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Irish priest who made Michael Collins' nephew walk again to become a saint

13/5/2017. The Beatification Of Father John Sullivan. Jesuit priest Father John Sullivan, who died in 1933, was the subject of an interdenominational beatification ceremony in Gardiner Street Church in Dublin this morning. Father Sullivan was born into a Protestant family, but converted to Catholicism in 1896. As a result, the ceremony will be conducted by both Protestant and Catholic bishops. He gained a reputation for charitable works by travelling all over the country to pray with people who were ill. He was based in Clongowes Wood College in County Kildare. After the ceremony, Father Sullivan will be referred to as Blessed Father Sullivan, which is the first step towards being declared a saint. Photo: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie

AN IRISH priest who helped Michael Collins' nephew walk again is to become a saint in the first beatification ceremony in Dublin.

Fr John Sullivan was beatified in a ceremony on May 13, at St Francis Xavier Church on Gardener Street in Dublin.

The Mass, the first of its kind in Ireland, was celebrated by Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and Primate of Ireland Archbishop Diarmuid Martin also assisted.

Fr John Sullivan was born in 1861 in Dublin to a Protestant barrister father from Dublin and a Catholic mother from Waterford, but was raised as a Protestant.

He had initially started a career in Classics and Law, first studying at Trinity College in Dublin before studying for the English Bar at Lincoln's Inns in London.

He eventually become a teacher but in 1896 he converted to the Roman Catholic Church and was received as a Jesuit Priest by Fr Michael Gavin at Farm Street Church in Mayfair, central London.

The beatification miracle performed by Fr Sullivan, who died in February 1933, involved the healing of a young boy named Michael Collins, nephew of the Irish leader.

Young Michael had infantile paralysis, and after his mother sought out Father Sullivan, the priest healed the child by touching his leg and praying over him for two hours.

During the beatification ceremony, Cardinal Amato spoke of how during Fr Sullivan's vocation he was a "poor man among the poor" and the "spirit of poverty," even though he had been born into a wealthy family.

The congregation at Fr Sullivan's beatification. He gained a reputation for charitable works by travelling all over the country to pray with people who were ill. (Picture: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie)

"Once he became a religious he was oblivious to comforts and contented himself with that which was purely necessary," Cardinal Amato said, "Faithful to the vow of poverty, he gave immediately to others every gift he received."

At the beginning of Mass, Cardinal Amato read an Apostolic Letter from Pope Francis in Latin, and this was followed by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin who read the text in English.

The letter stated: "We, welcoming the desire of Our Brother Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin, of many other Brothers in the Episcopate and of many of the Faithful, after having received the opinion of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, by Our Apostolic Authority, permit that the Venerable Servant of God John Sullivan, professed priest of the Society of Jesus, educator of youth and herald of the Gospel, witness of the love of Christ towards the poor and the distressed, from now on be called Blessed and whose feast may be celebrated, in places and according to regulations established by law, every year on the 8th of May."

A large portrait of Blessed John Sullivan was unveiled during the Mass and a relic of his hair was brought to the altar.

After the ceremony there was time for prayer and reflection, during which the hundreds of people queued to receive a blessing from the Father John Sullivan cross.