{"id":675,"date":"2015-01-13T08:53:48","date_gmt":"2015-01-13T08:53:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bkpdefunts.smainternational.info\/?p=675"},"modified":"2015-01-13T08:53:48","modified_gmt":"2015-01-13T08:53:48","slug":"le-pere-james-seamus-whittaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/?p=675","title":{"rendered":"Le P\u00e8re James (Seamus) WHITTAKER"},"content":{"rendered":"

Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 des Missions Africaines – Province d\u2019Irlande<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"Whittaker<\/td>\nn\u00e9 le 22 mars 1914 \u00e0 Enniskillen
dans le dioc\u00e8se de Clogher, Irlande
membre de la SMA le 30 juin 1935
pr\u00eatre le 18 d\u00e9cembre 1938
d\u00e9c\u00e9d\u00e9 le 4 f\u00e9vrier 1995<\/td>\n		\n

1939-1943 vicariat du B\u00e9nin, Nigeria
1943-1950 vicariat de Ondo Ilorin, Nigeria
1950-1972 dioc\u00e8se de Ondo
1972-1974 dioc\u00e8se d\u2019Ekiti, Nigeria
1974-1988 dioc\u00e8se de Raphoe, Irlande
1989-1994 Dromantine, retir\u00e9<\/p>\n

d\u00e9c\u00e9d\u00e9 \u00e0 Enniskillen, Irlande, le 4 f\u00e9vrier 1995
\u00e0 l\u2019\u00e2ge de 80 ans<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Father John James (S\u00e9umas) WHITTAKER (1914 – 1995)<\/p>\n

S\u00e9umas Whittaker was born in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, in the diocese of Clogher, on 22 March 1914. He died in the Erne hospital, Enniskillen, on 4 February 1995.<\/p>\n

S\u00e9umas (Shammy) was educated in the colleges of the Society. He studied in the Sacred Heart college, Ballinafad, Co Mayo (1929-1930) and in St. Joseph’s college, Wilton, Cork (1930-1933). After matriculating S\u00e9umas entered the Society’s novitiate and house of philosophy, at Kilcolgan, Co Galway, in September 1933. Two years later, in 1935, S\u00e9umas commenced his theological formation in the Society’s major seminary, at Dromantine, Co Down. S\u00e9umas was accepted as a member of the Society on 30 June 1935. He was ordained a priest by Bishop Edward Mulhern of Dromore diocese, in St. Colman’s Cathedral, Newry, on 18 December 1938. He was one of a group of eleven ordained on that day.<\/p>\n

After ordination S\u00e9umas was appointed to the vicariate of the Bight of Benin, in south western Nigeria. During his first tour of duty (1939-1945) he ministered in the town of Ibonwon and at Ebute Metta (Lagos). Ibonwon district had been established as a mission in 1900 and by the time S\u00e9umas arrived it had a Catholic community of some 3,000. Ebute Metta had been founded in 1890 and was the ‘third principal station’ in Lagos city. When, in 1943, the Ondo-Ilorin region was detached from the vicariate and erected as the vicariate of Ondo-Ilorin, S\u00e9umas was assigned to the new jurisdiction and appointed to Ado-Ekiti. This was a large station – now the seat of a diocese – originally established in 1914 under the patronage of St. George. During the last year of his first tour of duty he served in Ushi mission. S\u00e9umas spent his second tour (1946-1950) as superior of Oka mission where he was assisted by Ned Donovan.<\/p>\n

The Ondo-Ilorin jurisdiction became the diocese of Ondo in April 1950. S\u00e9umas was to serve in the diocese for six further tours (varying in length from three years to twenty-one months), until 1971. During this period he was superior of several of the principal stations in the diocese, including Effon Alaye, Oye, Ado-Ekiti and Oka. When the diocese of Ekiti was erected in July 1972 S\u00e9umas became a member of the diocesan staff. He served until September 1974 when he returned to Ireland in poor health. After a period of convalescence S\u00e9umas undertook pastoral work in the diocese of Raphoe, ministering in Killybegs, Kincasslagh and Glenties. In December 1988 he retired to the S.M.A. house at Dromantine. He spent the last year of his life (1994-1995) in the Millcroft nursing home, Mill Street, Enniskillen, and in the Graan Abbey private nursing home, Enniskillen. Both nursing homes were near his family home at New Row, Enniskillen. S\u00e9umas became ill with heart trouble a few days before he died. He was admitted to the Erne hospital, Enniskillen, where he gave up his soul to God.<\/p>\n

S\u00e9umas had great devotion to Our Lady and during his years in Oka he did much to develop the Marian Shrine of Oke-Maria. His obituary in the African Missionary paints the following portrait of S\u00e9amus: ‘S.M.A. colleagues always spoke glowingly of his hard work and devotion to duty. There was no limit to his zeal. His trekking through the forest in pursuit of souls often left him utterly exhausted. The people had a reverential fear of \u00ab\u00a0Father Whittaker\u00a0\u00bb. His obvious sincerity in seeking their spiritual good and the extent he would go to see that they did what was right with God and man, filled them with profound awe. Shammy loved to sing and play the violin: his songs \u00ab\u00a0Mother Mo Chroidhe\u00a0\u00bb and \u00ab\u00a0My Lagan Love\u00a0\u00bb still resound in confr\u00e8res ears and memories. The people to whom Shammy preached the ‘Good News’ for 35 years will never forget \u00ab\u00a0Father Whittaker\u00a0\u00bb.’<\/p>\n

He is buried in Wilton cemetery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 des Missions Africaines – Province d\u2019Irlande n\u00e9 le 22 mars 1914 \u00e0 Enniskillendans le dioc\u00e8se de Clogher, Irlandemembre de la SMA le 30 juin 1935pr\u00eatre le 18 d\u00e9cembre…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":674,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-necrologe-sma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}