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(Vatican Radio) It was announced by the Vatican this week that Ireland is to get a new Blessed. He is the Venerable John Sullivan SJ who was a convert to Catholicism and known for his work with the sick.

But what else do we know about him? Fr Sullivan’s story began in 1861 when he was born into a prominent family in Dublin. His father was a Protestant  barrister who would become Lord Chancellor of Ireland. His mother was a Catholic from an important land-owning family.

John was, therefore, baptized a Protestant and sent to Portora Royal School where excelled as a student.

His education progressed to Trinity College, Dublin, followed by law. He practiced for a time as a barrister. In Dublin he was a frequent visitor to the Hospice of the Dying at Harold’s Cross, bringing comfort, companionship and small tokens of food, drink and clothing to the suffering. He became a teacher and would continue bringing gifts of luxuries to the poor, including tobacco, tea, sugar, and fresh fruit.

To everyone’s surprise, he was received into the Catholic Church in 1896 at the age of 35 and changed his lifestyle dramatically, stripping his room of everything luxurious and trading his fashionable clothes for ordinary street wear. At the age of 40, he entered the Society of Jesus and after 7 years of study was ordained to the Holy Priesthood. He was appointed a college teacher at Clongowes Wood school in Co Kildare where he would spend most of the rest of his life.

His priestly ministry involved an indefatigable care for the spiritual needs of the sick. Fr Sullivan would travel miles by foot or on an old bicycle to make sick calls. Dedicated to prayer, he would spend hours on his knees in front of the Blessed Sacrament or alone in his room praying the rosary. He cared for his students and prayed with and for the sick, especially those with incurable diseases. Even during his lifetime his intercession was credited with many cases of healing.

The vice-postulator for the cause of Fr John Sullivan is Jesuit Fr Conor Harper who gave his reaction to the beatification to Lydia O’Kane.

Listen to the interview

“We were delighted after so many years work, preparation, research, it was a great delight and particularly in the two communities both in the Catholic community and in the Church of Ireland, Anglican tradition…”

Asked about what made Fr John Sullivan so special, Fr Harper explained that, “he is one of those extraordinary people whom we refer to as Holy and as a Saint and he was always revered both in his teaching career as a Jesuit in Clongowes Wood College in Co Kildare, the former pupils always revered him as a Saint…”

Fr Sullivan died in 1933 at the age of 71 and a cause for his canonization began in 1944. In 1960 his remains were exhumed and placed in St Francis Xavier church in Gardiner Street, Dublin. In November 2014 he was approved by Pope Francis as having a heroic level of virtue and that his life was worthy of imitation by the faithful. A miracle was approved as a result of his intercession on 26 April 2016. The miracle goes back to the 1950’s when a woman was cured of a cancerous growth on her neck after praying to the Jesuit priest.

It is expected that Fr Sullivan’s beatification will take place in Dublin.

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