By Antóin O’Callaghan
On the north-western hills overlooking Cork city stands St Vincent’s Church, Sunday’s Well, home to the Vincentian Order until their departure from the city in 2016. Opened in 1856, the building of St Vincent’s began in the years following Catholic Emancipation, and the rising structure became a powerful symbol of the growing confidence and strength of Catholicism in nineteenth-century Ireland.
EARLY VINCENTIAN HISTORY
Cork man John Skyddie was the first Irish Vincentian but he died in Paris in the early 1640s. Late in 1646, nine men left the Vincentian mother house in France for Ireland, among them five Irishmen: Gerard Brin of Cashel, Edmund Barry of Cloyne, George White of Limerick, Dermot Duggan of Emly and a student, Dermot O’Brien, also of Emly. They settled near Cashel, from where they began a ministry throughout Munster, but they were soon forced to flee owing to the penal law persecutions.
By the late eighteenth century the penal laws had been relaxed, and in 1829 Catholic Emancipation finally consigned a century and a half of persecution to history. The Church could now consider how to bring its teaching to the masses, while also caring for the needs of the poor throughout the country. Four clerical students who went to Maynooth in 1826—James Lynch, Peter Kenrick, Anthony Reynolds and Michael Bourke, along with Thomas McNamara and Dean of Maynooth Philip Dowley—believed that the ideals of St Vincent de Paul were appropriate, and so they prevailed upon Archbishop Daniel Murray of Dublin to allow them to form a Vincentian community in Dublin. They began their mission at 34 Usher’s Quay, where they founded a school. In 1834 the residence and demesne of Castleknock, to the west of the city, up to then a Protestant boarding-school, was acquired, and the Vincentians moved there to continue their teaching. They now had a school but no church. In 1823 a small chapel of ease for St Paul’s, Arran Quay, had been built in Phibsborough at the junction of the North Circular Road and Cabra Road (St Peter’s), and in 1835 Dr Murray gave it to the growing Vincentian community.
THE VINCENTIANS IN CORK
The first Irish Vincentian foundation outside Dublin was in Cork in 1847, with Fathers Roger Kickham, Philip Burton and Laurence Gillooly. They were supported in their endeavours by Bantry man and Vicar General of the Cork diocese Michael O’Sullivan, and they began their mission with a school and junior seminary in the old Mansion House (today’s Mercy Hospital). With the permission of Bishop Delaney of Cork, Michael O’Sullivan joined the Vincentians and became the driving force in the development of St Vincent’s Church on Sunday’s Well Road but did not live to see his vision completed, passing to his eternal reward in 1855. Prior to an elaborate opening ceremony in July 1856, a spectacular high altar made of marble and Caen stone with a gold tabernacle beneath a spire, as well as a reredos showing the four great sacrifices of the Old Law (before being superseded by the Mass), were erected as a memorial to the founding father (see below).
Over the following years the décor and embellishment undertaken portrayed the values of the Catholic Church as well as the ideals of St Vincent de Paul, and the actions of those serving were in keeping with the Irish Church’s loyalty to Rome. On the walls, beautiful Stations of the Cross from the Alexander Le Dien school of painting in Normandy were hung. The Le Dien school had papal imprimatur for the provision of such ecclesiastical embellishment. The window lights on the eastern gable were filled with stained glass depicting episodes in the life of St Vincent de Paul and were crafted and installed by William Wailes of Newcastle-on-Tyne. A carved pulpit made of Caen marble was erected and an organ consisting of 36 stops and over 2,000 pipes was installed by Telford’s of Dublin. Much of the interior work at this time, including the design of the eastern window, was overseen by ecclesiastical architect and designer George Goldie.
Although the development of the church and a presbytery adjacent wherein the clergy would reside proceeded, the Vincentian mission was not primarily one of building great structures. From Sunday’s Well, as well as from other Vincentian centres in Dublin and Armagh, the Fathers travelled far, preaching at parish missions and setting up confraternities and sodalities throughout Ireland and beyond. Having given their first home in Cork at the old Mansion House to the Sisters of Mercy, the Vincentians moved their seminary to 11 St Patrick’s Place and continued teaching until the setting up of St Finbarr’s, Farranferris, the diocese’s own junior seminary, where the Vincentians then served as chaplains. In St Vincent’s itself, confraternities of the Sacred Heart for men and women, as well as a Children of Mary sodality, were established. In 1866 another branch of the Vincentian family undertook charitable work in the city: the Daughters of Charity were invited to take care of the North Infirmary Hospital on the city’s north side and the Fathers were appointed chaplains.
