Dom Eugene Boylan

Kevin Boylan was born in 1904 at Bray, Co. Wicklow. His early years were spent in Derry. (His father was a bank official). When the family moved to Dublin, Kevin did his secondary schooling at the famous O’Connell Schools. Feeling that he had a vocation to the diocesan priesthood, he entered Clonliffe College; but it was not to be. Continuing his education at U.C.D., he majored in mathematical physics. A Rockefeller travelling scholarship took him to the University of Vienna for three years. Returning to Dublin, he did an M.Sc., and was appointed a lecturer in his subject. He had a unique blend of the theoretical and the practical. So we find him at this period working with Professor Nolan on the ionisation of the air at Glencree (Dublin-Wicklow border), and with Professor Dowling, providing an automatic system for turning on the fog-horns in Dublin Bay; this by means of a photo-electric cell which kept the horns silent until visibility dropped below a certain distance. A distinguished scientific career seemed to lie ahead of him until a Jesuit colleague in U.C.D., who knew him intimately, told him he had a vocation to "Roscrea". Roscrea, in this context, meant Mount St. Joseph Abbey, where Brother Eugene (as he now was) entered as a novice in 1931. Ordained priest in 1937, he switched the thrust of his outstanding intellectual ability to his new sphere of activity. While teaching physics and French in the school attached to the Abbey, he began writing on spiritual topics. In the early nineteen forties he published two books, one on prayer, another on spiritual living. These rapidly became international best-sellers, being translated into most of the European languages, and even into Chinese! He became more and more known to the people of Roscrea through his preaching in the Abbey church, his sincere compassion for those who came to him in the confessional, and being ever ready to help those who sought his advice. Once again, when his way of life seemed set, he was sent in 1953 to Australia to assess possible sites for a new monastery there. The foundation was duly established. He was recalled from Australia by the Abbot General of the Order and appointed superior of Caldey Abbey, a monastery on an island off the Welsh coast which needed a complete economic overhaul if it was to survive. By 1959 this Abbey was on a firm financial basis, mainly due to Dom Eugene’s development of a perfume industry there. And so, it was back to Roscrea once more. In 1958 and again in 1960 he undertook extensive lecture and conference tours in the United States, visiting most of the houses of his Order there. In July 1962, Dom Eugene was elected fourth Abbot of Mount St. Joseph. He seemed to have reached his true vocation. But Providence willed otherwise. In mid-December of 1963 when travelling north to attend the funeral of Dr. McNeeley, Bishop of Raphoe (an old family friend from his Derry days), he had an accident in his car. Dom Eugene died three weeks later at Roscommon County hospital on 5th January, 1964. Physicist (he had a number of papers published by the Royal Academy); linguist (he learned sufficient Norwegian in six weeks to give a speech at the ordination of the Bishop of Oslo); best-selling spiritual writer (his books, sixty years later, are still in demand); sympathetic counsellor and director to the many who came to see him – Wicklow, Derry, Dublin, Viuenna, Australia, Wales, America - "home" for Dom Eugene was always Roscrea. That was the place he lived longest of anywhere. He often remarked that his vocation was not to the Cistercian Order, but to Roscrea. And Roscrea, town and Abbey are proud of him. (Fr. Raphael Legge, OCSO)

Linguist, priest and confessor, Dom Eugene Boylan OCSO., of the Cistercian Abbey of Mount Saint Joseph Roscrea, Ireland, entered Roscrea Abbey in his native Ireland, eventually serving as superior of Caldey Abbey in Wales, then Tarrawarra in Australia and finally as Abbot of Roscrea before his untimely death in 1963. From his experience as confessor and spiritual director, he wrote two classic books: "This Tremendous Lover" and "Difficulties in Mental Prayer". Around 1958, Thomas Merton commented in regards of Abbot Eugene Boylan, "This is the best retreat we ever had at Gethsemani".