Father General FX Wernz to Vice Provincial Fr W Delany regarding Fr Cox now living with his family in Athlone (02/02/1909). Enclosed in the letter with his dismissal papers. On receiving his papers he would then be incardinated into the Elphin Diocese.

Born: 21 March 1846, Tulsk, County Roscommon
Entered: 14 August 1878, Milltown Park
Ordained: 21 August 1870, Convent of Mercy Sligo
Final Vows: 15 August 1889, Sacred Heart College SJ, Limerick
Died: 08 August 1910, St Ignatius, Richmond, Melbourne, Australia

Came to Australia 1896

Early education at Summerhill College, Athlone and St Patrick’s College Maynooth

Taught at Summerhill College Athlone

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He had been a Priest of the Elphin Diocese before Ent, and had taught in the Colleges of Sligo and Athlone (Summerhill).

He made his Noviceship at Milltown under Charles McKenna.
1880 he was sent to Tullabeg as a teacher, and remained there until it amalgamated with Clongowes. He continued there then as Operarius and Minister.
1896 He was sent to Australia with James Colgan and Henry Lynch.
1897 He was Minister at St Patrick’s Melbourne
1898 He taught at St Aloysius Sydney.
1899 He was Operarius at Hawthorne
1901 He was Operarius at St Mary’s, Sydney
1908 He was Minister at Miller St Nth Sydney
1909 he was Minister at St Mary’s Sydney

A short time before his death he moved to St Ignatius, Richmond in failing health, where he died 08 August 1910. A letter from Sydney recounts details of his death :
“Father Gately worked up to the end. He heard Confessions up to 10pm and was dead by 2am. Four hours, and perhaps most of that sleeping! Father Charles Morrough heard groaning and went down, and Father Joseph Hearn, Superior, gave him the Last Sacraments. There was a very great deal of feeling shown by his old parishioners at Lavender Bay, Sydney. Several insisted on having a special Mass, and each of the Sodalities had a Mass offered for him. The people on whose corns he had trodden missed him most, and all speak well of him.”

He was a most zealous man and greatly devoted to the Confessional.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280 :
He entered the Society as a Priest of the Diocese of Elphin at Milltown Park aged 32. He had been a teacher at the Colleges of Sligo and Athlone.

1880-1886 After one year of Noviciate and a year making Tertianship, he was sent to St Stanislaus College Tullabeg as a teacher of Arithmetic and English
1886-1887 He was sent to Oña in Spain for a year of Theology
1887-1896 He was sent teaching at Clongowes Wood College and Crescent College Limerick
1896-1899 He was sent to Australia and taught at St Patrick’s College Melbourne and St Aloysius College Sydney
1899-1902 He was sent to work in the Hawthorn Parish
1902-1908 He was sent to St Mary’s, North Sydney Parish
1908-1909 He was at St Francis Xavier Lavender Bay Parish
1909-1910 He was back working at St Mary’s Parish

He died suddenly after hearing confessions at the Richmond Parish. He was described as a fiery person, but appreciated by the people.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father John Gately (1946-1910)

A native of Roscommon, entered the Society as a priest in 1878, and was at the Crescent from 1888 to 1896. In 1896 he left for the mission in Australia where he laboured until his death.

Born: 09 April 1871, Boyle, County Roscommon
Entered: 11 November 1893, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 1905, Milltown Park., Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1912, Sacred Heart College SJ, Limerick
Died: 10 April 1948, Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin

Educated at Summerhill College Sligo, the St Patrick’s College, Maynooth (4 years)

First World War chaplain.

by 1898 at Stonyhurst, England (ANG) studying
by 1907 at Drongen, Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship
by 1916 at St Aloysius College, Glasgow (ANG) Military Chaplain
by 1917 Military Chaplain : 5th East Lancashire, Witley, Surrey
by 1918 Military Chaplain : Officers Mess Park Hall Camp, Oswestry

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 23rd Year No 3 1948
Obituary

Fr. Hugh Mulhall (1871-1893-1948)

