A History of St. Laurence O'Toole - Part 1

From Lanigan's An Ecclesiastical History of Ireland (1822, vol. iv, chapt. xxviii, p. 172ff.):

The see of Dublin being now vacant several competitors started for it but the electors fixed their eyes upon the holy abbot of Glendaloch Laurence O'Toole who for a long time resisted their proposal and wishes but at length was forced to submit and was consecrated archbishop in the cathedral of Dublin by Gelasius the primate accompanied by many bishops. (44) This was in the year 1162 (45) The original name of this great and good man was Lorcan (46) and he was of the illustrious house of the O Tuathals being the youngest son of Muriartach O Tuathal prince of Imaly or Imaile in the now county of Wicklow. (47) His mother was of the equally great family of the Hy Brins now usually called Byrne. (48) Lorcan or Laurence remained with his parents until he was about ten years old when he was given as a hostage by his father to the king Diermit. (49) This wicked king bore a great hatred to Muriartach and sent the boy to a barren district where he was treated with great cruelty. His father on being apprized of it seized upon twelve of Diermit's soldiers and threatened to put them to death unless his son was restored to him Diermit alarmed at this menace and knowing that Muriartach's territory was impregnable and could defy all his power thought it adviseable to dismiss Laurence and sent him not to his father but to the bishop of Glendaloch under the condition of getting back his twelve soldiers. The good bishop kept Laurence with himself for 12 days placing him under the care of his chaplain who treated him very kindly and instructed him in the principles of the Christian doctrine Laurence who was at that time 12 years old then returned to his father's residence. (50)

After some days his father taking Laurence with him paid a visit to the bishop of Glendaloch and proposed to him to inquire by casting lots which of his sons he should dedicate to the ecclesiastical state. Laurence on hearing this is reported to have laughed and said Father there is no necessity for casting lots if you allow me I will embrace it with pleasure. The father smiled and the bishop and others present were rejoiced to find that a boy of such high lineage should offer himself for the service of the Church. His father then consenting with joy and taking him by the right hand offered him to God and St. Coemhgen the patron of Glendaloch recommending him to the care of the bishop for his instruction in learning and piety. Under his tuition and protection Laurence made great progress in the religious duties and acquirements necessary for a clergyman but after some years he lost this worthy friend and master who was carried off by death. (51) Yet he still persevered in his pious pursuits and continued to improve in virtue so that after some time he was when 25 years of age elected abbot of the monastery of Glendaloch which was distinct from the bishopric. (52) This abbey was very rich and it had been the custom to choose for its abbots men of the highest families who might be able to protect the adjacent country Laurence made the best possible use of the wealth of the monastery distributing it among crowds of distressed and poor persons who were afflicted by a dreadful famine that raged throughout all that district for four years. (53) He used to provide them by means of his monks with corn and other necessaries and his liberality was so extensive that at length the riches of the abbey not being sufficient for the wants of the poor he distributed among them a treasure which his father had left with him in deposit. He was however as great and holy men usually are reviled by certain false and envious brethren but who with all their malignity could not find any thing in his conduct deserving of reproach. By dint of prayers he cleared the country from some powerful robbers who were overtaken by the divine vengeance. Towards the end of the first four years of his administration tranquillity was restored and a very abundant harvest ensued yet Laurence still continued his largesses to the poor and set about building churches. About this time the then bishop of Glendaloch died and every one called out for Laurence as his successor. But he refused to accept of the appointment excusing himself on his not having as yet reached the age required for a bishop. (54) Some years after these occurrences Gregory archbishop of Dublin died and Laurence was as we have seen appointed his successor. (55)

In the same year 1162 Gelasius of Armagh held a synod at Clane in the now county of Kildare which was attended by 26 bishops many abbots and other clergymen. After enacting several decrees relative to Church discipline and morals it was ordered with the unanimous consent of the synod that for the future no one should be admitted a Fer leghinn that is a professor or teacher of theology in any church in Ireland unless he had previously studied for some time at Armagh. (56) When returned to his diocese Gelasius did not remain idle but immediately made a visitation of it exerting himself most strenuously to correct whatever abuses fell in his way. (57) To said year 1162 is assigned the death of Cathasac, a scholastic of Derry. (58)

