Société des Missions Africaines – Province d'Irlande

né le 19 mars 1913 à Ardpatrick dans le diocèse de Limerick, Irlande membre de la SMA le 2 juillet 1933 prêtre le 20 décembre 1936 décédé le 8 février 1946

1937-1938 missionnaire en Gold Coast, Cape Coast 1938-1943 malade, tuberculose, soins à Cork 1942-1946 missionnaire en Egypte et au Liban aumônier des sœurs nda à Salima décédé au Caire, Egypte, le 8 février 1946, à l’âge de 33 ans

Le père Patrick LYNN (1913 - 1946)

Le 8 février 1946, au Caire, retour à Dieu du père Patrick Lynn, à l'âge de 33 ans.

Patrick Lynn naquit en 1913 dans le diocèse de Limerick, en Irlande. Il fit ses études dans les maisons de la Société, fit le serment en 1933, et fut ordonné prêtre en 1936. Nommé au vicariat de la Côte-de-l'Or, il fut affecté à Cape-Coast. Un an après, la tuberculose l'obligeait à rentrer. Au cours de sa convalescence, il put remplir quelques petits postes. Sa santé se maintenant au mieux, en 1942, il fut nommé en Egypte où il commença par être professeur au collège Saint-Georges à Héliopolis. De nouveau malade, il dut prendre un poste d'aumônier et fut enlevé en quelques heures par sa maladie.

Father Patrick LYNN (1913 - 1946

Patrick Lynn was born in Ardpatrick, Co Limerick, in the diocese of Limerick, on 19 March 1913. He died in Heliopolis, near Cairo, Egypt, on 8 February 1946.

Patrick (Pat) was educated in the colleges of the Society in Ireland. He studied at St. Joseph's college, Wilton, Cork (1927 193l) before entering the Society's novitiate and house of philosophy, at Kilcolgan, Co Galway. Between 1933 1937 he studied theology in the major seminary, at Dromantine, Co Down. Pat was admitted to membership of the Society on 2 July 1933, and was ordained a priest by Bishop Edward Mulhern of Dromore diocese, in St. Colman's cathedral, Newry, on 20 December 1936. He was one of a group of eighteen ordained on that day.

Pat was delicate and after ordination he was assigned to the vicariate of the Gold Coast (Ghana). The Gold Coast jurisdiction had been entrusted to the Society in l879. It was considered (incorrectly) to be a healthier location than the Society's other West African missions where there had been a high mortality rate. On his arrival Pat was appointed to St. Augustine's college, Cape Coast, the first Catholic boys secondary school in the country, founded in 1936. Unfortunately his stay was to be shortlived. Within a year (in June 1938) he was found to have developed tuberculosis and was obliged to return to Ireland. During his convalescence he occupied a number of posts in the home houses, mainly in Wilton.

In 1942, his health somewhat improved, he was sent to Egypt, where it was hoped the dry heat would further his recovery. Sailing in one of the dangerous wartime convoys, which ran the gauntlet of German and Italian submarines and airforce, he arrived at his mission in August. By the time Pat reached Egypt there were perhaps 40 French Society members in the jurisdiction and some l5 Irish, several of whom had been invalided from tropical Africa, and had been sent there because of Egypt's climate and because of their expertise in education. Since 1936 the Irish Province had staffed a number of first rate colleges in the vicariate of the Nile Delta, and it was to one of these, St. George's college at 8 Midan El Afdal (near Ciccolani) Choubra, Cairo, that Pat was assigned as a professor. St. George's was called the 'English' college because tuition was through the medium of English.

When Pat was sent to Egypt the Provincial, Stephen Harrington, wrote a letter to John Lupton, the 'visitor' (responsible for the welfare of the confreres) which reveals much about the precarious state of Pat's health and his zeal for his work. 'You will need to be specially considerate of Fr. Lynn as he will not be able for heavy work. If you have a bursarship to give him he would do it well, but please give his health first consideration. He is very willing and would be anxious to do much more than he should'. Pat served scarcely fourteen months, the last six at St. Paul's college, Alexandria, before his health worsened and Fr. Lupton sent him to the Lebanon to take up a chaplaincy with the Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles, in Salimo. After two years in the Lebanon Pat expressed a wish to return to Egypt and Fr. Lupton arranged for him to take John Murtagh's place at the Catholic boys school, Rue Malek et Kamel, Mansourah, where he was instructed to take one class each day. Early in February Pat's tuberculosis worsened and Fr. Lupton took him to St. Austin's college, Heliopolis, where he died in the presence of five of his confreres.

Pat's obituary in the African Missionary, records that he was a man who 'loved the missions and did not wait for Africa to prove it. Everywhere he went as a student, he spoke of the work of the Society, and got both promoters and subscribers for this magazine. He was constantly seeking and fostering missionary vocations... After he had to abandon his work on the Gold Coast because of ill-health, he bore the cross of suffering most heroically, his only impatience being to be away again, serving God in his vocation'. He was survived by his parents as well as brothers and sisters. Pat was a nephew of the writer Alice Curtayne.

He is buried in Cairo, Egypt.