Ireland set to have new Blessed

Ireland will see its first Blessed in 17 years with the date set for the beatification of Fr John Sullivan SJ in May.

The beatification of Fr Sullivan will take place in St Francis Xavier’s, Gardiner Street, Dublin, on Saturday, May 13. Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregations for the Causes of Saints will attend the ceremony.

Fr Gerry Clarke SJ, parish priest in Gardiner Street, which houses Fr Sullivan’s tomb, told The Irish Catholic “it has been a long wait” and the parish is delighted to host the ceremony. “Devotion to Fr John is very strong here at Gardiner Street and across the country, especially in Counties Down, Armagh and Kildare. He was a ‘man of others’ and someone to imitate.”

John Sullivan was born in Dublin in 1861. His father, the future Lord Chancellor of Ireland, Sir Edward Sullivan, was a protestant. His mother, Lady Bessie Josephine Sullivan was a Catholic.

In 1896 he was received into the Catholic Church and some four years later he entered the Jesuit order. Most of his priestly life was spent in Clongowes Wood College, in Co. Kildare, where he had a reputation for sanctity among the schoolboys and the many local people he came in contact with.

In 1960 Fr Sullivan [pictured] was declared a Servant of God and then ‘Venerable’ in 2014. In April 2016 Pope Francis approved a decree that authenticated a miracle attributed to Fr Sullivan, thereby approving his beatification.

This will be the first Irish beatification since Columba Marmion OSB in 2000.