Notes in Lanigan
(45) Four Masters ap. Tr. Th. p 309. Ware Archbishops of Dublin at Laurence O Toole
(46) Four Masters ib. Lorcan was latinized into Laurentius. In the quoted Life cap. 2 there is a ridiculous story about his having been called Laurentius from laurus laurel
(47) In said Life cap. 1 his father is called Muriartach O'Toheil and is made king of Leinster. This is a mistake for the O'Tuathal country was far from comprizing all that province. In Butler's Life of St. Laurence at 14 November the principality of Muriertach or Maurice is said to have been in the vicinity of Dublin But Imaile or as usually called the Glen of Imaile is several miles from Dublin lying to the SW of Glendaloch and stretching to near the town of Donard.
(48) The author of the Vit. S.L. says cap. 1 that the saint's mother was called Inian Ivrien that is as he adds daughter of a prince. But this is not the meaning of the words which ought to be translated daughter of Hy Brin or O'Brin from the Irish Ingean pronounced like Inian a daughter and Ivrien that is Hy Brin. It is strange that Harris did not see into this when quoting Archbishops of Dublin at Laurence 8 c. the passage of that author. In a note to the Life in Butler I find instead of Hy Brin or O Brin alias Byrne the name written O Brian. This is wrong for the O Brians were a quite distinct family being of the Dalcassian princes of Munster whereas the O Brins were originally a Leinster house supposed to be descended from the celebrated king Brandubh who was killed about the year 602.
(49) This Diermit is usually and I think justly supposed to have been the famous Dermod Mac Morough king of Leinster although Usher Syllog. Not. ad No. 48 makes him a different person. But I believe he was mistaken Mac Morough was king of Leinster at the time that St. Laurence was ten years old.
(50) Vit. S.L. cap. 3 The then bishop of Glendaloch was apparently the immediate predecessor of Gilla na Naomh Laignech who assisted at the council of Kells but his name is not known.
(51) ib. capp. 4, 5.
(52) In Butler's Life this matter is not stated correctly. In it we read Upon the death of the bishop of Glendaloch who was at the same time abbot of the monastery. Laurence though but 25 years old was chosen abbot and only shunned the episcopal dignity by alleging that the canons require in a bishop thirty years of age. Now in the first place there is no authority for saying that the bishop was also abbot of the monastery. What the Latin Life has is merely that there were in the church of Glendaloch both an episcopal see and an abbey but it does not state that any bishop possessed them both together. On the contrary it constantly represents them as quite distinct and informs us cap. 6 that the abbey was far more wealthy than the see. Nor had Butler any reason for supposing that it was upon the death of the bishop that Laurence was chosen abbot and probably a considerable time elapsed between said death and Laurence's promotion to the abbacy. Next comes a great mistake in Butler's imagining that the bishop after whose death Laurence shunned the episcopal dignity was the same as the one by whom he had been instructed and after whose death he became abbot as if the appointment to the abbacy and the offer of the bishopric had taken place at the same time Laurence was as will be soon seen abbot for four years before he refused to accept of the see that became vacant at the end of them by the death of the bishop who consequently was not the one who had been his master but his successor.
(53) I do not know why Butler has four months instead of four years for in Messingham's edition of the Latin Life four years are mentioned in cap. 6 and cap. 9 54 Vit. S.L. cap. 10 Laurence was then only 29 years old having been appointed abbot at the age of 25. That foul mouthed liar Ledwich gives Antiq. etc. p. 48 as the reason of Laurence not having accepted of the see of Glendaloch that his ambition aspired to an higher dignity the pall and the see of Dublin and he soon attained them. But he did not soon attain them for some years intervened before he became archbishop of Dublin. What idea could he have had at that time of his ever being chosen to govern the Danish city of Dublin he a Tuathal an O'Toole. It is as clear as day light that instead of having an eye to that situation he was forced to submit to it the proposal relative to it having come without his knowledge from the electors of Dublin. The fact is that Laurence did not wish to be a bishop at all. Many a conscientious man may agree to being made abbot but holy men do not aspire to bishoprics Harris was much more honest who says Archbishops of Dublin at Laurence that he could not have the opportunities of exerting his strong disposition to charity when bishop of Glendaloch as he had when abbot because the revenues of the bishopric were infinitely inferior to those of the abbacy. The bishop in whose stead it was proposed to appoint Laurence was I am sure Gilla na Naomh mentioned above Note 50. In what year he died I do not find but it must have been between 1152 and 1161 the year of the death of Gregory of Dublin.
(55) Butler is wrong in stating that St. Laurence was only thirty years of age about the time of Gregory's death. This cannot agree with the Latin life which states cap. 10 that a no short time "non breve tempus" elapsed between the time of Laurence's refusing the see of Glendaloch and that of the death of Gregory. Now Laurence was 29 years old when he made that refusal and in Butler's hypothesis only one year would have passed between it and said death. But surely so short a space would not have been called a "non breve tempus" or how could the author of said Life have said cap. 33 that he died full of days plemts dierum if he was only about thirty when he became archbishop of Dublin. For in this case he would not have outlived the age of fifty whereas his incumbency began in 1162 and he died in 1180. Accordingly Harris was right ib. in reckoning some years between his refusal of the see of Glendaloch and the death of Gregory.
(56) Thus the Life of Gelasius cap. 23 and the 4 Masters ap. Tr. Th. p. 309. But according to certain anonymous annals quoted by Harris (Bishops at Gelasius) the decree was, as he explains it, that they should have been fostered or else adopted by Armagh. As to fostered it means that they must have studied at Armagh conformably to the phrase alumnus which is used for a student in a university or college thus "ex c. alumnus universitatis Parisiens" signifies a student of the university of Paris. But the words adopted by Armagh indicate a class of persons who had not actually studied there but who should be approved of by to use a modern technical term the faculty of Armagh and authorized by it to teach theology publicly in the same manner as in our times degrees and diplomas are taken out at universities and in many of them are granted after previous examination to persons who had studied elsewhere. It is very probable that the decree of Clane did not require that all those who might afterwards be appointed public professors of theology should have actually studied at Armagh and that it was sufficient that on their capability being ascertained they had been approved of by the president and doctors of that distinguished school. It is difficult to think that while there were several other great schools in Ireland "ex c. Lismore Clonmacnois Clonard &c" persons of aspiring genius bent on improving themselves in theology would have been forced to repair from all parts of the island to Armagh to prosecute their studies there. It was a sufficiently high compliment to its school or university to grant it the exclusive privilege of approving of and authorizing persons to become public teachers. The decree understood in this manner was a very wise one inasmuch as it served to uphold uniformity of doctrine.
(57) Life &c. cap. 25
(58) Tr. Th. p. 632

