Obituary Notice
This obituary notice has been digitally processed from a scanned archival document. Some words may be imperfectly rendered.
a , id Dulhan Byrn 2 _ THE CATO) Death of Brother Julian. 7 FIRST PASSIONIST BROTHER PRO- FESSED IN AUSTRALIA. At Goulburn, on the last day of August, Brother Julian, O.P.,. the first Passionist Brother professed in Australia, passed to his eternal reward. Ue was born on Sep- tember 13, 1868, and was the eldest son of the old and well-known Catholic family of Byrnes, Marrickville. When the Passionists’ Novitiate was opened at the Presentation Retreat, Mary’s Mount, Goulburn, the de- ceased was among the first to enter. Though qualified by education to begin his studies for the priesthood, he, with genuine humil- ity, preferred the humble, yét noble, call- ing of a lay religious. On September 30, 1891, he made bis religious profession. Hes proved of invaluable help to the pioucer band of priests who were striving to estab- lish the Passionist Order in Australia. The difficulties were great, and the hardships many, but with undaunted courage and Aus- tralian grit he faced them all. Twenty of the twenty-three years of his religious life were spent at Mary’s Mount; its growth and progress are entwined with his memory and labours. He was a lover of religious solitude, and. never from year’s end to year’s end moved outside the monastery grounds, but every visitor to the monastery remembers his genial, free and cheerful wel- eome. His characteristic virtue was Chris- tian charity. Nothing gave him greater pleasure than to do a kind act for another. He was a martyr to rheumatism, yet scar- cely ever referred to it, but there were times when the most ordinary observer could see that his suffering was extreme. Not- withstanding his infirmity and his many oc- cupations the good Brother attended, as far as he was able, to all the acts of religious observance, both day and night. On Sunday morning, August 30, he had performed his religious and house duties as faithfully and ag fully as usual. At half-past twelve he was seen to be ill, and he was persuaded to go to his room..He complained of a violent pain in the head—it proved to be cerebral hemmorrhage, and the left side became paralysed. He retained consciousness for some hours, and received with touching de- votion the last Sacraments. Towards night- fall he gradually grew worse, and a few minutes after midnight his saintly soul passed to its eternal reward. Present at the Requiem Mass on Tuesday morning were Rev. Fathers Cahill (Adm.), Slattery, Carson, Ryan, Sbarkey (Gunning), Very Rev: Fathers Francis, C.P. (Rro-Provincial), Reginald. C.P. (Superior), Rev. Fathers Cal- listns, C.P. (Marrickville), Tenatius, C.P., Gabriel, C.P., aud many relatives and friends of the deceased. After the Mass the body ~was carried in funeral procession to the. little cemetery within the monastery grounds, and there laid to rest beneath the peaceful shadow of the whispeting pines.— Br. Julian Byrne (1863-1914)
Source: Obituary Notices, Provincial Archive, St Joseph's Province. Passionist Congregation.