Société des Missions Africaines – Province d’Irlande

né le 15 août 1900 à Lixnaw dans le diocèse de Kerry, Irlande membre de la SMA le 22 juillet 1920 prêtre le 14 juin 1924 décédé le 6 janvier 1925

1924-1925 missionnaire au Liberia pendant 6 mois décédé à Betu, Liberia, le 6 janvier 1925, à l’âge de 24 ans

Le père John James BARRY (1900 - 1925)

A Bétu, au Liberia, le 6 janvier 1925, retour à Dieu du père John Barry, à l'âge de 24 ans.

John Barry naquit à Lixnaw, au diocèse de Kerry en Irlande, le 14 août 1900. Il fit ses études dans les maisons de la Société en Irlande. Il fit le serment en 1920 et fut ordonné prêtre le 14 juin 1924. Affecté au Liberia, il mourut après trois mois de séjour. Apprenant sa nomination pour Bétu, il se sentit frappé par la pensée des jeunes pères qui y étaient déjà morts. "C'est par le sacrifice jusqu'au sang que l'Afrique se convertira", dit-il alors. L'esprit préoccupé par cette pensée, peut-être n'a-t-il pas assez réagi lors de la première attaque de la malaria. Quoiqu'il en soit, le sacrifice du jeune père Barry n'a pas été vain et Dieu l'a accepté.

Father John James BARRY (1900 - 1925)

John Barry was born in Tullig, Lixnaw, Co Kerry, on 14 August 1900. He died in Betu, on the Kru Coast of Liberia, on 12 January 1925.

In 1914 John entered the Sacred Heart College, Ballinafad, Co Mayo, the Society's intermediate college. A year later he passed into St. Joseph's college, Wilton, Cork, the senior secondary college. In 19l8 John began his novitiate and philosophical studies as a member of the first class to be trained in Kilcolgan, Co Galway. After being admitted into the Society on 22 July 1920, he completed his formation in the Society's theological seminary, at Blackrock Road, Cork. He was ordained a priest in St. Joseph's church, adjoining the seminary, by Bishop Daniel Cohalan of Cork diocese, on 14 June 1924. He was one of a class of eleven ordained on that day.
John was duly assigned to the West African mission of Liberia, the original 'whiteman's grave'. Sailing in the early days of November 1924, he reached his destination, the city of Monrovia, on the 27th of the month, along with two companions who had received similar appointments. A further journey of five days by surf boat brought him to the Kru Coast where Jean Ogé, prefect apostolic, appointed him to the district of Betu, to work alongside Patrick Francis McKenna, the superior, and Lawrence Navin, the assistant priest. This district consisted of two mission stations - Betu, founded in 1914, which had a total of 350 Catholics, 150 catechumens and a school; and the outstation of Wappi, founded in 1922, with some 30 Catholics, 40 catechumens and a school. John took up his post at Betu on 19 December 1924. Within two months he had given up his soul to God.

Lawrence Navin described John's time in Betu in a letter to the Provincial, William Butler. 'During his short stay he had very little to do. The Christmas season was at hand, schools were closed, and catechetical instruction discontinued. However he settled down, took his food and exercise regularly, and had taken the parochial Mass on a few occasions. Once he remained alone for almost a week while Fr. McKenna was on a visit to the outstation. On Wednesday 6 January Fr. Barry felt slightly indisposed and went to bed'. Denis Horgan, 'acting visitor' on the Kru Coast (responsible for the welfare of the confrères), takes up the story. 'John responded well to all the medicine and care given him: but from the beginning his temperature went up each morning and went down each evening. We consider that the reverse of the natural course fevers take out here. Besides he was in a very extraordinary disposition of mind, being convinced he was bound to die and that he must die in Betu. His temperature was not too high at any time hovering between 99 and 101 , 102 or 103 . About 15 minutes before his death it was only 101 . His departure from us was most peaceful. He had everything relating to spiritual and temporal affairs fully arranged'.

Official Society records put the date of John's death as 5 January 1925. However correspondence from Frs. Navin, Horgan and Mgr. Ogé makes it clear that he died on Tuesday 12th January between 10.30 and 10.40. As to the cause of death, Denis Horgan suggested that the Betu water may have been a factor, or that John's heart might have had some congenital defect. Lawrence Navin wrote: 'we have not the remotest idea as to the cause of his death, but it wasn't malaria'. Mgr. Ogé, however, informed the Provincial on 4 March that 'the lamented Father Barry exhibited all the symptoms of typhomalaria fever and that consequently his death was due to that fever'. As to the source of the infection: 'the answer is simple and cannot fail to come to the mind of any man who knows what kind of water we drink at Betu and in what an abominable state the filter is in since years'.

John was the third Irishman to die in the Betu mission (Denis O'Hara died there in 192l and Francis Joseph McGovern in 1922) which finally, in 1932, was reduced to the status of a non-residential outstation, principally because its poor situation made it unhealthy and unsuitable for habitation by Europeans. Premature deaths caused primarily by yellow fever, blackwater fever, malarial fever, dysentery and other tropical illnesses, occurred with frightening regularity in the Society's West African mission fields during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Bishop de Marion Brésillac, founder of the Society, died in a yellow fever epidemic within weeks of his arrival at Freetown in l859. William Shine was the first member of the Irish Province to be lost, dying of malarial fever at Sasstown, Liberia, in May 19l4, less than l0 months after his ordination. Other Irishmen were to die in the years before the establishment of the Irish Province in 19l2. While such losses were always a severe blow, they appear to have been accepted by the members in a spirit of faith, as the price for the evangelisation of Africa. In the final analysis it can be said that premature deaths, such as John's, bred a strong determination among students in the seminary and those already on the mission, to persist in their vocation. Lawrence Navin, who was only 27 years old, wrote at the end of his letter to the Provincial: 'We are not discouraged in spite of all difficulties and trials. We are determined to continue while God gives us the strength do to so. It may be He asks us to make the same sacrifice as Fr. Barry - we are quite happy and prepared to do so. We have sworn to serve a noble leader - we deem it a privilege to do so and we are not now going to betray Him'.

He is buried in Betu, Liberia.