Lusk Abbey (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 p. 434-5

Lusk in the barony of Balruddery twelve miles north of Dublin 

AD 497 St. Culineus or Macculine was abbot and bishop of Lusk.  His feast is there observed on the 6th of September 

AD 498 died the bishop Cuynea MacCathmoa 

AD 616 died the bishop Petranus 

AD 695 died Cassan the learned scribe of Lusk. In this year a synod was held at Lusk/ St/ Adamnanus was present it was also attended by the principal prelates of the kingdom. There are extant certain decrees usually called the canons of Adamnan and which are chiefly relative to some meats improper for food together with a prohibition of eating such of them as contain blood. Colga, the son of Moenach, abbot of Lusk, attended the synod 

AD 734 died the abbot Conmaole MacColgan 

AD 781 died the abbot Conel or Colgan 

AD 825 the Danes destroyed and ravaged this abbey 

AD 835 died Ferbassach bishop of Lusk 

AD 854 the abbey and town were destroyed by fire 

AD 874 died the bishop Benacta 

AD 882 died the bishop Mutran 

AD 901 died Buadan, bishop of Lusk 

AD 906 died the bishop Colman 

AD 924 Tuathal MacOenagan, bishop of Duleeke and Lusk died 

AD 965 died the blessed Ailild, son of Moenach, bishop of Swords and Lusk

Many of the ancient monasteries having been totally demolished and wrecked by the Danes, the succession of bishops has been lost and those minor sees became merged in the greater bishoprics. Many of those ancient monasteries have not been rebuilt as persons desirous to embrace the monastic state could enter the establishments of canons regular as well as those of the Benedictine and Cistercian orders which were introduced by St. Malachy. 

The church of Lusk consists of two long aisles divided by seven arches adjoining the west end stands a handsome square steeple three angles of which are supported by round towers and, near to the fourth angle, is one of those ancient round towers so peculiar to Ireland. It is in good preservation and rises several feet above the battlements of the steeple. 

Nunnery. This house which was originally founded for nuns of the order of Aroasia was afterwards appropriated to the priory of All Saints, Dublin, and in the year 1190 it was translated to Grace Dieu by John, archbishop of Dublin. The walls said to have been those of this ancient nunnery are still to be seen at Lusk

Kilmainham Priory (Walsh) EDIT

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 p. 431-

Kilmainham adjoining the city of Dublin on the south side anciently called Kill Magnend. St. Magnendus was abbot of this monastery in the early part of the seventh century.  He is said to be the son of Aidus, prince of Orgiel, who died AD 606. The name of St. Magnend occurs in the Irish calendars at the 18th of December. 

Priory of Kilmainham under the invocation of St. John the Baptist was founded about the year 1174 for Knights Templar by Richard Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, or Strigul. King Henry II confirmed his act. Hugh de Cloghall was the first prior. 

AD 1205 Maurice de Prendergast was prior 

AD 1231 John de Callan was prior 

AD 1274 the prior William Fitz Roger was made a prisoner with several others by the Irish at Glendelory, when many of the friars were slain 

AD 1301 William de Rosse was prior. He was also lord deputy of Ireland. In 1302, William was chief justice 

AD 1307 Walter de Aqua was prior. In this year the Templars were everywhere seized. Gerald, fourth son of Maurice, lord of Kerry, was the last grand prior of that order in Ireland. In the space of one hundred and twenty six years during their institution to the time in which the order was suppressed, the Knights Templar were in possession of 16,000 lordships. Their lands and possessions of every kind were bestowed on the knights of St. John of Jerusalem by the Pope, the king confirming the grant. In England many of the knights Templar were committed to monasteries with a daily allowance to each of four pence and to the grand master of two shillings daily, the chaplains were allowed three pence daily and to their servants the sum of two pence were given and for this allowance they were to perform the former services they had before done for the Templars, while their lands were in their possession. It is probable that the same mode of treatment was adopted in Ireland by the ministers of the crown. 

