St Patrick's Cathedral. The claim of the archdiocese to pre-eminence in Ireland as the primatialsee rests upon its traditional establishment by Saint Patrick circa 445. It was recognised as a metropolitan province in 1152 by the Synod of Kells
.
As of September 2014[update] the incumbent Archbishop is
St. Patrick, having received some grants of land from the chieftain Daire, on the hill called Ard-Macha (the Height of Macha), built a stone church on the summit and a monastery and some other religious edifices and fixed on this place for his metropolitan see.[when?] He also founded a school in the same place, which soon became famous and attracted thousands of scholars. In the course of time other religious bodies settled in Armagh, such as the Culdees, who built a monastery there in the 8th century.
The city of Armagh was thus until modern times a purely ecclesiastical establishment. About 448, St. Patrick, aided by
, two of his disciples, held a synod at Armagh, of which some of the canons are still extant. One of these expressly mentions that all difficult cases of conscience should be referred to the judgment of the Archbishop of Armagh, and that if too difficult to be disposed of by him with his counsellors they should be passed on to the Apostolic See of Rome. In Irish times, the primacy of Armagh was questioned only by the great southern centre of the Irish Church, at Cashel.
For many centuries the primates were accustomed to make circuits and visitations through various parts of the country for the collection of their dues. This was called the "Cattlecess", or the "Law of St. Patrick". Beginning in 734, during the incumbency of Primate
Cambro-Normans
.
Disputes over primacy
The seizure of the primacy of Armagh by laymen in the 11th century has received great prominence owing to
bishop
, and ruled the see with great wisdom.
In 1111 he held a great synod at Fiadh-Mic-Aengus at which were present fifty bishops, 300 priests, and 3,000 other ecclesiastics, and also
, afterwards granted it an annual pension for a public school.
After a short interval, Celsus was succeeded by
Cistercian Order
into Ireland, by the advice of St. Bernard. He died at Clairvaux, while making a second journey to Rome. St. Malachy is honoured as the patron saint of the diocese.
Tuam
.
The successor of Gelasius in the see, Cornelius Mac Concaille, who died at Chambéry the following year, on a journey to Rome, has been venerated ever since in that locality as a saint. He was succeeded by Gilbert O'Caran (1175–80), during whose incumbency the see suffered greatly from the depredations of the Anglo-Norman invaders. William Fitz-Aldelm pillaged Armagh and carried away St. Patrick's crosier, called the "Staff of Jesus". O'Caran's successor was
John Comyn, the first English prelate in the See of Dublin, tried to abolish the old Irish custom according to which the primates claimed the right of making solemn circuits and visitations in the province of Leinster as well as those of Tuam and Munster
. The papal bull issued was to the effect that no archbishop or bishop should hold any assembly or ecclesiastical court in the Diocese of Dublin, or treat of the ecclesiastical causes and affairs of the said diocese, without the consent of the Archbishop of Dublin, if the latter were actually in his see, unless specially authorised by the Papal See or the Apostolic legate. This Bull laid the groundwork of a bitter and protracted controversy between the Archbishops of Armagh and of Dublin, concerning the primatial right of the former to have his cross carried before him and to try ecclesiastical cases in the diocese of the latter. This contest, however, must not be confounded with that regarding the primacy, which did not arise until the 17th century.
Lordship of Ireland (1215–1539)
As the first Anglo-Norman adventurers who came to Ireland showed very little scruple in despoiling the churches and monasteries, Armagh suffered considerably from their depredations. When the English kings got a footing in the country, they began to intervene in the election of bishops and a contest arose between King
in 1215 and died at Rome the following year. The English kings also began to claim possession of the temporalities of the sees during vacancies and to insist on the newly elected bishops suing them humbly for their restitution.
Primate Reginald (1247–56), a
Mendicant Orders
on the question of their vows and privileges.
A contest regarding the primacy of Armagh was carried on intermittently during these centuries by the Archbishops of
Robert Wauchope (1539–51), a distinguished theologian, who assisted at the Council of Trent. In the meantime, George Dowdall, a zealous supporter of Henry, had been elevated into the Church of IrelandSee of Armagh by that monarch, but upon the introduction of the Book of Common Prayer in the reign of Edward VI, he left Ireland in disgust. In the beginning of the reign of Queen Mary I
, Dowdall (1553–58) was appointed properly by the Pope on account of the great zeal he had shown against Protestantism. He survived his consecration only three months.
