Early Irish Redemptorist History

and

The Foundation in Limerick

When the first Redemptorists came to Ireland in 1851 the dark shadow of the Great Famine still hung heavy over the country.  At least 800,000 of the population died from hunger and disease between 1845 and 1851.  The tide of emigration was full, close on two million people fleeing the country between 1848 and 1851.  Poverty and illiteracy were widespread.

A Church in Reformation

'The Irish Church in the third quarter of the nineteenth century was led by a remarkable man whose policy contributed much to the Redemptorists becoming firmly established in the country.  Paul Cullen, one time Rector of the Irish College in Rome, was appointed Archbishop of Armagh in 1849 and in 1852 transferred to Dublin, a See that he ruled until his death in 1878.

In April 1850 Cullen was ordered by Pius IX to convene a synod of the Irish Church to which he was appointed Apostolic Delegate.  It was the first National Synod since the twelfth century and met at Thurles in August of the same year.  It set the course for the reform of the Irish Church that the Archbishop-Delegate would follow with strict fidelity.  His policy was to unify the church~ in Ireland and make it conformable to Roman discipline, in other words, to make an independent and democratic clergy obedient to church authority.

A modern historian has testified to the success of this policy: "Cullen transformed the Irish Church from a Latin-American type institution into one of the most efficiently marshalled churches in Europe."  (The Modernisation of Irish Society, by Joseph Lee).

Cullen saw Ireland as a vast mission field.  A religious congregation of missionary preachers such as that of Saint Alphonsus, who was so papal and orthodox, would be an excellent instrument in the cause of reform.  Archbishop Cullen knew of the Redemptorists and their work.  On 1st October 1851 he met Fathers Lans and Van Antwerpen in Liverpool and told them of his desire to see the congregation established in Ireland.  It is in the context of a church in reformation that we must see the arrival of the Redemptorists in Ireland.

First Redemptorists in Ireland

The first Redemptorists to visit Ireland were Fathers Frederick de Held and Vladimir Petcherine.  The former had been appointed Visitor of England and first Rector of Clapham in 1849.  He was a disciple of St. Clement.  Professed in Vienna in 1821, de Held was appointed Provincial of the newly-erected Belgian province in 1841, made the first English foundation at Falmouth in 1843, followed by the later and lasting foundations of Clapham (1848) and Bishop Eton (1851), and finally came to Ireland to investigate the possibility of a foundation of the congregation in that country.

Fr. Petcherine was a native of Kiev in the Ukriane and a convert from the Greek Orthodox Church.  Professed in 1841, at the age of thirty-four, he became one of the greatest preachers heard in these islands.  The purpose of his coming to Ireland was to conduct a retreat for religious sisters in Omagh.  They were a religious institute called the Sister s of St. Francis Xavier, who had been founded by a certain Domicella Aikenhead, daughter of an Omagh hotelkeeper and member of another congregation.  They had come to Omagh five months earlier with two professed members and four postulants.  This information is found in the English Provincial chronicles of the time and is all we know of these mysterious ladies.  Fr. Petcherine no doubt profoundly impressed them.

He must also have greatly impressed the parish priest for on the Sunday, during the retreat, he introduced Fr. Petcherine to his people after the last Mass and told them that Redemptorists would soon give a mission in the parish.  Fr. Petcherine then spoke to the congregation, gave them a short account of the Redemptorists and said how happy he was to have been the first Redemptorist to put his foot on Irish soil among a people whose faith was known over the world.  The chronista described this address as "the first sermon to (Irish) people ab uno ex nostris."

Father de Held and Father Petcherine left Clapham on 11th September 1851 for Dublin.  Here they said Mass in the Pro-Cathedral on the following day.  While the latter proceeded to Omagh, Fr. De Held went to Limerick to stay with William Monsell in his stately mansion at Tervoe just outside the city.  Monsell was an Irish M.P., later Lord Emly, and a recent convert to Catholicism.  He had met de Held in London and invited him to visit Ireland with a view to establishing his congregation there.  During his five days at Tervoe Fr. de Held said Mass daily in Monsell's private oratory; he also visited the local Bishop Dr. Ryan and arranged with him the first-ever Irish Redemptorist mission.  This was given in St. John's pro-cathedral in Limerick from 19th October to 2nd November.  As a point of interest it may be noted that there was, in the small chapel in the Limerick Retreat House, a Way of the Cross which was given by Monsell to de Held on the occasion of the latter's visit to Tervoe.  This Way of the Cross is now in the Provincial archives in Dublin.

On 18th September the two Redemptorists met in Omagh where it was agreed that a mission would be given in November following the Limerick mission.

A Foundation on the way

William Monsell was not the only Irish gentleman who was anxious that the Redemptorists should establish themselves in Ireland.  There is extant a letter written by Bishop Ryan of Limerick on 5th July 1851, - to whom we don't know. It reads as follows:

"The Earl of Dunraven has called on me this day for the purpose of obtaining my assent to the establishment of an Order of Redemptorists on his property in the town of Adare in this diocese.  With this request I most cheerfully concur, while I am most thankful to his Lordship for his charity and generosity in affording us the prospect of having the aid of such able auxiliaries in the work of religion in the present various difficulties of this distressed country."

Three months after this letter was written de Held met the Bishop but must not have been anxious for a foundation at that time.  It was three years away.

