Courtney McGrailTreasures of Irish Christianity III
ed. Salvador Ryan
(Veritas, €19.99)
J. Anthony Gaughan
This publication is one of a number of initiatives taken to honour the memory of the archetypal Irish missionary, St Columbanus, on the 1,400th anniversary of his death. Appropriately it is a collection of interesting stories about Irish involvement – Catholic and Protestant – in the foreign missions.
Pride of place is given to the Columbans. Established as the Maynooth Mission to China in 1917, they were re-named the Missionary Society of St Columban in 1921. Members of the Society served as heroic missionaries in China until 1953 when, with all other Christian groups, they were expelled from the country by the communist government of Mao Tse-tung.
They diversified across the world and in 1994 numbered 674 priests with missions in Belize, Brazil, Chile, Fiji, Jamaica, Japan, Korea, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines and Taiwan. At that time also their priests were ministering in Australia, Britain, Ireland, New Zealand and the US.
Neil Collins, a fellow Columban, describes the challenges faced by Fr Hugh Sands in China.
In 1931, just three years after arriving in his parish, Sands was captured by the communists, then marauding around central China. On his first Christmas Day in captivity he was visited by Mao Tse-tung who told him that he did not believe in religion and that he expected to see communism spread over the world. On his release Sands returned to his parish.
Following the outbreak of war between China and Japan the Japanese forces in 1939 over-ran the region in which Sand’s parish was located, and in harsh conditions Sands remained a virtual prisoner in his compound until 1945. After a visit home he returned to his parish, where he was confined from 1949 until he was expelled in 1953.
The Columbans feature in a number of the other essays. Louise Canavan describes the early years of the Society at Shrule, Co. Galway, and later the acquisition of their head house at Dalgan Park, near Navan. Their capacity to adapt to local conditions is highlighted. This led them to pilot the ‘Option for the Poor’ in Peru and to imaginative ecumenical initiatives with Muslims in the Philippines and the Orthodox in Ethiopia.
Tom Davitt, the Vincentian archivist, profiles an early Irish missionary in China. Member of the Church of Ireland and like Hugh Sands, a native of Newry, Robert Hanna went to Paris to study mathematics and science in 1780.
While there he converted to Catholicism, joined the Vincentians and was ordained. Assigned to the mission in China he arrived in Peking in 1794. However, two and a half years later he died and lies buried in Tcheng-fou-se.
Michael Casey, abbot of Tarrawarra Abbey in Victoria Province of Australia, describes its establishment in 1954. It was set up by 22 monks from Mount St Joseph Abbey in Roscrea, which had already in 1948 sent other members of its community to join the new Abbey at Nunraw in Scotland.
Transfers
Following both transfers the community at Roscrea still numbered almost a hundred! With the Cistercian Abbeys in Ireland today struggling to survive because of a lack of personnel, one is starkly reminded of the catastrophic decline in vocations to the priesthood and religious life in Ireland in recent years.
Let us not forget that sisters stood side by side with the brothers and priests under foreign skies. Accounts of their experiences would make a further volume in the series, an appropriate acknowledgment of their contribution to Ireland’s Peregrinatio Pro Christo.