During the English Reformation
After the short incumbency of Donagh O'Tighe (1560–62), the see was filled by
Bishop of Paris
). He remained in exile, in Rome, during the whole twenty-four years of his incumbency and thus never once visited his diocese.
Hugh O'Reilly, the next primate (1628–53), was very active in the political movements of his day. In the chaotic aftermath of the Irish Rebellion of 1641, in 1642, he summoned the Ulster bishops and clergy to a synod at Kells in which the war then carried on by the Irish was declared lawful and pious. He took a prominent part in the Irish Confederation of Kilkenny and was appointed a member of the Supreme Council of twenty-four persons who carried on the government of the country in the name of King Charles I. During the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland
(1649–53), Ireland was re-conquered by English Parliamentarian forces, who were very hostile to Catholicism. After the defeat, death or exile of most of the Roman Catholic Irish leaders he was elected nominal commander of the Roman Catholic forces for the remainder of the conflict.
Edmund O'Reilly (1657–69) succeeded to the see, but owing to the difficulties of the time was only able to spend two years in the diocese out of the twelve of his incumbency. He was exiled on four occasions. During the whole time he spent in the diocese, he was hiding in woods and caves and never had any bed but a cloak thrown over straw. He opposed Peter Valesius Walsh, the author of the "Loyal Remonstrance" (1661, 1672) to King Charles II
, and died in exile in France.
The next primate was
Peter Talbot
. At a meeting of the Roman clergy in Dublin in 1670, each of these prelates refused to subscribe subsequent to the other. Plunkett thereupon wrote a work on the ancient rights and prerogatives of his see, published in 1672, under the title Jus Primatiale; or the ancient Preeminence of the See of Armagh above all the other Archbishops in the Kingdom of Ireland, asserted by O. A. T. H. P. Talbot replied to two years later in a dissertation styled Primatus Dublinensis; or the chief reasons on which the Church of Dublin relies in the possession and prosecution of her right to the Primacy of Ireland. A violent persecution stilled the controversy for some time and subsequent primates asserted their authority from time to time in Dublin.
In 1719 two Briefs of Pope Clement XI were in favour of the claims of Armagh. In practice, however, the primatial right has fallen into desuetude in Ireland as in every other part of the Church. In 1679, Oliver Plunkett was arrested on a charge of conspiring to bring 20,000 Frenchmen into the country and of having levied moneys on his clergy for the purpose of maintaining 70,000 men for an armed rebellion against the Crown. After being confined in Dublin Castle for many months, he was presented for trial on these and other charges in Dundalk; but the jury, though all Protestants, refused to find a true bill against him. The venue, however, of his trial was changed to London, where he was tried by a jury before he was able to gather his witnesses and bring them across, though he made the request to the judge. The principal witnesses against him were some priests and friars of Armagh whom he had censured and suspended for their alleged conduct. He was dragged on a sledge to Tyburn on 1 July 1681, where he was hanged, drawn, and quartered in presence of an immense multitude. His head, still in a good state of preservation, can be viewed to this day in St. Peter's church, West St., Drogheda.
Penal times
Dominic Maguire (1683–1707), a Dominican, succeeded to the see after the death of the Oliver Plunket. This primate, having to go into exile after the surrender of Limerick in 1691, spent the sixteen years that intervened between that time and his death in a very destitute condition. In the meantime the See of Armagh was administered by a vicar, Patrick Donnelly, a priest of the diocese, who in 1697 was appointed Bishop of Dromore, though retaining the administration of Armagh for several years afterwards.
Owing to the severity of the laws there was no primate resident in Ireland for twenty-three years after the flight of Primate Maguire, in 1691.
Bernard MacMahon
(1737–47), then Bishop of Clogher, who is described as a prelate remarkable for zeal, charity, prudence, and sound doctrine. He also suffered considerably from the persecution, and spent most of his time in hiding. Bernard was succeeded in the primacy by his brother, Ross MacMahon (1747–48), also Bishop of Clogher.
