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Eugene Joseph Butler

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Eugene Joseph Butler

Bishop of Mombasa
ChurchCatholic Church
DioceseDiocese of Mombasa
In office26 January 1957 – 27 February 1978
PredecessorDiocese erected
SuccessorNicodemus Kirima
Orders
Ordination17 June 1928
Consecration11 May 1957
by Daniel Mageean
Personal details
Born(1900-10-23)23 October 1900
Died3 May 1981(1981-05-03) (aged 80)

Bishop Eugene Joseph Butler, C.S.Sp., (born 23 October 1900, Belfast – died 3 May 1981, Dublin) was an Irish born Spiritan priest who served as Bishop of Zanzibar (1957–1964) and Bishop of Mombasa (1964–1978).[1]

He was born in St Peter’s Parish in Belfast, and educated by the Christian brothers locally at St. Mary's Grammar School, leaving school at 16 he worked as a clerk, before going to Kimmage Manor, to train as a priest. He studied philosophy in St. Marys College, and prefected in Blackrock College studying Theology and was ordained a Holy Ghost Father in 1928. He was sent to East Africa where he taught, holding a number of church positions. In 1957 he was appointed Bishop of Mombasa and Zanzibar, consecrated in the church where he was baptised, St Peter’s Pro-Cathedral in Belfast. From 1964 the Bishopric became Mombasa.

Bishop Butler resigned in 1978, and retired to Ireland and stayed in the Sacred Heart Residence of the Little Sisters of the Poor at Sybil Hill, Raheny.[2] He died peacefully a few years later 3 May 1981 aged 80 years and was buried in Kimmage in the Spiritan plot, following his funeral there.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ David M. Cheney. "Bishop Eugene Joseph Butler [Catholic-Hierarchy]". catholic-hierarchy.org. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  2. ^ Bishop Eugene Butler Archived 16 November 2017 at the Wayback Machine Irish Spiritans Remembered