St. Sepulchre, Dublin (Walsh)

From Walsh's History of the Irish Hierarchy: With the Monasteries of Each County, Biographical Notices of the Irish Saints, Prelates, and Religious, 1854, c. xliv, pps. 423:

St Sepulchre. It is supposed that the knights Templar had a priory in a place called Casgot in the south suburbs of the city and that Walter de Fernsfield was a great benefactor to it it was probably where the palace of the archbishop now stands in St Kevin's street.

National Latin Mass Pilgrimage to Armagh 2017

To mark the 10th Anniversary of Summorum Pontificum the Catholic Heritage Association of Ireland made our second pilgrimage to St. Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh.  A report of the first pilgrimage can be read here.  It was a truly National Pilgrimage with members coming from Antrim, Armagh, Cavan, Clare, Cork, Donegal, Dublin, Galway, Kildare, Limerick, Louth, Meath, Monaghan, Wexford and Wicklow - the Four Provinces of Ireland all represented - to assist at Holy Mass and attend our Annual General Meeting held afterwards in the Synod Hall attached to the Cathedral.

However, one element of the pilgrimage above all made it a most blessed occasion, the presence of His Eminence Seán, Cardinal Brady, Archbishop Emeritus of Armagh, to celebrate the Mass.  In his homily, Cardinal Brady reminded the congregation that the Traditional Latin Mass had been the Mass of his Altar service, of his First Communion and Confirmation, and of his Ordination and his First Mass.  He also reminded us that this day, the feast of St. John the Baptist, was his own feast day.  Cardinal Brady is to attend the Consistory on 28th June with Our Holy Father, Pope Francis.  His Eminence was assisted by Fr. Aidan McCann, C.C., who was ordained in the Cathedral only two years ago.  It was a great privilege and joy for the members and friends of the Catholic Heritage Association to share so many grace-filled associations with Cardinal Brady and Fr. McCann and the Armagh Cathedral community.

The Archiepiscopal See of Dublin (1294 - 1362)(Walsh)

Passage to the Synod Hall, Dublin

From Walsh's History of the Irish Hierarchy, 1854, c. xvi, p. 115 ff:

William de Hotham was confirmed in the archbishoprick by the provision of the pope who annulled the election of Thomas de Chadsworth. William was born in England educated at Paris where he took the degree of doctor of divinity in 1280, afterwards became a Dominican friar and was twice provincial of the order in England. As ambassador at Rome from King Edward I, he executed his business with great eclat being inferior to none in learning virtue integrity and judgment in the management of affairs the pope gave him authority to select any prelate whom he would choose as his consecrator. It seems he was consecrated in 1298 at Ghent by Anthony Beake, bishop of Durham. Having been the mediator of a truce between Philip IV of France and Edward I of England, which continued for two years, he returned to Rome with the articles of the treaty which the pope had established and on his journey homewards through Burgundy he became ill at Dijon where he died in a monastery of his order on the 27th of August in the same year. His body was conveyed into England and buried in a Dominican monastery of London. Bale, though aspersing his character and that of the pope who promoted him, as if the mediation of gold was all powerful, allows that he was a man highly extolled by the writers of his own order as a person of great spirit acute parts and possessed of a singular dexterity in conciliating the favor of men.

Richard de Ferings, who had been archdeacon of Canterbury during fifteen years before, succeeded in 1229, the king objecting to receive his fealty because of some clauses in the letters provisional of the pope which he considered prejudicial to the royal prerogative. Richard obtained the temporals by renouncing any benefit therefrom. Immediately after his consecration the prelate applied himself to compose the misunderstanding between the cathedrals of Christ church and St Patrick's. The agreement was reduced to writing and fortified by the common seal of each chapter, with a penalty annexed. The heads of it are as follow: That the archbishops of Dublin should be consecrated and enthroned in Christ church; That both churches should be called cathedral and metropolitan; That Christ church as the greater the mother and the elder should have the precedence in all rights and concerns of the see; and that the cross, mitre and ring of every archbishop, wherever he died, should be deposited therein; and lastly, That each church should have the alternate sepulture as a right of the bodies of the archbishops unless otherwise directed by their wills. Having thus, as he thought composed, the jealousies that existed between the cathedrals, the archbishop resided for the most part abroad, having constituted Thomas de Chadsworth his vicar general. His absence having operated injuriously to the affairs of his province, he at length became sensible of the dereliction of his duty and on his return from Rome, with the object of retrieving the detriment, he was seized with a sudden illness of which he died on the 18th of October 1306.

