Robert Whitty (7 January 1817 – 1 September 1895) was an

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Jesuit

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Biography

Born at Pouldarrig, near

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, Whitty entered

Maynooth College St Patrick's Pontifical University, Maynooth ( ga, Coláiste Naoimh Phádraig, Maigh Nuad), is the "National Seminary for Ireland" (a Roman Catholic college), and a pontifical university, located in the town of Maynooth, from Dublin, Ireland ...

in his fourteenth year. Having added two years on the Dumboyne Establishment to his college course, he was still too young for ordination. He offered his services to Thomas Griffiths, the

Vicar Apostolic of the London District The Apostolic Vicariate of the London District was an ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales. It was led by a vicar apostolic who was a titular bishop. The apostolic vicariate was created in 1688 and was diss ...

, who ordained him priest at St. Edmund's, Ware, 19 September 1840. From the first he showed a warm sympathy with the

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s and formed a friendship with

John Henry Newman John Henry Newman (21 February 1801 – 11 August 1890) was an English theologian, academic, intellectual, philosopher, polymath, historian, writer, scholar and poet, first as an Anglican priest and later as a Catholic priest and ...

and

Frederick Oakeley Frederick Oakeley (5 September 1802 – 30 January 1880) was an English Roman Catholic convert, priest, and author. He was ordained in the Church of England in 1828 and in 1845 converted to the Church of Rome, becoming Canon of the Westmin ...

before they had become

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

Nicholas Patrick Wiseman Nicholas Patrick Stephen Wiseman (3 August 1802 – 15 February 1865) was a Cardinal of the Catholic Church who became the first Archbishop of Westminster upon the re-establishment of the Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales in 1850. Born ...

showed his appreciation of his priestly zeal by making him provost of the newly appointed metropolitan chapter and his vicar-general in 1850. In this capacity he was responsible for the publication of the pastoral "From the Flaminian Gate". Whitty recounted some English readers taking the publication as a form of Catholic aggression; "The Cardinal never blamed me", Whitty wrote long afterwards, "but others did." In 1857, Whitty obtained leave to resign his position, and entered the noviceship of the Society of Jesus at

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. On his return to England he was appointed professor of

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in St. Beunos College in

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. After labouring for some time in

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, he was appointed provincial. Subsequently, he was assistant to

Anthony Maria Anderledy Anton Maria Anderledy (3 June 1819 – 18 January 1892) was a Swiss Jesuit, elected the twenty-third Superior General of the Society of Jesus. Religious and academic formation Son of a director of the postal services, Anderledy entered the Jesu ...

, the Jesuit Father-General. Whitty filled other important offices, and worked until the end, giving ecclesiastical retreats even in the last summer of his life. He died at the age of 78 years, of which he had spent 38 as a Jesuit. Whitty was brother to

Ellen Whitty Mother Mary Vincent Whitty, R.S.M., (3 March 1819 – 9 March 1892) was an Irish religious sister known for her work in the colony of Queensland. She was a leading figure in the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy, both in Ireland and in its ...

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Whitty, Robert 1817 births 1895 deaths 19th-century Irish Jesuits Alumni of St Patrick's College, Maynooth