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    A Man Sent by God: Blessed John Sullivan SJ
    A Man Sent by God: Blessed John Sullivan SJ
    A Man Sent by God: Blessed John Sullivan SJ
    Ebook117 pages1 hour

    A Man Sent by God: Blessed John Sullivan SJ

    By John Looby

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    About this ebook

    A Man Sent by God is a fascinating account of the life and times of one of Ireland's most revered holy men. The reader is guided through the various stages of John Sullivan's life from his childhood in Dublin, secondary school at Portora, university education at Trinity College, and his call to the bar in London. This is followed by an account of the second part of his life when he converted to Catholicism, entered the Jesuit order, and lived an ascetic and spiritual life in his various ministries, but most especially at his ministry in Clongowes Wood College in County Kildare. It is his work here, especially with the poor and the sick, which has led to his beatification by Pope Francis. John Sullivan SJ was beatified in May 2017.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMessenger Publications
    Release dateMar 1, 2021
    ISBN9781788123686
    A Man Sent by God: Blessed John Sullivan SJ

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      Book preview

      A Man Sent by God - John Looby

      INTRODUCTION

      To be a witness does not consist in engaging in propaganda, nor even in stirring people up, but in being a living mystery. It means to live in such a way that one’s life would not make sense if God did not exist.

      - Emmanuel Cardinal Suhard

      In writing the Life of the Blessed John Sullivan it has been brought home to me that his life would not make sense if God did not exist. In our time the good life is measured in terms of a luxurious home, an expensive lifestyle, access to an exclusive education, foreign travel and the leisure to pursue your own interests. John Sullivan had all these advantages from birth, but he chose to abandon them and lead a life of austere poverty, imitating the life of Christ in a remote area of the country. Although he was a distinguished graduate of Trinity College Dublin and had been called to the English Bar, he taught Latin and Greek to disinterested children. He walked the bog roads or rode an old bicycle visiting the poor and sick people of the area. He modelled his life on the life of Jesus, desiring, like John the Baptist, that he himself might become less so that Christ might become more.

      People have repeatedly testified that many of the sick he blessed recovered, even if they were believed to be dying. The cures did not cease with his death, and now Rome has examined his life and the cures attributed to his intercession. Concentrating on one cure, Rome has accepted that it cannot be explained medically, and must be a miracle of God. This miracle, and the life John Sullivan lived, would not make sense if God did not exist.

      St George’s Church, Dublin where John Sullivan was baptised on 15 July, 1861.

      CHAPTER ONE

      Youthful Promise of life

      Infant Years

      The story of Blessed John Sullivan aptly begins with his baptism in St George’s Church in Dublin on 15 July 1861. The little baby boy was two months old when his family brought him from their home in 41 Eccles Street to St George’s which was nearby. Recently, since his beatification, I find myself wondering if his father at the door of the church was asked the traditional question: what he wanted for his son. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if he had answered that he wanted him to be a saint? For whatever reason we do not presume to ask for so special a gift, even though in this case that was the gift God was to give John Sullivan. Edward Sullivan did indeed have great plans for this his fourth son, and he was to take great care with his education so that he, like his brothers, would follow him in the legal profession.

      In the same year that John was baptised the family moved to 32 Fitzwilliam Place. This was to be home for him until he joined the Jesuits in the autumn of 1900. There were periods when he was away from home, of course – at school in Portora, and later in London where he studied for the English Bar – but Fitzwilliam Place was always home. It seems to have been a loving home, maybe especially for John, as he was the youngest and was particularly close to his brother William who was only a year older. They were to remain close, and it was William who was with John when he was dying.

      41 Eccles Street, Dublin, where John Sullivan was born.

      The house on the left is 32 Titzwilliam Place, home of the Sullivan family from John’s early days

      A Privileged Childhood

      Edward Sullivan had a very successful career at the Bar and, around the time John was born, his meteoritic rise in the legal profession began with promotions following in rapid succession: Solicitor-General in 1865, Attorney-General and later Master of the Rolls in 1868, culminating in his elevation to the Lord Chancellorship in 1883. It was said that no person exercised more authority in the administration of Ireland in his day than this able lawyer. Latterly he was made a baronet. For his first twenty-four years this was the background of John’s life.

      There were four boys and a girl in the Sullivan family. The eldest was Annie, seen here standing at the back. John’s oldest brother, also at the back, was Edward. In the front, left to right, are Robert, John and William. Robert died in a sailing accident when John was sixteen.

      Photograph: Shutterstock / © Everett Historical

      William Gladstone (1809-1898), Prime Minister of Great Britain.

      Sir Edward and Lady Sullivan entertained most of the great and good of Dublin society at their home in Fitzwilliam Place, including William Gladstone, then the British Prime Minister on a private visit to Dublin. There is a story told about this visit that the great man unbent sufficiently to perch young William Sullivan on one knee and his younger brother John on the other. In later life, John would never recount any incident from his youth, but his niece Mrs Wilmot Lloyd recalled hearing him relate the story when he was a student.

      Before her marriage to Edward Sullivan in 1850, John’s mother was Elizabeth Josephine Baily, the daughter of a wealthy property owner from Passage West in County Cork. They were a Catholic family; her brother Robert was a great friend of Father Mathew, the temperance apostle, and one of her sisters was the wife of a Member of Parliament and founder of the Cork Examiner. They were among the many guests at Fitzwilliam Place, as were some Jesuit priests who lived in nearby communities: Fr James Cullen, the founder of the Sacred Heart Messenger and later the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association, and the three Kelly brothers: Frs Edward, Tom and William. They were all outstanding classical scholars, as was Sir Edward. He was also familiar with many continental literatures. They were lively evenings as the guests were gifted with prodigious memories and took pleasure in out-quoting each other. Lady Sullivan was a cheerful hostess, and her afternoon teas were very popular with the younger ladies.

      Edward Sullivan, John Sullivan’s father.

      It was a lively house to have grown up in, and John, being the youngest, ‘with the most winning ways, always smiling and contented,’ may have been something of a pet. The residents of Fitzwilliam Square had the exclusive privilege of using the park at its centre. Many years later, Mother Dunne, then a Sacred Heart nun, remembered playing with the Sullivan children there, and as a nine-year-old

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