[In an article of the _Record_ for April (page 312), we briefly referred
to a Bishop of Cloyne and Cork who is venerated as blessed, in Ivrea, a
town of Piedmont. In conformity with the few fragments preserved in the
archives of Ivrea and elsewhere regarding him, we adopted the opinion that
his name, according to modern orthography, should be rendered Thaddeus
Maher. Since the publication of the article just mentioned, a paper
containing much valuable matter has been communicated to us through the
great kindness of the Very Rev. Dr. M’Carthy, the learned Professor of
Scripture in Maynooth College, who had prepared it long before the article
in the _Record_ was published, and before he could have had any knowledge
of our views on this subject. We are anxious to publish every document
that we can find on this interesting question, in the hope that by
discussing it, light may be thrown on the history of a holy Irish bishop,
who is honoured beyond the Alps, but so little known at home, that there
is great difficulty in determining his real name. In one of our next
numbers we shall return to this subject.]
On June 23rd, 1847, the Most Rev. Dr. Murray, Archbishop of Dublin,
received at Maynooth a letter covering a bill of exchange for £40 (1,000
francs), sent for the relief of the famine-stricken poor of Ireland, by
order of the good Bishop of Ivrea. The town of Ivrea (anciently
_Eporedia_) is the capital of the Piedmontese province of the same name,
which extends from the Po to the Alps. The province contains a population
of over one hundred thousand, of whom about eight thousand reside in the
town, where is also the bishop’s see.
The letter to Dr. Murray enclosed a separate paper, of which the following
is a copy:—
“De Beato Thaddeo Episcopo Hiberniae.
“Anno Domini millesimo quadringentesimo nonagesimo secundo, die
vigesima quarta Octobris, Eporediae (antiquae urbis Transalpinae
in Pedemontio) postremum obiit diem in hospitio peregrinorum sub
titulo Sancti Antonii, quidam viator incognitus; atque eodem
instante lux mira prope lectum in quo jacebat effulsit, et
Episcopo Eporediensi apparuit homo venerandus, Pontificalibus
indumentis vestitus. THADDEUM MACHAR Hiberniae Episcopum illum
esse innotuit ex chartis quas deferebat, et in Cathedrali ejus
corpus solemni pompa depositum est sub altari, et in tumulo Sancti
Eusebii Episcopi Eporediensis, atque post paucos dies coepit multa
miracula facere.
“Acta et documenta ex quibus ejus patria et character episcopalis
tunc innotuerunt, necnon ad patratorum miraculorum seu prodigiorum
memoriam exarata, interierunt occasione incendii quo seculo xvii.
Archivium Episcopale vastatum est. In quadam charta pergamena
caracteribus Gothicis scripta, quae in Archivio Ecclesiae
Cathedralis servatur haec leguntur:
“Marmoreis tumulis hoc templo Virginis almae
Corpora Sanctorum plura sepulta jacent
Martinus hic . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
Inde Thaddeus adest, quem misit Hibernia praesul
Sospite quo venit saepe petita salus,
Regia progenies alto de sanguine Machar,
Quem nostri in Genua nunc Latiique vocant.
Ingemuit moriens, quem Hiberno sidere cretum
Non Cariense tenet, non Clovinense solum.
Sic visum superis; urbs Eporedia corpus
Templo majore marmoreo claudat opus.
Hic jacet Eusebii testudinis ipse sacello,
Pauperiem Christi divitis inde tulit.
Hunc clarum reddunt miracula sancta: beatus
Exstat: et in toto dicitur orbe pius.
Huc quicunque venis, divum venerare Thaddeum
Votaque fac precibus: dicque viator, Ave.
Mille quadringentos annos tunc orbis agebat
Atque Nonagenos: postmodum junge duos.
“Verbis illis _solum Cariense_ vel _Cloviense_ et _Clovinense_
designari a poeta civitates Hiberniae in quibus Thaddeus aut natus
aut Episcopus fuerit, putandum est, forsan Clareh, Carrick.
