Born: 24 January 1822, Ballydavid, County Tipperary
Entered: 16 July 1844, St Stanislaus College, Howdershell Road, Florissant MO, USA - Missourianae Province (MIS)
Ordained: 1857
Final Vows: 02 February 1863
Died: 02 March 1899, Xavier University, Evanston Station, Cincinnati OH, USA - Missourianae Province (MIS)
Provincial of the Missouri Province 1871-1878
1879-1880 Visitor to the New Orleans Province
Tertian Master at Chicago for one year, then 10 years at St Stanislaus College, Howdershell Road, Florissant MO, USA
1844-1846: St Stanislaus College, Howdershell Road, Florissant MO, USA (MIS), Novitiate
1846-1847: San Andrea, Rome, Italy (ROM), Rhetoric
1847-1849: Roman College, Rome, Italy (ROM), Philosophy
1849-1850: St Louis College, Grand Boulevard, St Louis MO, USA, Regency
1850-1854: St Joseph’s College SJ, Bardstown, Kentucky, USA, Regency
1854-1857: St John’s College, Fordham, Bronx, New York NY, USA, Theology
1857-1858: St Louis College, Grand Boulevard, St Louis MO, USA, Theology
1858-1859: St Louis Seminary, Grand Boulevard, St Louis, MO, USA, Minister of Scholastics, Teaching
1859-1862: St Joseph’s College SJ, Bardstown, Kentucky, USA, Rector from 28/05/1859, Teaching
1861-1862: Also did Tertianship in Nicitiate, Frederick MD, USA (MAR)
1862-1869: St Louis University, Grand Boulevard, St Louis MO, USA, Vice Rector from 21/07/1862, Vice Province Consultor from 06/09/1862
1863-1868: Rector from 02/02/1863; Prefectr of Studies, Vice Province Consultor from 06/09/1862
1868-1869: Assistant Provincial Socius
1869-1871: Xavier University, Evanston Station, Cincinnati OH, USA Rector from m16/09/1869, Prefect of Studies, Teaching
1871-1879: St Louis University, Grand Boulevard, St Louis MO, USA, PROVINCIAL from 31/07/1871 to 01/01/1879
1879-1880: Provincial Socius from 29/08/1879
1880-1884: St Ignatius College, Roosevelt Road, Chicago, Illinois, USA, Rector from 28/06/1880, Teaching, Provincial Socius from 29/08/1879, Province Consultor from 29/08/1879
1884-1885: St Stanislaus College, Howdershell Road, Florissant MO, USA, Tertian Instructor
1885-1888: St Mary’s College SJ, St Mary’s, Kansas, USA, Teaching and in Special School, Spiritual Father
1888-1892: St Stanislaus College, Howdershell Road, Florissant MO, USA, Tertian Instructor
1889-1891: Rector from 19/03/1889, Tertian Instructor, Province Consultor from 14/03/1899
1891-1893: Rector from 19/03/1889, Province Consultor from 14/03/1899
1893-1894: Rector from 19/03/1889, Tertian Instructor, Province Consultor from 14/03/1899
1894-1895: Detroit College SJ, Jefferson Avenue, Detroit, Michigan, USA, Spiritual Father, Teaching
1895-1899: Xavier University, Evanston Station, Cincinnati OH, USA, Spiritual Father
◆ Woodstock Letters SJ : Vol 28, Number 2
“Father Thomas O’Neil : A Sketch” p190
Father Thomas O'Neil was born in County Tipperary, Ireland, on January 24, 1822, of good Catholic, Celtic stock, belonging to the tenant-farmer class. He received as good an elementary education as boys of his condition could expect at that period in Ireland, under a clever and competent schoolmaster of the old-fashioned sort, and he was especially well grounded in arithmetic. In 1839, at the invitation of his uncles, John and Edward Walsh, prosperous business men in St Louis, young O'Neil came to this country to take a position offered him in the mill of Mr John Walsh, in the northern part of the city. Before going into business, however, the young man asked his uncle's permission to attend the classes of the Jesuit college, the better to prepare himself for a commercial career. He had no idea at that time of any call to the priesthood or to the religious life. Mr John Walsh, who regarded himself as the boy's guardian, sent him to the college as a boarder in 1840. This was the means intended by God's good providence to draw this earnest, upright and strong character to his own service and that of the Society of Jesus, of which he was to become a distinguished member. For nearly two years the young student devoted himself to ·his books with ardor and delight, developing a taste especially for science and mathematics, but still without any thought of a higher vocation.
