Patrick Ligouri Gaynor
Born Scarriff, Co. Clare
1819
Entered Presentation Brothers at Miltown 1843.
Final profession at Killarney 1857
Arduous fundraiser responsible for financing the building of the monastery and school in Killarney.
Superior and Assistant Superior of Killarney community for many years.
Died 12 June 1892
Interred at Aghadoe, Killarney.
References:
Annals, Killarney
Gentlemen of the Presentation (Feheney, Veritas, 1999)
Annals, South Monastery
Presentation Brothers, Allen, 1993
Br. Patrick Ligouri Gaynor
Patrick Gaynor, a native of Scarriff, Co, Clare, was born in 1819. He was received as a postulant by Br. Paul Townsend at the Presentation Monastery in Miltown on 6 August 1843. Having completed his novitiate he was transferred to Killarney and, except for two years spent at the South Monastery in Cork, he remained a member of the Killarney community for the rest of his life.
Relations between Bishop Egan and the Brothers in Killarney were strained. The bishop wanted to build the Cathedral on a site owned by the Brothers but was not pleased when Br. Paul consulted his solicitor about the conveyancing. A consequence of the disagreement was that when the time came for Br. Ligouri to make his profession of vows the bishop insisted that he could do so only for three year periods. When Bishop Egan died in 1856 he was succeeded by Bishop David Moriarty and relations with the Brothers were cordial. On New Year's Day 1857 Br. Ligouri at last pronounced his perpetual vows in a public ceremony in the Cathedral. It was probably the first public profession of a male religious since the enactment of the penal laws. If the law prohibiting it had been enforced Br. Ligouri would have served the penalty of transportation beyond the seas for fifteen years.
Br. Ligouri was superior of the Killarney community for several terms. On him fell the responsibility for collecting funds to complete the building of the monastery. Br. Paul Townsend had begun this work but had to suspend it in November 1846. Bishop Moriarty encouraged Br. Ligouri to make a new start and gave him a letter of authorisation to collect money for the purpose. He travelled far and wide, through the parishes of Kerry and Limerick, in Cork and Dublin and finally England. Donations recorded range from a parish collection of £1 3s. "in coppers" to a donation of £500 from Lord Kenmare. The list of donors includes people of many religious persuasions and professions: the Duke of Norfolk, Baroness Rothchild, Mr. Bass (of Bass' Ale), Cardinal Newman, the actor Dion Boucicault, to mention but a few.
It was possible for the Brothers to take up residence in the monastery in November 1861, almost twenty-four years after they first arrived in Killarney though the building was still far from complete and the community were in debt to the amount of £1,600.
The new school, incorporated in the monastery building, had been opened under the National Board in January 1861. -Br. Ligouri was responsible for its management until November 1867. He objected but in vain, to one rule in the National Board's system : "No...member of any religious order can be recognised as the teacher of a National school." The Board would not agree to pay the Brothers a teacher's salary but paid a capitation grant of 4s. per pupil per annum. This was so small that it was impossible to live on : a pupil enrollment of 300 would mean an annual income of but £60 for the whole community. Thus the debt of £1,600 on the building was enormous but both Br. Ligouri and Br. Alphonsus O'Connell continued fundraising and by 1878 the debt had been almost cleared.
Br. Ligouri represented the Killarney community at the first general assembly of the Brothers of the whole institute held in the South Monastery in 1885. At this assembly a petition to the Holy see was formulated requesting a revision of the Constitutions to allow for amalgamation under a superior general. He was also a delegate at the General Chapter of 1889 at which the first Superior General, Br. Patrick Shine, was elected.
For thirty years Br. Ligouri suffered a very painful infection of the knee, which eventually led to his death. Br. Patrick Shine was present when he died in the monastery in Killarney on 12 June 1892. News of his death was received with expressions of sincere sorrow, irrespective of class or creed, by the people among whom he had lived and worked for nearly half a century. He was buried in the community cemetery beside the monastery. In December 1975 his remains, along with those of 21 other Brothers, were transferred to Aghadoe. The foundation stone of the Brothers' new monastery on the Port Road is part of the headstone which had been over his original grave.
