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Jas Louis O'Donnell

Margaret Aylward Dr Edward Barron Philip Barron Denis Cashman Raymond Chandler Paddy Coad Patrick Comerford Donncha Ruadh Val Doonican Sean Dunne Frank Edwards Alfie Hale John M Hearne William Hobson Dr Thomas Hussey Charles Kean John Keane Edmund Leamy D. P. Moran Gen Dick Mulcahy James Nash Peter O'Connor Jas Louis O'Donnell Pádraig Ó Fainín Gilbert O'Sullivan John Redmond Edmund I Rice James Rice, Mayor Lord Roberts V. C. John Roberts Frank Ryan Thomas Sexton Archbishop Sheehan Susan Smith John Treacy Luke Wadding William V. Wallace Cardinal Wiseman Bullocks Wyse Lucien Bonaparte Wyse

 

 

O'DONNELL, JAMES LOUIS (1738-1811) 

The 'Apostle of Newfoundland.' Born at Knocklofty, Co. Tipperary. At eighteen he entered the Franciscan convent of St Isidore in Rome.  Ordained at Prague 1770;returned to Ireland 1775 and settled at Waterford, where he became prior of the Franciscan house: Subsequently he became provincial of  the Order in Ireland. In 1784. at the request leading Newfoundland merchants and their agents at Waterford. he was sent to Newfoundland as prefect and Vicar Apostolic.  
On 21 September 1796 he was consecrated at Quebec as titular Bishop of Thyatira and returned to Newfoundland to make his first episcopal visitation. He published a body of diocesan statutes in 1801 and divided the dioceses in missions, acting as a missionary priest himself because of the scarcity of Clergy. He used his influence with the Catholics to restrain anti-government feeling and in 1800 discovered and reported to the commandant, Major Gen. Skerret, a projected mutiny among the soldiers of the Newfoundland Regiment stationed at St John's. He was awarded a life pension of £50 annually for his service to the colony and from then on his position in Newfoundland was equal to that of the Governor in everything except name. His health failed and in 1807 he was obliged to resign his see and return to Ireland. He spent his last years at Waterford and died there on 15 April 1811.

 

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