John Leech succeeded to the see in 1310 by the influence of King Edward II, to whom he was chaplain and almoner. Havering, who was bishop elect and confirmed without consecration enjoyed the profits of the see four years and then voluntarily resigned. On the application of John Leech, Pope Clement V issued his bull for founding an university for scholars in Dublin but a design so creditable to the memory of Leech was frustrated by the revival of the contest concerning the primatial right. Archbishop Leech was constituted lord treasurer of Ireland in the close of the year 1312 and died soon after on the 10th of August 1313 and was buried in Westminster.

In the meantime, the usual dispute arose between the Cathedrals regarding the appointment of a successor, one party declaring for Walter Thornbury, chaunter of St. Patrick's, and chancellor of Ireland, the other for Alexander de Bicknor, the descendant of an English family, then prebendary of Maynooth, and treasurer of Ireland. Walter on his election embarked for France where the pope then held his court but on the night of his departure a storm arose and Walter with a hundred and fifty six others perished. Alexander de Bicknor took a journey to Lyons with the king's letters earnestly recommending him to the pope as a man of profound judgment morality integrity and circumspection in spiritual and temporal affairs, yet his confirmation was postponed, as the sovereign required his personal services. At last John XXI confirmed his appointment to the see and Alexander de Bicknor was consecrated at Avignon by Nicholas de Prato, cardinal of Ostia, on the 22d of July 1317. He arrived in Dublin as archbishop and lord justice of Ireland, and was received by clergy and people with great acclamations of joy on the 9th of October 1318. Pope John XXII wrote to him, the archbishop of Cashel, and to the dean of Dublin, to excommunicate Robert Bruce and his adherents and also his brother, Edward, if they did not make restitution for the ravages murders robberies and burning of churches committed by them throughout the kingdom. In 1320 he founded an university in St. Patrick's, Dublin, which was confirmed by Pope John XXII public lectures were established but the deficiency of the endowment rendered the project abortive. The heretics of Kilkenny who were obliged to fly from the authority of their bishop took shelter in the archdiocese of Dublin and were protected from prosecution by de Bicknor. Ledred, bishop of Ossory, who was kept in confinement seventeen days by these heretics would have appealed to Rome in support of his prosecution but he found considerable difficulty even in getting out of Ireland in consequence of the steps taken by de Bicknor to prevent him. The bishop of Ossory did however pass over to France where he was detained by the power of King Edward. In this exile he was forced to remain nine years and in the interim the Archbishop de Bicknor seized the profits of the see of Ossory until he was compelled by the pope to withdraw his metropolitan power over the see of Ossory and this interdict lay over the diocese of Dublin until de Bicknor's death.

In 1349 the contest relative to the primacy was renewed with vehemence between de Bicknor and the primate of Armagh. On the 14th of July in the same year de Bicknor died having governed the see almost thirty two years. Ware says of him that he was not inferior to any of his predecessors in point of probity or learning but let the reader judge of his sheltering heretics and maltreating the bishop who prosecuted them.

John de St .Paul, prebendary of Donnington in the cathedral of Fork and canon of York, was by the pope advanced to the archbishoprick on the 12th of September 1350. De St. Paul was appointed chancellor of Ireland with a salary of 40 per annum, an office which he held six years. In 1351 the pope commissioned him to make inquiry regarding those who were accused of heresy and who fled into the diocese of Dublin and to bring them to punishment according to the canons. He thereupon restored the jurisdiction of Dublin over the see of Ossory. Having sat in the see about thirteen years he died on the 9th of September 1362 and was buried in Christ church. This prelate much enlarged and beautified the church of the Holy Trinity having built the choir at his own expense.

