News & Resources

Joseph Shanahan
Ireland
The process for the canonisation of Joseph Shanahan is started.
May 18, 1996
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Tony Geoghegan, 31.07.1978, Spiritan Papers nº18. p.14
The outstanding trait of Bishop Shanahan in regard to friendship and love is his constant refusal to separate theological and human love. He never feared 'particular friendships'. He saw everything…
July 31, 1978
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Kenya
Bishop Joseph Shanahan dies in Nairobi at the age of 72.
December 25, 1943
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Joseph Shanahan, 01.01.1942: Before the Golden Bowl is broken, p.41
How well I know that very special sense of nothingness in the presence of what looms up as an impossible, insuperable, unutterable weakness... when hope seems to vanish and with…
January 1, 1942
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Joseph Shanahan to Sister Columba, 20.02.1933. II, p.205
Strange to say I thought our Lord Himself nearer to me in Nigeria. The continued miracle of the visible effects of his Divine Grace in ourselves and in all those…
February 20, 1933
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Ireland
The Holy Rosary Missionary Sisters with their Mother House at Killeshandra, Ireland, are founded by Bishop Shanahan. Nigeria is their first mission field but they are now working in 7…
October 7, 1924
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Ireland
Joseph Shanahan founds the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary to assist him in his work with the women of Nigeria.
March 7, 1924
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Nigeria
Fr. Joseph Shanahan is appointed Prefect Apostolic of Southern Nigeria. He made education the cornerstone of his apostolate. He was also the founder of the Holy Rosary Sisters.
January 5, 1905
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Joseph Shanahan: Spiritual Diary, Onitsha, 5th October 1903, quoted in letter I,...
Thanks be to you, my God, for having preserved me up to this in your holy Apostolic Congregation. Thanks for having been so good as to send me to Africa.…
October 5, 1903
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Ireland
Fr Joseph Shanahan sets out from Ireland for Southern Nigeria where he is made Prefect Apostolic in 1905 and Vicar Apostolic in 1920. He is ordained Bishop in Maynooth College…
October 9, 1902
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Joseph Shanahan, 01.01.1942, Before the Golden Bowl is broken, p.41
I would request of you now a special favour that you will surely obtain for me from Our Lady - that I may keep on ever with my face towards…
August 12, 1900
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Bishop Joseph Shanahan, 01.10.1938; his farewell message to the Holy Rosary Sisters....
Eighteen years ago I first came in contact with you. I had been in Africa for eighteen years before that, and now, at the close of my life I am…
June 29, 1900
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Joseph Shanahan: to a Holy Rosary Sister 11.02.1937. Letters I, 133
By your life in all its activities, teach them the secret of God's living love in the very centre of their own soul. And so, the stream of divine life…
May 23, 1900
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Joseph Shanahan to Mother Bernard, 01.07.1935, Letters II, p.144
I see now more fully realised than ever the beauty of religious life - the staunch fraternal love both human and divine that binds us all together in and with…
May 3, 1900
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Joseph Shanahan, to Sister Brigid, 17.11.1935. Letters II, p.221
I am convinced that all missionaries should have an unbounded confidence in God's holy Providence, especially in the midst of grave temptation: e.g. serious difficulties of no matter what nature,…
April 16, 1900
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Joseph Shanahan, to the Holy Rosary Sisters, 02.07.1934, Letters I, 100
In Africa, where light and shadow, joy and sorrow, hope and despondency, good health and bad will follow each other in such disconcerting and rapid succession, one needs an extra…
March 14, 1900
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Joseph Shanahan, quoted by Sr. M.Philomena Fox, p.50
Every little detail is meant to mould our souls and draw them nearer to Himself. Then let us throw all - our sins, our faults and all besides into the…
March 5, 1900
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Joseph Shanahan to Holy Rosary Sisters. Fox, p. 25
Be both sympathetic and understanding to African people, especially the women: meet the people of Africa with courtesy and respect; never do for them the things they can do for…
February 5, 1900
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Bishop Joseph Shanahan to the Holy Rosary Sisters, 07.10.1928. Letters I, p....
It is the children of Nigeria who are responsible for the amazing things that have happened, and the unbelievable rapidity with which God's Church has branched and blossomed in a…
January 9, 1900
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Joseph Shanahan to Holy Rosary Sisters
Be perfectly human, perfect the human and the natural, be fully a woman. Don't be afraid of your little heart; it is made to be used. If it becomes too…
January 5, 1900
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Ireland
It is decided to set up a Senior Scholasticate for the Irish Province at St Joseph's, Rockwell. Among the eleven theological students is one Joseph Shanahan. The experiment lasts only…
October 3, 1898
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