PEOPLE WE HEAR ABOUT

New Zealand Tablet, 13 March 1919, Page 33

PEOPLE WE HEAR ABOUT

His Eminence Cardinal Vincenzo Vannutelli, Dean of the Sacred College, celebrated his 83rd birthday in December. He received congratulations from all quarters, for Cardinal Vannutelli has well-wishers everywhere. On the evening of his birthday he received the officers of a Roman association called the Circolo dell' Immacolata, of which he . is Protector, and was very interested to hear that complete arrangements had been made for the illumination of all the windows of Rome on the vigil and night of the Immaculate Conception. An excellent opportunity was offered for thus solemnising the Feast of Our Lady by her association with the success of the Italian arms as Queen of Victory. It is intended .that the step be the beginning of the revival of an old traditional Roman custom of thus publicly honoring the feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Rev. Father W. 11. Pidcock, S.J., of Norwood (S.A.), who died on February 6 at North Adelaide Hospital, was an interesting and popular personality. In the early seventies he came from England to Western Australia, where he labored as an Anglican clergyman for some years, and incidentally became an intimate friend of the late Lord Forrest, with whom he preserved cordial relations to the end. About 1880 he became a convert to the Catholic Faith, and came to Sydney, where he resided at Hunters Hill. His wife had previously become a convert, and on her death in Sydney six or eight years afterwards he entered the Jesuit Order. He served his novitiate in Melbourne. In 1893, having completed his studies, he was sent to Dublin, where he was ordained. He then returned to Australia, and worked for more than 20 years, chiefly in Melbourne. He had lived at Norwood for the last three years, where he has had many friends representing every class and opinion. Father Pidcock was a graduate of Cambridge University, an accomplished linguist, and a fine musician, He was in the 80th year of his age. Widespread regret will be felt at the announcement of the death of Father Patrick Fidelis Kavanagh, 0.F.M., the historian of '9B, who passed away at the Franciscan Friary, Wexford, on December 17 last. The venerable Franciscan had passed his 80th year. Though in feeble health for some time, he had been performing his priestly functions, visiting the sick and solacing the afflicted up to the day previous to his death. The news of his death came as a great shock to the people of Wexford, who held him in the highest veneration as a saintly scholar and patriot priest. Born in March, 1834, the deceased was son of the late Laurence Kavanagh, shipowner and merchant, Wexford. He was educated at the Christian schools and St. Peter's College, Wexford, and pursued his theological studies at St. Isidore's,, Rome, where he was ordained in 1856. He began his missionary career in Wexford, and afterwards visited North and South America, and Australia on two occasions. On returning from Australia, Father Kavanagh met Froude, the historian, and had a memorable interview with him. Father Kavanagh spent some years in Waterford, Gal way, Carrick-on-Suir, and Cork. In the latter place he spent over 20 years, and there, as indeed wherever his spiritual labors brought him, he was beloved and • venerated. The last ten years of his life were spent in his native Wexford. He was well-known as a lecturer preacher, and litterateur. His lectures, particularly those of a historic character, reached in elegance of diction and force of delivery the acme of perfection. Amongst many national works in poetry and prose, his History of the Insurrection, of 98 is perhaps the best known, and it gained him a widespread reputation as patriot and scholar. Born in the centre of the district where the insurrection of '9B was most fiercely waged, many of those who took part in the gallant struggle were his near relatives, and from their lips jie icanea much of what he wrote in spirited vindication

of the insurgents. His grandfather, Jeremiah Kavanagh, was a prominent figure in the rebellion, as was also his maternal grand-uncle, Father Michael Murphy, killed in battle at Arkloxv. Much of what had been written of the rebellion up to 1874 was erroneous and misleading, but he fearlessly exposed English misdeeds. He described the ’9B rebellion as a splendid struggle of a people fox* liberty, forming a most glorious page in history. He took a prominent part in the ’9B centenary. His brother, Father Edward Kavanagh, 0.M.1. a distinguished mathematical professor, died at Liverpool some years ago, and his sister, Sister Vincent; a Sister of Charity at Drogheda, predeceased him by some years.