Born in Cashel, Ireland on 2 December 1821
Took the habit in N.-D. de l’Osier on 15 July 1843
Oblation in N.-D. de l’Osier on 16 July 1844 (No. 127)
Priestly ordination in Marseilles on 20 June 1892
Died in Glencree on 20 June 1892
Edward Joseph Bradshaw was born in Cashel on 2 December 1821. After a short postulancy in Penzance, he began his novitiate on 15 July 1843 in Notre-Dame de l’Osier where he made his oblation on 16 July 1844. He was ordained priest by Bishop de Mazenod on 28 June 1846, after scarcely two years’ study of theology in the Marseilles seminary and was sent immediately to Penzance where Father Daly had been the only Oblate since 1844. “Fortunately this irregularity is not at all harmful in their case” [R. Cooke and Bradshaw], we read in the General Council minute book on 11 March 1846, “given their maturity and as well they are intelligent and studious and can easily complete their theology studies in the year after their ordination.”
Father Bradshaw’s name rarely comes up in Oblate correspondence and the review Missions OMI. Bishop de Mazenod himself rarely mentions him. On 1 December 1853, however, he writes to Father Amisse, superior in Liverpool: “Father Bradshaw, who is in charge as bursar, fills his duty properly, I am sure, but, not having been supported hitherto by the authority of the superior, he has had to yield too much to certain demands. This good Father deserves to be encouraged.” On the basis of various Personnels and other documents, he exercised his ministry in parish missions and in the pastoral ministry. His first appointment is in Penzance as first assistant and spiritual director (1846-1852), then in Liverpool where he is second assistant and bursar (1853), in Galashiels as superior in 1858, in Leith 1862-1865, in Rock Ferry (1866), and again in Leith as superior (1872-1882) At the end of his days he is resident in Glencree and assisting in the reformatory (1887-1892). He died in Glencree on 20 June 1892 and was buried in Inchicore.
Yvon Beaudoin
and Michael Hughes, O.M.I.