Fr. Mulhall died on Saturday, April 10th after a few days illness. He had been visibly failing for some time before but had not been confined to bed. On Monday, April 5th, he got a heavy cold, which developed into congestion. He was anointed and received Holy Viaticum on Wednesday night and although he rallied a little next day, he was clearly dying on Friday. This was his seventy seventh birthday and he was very grateful to all the Fathers wbo celebrated Mass for him that morning. His sufferings were increasing but God mercifully put an end to them on Saturday afternoon. R.I.P.
Hugh Mulhall was born at Boyle on April 9th, 1871. His mother was a sister of The Mac Dermott, a fact which Fr. Mulhall never forgot and of which he liked to remind others. He was educated at the diocesan college of the Immaculate Conception, Summerhill, Sligo, from which he went to Maynooth where he spent about four years. All his life he was proud of being a ‘Maynooth man’ and he preserved a vivid memory of his contemporaries. He could tell after a lapse of nearly half a century which of them had got ‘a first of first’, which had ‘led his class’ which had come to high ecclesiastical dignity.
He entered the novitiate at Tullabeg on St. Stanislaus' Day, 1893. In due time, he pronounced his first vows and after a short Juniorate, he spent two years in the Colleges, one year at Galway and one at Clongowes. He was sent to Stonyhurst for his philosophy which he did in two years. He was on the teaching staff in Galway again in 1900. In 1903 he did his theology in Milltown and was ordained there in 1905. He went to Tronchiennes in 1907 for his tertianship under Pere Petit and was sent to the Crescent, Limerick to teach in 1908. As his methods of teaching were original but not calculated to secure success in the examinations, he was transferred to the Church staff. After a year spent at Tullabeg as missioner and operarius in the people's church, he was appointed a military chaplain in the First World War, in 1916. He never went to the Front but served as chaplain to hospitals and camps, at Stobhill, Glasgow, at Whitley, Surrey, and at Oswestry. The four or five years which he spent as chaplain were the most active and pleasant of his life and gave him a stock of memories and stories which he never forgot.
He must have been rather an unsoldierly figure and he was certainly unconventional in manner, but he soon came to show that he was a first-class chaplain. He had an extraordinary gift of interesting people in religion. He was very intelligent, quick and subtle of mind, unusually independent of notes and books. Like Macaulay, he could be said to carry his wealth in his breeches pocket and not in the bank. He had his considerable capital under his hand and could draw on it at once. He had a rare gift of being able to expound a question or situation in a lucid, orderly and winning way. He could show to a prejudiced hostile non-Catholic that even the most ‘advanced’ Catholic doctrines, such as the infallibility of the Pope or the Immaculate Conception, were sweetly reasonable and actually demanded by the general situation. He was devoted to the men and did great good among them. At the mess and in his general dealings with the officers, he produced a deep impression. A point of morals or a question of belief would be mentioned and the Padre would be asked for his opinion. His opinion was always received with respect, if not with approval, he could give the Catholic position clearly and cogently. He undoubtedly exercised a great influence.
In 1921 he was appointed to the Mission Staff. He suffered with increasing intensity from nervous troubles and after a period in a sanatorium in Scotland, he spent some years in Rainhill in the English Province doing retreat work. But his malady got worse and he was obliged to give up active work. In 1931 he came to Rathfarnham Castle where he remained until his death.
Fr. Muhall was emphatically a ‘character’, unusual and remark able in many respects. He attracted attention at once by his great unwieldy figure, with its indication of uncommon physical strength. Almost all his life, he enjoyed good health and never knew what a headache was. For a man with his leisure, he read extremely little, but he had a most tenacious memory and never forgot what he heard from others or learned from his own experience. He loved talking and could not sit in a tram or bus or train without entering at once into conversation with his neighbour. He had great skill in starting and keeping going a conversation. He would have been quite at home in the eighteenth century when conversation was the chief recreation of civilised men. But his conversation was always of a spiritual turn, and it was a proof of his special gift that he could interest anyone in religious matters. His great interest was the conversion of Protestants. He noted every conversion mentioned in the papers, he entered into correspondence with Protestants, he got prayers said for them.
Though he endured constant mental sufferings arising from scruples, fears, inhibitions and excessive sensibility, he was usually cheerful and patient, always ready to talk with a visitor, always bright at recreation. He told a story very well, had a very fine sense of humour. He was always most interested in news about our Fathers and Brothers. It need scarcely be mentioned that his eccentricities, due for the most part to the state of his mental health, did not make religion easier for himself or for others. He was a man of deep child like piety, the Sacred Heart and Our Lady being the chief objects of his devotion.
It is hard to imagine Rathfarnham without the massive figure who sat on the seat near the exit steps, impervious to east wind or rain, or who stumped up and down on the short side walk, leaning on his stick, or who sat for hours at a time at the window of the library, looking out but not at the landscape. He was looking into himself or into the past, for he was inordinately preoccupied with self, in the phrase of the old Greek philosopher, he made himself the measure of all things! It was difficult at times to resist a feeling of pity that such gifts as he undoubtedly possessed, came apparently to so little use. But God's estimate may be very different. We do not know the value that He attached to his suffering and patience. Fr. Mulhall never said a bitter or unkind word about another, he was always studiously mild in his criticism. One who knew him well for most of his life in the Society, described him as the most charitable man he had ever met. We trust that God has given him the peace of mind for which he prayed and sought so long. In pace in idipsum dormiam et requiescam. R.I.P.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Hugh Mulhall SJ 1871-1948
Many of the Province will recall the huge almost unwieldy figure of Fr Mulhall which moved round the Castle during their Juniorate days at Rathfarnham.

