John Sullivan (8 May 1861 – 19 February 1933) was an
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
priest
A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...
and a professed member of the
Jesuits
The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
.
Sullivan was known for his life of deep spiritual reflection and personal sacrifice; he is recognised for his dedicated work with the poor and afflicted and spent much of his time walking and riding his bike to visit those who were troubled or ill in the villages around
Clongowes Wood College
Clongowes Wood College SJ is a voluntary boarding school for boys near Clane, County Kildare, Ireland, founded by the Jesuits in 1814, which features prominently in James Joyce's semi-autobiographical novel ''A Portrait of the Artist as a Yo ...
school where he taught from 1907 until his death.
From the 1920s onwards there were people who testified to his healing power despite the fact that he never claimed credit or causation for himself from these reported cases.
Sullivan was known for his friendliness; his amiable nature was coupled with a somewhat shy temperament but one willing to aid those who needed it most. He was noted for his strong faith and for imposing multiple penances on himself such as eating little.
Sullivan had long been admired during his life and was known as a man of inspirational holiness which prompted for calls for his beatification; the cause later opened and would culminate on 7 November 2014 after Pope Francis
Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...
confirmed his heroic virtue
Heroic virtue is a phrase coined by Augustine of Hippo to describe the virtue of early Christian martyrs and used by the Catholic Church. The Greek pagan term hero described a person with possibly superhuman abilities and great goodness, and "it ...
and named him as Venerable
The Venerable (''venerabilis'' in Latin) is a style, a title, or an epithet which is used in some Western Christian churches, or it is a translation of similar terms for clerics in Eastern Orthodoxy and monastics in Buddhism.
Christianity
Cathol ...
.[ The same pope approved a miraculous healing credited to his intercession on 26 April 2016. His beatification, the first ever to take place Ireland, took place in ]Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
on 13 May 2017.
Life
Childhood and education
John Sullivan was born in mid-1861 at 41 Eccles Street in the old Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
. He was born as the last of five children to Sir Edward Sullivan (7 October 1822 – 13 April 1885) – member of the Church of Ireland
The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the second ...
and a successful barrister who would later become the Lord Chancellor of Ireland
The Lord High Chancellor of Ireland (commonly known as Lord Chancellor of Ireland) was the highest judicial office in Ireland until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. From 1721 to 1801, it was also the highest political office of ...
– and Elizabeth Josephine Bailey (1823 – 27 January 1898) – a Roman Catholic from a prominent land-owning household in Passage West
Passage West (locally known as "Passage"; ) is a port town in County Cork, Ireland, situated on the west bank of Cork Harbour, some 10 km south-east of Cork city. The town has many services, amenities and social outlets. Passage West was ...
. Sullivan was raised as a Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
and was baptized
Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...
in the local Church of Ireland parish of Saint George
Saint George (Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin: Georgius, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christian who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to tradition he was a soldier ...
on Temple Street on 15 July 1861. One sister was Annie Sullivan (1852 – 25 January 1918) and a brother was William (23 February 1860 – 7 July 1937). The girls were raised as Catholics while the sons were raised as Protestants.[ The first child was Annie and then came Edward, Robert and William.][
In late 1861 the household relocated to 32 Fitzwilliam Place in Dublin. In 1873 he was sent to the ]Portora Royal School
Portora Royal School located in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, was one of the public schools founded by the royal charter in 1608, by James I, making it one of the oldest schools in Ireland at the time of its closure. Origina ...
in Enniskillen
Enniskillen ( , from ga, Inis Ceithleann , 'Cethlenn, Ceithlenn's island') is the largest town in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is in the middle of the county, between the Upper and Lower sections of Lough Erne. It had a population of ...
with his brother William.[ In 1877 his brother Robert (1853–77) drowned after a boating accident in Killiney Bay along with Constance Exham who was the daughter of a family friend.
