James Aloysius Cullen (23 October 1841

New Ross New Ross (, formerly ) is a town in southwest County Wexford, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, on the River Barrow on the border with County Kilkenny, northeast of Waterford. In 2022, it had a population of 8,610, making it the fourth-largest t ...

County Wexford County Wexford () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. Named after the town of Wexford, it was ba ...

– 6 December 1921 Dublin) was an Irish Catholic priest who founded the Irish ''

Messenger of the Sacred Heart The ''Messenger of the Sacred Heart'' is a Roman Catholic periodical; the print organ of the Apostleship of Prayer, a pious association founded in nineteenth century France by the Jesuits. There are many editions in various languages, promoting dev ...

'' and the

Pioneer Total Abstinence Association The Pioneer Total Abstinence Association of the Sacred Heart (PTAA) is an international organisation for Catholic teetotalers that is based in Ireland. Its members are commonly called Pioneers. While the PTAA does not advocate prohibition, it d ...

(PTAA)

Life

James Aloysius Cullen was born the 23 October 1841

and received his early schooling at the school of the Christian School Brothers in his native village before entering the Jesuit High School of Clongowes Woods in 1856. Believing that

Jesuits The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

were involved only in educational work, in 1861 he chose to enter the

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as cle ...

(

St. Patrick's, Carlow College St Patrick's, Carlow College, is a liberal arts college located in Carlow, Ireland. The college is the second oldest third level institution in Ireland and was founded in 1782 by James Keefe, then Roman Catholic Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, a ...

)"Our Founding Father James Cullen SJ"
''Catholic Ireland''. for the diocese of Ferns for which he was ordained

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

on 28 October 1864, in

Carlow Carlow ( ; ) is the county town of County Carlow, in the south-east of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, from Dublin. At the 2022 census of Ireland, 2022 census, it had a population of 27,351, the List of urban areas in the Republic of Ireland, ...

. He was appointed curate in Wexford, where he introduced the Christmascrib."FatherJames A. Cullen, SJ"
''Jesuit Stamps'' From there, he was assigned in 1866 to

Enniscorthy Enniscorthy () is the second-largest town in County Wexford, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The town is located on the picturesque River Slaney and in close proximity to the Blackstairs Mountains and Ireland's longest beach, Curracloe. The Plac ...

. It was there, Cullen first became concerned with men spending their money on drink. He worked with local businessmen to improve housing for boatmen carrying goods between Enniscorthy and Wexford.Kennedy, Fionnula (December 27, 2018)
"The remarkable legacy of the Pioneers"
''The Irish Catholic''. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1881 and took his first vows at

Milltown Park Milltown () is a suburb and townland on the southside of Dublin, Ireland. Milltown was the site of several working mills on the River Dodder and is also the location of the meeting of the River Slang with the Dodder. It is located adjacent to ...

in 1883. After studies in

Louvain Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the sub-municipalities of ...

, Belgium, he returned to Dublin, where, he served as vice-rector at

Belvedere College Belvedere College Society of Jesus, S.J. (sometimes St Francis Xavier's College) is a fee-paying voluntary secondary school for boys in Dublin, Ireland. Formally established in 1832 at Hardwicke Street in north inner city Dublin, the school was ...

. In 1884, he was appointed spiritual father at Belvedere, a position he retained for twenty years while also engaged in other ministry.

James Joyce

Cullen was founder and director of the Sodality of Our Lady at the college, which duties included counseling students. In 1896,

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

was elected Student Prefect of the Society. Although not officially an instructor, he impressed on them that "the Old Testament Hebrews were the spiritual fathers of Christianity".Neil R. Davison (1988)
''James Joyce, Ulysses, and the Construction of Jewish Identity''
Cambridge University Press. p. 45. . According to Neil R. Davison, the sermons in Chapter III of ''

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man ''A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'' is the second book and first novel of Irish writer James Joyce, published in 1916. A ''Künstlerroman'' written in a modernist style, it traces the religious and intellectual awakening of young Ste ...

'' are modeled on those given by Cullen during a retreat held in 1897.

Apostleship of Prayer

In November 1887, Cullen was appointed director for Ireland of the

Apostleship of Prayer The Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network is a Pontifical Society of the Catholic Church which encourages Catholics to prayer and action as part of the church's universal mission. The Network provides monthly prayer intentions determined by the Pope. I ...

, to spread devotion to the Sacred Heart. To that end, in 1888, he founded the Irish ''

'', which he saw as a means to promote temperance, by presenting temperance as an expression of one's devotion to the Sacred Heart. Though primarily a vehicle for the promotion of devotion to the Sacred Heart, Cullen also utilized ''The Messenger'' for the propagation of devotion to Mary.Jesuit Sodalities in Dublin
/ref> In February 1892, Cullen travelled to the Cape Colony of South Africa and kept a lengthy diary with a view to future articles in ''The Messenger''. While there, he preached missions and gave retreats."Our founding father: James Cullen SJ"
''The Messenger''. 30 November 1999.

PTAA

In 1898 he founded the PTAA. An extremely devout, if rather gloomy, man, he was a good organiser, who worked with great energy over many years to perfect the institution he had created. In 1899 he returned to the Cape Colony, and gave a retreat, to a British regiment. In 1904, Cullen was transferred to Gardiner Street and removed from the editorship of ''The Messenger''. He focused his efforts on the Pioneer League and built St Francis Xavier's Hall, where he organised drama societies, Irish language classes, debates and other activities to enrich the lives of the people. He was a supporter of the Gaelic League. Cullen died in Dublin 6 December 1921.

References

Sources

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cullen, James 1841 births 1921 deaths 20th-century Irish Jesuits Irish temperance activists Faculty of Belvedere College Alumni of Carlow College 19th-century Irish Jesuits People from New Ross Christian clergy from County Wexford