Priory of All Hallows, Dublin (Walsh)

From Walsh's History of the Irish Hierarchy: With the Monasteries of Each County, Biographical Notices of the Irish Saints, Prelates, and Religious, 1854, c. xliv, pps. 424:

Priory of All Hallows or All Saints founded AD 1166 for canons of the order of Aroasia by Diarmod MacMurchard, king of Leinster, now called College green. Strongbow the ravager of other shrines and monasteries was a great benefactor to this abbey.

AD 1174 died Milo de Cogan another benefactor.
AD 1380 it was enacted by parliament that no mere Irishman should be permitted to make his profession in this house.
AD 1548 died Walter Handcock the last prior. The prior of this monastery sat as a lord in parliament. The prior was seized of a castle and divers edifices within the precincts thereof and eight acres of arable land and all its appurtenances near Wingates and adjacent to the lands belonging to the college of Maynooth in the county of Kildare and of divers messuages and one thousand acres of arable land seven hundred of pasture one hundred of wood and two hundred of moor with their appurtenances &c., all of whichwere granted to the city of Dublin at the yearly rent of 4 4s 0 d Irish money. The university of Dublin is erected on the site of this monastery, the city of Dublin having granted the priory for this purpose at the persuasion of Loftus, the queen's bishop of that see.

Pilgrimage to Fairview

As the Archdiocesan website tell us, the building of the Church of the Visitation started in 1847 and it opened on the 14th of January 1855 and was dedicated on the 12th of October 1856. The Parish was entrusted to Conventual Franciscans March 1987.  However, this part of Dublin, so close to the site of the famous Battle of Clontarf, is steeped in history.  

The Parish has its origins in the Parish of Coolock, one of the medieval Parishes of Dublin and one of the few still operating during the Penal Era.  Until 1829, the whole of the area including Clontarf was part of this then rural Parish.  The Parish of Clontarf was formed in the auspicious year 1829 and building of the Church of St. John the Baptist commenced soon afterwards.  A monastic chapel for a community of Carmelite oblates served as the chapel of Fairview for the first half of the 19th century.

By the time the Church of the Visitation opened, the area had begun its rapid development.  All Hallows College had opened in 1842 and Clonliffe College opened in 1854.  The Archbishop was not to move from Rutland (now Parnell Square) to the present Archbishop's House - designed by our good friend William Hague - until 1891.  The Church of the Visitation was among the later designs of our good friend Patrick Byrne.  In 1879, the new Parish of Fairview was erected.  In the late 1920s and 1930s, the area just to the north and east of Fairview Church was developed for housing and the new Church of St. Vincent de Paul on Griffith Avenue completed in 1928 as the chapel of ease - forming its own Parish in 1942.  

Abbey of St. Mary les Dames, Dublin (Walsh)

From Walsh's History of the Irish Hierarchy: With the Monasteries of Each County, Biographical Notices of the Irish Saints, Prelates, and Religious, 1854, c. xliv, pps. 423:

Nunnery of St Mary les Dames without the east gate of the city which was thence called the gate of St Mary and the avenue leading from the castle to the university obtained the name of Dame street. In 1487 Lambert Simnell supported by many of the nobles was crowned king in the priory of the Holy Trinity by the name of Edward. The crown used on this occasion was borrowed from the statue of the blessed Virgin which stood in this nunnery. George Browne who was the schismatical and heretical bishop of Dublin united this church to that of St Werburgh.

