Born: 11 November 1832, Ballycallan, County Kilkenny
Entered: 25 June 1858, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Final vows: 08 December 1870
Died: 17 October 1901, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

Born: 10 January 1822, Paulstown, County Kilkenny
Entered: 17 August 1850, St John’s, Fordham, NY, USA - Franciae Province (FRA)
Final vows: 15 August 1860
Died: 16 December 1896, Fordham College, NY, USA - Marylandiae Neo-Eboracensis Province (MARNEB)

Born: 26 December 1817, Ballyragget, County Kilkenny
Entered: 07 September 1857, Frederick, MD, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Final Vows: 02 February 1868
Died: 16 May 1891, St Joseph's College, Philadelphia, PA, USA - Marylandiae Neo-Eboracensis Province (MARNEB)

Born: 31 December 1811, County Kilkenny
Entered: 17 November 1851, St John’s, Fordham, NY, USA - Franciae Province (FRA)
Final Vows: 02 February 1862
Died: 05 April 1874 Xavier College, New York, NY, USA - Neo-Eboracensis-Canadensis Province (NEBCAN)

Born: 17 March 1813, Kells, County Kilkenny
Entered: 29 August 1841, Florissant MO, USA - Missouri Province (MIS)
Final Vows:15 August 1858
Died: 25 October 1890, Florissant MO, USA - Missouri Province (MIS)

Born: County Wexford
Entered: 1669,
Died, post 1672
Official Catalogus Defuncti MISSING

◆ In Chronological Catalogue Sheet as Ent 1669 and Old/15 (1)

◆ Old/16 has; “Nicholas Keogh”; DOB Wexford; Ent 1669; Coa temp; RIP post 1672

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Two Entries

Keogh or Kehoe

DOB Wexford 1616; Ent 1668 as Brother; RIP post 1672

Had served the Jesuits in Kilkenny as a Postulant for several years previous to Ent. (cf Oliver, Stonyhurst MSS)

1672 Praised by Primate Plunket

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
KEHOE, NICHOLAS. I find that F. Francis White, in a letter, dated Kilkenny, 1668, earnestly recommended this Nicholas as truly worthy for admission for a Temporal Coadjutor in the Order. He was then 52 years old; and with the hope of being admitted, had served for many years the Fathers at Kilkenny.

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◆ Interfuse No 63 : Christmas 1990

WINDOW ON THE PAST

Senan Timoney

Two letters of St Oliver Plunkett to Fr John Paul Oliva, S.J. General, have come down to us. This is from the first, written in Italian from Dublin, 22nd November 1672.

Oliver Plunkett arrived in his diocese in March 1670 and was arrested in December 1679 (martyred 1st July 1681). The schools were open from 12th July 1670 to 30th November 1673 in Drogheda, so he wasn't long about getting them started! Besides the school there seems to have been a seminary for priests who had been ordained without very much training.

Oliver Plunkett had a high regard for the Jesuits and remembered with gratitude the education he had received from them in Rome.

The Jesuits certainly have good roots in the diocese of Armagh.

An historical addendum (from Monsignor John Hanly's introduction to the Letters): “The year 1673 ended with the edicts in Ireland which banned the Catholic bishops and religious from the country and caused the closing of the Drogheda schools:.

From The Letters of St Oliver Plunkett:
I have three fathers in my diocese of Armagh who by their virtuous lives, their learning and their labours, are enough to enrich a whole kingdom. The founder of the Armagh residence is Father Stephen Rice, a man of learning and an effective preacher, prudent in his way of doing things and a man of deep religious virtue; he never tires of teaching, instructing and helping the youth and young priests of which he is examiner and director. Oh how much he has had to suffer these past two years and four months in founding the residence! He has sweated and perspired, and in spite of it all he is so modest and reserved that you would think he came out of the novitiate of Saint Andrew's only yesterday. He received his education in Flanders, and has truly imbibed and preserved the spirit of the society: he is a worthy son of so great a father as Saint Ignatius - in fine, this Father Rice is another Father Young.

The second father is Ignatius Browne, an outstanding preacher in the English language, a man of learning and of exemplary life. He was educated in Spain. He preaches every feast day in the parish chapel with great applause. The third father is Father Murphy, a good theologian, a good religious, a good preacher in the Irish tongue: he is a young man of great ability. There is also a lay brother named Nicholas, and you would think he was a brother of the late Brother George.