After his time at the Portora Royal School he followed in his father's footsteps and went to ]Trinity College Trinity College may refer to:
Australia
* Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales
* Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
from 1879 where he studied classics. He was awarded the Gold Medal in Classics in 1885 and he studied for the English Bar at Lincoln's Inn
The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...
in London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
.[ During this period he travelled across ]Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
and spent time taking walking tours in Macedonia and Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
as well as Asia Minor
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
. He spent several months in one of the Orthodox
Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to:
Religion
* Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...
monasteries on Mount Athos
Mount Athos (; el, Ἄθως, ) is a mountain in the distal part of the eponymous Athos peninsula and site of an important centre of Eastern Orthodox monasticism in northeastern Greece. The mountain along with the respective part of the penins ...
and even contemplated entering it as a monk.[ He travelled through ]Southern Italy
Southern Italy ( it, Sud Italia or ) also known as ''Meridione'' or ''Mezzogiorno'' (), is a macroregion of the Italian Republic consisting of its southern half.
The term ''Mezzogiorno'' today refers to regions that are associated with the peop ...
en route home but was forced to prolong his stay there due to contracting smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
.
Upon his father's death in 1885 he came into a comfortable inheritance. He was a frequent visitor to the Hospice of the Dying at Harold's Cross
Harold's Cross () is an affluent urban village and inner suburb on the south side of Dublin, Ireland in the postal district D6W. The River Poddle runs through it, though largely in an underground culvert, and it holds a major cemetery, Mount ...
where he brought comfort and companionship in addition to small tokens of food and drink as well as clothing to those ill people. Even after he became a teacher at Clongowes Wood College
Clongowes Wood College SJ is a voluntary boarding school for boys near Clane, County Kildare, Ireland, founded by the Jesuits in 1814, which features prominently in James Joyce's semi-autobiographical novel ''A Portrait of the Artist as a Yo ...
he continued these small luxuries to the poor including a bit of tobacco
Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
while also providing them with tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of ''Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and north ...
and sugar
Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...
as well as oranges and apples. His brother novices remember him for his small kindnesses extended to his classmates.
Conversion and priesthood
Sullivan was received into the Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
on 21 December 1896 in a celebration that the Jesuit
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders ...
priest Michael Gavin presided over at Farm Street Church in the Mayfair district of central London. His family had expressed their great surprise at his decision to convert to the Catholic faith.[ He commenced his Jesuit ]novitiate
The novitiate, also called the noviciate, is the period of training and preparation that a Christian ''novice'' (or ''prospective'') monastic, apostolic, or member of a religious order undergoes prior to taking vows in order to discern whether ...
on 7 September 1900 at Saint Stanislaus College
St. Stanislaus College (SSC) is a Catholic day and boarding school for boys in grades 7–12. It has been owned and operated by the Brothers of the Sacred Heart order since 1854.
It is located about an hour's drive outside New Orleans in Bay Sain ...
at Tullabeg. On completion of his novitiate around 1901 he was sent to Saint Mary's Hall at Stonyhurst
Stonyhurst is the name of a rural estate owned by the Society of Jesus near Clitheroe in Lancashire, England. It is centred on Stonyhurst College, occupying the great house, its preparatory school Stonyhurst Saint Mary's Hall and the parish ...
for his philosophical studies.[
Having concluded these, he was sent in 1904 to ]Milltown Park
Milltown () is a suburb on the southside of Dublin, Ireland. Milltown was the site of several working mills on the River Dodder and is also the location of the meeting of the River Slang with the Dodder. It is located adjacent to other suburban ...
in Dublin for his theological studies and the Archbishop of Dublin
The Archbishop of Dublin is an archepiscopal title which takes its name after Dublin, Ireland. Since the Reformation, there have been parallel apostolic successions to the title: one in the Catholic Church and the other in the Church of Irelan ...
William Walsh later ordained
Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...
Sullivan as a priest in the chapel at Milltown Park on 28 July 1907. He said his first Mass
Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...
at the convent
A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...
of the Irish Sisters of Charity at Mount Saint Anne's in Milltown.
Sullivan soon after took up a teaching position at Clongowes Wood College which was an all-male boarding school the Jesuits managed near Clane
Clane (; ) is a town in County Kildare, Ireland, from Dublin. Its population of 7,280 makes it the eighth largest town in Kildare and the 66th largest in Ireland. It is on the River Liffey. Clane gives its name to the associated townland, ci ...