This priory, which was granted to the knights of the order of St. John, became an hospital for the reception of guests and strangers, totally excluding the sick and infirm who had admission before this change. It became exempt from all ordinary jurisdiction. 

AD 1315 William de Ross was probably the first prior 

AD 1316 Roger Outlaw was prior 

AD 1321 Roger Outlaw the prior was lord chancellor of Ireland 

AD 1327 Roger continued prior and lord chancellor 

AD 1328 Roger was accused of heresy by Richard Ledred bishop of Ossory. On enquiry made he was honorably acquitted 

AD 1333 Roger was prior 

AD 1340 Roger was prior and chancellor.  He died this year, is recorded as an upright and prudent man who, by care and the especial favor and license of the king, had procured many lands churches and rents for his order 

AD 1340 John Marshall succeeded as prior 

AD 1341 John le Archer was prior and lord chancellor of Ireland 

AD 1349 John continued in his offices 

AD 1479 James Keating was prior. In consequence of maladministration, he was deprived by the grand master of Rhodes Peter Daubussen, who appointed Marmaduke Lomley, an Englishman of a noble family, to succeed. Having landed at Clontarf, a commandery of the order, Keatinge hastened thither with a body of armed men, took Lomley prisoner and detained him in close confinement until he had resigned all the instruments of his election and confirmation. Lomley protesting against the violence that was offered to his person. An account of those violent proceedings being forwarded to the king and to the grand master at Rhodes. Keating enraged at the sentence of excommunication which was pronounced against himself, expelled Lomley from the commandery of Kilsaran, which he had before assigned him, and threw him into prison, accusing the unfortunate Lomley as the cause of those troubles. The archbishop of Armagh strenuously but in vain strove to liberate him. Lomley died, as appears in an act of the tenth of Henry VII, of a broken heart. Keatinge was at length dislodged having kept forcible possession of the hospital until 1491 and ended his factious life, as is supposed, in the most abject poverty and contempt. Keating, having alienated the property of the hospital, it was enacted in 1494 that all persons who should have in their custody any of the holy cross jewel or ornament belonging to the priory, pledged by Keating, it should be restored to the present James Wall, who was directed to pay the money for which the relics were sold or pledged 

AD 1496 Sir Richard Talbot was prior, was displaced in the year by the grand master 

AD 1498 Robert Evers was prior removed in 1591 by the same 

AD 1535 Sir John Rawson the prior surrendered to the royal King Henry VIII. Sir John was created viscount of Clontarf, a pension of five hundred marcs from the estate of the hospital 

AD 1557 The prior of the hospital was, by authority of Cardinal the Pope's legate, whose mother the countess of Salisbury King Henry VIII sent to the block, restored to his former possessions, the Queen having confirmed the act under the great seal

Sir Oswald Massingberd was made prior who, on the accession of Queen Elizabeth, withdrew from the kingdom. The priory of Kilmainham, at the dissolution, was one of the most and elegant structures in the kingdom. By an inquisition the thirty-second of Henry VIII, the hospital had three gardens and an orchard within the walls, four towers erected on those walls, three other gardens and an orchard and two hundred and sixty acres of arable land. Parcels of its possessions were granted to the burgesses and commonalty of the town of Athenry in the county of Galway, another to Anthony Deering, the twentieth of Queen Elizabeth, to hold forever at the annual rent of 16s Irish money, and again in the thirty-sixth of that good Protestant queen, a grant was made to William Browne to hold to him and to his heirs forever in free soccage at the annual rent of 57 10s

Swords Abbey (Walsh)

Swords Castle, County Dublin

From Walsh's History of the Irish Hierarchy, 1854, c. xliv p. 437:

Swords in the barony of Coolock six miles north of Dublin. By some attributed to St. Columbkille.

St. Finan surnamed the leper from his having been afflicted with some cutaneous disease during thirty years of his life governed the monastery of Swords and very probably was the founder. He was a native of Ely O Carrol then a part of Munster and was of an illustrious family. Two other monasteries are attributed to St. Finan, the celebrated monastery of Innisfallen, an island in the lake of Killarney, and that of Ardfinan in the county of Tipperary. Finan spent some time of his life apparently as abbot of Clonmore which had been founded by St. Maidoc of Ferns. The house of Swords was his principal residence and probably the place of his death. St. Finan died in the reign of Finachta, monarch of Ireland. The day of his death is marked in Irish and foreign martyrologies at the 16th of March. He is said to have been the disciple of St. Columbkille but, as his death is placed between the years 675 and 695, he could not have been the disciple of that saint who died in 597.

Swords is called Surdum Sancti Columbae, a name it may have received from its being of the order of St. Columba.

