Summary of Bl John Sullivan: Born in Eccles St, Dublin, baptised in St George’s Church of Ireland. At 35 he was received into the Roman Catholic Church, lived a very simple lifestyle, attended Trinity College, Dublin in the Classics Dept, joined the Society of Jesus and was ordained priest in 1907. He had a great reputation for holiness, prayer and was always available to the sick, the poor and anyone in need. He died in 1933 and was beatified in 2017 at Gardiner St Church, Dublin.
In his article ‘Blessed John Sullivan – Man of God, Sent Among Us and For Us’, Donal Neary S.J. tells Bl John’s story in the monthly ‘Reality Magazine’ 2017.
Among Us and For Us
The final words of former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in the Dáil came from a little-known Jesuit, beatified on May 13 last: “Be always beginning. Take life in instalments. This day now, at least let this be a good day. Let the past go. Now let me do whatever I have the power to do.” From Blessed John Sullivan SJ, baptised an Anglican, who left behind him the memory of a life dedicated to the sick poor in Co Kildare, and of prayer practised regularly and deeply. God, at work with him with his full-hearted co-operation, made him a man of great holiness. Little did he, son of the last Lord Chancellor in Ireland, think he would be quoted in the Irish parliament!
For he began with different loyalties. Born in Dublin in 1861, fourth and youngest son of William and Elizabeth Sullivan, he grew up in the affluence of Dublin society in the early 20th century. Making a then unusual journey from south to north, he was educated in Portora College, Enniskillen. An excellent scholar he graduated with a Classics degree from Trinity College and made another journey, this time to London, where he never practised as a barrister. He spent some time as a religious searcher, and thought of joining the Mount Athos monastery, but was dissuaded from this by the monks. He was received into the Roman Catholic Church in the Jesuit church, Farm St in December 1896. A further discernment and reflection on God’s calling in his life brought him to the Jesuit novitiate in Tullabeg in 1900. Because of his age, a shortened Jesuit formation followed, with ordination to the priesthood in 1907. Apart from four years in Rathfarnham Castle as Rector of the Student House, he spent the rest of his life in Clongowes College, until his death in St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin on February 19th, 1933.
Family Life
In family life, he was close to his brothers and especially to his mother. With her he suffered the ache all his life of his ‘missing brother’, who was drowned in Killiney Bay trying to save others on a boating trip. Maybe we can address him as a patron of the families of the missing?
A Jesuit life hardly known by any except the boys and the sick – so why the beatification, a title which indicated his heroic living of the following of Christ and a unity with Christ beyond the ordinary?
Suffice to say he was not a good teacher. The boys gave him the awful time the incompetent teacher can receive. He took this with humour: not all was high seriousness – he had sent a boy to stand in the corner for some ill behaviour, and the headmaster’s arrival could be heard by his jangling keys. When the headmaster came in, the boy in the corner, fearing some punishment, took the duster and wiped the board. When the headmaster left, Johnny-O, as he was called by the boys, said –‘Most audacious fellow! Go back to your place. Use the wit God gave you for useful things.’ ‘Gratefully ashamed’, the boy later explained, ‘I returned to my place, while he rewrote what had been rubbed out.’”
Spiritual Father
He had an eye for the young lad lonely in school in first year. As spiritual father in the school, he befriended and advised students at tough times of their life, away from home in a boarding school. They knew he was special: after his funeral a boy wrote home – ‘mother, isn’t it unusual to say we’ve been taught by a saint’. He reached the souls of the young, often with tales of his travels and of the saints on long walks on free days. Many of us know a teacher who taught a lot of life while not being the best in the professional role. Our young people need both. Jonny-O, was one of the better of the first, though he would be the last either to know this or say it!
Care for the Sick
Known also for his care for the sick, he spent many hours cycling or walking to nearby or faraway house and hovels around Kildare, even cycling also to Dublin to pray for and with the sick person. John’s motivation was to pray for the person, and gather the family to pray with him for the sick. One has a memory of an hour’s prayer with the sick family member and the family, longer than was expected! He prayed for their health and for their acceptance of illness, sometimes leaving with the words, ‘she will die peacefully this night’ or with the beginnings of a cure. Maybe he is the patron blessed now of the hospital chaplain.
This was his motivation, continuing the saving work of Christ; a motivation begun in the Anglican Church and brought to fruition in the Roman Catholic. He spoke the gospel not with many words and he spoke on prayer: ‘in prayer don’t mind the scaffolding, Get at God’.
also available at www.messenger.ie/bookshop: Fr John Looby SJ, ‘Blessed John Sullivan, A Man Sent by God’ and Fr Fergal McGrath SJ, ‘Blessed John Sullivan’.
