Born: Dungarvan, Ireland, November 4, 1826
Took the habit: N.-D. de Lumières, August 1, 1845
Vows: N.-D. de l’Osier, August 2, 1846 (No.158)
Priestly ordination: Marseilles, July 8, 1849
Dispensed from vows about 1853-1855
Took the habit again: Nancy, October 3, 1857
Vows (2nd time): Nancy, October 4, 1858 (No.467)
Dispensed from vows: January 23, 1865.
Roger Francis Cooke was born on November 4, 1826, in Dungarvan, Ireland. He began his novitiate in Notre Dame de Lumières on August 1, 1845 and took vows in Notre-Dame de l’Osier on August 2, 1846. He had been admitted to vows in the general council session of the preceding July 12, because, as stated in the minutes of the general council, he had fulfilled “with fidelity the duties of obedience and regularity imposed by religious life and that his character ‘is pleasant’.”
After three years of study in the major seminary in Marseilles, he was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop de Mazenod on July 8, 1849, and immediately he was sent to the British Province where he ministered in Galashiels and Liverpool. He then obtained a dispensation from his vows sometime in the period 1853-1855 in order to enter the Trappists but he did not remain there. Father Casimir Aubert suggested to him to return to the Congregation. He was accepted in the general council meeting of September 16, 1857. According to the minutes of the meeting, he was at first refused because of his “having fled from Liverpool to America which was sufficiently known in the country to have caused scandal.” However, during his visit to England in the summer of 1857, Bishop de Mazenod was able to ascertain that the matter had not become public knowledge. Since the Father had been well behaved in Paris for three months and he was now insistent in his request to return, he was permitted to begin a second novitiate in Nancy on October 3, 1857. He took vows on October 4, 1858, and was sent to Canada during the winter.
He taught in Ottawa College in 1858-1859 and in 1864. At the beginning of the holiday period in that year, he left for Buffalo and from there, on November 23, 1864, he wrote a long letter to Father Casimir Aubert asking to be dispensed from his vows. He stated that “for six years he had been the object of overwhelming and incessant persecutions” by Father Tabaret, superior of the college, and Father Ryan. During his visitation of the college in 1864, Father Vandenberghe told him that he would be appointed superior of the college to replace Father Tabaret who had been appointed Provincial of Canada. Both Father Tabaret and Bishop Guigues were opposed to this appointment. Father Cooke was named second assistant and claimed that he was never consulted. In the general council meeting of January 23, 1865, it was decided that “considering that he could not be assigned to ministry and that he had no taste for teaching or remaining in the college in Ottawa”, this Father should be given a dispensation from his vows.
Yvon Beaudoin, o.m.i.