“Quamobrem exquiritur utrum in Hibernia habeatur notitia hujus
Episcopi THADDEI MACHAR—loci ubi natus fuerit,—ejus familiae, quae
regia seu princeps supponitur in poesi,—civitatis seu ecclesiae in
qua fuerit Episcopus. Desiderantur quoque notitiae si quae
reperiri poterunt et documenta quibus illius vita et gesta
illustrari possint; insuper utrum labente saeculo xv. aliqua
persecutio in Hibernia adversus Episcopos facta sit, quemadmodum
argumentari licet ex quibusdam Epistolis Innocentii VIII. circa
immunitatem ecclesiasticam”.—(_End of paper_).
As our space precludes a literal translation of this paper, a summary may
be acceptable to the reader.
On the 24th of October, 1492, died at Ivrea, in St. Antony’s Hospice for
Pilgrims, Blessed Thaddeus, an Irish bishop, whose body was deposited
under the high altar of the cathedral, in a shrine over the relics of the
holy patron, St. Eusebius. At the time of death a brilliant light was seen
round his bed, and at the same moment to the Bishop of Ivrea there
appeared a man of venerable mien, clothed in pontifical robes. Several
other miracles were also wrought through his intercession. The papers
found with him showed he was an Irish bishop, and these, as well as other
documents proving his great sanctity, religiously kept in the episcopal
archives, were destroyed by fire in the seventeenth century. In an old
parchment, written in Gothic letters, still preserved in the archives of
the cathedral church, are these lines:
’Neath marble tombs, in this the virgin’s shrine
The bones of many a saint in peace recline;
Here martyred . . . . .
Thaddeus there. From Erin’s shore he came,
A bishop, of M’Carthy’s royal name.
At whose behest were wondrous cures oft made.
Still Latium, Genoa, invoke his aid.
Dying, he mourned that not on Irish soil,
Where sped his youth, should close his earthly toil:
Nor Cloyne, nor Kerry, but Ivrea owns
(For God so willed) the saintly bishop’s bones.
’T is meet that they in marble shrine encased
Should be within the great cathedral placed.
Like Christ, whose tomb was for another made,
He in Eusebius’ cenotaph is laid.
Soon sacred prodigies his power attest,
And all the Earth proclaims him pious, blest.
O ye who hither come, our saint assail
With prayers and votive gifts; nor, traveller, fail
To greet with reverence the holy dead.
Since Christ was born a thousand years had fled,
Four hundred then and ninety-two beside
Had passed away, when St. Thaddeus died.
When Dr. Murray received the Bishop of Ivrea’s letter, he placed it in the
hands of the late venerated President of Maynooth College, from whose MSS.
it is now copied, together with the very literal translation of the verses
made by one of the junior students at the time. Dr. Renehan undertook to
collect all the notices of Blessed Thaddeus in our Irish annals, and to
give the best answers he could to the bishop’s questions. He even visited
Ivrea in the summer of 1850, in the hope of finding traditional records of
the life of Blessed Thaddeus, but to no purpose. He found the task more
difficult than might be expected. All the knowledge regarding the saint’s
family, see, etc., that can be gathered from Irish or British sources is
found in these few lines from Ware on the Bishops of Cloyne:
“THADY M’CARTHY (_succ._ 1490).—Upon the resignation of William, Thady
M’Carthy, by some called Mechar, succeeded the same year by a provision
from Pope Innocent VIII., as may be seen from the _Collectanea_ of Francis
Harold”—Ware’s _Bishops_ (Harris), p. 563.
The Blessed Thaddeus’s name is unhonoured then, in his own country; his
biography, if ever written, is at least not recorded by the Irish
historians. Even the scanty information which the industrious Ware
supplies, was gleaned not from our annals, but from Harold’s
_Collectanea_, probably notes and extracts taken from documents in the
continental libraries. Dr. Renehan had, therefore, little to add on our
saint’s life. He was, however, fully satisfied that Blessed Thaddeus of
Ivrea was no other than the Bishop of Cork and Cloyne, mentioned by Ware.
