A DISTINGUISHED VISITOR

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 244, 16 July 1928, Page 10

A DISTINGUISHED VISITOR

FATHER MARTINDALE, S.J. DELEGATE TO EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS A distinguished visitor to the Dominion is Father Cyril J. Martindale, b.J.. M.A., who arrived from England by the Rotoi'ua on Saturday morning, and is making a brief stay here before going on to Sydney to attend the Eucharistic Congress in September. Father Martindale was met. at the wharf by Bishop Cleary, who came specially from Auckland to welcome him. and by other Roman Catholic clergymen. Bishop Cleary and Father Martindale, who were the guests during the week-end of Father Ryan, Rector of St. Patrick’s College, and his staff, will leave to-day for Hawke’s Bay, Taupo, and. Rotorua, on their way to Auckland. During his stay in New Zealand, Father Martindale will be the guest of Bishop Cleary, in company with whom he will leave Auckland for Sydney on August 17. On Saturday, Father Martindale was welcomed by the Roman Catholic clergy

of Wellington at a dinner. Yesterday he was entertained at dinner at St. Patrick's College by 60 members. of the Catholic University Students' Guild. In the afternoon in the College Hall he addressed a meeting of the guild, nt. which 350 were present. At ,a subsequent, reception the members and their friends availed themselves of the opportunity of meeting the distinguished guest, who greatly impressed all by his personality and his gifted and scholarly address. During the brief time at his disposal Father Martindeal visited a number of Catholic institutions and saw the principal sights of Wellington. He was delighted with the Queen’s. Drive tour. . . . Father Martindale, who is one of the best known Catholic writers and speakers of the English-speaking world, has had a distinguished scholastic career. The son of Sir A. H. T. Martindale, K.C.5.1.. he was born in 1879. After leaving Harrow he became a Catholic and joined the Novitiate of the Society of Jesus. He studied at St. Mary s Hall, Stonvburst, and entered Pope’s Hall, Oxford,'’ in 1901. Two years later he obtained first-class Mods, the Hertford (Latin) and the Craven (Latin nud Greek) Scholarships. In 1904 be gamed the Chancellor's Latin Verse and Ihe Gaisford’ Greek Verse Prizes; in he obtained a first-class in the rinnl Lit. Hum. examination. Continuing Ins brilliant university career, he was nwarded the Derby Scholarship in 190 b and the Ellenton Theological Essay Prize in 1907. Four years later he was ordained to the priesthood. At Campion Hall. During the years he was at Oxford, Father Martindale was associated with Campion Hall, n hall for Catholic students at the great university,;and he is to-dov chairman of the Federation of University Catholic Societies and of the .Overseas Committee of the L.G.I.K. Father Martindale, whose name is well known to many New Zealanders, came in touch at. Oxford with a number of New Zealand soldiers in the Oncers Training Corps. Up till the time he Jef England lie was stationed at. the Jesuit. House, Farm Street, Loudon. Speaker and Author. Father Martindale is. a man of many activities, both as speaker and as author. In England his services ore in great <lcunind for pulpit and platform speaking. He is the author of a very great number of biographical, hagiographical and apologetic works. He is a frequent contributor to the leading cutical reviews of Europe and to many Catholic periodicals, and is also the editor of the “History of Religions’’ lectures, to which he has contributed six numbers, and of the “Inter-University Magazine. A work with which he is very actively associated is the organisation of Catholic university students throughout Europe. He was mainly responsible for the formation of -Pax Romann, an international confederation of Catholic students, and he lias been a leading figure at several international conventions. .. . _ To Father Martindale, the Eucharistic Congress Committee has allotted the fourth of I lie general discourses to be made during the congress, in Sydney in September, the subject being “The Eucharist and Its’Martyrs.”' After the congress, Father Martindale will remain m Australia till December, and will probably deliver a number of lectures in the Commonwealth. After that he will return to England to resume his work at Jesuit House, London.