Thaddeus Francis O'Rourke

Thaddeus (‘Thady’) Francis c. 1659–4 May 1735) was an Irish Roman Catholic prelate who served as the Bishop of Killala from 1707 to 1735.

Biography

Little is known of the early life of O'Rourke. He was most likely born born in Breffni, north Leitrim as this is the ancestral home of the family. He was the son of Tiernan O'Rourke and Isabel McDonagh. He joined the Irish Franciscans on the continent some time before 1665. He obtained the Licentiate in Sacred Theology (Latin: Sacrae Theologiae Licentiatus; abbreviated STL) and lectured for a while. The most likely location for his lecturing career was the Irish Franciscan College of the Immaculate Conception, Prague

His brother, ,Tiernan O'Rourke, fled Ireland after the Treaty of Limerick (1691) and served the Hapsburg Empire; he was killed at the battle of Luzzara in the Po valley in August 1702. O'Rourke served as chaplain and private secretary to Prince Eugene of Savoy. Here he came to the attention of James III who nominated him as Bishop of Killala in 1705. Prince Eugene then introduced O'Rourke Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor. Leopold gave O'Rourke letters of commendation to Queen Anne and a personally signed passport.

A Papal brief appointing O'Rourke to Killala was issued on 15 March 1707. The bishop-elect travelled to London and received an audience with Queen Anne. Now under royal protection from the effects of the Banishment Act of 1697, he made his way to Dublin. There he arranged his consecration in Newgate jail by Patrick Donnelly bishop of Dromore, assisted by Edmund Byrne, archbishop-elect of Dublin, and Fergus O'Farrell (Ferral), archdeacon of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise.

The diocese of Killala was one of the smallest and most remote in Ireland and had effectively been without a bishop since 1661. There was no facility to even house the new bishop so O'Rourke resided with his sister and brother-in-law in Sligo. There were only nineteen priests in the diocese at the time and bishop O'Rourke was also busy consecrating bishops and ordaining priests throughout Ireland in the absence of many other non-resident bishops. In 1714 he consecrated Francis Burke as Archbishop of Tuam and Ambrose Madden as bishop of Clonfert.

With the ascension of Charles IV as Holy Roman Emperor in 1711 and the politics surrounding War of the Spanish Succession the previous protection and patronage offered Catholic clergy in English territory diminished and the Penal Laws were again implemented and O'Rourke went into hiding. He died in 1735 and is buried in