COMPLETION OF THE INTERIOR
In 1889 Fr Malachy O’Callaghan was appointed superior at Cork and it was he who spearheaded a new drive to bring the church interior to completion before the celebration of the golden jubilee, scheduled for 1906. It was the ambition of the community that the church should be one of the most beautiful in the city, and that it should be in a position to be consecrated debt-free. Thoughts turned to the lancet windows on the north and south aisles, as well as the western window, which were still of plain glass. During the 1890s, aisle windows including depictions of St Patrick, St Bridget and St Vincent de Paul were crafted by the firm Mayer and Co. of Munich. The windows on the south aisle were richer and deeper in colour than those on the north aisle, to better reflect the light from the southern sun. In 1903 the lights of the western window were filled. The theme chosen was music—appropriate given that it was located above the organ gallery. Across the top of four lancets were placed scenes of the musicians of heaven and beneath were depicted musicians of the Old and New Testaments. The work was again executed by Mayer of Munich (see above).
On Sunday 14 October 1906 St Vincent’s was formally consecrated, with the sign of the cross being made with sacred unction at twelve points on the walls of the building. The specific points were marked with circular tablets in mosaic with gilt crosses defined upon them, two on the altar, four on both the north and south walls and a final two at the western end of the church.
VATICAN II
Throughout the twentieth century the Vincentian mission in Cork continued. Hundreds flocked to the church to attend a weekly Miraculous Medal novena, and the Vincentian Fathers became closely involved with the deaf community in the city. In 1952, in advance of the centenary of the church in 1956, a pilgrimage to Lourdes was undertaken, giving thanks for the blessings that St Vincent brought to this quarter of Cork. Under the stewardship of Fr Leo O’Mahony, in 1956 St Vincent’s Church, Sunday’s Well, celebrated its 100th birthday. Change, however, was on the way.
The post-Vatican II Church sought to create a more inclusive faith, and one of the most symbolic changes that occurred in all churches was a reorientation of the altar, which henceforth would face the people, placing the Eucharist at the centre of the Mass celebration. In St Vincent’s, despite objections from many of the faithful, the high altar, memorial to the church’s original founder, Michael O’Sullivan, was completely demolished and a new, simple timber altar on a raised dais was built. The dais itself completely covered the original mosaic floor that depicted the four evangelists. Other changes saw the reconstruction of confessional boxes, work on the preservation of the eastern window and a restructuring of the organ gallery.
In September 1981 St Vincent’s was made a parish church, and the 22nd superior, Fr Hugh Murnaghan, was appointed the first Vincentian parish priest in Cork. The achievement of parish status meant a considerable change for the clergy serving at St Vincent’s. Baptisms, weddings, funerals, First Holy Communions and Confirmations, as well as the chaplaincy of local schools, were now added to the daily lives of the confrères.
CLOSURE AND DECONSECRATION
Ireland itself was changing, however. A more secular society was developing; the Church had once been a dominant force, but as the twentieth century waned that was no longer the case. The result was ever-decreasing attendances at liturgies and dramatically falling numbers of vocations to the priesthood. The Vincentians and St Vincent’s were no exceptions and, with smaller congregations and fewer priests, the church building slowly began to deteriorate. Despite this, the 150th anniversary in 2006 was celebrated with enthusiasm, with World Superior General of the Order Fr Gregory Gay attending and a Mass of Celebration composed for the occasion by musical director and liturgical composer Sandra O’Callaghan.
The decline continued, however, and in the summer of 2016 the last Mass was celebrated, and the building was deconsecrated.
Antóin O’Callaghan was a broadcast engineer with RTÉ and has an MA in History from UCC.
Further reading
C. Lennon (ed.), The confraternities and sodalities of Ireland: charity, devotion and sociability (Dublin, 2012).
M. Purcell, The story of the Vincentians (Dublin, 1973).