He was born in Boyle on April 9th 1871. Having spent about four years in Maynooth, he entered the Society in 1893. During the first World War he acted as chaplain, earning for himself a reputation among the troops for his kindly interest and a special aptitude fro explaining difficulties in religion in a lucid and simple manner.

The War over, he was appointed to the Mission Staff, but the malady from which he suffered for the rest of his life soon made its appearance, and he was forced to abandon active service. He suffered from extreme scruples. This affliction he bore with great patience and humility, never heard to murmur against his lot, but grateful to God who gave him so many good friends among his brethren who tried to help him in his sickness. This cross he bore for 17 years.

He died a happy death on April 10th 1948.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Hugo Mulhall (1871-1948)

Was born at Boyle, Co Roscommon and on the completion of his education at Summerhill College, Sligo, entered Maynooth College. He was received into the Society in 1893. He pursued his higher studies in England, and at Milltown Park, where he was ordained in 1905, and, on finishing his tertianship in Belgium, arrived in the Crescent in 1908. Although a man of subtle intellectual gifts, he showed no aptitude for teaching and was soon transferred to church work at which he laboured conscientiously until 1914. After some experience on the mission staff, he volunteered as a military chaplain but never served outside England. After the first world war he returned to mission work in Ireland and was later back in England engaged in retreat work.

Born: 08 September 1911, Cappagh, Ballinasloe, County Galway
Entered: 01 September 1927, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1941, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1945, Miltown Park, Dublin
Died: 07 June 1969, College of Industrial Relations, Ranelagh, Dublin

Parents were both National Teachers.

Sixth of a family of eight with four boys and four girls.

Early education was at his father’s National School until 1924. He won a County Scholarship and entered the Diocesan Seminary in Sligo, Sumerhill College.

by 1946 at Heythrop, Oxfordshire (ANG) studying

Father Provincial of the Irish Province of the Society of Jesus, 31 July 1953-19 July 1959.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - Summerhill College, College Road, Knocknaganny, Sligo student

Irish Province News 34th Year No 4 1959

GENERAL
On 20th July Fr. Charles O'Conor, former Rector of Gonzaga College was appointed Provincial in succession to Fr. Michael A. O’Grady. The best wishes of the Province are with the Provincial in his new office, and to Fr. O'Grady the Province offers its gratitude for his services during his Provincialate. He will be remembered, beyond doubt, above all for his outstanding kindness, under standing and sympathy. His great and quite genuine charm of manner made personal contact between him and his subjects easy. They could always feel that their position was understood even if it could not always be improved. And these qualities extended themselves outside the Society and won for Fr. O’Grady and for the Province the goodwill, esteem and affection of everyone with whom he came into contact.
When he became Provincial in 1953 Fr. O’Grady was faced with a task which demanded gifts of this high order, The period of office of his predecessor, Fr. T, Byrne, had been one of expansion after the war. It was for Fr. O’Grady to consolidate. He found himself with a number of new enterprises-the Catholic Workers' College, the Mission in Rhodesia, Gonzaga College - which he had to see firmly established. This involved, among other things, a heavy building programme. It has been his great achievement that he courageously carried through this programme, though the toll on his health was at times very great. Besides the buildings at Gonzaga and the Workers' College, there were the preparatory school at Belvedere, the Pioneer Hall, the extension to Manresa and the renovation of Loyola, Eglinton Road, which was purchased as a Provincial Residence in his term of office. That, in spite of the expenditure involved, the Province is in a sound financial position is a tribute to Fr. O'Grady's generous use of his great personal gifts and to his inexhaustible patience and zeal.
Other activities recently undertaken which received his wholehearted encouragement were the Missions to Britain and to the Irish workers in Britain, the work of teaching Christian Doctrine in the Technical Schools, and the Child Educational Centre, which was started in his Provincialate and was finally established in its new premises in Northumberland Road last year.
He visited both China and Northern Rhodesia, and it was largely through his tireless negotiation that a satisfactory status for the Rhodesian Mission was worked out and the Mission of Chikuni created. He also saw the expansion of the Mission to the Chinese in Malaya. In both Missions he supported extensive building schemes of which the most ambitious were the new Wah Yan College, Queen's Road, Hong Kong and the Teacher Training College, Chikuni. And for all this the Province is grateful to Fr. O’Grady.

