- The Church and Community Buildings
- House of Formation 1852-1879
- The Local Mission
- Ara Coeli 1953-1975
- Burials
- Superiors and Directors
At Sicklinghall, a pretty village deep in the Yorkshire countryside, is located the oldest surviving Oblate mission in the province. The Oblates came in 1852 to serve the local mission and this has provided the element of continuity in the long stay of the Oblates here. This was not intended however to be the sole or even the principal occupation of the Oblates. The Oblates thought that they had found a stable location for their formation programme after deciding that they must leave Maryvale. In this they were to be again disappointed.
The Church and Community Buildings
In 1848 Squire Peter Middleton built a church for the local Catholics. He added a community house and funded a stipend for the upkeep of the church. Mr Middleton invited the Oblates, whom he had met in Everingham, to accept the mission. For the reason given above, the Oblates were glad to accept the offer. The Codex Historicus notes that Frs. Cooke and Jolivet took possession of the new house in May 1852. Fr. Bellon, who came as Visitor to the Province in July 1852, named it ‘Lys Marie’ in honour of the Immaculate Conception. The house was too small for their needs and they added a refectory, library, chapel and other rooms. These works were completed in June 1853. The church built by Middleton was solemnly opened on 30 August 1854 by Bishop Briggs, Bishop of Beverly, amidst great festivities. It is described in the Tabletof 9 September 1854 as “a beautiful and devotional gothic structure, from a design by C. Hansom…The Revd. Fr. Cooke delivered a discourse on the mystery of the Immaculate Conception. Early in the afternoon a company of 150 persons sat down to an elegant and copious luncheon, which was set out in a tent erected in the grounds of the establishment.”
Sicklinghall (AD)
The community house proved to be unable to cope with the humidity of the climate. This would give rise to fears for the health of the community.
In 1857 the Holy Family Sisters laid the foundations of a house of rest for Sisters and a small school in Sicklinghall, dependent on the convent in Leeds.
House of Formation 1852-1879
Fr. Gustave Richard was appointed superior and novice master and arrived on 19 February 1853. He brought with him from France scholastic novice Mourier. The Register of Admissions to the Novitiate 1847-1909 gives the first novice to be received in the new novitiate as Louis Francis Slade, from Bristol, on 18 September 1852, by Fr. Bellon. This is not noted in the Codex and we hear no more of him. The first receptions noted in the Codex are those by Fr. Richard on 30 April 1853 of the lay Brothers John Atkinson from Leeds and Leo Weymaere from Belgium. The Register of Admissions to the Novitiate 1847-1909 records 98 novices being received in the novitiate in Lys Marie in the period 1852-1860, after which the novitiate was moved to Glenmary in Ireland.
There were scholastics too in Sicklinghall from the beginning. The Register of Admissions 1847-1909 records 12 oblations made in Lys Marie (Mourier, Bushel, Weymaere, Cooney, Bennett, McGrath, Ring, Mahony, Donnelly, Healy, King and Crousel). However, in July 1862 the scholastics were placed in Inchicore, Dublin, before being transferred to Autun in France a year later. Lys Marie gave refuge to the scholastics of the Province who fled France during the Franco-Prussian war in 1870. Among these scholastics were the future Bishops Anthony Gaughren and Cox.
Lys Marie was also for some years the English juniorate of the Province. When the founder visited in 1857 there were nine juniors. The juniors left Lys Marie for Dublin with Fr. Bennett in July 1861 but returned in August 1864 with Fr. Hennessy, as there was insufficient space in Belmont. In 1865 Fr. Cooke, provincial, wrote to the Superior General that the juniorate had never been so flourishing – there was an excellent group of twenty juniors. One of them – John Francis McGuire from Dublin – died in a drowning accident in 1865. Fr. Matthews was head teacher and spiritual director, Fr. Hennessy taught mathematics and geography. In 1866 we find Fr. Healy who was based in Liverpool helping with their examinations: they are now a group of seventeen. Even so, the juniorate was closed again in 1869. It reopened in 1873, but closed in 1879. when a juniorate was opened in Kilburn.
