In January, my second sister, Mary, a Franciscan Missionary of Mary, was assigned to S Korea to teach the local novices English. She received a warm welcome from the Columban Fathers, Irish. After wining and dining they promised to put her in contact with our distant cousin, Fr Patrick James McGlinchey. He became famous as a young missionary when he brought bicycles to Korea to make spinning wheels for his parishioners. The following is an account of Mary's first meeting with him.
"Had a lovely visit to Jeju Island and Fr. P.J.s miission there. He is a tall, fine looking man with very fair skin and stands very straight for a 79 year-old. (He reminded me a little of Donald.) And what a Missionary he is. For his first 25 years at Hallim he built up the Parish including a Church which a few years ago was demolished to make way for a large new Church. The bell-tower of the old Church has been preserved as a memorial.
The Jeju Island Mission
After 25 years there He bought a mountain on Jeju Island which was going cheap as they say. There were stones and rocks everywhere but comparing it with some of Donegal's hills and mountains he saw some possibilities and went on from there. He started off with pig farms and had to pipe water from 15 miles away which cheered up all the poor farmers from the pipeline along the way as they helped themselves from the pipeline.
I won't go into details but today there are good roads leading to the mountain mission where there are some lovely green fields with crops growing mostly for silage. There is a herd of 900beef cattle another of 400 dairy cattle and a herd of 200+ horses. P.J. brought me on a grand tour in his car because it was raining.
There is a convent of 26 Poor Clare nuns, and three other women Congregations, including Salesians who look after the Youth Centre, , a local group for the Resedential Home for the Elderly. They are full at the moment with 75 residents ( all poor) who do not pay any money. and another group of local Sisters for the Hospice for the dying . This latter was officially opened the week before I visited. ( By local I mean Korean Sisters not Jeju Island as such. The Govt pays the salaries for the Staff and paid 80% of the expenses for the building ( which is spacious and modern. The Govt. however, gave nothing towards the building of the Hospice, nor does it contribute to salaries for the Staff.
So P.J. had to find donors. One of these is the owner of teh famous Cooper Stables in Ireland. His name begins with Ma -- but I can't remember the full name and he is a famous horse trainer.. He wrote him a letter asking if he could lend him a thorough racehorse for breeding purposes as he wished to upgrade his horse farm and get good prices in the sale of his horses. The money raised was to fund this Hospice for the dying ( which again is free of charge). Your man contacted the Irish ambassadior in Seoul to ask him to find out if P.J. Mc Glinchey was authentic. As it happens P.J. and the ambassador are good friends so he wasted no time in recommending P.J.'s cause for funding. A few weeks later he received a letter from Ireland and Mr. Ma-- said " I am not lending you a horse, I am giving you one and I will send him out to you, all expenses paid. And so a few weeks later "Yahoudi" arrived and the first batch of foals were born the day after I arrived and beautiful, they are!. The horse trainer, a New Zealander, was ecstatic.( We actually passed the field where the expectant mares were grazing on the day I arrived.
There is also a retreat house that can take in 240 retreatants at one time and schools and Parishes from all over Korea send people all year round usually for a 4-day stay. Some combine retreat and sight-seeing as the Island has become a famous holiday resort for S. East Asia and not only Korea. The Church holds about 3000 and there is a Piazza on the top which can also hold a few thousand people. O dear I could go on but I think I will tell you rather than continue here. It is already 9:pm and actually s. Angela is setting up he new Vista laptop right next to me here in the office! with the help of our mrdia expert! It's a small world.
Thank God I am keeping well and of course busy."
I'm afraid he put some of us to shame!
Our Cistercian Sisters are doing well there
Genesee Abbey, New York, is sponsoring a diocesan monastery which follows our life style.