A.D. 965 died the bishop of Swords, Aillila son of Moenach. Here again we meet with bishops in the vicinity of Dublin both at Lusk and Swords.
A.D. 1012 the Danes reduced the town to ashes.  In 1016 renewed their ravages
A.D. 1025 died Marian Hua Cainen, bishop of Swords. He was surnamed 'the Wise.'
A.D. 1042 died the archdeacon of Swords Eochogan, a celebrated scholar and scribe of this monastery.
A.D. 1135 Connor O Melaghlin, king of Meath, sacked and wasted the towns of Swords and Lusk. He was slain in the expedition.
A.D. 1138 the reliques and churches were destroyed by fire.

Nunnery. In the fourteenth year of the reign of king Edward IV, A.D. 1474, there is an actual grant by Parliament of twenty shillings yearly from the crown revenue to Eleonora prioress of Swords and her successors. No more recorded of it.

Palmerstown Priory (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 p. 435

Palmerstown in the barony of Newcastle on the river Liffey and miles west of Dublin. Richard, prior of the house of St. Lawrence near Dublin sued Reginald de Barnevalle and his mother Joan for a freehold in Tyrnewer they held contrary to law. 

AD 1427 Henry VI granted the custody of the leper house near to John Waile to hold the same with all the messuages and tenements thereunto belonging at the yearly rent of three shillings so long as the same would continue in his the king's hands.

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The Archiepiscopal See of Dublin (1823-)(Walsh)

Archbishop Murray of Dublin

From Walsh's History of the Irish Hierarchy, 1854, c. xvi, p. 133 ff:

Daniel Murray succeeded in 1823 was born on the 18th of April 1768 at Sheepwalk in the parish of Redcross and county of Wicklow. At the age of sixteen years he was sent to Salamanca where he studied for some years and on his return to Ireland was appointed curate in the parish of St Paul, Dublin, whence he was shortly afterwards removed to that of Arklow. There he remained until obliged by the outrages of 1798 to seek refuge in the metropolis. He became attached to St Andrew's parish and after a short interval was removed to St Mary's. In 1805 he was named prebendary of Wicklow and parish priest of Clontarf but the latter preferment he declined. In 1809 at the instance of Doctor Troy he was appointed archbishop of Hieropolis and coadjutor of Dublin and consecrated on the 30th of November in this year, the Archbishop Troy officiating as consecrator and the bishops Delany and Ryan as assistants. Having sojourned several months in the French capital in the year following he had the satisfaction of procuring an ordinance whereby the right of the archbishops and bishops of Ireland to exercise superintendence over the property belonging to Irish houses was recognised and in accordance with their wishes the Sieur Ferris administrator general was ordered to resign his functions and to deliver up to his successors the moneys deeds movables and effects belonging to the Irish colleges in France.

On the death of John Thomas Troy in 1823 Dr Murray succeeded to the see of Dublin and in 1825 was one of the prelates who drew up the pastoral instructions to the clergy and laity of Ireland, exhorting the former to the fulfillment of all their obligations the steadfast maintenance of an exemplary life as by it the pastor preaches more eloquently than in his sermons or exhortations; the vigilant administration of the holy sacraments as nothing can excuse from this all important duty, as nothing can exempt from it, not labor or fatigue nor watching nor hunger or thirst heat nor cold. In this important duty there is no just cause of delay. 

Zeal in promoting the honor and love of God but in order that zeal be efficient and productive of fruit it must be directed by prudence and charity, charity which is benign bears all, suffers all, vigilance in the instruction of children, because on their moral and religious education not only depends their own happiness but also that of the church and the state, labor for them in good and evil report to obtain it when it could be without a compromise of their precious faith or of that salutary discipline which surrounds and protects it as the walls and ramparts do the city. Turn away from them every insidious wile of the deceiver and while studying to have peace with all men forget not that you are the watchmen on the towers of the city of God to detect the ambuscades of her enemies. Engrave on the tender heart of the little ones the obedience they owe to God their parents their prince and to all in authority over them to inspire them with a horror of vice and a love of virtue.

Your door is the first at which the cry of distress or of misery is first heard. Let the poor find in you the sympathy of a father, the bowels of tenderness and of compassion. Remember, says this instruction, that an ecclesiastic, whether in the sanctuary or dwelling in the world, should appear a man of superior mind and of exalted virtue a man whose example can improve society whose manners irreproachable, can reflect honor on the church and add to the glory and splendor of religion, a man whose modesty should be apparent to all, as the apostle recommends, and who should be clothed with justice as the prophet expresses it.

What Dr Murray inculcated he did not forget to practice in his own life... 