Obituary :

Fr Louis O’Grady SJ (1911-1969)

To comply with the desires expressed by the writer of the following appreciation we prelude with a few chronological facts of the life of Fr. M. A. O'Grady; something has been said of his death and obsequies in the notes from Gardiner St.
He was born September 8th, 1911, a fact registered in the mind of the present writer in that he completed his sixteenth year only a week after he entered the Noviceship in 1927.
After the Noviciate he did the usual arts course at U.C.D. from Rathfarnham, with distinction. He caused great alarm by having a severe haemorrhage which necessitated a blood-transfusion while at the Castle; it, the transfusion, was the source of considerable merriment when the community was assured that he was out of danger and his merry acceptance of the quizzing was a temptation to persist.
He did Philosophy in Tullabeg, 1932-5 and was on the staff at Clongowes 1935-38 and thence to Milltown where he was ordained, 1941.
After the Tertianship he proceeded with his dear friend Fr. Scozzari, later so tragically to die, of the Sicilian province, to Maynooth where both distinguished themselves in their doctorates.
Apart from his double term as Provincial, 1953-9 it may be said that Milltown claimed him until his appointment to the College of Industrial relations. He was rector of Milltown from 1947 till he assumed his higher offices. These are the bare bones to which we hope the following will add life.

An Appreciation
He had been baptised Michael Aloysius, but in the noviceship in an unusual fashion he acquired a new name or a new form of name : he was henceforth Luigi or Louis. The Luigi came first. It was no accidental re-christening, no casual re-naming. It was rather a singular and striking tribute in which his fellow novices saluted if not another Aloysius at least a fellow novice whose total dedication of himself was in the Gonzaga mode.
The phenomenon of the “saintly” novice must be as old as the religious life. More often than not the phenomenon is happily ephemeral : either the prig disappears or his priggishness does. Luigi was the exception. He never changed and the epithet prig is the one no person would ever use of him. I feel sure that no act of his was ever insincere.
The peculiar character and the specific colour were already there in the noviceship. Though Louis was always what one would describe as a normal, an ordinary man, from the beginning he was in some sense set a little apart from his fellows. While it could never have been said of him that he was illiberal in his views or intolerant in his actions, yet from the earliest times his fellows knew that behind the warm and friendly exterior there was a core of utter intransigence. One did not think of this as obstinacy (the obstinate man might change his mind); in Louis's case the matter of principle was already prejudged and decided : it was not open to reconsideration. Those who knew Louis well will remember the cloud which would suddenly transform his features and change the customary smile to a frown when in any cause a measure of either insincerity or uncharity appeared.
To my mind, when it strives to express what manner of man Louis was, the one complex which keeps coming to the front is the disproportion between his physical capacity and his spiritual potential. In a special and differing sense it could be said of him that “the spirit was willing and the flesh was weak”. In him the spirit was always willing more than the flesh could support. He would help everybody though no single body could sustain what everybody claimed. Of him one cliché is unavoidable, the one which says that he did not know how to say no.
About his own health Father Louis never liked to speak : it was. he said, a dull topic. In deference to that sentiment, I will allow myself only one sentence. Though I knew Louis very well and for a long time, it was only when (on more than one occasion) I shared a room with him on holiday that I realised how very ill he was at times, how much he suffered and how desperately hard the night could be before another day began.
Father Louis's genius could be described as an infinite capacity for making friends. There was something in him which invited confidence, the confidence of many both in high places in Church and State and of even more perhaps in lowly estate : he was equally at home at either level : he did not know how to look To comply with the desires expressed by the writer of the following appreciation we prelude with a few chronological facts of the life of Fr. M. A. O'Grady; something has been said of his death and obsequies in the notes from Gardiner St.
He was born September 8th, 1911, a fact registered in the mind of the present writer in that he completed his sixteenth year only a week after he entered the Noviceship in 1927.
After the Noviciate he did the usual arts course at U.C.D. from Rathfarnham, with distinction. He caused great alarm by having a severe haemorrhage which necessitated a blood-transfusion while at the Castle; it, the transfusion, was the source of considerable merriment when the community was assured that he was out of danger and his merry acceptance of the quizzing was a temptation to persist.
He did Philosophy in Tullabeg, 1932-5 and was on the staff at Clongowes 1935-38 and thence to Milltown where he was ordained, 1941.
After the Tertianship he proceeded with his dear friend Fr. Scozzari, later so tragically to die, of the Sicilian province, to Maynooth where both distinguished themselves in their doctorates.
Apart from his double term as Provincial, 1953-9 it may be said that Milltown claimed him until his appointment to the College of Industrial relations. He was rector of Milltown from 1947 till he assumed his higher offices. These are the bare bones to which we hope the following will add life.