In the school there are about 150 boys, sons of Catholic noblemen and gentlemen, and there are about forty boys who are sons of Protestants noblemen and gentlemen: you can imagine what a thorn in the side it is to the Protestant schoolmasters and ministers to see Protestant boys attending a Jesuit school. In the city in my diocese where the residence is, there are also residences of the Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustinians and Capuchins. The city is called Drogheda, or Dreat in the Irish language and Pontana in Latin. It is as far distant from Dublin as Tivoli is from Rome. It is a seaport situated on the noble river called the Boyne and takes its name from the great bridge which spans the river there. The surrounding district abounds in grain and meat of every kind and fish, and is inhabited for the most part by Catholic noblemen and gentlemen. In the city itself there are wealthy merchants and comfortable artisans.

When I brought the fathers into my diocese and the schools began to flourish, Archbishop Talbot criticized the undertaking as rash and imprudent and hasty and vainglorious : he said it would be short-lived especially in so prominent a city. But he did not know the whole story. My Lord Berkeley. the viceroy, was most friendly towards me, and had an opinion of me much higher than I deserved. As his word I let down the net (1 Luke 5), I founded the residence. And the present viceroy, the earl of Essex, a wise, prudent and moderate man. is in no way inferior to his predecessor in his affection for me, and for this reason the schools which have survived these past two years and four months will, by God's help and the intercession of Saint Ignatius, have a still longer life and continue to function. In any case, while the wind is favourable we must hoist the sails and make progress; when the gale arises we shall lower them and retire to some quiet little port beneath some mountain or cliff. The paper is running out... Dublin, 22nd November 1672.

Born: 15 March 1821, Tullahought, County Kilkenny
Entered: 23 June 1849, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Final vows: 08 September 1862
Died: 11 April 1878, St Mary’s, KS, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

Entered: 1644 - Flanders Province (FLAN)
Died: 19th July 1689, Mechelen, Belgium - Flanders province (FLAN)

1649 marked at Kilkenny

Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
1647 He had charge of the printing press at Kilkenny
1657 He had charge of the printing press at Évora, Portugal
He is perhaps the “Brother George” praised by Primate Plunket in 1672

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
A member of the Flanders Province was loaned to the Irish Mission in 1646 in order to work the printing press at the Jesuit College, Kilkenny. When the press was eventually seized by the Supreme Council, he remained on for some time at the College and was Dispenser there. Mercure Verdier during his Visitation of the Mission in 1649 met George and in his report to Rome paid tribute to his fine qualities of character. George returned to Flanders after the Visitation.
1657-1661 He was once more “on loan” having been sent to help with the printing press at the College of Évora in the Portuguese Province
1661 For some years he was stationed at Antwerp and then was sent to Mechelen where he died 19 September 1689
Although he was a member of the BEL FL Province, he is rightly reckoned amongst those who served in the Irish Mission.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Brother George Sarazen SJ ????-1689
George Sarazin was a printer and manager of the printing press in Kilkenny. He entered the Society and there operated the printing press the Society had acquired in Kilkenny, perhaps from Brother George. All the printing of the Confederation of Kilkenny, decrees, proclamations etc, were done on this press by Br Sarazen. He is mentioned by Père Verdier, the Visitor, as a good religious and a very clever man. He died in 1657?

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
SARAZEN, GEORGE. This Temporal Coadjutor is reported by Pere Verdier to be a good Religious man and a very ingenious person. He had been a Printer, and conducted the press at Kilkenny.

Born: 21 November 1818, Pilltown, County Kilkenny
Entered: 09 June 1840, Frederick, MD, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Final vows: 15 August 1851
Died: 26 July 1906, Georgetown College, Washington DC, USA - Marylandiae Neo-Eboracensis Province (MARNEB)

Born: 01 November 1795, Gorteen, Co Kilkenny or Gurteen, Co Sligo
Entered: 05 April 1818, Richmond, Virginia - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Final vows: 15 August 1832
Died: 23 June 1865, Worcester, MA, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)

Born: 31 December 1816, Thomastown, County Kilkenny
Entered: 23 November 1849, St John’s College, Fordham, NY, USA - Franciae Province (FRA)
Final vows: 11 February 1860
Died: 06 June 1885, St Vincent’s Hospital, New York, NY, USA - Marylandiae Neo-Eboracensis Province (MARNEB)

Part of the St Mary’s, Boston MA, USA community at the time of death