His arguments may be seen in a rough outline of his answer to the Bishop
of Ivrea’s letter, among the O’Renehan MSS. in Maynooth, almost the only
authority we had time to consult for this notice. Sometimes the very words
of the letter are given in inverted commas:—
I. The Pilgrim of Ivrea was an Irish bishop who died in the year 1492.
“The most diligent search through our Irish annals will not discover
another bishop to whom even so much of the poet’s description will apply
but Thaddeus M’Carthy, Bishop of Cloyne. About that date there were indeed
in Ireland five bishops named Thaddeus: 1. Thady, Bishop of Kilmore, since
before 1460; but his successor Furseus died in 1464, and Thomas, the third
from him, died before 1492. 2. Thady M’Cragh, of Killaloe, succeeded in
1430, full sixty years before our saint’s death at Ivrea. His third
successor died in 1460. 3. Thady, Bishop of Down, was consecrated in Rome,
1469, died in 1486, and his successor, R. Wolsey, was named before 1492.
4. Thady of Ross died soon after his appointment in 1488, succeeded by Odo
in 1489. 5. Thady of Dromore, appointed only in 1511, and the see was held
by George Brown in 1492. The date (1492) is alone enough to prove that B.
Thaddeus of Ivrea was not any of the preceding bishops, and there was no
other of the name for full sixty years after or before, but the Bishop of
Cork and Cloyne, the date of whose death fits exactly all the requirements
of the case. Ware quotes from Harold that he was appointed by Innocent
VIII. (_sed._ 1484-1492,) that he succeeded W. Roch, resigned 1490, and
further, that Gerald, who succeeded, resigned in 1499, after obtaining a
pardon from Henry VII. in 1496”—(_Lib. Mun._, i. p. 102)
II. Another line of the old fragment seems to name the see of the B.
Thaddeus, whom the poet describes as lamenting his death abroad, far from
the “solum Chariense”, or “Clovinense”, which we interpret far “from
_Kerry_”, the burial place of his family, and “from _Cloyne_”, his
episcopal see. “Cloyne” is variously Latinized, even by Irish writers,
“Cloynensis”, “Clonensis”, “Cluanensis”—and often “Clovens” or “Clovinen”,
in Rymer’s _Foedera_.(7) What more natural than that a poet would describe
the pilgrim as longing to be buried either in his cathedral church of
_Cloyne_ or with his fathers in _Kerry_?
III. The passage which seems to us most decisive, is that which points to
the _royal extraction_ and _name_ of this holy bishop: “_Regia progenies,
alto de sanguine Machar_”. Observe how in the notice from _Harold_ Bishop
M’Carthy was called also “Mechar”. Clearly both were one and the same
name. Thus [Gaelic: Mac Careaw], Anglicised M’Carthy, is pronounced
Maccaura, with the last syllable short, as in Ard-Magha (Armagh), and
numberless like words. Hence Wadding,(8) in speaking of the foundation of
Muckross Abbey, Killarney, by Domnal M’Carthy, Prince of Desmond, quotes
to this effect a Bull of Paul II., in 1468, in which Domnall’s name is
spelled “_Machar_”, a form identical with that in the contemporary
fragment. In truth, there is no Irish family name like “Machar” at all but
“Meagher”, which is invariably spelled with “O”, especially in the
Latinized form; and the “O’Meaghers” had no claim to _royal_ blood.
IV. The Blessed Thaddeus was “regia progenies”. Now there was no _royal_
family name in Ireland like that in the inscription except the truly
_royal_ name, made more royal still by the saintly Bishop of Cloyne.
Without insisting with Keating that the ancestry of the M’Carthy family
could be traced through twenty-eight monarchs who governed the island
before the Christian era, we may assert with the Abbe MacGeoghan, in a
note (tom. iii. p. 680), strangely omitted by his translator, “that if
regard be had to primogeniture and seniority of descent, the M’Carthy
family is the _first_ in Ireland”.
Long before the founders of the oldest royal families in Europe—before
Rodolph acquired the empire of Germany, or a Bourbon ascended the throne
of France—the saintly Cormac M’Carthy, the disciple, the friend, and
patron of St. Malachy, ruled over Munster, and the title of _king_ was at
least continued in name in his posterity down to the reign of Elizabeth.
