Born in Drogheda, Ireland, 1 November 1839
Took the habit in Sicklinghall on 30 May 1857
Oblation in Sicklinghall on 31 May 1859 (No.483)
Priestly ordination in Birkenhead, on 4 October 1863
Died in Leeds on 23 August 1866
John Gilligan was born in Drogheda on 1 November 1839 but when he was three his family moved to Dublin. With the help of a benefactor named Mr. Moran he went to school first with the Carmelites in Dominick Street, then to St. Laurence’s College, Harcourt Street where he took a prize in mathematics, and finally at the Jesuit college of St. Francis Xavier, Great Denmark Street. . He had a talent for music that he put to use in the liturgy on Sundays. Attracted by what he had heard of the Oblates, he began his novitiate on 30 May 1857 at Sicklinghall. Thus he was present for the dedication of the Church of Mount St. Mary’s in July 1857, in the role of book-bearer for Bishop Briggs. Sadly he was destined to be the first Oblate whose funeral would take place in that Church. As a group, the novices did not impress the Founder but John Gilligan, while he did not escape criticism, won the Founder’s approval. He made his oblation in Sicklinghall on 31 May 1859 along with Scholastic Brothers Gibney, O’Dwyer, Matthews, MacGuckin and Crane and Brothers Atkinson and Fawcett. He went on to the scholasticate in Montolivet (1859-18620 and Autun (1862-1863). Father Antoine Mouchette, his formator in Montolivet, often mentions him in his reports. In September he remarks that ‘he is a good religious, full of good will; he has made good progress in French’. He adds in March 1860: ‘An all-rounder, upright and affectionate in character, he likes work and applies himself to all his duties.’ In the summer of 1860 he went through a crisis. In March 1861 Father Mouchette writes: ‘Being in France is the brother’s big problem; the two years that remain are a real nightmare.’ After a final year of theology in Autun he returned to England and was ordained priest in Birkenhead by the Bishop of Shrewsbury on 4 October 1863. He received his obedience to the British Province.
He began his ministry in Liverpool with great success, developing a youth ministry. He was loath to leave it in May 1865 to go to Leeds and went through a crisis of obedience. In Leeds he gradually settled down. However, after little more than a year of ministry there he contracted typhoid fever on 10 August 1866 after ministering to a stricken parishioner and died on 23 August 1866 at the age of twenty-six. Accompanied by huge crowds, he was buried in Sickinghall.
The lengthy obituary written by Father Fabre who had hurried over to Leeds from Belmont House, Stillorgan, Co. Dublin when he was informed of the young priest’s illness, gives us to understand that he was a young man of promise who had persevered through many trials. The heroic manner of his death designated him, in the words of Father Pinet, a martyr of charity and obedience.
Yvon Beaudoin
and Michael Hughes, o.m.i.
