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Bro. Gabriel Brady
Anglo-Irish Province
24 March1923 to 25 March 2013
Patrick (Paddy) Brady was born in the city centre of Dublin on 24th March 1923,
into a traditional Catholic family where faith in God and love of all things Irish were the guide lines for life.
He was one of seven children. Having qualified as a professional chef, his years of early adulthood
were spent working in some of the most prestigious hotels of the country. He himself would say:
“during those years I worked hard and played hard”. But at the age of 32 he responded to the call of God
and entered the Camillian community of Killucan. He made his profession on 1st May 1956,
changing his name to Gabriel as was the custom then. He choose Gabriel after the archangel, the messenger
of the Lord.
As a religious he was asked to run the kitchen of the school and community, and his skills are talked
about to this day. Killucan was probably the only boarding school/minor seminary in Ireland
where the boys never complained about or criticised the food. Gabriel was a professional who took as
much care with what he cooked for a young boy as he would for the President.
And in his life he did both. Profession days in Killucan in those years are remembered
by all the families of our religious because of his culinary skills.
He was loved by the children of the neighbourhood who came to see his talking bird
and other animals, and inevitably be fed them with ever available goodies.
During the changeover period when Killucan took a new direction and closed the school
to open a Nursing Home he was given a sabbatical from the kitchen. This afforded him the opportunity
to fulfil one of his two ambitions. He went to France for a year to learn French.
He spent the year in Bry-Sur-Marne, and would remain in contact with the religious there to the end of his days.
On his return to Ireland to run the kitchen of the new Nursing Centre he established
a very active Mission Support Group in the local community. This indirectly led to the fulfilment
a few years later of his second dream of being a missionary on foreign soil. He went to work
with the Kenyan Delegation in Tabaka and Nairobi, and only returned to Ireland years later
when his brothers Joe and Kevin died, as he felt a certain responsibility towards his two aging sisters
and wished to be stationed near them. While in Kenya he worked in the hospital in Tabaka,
both on the wards and on the mobile clinic, and later he spent years as chaplain to the Kenyata
and surrounding hospitals. He served on the council of the delegation. On his return he cared
for his ailing sisters with a passion, while still playing a very active role in the community.
In his final years his eyesight failed badly and he had to give up driving,
but this did not impede his independence as he battled manfully with public transport.
His last months were not easy due to very serious health problems but he faced them stoically.
No doubt he was helped greatly with this by the fact that he was lovingly cared for
in the Killucan community by his confreres, as this was his wish.
Gabriel was a man of God deeply committed to prayer. Whatever task he was assigned
was carried out with total commitment. The vows he took were lived with honestly and integrity.
He was a strong character who was never slow to let one know what he thought,
and this was not always understood by those who preferred to avoid any form of confrontation.
He led a very simple and austere life, and his room after his death was the easiest one
we ever had to tidy up, as there was little or nothing there. He will have had no difficulty
passing through the eye of the needle on his way into Heaven as little or no baggage had been accumulated
along the path of life.
On the day before he died he celebrated his 90th birthday. He requested confession and
that a tribute to Our Lady be placed on the altar at his mass of thanksgiving. He was
delighted to receive the sacrament of the sick during the mass. He died early the next morning.
He is the only religious of the Anglo-Irish province to have reached the age of 90. He will be missed.
Ar dheis De go raibh a h-anam dilis.
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