Michael O'Reilly (1749–58), Bishop of Derry, was the next primate. He published two catechisms, one in Irish and the other in English, the latter of which has been in use in parts of the north of Ireland until our own time. On one occasion this primate and eighteen of his priests were arrested near Dundalk. He lived in a small thatched cottage at Milltown, in Termonfechin parish, and at times had to lie concealed in a narrow loft under the thatch.
Anthony Blake (1758–86) was his successor. The persecution having subsided to a great extent, he was not harried like his predecessors, but nevertheless could not be induced to live permanently in his diocese, a circumstance which was the occasion of much discontent among his clergy and led to a temporary suspension from his duties. Richard O'Reilly (1787–1818) was his successor in the primacy. Having an independent fortune, he was the first Catholic prelate since the Revolution who was able to live in a manner becoming his station. By his gentleness and affability he succeeded in quieting the dissensions which had distracted the diocese during the time of his predecessor and was thenceforward known as the "Angel of Peace". In 1793, he laid the foundation-stone of Saint Peter's Church
in Drogheda, which was to serve as his pro-cathedral, one of the first Catholic churches to be built within the walls of a town in Ireland since the Reformation. The Corporation of Drogheda, wearing their robes and carrying the mace and sword, appeared on the scene and forbade the ceremony to proceed, but their protest was disregarded.
19th and 20th centuries
Patrick Curtis (1819–32), who had been rector of the Irish College of Salamanca, was appointed to the see in more hopeful times, and lived to witness the emancipation of the Roman Church in the UK. He was one of the first to join the Catholic Association, and was on friendly terms with the Duke of Wellington, whom he had met in Spain during the Peninsular War. Thomas Kelly succeeded Curtis (1832–35). He lived and died with the reputation of a saint.
St. Patrick's Cathedral, which took more than sixty years to bring to completion. The foundation-stone was laid 17 March 1840, and before the primate's death, the walls had been raised to a considerable height. Paul Cullen
succeeded in 1849, but was translated to the See of Dublin in 1852. In 1850 he presided over the National Synod of Thurles, the first synod held in Ireland since the convention of the bishops and clergy in Kilkenny in 1642.
Joseph Dixon (1852–66), the next primate, held a synod in Drogheda in 1854, at which all the northern bishops assisted. Archbishop Dixon resumed the building of the cathedral, but did not live to see it finished. Michael Kieran (1866–69) succeeded, residing in Dundalk during his tenure of the primatial see. His successor, Daniel McGettigan (1870–87), spent three years of earnest labour in the completion of the cathedral, and was able to open it in 1873. He was succeeded by Cardinal Michael Logue, who succeeded to the primacy in 1887. He was the first Primate of Armagh to become a member of the College of Cardinals. He devoted himself for several years to the task of beautifying and completing in every sense the noble edifice. In the building of the sacristy, library, synod-hall, muniment-room, the purchase in fee-simple of the site, and the interior decorations and altars, he spent more than £50,000 on the cathedral. This great cathedral was consecrated on 24 July 1904. Cardinal Vincenzo Vannutelli, representing Pope Pius X
, was present at the consecration.
Redemptoris Mater Seminary
A House of Formation was founded in 2012 by Cardinal Seán Brady and in 2016,
Maynooth College for philosophical and theological studies.[4] The first ordination took place in 2014. Giuseppe Pollio from Italy, serves as rector of the seminary.[5] In 2022, Archbishop Eamon Martin, laid the foundation stone for an extension to the seminary.[6]
Adult Faith Programmes
The Armagh Diocese in conjunction with
St. Patrick's College, Maynooth commenced in 2019, Certificate, Diploma and Degree programmes in Theology (Adult Education and Pastoral Ministry) in Armagh and Dundalk.[7][8]
The archdiocese of Armagh is one of the regional locations where Maynooth run the Diploma in Diaconate Studies programme.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Coleman, Ambrose (1907). "Archdiocese of Armagh". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Coleman, Ambrose (1907). "Archdiocese of Armagh". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