Fr. van Smetana was interested.  He was Vicar-General of the Redemptorists and when on Visitation to England in the months of August and December of 1851 he discussed its possibility with Fr. de Held.  On his return to the continent he wrote on 8th October approving the foundation in Limerick to be made as soon as possible.

Archbishop Cullen, the Pope's right-hand man in Ireland, was very interested in the Redemptorists coming to Ireland.  He wanted them to begin in Limerick.  Fr. Prost, on the other hand, wanted the first house to be in the capital, Dublin.  He was superior of the Irish Missions 1851-1854.  His comments on Cullen's attitude are found in his account of the first Redemptorist Missions in Ireland which is published in Spicilegium Historicum 1960, fasc.2 p.453, and makes very interesting reading.  We quote the relevant passage:

"He seems to have thought that they - the Redemptorists - would help bring about a renascence of religious observance among the relaxed Franciscans and Dominicans.  Besides it was in this part of the Island that his efforts at a general reform were most opposed.  Bishop Ryan and a good part of the clergy were Nationalists, hence did not see eye to eye with the nuncio on various matters.  The latter was anxious to abolish liturgical abuses and return to the strict practice of the Roman rite.  And while many Bishops were in favour of a more conciliatory policy towards the government, he forbade ecclesiastics to accept positions in the Royal Colleges.  Thus even the hierarchy were divided.  And somehow it was hoped that locating the Redemptorists in Limerick would bring about a change of mind."

The foundation is made

The first Irish foundation was the work of Fr. Joseph Prost.  This remarkable man deserves more than a passing mention.  He was an Austrian, born in 1804 and ordained in 1835, having been professed in Mautern.  He went to America in 1835, as superior of the new mission there and opened the first American house in Rochester the following year.  He returned to his native Austria in 1842, but in the year of revolutions (1848) he went to England.  He laboured indefatigably in England and Ireland until 1855 when he returned to Austria, only to be sent abroad again to the West Indies were he laid the foundations of the Belgian vice-province of the Antilles.  For the last twenty years of his long life he devoted himself unsparingly to the apostolate in Austria where he died in 1885.  Wherever he went Fr. Prost kept a detailed diary of his journeys and experiences, which are the delight of the Redemptorist historian as well as being of great interest to the general reader.

To return to the Irish scene, Fr. Prost as superior of the Irish missions realised more and more the urgency of a permanent home for his missionaries.  The number of missions in Ireland was increasing; the English houses were too remote.  So on June 10th 1853 he rented indefinitely the Bank Place house in Limerick city.

In choosing the city of St. Munchin he was influenced, not only by the wishes of Archbishop Cullen, but by considerations such as (1) the many good friends, lay and clerical, that the Fathers had made in that city, (2) the enthusiasm of the people for their missions, (3) the call of the apostolate, for Limerick was a place where "the most abandoned souls" seemed to be numerous.

In securing the new hospice on a permanent basis Fr. Prost apparently acted without consulting Fr. de Held.  The latter was quite annoyed and would on no account allow it.  But after a visit to Limerick in October he changed his mind and gave formal approval.  Rome agreed too and the first Irish house was formally begun on 30th November 1853.  The first superior was the Belgian Fr. Louis de Buggenoms.  With him were the Prussian Fr. Schneider, the English Fr. Furniss and the Prussian Brother Peter Franken.  The new foundation belonged to the Belgian province of the congregation whose Provincial was Fr. Victor Deschamps, later Cardinal Bishop of Malines.

Mount Saint Alphonsus

A girl, later a Redemptoristine nun, who attended Mass in the chapel in Bank Place described it as consisting of two parlours with the door that divided them removed.  This chapel was blessed by Bishop Ryan who said the first Mass in it.  But the hospice was never meant to be a permanent home.  Though a stately Georgian house, it was considered far too small for a permanent community.  Besides, as it was surrounded by houses, it was impossible to get a convenient site for a new church.

Soon afterwards three acres of land were purchased for £2000 at Courtbrack, high ground overlooking the new docks on the river Shannon.  It was holy ground, for before the sixteenth century Reformation it belonged to the Dominicans.  On this property a temporary brick church, 120 feet long and forty feet wide, was built in six weeks for £800.  It was dedicated on 18th May 1854.  The clerk of works during the building was a Christian Brother called Walsh who taught several of the first Redemptorists to speak and read English.

This temporary church was replaced in 1862 by the present magnificent structure which took nearly five years to build at a cost of £14,000 plus.  It was solemnly dedicated by Dr. Butler, Coadjutor of Bishop Ryan, on 7th December.  The sermon was preached by the famous Bishop of Kerry, Dr. Moriarity, and among the congregation were William Monsell M.P. and the Earl of Dunraven.

Two cottages on the new property provided accommodation for the for the first community and here they stayed until 24th June 1858, when they took possession of their new home, the present monastery.

The first superior of Mount St. Alphonsus was the illustrious missionary Fr. Bernard Hafkenscheid who had been first Provincial in America.

Patrick O'Donnell, C.Ss.R.

SEARCH, No.2, Easter 1978

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Chief sources of the above material:

Life of Fr. de Held by Fr. Dilgskron, C.Ss.R.

Spicilegium Historicum 1960 (2) for outline of diaries of Fr. Prost.

Limerick House Chronicles Vol. 1.

Provincial Chronicles of England and Ireland Vol.1

Modernisation of Irish Society by Joseph Lee.

Life of St. Alphonsus by Berthe Vol. 2.