At that time the Jesuit college in St Louis was the leading institution of learning in the city; in fact it was the best equipped college in the country, west of the Mississippi. Its officers and professors, though many of them were foreign-born, were highly educated and talented men, and were held in esteem by all classes of citizens. The great good done by the Jesuit fathers for religion and education made a deep impression on young O'Neil's mind; and in his second year at school he sometimes asked himself whether he might not perhaps be called to take part in this good work for the salvation of souls.
In the spring of 1842, he had an attack of severe sickness, and whilst preparing to make a general confession, he reproached himself for having gone on so long without thinking more seriously of his vocation; and he resolved that if he recovered, he would at once, under the protection of the Blessed Virgin, begin to prepare himself for admission to the Society. From this sickness Father O'Neil always dated his vocation to the Society, and he attributed this grace to the special favor of the Blessed Virgin who seemed to urge it on him as the will of God. When he returned to college in the fall of 1842, he applied himself with renewed energy to his studies with a view to fit himself for his vocation. In the summer of 1844, he applied for admission to Rev Father Van de Velde, then Vice-Provincial, was accepted by him and went to the novitiate about the middle of July. After his vows in 1846, he was sent for his philosophy to Rome, with three companions, of whom one was the late Father Joseph E Keller, the English Assistant, and another was Father Ferdinand Garesche, the only survivor of the band. Before the end of the two years course, the revolution broke out in Rome in 1848, and obliged the American students to return to their own country. Mr O'Neil finished his philosophy in St Louis and was then appointed prefect of the junior students, with a class to teach in the college; the prefects, in those days, being required to do as much class work as those who were not prefects.
His success as prefect in St Louis led to his being appointed, in 1851, prefect of the senior students in St Joseph's College, Bardstown, Kentucky. It was here especially that Mr O'Neil estahlished his reputation as a strong, fearless, yet prudent and tactful ruler of boys. And the class of boys, young men rather, he had to deal with, were not easy to manage. The students in our colleges at that time were older than their successors of to-day. This was notably the case in the college of Bardstown. Many of its students were non-Catholics, and had never learned to submit to discipline of any kind. Even the Catholic students had never been subjected to so strict a regime as prevailed in Jesuit colleges. It was no easy thing in those days of rough manners and wild notions of independence, in a community of slaveholders and among young men who were themselves mostly the sons of wealthy slaveholders, to enforce the college rules and preserve such discipline as the Jesuits have always considered essential to good order, good morals, and successful college work. Although some change for the better had been effeeted in the discipline of the college since the Jesuits took possession in 1848, nevertheless much yet remained to be done to subdue the unruly spirits that came up from the South and Southwest to St Joseph's for a polite education. The new prefect soon understood the situation. There was much in the character of the students that he instinctively liked; and there was a large proportion of manly, sensible, earnest students, whom he could counsel and advise with, and who were ready to accept his kindly admonitions with respect. They could not but admit that he was frank, straightforward, reasonable and perfectly fair. The rougher element soon came to understand that he was also fearless in the exercise of his authority, and that he did not hesitate to put down with a strong hand any open resistance or defiance of college rules. As a consequence he was feared by those who were disposed to be unruly. But he was not disliked even by them. He was respected by all for his courage, his impartiality, his kindness and readiness to help the students in every way in his power. It was in the discharge of this office of prefect that Father O'Neil developed that talent for governing and those qualities as an administrator which afterwards distinguished him as a superior over Ours.