The abbey of St Thomas (Walsh)

Shrine of Our Lady of Dublin

From Walsh's History of the Irish Hierarchy, 1854, c. xliv p. 424-5:

The abbey of St Thomas was founded in the part of Dublin called Thomas court for canons of St. Victor by William Fitz Adelm, butler to King Henry II.
A.D. 1174. About this time Simon was abbot.
A.D. 1200 Walter do Lacy son of Hugh the conqueror of Meath confirmed his father's benefactions to this abbey.
A.D. 1205 the contest which arose between this abbey and that of Bectiff in the county of Meath concerning the right to the body of Hugh de Lacy was determined in favor of St Thomas's.
A.D. 1326 Stephen Tyrrel was abbot.
A.D. 1354 John Walsh was abbot
A.D. 1380 the parliament of the English pale enacted that no mere Irishman should make profession in this abbey.
A.D. 1505 Walter Walsh was abbot.
A.D. 1529 James Cotterell was abbot.
A.D. 1534 Henry Duffe was abbot. In July 1538, he made a surrender of the abbey and its possessions. On the 10th of September an annual pension of forty two pounds was granted to him and to his predecessor James Cotterell a pension of 10. The abbot of this house was a baron of parliament.

Henry VIII granted a portion of the possessions of this abbey to William Brabazon Esq. forever at the annual rent of 18s 6d sterling. This ancestor of the earl of Meath obtained more grants of those possessions from King Henry at the yearly rent of £1 4s l1d.

In the 27th of Queen Elizabeth a grant was made to Anthony Deeringe of large possessions belonging to this abbey, one at 16s 8d Irish money, another at 20s Irish, and a third at £4 14s 4d, all in the county of Meath to be held by him and his heirs forever.

By an inquisition taken the 16th of January 1625 it was found that Henry Harrington knight was seized of some of its possessions at the value of 7s besides reprizes.

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Priory of the Holy Trinity, Dublin (Christ Church)(Walsh)

From Walsh's History of the Irish Hierarchy: With the Monasteries of Each County, Biographical Notices of the Irish Saints, Prelates, and Religious, 1854, c. xliv, pps. 421ff:

Priory of the Holy Trinity commonly called Christ church. Sitric the Danish prince of Dublin is said to have given Donatus the bishop of that see a site on which to erect a church in honor of the blessed Trinity. The year of the grant is marked in the black book of Christ church as taking place AD 1038.

On the advancement of St. Lawrence O'Toole to the see of Dublin AD 1163 he instituted the canons regular of the order of Arras instead of the secular canons.

AD 1176 died Richard earl of Pembroke called Strongbow of a cancerous sore in his leg and was interred in the church of the Holy Trinity within sight of the holy cross.

AD 1546 the tomb of a bishop who had been many centuries interred was this year opened the body was found whole and uncorrupted with a gold chalice rings and episcopal vestments.

Relics religiously preserved in this church: A crucifix said to have spoken the staff of Jesus; St. Patrick's altar; a thorn of our Saviour's crown; part of the Virgin Mary's girdle; some of the bones of SS Peter and Andrew; a few of those of the holy martyrs St. Clement, St. Oswald, St. Faith, the abbot Brendan, St. Thomas a Becket; St. Woolstan bishop of Worcester and St Lawrence O'Toole, all of which have been destroyed by the English reformers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in detestation of popery and idolatry.

The cloisters and other buildings attached to this magnificent church have been removed, the church alone remains, reminding the spectator of the splendor of ancient days and of the piety and faith of the Catholic church as exemplified in works of art and architectural taste. The court yard and the aisles of Christ church are at present nothing more than the promenade of the idle and the curious.

