Código de referência
Título
Data(s)
- 9 Jan. 1930-12 July 1938 + 6 June 1951 (Produção)
Nível de descrição
Documento
Dimensão e suporte
54 items; Manuscript and typescript
Nome do produtor
História biográfica
Baptismal name: William Cullen
Religious name: Fr. Alban Cullen OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 7 Nov. 1898
Place of birth: Dublin
Name of father: James Cullen
Name of mother: Mary Ann ‘Margaret’ Cullen (née Ryan)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 12 Nov. 1917
Date of first profession: 17 Nov. 1918
Date of final profession: 17 Nov. 1921
Date of Ordination (as priest): 29 June 1925
Missionary activities:
1925-29 California, United States
1929-38 South Africa
1938-47 California, United States (returned to Ireland on 14 Oct. 1948)
Fr. Alban Cullen OFM Cap. was Pastor of Hermiston Parish, Oregon from 1939-43.
Fr. Alban Cullen OFM Cap. ministered in St. Anthony’s Parish, Willits, California from c.1943-7.
1948-52 South Africa (travelled to South Africa on 12 July 1948)
1956-70 California, United States
Date of death: 29 Apr. 1970
Place of death: Burlingame, California
Entidade detentora
História do arquivo
Fonte imediata de aquisição ou transferência
Âmbito e conteúdo
Letters of Fr. Alban Cullen OFM Cap. (1902-1957). The main correspondent is Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister. Other correspondents include Fr. Kieran O’Callaghan OFM Cap. and Fr. Colman Griffin OFM Cap. Provincial Minister. The subjects include: the progress of the Irish Capuchin mission in South Africa, particularly the ‘coloured localities of Athlone, Parrow and Claremont’; arrangements for the opening of the mission in Barotseland, Northern Rhodesia; the language difficulties. Fr. Alban wrote ‘The big drawback of the Church in South Africa has been the dearth of English-speaking priests. Cape Town has them. Port Elizabeth has some. Johannesburg has a few. But almost everywhere else, French, German, Dutch have possession’. (21 Mar. 1931); requests for mass stipends (18 Sept. 1931); information concerning the forty square miles of the Capuchin mission in South Africa including ‘Athlone, Crawford, Jamestown, Belgravia Estate, the Welcome Estate and Langa’. (6 Nov. 1931); the construction of churches, mission schools and orphanages; the establishment of a canonical foundation by the Irish Capuchins in Athlone, Cape Town. (14 Jan. 1932); the deprivations faced by the ‘native population’ in Cape Town. (26 Feb. 1932); the education of the coloured population of Cape Province, South Africa. (18 Mar. 1932); Fr. Alban’s attempts to hire John McCormack, the renowned Irish tenor, to perform in aid of the poor of Athlone Parish, Cape Town. (5 Aug. 1932); on the necessity of holding property in the Athlone Vicariate. Fr. Alban affirms that ‘the Athlone Catholics are poor, miserable coloured native people on the verge of starvation’. (25 Nov. 1932); the building of the Church of St. Mary of the Angels in Athlone, Cape Town. (9 June 1933); Fr. Alban’s work as a missionary since his ordination in 1925. He wrote ‘I have devoted my time exclusively to the missionary life – almost four years with the Californian Indians, and almost five with the coloured and native people of Athlone’. (27 July 1934); the visitation of Fr. James O’Mahony OFM Cap. to South Africa. (6 Sept. 1935); his desire to return to Ireland. He reminds Fr. Colman Griffin OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, that he is ‘the last of the first three [priests] who came here in 1929’. (6 June 1951). The file also includes a letter from Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap. to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, transmitting news from Fr. Alban re the number of communicants in Athlone parish. (19 Nov. 1931).