An Appreciation
He had been baptised Michael Aloysius, but in the noviceship in an unusual fashion he acquired a new name or a new form of name : he was henceforth Luigi or Louis. The Luigi came first. It was no accidental re-christening, no casual re-naming. It was rather a singular and striking tribute in which his fellow novices saluted if not another Aloysius at least a fellow novice whose total dedication of himself was in the Gonzaga mode.
The phenomenon of the “saintly” novice must be as old as the religious life. More often than not the phenomenon is happily ephemeral : either the prig disappears or his priggishness does. Luigi was the exception. He never changed and the epithet prig is the one no person would ever use of him. I feel sure that no act of his was ever insincere.
The peculiar character and the specific colour were already there in the noviceship. Though Louis was always what one would describe as a normal, an ordinary man, from the beginning he was in some sense set a little apart from his fellows. While it could never have been said of him that he was illiberal in his views or intolerant in his actions, yet from the earliest times his fellows knew that behind the warm and friendly exterior there was a core of utter intransigence. One did not think of this as obstinacy (the obstinate man might change his mind); in Louis's case the matter of principle was already prejudged and decided : it was not open to reconsideration. Those who knew Louis well will remember the cloud which would suddenly transform his features and change the customary smile to a frown when in any cause a measure of either insincerity or uncharity appeared.
To my mind, when it strives to express what manner of man Louis was, the one complex which keeps coming to the front is the disproportion between his physical capacity and his spiritual potential. In a special and differing sense it could be said of him that “the spirit was willing and the flesh was weak”. In him the spirit was always willing more than the flesh could support. He would help everybody though no single body could sustain what everybody claimed. Of him one cliché is unavoidable, the one which says that he did not know how to say no.
About his own health Father Louis never liked to speak : it was. he said, a dull topic. In deference to that sentiment, I will allow myself only one sentence. Though I knew Louis very well and for a long time, it was only when (on more than one occasion) I shared a room with him on holiday that I realised how very ill he was at times, how much he suffered and how desperately hard the night could be before another day began.
Father Louis's genius could be described as an infinite capacity for making friends. There was something in him which invited confidence, the confidence of many both in high places in Church and State and of even more perhaps in lowly estate : he was equally at home at either level : he did not know how to look up or look down. Many of the friendships which he made began with an appeal to him for help. The truth was that men came to Louis not so much because they wanted the benefit of his judgment as because they needed the strengthening of his understanding and kindness.
As time went on the number of those who depended on him grew. Unfortunately his physical strength did not grow apace, and he began to be at times desperately tired. He spoke to me once about that well-known exhortation to moderation which takes the form : if you were dead, people would get along all right without you. Characteristically his comment given with a tired smile was : that argument is useless : the difficulty is that I am not dead.
He is dead now, God rest him, and what can we do who are saddened by his death other than thank God for the precious goodness which shone so brightly amongst us. Under God's grace the cost in effort and determination was great; in later years the cost included perhaps inevitably some small measure of irritability, At times he drove himself very hard with an intensity which few could emulate : there was never any doubt about the high grade of asceticism to which he attained : but of this few were aware. Surprisingly this achievement of his increased rather than diminished his humanity: it gave him a freedom of action beyond the ordinary, and allowed him to disregard convention for convention's sake.
Speaking of Louis's humanity it should be recorded that those who had always the first claim on his affection were the members of his own family, especially, in later years, his ageing mother but not less indeed his brothers and sisters.
Father Louis's life was totally at the service of the Society which (within or after the Church) had claim on his whole loyalty. Some who did not know him might think from what I have written that he was an invalid who from his sick-bed gave counsel to many. Not true this: in any case he was never that long in a sick bed. The Society made a full claim on him, as a teacher and administrator at the highest level both separately and together. His gifts of intellect were considerable and had he been chosen for a purely scholastic career he might have made a name for himself as a philosopher or a theologian. He was not good at languages and I know he found the use of Latin as a medium of teaching a burden. As a consequence the movement away from Latin in post-Vatican II days he welcomed; but of many other changes in the same time he felt less happy.
Father Louis, one may surmise, might have been happier had he been born a quarter of a century earlier or a quarter of a century later. By nature and taste he had always been in church affairs more liberal and progressive than otherwise. In the pre Vatican II world he might have been said to be left of centre. When the centre moved rapidly to the left, like many of his contemporaries, he was perplexed to some degree and to some extent unhappy.
When I was asked to write this notice of my friend, I hesitated, because I did not think that it would be easy to do justice to the subject of it. In many ways Father Louis O'Grady was a conventional religious, not differing that much from his fellows. As a teacher and an administrator he was possibly more competent than brilliant. The record in the books may not put him in the first dozen. That does not matter, because in the case of Louis O'Grady it is not what he did which counts but what he was. Father John Ryan has said somewhere that in Ireland there was never any need for a judicial process of canonisation : if a man, especially a religious, could pass the scrutiny of his fellowmen, especially his fellow-monks, it was enough. Most of his religious life Father Louis, as rector or provincial or superior, underwent that extra sifting which the monks reserve for those who sit in the chair of Moses; he passed that stringent test splendidly, and as far as I know nem. con.
The ability of the man, about whom I write, to make friends was a purely natural asset, with nothing about it which was either studied or artificial. But the synthesis of this natural gift with the purer and more intense flame of Christian charity was the work of a lifetime. No one could know Louis for long without realising how near to God he was at all times. And this was the source in him of that rare sensitive personal integrity which was with him in the noviceship and was with him to the end : and this too was the source in him of that expansive, universal, dynamic. fearless love for men which knew no limit of moderation or even of prudence.
The strain and the tension in this man's life could have but one ending, for the conflict was unequal. During the night of June 6:7 the persistently over-taxed energy finally ran out, and Louis was dead.
It is not easy to link with him the notion of rest and peace. Nevertheless one feels that the change from life to death (or from life through death to life) in Louis's case cannot have been great; perhaps now that he is dead, with more truth he can say what he could surely have said at any time in his life : I live now, not I, but Christ liveth in me.