During the episcopacy of Dr Murray was founded the College of All Hallows which is a prodigy of national faith and Catholic enterprise. It realizes the tendencies of the Irish people and shows what Ireland is ever ready to accomplish in the cause of religion reminding us at the same time what Catholic Ireland has done in ages long past in spreading the light of faith. Though fears were entertained of the feasibility of the project still Ireland has erected the college given it inmates provides them maintenance and will continue to maintain those groups of young and ardent missionaries who diverge with the winds of heaven to every point where salvation is to be brought to Israel/ With promptitude the archbishop of Dublin listened to the young ecclesiastic whose piety and zeal conceived the plan of founding this college for the foreign missions he applauded the design encouraged it by his patronage he recommended its cause to the protection of the prelates he saw its onward career with delight and the Almighty prolonged the life of the venerable Daniel Murray, who has been styled the De Sales of Ireland, to behold its triumphant success. When the ministers of England well acquainted with the unblemished life and high reputation of Dr Murray offered to confer upon him the distinguished post of privy councillor, the Archbishop of Dublin respectfully declined the honor proffered.

Tallaght (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 p. 437-8

Tallaght in the barony of Newcastle and five miles from Dublin. St. Maelruan, was abbot and bishop of Tallaght, is reckoned among the learned men of his age and probably was the first among the authors of the Martyrology of Tallaght. Among his disciples for several years was Aengus the great Hagiologist. St Maelruan died on the 7th of July, AD 788. Here another bishop resided within five miles of Dublin 

AD 824 Saint Aengus was abbot. This celebrated saint was of an illustrious family descended from the ancient princes of Dalaradia in Ulster. His father was Aengaven, son of Hoblen, hence Aengus is distinguished by that surname. He embraced the monastic state in the convent of Clonenagh under the holy abbot Moetlagen and made great progress in piety and learning. He was accustomed to spend a great part of the day in a lonesome spot not far distant from the monastery, called after him Diseart Aengus, where he was engaged in reading the Psalms and in constant prayer. 

His reputation for sanctity becoming very great.  He wished to withdraw to some place in which he would be unknown. Having heard of the strict and exemplary discipline with which St. Maelruan governed his monastery, he resolved to put himself under his instruction and guidance. When arrived at the monastery of Tallaght, Aengus concealed his name and his rank in the Church and requested to be received as a novice. It is said that he was employed seven years in the most laborious avocations, and his humility and the austerity of his life were so remarkable that he was called Celle Dhia, i.e., the servant or companion of God. 

At length his rank and acquirements were discovered by St. Maelruan in consequence of his having assisted one of the school boys of the monastery in preparing his task at which he had been either dull or negligent and who was afraid of being punished by St. Maelruan. The boy hid himself in the barn where Aengus was working and who taking compassion on the youth assisted him so well that he was enabled to recite his task to the satisfaction of his master. Surprised at the change of his pupil, Maelruan pressed him to tell how it came to pass and compelled him to relate the whole circumstance, although Aengus desired him to be silent on the matter. Maelruan, who had hitherto considered Aengus as an illiterate rustic, repaired to the barn and embracing him complained of having concealed his name and expressed his deep regret for the humble and abject manner with which he had been treated. Aengus prostrating himself at the feet of the holy abbot begged pardon for what he had done. 

Henceforth, he was regarded with the greatest consideration and it is probable that he remained at Tallaght until Maelrnan's death in 788. He must then have succeeded to the abbacy of Tallaght. He became afterwards the abbot of Clonenagh. He was also raised to the episcopal rank without leaving the monasteries which he governed. Aengus died on the 11th of March but in what year is not recorded and was buried at Clonenagh. 

Besides the martyrology of Tallaght, he composed another work on the saints of Ireland divided into five small books, the first containing the names of three hundred and forty five bishops, two hundred and ninety nine priests and abbots and seventy eight deacons, the second entitled the Homonymous or saints of the same name as Colman &c., the thirdm the book of sons and daughters, giving an account of holy persons born of the same parents, the fourth giving the maternal genealogy of about two hundred and ten Irish saints, and the fifth, a collection of litanies in which are invoked groups of saints among whom are included several foreigners who died in Ireland. In this litany he specifies the very places in which they are interred...

In addition to the evidence which this litany supplies of the ancient fame and sanctity of Ireland and of the esteem and veneration with which the natives of other countries regarded our isle as the asylum of piety and learning and hospitality, there are all over the country monumental inscriptions which evidently demonstrate the truth which the litany of Aengus unfolds. And, although Ireland converted myriads in the sister isle and afforded hospitality to her princes and to her ascetics, still England and England alone, and wherever she has planted the false tenets of her heretical doctrines, the name of Ireland and of Irishmen is despised. While, all over the continent of Europe, Ireland and her people are revered and respected. English, Roman, Italian, Gallic and even Egyptian saints seven in number are recounted in the litany of Aengus.

Another work of his a poetical one comprises the history of the Old Testament, which he put into the form of prayers and praises to God. 

AD 889 died St. Dichull. There was an abbot of Louth of this name of whom St. Patrick is said to have prophesied. 

AD 937 died Laidgene comorb of Ferns and Tamlacht. 

AD 964 died Cronmalius, professor of this abbey 

AD 1125 died Maelsuthumius another professor.

Allen's Hospital (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 p. 429.