“Few pedigrees, if any”, says Sir B. Burke, “in the British empire can be
traced to a more remote or exalted source than that of the Celtic house of
M’Carthy.... They command a prominent, perhaps the _most prominent_ place
in European genealogy”. Plain then is it that in no other house could the
“regia progenies” be verified more fully than in the M’Carthy family.(9)
V. The date of death, the wished-for burial place, his native soil
(Kerry), or his diocese (Cloyne)—the name and royal extraction, all point
to the Bishop of Cloyne as the saint whose relics are still worshipped at
Ivrea. If we add that “Chiar” is the usual Irish form of Kerry; that
Domnall’s (the founder of Irrelagh) father’s name was THADDEUS, not
improbably our Saint’s uncle, the evidence seems to be overwhelming.
VI. We have said there is no account in Irish writers of even the Bishop
of Cloyne, except the few lines in Ware. The continental annalists of the
religious orders do, however, speak of one celebrated Thaddeus, without
mentioning his surname or country. Elsius (quoting _De Herera_ and
_Crusen_, whose works are not within our reach) notices Thaddeus _de
Hipporegio_ sive _Iporegia_, “as a man distinguished for learning,
religious observance, preaching, holiness of life, and experience, a man
of great zeal, and a sedulous promoter of the interests of his order”. He
was prior, he adds, of several convents, seven times definitor, thirteen
times visitator, four times president of synods, nine times vicar-general,
and his government was ever distinguished for the greatest love of order
and edifying example. See Els., _Encom._, August., p. 645.
After quoting these words in substance from the Augustinian chronicler,
Dr. Renehan adds: “After the most diligent inquiry I could make at Ivrea,
wherever I could hope for any little information, particularly at the
episcopal palace (where I was received with marked respect, as a priest
from the country that sent out the B. Thaddeus), and of the Bishop’s
secretary, the vicar-general, and many others, whose kind attention I can
never forget, I could find no vestige of any other Thaddeus, called after
the city (_Eporedia_), but our own blessed Irish bishop; and I was
assured, over and over again, that he was the only Thaddeus known in its
annals, or who ever had any connection with the town, by birth, residence,
death—or any way known to the present generation”. It is not then
unreasonable to suppose that the Thaddeus so celebrated in the Augustinian
Order was no other than our Bishop. True, Elsius gives 1502 for the date
of the friar’s demise; but Elsius is never to be trusted in dates, and the
printer may easily take MCCCCXCII. (the true date), for MCCCCCII. Indeed,
1492 is not so different from 1502 that an error may not have crept in.
Dr. Renehan’s theory, then, with regard to B. Thaddeus, fully detailed in
the letter to the Bishop of Ivrea, was this:—
Thaddeus M’Carthy was born in Kerry, where the M’Carthy More branch of the
family resided, and where, in the monastery of Irialac (now Muckross), or
in Ennisfallen (see _Archdall_), the princes of the house were always
buried. The young Thaddeus went abroad at an early age, and embraced the
monastic life. His virtues and piety soon attracted the notice of his
religious brethren, as manifest from their chronicles. They became in time
known to the ruling Pontiff, Innocent VIII., who raised him to the
episcopal dignity. The B. Thaddeus repaired to Rome in the first place, to
receive consecration and jurisdiction from the successor of St. Peter,
imitating in this the example of our great patron saint. He stopped at
Ivrea, probably on his way home, fell sick there, and died, God witnessing
to His servant by signs and wonders. The silence of our annalists is thus
accounted for to a great extent by the long residence of B. Thaddeus
abroad. This theory is remarkably borne out by the independent notice in
last _Record_. Having little to help us to arrive at any correct notion of
the saintly bishop’s life beyond the epitaph and the slender tradition at
Ivrea, we entirely subscribe to this view. Other sources of information
may be opened, now that we have ventured to bring, for the first time, the
name of B. Thaddeus before the Irish Catholic people; and for this
service, little as it is, and entirely unworthy of our saintly bishop, we
still expect his blessing in full measure.