. From 25 July 1919 until 20 May 1924 he served as the rector of the Juniorate and Retreat House at Rathfarnham Castle
Rathfarnham Castle ( ga, Caisleán Rath Fearnáin) is a 16th-century fortified house in Rathfarnham, South Dublin, Ireland.
The earlier Irish castle was occupied by the Harold family, who held it as tenants of the le Bret family. It was replac ...
on the outskirts of Dublin.[ Sullivan then returned to teaching at Clongowes Wood College after this. Sullivan was untiring in his attention to the sick and he would travel miles to make a sick call which was often on foot but also riding a battered bike. On one occasion a workman by chance passed the chapel at the school at 2:00 am to see Sullivan in deep prayer on his knees.][ Each ]Holy Thursday
Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday (also known as Great and Holy Thursday, Holy and Great Thursday, Covenant Thursday, Sheer Thursday, and Thursday of Mysteries, among other names) is the day during Holy Week that commemorates the Washing of the ...
, he spent five or six hours kneeling before the altar.
Illness and death
In February 1933 he began suffering severe abdominal pains and so was transferred on 17 February from the college to Saint Vincent's Nursing Home in Lower Leeson Street in Dublin, while asking for his breviary
A breviary (Latin: ''breviarium'') is a liturgical book used in Christianity for praying the canonical hours, usually recited at seven fixed prayer times.
Historically, different breviaries were used in the various parts of Christendom, such a ...
to be brought to him.[ Sullivan died at 11:00pm on 19 February 1933 with his brother Sir William Sullivan at his side; an old friend who was present at his death said: "He died well".][ He was buried in Clongowes Wood Cemetery, but in 1960 his remains were transferred to the Sacred Heart Chapel of Saint Francis Xavier Church on Upper Gardiner Street.]
Beatification
In 1944 his name was placed on the list that the Jesuit postulator
A postulator is the person who guides a cause for beatification or canonization through the judicial processes required by the Roman Catholic Church. The qualifications, role and function of the postulator are spelled out in the ''Norms to be Obse ...
Carlo Micinelli had set up in relation to prospective sainthood causes that could be opened; opening the process saw him titled as a Servant of God
"Servant of God" is a title used in the Catholic Church to indicate that an individual is on the first step toward possible canonization as a saint.
Terminology
The expression "servant of God" appears nine times in the Bible, the first five in th ...
. The informative process that opened in 1953 saw the accumulation of witness testimonies and documentation being gathered and this process was completed in September 1960. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints
In the Catholic Church, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, previously named the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (), is the dicastery of the Roman Curia that oversees the complex process that leads to the canonization of saints, pa ...
was given the evidence and validated the informative process in acceptance in 1969 prior to theologians approving his spiritual writings in 1972. On 22 February 2000 the Congregation issued the official "nihil obstat
''Nihil obstat'' (Latin for "nothing hinders" or "nothing stands in the way") is a declaration of no objection that warrants censoring of a book, e.g., Catholic published books, to an initiative, or an appointment.
Publishing
The phrase ''ni ...
" to the cause which acted as a formal introduction to the cause and approval of its continuation.
In June 2002 another process was held in Dublin to collate further evidence, and the findings of this particular tribunal were forwarded to the Congregation, which confirmed it on 18 October 2002. In 2004 the postulation submitted the Positio
In the Catholic Church, a ''positio'' (''Positio super Virtutibus'') is a document or collection of documents used in the process by which a person is declared Venerable, the second of the four steps on the path to canonization as a saint.
Des ...
dossier to the Congregation for examination by consultant theologians and this led to a positive report on its contents on 19 November 2013; the Congregation later confirmed this on 16 October 2014.
On 7 November 2014 he was named as Venerable
The Venerable (''venerabilis'' in Latin) is a style, a title, or an epithet which is used in some Western Christian churches, or it is a translation of similar terms for clerics in Eastern Orthodoxy and monastics in Buddhism.
Christianity
Cathol ...
after Pope Francis
Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...