In the autumn of 1854, he was sent to the scholasticate at Fordham, NY, to study theology and prepare for his ordination. The next three years he always regarded as the easiest and the happiest years he spent in the Society. He admired and loved the theological course of the Order. To him theology, like mathematics, was a congenial study. He loved especially the great scholastic doetors of the Society, his favorites being Suarez, Lugo and Toletus. After his ordination in 1857, he was recalled to St Louis, where he took his points and prepared for the “examen ad gradum”. When this was over he was employed for the re- mainder of that year, till the summer of 1858, as assistant to the prefect of studies in the St Louis University. Owing to his urgent persuasion a change was introduced into the arrangement of classes and announced in that year's catalogue, to the effect that henceforward the subsidiary studies of each class, including the English branches and mathematics, should be made to correspond to the Latin and Greek studies, and the whole class should be taught by the same professor, at least in the classes below rhetoric. The advantages of this change was so obvious that the arrangement was soon adopted in the other colleges. Nor was this the only improvement in the curriculum of studies that we owe to Father O'Neil's initiative. Whilst he was Rector of St Xavier College, Cincinnati, he separated the four years of the college course from the preparatory classes, which had been called differently in different places, and named the lower classes the academic course. This change also was adopted by the other colleges of our province and by many also in other provinces.
In the summer of 1858, Father O'Neil was appointed professor of dogmatic theology in the new scholasticate opened that year at “College Hill”, or “College Farm”, in north St Louis. Much, however, as he liked that life of study and retirement, he was destined to be a man of action rather than of books. In the following year he was appointed Reaor of St Joseph's College, Bardstown, where he was received with every sign of popular favor by the generation of students who had succeeded those who knew him as prefect. After a year there was so notable an increase in the number of students that it became necessary to adopt some plan to enlarge and improve the accommodations. Father O'Neil then formed the project of buying the property adjoining the college on the north, and building thereon a new college, to contain all the halls and large rooms necessary for college purposes, leaving the old col- lege buildings to be used chiefly for the needs of the community. Before this design could be matured the civil war broke out in April 1891, the Southern students went home in May, and the college was closed, never to be reopened. Thus freed from office Father O'Neil was sent to the tertianship in Frederick, Md, in September 1861. The large bodies of Federal troops gathered at Harper's Ferry, Point of Rocks and elsewhere along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, afforded the Tertian Fathers many opportunities for exercising the sacred ministry; and Father O'Neil derived much profit from his varied and interesting experiences among the military camps and in sundry missions in which he took part during his year at Frederick.
On returning to St. Louis in 1862 he was appointed Rectr of the St Louis University, remaining in this office till 1868. Owing to the civil war then raging, it was a period of severe trial to the college, and demanded the utmost tact and discretion on the part of superiors. Most of the old friends and patrons of the college were either actively engaged on the side of the Southern Confederacy, or were ardent sympathizers with the Southern Cause. Many of our fathers were known to the Federal authorities as friends of the South or at least of those who sided with the South; and the college was looked upon with no kindly eye. To restrain the expression of disloyal sentiments by students whose relatives were in the Southern ranks, to give to the Federal officials no just cause of complaint about disaffected professors, called for much prudence and good management. The frankness and straightforward manners of Father O'Neil together with his judicious deference to the Federal officers, soon disarmed them of their suspicions, and they left the college unmolested to do its work as best it might during those unsettled years. In the period of reconstruction following the war, the South was too impoverished to send its youth to boarding colleges in the border states, and so there was a falling off in the number of students in the St Louis University. The number of day scholars however grew larger year after year. In the meantime a great change was taking place in the city of St Louis. In its rapid growth, the business centre moved towards the old college, whilst the residence portion moved away, chiefly towards the west. This change convinced Father O'Neil that in a few years the boarding school would have to be discontinued, and the university must be transferred to the new residence part of the city. To prepare the way for this, he purchased a piece of property suitable for a day college and a church, situated on the corner of Grand and Lindell Avenues, in the heart of the newly opened residence section of the city. The place proved to be admirably suited to the purpose for which it was acquired. Eleven years afterwards the boarding school was closed; and the St Louis University, after celebrating its golden jubilee in 1879, made preparations to sell the old property and move to the new site. It was not, however, till 1884, that the corner-stone of the new church was laid, whilst Rev Rudolph J Meyer was Rector; and during his administration as Provincial, the new college was built and the old place was given up.
