Société des Missions Africaines –Province d'Irlande

né le 16 novembre 1882 à Ballavara dans le diocèse d'Ossory, France membre de la SMA le 26 septembre 1905 prêtre le 21 juillet 1907 décédé le 24 juin 1967

1908-1911 Ballinafad, collège du Sacré-Coeur 1911-1913 Blackrock Road, Cork, séminaire 1913-1925 Ballinafad, collège du Sacré-Coeur 1925-1942 Wilton, collège Saint-Joseph 1943-1950 Dedham, USA, séminaire 1950-1967 Tenafly, maison provinciale décédé à Tenafly, USA, le 24 juin 1967, à l'âge de 85 ans

John Corcoran was born in Ballavara, the Rower, Co Kilkenny, Ireland, in the diocese of Ossory, on November 16, l882.
He died at Inglemoor Nursing Home, Englewood, New Jersey, USA, on June 24, l967.

John was one of three children born to Henry and Margaret (nee Dunphy) Corcoran, a farming family. John did his secondary studies at St. Joseph’s college, Wilton, Cork (l898-1903), which had opened as an apostolic school on 23 March 1889. He entered the Society’s seminary at Cours Gambetta, Lyon, France, in September 1903, where for the next four years he studied philosophy and theology. He was received as a member of the Society on September 26, l905 and was ordained a priest by Bishop Paul Pellet, vicar general of the Society, in the seminary chapel, at Lyon, on July 21, l907. Other Irish members of the Society ordained on that day were William Cotter and Michael Collins.

John’s ordination occurred at a time when the Irish branch of the Society was striving for Provincial status. One of the requirements under Church regulations was that the branch should have a capacity to train students for priesthood. It was not surprising; therefore, that John was assigned to teaching work after his ordination. He spent two years on the staff at Wilton (then an intermediate school), and the next two years (l909 l9ll) on the staff of the Sacred Heart college, Ballinafad, Co Mayo (where secondary studies were completed). From l9ll l9l3 (the Province was erected in 1912) he taught at St. Joseph’s seminary, Blackrock Road, Cork – Ireland’s first ‘foreign missions’ seminary, returning to Ballinafad as superior between l9l3 l925, and again to Wilton as superior between l925 l93l. In this era Ballinafad had some 30 pupils while there was double that number in Wilton. John proved an able superior, dealing fairly with staff and students and maintaining high academic standards, as well as carefully over-seeing formation for priesthood. John returned once more to the teaching staff at Ballinafad (now the intermediate school) in 1931, taking on the additional task of ‘director of students’ in l933. Four years later he went to Wilton (now the senior secondary school) teaching there until 1942.

On March 7, 1941 an American Province of the Society was erected. Alsatian members of the Society had worked in America since the first decade of the century, mainly staffing African-American mission parishes in Georgia. The Irish Province had opened two African-American mission parishes in the diocese of Belleville, Southern Illinois, in the 1920’s. The American Province was formed through an amalgamation of these works. The greatest problem facing the young Province was lack of personnel for promotion work and for the staffing of its seminaries. In December of that year John was one of eight Irish confreres who, responding to requests from the Provincial – Stephen Harrington – agreed to join the American Province. He sailed at the height of the submarine war in the Atlantic, writing to Fr. Harrington shortly before sailing: ‘It will be a bad time of the year for a cold douche in case the submarines pay us attention. However fortune favors the brave!’. From that time until the year of his death John served as teacher in the SMA seminary at Dedham, Massachusetts – a task for which he was eminently equipped - as well as undertaking various temporary parochial duties. Being in America gave him an opportunity to meet his brother, Henry, who was pastor of St. Paul’s Church, Burlington, Iowa. In 1957 John celebrated the golden jubilee of his ordination at the headquarters of the American Province, in Tenafly, New Jersey. After the celebration he returned to Ireland for a short vacation. It was in Tenafly that he spent his years of retirement, dying from heart failure at the age of eighty four years.

A confrere who sat in his class in Wilton wrote the following appreciation of him after his death: ‘John’s close resemblance to the Indian leader Ghandi did not go unnoticed or unmentioned by his students. John’s great interest was in the Latin classics which he read for recreation. He taught Latin for many years, although his interest in teaching the rudiments of the language to intermediate or leaving certificate students was slight. He spent much time on meter and scansion, while his class worked away on their own using a key to figure out the prescribed texts. He was a very gentlemanly personality, who never spoke a word of correction any stronger than ‘You parrot’. He liked to take a pinch of snuff while teaching class, but always discreetly, lest his students might see him and be scandalized!’

He is buried in Mount Carmel cemetery, Tenafly, New Jersey, USA.