Bishop Thomas Furlong
Founder of The Sisters of St. John of God
Bishop Thomas Furlong was founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. John of God. He invited them into his diocese and provided accommodation for them on their arrival in Wexford in 1871. He continued to encourage and support them in their ministry to the people during the remaining years of his life.
Thomas Furlong was born in Mayglass, County Wexford, Ireland in 1802. He was ordained a priest in St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, Ireland in 1826 and served there as Professor of Moral Theology until he was appointed Bishop of Ferns in 1857. He assumed his new responsibilities during the post Famine years in Ireland when the people were still experiencing great poverty, hunger, disease and loss of human dignity. Like St. John of God, Bishop Furlong was a man of compassion: he was moved by the plight of the sick and poor people and immediately sought ways to alleviate their suffering.
The only healthcare facilities for poor people in Wexford at the time were the Workhouses, which were feared and dreaded by all. In his concern for the people in the Workhouses we find the seeds of the beginnings of our own foundation. Little more than a year after the Sisters of St. John of God came to Wexford he encouraged the Sisters to apply for the post of head nurse in the Wexford Workhouse. The application was granted and soon two Sisters were employed there.
His belief in education as a way to overcome poverty and his concern for the spiritual well being of all people are part of his legacy to the Sisters of St. John of God. He believed in the provision of schools for girls as well as boys. However, he wanted more for them than a merely secular education. His deepest desire was that their education should be based on Christian principles and values.
He was a deeply reflective theologian and a man of prayer. His pastoral compassion and respect for the dignity of each person is evident in almost every document written by him. He was always greatly concerned for the spiritual development of all his people.
He was known as the 'Bishop of the Eucharist' and he encouraged the Sisters to make the Eucharist the centre of their lives. He introduced the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration and the Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament into the Diocese of Ferns. Two of the women saints he held up as exemplars for the Sisters of St. John of God, Catherine of Sienna and Catherine of Genoa, were women who powerfully modelled in the Church the inescapable relationship between contemplation and action.
He died in 1875 and his loss was felt deeply by the early Sisters of St. John of God. Just four years after their foundation, the fledgling community had lost a great spiritual guide and friend.