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The Archiepiscopal See of Dublin (1180 - 1294)(Walsh)

Medieval Walls of Dublin with St. Audoen's Tower

From Walsh's History of the Irish Hierarchy, 1854, c. xvi, p. 110 ff:

John Comyn succeeded and the English monarch who persecuted the holy prelate St Lawrence for his ardent attachment to the land of his birth no longer able to appropriate the revenues of the see resolved that an office of so much importance should not be entrusted to an Irishman who perhaps might be actuated by the same patriotic motives as St Lawrence and might more openly assume an hostility to the rule of the British monarch Accordingly on the monarch's earnest recommendation his chaplain John Comyn a native of England and a Benedictine monk of Evesham a man of eloquence and learning was elected on the 6th of September 1181 to the archbishopric of Dublin by some of the clergy who had assembled at Evesham for the purpose John was not then a priest but was in the following year ordained one at Velletri and on the 21st of March 1181 was consecrated by Pope Lucius III who took under his especial protection the see of Dublin and by bull dated the 13th of April 1182 and by virtue and authority of the holy canons ordered and decreed that no archbishop or bishop should without the assent of the prelate of Dublin presume to hold within the diocese of Dublin any conference or entertain any ecclesiastical causes or matters of the same diocese unless enjoined by the Roman Pontiff and his legate From this privilege which was introduced as appears against the claims of Canterbury arose the controversy regarding the primatial right of visitation which distracted both provinces for centuries afterwards The Primate of Armagh contended that he had notwithstanding this exemption the right of having his cross borne before him of holding appeals and visitations in the whole province of Leinster Though a bishop is bound to residence by the canons John was absent from his church three years and at length arrived in September 1184 having been despatched by the King to prepare for the reception of Prince John earl of Morton whom his royal parent had resolved to send into Ireland John as an English baron received the Prince at Waterford and obtained from him a grant of the bishopric of Glenda loch with all its appurtenances in lands manors churches tithes fisheries liberties to hold to him and his successors for ever but this union was not to take place during the life of William Piro then bishop of Glendaloch In the year 1186 archbishop Comyn held a provincial synod in Dublin in the church of the Holy Trinity The canons then enacted were confirmed under the leaden seal of Pope Urban III and are extant In 1189 this prelate rebuilt the cathedral of St Patrick erected it into a collegiate church and endowed it with suitable possessions plac in it thirteen prebendaries he also repaired and enlarged the choir of Christ church cathedral founded and endowed the nunnery of Grace Dieu in the county of Dublin for regular canonesses of St Augustine whom he removed from the more ancient convent of Lusk In 1197 Hamo de Valois justiciary of Ireland under Prince John finding the government embarrassed through the want of a treasury harassed John Comyn by seizing on several lands belonging to his see De Valois having enriched himself by plundering this see and also the laity was recalled from the government in consequence of a papal remonstrance in September 1198 Hamo de Valois struck with remorse for his spoliation made a grant of twenty ploughlands to the archbishop and his successors for ever The appeal to Rome having excited the anger of Prince John the prelate was not for some time received into favor John Comyn died on the 25th of October 1214 having survived the reconciliation about six years and was buried in Christ church where a noble monument was erected to his memory.

Henry de Loundres succeeded in the year 1213 He was archdeacon of Stafford and was consecrated in the beginning of 1214 in the following year he was cited to Rome to assist at a general council On his arrival there Pope Innocent HI ratified the union of Glendaloch with Dublin and in 1216 confirmed the possessions of this see in 1217 constituted legate of Ireland by the Pope he convened a synod at Dublin in which according to the annals of St Mary's abbey he established many things profitable to the Irish church In 1219 Henry de Loundres assumed the second time the administration of Ireland Jeoffrey de Marescis the governor having been recalled In 1228 by writ directed to the lords justices he received the custody of all vacant archbishoprics and bishoprics in Ireland the profits to be received by John de St John bishop of Ferns and treasurer of Ireland and by de Theurville archdeacon of Dublin and to be by them paid to the archbishop until the debts and obligations due by the crown to him should be satisfied This prelate erected the collegiate church of St Patrick into a cathedral united as Allen says with the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in one spouse saving to the other Church the prerogative of honor Having filled the see fifteen years he died about the beginning of July 1228 and was buried in Christ Church Of his tomb there is no trace This English prelate obtained the disgraceful epithet of Scorch villain Having summoned his tenants to give an account of the titles by which they held their lands they appeared and produced their deeds The bishop instantly possessed himself of them and consigned them to the fire to the injury of the unsuspecting farmers Whereupon they are said to have given him the opprobrious epithet alluded to.

