ON SATURDAY last Br Malachy (46) became the first man to be professed in Mount St Joseph Cistercian monastery in Roscrea, Co Tipperary, since September 2002. The last solemn profession there was of the current abbot, Dom Richard Purcell (35), elected Ireland’s youngest abbot in 2009.
Br Malachy, originally Paul Thompson from Finglas in Dublin, had been sales manager for Ireland, Britain and Europe at Dublin packaging firm Kenilworth Products for more than 20 years before he entered the monastery in July 2006.
Eleven years ago he saw a leaflet for weekend retreats at Mount St Joseph in Dublin’s pro-cathedral. He had never been to a monastery before but on arrival there was “struck immediately” by the experience. “I was 35, in a great job, everything going well. I battled it for years, but it kept coming back. It was a slow realisation that God was calling me to the monastic life.”
In 2005 he lived at Mount St Joseph for a month, after which he knew he could live the life. But he was still not sure whether it was his own wish or that God was indeed calling him to such a life.
In December 2005, on retreat at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, he “just knew” that his reasons for entering the monastic life were the right ones. He returned to Dublin and served out six months’ notice at his job.
Br Malachy, who chose the name because St Malachy brought the Cistercians to Ireland in 1142 – to Mellifont, Co Louth – is one of 19 monks living at Mount St Joseph.