Born: 18 February 1864, Athlone, County Roscommon
Entered: 14 August 1880, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1895
Final Vows: 02 February 1899, St Francis Xavier, Gardiner Street, Dublin
Died: 10 May 1907, Bruges, Belgium

Early education at local NS, then Summerhill College, Athlone Clongowes Wood College SJ

Came to Australia for Regency with priests James O’Connor, George Buckeridge and Joseph Tuite 1886
by 1898 at Drongen Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship
by 1904 at out of Community (TOLO) - health

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
After First Vows he studied Rhetoric and Philosophy at Milltown.
1886 He went with three Fathers for his Regency in Australia, where he taught with great success for five years.
When he returned he studied Theology at Milltown and was ordained after his Third Year.
He was then sent to Crescent.
Failing in health the doctors advised he go back to Australia. He broke down mentally on the voyage and returned eventually to Belgium, where he died 10 May 1907

Note from Oliver Daly Entry :
He was in Australia for about twenty years, including being Superior at Hawthorn, and he returned to Ireland in charge of Father John O’Neill who had become deranged.

Note from James O’Connor Entry :
1886 He was sent to Australia, and sailed with Joseph Tuite, George Buckeridge and Scholastic John O’Neill.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
]ohn O'Neill was sent to Australia in 1887, and in 1888 taught at Xavier College. In 1889 he moved to St Aloysius' College to teach mathematics and Latin to junior boys. It appears before the year was finished he moved to Riverview, serving for a time as second division prefect until the end of 1891, and then moved back to St Aloysius' College in 1892. He returned to Ireland, but was posted again to Riverview for 1903, but the thought of it was too much for him, and after a month left for Belgium where he cared for his health.

Born: 11 February 1845, Athlone, County Roscommon
Entered: 02 November 1867, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 10 September 1871, Liège, Belgium
Final Vows: 21 November 1881
Died: 02 July 1931, St Vincent’s Hospital, Fitzroy, Melbourne, Australia

Part of the St Patrick’s College, Melbourne, Australia community at the time of death

Transcribed : HIB to ASL 05/04/1931

Educated at Summerhill College, Athlone and St Patrick’s College, Maynooth

by 1870 at Leuven, Belgium (BELG) studying
by 1872 at Leuven, Belgium (BELG) studying
Early Australian Missioner 1872

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Note from William Hughes Entry :
1872 He set out for Melbourne in the company of Christopher Nulty and Michael Watson

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

Note from Francis Atchison Entry :
1901-1909 He was sent to St Patrick’s Melbourne, again as Assistant Director to Michael Watson of the “Messenger”, Reader in the Refectory and assisting in the community.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Michael Watson was educated at Athlone and at Maynooth, where he spent five years and was ordained sub-deacon the year he entered the Society, 2 November 1867. After his two year noviceship he studied two years of theology at Louvain and was ordained, 10 September 1871.
Watson arrived in Australia, 10 April 1873, and was assigned to St Patrick's College, East Melbourne. Here he taught, was founder-director of the men's Sodality of Our Lady from 1874, and in 1880 taught theology In 1877 he founded and edited the “St Patrick’s College Gazette”.
He spent a few years at Xavier College, 1880-81 and 1882-88, as minister and teaching Christian doctrine. However, he returned to St Patrick's College in 1888 and remained there for the rest of his life. He began editing the “Messenger” in January 1887, assisted with the Apostleship of Prayer and did pastoral work. He gave a talk to the boys every Wednesday, and celebrated benediction of feast days. He was a popular confessor. He was minister, 1888-91, and edited the “Madonna” from 1898. During this period he was for many years director of retreats in Victoria and South Australia. He ceased to be editor of the “Messenger” in 1919 and of the “Madonna” in 1923.
Watson was a very sound theologian: he was also very widely read in literature, and corresponded with such literary figures as Sir Aubrey de Vere. In his youth he was valued as a preacher and retreat-giver, but became totally deaf about 1885. For the greater part of his life, therefore, he had to work mainly through the written word. He was also the author of some pious books and pamphlets, and verses, which had quite a wide circulation. He contributed articles to the local Catholic newspaper, the “Advocate. Those who lived with him at St Patrick's College and those who knew him thought of him quite simply as a saint.

