Born in Cush-House, Ireland on 10 August 1832
Took the habit in Maryvale on 31 October 1849
Perpetual Oblation in Maryvale on 1 November 1850 (No. 295)
Priestly ordination in Edinburgh, on 25 July 1855
Died in Rome, on 30 December 1869

James Gubbins was born in Cush-House, Ireland, in the diocese of Limerick on 10 August 1832. His earliest studies were done at home, with a private tutor. He completed his secondary studies in a Protestant school for classical studies in Tipperary. He was planning to join Limerick diocese, but a letter from Father Kirby, then a novice in Maryvale, attracted him to the Oblates. He began his novitiate on 31 October in Maryvale under Father Arnoux where he made his perpetual oblation on 1 November 1850. When financial problems led to the closure of Maryvale some scholastics were sent to America and some to France. James was among the latter. His philosophical studies were done in Notre-Dame de l’Osier under the direction of Father Achille Rey and theological studies with the scholastics in the Marseilles major seminary from 1851 to 1854. Already a subdeacon but too young for further orders, he taught philosophy in Sicklinghall in 1854-1855. The Sicklinghall codex notes on 15 October 1854: “Br. Gubbins gave his first instruction to the congregation of Sicklinghall. He will preach well; he was not timid, his instruction was clear, simple and solid, the delivery was animated.” He was assigned to Galashiels and left Sicklinghall on 1 February 1855. On 8 February he was ordained deacon in Galashiels by Bishop Gillis and on 25 July 1855 he was ordained priest by Bishop Gillis in Edinburgh. Fr Gubbins was at Liverpool station in 1857 to meet the Founder when he arrived by train from Birmingham.

Over a ten-year period Father Gubbins preached missions in Ireland and England, residing in Galashiels, Liverpool, Leeds and Leith between 1855 and 1860, then in Inchicore where he was superior from 1866 to 1868. He was responsible for building the school in Inchicore. Ill health forced him to resign as superior. Ill health dogged him all his life and we find him taking breaks in Sicklinghall on several occasions. Sick at the beginning of 1859, Father Gubbins was invited to convalesce in Marseilles. Father T. Ryan wrote: “The great heart of our venerable Founder embraced all his children, and no one received more marks of his paternal affection than our young Oblate during his stay in France. Later, when his health was delicate, he was allowed to return to Marseilles and the Bishop had him stay with him in his country house where he showered him with marks of affection and very touching care, going so far as to watch over his bedside and act as his nurse with all the tenderness of a mother…”

“Only some one who participated in the missions given by our Fathers between 1860 and 1866,” writes Father Ryan, “could have any idea of the crushing workload they had to undertake. Prolonged hours in the confessional late into the night, rising early, no rest day, scarcely having the time to say the divine office, the immense crowds of people, packed churches, and often uncomfortable lodgings inadequate for a missionary…” Father Gubbins suggested some modifications in the mission regulation that were accepted by the Provincial.

When the Holy See was threatened by hostile forces, Father Gubbins recruited for the papal guard. He sought permission to volunteer himself as a chaplain but was refused because of his health. However, when he fell sick in 1869 he was invited to make a trip to Rome with Father Fabre at the end of November. He piously and joyously visited the churches and sanctuaries in the city. On 29 December he was to celebrate Mass on the tomb of St. Peter. An intestinal haemorrhage, which had bothered him previously, prevented this. Father Fabre anointed him on the 30th. December. He died on the same day. The next day the funeral rites were celebrated in the parish church near the house occupied at the time by the Oblates at Via Monserrato 119, in the presence of several Oblate Bishops present in Rome for the Council. On the occasion of a trip to Rome in 1885, Father Marc de L’Hermite wrote on 5 November that he was going to pray “in the cemetery at the grave of Brother Gandolfi and Father Gubbins who were the first to rest here awaiting the glorious resurrection.”

His brother Father Timothy Gubbins was also an Oblate.

Yvon Beaudoin
and Michael Hughes, o.m.i.