Patrick Fleming (Franciscan)
Patrick Fleming OFM (Lagan, County Louth, 17 April 1599 – Bohemia, 7 November 1631) was an Irish Franciscan scholar, who was murdered near Prague in the course of the Thirty Years' War.
Life
Born Christopher Fleming, his father Gerald Fleming was the great-grandson of Christopher Fleming, 8th Baron Slane; his mother Elizabeth Cusack was a daughter of Robert Cusack, a Baron of the Exchequer and a close relative of Lord Christopher Nugent, his uncle was Fr. Christopher Cusack who founded Irish Colleges in Douai, Antwerp and Lille.[1] In 1612 Fleming went to Flanders, and became a student, first at St Patricks College of Douai (university of Douai), and then at the College of St. Anthony of Padua at Leuven (French: Louvain).[2]
In 1617 Fleming entered the Order of Friars Minor, and assumed the religious name of Patrick. A year later he made his solemn profession of religious vows. Five years after his, he went to Rome with Hugh MacCaghwell, the Definitor General of the Order, and when he had completed his studies at the College of St. Isidore, was ordained a priest.
From Rome Fleming was sent by his superiors to Leuven and for some years lectured there on philosophy. During that time he established a reputation for scholarship and administrative capacity, and when the Franciscans of the Strict Observance, the branch to which he belonged, opened a college the College of the Immaculate Conception in Prague, Fleming was appointed its first Guardian. He was also named a lecturer in theology.
The Thirty Years' War was raging at this time, and in 1631 the Elector of Saxony invaded Bohemia and threatened Prague. Fleming, accompanied by a fellow-countryman named Matthew Hoar, fled from the city. On 7 November the fugitives encountered a party of armed Calvinist peasants, who attacked and murdered the friars. Fleming's body was carried to the monastery of Voticium, four miles away, and there buried.
Works
Fleming was specially devoted to ecclesiastical history, his tastes in this direction being still further developed by his friendship for his learned countryman Father Hugh Ward. The latter, desirous of writing on early Christian Ireland, asked for his assistance. Even before Fleming left Leuven for Prague he had massed considerable materials and had written a Life of St. Columba. It was not, however, published in his lifetime. That and other manuscripts fell into the hands of Thomas O'Sheerin, a lecturer in theology at the College of St. Anthony of Padua who edited and published them at Louvain in 1667.
Fleming also wrote a life of Hugh MacCaghwell, Primate of Armagh, a chronicle of St. Peter's Monastery at Ratisbon (an ancient Irish foundation), and letters to Hugh Ratison on the lives and works of the Irish saints. The letters were published in The Irish Ecclesiastical Record.
References
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Patrick Fleming". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- ^ Fr. Christopher Cusack by Patrick M. Geoghegan, RIA / Cambridge Dictionary of Irish Biography
- ^ Patrick Fleming by Elaine Murphy, RIA / Cambridge Dictionary of Irish Biography
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Patrick Fleming". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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| National | |
| People | |
- 1599 births
- 1631 deaths
- People from County Louth
- Irish Friars Minor
- Irish Roman Catholic priests
- 17th-century Roman Catholic priests
- 17th-century Irish clergy
- Franciscan scholars
- Historians of the Catholic Church
- 17th-century Irish historians
- Burials in the Czech Republic
- University of Douai alumni
- Deaths in the Czech Republic
- 17th-century Irish writers
- 16th-century Irish writers