This week the monastic community remembers Father Gerard McGinty OSB whose anniversary occurs at this time. Born Francis Patrick Joseph McGinty in Dublin on 12th March 1929, he was educated by the Jesuits at Belvedere Collegeand entered Glenstal on 10th October 1948, receiving the name Gerard. He was professed on 6th January 1950 andstudied theology at Glenstal, Maredsous and Sant’Anselmo before his ordination to the priesthood on 11th July 1954.
After his ordination he began post-graduate studies at University College Dublin. Following some delays, these studies culminated in a Doctorate in Medieval Studies, which he obtained in 1971. His dissertation was an edition of an important Irish treatise, De Mirabilibus Sacrae Scripturae, written around the year 655.
Although Father Gerard held a variety of offices in the monastery and was a long-term Master of Ceremonies, Sacristan and Annalist, he was essentially a monk-scholar. Excelling in the editing of medieval religious texts, he was an expert in Hiberno-Latin. He edited the Glenstal Bible Missal (1983) and Today We Celebrate – the Saints and their Message (1985). Father Gerard made a major contribution to the three-volume Divine Office. In a pre-computer age of the 1970s, he was modestly proud that, as he put it, “every word of the three volumes of the English Breviary passed through my fingers.”
In 1980, he published a short commentary on the Rule of Benedict for the 1500th anniversary commemorations of the saint’s birth. He also composed a martyrology for monastic use. There was a practical side to Fr Gerard. He was one of the first in the community to master the complexities of the computer and for a number of years he was responsible for the maintenance of our telephones.
He also liked outdoor work, and spent much of his free time managing our garden and orchard. His knowledge of birds was extensive and he was keenly interested in all aspects of nature and wildlife. From its foundation in 1968, up to his death, Father Gerard was the official representative of Birdwatch Ireland in its survey of the two ‘squares’ that covered the townlands of Glenstal and Cappercullen.
At a spiritual and pastoral level he was a man of faithful observance who was always available for the hearing of confessions, the counselling of people with problems and the giving of blessings. Faithful to the end, it was in the course of a full working day that he died on the evening of Saturday 29th December 2001.
May he rest in peace.