The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Volume 1, April 1865 — John Shaqi
The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Volume 1, April 1865
History
The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Volume 1, April 1865
Catholic Church -- Ireland -- Periodicals; Catholic Church -- Periodicals
It was on the 30th March that year, that O'Neill and the other Irish
princes addressed a letter in common to the Sovereign Pontiff, unfolding
to him the miseries which laid desolate our island, attesting too their
resolute desire to combat for the Catholic faith, and to promote the
interests of Holy Church, and petitioning in fine, that the vacant sees
of the province of Munster might be filled by those who were recommended
by the Bishop of Cork and Cloyne: they add that the only bishop then in
the southern province was "Reverendissimus Corcagiensis et Cloanensis
qui senio et labore jam paene est confectus"; and as a special motive
why the Holy See should not delay to make these appointments to the
vacant dioceses, they write: "Hoc eo confidentius petimus quia qui electi
conservati et ad nos dimissi fuerunt a vestra sacrosancta Sede, ad
vacuas his in partibus sedes occupandas, a nobis pro viribus, in iisdem
Dei gratiâ defenduntur, ut gregibus sibi commissis tuto invigilare
queant".--_Original Letter in Hib. Pacat._, page 311.
The next notice that we find of our aged Bishop is in the appointment
of Luke Archer to administer the see of Leighlin during the absence of
its Bishop Ribera, on whose death, in 1604, the same Luke Archer was
constituted Vicar-Apostolic of that see. From the words used by Harty
when registering this appointment made by our Bishop, we may conclude
that Dr. Graith, as his predecessor, had received special faculties
from Rome not only for his own diocese, but also for the province of
Leinster. "Dermitius Chrah (he writes), Corcagiensis et Clonensis tunc
Episcopus _apostolica auctoritate qui fulserat_".
As regards the precise period of Dr. Graith's death, no record has
come down to us. Mooney, the Franciscan annalist, merely attests that
"he lived for some time subsequent to 1599". Dr. Matthews, who was
consecrated bishop of Clogher in 1609, reckons him amongst the bishops
who survived Elizabeth, and lived for some years "aliquibus annis" under
James I. This would lead us to conclude that his life was prolonged
till the year 1605. O'Sullivan Beare, writing in 1618, leaves us in a
like uncertainty, as he refers his death in general terms to the first
year of the seventeenth century, after an episcopate of more than twenty
years. The eulogy, however, passed upon this bishop by O'Sullivan Beare
deserves to be cited in full:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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