The Local Mission
The Codex Historicus discloses a quiet service of the local community of Catholics in the period 1852 – 1865. We see the Oblates mixing socially with their Catholic neighbours in the surrounding countryside. These included, as well as the Middleton family, Charles Waterton, an eccentric world traveller and amateur zoologist who greatly befriended Fr. Richard in his illness. The Watertons were of the old Yorkshire Catholic gentry with their seat at Walton Hall. On a June day in 1856, Mr. Middleton paid a visit to the Oblates in Sicklinghall, bringing with him “the celebrated Mr. Waterton of Walton Hall near Wakefield. He is a great traveller and has written valuable and interesting books upon natural history. He has at his mansion a most curious collection of animals from all the parts of the world. He advised Father Richard to go for a month or two with him at Walton Hall and promised to cure him of his present disease, which he considers as very dangerous. He is a great man for knowing diseases though he never practised as a doctor. Though aged 70 he walks every day many miles, rises at 3 and occupies his whole time in prayer, study and good works.”(Sicklinghall Codex 16 June 1856) Thereafter he became a true friend of the community and Father Richard, on the orders of the Provincial, accepted his invitation and spent some periods of time in Walton Hall. He was not, however, cured of his disease. Fr. Cooke remarks that “Mr. Waterton held Father Richard in the deepest veneration, and looked upon it as a great privilege to be allowed to serve his Mass, which he often did.”(Robert Cooke, Sketches of the Life of Mgr. De Mazenod, London and Dublin 1882, Vol. II, p. 218) Other neighbours were members of the Weld family, one of whom painted an elaborate fresco of the Proclamation of the Immaculate Conception on the sanctuary arch, which has now faded out of existence. (Charles Weld, nephew of Cardinal Weld who was a friend of the Founder) At least in the immediate neighbourhood of their house, the Oblates were able to wear their soutanes in public without causing offence, though one postulant – a priest – soon left the community as he was unable to justify this breach of the law of the land.
Bishop Robert Cornthwaite, Bishop Briggs’ successor as Bishop of Beverly in 1861, took a liking to Lys Marie and used it for his clergy retreats. Fr. Cooke gave them a ‘pastoral retreat’ in 1863. Fr. Arnoux was superior at this time and served a local population of two to three hundred Catholics, widely scattered. In contradistinction to other Oblate missions in Britain, all the parishioners were of English descent within a Protestant community numbered some 5000. Conversions occurred from time to time. As it was difficult for all the parishioners to get to Sicklinghall, a small auxiliary chapel was rented for four years in Wetherby in 1866 about two miles from Sicklinghall. In 1872 they were able to open a new chapel on a permanent basis. The Holy Family Sisters directed a small school there. Wetherby was destined to grow into an important parish in its own right. An independent Oblate house was established there in 1929. In the 1873 Chapter Report the provincial describes Lys Marie as a residence depending on Leeds. Its personnel were 3 Fathers and two Brothers. In 1893 the Lys Marie community consisted of 2 Fathers and two Brothers. They continued to serve the local community and the chapel at Wetherby. The house served too as a place of rest for Oblates. One or two Oblate priests continued to serve the local community in this way through the decades. In a 1921 chapter report a provincial described its life as “a peaceful monotony broken only by the periodical change of superiors”.