The provision thus made for the new university was one of the last, perhaps we should say also, the most important, of the measures that marked Father O'Neil's administration as Rector. He was relieved from office in 1868 and after a brief rest was assigned temporarily to the office of Socius to the Provincial, to supply the place of Father Joseph E Keller, who went to Rome from the Missouri Province to the Congregation of Procurators. In 1869 he was appointed Rector of St Xavier College, Cincinnati, and filled the office with his wonted energy, prudence, tact and good judgment. To provide suitable means for the healthful recreation of the college men, he bought a villa or country house, with forty acres of orchard and farm land, in the Newport Highlands, on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River, about six miles from the city. Here the scholastics of St Xavier College used to spend the weekly holiday and the summer vacation for about fifteen years, till the general villa was established, when the Kentucky house was sold.
Father O'Neil had been in office as Rector of St. Xavier's only two years when, in 1871, he was made Provincial to succeed Rev Ferdinand Coosemans. He held the office eight and a half years, a period of severe labor on his part and of invaluable service to his Province
Father O'Neil was a man of clear and strong convictions, of very decided views, and when he had maturely made up his mind on any subject, he was not easily turned aside from his purpose. He was resolute to accomplish the things he was convinced were for the best. interests of the Province; and perhaps he was not always as careful as a more diplomatic ruler would be, to conciliate the opposition which had to be encountered and overcome.
One of the things he set himself to accomplish was to regulate the finances of colleges and residences, so as to relieve them of the heavy burden of debt with which they were either actually struggling or at least threatened. Schemes for improvements or plans for building, which were, in his opinion, beyond their resources, were forbidden. Some of these plans were only postponed till they came within the enlarged resources of the house; others were permanently abandoned, to the great advantage of all concerned. During his administration the whole country passed through a disastrous financial crisis, beginning in 1873 and lasting for several years, including the two cases of church bankruptcy in Newport, Ky, and Cincinnati, OH, making it all the more necessary to secure the financial soundness of all our business undertakings.
Of the new enterprises inaugurated by Father O'Neil the most important was the opening of a college and church of our Society in the City of Detroit. With nothing to start with except the church and pastoral residence made over to the Society by the Rt Rev Bishop Caspar Borgess, the fathers began the two lowest classes of the academic course in a rented house, and have since succeeded in building up a commodious and handsome college, with a goodly roll of graduates already to its credit, whilst the church has been so renovated as to be scarcely recognized by the old parishioners. Father O'Neil was also invited by Bishop Maurice de St Palais, of Vincennes, to take over St Joseph's Church and property in Indianapolis, with a view to establish a day college in that city. Having looked over the ground and heard the opinions of the secular clergy in the city, whom he found to be unfriendly to the enterprise, Father O'Neil declined the offer.
Near the end of his term, the Creighton College, as the beginning of the Creighton University, was accepted by Father O'Neil provisionally and under certain conditions. The Bishop of Omaha, Neb, who was, by Mr Creighton's will, the trustee of the college, was most anxious to transfer the trust to our Society, and did all that a bishop could do to induce our fathers to establish themselves in his episcopal city. Father O'Neil reluctantly yielded to the bishop's entreaties. He was not pleased with the conditions under which the college was to come into the charge of our Society, namely, as a trust and with an insufficient endowment; but he was advised by the English Assistant, Father Weld, to accept it as the means of doing much good in a new State. Thus encouraged Father O'Neil agreed to accept the college and to open a church and school in Omaha, with the understanding that definite legal arrangements should be made later on, to transfer the trust from the bishop to our Society, and the college should be allowed to build its own collegiate church without the burden of parochial duties.
