A Light Undimmed
The Story of the Convent of Our Lady of Bom Sucesso, Lisbon, 1639 - 2006
Honor McCabe OP

A Light Undimmed tells the story of one of the oldest Irish convents in the world. The convent of Nossa Senhora do Bom Sucesso, (Our Lady of Good Success) owes its origin to the fact that religious life in Ireland had become impossible in the aftermath of the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century.

Nuns, monks and friars were expelled from their homes, their property and
assets taken over by the State and given to favourites of the monarch. A
member of the Kerry family of Ó Dalaigh, a Dominican friar called Dominic
‘of the Rosary’ O’Daly, was largely instrumental in finding a home in Lisbon, Portugal, for Irish women called to live out their contemplative vocation.

A Light Undimmed traces the story from the day when the nuns took possession of the summer house of a Portuguese countess on the banks of the Tagus, down to the present time when the community are responsible for two large schools, one Portuguese-speaking, the other English-speaking. It is another chapter in the long story of the Irish diaspora.

Honor McCabe is an Irish Dominican sister, Cabra Congregation, who has spent a number of years in Portugal. She has a unique insight into the life, and vicissitudes of the Irish Dominican sisters of Bom Sucesso, Lisbon. At present, she teaches Spiritual Theology in different Dominican centres in Ireland.