Item 1 - Draft address to Fr. Joseph Harkins OSFC

2 pp; Manuscript

Draft copy address signed by Arthur McMahon, Luke McRedmond and John Coyle (on behalf of the citizens of Kilkenny) to Fr. Joseph Harkins OSFC (d. 1 Dec. 1888) on the occasion of his departure to the missions in India. The address reads: ‘We, your fellow citizens and friends have heard with regret that you are about to take your departure from amongst us, that you are about to leave your native city and your native land … to walk in the footsteps of two of the greatest saints of His Holy Church: that you have been chosen to care in far distant India, the seed of which was planted in the blood of St. Thomas and nourished by the martyrdom of St. Francis Xavier’.

Both Fr. Patrick Knaresboro OSFC and Fr. Laurence O’Dea OSFC, both Kilkenny-born Capuchin friars, also ministered in India at this time. See the article titled ‘The Church in India’, in 'The Irish Canadian', 3 Mar. 1887