In all these undertakings Father O'Neil's guiding principle was the “Greater Glory of God”. In his whole administration, it was evident that this was the onlv motive that had weight with him. If he favored measure; that did not commend themselves to some, it was because he saw in them the means of doing more efficiently the work of the Society for God's greater glory and the salvation of souls. If he was willing to assume new parishes, it was not because he wished to burden the Society with that sort of responsibility, but because it was the only way to enter into new territory and open the way for the educational and apostolic labors of our Institute. It may be said, with simple truth, that whatever he did for the good of the Province (and that he did much no one will deny), was done with this exalted motive.
He devoted his best energies to the training and formation of the young men, to fit them thoroughly for the work of the Society; and hence he gave the full studies of the Society to everyone whose health and talents enabled him to profit by them. He often said that the Society in this country could not keep up with the work falling to her share, in a manner becoming to her ancient reputation and in a way to secure the best results at the present day, unless she had men as fully trained in the best methods of our time, as those of two or three centuries ago were in the learning of their age. The teaching and training of our scholastics, he said, should be directed to the forming of learned, eloquent and pious priests, of good writers, good preachers, good teachers. Though he was not a good preacher himself, being awkward and slow, Father O'Neil admired good preaching, and few were better judges than he of a good sermon. He was a kindly and judicious critic, not prone to find fault except where the fault was undeniable, but always praising what was well done and encouraging every worthy effort. Nothing gave him greater pleasure than the report of the success attending our young men in their studies, or our priests and missionaries in the sacred ministry. He was ready to congratulate them and to rejoice with them in their good works, often adding a word of warning about the danger of seeking the applause of the world instead of the glory of God.
Worn out with the long continued cares of office Father O'Neil begged most earnestly and repeatedly to be released. His request was finally granted, at the end of December 1878. After a short rest, namely, till the summer of 1879, he was appointed by Father General to the office of Visitor to the New Orleans Mission. The arduous and trying duties of this position he discharged with his wonted energy; and having made his report to the General and adopted certain measures for the greater good of the Mission, he returned to his Province in 1880. Soon after he went to Chicago as Reetor of St Ignatius College, where he remained till 1884. During one of his years as Rector he was also Master of Tertians to a number of fathers who were sent to Chicago for their third year of probation. Sent to Florissant in 1884 as Instructor of Tertians, he spent the next ten years, with the exception of a short interval at St Mary's, Kansas, in that important office. His wide and accurate knowledge of the Institute, acquired by the study of its best interpreters, together with his clear and direct method of communicating whatever he knew, made the study of the Institute a pleasant and profitable task to those who passed the year of third probation under his guidance. The Tertians for many generations to come will have reason to bless his memory for the excellent library he gathered together for their use.
In the spring of 1889 he was made Rector of the novitiate, retaining his office of Tertian-master; and in the summer of that year he was elected, by the Provincial Congregation, Procurator from Missouri to the Congregation of Procurators held in Fiesole. The young men who passed through the novitiate and juniorate during the years of his Rectorship, will remember with gratitude the fatherly interest he took in them all, and the frequent words of encouragement and advice they received from him. In the training of the novices, he held that American youths should not be expected to be in all things exactly like young men brought up in the ways and customs of European countries. Their natural characters should be trained according to the principles of the religious life as embodied in our Institute; and he always maintained that American novices are as capable of a perfect religious formation as those of France, Belgium, Germany or any other country. Infuse into the American character, such as we see it in our best Catholic colleges, the spirit of true supernatural principles, and you will have, he firmly believed, as excellent a union of nature and grace as you can find anywhere in the world. This was his theory, and in so far as depended on him, he acted on it in his dealings with the young men committed to his charge.