– himself a Jesuit – approved a decree acknowledging the heroic virtue
Heroic virtue is a phrase coined by Augustine of Hippo to describe the virtue of early Christian martyrs and used by the Catholic Church. The Greek pagan term hero described a person with possibly superhuman abilities and great goodness, and "it ...
of the late priest's life based on the cardinal
Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to:
Animals
* Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds
**''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae
**''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...
and theological virtues
Theological virtues are virtues associated in Christian theology and philosophy with salvation resulting from the grace of God. Virtues are traits or qualities which dispose one to conduct oneself in a morally good manner. Traditionally they have ...
. Sullivan's beatification depended on the approval of a miracle that was an unexplainable healing after his death; one such case was investigated in Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
and it received Roman validation on 10 February 2006. The Congregation approved this miracle on 19 April 2016 after the medical experts and theologians approved it. The pontiff – on 26 April 2016 – approved a miracle attributed to the late priest's intercession and thus approved his beatification to take place. The miracle approved was the 1954 healing of a cancerous tumor on the neck of the Dublin woman Delia Farnham.
The beatification was celebrated in Dublin at the Saint Francis Xavier Church on 13 May 2017. He was also the first person to ever be beatified in Ireland.
The current postulator for this cause is the Jesuit priest Anton Witwer. The current vice-postulator is the Jesuit priest Conor Harper.
Devotions and legacies
There is a constant demand for blessings with his profession crucifix which is kept in the Saint Francis Xavier Church where his remains are located in the Sacred Heart Chapel. There is a special Mass celebrated in that church once each month in his honour and there is also an annual Mass for the same purpose at the same church celebrated close to the commemoration of his 1933 death.
The people of Kildare created their own monument to the late priest in Clane close to Clongowes Wood College.
Sullivan had been a Protestant until he reached middle age and that community was an important aspect of his life. On 8 May 1983 the retired Church of Ireland Archbishop George Simms
George Otto Simms (4 July 1910 – 15 November 1991) was an archbishop in the Church of Ireland.
Early life and education
George Otto Simms was born on 4 July 1910 in North Dublin in Ireland to parents John Francis A Simms & Ottilie Sophie St ...
gave the address at a memorial service to honour Sullivan's life and work which was held in Saint Georges Church on Temple Street. The Catholic Auxiliary Bishop James Kavanagh attended and bought with him a text from Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
reading: "His Holiness asks you to convey his cordial greetings to all present. In communion of prayer he gives thanks to Almighty God for the extraordinary gifts bestowed on Sullivan during his life and for the spirit of mutual understanding, reconciliation and goodwill which his memory enkindles between various christian communities in Ireland today".
Miracles during his lifetime
There have been miracles reported during Sullivan's life such as the two mentioned below:
* The cure of Michael Collins (b. 1925) – nephew of the famed Michael Collins Michael Collins or Mike Collins most commonly refers to:
* Michael Collins (Irish leader) (1890–1922), Irish revolutionary leader, soldier, and politician
* Michael Collins (astronaut) (1930–2021), American astronaut, member of Apollo 11 and Ge ...
– from infantile paralysis. The child awoke one night in October 1928 in extreme distress and the summoned doctor diagnosed him with infantile paralysis. Mrs. Collins drove to the school seeking out Sullivan's assistance; Sullivan promised to say a Mass but also rode his bike to their home where he touched the child's leg and prayed over him for two hours.[
* The cure of Miss Kitty Garry (aged ten at the time) from ]tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
; he blessed her and the ailment left her after a month.
References
Sources
* McGrath, SJ, Fergal., ''Father John Sullivan, SJ'', Longmans Green, 1945
* Morrisey SJ, Thomas J., ''Where Two Traditions Meet: John Sullivan SJ'', The Columba Press, 2009
External links
Hagiography Circle
Saints SQPN
Santi e Beati
Fr John Sullivan website
Saint Francis Xavier's Church
Find a Grave
Vultus Christi
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sullivan, John
1861 births
1933 deaths
20th-century Irish Jesuits
20th-century venerated Christians
Alumni of Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy
Alumni of Trinity College Dublin
Beatifications by Pope Francis
Converts to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism
Irish beatified people
Christian clergy from Dublin (city)
Venerated Catholics by Pope Francis
Miracle workers
Younger sons of baronets