STAN BRENNAN: HE WAS a farmer's son from Fuerty in Co Roscommon who, having joined the Franciscans as a young man, spent a year teaching at Gormanston College in Co Meath before dramatically altering his life's course.
When Fr Stan Brennan died in South Africa last week aged 82, members of the order dusted down photographs of him with Nelson Mandela, and family members recalled his role at the funeral of former parishioner and leader of the South African Communist Party, Chris Hani, who was murdered in 1993.
Members of the African National Congress provided a guard of honour at an all-night funeral vigil in Reiger Park township in the city of Boksburg, home to Fr Stan for more than 50 years, and where his only surviving sibling, Andy, this week attended the celebration of a remarkable life.
Fr Stan’s biographer David Gemmell said his passing marked the end of an astonishing era for the people of Reiger Park – “and for everyone who met the saintly priest”.
Fr Gerry O’Reilly, Fr Stan’s successor at St Anthony’s Education Centre in Reiger Park, said the dynamic son of Roscommon – who charmed governments and multinational companies into giving massive donations – had been hugely influenced by a piece of advice from his father when he left for South Africa in the 1950s.
“His father told him to bring education to the people,” he recalled. Much to the consternation of the ruling regime, Fr Stan did just that. When appointed to St Francis parish in Reiger Park in 1965, Fr Stan took charge of a run-down church/schoolroom with no electricity or running water.
He started with a library, and then opened a school with 11 students in 1966. The centre now caters for almost 4,000 pupils doing everything from brick-laying and plumbing to computer skills and the Matriculation exam.
In 1992, appalled at the lack of concern for HIV/Aids patients, Fr Stan decided, despite fierce local opposition, to build a refuge for terminally ill patients and waged a successful a supreme court battle to achieve his aim.
As well as operating as a hospice, the St Francis Centre today provides medical facilities for thousands of HIV patients at two free clinics and also foster care for 30 infants affected by Aids.
The centre was followed by the House of Mercy, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre, and more recently by the Mercy Haven for abused women and children.
Born Seamus Brennan on December 1st, 1929, Fr Stan was the seventh of 10 children whose grandfather, Michael, was an associate of Douglas Hyde in the Gaelic League.
Educated at CBS Roscommon and later at the Franciscan Novitiate in Killarney, he spent four years studying in Rome before being posted to South Africa in 1957.
Despite his charm he quickly came to the attention of the ruling regime because of his concern for the welfare of the black majority and his sympathy for the ANC. “He allowed the ANC to hold meetings in his hall and was on a list of people the regime wanted deported,” his brother Andy explained.
In recognition of his achievements, Fr Stan received more than 50 awards from various governments for work in South Africa. A few weeks ago he was honoured by the Emperor of Japan when he received the Sixth Class Grand Cordon Order Award of the Rising Sun Silver and Gold Rays, one of only eight people in the world to have received this honour since its inception in the 1800s.
Fr Joe MacMahon, secretary of the Franciscan Province in Ireland who worked alongside Fr Stan in South Africa for many years, said his friend was a diplomat who knew how to win support – and vital funds – for his many worthy causes. “He was very shrewd, and while the ruling party did not like what he was doing, he won support from the governments of Japan and France and the US, and regularly invited ambassadors to functions so he could not be touched.”
In an era when the apartheid regime had spies everywhere, Fr Stan devoted his life to helping his parishioners. Black workers sacked by the owners of South Africa’s gold mines with no compensation found an advocate in Fr Stan, whose ploy was to charm rather than to antagonise, according to Fr MacMahon.
He is survived by his brother, Andy Brennan, from Bray, Co Wicklow.
Seamus (Stan) Brennan: born December 1st, 1929; died July 6th, 2012