Pól Ó hAonusa: Dom Pól Ó hAonusa OCSO, also known by the English version of his name, Dom Paul Hennessy, was an unconventional Cistercian monk, who trod a perhaps lonely path in a life marked by humility, illness, considerable self-sacrifice and, eventually, in his early 50s, exile to Africa.
A scholarly man fluent in Irish, and with a reading knowledge of Latin, Greek, Syriac and Hebrew, he was also an extremely practical one, who could turn his hand to building, carpentry and cheese-making and bee-keeping.
The evening before his installation in 1971 as Abbot of Mount Melleray, he fashioned a simple wooden cross of furze, and dispensed the following day with the traditional pectoral cross of precious metal, and with the ring and mitre, symbols of his equality of status with a bishop.
By tradition also, such installations were attended by a throng of dignitaries of Church and State.
Dom Pól had just the officiating Bishop, Dr Michael Russell of Waterford, the Church of Ireland Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, Dr John Ward-Armstrong, who read the Gospel on the occasion, other Cistercian abbots, his family, a few local people, and no politicians.
What happened next is the subject of some controversy, and some reserve on behalf of the monks of Mount Melleray Abbey, even 30 years later.
Although intending to stay as abbot for five years, Dom Pól was requested to resign after just four years in the post, in 1975.
He was a gifted man, but no administrator.
His ongoing illness from tuberculosis, which included a six-month spell in a Cork hospital and the removal of part of both thigh bones, was undoubtedly another factor.
Whatever the circumstances, soon after his installation Dom Pól did have to take a difficult and perhaps controversial decision which would clearly have upset some of his fellow monks: the closure of the monastery's school for boys.
Its building had become dilapidated, and an architect's report indicated a prohibitively expensive refurbishment would be necessary.
Dom Pól Ó hAonusa was born Seán Hennessy at Ballinhassig, Co Cork, one of two sons of Mr and Mrs John Hennessy, both national school teachers (his name Pól was his name in religion).
He was educated at St Finbarr's College, the Cork diocesan seminary, in Farrenferris, and on completion of his Leaving Certificate in 1948 decided on becoming a diocesan priest.
However, he was sent home after six weeks from Maynooth when a spot was discovered on one of his lungs. It was feared it was tuberculosis - it was - and that he might infect his fellow students.
There followed a year at a technical school in Upton, near Cork, where he learned the practical skills, especially carpentry and building skills, which were to come in useful during his subsequent years in Africa.
A visit to Mount Melleray in 1949 for a bee-keeping course renewed his interest in the spiritual life, and he determined to become a Cistercian.
Because of his illness, the then abbot asked him to go first to university, and return to the monastery "with a degree and a medical certificate".
This was because the Cistercian life was, and remains, extremely physically demanding, with daily rising at 3.45 a.m., two hours' compulsory physical labour every day, and general silence.
He took a degree in Celtic Studies at UCC, returned to Mount Melleray in 1952, and was ordained in 1959.
After leaving the abbacy in 1975, Dom Pól, as he was by then known (having been an abbot of a monastery and thus the recipient of the title "Dom"), took a licence (a higher degree) in theology at the Gregorian University in Rome, and studied Holy Scripture with the Carmelites in Dublin.
Through Cistercian contacts, he moved in 1981 to the Abbey of Our Lady of Victoria at Kipkelion, near Lake Victoria in Kenya, where he was to spend the duration of his life, and where he is buried, in accordance with his wishes.
In Kenya, Dom Pól became a renowned spiritual director, often walking for many miles over mountains and through rough bush to give retreats, rather than involve the expense of a taxi being sent to collect him. Walking was no problem for him, even in challenging situations.
After leaving Mount Melleray Abbey, he had gone on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and walked the notoriously difficult trail through desert from the Dead Sea to Jerusalem; home on leave from Kenya one year, he spent it walking the coast of Ireland.
When originally invited to Kipkelion, he had proposed making his way there by motorcycle across the Sahara, and was dissuaded from doing so only with difficulty by relatives and fellow monks.
Dom Pól Ó hAonusa: born January 1929; died June 6th, 2004