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Most religious orders have their General House in Rome. The Augustinians are no exception. Because of difficulties under English rule, the Irish Augustinians acquired their first building in Rome over 300 years ago. The present college was completed in 1892. The Irish bishops and Irish people all over the world then contributed to the building of St. Patrick's Church - the Irish National Church in the Eternal City.
By the way, the Irish Augustinians include friars in Ireland, England, Scotland, USA, Australia, Nigeria, Kenya, Equador and, of course, Italy. Our Irish predecessors founded new jurisdictions, or Provinces, of the Order of St. Augustine, i.e. the Augustinians, in the USA, Australia, England and Scotland, and Nigeria.
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On November 13, 1534, parliament issued the Act of Supremacy, declaring the monarch to be head of the Church in England. The friars of Cantebury acceded to the decree. St. John Stone refused and was executed in 1539. All thirty-five Augustinian houses were confiscated by the royal government an the Order ceased to exist in England.
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In Ireland priests, religious and laity were put to death for their faith. Among the eleven Augustinian martyrs of the time are Peter Taaffe and Fulgentius Jordan, executed under Oliver Cromwell in 1649. Their cause is presently proposed for beatification.
William Tirrey was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 192. Taken prisoner when he was about to celebrate Holy Saturday Mass. He was hanged in 1654 at Clonmel after appealing to the people to stand firm in their Catholic beliefe. Other friars remained in hiding or were scattered throughout the continent of Europe. In 1656 some took up residence at San Matteo in Merulana, thanks to the intervention of Pope Alexander VII and began the history of the Irish Augustinian community in Rome.
Most of the houses in Ireland were suppressed at this time, including the oldest foundations of Dublin, Dungarvan and Drogheda. The Augustinian presence was preserved in Galway, Ballyhaunis and Dunmore, in areas less accessible to English influence. These became the seed of future re-establishment.
In Ireland and England the Penal Laws of 1695 placed the friars outside the law. Nonetheless vocations continued to come to the Order. A novitiate was clandestinely set up at Dunmore with the novices and friars posing as farm workers and landowners. The Irish students had to pursue their education in other Augustinian houses on the continent.
London's Act of Catholic Emancipation in 1829 did not encompass religious orders in Ireland. Nevertheless, religious life expanded. In 1862 the cornerstone was laid for the new Augustinian church on Thomas Street in the centre of Dublin. Art critic John Ruskin praised it as a poem in stone. Schools were opened at Dublin in 1865, Dungarvan in 1874 and New Ross in 1890. Some Irish friars went to Malta to teach in the school at Valletta. In Rome the new St. Patrick's College was inaugurated in 1892 for the young friars of the province as they studied at the Gregorian and other universities.
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The middle of twentieth century saw the beginning of an expansion in England and Scotland. In 1948 the Augustinians assumed charge of the parish of Saints Peter and Paul in Dundee. This was followed in 1951 by the foundation of a parish and their first school in England, both at Carlisle in the border country. Two years the Order returned to Clare Priory, the first Augustinian house in the English-speaking world. It had been established in 1248 and expropriated during the Reformation.
At the General Chapter of 1977 the ancient province of England was re-established. The friars had by then been recently established in Southport, Great Yarmouth and Birmingham. They took the title of the Province of England and Scotland. A second house in Scotland was opened at Edinburgh in 1986.
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Within a hundred years, five more Augustinians were made bishops: Martin Crane and Stephen Reville at Sandhurst; John Hutichinson, James Murray and John Heavey in North Queensland. Augustinians were the only priests in tropical North Queensland from 1884 until 1948. They worked first at Cooktown, aport near the country1s goldfields. When the mines gave out, the Augustinian vicariate moved its episcopal see to the port city of Cairns.
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Since 1940 about 123 Irish Augustinians have gone to help build the Nigerian Church. (In fact, seven were from Australia, England, Scotland, or Spain) Some remained for a year or two, others over forty years. In all over 2,000 Irish Augustinian years have been spent building the Nigerian Church.
In 1953 a new mission was started in Maiduguri. In 1967 they assumed responsibility for the major seminary at Jos to prepare young Nigerians for the diocesan priesthood. In 1975 the friars started their own house of formation and in 1977 Nigeria became a vice-province. Forty-or-so Nigeiran born men have made solemn profession as Augustinans. Four Irish Augustinians have been consecrated bishops of Yola and Maiduguri.
In 1995 the Diocese of Jalingo was created from Yola. The new bishop is Ignatius Kaigama, a Nigerian who from his earliest years was educated by the Augustinians. His ordination opens the final chapter in the Irish involvement in Yola, namely totally indigenization of the local church. Another page in this final chapter is the recent election of a Nigerian Vice Provincial who will steer the Augustinian Order in Nigeria into the twenty-first century. James Daman has just been elected and will assume office in summer, 1997.
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Italian contemplative nuns from Venice marked an Augustinian return to Kenya when they established a monastery at Ishiara, near Embu, in 1977. They soon accepted native contemplative vocations. In the Augustinian Missionary Sisters from Spain began a school in the town. In 1990 Irish and Nigerian friars took responsibility for the parish.
At this very moment a new House of Studies is being converted in Nairobi to train Kenyan Augustinians. It will come into operation in 1997.
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... Contact us.
... Your Parish Priest (All Church documents must come to St. Patrick's through the diocesan offices).... The Department of Foreign Affairs, Dublin, or, if you are British, the Foreign Office in London. The Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin will send you their application form which must be returned to them. The Foreign Office in London will send you their form which will be sent by you to the Embassy here in Rome.
The Vatican always distributes All Papal Audience Tickets for free. The tickets are mainly for security and souvenir purposes. They must be booked in advance.
St. Patrick's Church, St. Patrick's College,
Via Boncompagni, 31, Via Piemonte, 60,
00187, Rome, ITALY. 00187 Rome, ITALY.
Since January 1999 Telephone and Fax numbers
for both Church and College are
In Italy: 06 4203 121
Or from abroad: ..39 06 4203 121
The full version of this summary.
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