Dr. Graith was one of the most illustrious missioners who laboured in our Irish Church during the sixteenth century; and, as Peter Lombard informs us, was at one time the only bishop in the province of Munster. Soon after his arrival in our island, the agents of heresy mainly directed their efforts towards his apprehension, and so chagrined were they at his escape that they even accused Sir John Perrot of having secretly favoured him and thus baffled their designs. In a memorial presented to government in 1592, "Doctor Creagh, Bishop of Cloyne and Cork", appears first on the list of those who in Munster were enemies of the Elizabethan rule, having lived "in the country these eleven or twelve years past, without pardon or protection, consecrating churches, making priests", etc.; and it is further added that "he did more evil", that is, he was more zealous in propagating our holy faith, even "_than Dr. Sanders in his time_" (see _Essays_, etc., by Rev. Dr. M'Carthy, pag. 424). Another State Paper, being a letter from the Lord Deputy to Lord Burghley, in England, dated 17th May, 1593, gives us the following particulars:-- "We have laboured with all possible endeavours with the Earl of Tirone, as well by private conference as by our sending letters, for the apprehension of the titular bishops remaining in these parts; yet can we by no means prevail, though it is very well known to us that the earl might have done great and acceptable service therein, on account of the friendship between him, O'Donell, and Maguire--Maguire being cousin-germain, and altogether at his service, and, as report goeth, either hath or is to marry the earl's daughter. And as in this I made bold, I humbly pray your lordship's pardon, to state what little success hath followed of the great shams of service made by the Archbishop of Cashel and Richard Power, rather in regard for their own benefit and to serve their own turns, than for any performance of actions at all. Upon the Archbishop's coming over they pretended a plot, both for the getting of great sums of money for her Majesty and for the apprehension of Dr. Creaghe, to the second of which we rather first hearkened, but in the end nothing was done more than to spend so much time, and an open show, as it were, made to the world how that traitor was sought and laid for, whereby the other traitorous titular bishops might take warning to be the more wary upon their keeping" (S. P. O.).