THE LATE FATHER CUMMINS, S.M., LONDON

New Zealand Tablet, 13 April 1911, Page 676

THE LATE FATHER CUMMINS, S.M., LONDON

Over the ..initials ‘F. J. MV /there appeared in the Dublin Freeman’s Journal the following tribute to the late Very Rev. Michael Lcstrang© Cummins, S.M., who passed away at Kew, London, on February 23: —Our readers will learn with regret—many of them /with a poignant sense of personal lossof the death at Kew, London, of the Very Rev. Michael Lestrangq Cummins, of the Society of Mary. Born in the Queen’s County just' seventy-three years ago, of a distinguished family—his father was County Inspector of Police Father Cummins at an early age entered the Society of Mary, and after a prolonged and successful course of studies, was ordained priest in the Church of the Catholic University, Stephen’s green, in 1868, by the Right Rev. Dr. Elloi, Bishop _of Tonga, member of the Society of Mary. With the ardour and zeal that consumed him, Father Cummins, after some years of prolific missionary work in East London, volunteered for the foreign mssiop. Some seven years of hard labor were passed in New Zealand in. the early pioneer days,, when missionaries were nomads, and churches were not. Many were the interesting, thrilling experiences— of them tinged with a profuse wealth of thoughtho loved to detail of his wanderings and work in the Antipodes. No obstacle daunted him in his search and cure of souls. Recalled to Europe, Father Cummins threw himself with fearless energy into .the work of home missions and retreats. - Few are the parishes in and around Dublin, as well as further afield, that have not resounded to the unstudied, exuberant, stately eloquence of the zealous Marist. ‘ A second St. Bernard,’' was the apt remark of the late Judge O’Brien, after hearing a sermon of Father Cummins’ in Clarendon Street Church. The writer recalls a picturesque, moving scene on a summer evening on the chapel hill in Errigal Truagh—diocese of Clogher—when the church expanded not to the crowds that foregathered. From a rude rostrum on a spur of the hill the preacher dominated the multitude, and held them spellbound, banging on his lips. Time chilled not his priestly ardour. Often he came from the home of his last years, Kew, London, to rouse .the people of rural parishes in the land ho loved so well, to a - more stern and faithful discharge of duty. Many a tear ho drew, many a chord of sympathy he struck, many a deaf ear he made hear, many a woo he solaced, many a sore ho healed, many a dead soul he raised to grace and life.

In Kew he built a beautiful church, and ministered to the souls entrusted to him for twelve odd years. Will not those who drew spiritual profit from his sweat and toil and straight, perfervid eloquence rushed like a mountain torrent from the twin fountains of deepest faith in God and consuming zeal for souls—say a prayer for his simple, priestly, gently soul. In his Order his death leaves a void not to be soon filled. ll.l. P.