Father John Sullivan S.J.
Fergal McGrath S.J.

Born in Eccles Street, Dublin, in 1861, John Sullivan - once dubbed "the best dressed young man about Dublin" - seemed destined, like his father, for a successful career in law. Then, following his conversion to Catholicism in 1896, he decided to become a Jesuit, and he entered the novitiate in 1900 near Tullamore, Co Offaly. Immediately after his ordination, he was sent to Clongowes Wood College in Co Kildare, where he spent most of his remaining years.

In Clongowes, he quickly came to the attention of staff and pupils for the long hours he spent in prayer, for his asceticism and for his kindness and wisdom. His reputation soon spread beyond the college walls, and people from the surrounding areas began to call on him in their hour of need. His love for the poor and the sick brought him into contact with innumerable people in distress and pain, and before long miraculous cures began to be attributed to him.

After his death in February 1933, devotion to him continued to grow throughout the length and breadth of Ireland, and in 1947 the first stage of the process of Canonisation was introduced. The many people who come to visit his tomb in St Francis Xavier Church, Gardiner St, Dublin, bear testimony to their continuing belief in the power of his intercession with God.