Note from John Ryan Entry
Finally, he had an eye to history, leaving excellent diaries and notes, encouraging Michael Watson to write a history of the mission.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - Made his First Vows at Leuven, Belgium 13 November 1869

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 6th Year No 4 1931
Obituary :
Fr Michael Watson
The Vice-Province of Australia (as well as the Irish Province) lost its oldest member when Fr. Watson died at Melbourne last July at the age of 86 years.

He was born 11 Feb. 1845, spent some time at Maynooth, where he read theology, and entered the novitiate at Milltown 2 Nov. 1867. When the noviceship was over he went to Louvain where. in three years he finished his theology, and immediately set sail for Australia in the year 1872.
He was stationed at “Melbourne College SJ” (St. Patrick's) from 1873 to 1878 as Master and Operarius. In 1879, still belonging to the College, he is described in the Catalogue “Doc. theol. dogm. in Sem., Oper”. Next year we find him Minister at Xavier, which had just been opened, a year at Richmond Residence followed, then Minister and Operarius once more at Xavier until 1888. In that year he went to St. Patrick's and never changed residence until his death in 1931. During that long period he was for 30 years Moderator of the Apostleship of prayer, and for 9 more Assistant Moderator. He edited the Messenger for 32 years, the Madonna for 27, adding on 9 additional as Sub-Editor. More remarkable still, perhaps, he was “Caller” for 22 years. The last time that “Excit.”appears after his name was in the year 1923 when he was 78 years old. He was also correspondent to the the, “Civilta Cattolica”, and in acknowledgment of the work he did for The Roman paper he was honoured by an autograph letter from the Holy Father.
“Cur val” does not after Fr. Watson's name until the very last year of his long life.

Irish Province News 7th Year No 1 1932
Obituary :
Fr Michael Watson (continued)
When Fr. Watson entered the hospital at Melbourne, 16 June, he was asked by a lay friend “Have you any premonition as to the day on which you will die?” He replied, “No, but it will be soon”. The friend again asked him “Is there any special day you would choose for your death?”. Fr. Watson took the calendar in his hands, and looked down the list stopping when he came to 2 July, the feast of the Visitation. “If God wills it, this is the day that I choose. Pray with me that Our Lady may come for me on her Feast Day”. Later he renewed this prayer, and got others to join with him. His request was granted. At 9.25 in the evening of the Feast of the Visitation he passed away.
For more than 45 years Fr. Watson was stone deaf. However he had a wonderful spirit of resignation to the will of God, and he did not allow his infirmity to interfere in the least with his activities. He had no hesitation in speaking in public, or in visiting very important persons, and he readily entered into conversation with casual acquaintances, varying from Anglican Bishops to swagmen, frequently failing to remind them that he did not hear a word of what they were saying. He radiated a genial holiness. He had the simplicity of a child, was rightly regarded as a saint, and was always ready to give his co-operation to any charitable movement, especially to the Foreign Missions, for which he did a great deal of useful work.
Besides editing the Australian Messenger and Madonna he wrote a number of books and ever so many pamphlets. Within the last two years the Holy Father himself sent a special letter to Fr. Watson to thank him for the contributions that he had been sending for 50 years to an Italian publication.
Most of the above has been taken from the Australian Madonna.
Fr. Watson was one of the most light-hearted men I have ever met. If a messenger from heaven revealed to me that Fr. Watson was the happiest man in Australia for the past 50 years, the news in itself would not surprise me. I should say, that's what I always thought. He was like a care-free child, abounding in mirth, and apparently living in perpetual sunshine
(Fr. Boylan, S. J.)
A lady friend resolved to make a pilgrimage to Lourdes for the cure of Fr. Watson's deafness. He heard of it and wrote “My dear friend. I thank you sincerely for your charity but beg of you to offer your pilgrimage for something else,I neither ask for nor desire any alleviation. God willing, I prefer to remain as I am. The graces I receive from my privation are so
great that I don't want any cure. So please do not offer your pilgrimage for the restoration of my hearing”.

◆ The Xaverian, Xavier College, Melbourne, Australia, 1931

Obituary

Father Michael Watson SJ

On 16th June, Father Watson went into St Vincent's Hospital, as he needed more attention than we were able to give him at his own headquarters. A little over a fortnight later, on the 2nd July, he passed away.

On the day he entered the hospital (16th June) he was asked by a lay friend who has visited him practically every day for a year, “Have you any premonition as to the day on which you will die?” He replied, “No, but it will be soon”. The friend again asked him, “Is there any special day you would choose for your deatlı”? Father Watson took the calendar in his hands and looked down the list, stopping when he came to July 2nd, the Feast of the Visitation. “If God will it” he said, “this is the day that I choose. Pray with me that Our Lady may come for me on her Feast Day”. Later on he renewed this prayer and got others to join with him. His request was granted. At 0.25 in the evening of the Feast of the Visitation he passed away, the friend of whom I have spoken being with him during the last half-hour of his life. He was in his 86th year.

