| John O'Donohue | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 1, 1956 |
| Died | January 4, 2008 (aged 52) Avignon, France |
| Resting place | Creggagh Cemetery, near Ballyvaughan |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Occupation | poet, author, priest, philosopher |
| Notable works | Anam Cara (1997) |
John O'Donohue (1 January 1956 – 4 January 2008) was an Irish poet, author, priest, and Hegelian philosopher. He was a native Irish speaker,[1] and as an author is best known for popularizing Celtic spirituality.[2][3]
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Eldest of his three siblings, he was raised in west Ireland in the area of Connemara and County Clare, where his father Patrick O’Donohue was a stonemason, while he mother Josie O’Donohue was housewife.[4]
O'Donohue became a novice at Maynooth, in north County Kildare, at age of 18, here he earned degrees in English, Philosophy, and Theology at St Patrick's College in County Kildare. He was ordained as Catholic priest in 1982. [5] O'Donohue moved to Tübingen, Germany in 1986, and completed his dissertation in 1990 on German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel for his PhD in philosophical theology from Eberhard Karls University. In 1990, he returned to Ireland to continue his priestly duties, and began his post-doctoral work on the 13th century mystic, Meister Eckhart. [5]
O'Donohue's first published work, Anam Cara (1997), which means "soul friend" in Gaelic, was an international bestseller and catapulted him into a more public life as an author and much sought-after speaker and teacher, particularly in the United States. O'Donohue retired from the priesthood in 2000. O'Donohue also devoted his energies to environmental activism, and is credited with helping spearhead the Burren Action Group, which opposed government development plans and ultimately preserved the area of Mullaghmore and the Burren, a karst landscape in County Clare.[6] Just two days after his 52nd birthday and two months after the publication of his final complete work, Benedictus: A Book of Blessings, O'Donohue died suddenly in his sleep on January 4, 2008 while on holiday near Avignon, France. [7] He was survived by his partner Kristine Fleck, his mother Josie, brothers PJ and Pat, and sister Mary.[8]
Posthumous publications include The Four Elements, a book of essays, in 2010[9] and Echoes of Memory (2011), an early work of poetry, originally collected in 1994[10].