Fr. Cyprian Edward McDonnell, OP

Fr. McDonnell was one of the first Scripture scholars from the Western Province.  He was born in Ireland and joined the Christian Brothers before becoming a Dominican.   In 1911 he joined this Province, making his primary studies in Benicia, California.  He was sent to study on the East Coast where he was ordained.  There he studied Greek and Hebrew as well as the new code of Canon Law of 1917.  In 1919 after a trip to see his family in Ireland, the Provincial, Fr. McMahon, sent him to study at the Angelicum in Rome.  He wrote this request to Fr. McDonnell June 21, 1919:

The manner in which you have applied yourself to your studies since you have been a Dominican in fieri et in facto, the progress you have made in them, and my confidence that, if given the opportunity, you will make a great deal out of the supplementary studies that are now required of our lectors who are to teach, and that afterwards, using your time and learning well, you will do much good as a professor and writer, and as a preacher too, thus making ample returns for the sacrifices that we must make to give you the opportunity, have decided me to have you go to Rome for two years and there devote yourself to the study of philosophy and the scriptures.

It is to philosophy especially that I wish you to give your attention, perfecting your knowledge of our own system and familiarizing yourself with the modern systems, particularly with contemporary psychology and sociology.  You should study first with a view to expounding clearly such subjects to the students who will sit at your feet, to exciting in them a lively interest in their studies, and to enabling them to turn their knowledge in after years to good account.  At the same time you should have the purpose of thoroughly fitting yourself to communicate, through the medium of your pen, the truths of Christian philosophy in terms that will be understood by men whose minds have been filled with errors in our colleges and universities.  In doing this you will remember how I have urged constant reading and writing in English

The other study that I wish you to apply yourself to is the study of the scriptures.   The knowledge that you have of Greek and Hebrew will enable you to make good progress from the beginning; but, of course, you will have to add to that knowledge.   And I wish you to perfect yourself in Greek, not only on account of the Biblical studies, but also so that, if necessary, you can teach the Greek classics for a while.

The Angelico will not open until about the first week of November.  After spending a month or so in Ireland I wish you to go to Kain, in Belgium, and remain there with the Dominican Fathers of the Province of France until it will be time to go to Rome.  One object that I have in this is to have you perfect your knowledge of French, and to get practice in speaking it.  Another is to have you live in a convent where the spirit and observance are excellent, and where you will be in daily touch with Dominicans who, as writers and preachers, are getting great results from their studies.  There too you will see how our Fathers conduct laymen's retreats.

There was a lot of hope placed in this one man.  Instead of two years in Rome, he spent one year in Rome, studying under Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. as well as others, and one year in Jerusalem at St. Stephen's.  In Jerusalem he took such courses: Introduction, Exegesis on the Old and New Testament, Archaeology, Palestinian Geography and Topology, and Hebrew, Greek and Syriac.  After his return to America, he taught at the Dominican House of Studies in Ross, California and at Dominican University in San Raphael.  In 1923, while giving a retreat to the Dominican sisters in Sacred Heart Hospital, he became very ill.  This was an illness that was lingering for a while beforehand.  But at this time, surgery was required.  In 1926, he went to Los Angeles to get treated for his illness.  He had to stay under the doctor's supervision for a few months.  He moved with the studentate to Benicia in 1927.   After a few years of teaching, preaching, and retreats he died there from his illness at the young age of 45.

XII: 112