John Austin (Jesuit)

Last updated • 2 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

John Austin, S.J. (12 April 1717, Dublin - 29 September 1784, Dublin), was an Irish Jesuit. Austin was a noted educator and preacher.

Life

John Austin was born in Dublin on 12 April 1717. As a young man, Austin left Ireland for France where, at the age of 18, he entered the Society of Jesus in Nancy on 27 November 1735. He made his vows on 28 November 1737. He studied logic and physics at Pont-à-Mousson, and after completing his higher studies, was employed in teaching humanities for several years at Reims. His ordination on 22 September 1747, was followed by two years studying theology at the Irish college in Poitiers. [1] He held the office of Prefect of the Irish College at Poitiers.

In 1750 he returned to Dublin, where he opened a school. John O'Keeffe was one of his students. Thomas Betagh was a student at Austin's school in Saul's Court off Fishamble Street. Betagh went on to become a Jesuit and in 1781 set up a number of free schools for the poor boys of Dublin. In 1770 Austin and Father James Mulcaile set up a boarding school. [2]

Austin was allowed to profess the fourth vow specific to the Society on 2 February 1754. He obtained renown as a preacher. Topham Bowden, an English writer, noted in his book, Tour through Ireland (1791), that "... Austin was a very remarkable character, of extraordinary learning and piety; he was a great preacher, and injured his health by his exertions in the pulpit."

Austin died in Dublin on 29 September 1784, and was buried in the churchyard of St. Kevin's Church in that city. The inscription over his grave describes him as "pius, doctus, indefessus operarius, apostolicis confectus laboribus. Divites admonuit, pauperes sublevavit, juventutem erudivit, orphanis loco parentis fuit, de omni hominum genere prseclare meruit, omnibus omnia factus ut omnes Christo lucrifaceret."

A portrait of Austin, painted by George Petrie, and engraved by Henry Brocas, was published in 1792.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jesuits</span> Male religious congregation of the Catholic Church

The Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits, is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 by Ignatius of Loyola and six companions, with the approval of Pope Paul III. The society is engaged in evangelization and apostolic ministry in 112 nations. Jesuits work in education, research, and cultural pursuits. Jesuits also conduct retreats, minister in hospitals and parishes, sponsor direct social and humanitarian ministries, and promote ecumenical dialogue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Secker</span> Archbishop of Canterbury from 1758 to 1768

Thomas Secker was an Archbishop of Canterbury in the Church of England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clongowes Wood College</span> Voluntary boarding school in Clane, County Kildare, Ireland

Clongowes Wood College SJ is a Catholic voluntary boarding school for boys near Clane, County Kildare, Ireland, founded by the Jesuits in 1814. It features prominently in James Joyce's semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. One of five Jesuit secondary schools in Ireland, it had 450 students in 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belvedere College</span> Voluntary Jesuit school for boys in Dublin Ireland

Belvedere College S.J. is a voluntary secondary school for boys in Dublin, Ireland. The school has numerous notable alumni in the arts, politics, sports, science, and business. Alumni and teachers at Belvedere played major roles in modern Irish literature, the standardisation of the Irish language, as well as the Irish independence movement – both the 1916 Rising and the Irish War of Independence. The school's notable alumni and former faculty include two Taoisigh, one Ceann Comhairle, several cabinet ministers, one Blessed, one Cardinal, one Archbishop, one signatory of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, two Supreme Court Justices, one Olympic medallist, thirty Irish international rugby players and numerous notable figures in the world of the arts, academia and business. Belvedere College forms the setting for part of James Joyce's semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'

James Aloysius Cullen was an Irish Catholic priest who founded the Irish Messenger of the Sacred Heart and the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association (PTAA)

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crescent College</span> Comprehensive school in Limerick, Ireland

Crescent College Comprehensive SJ, formerly known as the College of the Sacred Heart, is a Catholic secondary school located on 40 acres (160,000 m2) of parkland at Dooradoyle, Limerick, Ireland. The college is one of a number of Jesuit schools in Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willie Doyle</span> British priest (1873–1917)

William Joseph Gabriel Doyle, was an Irish Catholic priest who was killed in action while serving as a military chaplain to the Royal Dublin Fusiliers during the First World War. He is a candidate for sainthood in the Catholic Church.