Allen's Hospital. Walter archbishop of Dublin, about the year 1500, granted a space of ground on which to build a stone house for ten poor men.  June 8th, 1504, John Allen, then dean of St Patrick's cathedral, founded this hospital for sick poor to be chosen from the families of Allen, Barret, Begge, Hill, Dillon and Rodier in the diocese of Dublin and Meath, and to be good and faithful catholics of good fame and honest conversation the dean assigned lands for their support and maintenance and further endowed the hospital with a messuage in the town of Duleek county of Meath. The founder died January the 2nd, 1505.

Hospital of St Stephen (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 p. 428.

Hospital of St Stephen was situated in the south suburbs of the city and Mercer's charitable hospital has been erected on the site thereof.  January 30th, 1344, a license was granted to Geoffrey de St. Michael, guardian of St. Stephen's, permitting him to go to foreign countries for the space of two years. Nothing more known of the establishment.

Steyne Hospital. Henry de Loundres archbishop of Dublin about the year 1220 founded this hospital in honor of God and St James in this place so called near the city of Dublin. He endowed it with the lands of Kilmachurry, Kilmalmahnock, Slewardach and the church of Delgeny.

The abbey of Carmelite or White friars (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 p. 428.

The abbey of Carmelite or White friars

In the year 1278 the Carmelite friars represented to King Edward I that, by several grants of Roger Owen James de Bermingham and Nicholas Bacuir, they had procured a habitation for themselves with certain tenements and other possessions within the city of Dublin, and that they proposed to erect thereon a church.  The king, by writ dated the 6th of November, commanded the bailiffs and citizens of Dublin to permit the friars to inhabit the said place and build their church without let or hindrance.  The citizens obstinately opposed the friars, shewing the many inconveniences that would arise from their petition.  Being thus defeated the Carmelites applied with more success to Sir Robert Bagot, knight, chief justice of the king's bench, who built a monastery for them in the parish of St Peter in the south suburbs of the city, on a site which he purchased from the abbey of Baltinglass in the county of Wicklow.

AD 1320 John Sugdaeus provincial of the Carmelite friars in Ireland held a chapter of the order 

AD 1333 the parliament sat in a hall of this monastery. Among its benefactors were Richard II, Henry IV and Henry VI, from whom this house obtained a grant of 100l annually to be paid out of the customs of the city of Dublin.  

William Kelly was the last prior and in the thirty-fourth of Henry VIII, this convent, with eleven acres, nine houses, gardens and orchards, was granted to Nicholas Stanehurst at the annual rent of 2s 6d.  It was afterwards conceded by Elizabeth to Francis Aungier, created baron of Longford, in June, 1621. 

The Carmelites have again established themselves in the metropolis of Ireland.

The Archiepiscopal See of Dublin (1762-1823)(Walsh)

Archbishop Troy, O.P.

From Walsh's History of the Irish Hierarchy, 1854, c. xvi, p. 129 ff:

Patrick Fitzsimon, dean of Dublin and parish priest of St Audeon's, was appointed to the archdiocese, a dignity which he filled six years in a manner solely ecclesiastical and unobtrusive. It is worthy of remark that his prudence and judgment were preeminently evinced on the occasion of the test oaths when the Pope's nuncio at Brussels, Ghillini, denounced them and directed an authoritative remonstrance against them, which he designed to be circulated as a pastoral throughout the province. These oaths were projected as a security by the government in the event of conceding emancipation to the Irish Catholics. The archbishop suppressed the nuncio's remonstrance. The Irish parliament in the last year of this prelate's life issued an order to the parliamentary archbishops and bishops of the kingdom to make out a list of the several families in their parishes, distinguishing Protestant from Catholic, and also of the several popish priests and friars residing in their parishes. Having attained the age of seventy six years, the archbishop died in Francis Street, Dublin AD 1769

John Carpenter succeeded on the 3d of June, 1770. Having passed to a foreign university, Lisbon, to acquire his education and degrees, he was, on his return to his native city of Dublin, appointed curate in St Mary's parish chapel. Early in his missionary life, he was involved in the political struggles of the day and engaged with Lord Taaffe, who was the venerable mediator of the Irish Catholics, but they were then considered of too little importance to be noticed by the government. On the death of Archbishop Fitzsimon the regulars of the province anxiously solicited the translation of De Burgo, bishop of Ossory and the author of Hibernia Dominicana, to the see of Dublin, however, through the influence of the earl of Fingal, Charles O'Connor of Belanagare and others of the Catholic nobility and gentry and the hearty concurrence of the Dublin clergy, the promotion of Doctor Carpenter was effected. He was consecrated in Liffey street chapel by Anthony Blake, the primate of Armagh, assisted by the bishops of Kildare and Ossory. In November, 1778, Doctor Carpenter, seventy of his clergy and several hundred Roman Catholics of the laity, attended at the court of king's bench in Dublin and took the oaths prescribed by the act of parliament for the relief of the Roman Catholics of Ireland. On the 29th of October, 1786, Archbishop Carpenter closed his mortal career in the fifty ninth year of his age and was buried in St Michan's churchyard, Dublin. He was not a prelate gifted with any remarkably splendid talents.  They were more distinguished for sound judgment strong memory and diligent research.