Father Watson was born at Athlone in Ireland on 11th February, 1845, and received his early education there, having as schoolmates T P O'Connor, who later became famous as a journalist and as the doyen of the House of Commons; and also Anthony McDonnell, afterwards - Sir Anthony, Chief Secretary of Ireland, and distinguished in other Imperial posts. He entered the seminary of Maynooth for Rhetoric in 1862; was ordained sub deacon at the end of the second year's Divinity, 1867; entered the Jesuit Novitiate at Dublin on 2nd November, 1867, and was ordained priest at Liege, Belgium, on 10th September, 1871. He set out for Melbourne on 16th December, 1872, in a sailing ship, and began an apostolate in Australia which ended 59 years later. He founded the Sodality of Our Lady in St Patrick's College in 1874, the first Sodalist to be received being John Norton, the late Bishop of Port Augusta and a sincere friend of Father Watson's to the end. The branch of the Sodality for adults became very famous and is still fiourishing, the actual president being Mr. Benjanin Hoare, an old and dear friend of Father Watson's, and now in his 89th year. Mr Benjamin Hoare is one of the Most distinguished journalists of Australia, being leader writer of the Melbourne “Age” for more than 30 years. He is still a daily Communicant and has not missed the annual Retreat of the Sodality for 44 years.

The “Australian Messenger of the Sacred Heart” was founded on 1st January 1887, by Father John Ryan, with Father Watson as first Editor. He occupied the editorial chair for 30 years and saw his beloved magazine attain to a wonderful degree of popularity in Australia and New Zealand. He founded the “Madonna” as a quarterly in 1897, and continued to edit it for more than 30 years. He celebrated the Golden Jubilee of his life in religion in 1917, and next year resigned the editorship of the “Messenger” to the present editor, but continued to edit the “Madonna”, which was issued as a monthly in 1920.

The year 1921 was the joyous occasion of Father Watson's Golden Jubilee of Priesthood, and he received a great amount of congratulations. At the time of his Golden Jubilee of Priesthood, Fr Watson was 76 years of age and enjoyed remarkably poor health. He was full of vitality, full of good humour, and always as busy as a bee. He wrote, preached, gave numerous religious conferences, in convents especially, and gave an occasional retreat; but three years ago, when in his 83rd year, he showed the first signs of breaking up. He partly recovered and seemed to have regained a fair measure of his energy, but last June twelve months, having said Mass one Sunday at the Carmelite Convent, he very rashly tried to walk back to the College, a distance of three miles, the effort proving too much for him. He had another break-down the following day and from that time slowly but surely faded away.

Father Watson spent five years at Maynooth. After his entrance into the Society of Jesus he studied at Louvain, in Belgium, and then, as already mentioned, worked for 50 years in Australia.

For more than 45 years Father Watson was stone deaf, being cut off from even the faintest perception of sound, and living in a world of absolute silence. This must have been a great trial for a man of his extremely sociable disposition. However, he had enormous strength of mind and a wonderful spirit of resignation to the Will of God, and through his vigorous resolution he did not allow his infirmity to interfere in the least with his activities. He was a very busy man, of extremely cheerful disposition, and occupied himself continually with writing, lecturing and preaching He was of an exceptionally social disposition, extremely popular, and became a very well-known figure in Melbourne religious life. For a brief period he was Minister at Xavier College, but most of his time was spent at St Patrick's.

He is the author of the following books: “For Christ and His Kingdom” (a volume of sonnets and lyrics), “Within the Soul”, “The Story of Burke and Wills” (a volume of historical sketches and literary essays), “Pearls from Holy Scripture for Our Little Ones” (a series of scriptural essays), “Lyrics of Innocence”, as well as many pamphlets, articles and poems.

Father Watson was entirely free from shyness. In the discharge of his duties he had no hesitation in speaking in public or in visiting important persons such as tire Postmaster-General, or the Commissioner of Railways, or Managers of banks, and he readily entered into conversation with casual acquaintances, varying from Anglican Bishops to swagmen. He chatted with everyone, frequently failing to remind them that he did not hear a word they were saying. Despite his complete deafness he made a very good impression on everyone he met. He radiated a genial holiness. He had the simplicity of a child, was rightly regarded as a saint, was entirely devoid of fear, and was always ready to give his co-operation to any charitable movement, paying special attention to the needs of the Foreign Missions, for which lie did a great deal of useful work.

The Requiem Mass and Office took place at the Church of St Ignatius, Richmond his first residence in Australia. His Grace, Dr Mannix, was present, and afterwards assisted at the graveside. I will conclude with the words with which his Grace ended a touching address on the life of Father Watson: “For over forty years Father Watson had been completely cut off from all the pleasures of sound. He is now listening to the joyous songs of the Angels”.

Eustace Boylan SJ