Bishop Shanahan to Mary Martin

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MISSIONARY CONGREGATION of the HOLY GROST FATHERS, CLAREVILLE, BLACKROCK, CO. DUBLIN. 2023-01-27/488 23rd. March, 1936. To - Miss M. Martin, Greenbank, Monkstown. Dear Miss Martin, I thank you for your letter in which you mention that you intend to write to His Eminence, Cardinal Puimasoni Biondi, to obtain his blessing for the great work you mean to undertake for the cause of Christ in Africa: i.e., a MISSIONARY MEDICAL RELIGIOUS CONGREGATION, should God will you to do so, His will to be expressed through the blessing of the Holy See, followed by the approval of the Bishops in whose Dioceses this new grand work would be established. I would like to recommend this work, the great need of which I am in a position to appreciate, having been for years Ordinary of the Vicariate of S. Nigeria, W. Africa; but, being only a retired Bishop now residing in a religious community in Dublin, my recommendation can have no other value than what is personal to an old missionary in my position. I am fully aware of your great Apostolic Zeal combined with your love for Africa's dark children, for I have seen you at work in Africa as a lay lady-missionary so long ago as 1921! I also know that for years you have been praying, working, suffering unceasingly that the work you now intend to get blessed by the Holy See might one day be inaugurated. In my present position given to me by God to pray - and by prayer continue to work for my old Mission in Nigeria; while preparing at the same time to meet our Lord's Judgment in the near future - I will pray very specially for the success of the future "Missionary Medical Religious Congregation"; that God, through the voice of the Holy See, and the voice of the Hierarchy in Ireland, my bless it in its inception, and bless you, you who have the splendid courage to face what, humanly speaking, is an impossible task, because you have absolute confidence in God from whom you believe this Call comes. God bless you and your project, along with all those who in any way help you to carry it out. May God give you in His own good time and in His own way the answer you now seek from the Holy See, so that your conscience may be at rest. Should the answer be in the affirmative, then with what zeal will you not spend the remainder of your life in the building up of this work you have so much at heart. I remain, dear Miss Martin, Respectfully your in Xt. JOS. SHANAHAN CSSp. Tit, Bishop of Abila (Formerly Vicar-Apostolic of S. Nigeria,