Venerable John Sullivan

John Sullivan (8 May 1861 – 19 February 1933) was an Irish Catholic priest and a professed member of the Jesuits. Sullivan was known for his life of deep spiritual reflection and personal sacrifice; he is recognised for his dedicated work with the poor and spent much of his time walking and (notably) riding his bike to visit those who were troubled or ill in the villages around Clongowes Wood College, where he taught from 1907 until his death. From the 1920s onwards, there were people who testified to his healing power despite the fact that he never claimed credit or causation for himself from these reported cases. Sullivan was known for his friendliness; his amiable nature was coupled with a somewhat shy temperament but one willing to aid those who needed it most. He was noted for his strong faith and for imposing multiple penances on himself, such as eating little. Sullivan had long been admired during his life and was known as a man of inspirational holiness which prompted for calls for his beatification; the cause later opened and would culminate on 7 November 2014 after Pope Francis confirmed his heroic virtue and named him as Venerable. The same pope approved a miraculous healing credited to his intercession on 26 April 2016. His beatification, the first ever to take place in Ireland, took place in Dublin on 13 May 2017. John Sullivan was born in mid-1861 at 41 Eccles Street in the old Dublin. He was born as the last of five children to Sir Edward Sullivan (7 October 1822 – 13 April 1885) – member of the Church of Ireland and a successful barrister who would later become the Lord Chancellor of Ireland – and Elizabeth Josephine Bailey (1823 – 27 January 1898) – a Roman Catholic from a prominent land-owning household in Passage West. Sullivan was raised as a Protestant and was baptized in the local Church of Ireland parish of Saint George on Temple Street on 15 July 1861.