Charles Neale (1751–1823) was a leader of the Jesuit mission in America. Neale came from a prominent Catholic family of Maryland.

Stephen White, SJ (1575–1646) was a Jesuit author and antiquarian who wrote about the early Irish saints.

The Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy was a Jesuit-run institution of higher education and research, located in Dublin, Ireland. It was located in Ranelagh, County Dublin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Nicholas Burke</span>

Thomas Nicholas Burke was an Irish Dominican preacher. There is a statue of Thomas Burke by John Francis Kavanagh at Claddagh Quay in Galway.

John Morris, SJ, was an English Jesuit priest and scholar of Church history.

Thomas Betagh was an Irish Jesuit priest, schoolteacher, and professor of languages at Pont-à-Mousson Jesuit scolasticate (France). Betagh established a number of free schools in Dublin, which taught over 300 boys. These schools also provided clothing for the most destitute of the pupils, where a total of over three thousand boys had been educated. The schools were afterwards known as the Dr Betagh Schools.

The Irish School of Ecumenics (ISE) is an institute of Trinity College Dublin, dedicated to the study and promotion of peace and reconciliation in Ireland and throughout the world. The school is located in Dublin and Belfast, and consists of eight permanent full-time academic staff, visiting academic staff, postdoctoral fellows, and administrative staff. ISE has 82 M.Phil. students and 39 Ph.D. and M.Litt. research students.

John Bathe (1610–1649), was an Irish Jesuit.

Thomas Aloysius Finlay, S.J. was an Irish Catholic priest, economist, philosopher and editor.

Peter James Kenney (1779–1841) was an Irish Jesuit priest. He founded Clongowes Wood College and was also rector of the Jesuits in Ireland. A gifted administrator, Kenney made two trips to the United States, where he established Maryland as a vice-province and set up Missouri as a separate Jesuit mission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manresa House, Dublin</span> Jesuit retreat house, Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland

Manresa House is a retreat centre run by the Society of Jesus in the Dollymount area of Clontarf in Dublin, near Saint Anne's Park. In the 19th century it was home to Robert Warren and Arthur Guinness, and it is a protected structure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irish College at Salamanca</span> Irish College at Salamanca for Irish students

The Irish College at Salamanca,, it was endowed by the King of Spain and dedicated as the St Patrick’s Royal College for Irish Noblemen. It was founded by Thomas White, formerly of Clonmel, Ireland, in 1592 to house the students of that country who came to Salamanca to escape the religious persecution of the Catholic Church in Ireland. The students resided at the college while attending lectures at the University of Salamanca.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward I. Devitt</span> Canadian American Jesuit and historian

Edward Ignatius Devitt was a Canadian American priest, Jesuit, and historian of the American Catholic Church. Born in Saint John, New Brunswick, he moved with his family to Boston, Massachusetts, at a young age. He studied in public schools in the city before enrolling at the College of the Holy Cross. Devitt spent two years there, and then entered the Society of Jesus in 1859. He studied at the novitiate in Frederick, Maryland, and at the newly opened Woodstock College. He briefly taught at the Washington Seminary during his studies, and after graduating, was a professor for the next thirty years at Holy Cross, Woodstock, and Georgetown University.

References

  1. O'Rahilly, Alfred. “Father John Austin, S.J. (1717-1784).” The Irish Monthly, vol. 67, no. 789, 1939, pp. 181–196.
  2. Refferty SJ, Oliver P., "Ireland", The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Jesuits, (Worcester, Thomas SJ, ed.), Cambridge University Press, 2017, ISBN   9781108508506