[6] O'Donohue's first published work of prose, Anam cara (1997), catapulted him into a more public life as an author, speaker and teacher, particularly in the United States.
"[8] 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 4 January 2008 while on holiday near Avignon, France.
[5][10] Posthumous publications include a reprinting of The Four Elements, a book of essays, in 2010[11] and Echoes of Memory (2011), an early work of poetry originally collected in 1994.
[12] In March 2015, a series of radio conversations he had recorded with close friend and former RTÉ broadcaster John Quinn was collated and published as Walking on the Pastures of Wonder.
[13] O'Donohue's last will was held to be invalid by the High Court in December 2011, Justice Gilligan holding that "As a piece of English, the Will is unclear on its face" and that the will was void for uncertainty.