Leading a life devoted to Mary

Personal Profile

When Noel Lynch travelled to South America as an envoy for the Legion of Mary, he didn’t speak a word of Spanish. Now, 60 years later, he continues his life of ministry to the Spanish speaking community that gathers at St Saviour’s Dominican church, Dublin.

Noel joined the legion while still in secondary school – almost 70 years ago – after being invited to the school’s praesidium.

With the legion, his faith continued to flourish and he joined the senior praesidium, before eventually being sent to South America as an envoy”

“There were more attractions to leave then to say,” he jokes, “a lot of good works you know. But it was just that, we had very good spiritual directors who gave good allocutio [a talk] every week. They kept us on track. There was a good president as well, they just kept us toeing the line.”

It wasn’t Noel’s first contact with the Faith, as “in those days most families were very religious”, he explains. “We would have said the family rosary and gone to Mass on Sundays. There was definitely support from the house, from the family.”

With the legion, his faith continued to flourish and he joined the senior praesidium, before eventually being sent to South America as an envoy. The envoy’s role was to continue spreading the legion across the world. He spent eight years from 1959 to 1967 working in South America, and had “big boots to fill”.

“When I arrived in Argentina [Servant of God] Alfie Lambe had just died,” Noel explains. “He had been there six years, he died of cancer at the age of 26. It was just taking over the work that he had been involved in. There was a tremendous interest in him as a person, particularly as a young legionary.”

The legion

“Lots of young people – older people as well, but mostly younger – wanted to do something like what he had done. They wanted to imitate his apostolate. So many of them offered their holidays their free time and their money to go and do his work, to start new groups of the legion around the country.”

Noel laughs a little when I ask if he was sent to South America because of he could speak Spanish.

“I couldn’t speak a word, not a word. Everybody kept on saying, ‘ah it’ll be grand, you’ll be grand’. The envoys going out on that work, they usually work for three months with another envoy and then they’d go off on their own.

“So they said, ‘ah sure it’ll be alright, Alfie Lambe will teach you all that stuff, teach you what to do, where to go, how to do it. And obviously you’ll pick up the language on the way’. And, as we say here in Ireland, he was dead and buried when I arrived. I was thrown in at the deep end.”

Noel was quickly in awe at the level of dedication the local legionaries displayed.

“But they were very good, the legion, they were extremely good,” he begins. “Many of them offered to do full-time extension work and since then there have been envoys – the first envoys for the most part were Irish – but there have been envoys from South America that have extended the legion in many different countries and outside of South America as well.”

Spiritual director

“We have one at the moment, he’s an Argentinian and he offered to do extensive work but then became an envoy. Then he had a vocation to the priesthood while he was extending the legion in Armenia and Asia. He was ordained and he’s still working as a spiritual director to the Legion of Mary as a missionary in Armenia. He has extended the work of the legion in many countries in Asia, apart from the work he did in South America.”

As a result of his good experience working as an envoy for the legion, Noel has continued to work with them since returning to Ireland.

“You felt you owed it to the legion to give them that good example, that you would still continue,” he says. “They were writing constantly, now with the internet and that it’s more fluent. It was a great opportunity and great privilege to be there with them on the journey extending the legion.

“Now that I’m back in Ireland, I’m involved in the correspondence for the Legion of Mary, so there’s this constant, constant flow of correspondence from South America coming in. It would be the same all over the world, the different correspondents here in Dublin would be in contact with the different continents. There are huge amounts of correspondence going on. It’s keeping the legion ticking over, but also keeping it expanding.”

They are very devout people, most of South America would be Catholic”

On top of his new duties with the legion, Noel has started helping the Dominicans in St Saviours with their ministry to the Spanish community.

“There is one Spanish Mass in Dublin, every Saturday night,” Noel explains. “The Spanish speaking community in Ireland would consider that their parish and the priest who says the Mass is Dominican from Columbia, they would consider him their chaplain. It’s a huge population of immigrants and students from South America. They are very devout people, most of South America would be Catholic. It’s a great opportunity to be able to help them in their ministry.”

As a final word, Noel praised the legionaries who continue to “work so hard in many parts of the world, following on with the spirit of Frank Duff” in praying for the conversion of the world.