the holy abbot, Dagan, and it was so admired by that great pontiff that he exclaimed: Molua has raised, even unto heaven, a safe barrier for his followers, to preserve them from every assault of worldly wickedness.""

At page 105, speaking of the beautiful discourse of Vernulæus on the Irish saints in Belgium, he states that it was delivered on the occasion of the consecration of Dr. Fleming, Archbishop of Dublin, in 1623, in the public acadamy of Louvain, in the presence of four archbishops, and a select number of academicians, who, in their poems and various compositions, declared that "Belgium was indebted to Ireland, and particularly to Dublin, for St. Rumold and other saints, but now repaid in part this debt, by sending to Dublin, as archbishops, the superior and lecturer of theology at St. Anthony's." At page 299 he also mentions that Edward Geraldine, connected with the noble families of Kildare and Desmond, and born in Ireland, held the post of sergeant-major in the Irish Legion in Belgium, and subsequently attained the rank of colonel and count of the Holy Empire, in Germany, but died at Heidelberg, in 1626, and was interred in the Franciscan church of that town. These few instances will suffice to show how important, even in its incidental references, is the Life of St. Rumold.

The last event that we meet with, connected with Father Ward's life, is the visitation of the houses of his order in the province of St. Andrew, in Belgium, which he held in 1633, by special authority from the Papal Nuncio, as well as by commission from the Franciscan general. The archives of St. Isidore's preserve some minutes of his report on the various allegations that were made to him, and on the true causes which created disturbance among the brethren of that province. From it we learn. that he proceeded to Lisle on the 1st of July, 1633, held a consultation with the nuncio, at Brussels, on the 28th of the same month; returned a second time to Lisle, on the

6th of August, and finally communicated the result of his investigations to the nuncio, on the 18th of September, 1633, and, two days later, to the commissary-general of his order. This was one of the last important missions intrusted to Hugh Ward.

Two years later, a tedious and painful disease brought his early career to a premature close, on the 8th of November, 1635.

FATHER LUKE WADDING.

A. D. 1657.

Author of "Scriptores Ordinum Minorum," "Annals of the Friars Minors," and Founder of St. Isidore's College, Rome.

FATHER LUKE WADDING was a native of the city of Waterford. He was born on the 8th of October, 1588. His father was a merchant, in wealthy circumstances; his mother, sister to Peter Lombard, the Catholic Primate of Ireland. An elder brother, Matthew, superintended his preliminary studies, until he was of an age to be sent abroad for their completion. In 1603, he was placed under the tuition of the Irish Jesuits, in Lisbon. He graduated, finally, in the venerable University of Coimbra.

In his seventeenth year he commenced a novitiate according to the rules of the Friars Minors of St. Francis, and at twenty-five was ordained by John Emanuel, Bishop of Visco.

As a priest, the first field of his labors was the convent church of Liria, in whose pulpit he preached with great success, "in the language of the country." From Liria, he was called by the University of Salamanca, famous all over Europe for its learning and munificence, where he was successively installed as master of the students and as professor of divinity. Here the controversy of the Immaculate Conception was strenuously urged to a determination, and by none more so than by Wadding. In 1618, Philip III resolved on sending a deputation for this purpose to Rome, at the head of which was á Trejo, Bishop of Carthagena. Wadding was appointed theologian to the embassy, and he set out, with the rest, from Madrid for the Eternal City.

Arrived in Rome, the deputation took up its abode in the palace of Cardinal á Trejo, brother to the bishop. The latter, after various interviews with the College of Cardinals, effected his purpose, and all but Wadding returned rejoicingly to Spain. He had resolved to remain in Rome. Here was to him a whole world of labor, and in the centre of Christendom, where the chiefs of the Church had their home. Here, in innumerable archives, were mouldering manuscripts, passing daily into dust, and thus dissolving the labors of many a laborious brain. It would, indeed, be a shame if, while Florence and all Italy were raving, in their Hellenic fever, of Plato, and Aristotle, and Sophocles, the pious writings of Christian saints and fathers, with which the city abounded, should know no revival. He beheld herein a great literary province stretched out before him, but one totally untrodden and unused by man: he, therefore, resolved not to return to Salamanca.

The success of the mission of the Immaculate Conception had made his name extensively known in Catholic countries. From various religious bodies in Italy and Spain he received letters of thanks for his great exertions, and full of admiration at his learning.

Angelo de Paz, a deceased brother of St Peter's convent, had left behind him several tracts of value and learning, which Wadding collected, and published in successive volumes, in the years 1621, 1623 and 1625, successively; in 1623 he also published an edition of the works of St. Francis, the founder of his order, with original annotations. In 1624 he edited two separate works on "Biblical Criticism," which had hitherto lain unknown: the one from the pen of St. Anthony of Lisbon, the other composed by an anonymous Irish Franciscan, styled Thomas Hibernicus.

Wadding's industry now took an historical direction. He resolved on writing the "Annals" of his wide-spread

order, from its institution to his own time. It proposed to inweave the records of its thousands of saints and doctors, its missionaries and authors. The design was gigantic, but the giant's load is light to the giant's arm. Yet he took twenty-six years to bring out his eight tomes of the "Annals,"—from 1628 to 1654.

In 1637 he published a "Life of Thomasius, Patriarch of Alexandria; and in 1641, that of St. James of Picenium. In 1650, he wrote the Life of the Franciscan, Gaullensis; and, in 1657, "A Memoir of Anselm, Bishop of Lucca."

In 1625, when but seven years in Rome, he founded, on the ruins of a Spanish convent, dedicated to St. Isidore, patron of Madrid, the Irish College, which bore and pears the same name. In 1628 he succeeded in inducing Cardinal Loudovisius to establish a secular Irish college. In 1630 he was elected procurator of the Franciscans at Rome, and in 1645 he was vice-commissary of his order.

The news of the Irish rising of 1641 had no sooner reached Wadding, than he exerted himself to procure foreign coöperation for the confederates. The "confederate Catholics," aware of his anxiety for their success, appointed him, in 1642, their agent at Rome, at the same time formally thanking him for his "past zeal and services." Soon after, when Urban VIII, of the family of Barberini, was raised to the Papacy, his influence still increased, and he obtained the appointment, or caused it to be rendered operative, of Nicholas Rinnuncinni, Archbishop of Fernio, as nuncio to Ireland.

The mission of Rinnuncinni failed. While he was in Ireland, the sword of Aodh O'Neil came into the possession of Father Wadding; he transmitted it, by the Dean of Fernio, to the nuncio, who presented it to Owen Roe O'Neil.

In 1645, the confederates sent Mr. Richard Belling, as their ambassador, to Rome, to congratulate Urban on