Cooke, Robert Francis

by Helen Andrews

Cooke, Robert Francis (1821–82), catholic priest and author, was born 14 February 1821 in Dungarvan, Co. Waterford, son of a businessman; no other details of his family are known. He was educated locally and subsequently studied medicine in Dublin, before becoming an assistant doctor in Cashel, Co. Tipperary (c.1840–43).

Inspired by a deeply joyous religious experience, he joined the Congregation of Oblates of Mary Immaculate at the noviciate of Notre Dame de l'Osier, France (1843), and after study in Marseilles, was ordained in 1846. He travelled widely throughout the British Isles, preaching in the open air in the absence of churches, and founded many missions. He served as a missionary in England, successively at Grace Dieu, Leicestershire (1846), and in Yorkshire at Everingham Park, where he was appointed superior (1847–51); he established a mission at Howden where the church of the Sacred Heart was opened in 1851, before moving to the poorest district in Leeds (1851), where he was instrumental in the founding of the magnificent church of Mount St Mary; the opening (1857) was attended by the founder of the order, C. J. E. Mazenod (1782–1861), bishop of Marseilles.

He travelled to Ireland (December 1855) and introduced the Oblates at Inchicore, Dublin, a deeply deprived area, where he purchased (21 June 1856) a farmhouse on a twenty-five-acre site adjacent to the Great Southern & Western Railway. On the following day mass was said before a congregation so large that a carpenter, with the help of 700 workers from the nearby railway station, volunteered to build a wooden chapel, working on it each evening after the normal day's work. Completed in four days, it could accommodate 700–800 people; high mass was celebrated 29 June. It was replaced by the church of Mary Immaculate, where the foundation stone was laid in 1876 and mass celebrated in 1878. Cooke also founded a school (1857) accommodating around 150 pupils, and a house of retreat (opened 1860). He supervised the establishment (1859) of St Kevin's reformatory school, Glencree, Co. Wicklow, which catered for ninety boys in the first year. A tireless and eloquent preacher, he travelled throughout Ireland, regularly conducting annual retreats at Inchicore, and lenten and advent services in the Carmelite church, Clarendon St., Dublin; excerpts from his sermons are held in the archives of the Oblate Congregation, Inchicore.

In 1865 he established a mission in the East End of London, where mass was celebrated on Tower Hill for the first time for centuries. A temporary building, housing a school for 800 children and a church, was opened (1865); these were subsequently replaced by a permanent school and the church of the English Martyrs (1876). In Kilburn, north London, where he was stationed (1867–73), he founded the church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. One of the most distinguished missioners in the United Kingdom, he became so well known that the Oblates were frequently referred to as ‘Father Cooke's order’ (Denny, 117). He was appointed vice-provincial (c.1849) and subsequently provincial of the Anglo-Irish province until 1867, and again 1873–7. Returning as superior to Tower Hill (1877–82), he introduced the League of the Cross to encourage temperance and established St Katherine's Protectory for girls. His pastoral duties included house-to-house visits to encourage people to attend mass and to send their children to school. His writings include Pictures of youthful holiness (1872); Marguerite Hibbert: a memoir (1874); Catholic memories of the Tower of London (1875), which was translated into French as Les souvenirs catholiques de la tour de Londres (Paris, 1875); and Sketches of the life of Mgr de Mazenod, bishop of Marseilles (2 vols, 1879–82). He died 17 June 1882 in London and was buried in St Mary's catholic cemetery, Kensal Green, London.