John Machale

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John MacHale (1791-1881), Irish divine, was born on the 6th of March 1791 at Tubbernavine, near Lahardane, Mayo. He was so feeble at his birth that he was baptized at home by Father Conroy, who, six years later, was unjustly hanged during the Irish Rebellion of 1798.

Though Irish was always spoken by the peasants at that time, the MacHale children were all taught English. When he was old enough, John ran barefoot with his brothers to the hedge-school, then the sole means of instruction for Catholic peasant children, who on fine days conned their lessons in a dry ditch under a hedge, and in wet weather were gathered into a rough barn. John was an eager pupil, and listened attentively to lives of saints, legends, national songs, and historical tales, related by his elders, as well as to the accounts of the French Revolution given by an eyewitness, his uncle, Father MacHale, who had just escaped from France.

Three important events happened during John's sixth year: the Irish Rebellion of 1798; the landing at Killala of French troops, whom the boy, hidden in a stacked sheaf of flax, watched marching through a mountain pass to Castlebar; and a few months later the brutal execution of Father Conroy on a false charge of high treason. These occurrences made an indelible impression upon the child's singularly acute mind. After school hours he betook himself to the study of Irish history, under the guidance of an excellent old scholar in the neighborhood. Being destined for the priesthood the boy was sent to a school at Castlebar to learn Latin, Greek, and English grammar. In his sixteenth year the Bishop of Killala gave him a bursarship in the ecclesiastical college at Maynooth.

The emigrant French priests who then taught at Maynooth, appreciated the linguistic aptitude of the young man and taught him not only French, but also Latin, Greek, Italian, German, Hebrew, and the English classics. After seven years of hard work, having acquired a profound knowledge of theology, he was appointed in 1814 lecturer in that science, although only a sub-deacon. Before the end of the year, however, at the age of twenty-four, he was ordained a priest by Dr. Murray, Archbishop of Dublin. Father MacHale continued his lectures at Maynooth until 1820, when he was nominated professor of theology. He was much esteemed by his students, whom he strove to render as zealous, earnest, and sincere as himself, and he never failed to give them very practical advice about their duties and studies.

In 1825 he became coadjutor bishop of Killala, and in July 1834 archbishop of Tuam and metropolitan. He visited Rome in 1831, and was there again at the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin (Dec. 1854) and in 1869-1870 at the Vatican council. Though he did not favor the dogma of Papal Infallibility he submitted as soon as it was defined.

MacHale was an intensely patriotic Irishman, who fought hard for Catholic Emancipation, for separate Roman Catholic schools, and against the Queen's Colleges. In private life Dr. MacHale never wasted time, for he was always employed in study, business and prayer. He was noted for his charity to the poor, his strict fulfillment of every sacred duty, and the affectionate consideration and hospitality ever displayed towards his clergy. His intense respect for sacerdotal dignity rendered him slow to reprimand, though he was inflexible in matters of faith and principle. Every Sunday he preached a sermon in Irish at the cathedral, and during his diocesan visitations he always addressed the poor people in their native tongue. On journeys he usually conversed in Irish with his attendant chaplain, and never addressed in any other tongue the poor people of Tuam or the beggars who greeted him whenever he went out.

He always encouraged the preservation of the Irish language, and compiled in it a catechism and a prayer-book. Moreover, he made translations into Irish of portions of the scriptures as well as the magnificent Latin hymns, Dies Irae and Stabat Mater. He translated into Irish Thomas Moore's Irish Melodies and Homer's Iliad. In the preface to his translation of the first book of the Iliad he wrote that "there is no European tongue better adapted than ours (Irish) to a full or perfect version of Homer. These Irish works of Dr. MacHale excited the sincere admiration of all Celtic scholars who were able to appreciate the beauty of his classical Gaelic. He celebrated the golden jubilee of his episcopacy in 1875. The venerable old man lived for six more years, maintaining his usual mode of life as far as his strength permitted and making the visitations of his diocese. He preached his last Irish sermon after his Sunday Mass, April, 1881.

He died after a short illness at Tuam on the 7th of November 1881, and is buried in Tuam Cathedral.

A biography of MacHale entitled 'The Lion of the West', by Hilary Andrews, a relative of MacHale's, has been published. [1]

[edit] References

This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.
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