Background
John Bannon was born 29 December 1829 at Rooskey, Company Roscommon, and was raised there. His father also called James Bannon was a Dublin grain dealer, and Fanny Bannon (née O"Farrell).
jesuit priest pastor Confederate chaplain
John Bannon was born 29 December 1829 at Rooskey, Company Roscommon, and was raised there. His father also called James Bannon was a Dublin grain dealer, and Fanny Bannon (née O"Farrell).
In 1846 he went to study for the priesthood at Street Patrick"s College, Maynooth in the minor seminary until 1850, completed his theology course in 1853, and was ordained on 16 June 1853 by Archbishop Cullen for the Dublin Diocese.
He was renowned as an orator. He went to the vincentian Castleknock College in Dublin. He soon applied to move to America.
Shortly after ordination he moved to the Archdiocese of Street Louis, Missouri, United States of America. He became pastor to Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist Church which he built in 1858.
He served in the First Missouri Confederate Brigade, during the Civil War. He ministered at the battles of Cornith, Fort Gibson and at Big Black, Vicksburg.
He was detained on 4 July 1863 when Vicksburg surrendered. After being released by Union forces he went to Richmond in August 1863, where Jefferson Davis and Judah Benjamin(Secretary of State) asked him to go to Ireland to discourage recruitment for the Federal forces and try and get international help for the Confederacy.
In November 1863 he returned to Ireland, writing and pamphleting to discourage people from emigrating and joining the Union side of the civil war.
He wrote in The Nation. He made two trips to Rome to try, unsuccessfully, to get the Vatican to side with the Confederacy.