John Thomas Troy succeeded in 1786 was born near Porterstown in the county of Dublin. At the early age of fifteen he went to Rome to prosecute his studies there assumed the Dominican habit and at length became the rector of St Clement's in that city. In 1776, on the death of De Burgo, bishop of Ossory, the pope selected this divine as worthy to fill his vacant chair. He was accordingly consecrated at Louvain on his way homeward by the archbishop of Mecklin assisted by two mitred abbots.

On arriving in his diocese of Ossory he revived the ecclesiastical conferences of the clergy that were from necessity discontinued. In January, 1779, and again in October of the same year, he published very spirited circulars against the system of whiteboyism then prevalent and caused excommunication to be solemnly pronounced against all those who were engaged in its folly through all the churches of his diocese. In 1787, he issued pastoral directions to his clergy in which they were strictly prohibited the future celebration of midnight masses by which the festival of Christ's nativity was ushered in and that none should be celebrated before six o clock in the morning.  He forbade any priest secular or regular from appearing at hunts races or public concerts. In 1793, Doctor Troy published pastoral instructions on the duties of Christian citizens, which were impugned as favoring republicanism but the whole scope of his writings was to show that Roman Catholics adhering to the principles of their Church are loyal and good subjects because their religion inculcates obedience to constituted authority and to the power that is established under any form of government. His loyalty to the throne was too well known to be thus rashly assailed and in the subsequent troubles of the country he denounced sentence of excommunication against any of his flock who should rise in arms against the government whereby his life was endangered as a conspiracy was formed to murder him.

In 1795 was founded the royal college of Maynooth an institution intended solely for the benefit of those who were educated for the Catholic priesthood of Ireland. The buildings cost thirty two thousand pounds and were far from being sufficiently extensive to give accommodation to the students. The annual grant from parliament heretofore amounted to £8,000 sterling. In 1807, an application for an increase was made and the additional sum of £2,500 was obtained at which amount the annual grant continued until the year 1844, when Sir Robert Peel pressed by the repeal agitation endowed the college thereby preventing the annual display of parliamentary bigotry by which the establishment as well as the faith of the Catholics of Ireland was assailed and insulted.  Its present income is £26,300 sterling.  New buildings have been recently erected at an expense of £30,000 in a manner and style befitting the national college of the Irish church. Before its endowment the Very Rev. Michael Montague of Armagh, for many years burser of the college and subsequently president, by a wise economy and by a desire also to add to the comforts of the students was enabled to erect the structures that are set apart for the junior students. At the period that this important concession was made to the Catholics of Ireland intercourse with the Continent was suspended and consequently the means of education were beyond the reach of the students who were intended for the service of the Catholic Church. The government wisely resolved to provide them a suitable education as it was debarred them abroad and as its deprivation was a proscription beyond man's endurance and one to which no people should submit. It is then to the liberality of an Irish parliament consisting as it did exclusively of Protestants and to its judgment the native talent of Ireland is no longer obliged to search for education in the land of the foreigner. Perhaps too the fear of imbibing revolutionary ideas on the Continent operated powerfully on the Irish senate as they could not but understand the unwise policy of having the priesthood of Ireland educated in countries which cherished interests passions and prejudices directly hostile to the government under which they were to live and of having them return home with feelings of gratitude to those people who had offered them an asylum and averse to those who had at home proscribed their education. The college of Maynooth can vie with any similar establishment of Europe in piety discipline and talent

In 1814 a contest arose between Doctor Troy and the grand jury of the city of Dublin relative to the Catholic chaplaincy of the jail of Newgate.  The grand jury having appointed one, Doctor Troy, on the plea of incompetence, suspended him.  The former appealed to the court of king's bench but were informed that, if the person they selected was not to be found at his post they must proceed to nominate another and to continue until the office was substantially filled. The grand jury, however, adopted a different course and sent an order to the prison that no Catholic clergyman should be admitted except him whom Doctor Troy had suspended.  A disgraceful and protracted strife ensued and under the protection of an old penal enactment continued to maintain a clergyman in an office of importance who was disqualified by his legitimate superior.

In April, 1815, Archbishop Troy laid the foundation stone of his metropolitan church but he lived not to witness its completion. He departed this life on the 11th of May, 1823, in the 84th year of his age and was buried in the vaults of the temple he was founding. Doctor Troy was a truly learned and zealous pastor attached to the glory of God and his church and to the honor of the holy see, solicitous of and vigilant in the discharge of his duties for the good of those entrusted to his charge and of the state of which he was a member, meek and unassuming so that the humblest child of his diocese could approach him with confidence and affection.