In July 1894, Father O'Neil celebrated his golden jubilee, the 50th year of his religious life. It was a joyous day at St Stanislaus and was made worthy of an occasion so rare and a father so universally beloved. It was also the close of his official career. A few days later he retired from office and spent the remaining years of his life chiefly in Cincinnati, as spiritual father of the community. Here his great regularity, his modest and unassuming manners, his love of prayer and frequent visits to the Blessed Sacrament, gave edification to all his brethren. Father O'Neil's piety had never been demonstrative. His faith was a genuine Celtic faith, strong, lively and vigorous. His devotions were not numerous. Besides his profound reverence for our Lord in the tabernacle, he had special devotion to the Blessed Virgin, to whom he attributed the grace of his vocation, and also to St Joseph. He was, all through life, most exact in the performance of the spiritual exercises prescribed by the rule. Whenever he heard of any of Ours abandoning his vocation he was sure to inquire about the spiritual duties, and he rarely failed to trace the defection to neglet of prayer, chiefly of meditation and examination of conscience. In recreation he was uniformly cheerful, and contributed his full share to make the conversation interesting and instructive. He rarely allowed a day to pass without introducing some topic from the history of the Church in the past or the present, or from the work of our Society at home or in foreign countries. He was especially interested in Catholic education, the work of our schools and colleges, the training of Catholic teachers, the retreats of the Sisters and the clergy; and he often spoke strongly of the great need of sound theological studies and a good spiritual training for the secular clergy, to save them from the dangers of liberalism and worldliness. The supernatural element in the life and work of a Jesuit, his zeal for souls and his purity of intention for the “Greater Glory of God” often formed the subject of his conversation or of his exhortations to the community.
His great experience and his accurate knowledge of the Institute made Father O'Neil an invaluable adviser in any community. He was always ready and pleased to render a service to anyone, even to the least of his brethren. Though he was courteous to all whom he chanced to meet, he made no effort to cultivate the acquaintance of seculars, whether clergy or laity, but preferred the company and conversation of his religious brethren. Whatever concerned the Province, and the house he lived in, was of the highest interest to him. No one rejoiced more sincerely than Father O'Neil in the good work done and the success achieved by any of Ours. A more unselfish man it would be impossible to find. He might be mistaken in his views or his measures, but no one ever doubted the rectitude of his intention.
Father O'Neil had been Spiritual Father in St Xavier College, Cincinnati, for about four years when his health began to fail. His slow step and difficult breathing were indications of trouble both in lungs and heart. Medicines were ordered and remedies prescribed, but like many who have never known sickness, he had a prejudice against drugs and made no secret of his want of confidence in their efficacy. In the last days of February he was taken with an acute attack of pulmonary congestion which caused him intense suffering. It was pitiful to see the struggles of a strong man with the agonies of strangulation, as he gasped for breath, unable to lie down or even to recline in a chair for any length of time. Without rest or sleep, day or night, he rapidly grew worse and was told the end was not far off.
It was a relief to him to know that death was nigh. He prepared himself cheerfully to receive the last Sacraments and joined in the prayers with much faith and piety. All through his sicknes he used short aspirations, asking God's pardon and mercy and patience in his sufferings. With much earnestness he begged the prayers of those who vis- ited him, that he might have fortitude and resignation to God's holy will. And thus supported by the Sacraments of the Church and the prayers of his religious brethren, he gave up his soul to God, on the night of March 2, 1899, in the 78th year of his age.
In life and in death he loved well the Society to which God called him in the flower of his youth, and the Province to whose service he had devoted fifty-five years of honest and earnest work. May his example be an encouragement and a good inspiration to us all! RIP
◆ https://www.exhibit.xavier.edu/xavier_presidents/7/
Biographical Information
Ninth and twelfth Jesuit president Rev. Thomas O'Neil was born January 24, 1822 in Bally David, County Tipperary, Ireland and arrived in America in 1839. He studied at St. Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri and St. John’s College, Fordham, New York. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1844 in Florissant, Missouri and was ordained in 1857. He was also president of St. Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri; St. Joseph’s College, Bardstown, Kentucky; and St. Ignatius College, Chicago, Illinois. He was provincial of the Missouri Province from 1871-1878. He died March 2, 1899 while serving as spiritual director at Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio (then known as St. Xavier College). (Source: Jesuits of the Middle United States, 1938)