Luke Dean of St Martin le Grand London treasurer of the king's wardrobe was through the influence of Hubert de Burgh Earl of Kent whose chaplain he had been elected in 1228 but his election had been declared null at Rome whereupon he was reelected though not confirmed by the Pope until the year 1230 when his patron the Earl of Kent incurred the king's displeasure and was cruelly persecuted and deserted by all his friends The Archbishop Luke mindful of the obligations of gratitude adhered to his interest and obtained by his perseverance in his cause milder terms from the sovereign than were originally intended In 1150 the archbishops bishops and clergy of Ireland who were of Irish birth had in a synod enacted a decree that no Englishman born should be admitted a canon in any of their churches A remonstrance being forwarded to the pope a bull was directed to them in which they were commanded to rescind the said decree within a month In 1258 a contest arose between the chapters of the two cathedrals concerning the election of the archbishops. Luke strove to adjust the matter by prescribing that the place of election should be only in the church of the Holy Trinity the dean and chapter of St Patrick's by joint votes assisting in the election but the latter not content with this adjustment the affair was brought before Innocent IV as a special injustice to the chapter of St Patrick's The pope empowered by bull dated the 20th of May the bishop of Emly the bishop and the dean of Limerick to settle the controversy About this time arose also the contest with Reyner archbishop of Armagh concerning the right of visitation In the latter part of his life Archbishop Luke suffered severely by a malady in his eyes which brought on a total loss of sight and eventually hastened his death in December 1225 He was buried in Christ church with his predecessor John Comyn.

Fulk de Sandford succeeded in 1256. Both chapters elected Ralph of Norwich canon of St Patrick's and treasurer of Ireland but he was betrayed at Rome by his agents as Matthew Paris states He was a witty pleasant companion and one who loved good cheer He was it seems too secular and worldly to be consecrated His election was therefore set aside and Fulk de Sandford archdeacon of Middlesex and treasurer of St Paul's London was by the pope's bull declared archbishop of Dublin In 1261. Fulk de Sandford took a journey to Rome on business connected with his see the management of it during his absence having been committed by the pope to the bishops of Lismore and Waterford On the 6th of May 1271 Archbishop Fulk died in his manor of Finglass his body was conveyed to St Patrick's church and deposited in the chapel of the Virgin Mary.

John de Derlington was declared the archbishop of Dublin by the pope who annulled the elections of William de la Corner by the prior and convent of the Holy Trinity and of Fromund le Brun by the dean and chapter of St Patrick's John was a doctor of divinity a Dominican friar and confessor to the late King Henry EH and had been his ambassador to Pope Nicholas in 1278 He was consecrated in Waltham Abbey on the 8th of September 1279 by John archbishop of Canterbury Matthew Paris describes him as a prelate of great authority because of his learning and wisdom Bale calls him a mercenary hireling and no shepherd and says that he died blasted by divine vengeance He was collector of the Peter pence both in England and Ireland to the pontiffs John XXI Nicholas HI and Martin IV His death took place suddenly in London on the 29th of March 1284 in the fifth year after his consecration in a Dominican convent and there buried John de Sandford was a native of England brother to Archbishop Fulk dean of St Patrick's a Franciscan friar and for some time es cheator of Ireland He was canonically elected by the chapter of St Patrick's and being confirmed by the king he was consecrated in the church of the Holy Trinity on palm Sunday 1286 In his early life he came to Ireland as vicar general to his brother and was presented by the baroness of Naas to the rectory of Maynooth John was a prelate in great reputation for learning wisdom and discretion He died in October 1294 having been seized with a grievous distemper His body was conveyed from England at the desire of the Canons of St Patrick's and buried there in his brother's monument.

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