File 5 - Research relating to Father Mathew

20 pp; Manuscript

• Note by Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. on the founding in 1819 by Fr. Mathew of ‘an association which was the precursor of the St. Vincent de Paul Society’. The Josephian Society ‘was a body of young men who taught catechism and instructed poor children to read and write’. Manuscript, 1 p.
• Notebook containing entries relating to Fr. Mathew’s temperance crusade extracted from 'Battersby’s Catholic Directory', 1840-7. The entries were compiled by Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. Manuscript, 10 pp.
• Letter from Sr. Mary Aquin, Convent of Mercy, Cobh, County Cork, to Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. re ‘a tradition in the Convent that one Sister saw him [Fr. Mathew] frequently in his last illness and were edified by his holy dispositions’. 4 June 1930. Manuscript, 2 pp.
• Letter from Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap. to Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. confirming that the Christian Brothers ‘have a quite a lot of matter re Fr. Mathew in their records’. Fr. Bonaventure also refers to his efforts to locate unbound and missing editions of 'The Father Mathew Record'. 9 Feb. 1939. Manuscript, 2 pp.
• Note by Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. re the numbers who took the Total Abstinence Pledge from 1839-52. The figure for 1839 is given as 63,387. The figure for 1852 is 6,486,851. Manuscript, 1 p.
• Note by Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. re references to Fr. Mathew, Apostle of Temperance in 'Bullarium Ordinis FF. Minorum Francisci Capucinorum', Vols X-XII (1841). Manuscript, 2 pp.
• Note by Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. on Bishop John England (1786-1842). ‘From the sermon of the Most Rev. Dr. [Francis] McCormack [1833-1909], Bishop of Galway, at the celebration of the centenary of Carlow College, Sunday, Sept. 23, 1888’. MS, 2 pp.