In 1929 Fr. Clenaghan broke the peaceful monotony with the introduction of weekend retreats. (De Mazenod Record, 1938, p.47) The premises were refurbished. The house was opened all the year round for retreats but it was only from spring to the end of autumn that retreatants presented themselves. Retreats began on Saturday evening at 7.30 p.m. with visits to the Blessed Sacrament, a lecture, Confessions and Night Prayers. On Sunday there was Mass, three lectures during the day, visits to the Blessed Sacrament and the Stations of the Cross. Silence was enjoined and reading took place during meals. The retreats concluded on Sunday evening. There was an average of fifteen each week-end, sometimes as many as twenty-five, consisting mostly of members of Catholic societies such as the Catenians, St. Vincent de Paul, C.Y.M.S. and Catholic Women’s League. Besides weekend retreats the local secular clergy had a day’s retreat at Lys Marie once a month (average also fifteen) and at times students from Seminaries came to make their ordination retreat. Occasionally people came to make private retreats.” (De Mazenod Record, 1933, p.28)
Ara Coeli 1953-1975
A new venture was undertaken in 1953 at the invitation of Bishop Heenan of Leeds. The province established in Sicklinghall a centre for the rehabilitation of priests. It was named ‘Ara Coeli’. Bishop Heenan had been inspired by the ‘Via Coeli’ project in Jemez Springs, New Mexico, USA and had secured the support of the Cardinal and Bishops of England and Wales. The Director of the work over a period of twenty-five years was Fr. Eamon O’Donoghue. Reconstruction work had to be done to the house to make it fit for this new purpose and was completed by February 1953. The new centre had a medical officer who paid regular visits. The guiding principle was ‘priests for priests’. A Holy Family Sister cooked meals, but there was no domestic staff. The priests themselves prepared the dining room and took care of household chores. Two Oblate priests were the only in-house staff. Psychiatric treatment was available in the nearby cities of Leeds and York. Alcoholism was the main presenting problem. The Oblates continued to serve the parish, which now numbered only 24 Catholics. They also served as chaplains to a nearby American Army camp. Fr. O’Donoghue died in 1975 and with his death the work was phased out.
The simple service of the local community continued. The community house, now greatly dilapidated, was sold for private development.
The local mission is now served by one Oblate who has a small apartment attached to the church.
Burials
A number of Oblates are buried in Sicklinghall: Br. Edmund Anglim, Fr. Bouquillon, Br. Bartholomew Burke, Scholastic Brother Caix , Fr. John Cooke, George Crawley, Br. Thomas Duignam, Fr. Thomas Furlong, Fr. Gilligan, Fr. Gobert, Fr. Healy, Br. Keogh, Fr. William Laffan, Br. James McGrath, Fr. Michael Merrick, Fr. Patrick O’Donnell, Fr. Hugo O’Donoghue, Fr. George Payne, Fr. Thomas Pinet, Fr. Patrick Redmond, Fr. Laurence Roche, Fr. John Scollard, Br. James Stoddart, Fr. Patrick Tiernan. Also buried there is the junior John Francis McGuire. Peter Middleton and his wife Juliana were buried in the family vault in the church itself. Bishop Robert Cornthwaite, first Bishop of Leeds, is also buried in Sicklinghall.
Superiors and Directors
- Fr. Gustave Richard 1853-1856
- Fr. Arnoux 1856-1857
- Fr. Bennett 1857-1862
- Fr. Arnoux 1862-1866
- Fr. Crawley 1866
- Fr. J. Matthews 1867
- Fr. Patrick Brady 1871
- Fr. Hilaire Lenoir 1873-1875
- Fr. Newman 1876
- Fr. Michael Brody 1878-1882
- Fr. Arnoux 1886-1887
- Fr. Richard D’Alton 1892
- Fr. James Gibney 1895
- Fr. Wilfrid Browne 1899
- Fr. Michael Brody 1904-1907
- Fr. Patrick Dunne 1911
- Fr. Nicholas Ryan 1911-1912 and 1918-1927
- Fr. John Clenaghan 1928-1931
- Fr. Conway 1935-1936
- Fr. John Clenaghan 1937- 1943
- Fr. Scollard 1944 – 1949
- Fr. Eamon O’Donoghue 1950- 1975
- Fr. John Cooke 1975-1986
- Fr. Patrick Cronin 1987-2001
- Fr. John Murphy 2001-
Michael Hughes, o.m.i.
