The Most Rev. Dr John Healy (1841–1918) was an Irish clergyman of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. He served as Lord Bishop of Clonfert from 1896 to 1903 and as Lord Archbishop of Tuam from 1903 to 1918. Born on 2 January 1841 in Ballinafad, a village in the south of

County Sligo County Sligo ( , ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Northern and Western Region and is part of the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht. Sligo is the administrative capital and largest town in ...

in the west of

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, Healy was educated at

Maynooth College St Patrick's Pontifical University, Maynooth (), is a pontifical Catholic university in the town of Maynooth near Dublin, Ireland. The college and national seminary on its grounds are often referred to as Maynooth College. The college was of ...

, where he was ordained a

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

in September 1867. He then served as a

curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' () of souls of a parish. In this sense, ''curate'' means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy who are as ...

and

parish priest A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

in the Diocese of Elphin, before being offered two professorial chairs at Maynooth, those of

Theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...

and

Classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

. He accepted the first and held it until 1883, when he became Prefect of Maynooth. He also edited '' The Irish Ecclesiastical Record'' in 1883.

Bishop

He was appointed

Coadjutor Bishop A coadjutor bishop (or bishop coadjutor) ("co-assister" in Latin) is a bishop in the Latin Catholic, Anglican and (historically) Eastern Orthodox churches whose main role is to assist the diocesan bishop in administering the diocese. The coa ...

of the Diocese of Clonfert and

Titular Bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

of Macri on 26 June 1884. His episcopal ordination took place on 31 August 1884. He succeeded as the Diocesan Bishop of Clonfert on 15 August 1896.

Archbishop of Tuam

He translated to the Archbishopric of Tuam on 13 February 1903, where he reestablished pilgrimage to

Croagh Patrick Croagh Patrick (), nicknamed 'the Reek', is a mountain with a height of and an important site of pilgrimage in County Mayo, Ireland. The mountain has a pyramid-shaped peak and overlooks Clew Bay, rising above the village of Murrisk, several ...

. He was also a Senator of the

National University of Ireland The National University of Ireland (NUI) () is a federal university system of ''constituent universities'' (previously called '' constituent colleges'') and ''recognised colleges'' set up under the Irish Universities Act 1908, and signifi ...

(having been part of the campaign to establish it), a governor of University College, Galway, and a member of the Board of Agriculture. He once told Irish Nationalists that before demanding self-government they should make themselves fit for it.'The Archbishop of Tuam' (obituary) in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' dated 18 March 1918, Issue 41740, p. 10, col. E Archbishop Healy died in office on 19 March 1918, aged 77.Archbishop John Healy
''Catholic Hierarchy website''. Retrieved 2 April 2010. A biography of his life was published by The Rev. P.J. Joyce in 1931, titled ''John Healy, Archbishop of Tuam'' (H. Gill and Sons, Dublin 1931). Healy was a noted academic, and published a number of works on Irish and church history, with a particular emphasis on Early Christian Ireland.

Works

* '' The Ancient Irish Church'' (1892) * '' Ireland's Ancient Schools and Scholars'' (1890). A revised and expanded second edition was issued in 1893. A fourth edition was published in 1902. * ''Maynooth College; its centenary history''. xxiv, 774 p. Dublin: Browne & Nolan (1895)

References

External links

* * 1841 births 1918 deaths Alumni of St Patrick's College, Maynooth Academics of St Patrick's College, Maynooth Roman Catholic archbishops of Tuam Roman Catholic bishops of Clonfert {{Ireland-RC-bishop-stub