Patrick Fleming, OFM M
(PC)
(also known as
Christopher Fleming)
Born 1599; died at
Benesabe, Bohemia, November 7, 1631; cause for canonization opened in 1903.
Christopher Fleming has
always been regarded as a martyr for the faith in Ireland, and venerated within
the Franciscan Order. He is also remembered as one who preserved the record of
the Irish missionary influence on the Continent.
Openly practicing
Catholicism in Ireland or England was dangerous during this period. So the
Franciscans, Jesuits, and Dominicans opened more than 20 colleges on the
Continent for their education. At the age of 14, Patrick joined his uncle
Christopher Cusack (Cusach), founder and rector of Saint Patrick's College, in
Douai, France. On March 17, 1617, he joined the Franciscans in Louvain and took
the name Patrick. He studied for the priesthood for six more years at Saint
Anthony's at Louvain.
Then he was transferred
to Rome, where he spent several years under the strict rule of Father Luke
Wadding, founder of Saint Isadore's Irish Franciscan College. The rule there
was so strict that the brethren of the college gained the reputation for
impeccability--it is said that the devil could never find idle hands to tempt
there. Here Patrick was ordained to the priesthood and met the laybrother
Michael O'Clery and his three collaborators who were gathering material for a
massive history of Ireland. (During a time of comparative peace (1632-1636),
the four worked near the ruins of the Franciscan monastery at Donegal. They
published their research in the Annals of the Four Masters.)
Following his ordination,
Father Fleming taught theology and philosophy at the college in Louvain. While
there he was enlisted by Brother O'Clery to find material in various parts of
Europe, including the great monasteries of Bobbio, Saint Gall, and Regensburg.
This was immensely important work because the history of Ireland was being
eradicated. Use of the Gaelic language was forbidden. The death penalty was
imposed for those who possessed, and would not surrender, Irish manuscripts.
Among other documents he located were the life of Saint Columbanus written by
Jonas. Flemings' findings were published after his death as Collectanea Sacra.
In 1630, Father Fleming
was appointed head of a new Franciscan seminary in Prague, donated by Ferdinand
of Austria, intended to relieve the pressure of Irish Franciscan vocations at
Louvain and Rome. The school was opened in July 1631. Unfortunately, the Saxon
Protestant troops overran the city, and all Catholics were placed in danger.
Patrick Fleming, aged 32, and his young deacon Matthew Hoare were butchered by
armed Lutheran peasants as they were taking a walk (D'Arcy, McCarthy, Montague,
O'Kelly, Tommasini).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/1107.shtml
Patrick Fleming
Franciscan friar b.
at Lagan, Couny Louth, Ireland,
17 April, 1599; d. 7 November, 1631. His father was great-grandson
of Lord Slane; his mother was daughter of Robert Cusack, a baron of
the exchequer and a near relative of Lord Delvin. In 1612, at a time
when religious persecution raged
in Ireland,
young Fleming went to Flanders,
and became a student, first at Douai,
and then at the College of St. Anthony of Padua at Louvain.
In 1617 he took the Franciscan habit and
a year later made his solemn profession. He
then assumed in religion the name of
Patrick, Christopher being the name he received at baptism.
Five years after his solemn profession 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 priest.
From Rome he
was sent by his superiors to Louvain 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 opened a college at Prague in Bohemia, Fleming was
appointed its first superior. He was also 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;
and the latter animated with the fierce fanaticism of the times, fell
upon the friars and murdered them. Fleming's body
was carried to the monastery of
Voticium, four miles distant from the scene of the murder and
there buried.
Eminent both in philosophy and theology,
he 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 Fleming's assistance which was readily given. Even
before Fleming left Louvain 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, 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 have been published in "The Irish Ecclesiastical Record"
(see below). The work published at Louvain in
1667 is now rare and costly; one copy in recent years was sold for seventy
pounds.
D'Alton, Edward. "Patrick
Fleming." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York:
Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 7 Nov. 2015 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06100c.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Joseph P.
Thomas.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. September 1, 1909. Remy Lafort,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2026 by New Advent LLC.
Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06100c.htm
Fleming, Patrick
Fleming, Patrick, Rev.,
of the family of the Lords of Slane, was born in the townland of Lagan, County
of Louth, 17th April 1599. At thirteen he was sent to the Continent, and
studied diligently at Douay and Louvain; at the latter place he took the habit
of St. Francis on 17th March 1617. At Paris he became intimate with Hugh Ward,
and perceiving his capacity for the task, induced him to undertake the work of
collecting materials for a work on the lives of the Irish saints. In 1623 he
removed to Rome in company with Hugh MacCaughwell, afterwards Archbishop of
Armagh.
After studying in St.
Isidore's at Rome, Fleming returned to Louvain; and in a few years removed to
Prague, where in 1631 he was appointed President of the Irish College. When
Prague was about being besieged by the Elector of Saxony in 1631 he fled with a
companion, but was set upon by some peasants and murdered, 7th November in the
same year. Fortunately when departing for Prague he left his Collectanea
Sacra in MS. in the hands of Moret, a printer in Antwerp. It appeared in
Louvain in 1677. The work is now extremely rare, having at Dr. Todd's sale
brought £70. An exposition of the contents, by Dr. Reeves, will be found in
the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, vol. ii.
Sources
11. Archaeology, Ulster
Journal of. Belfast, 1853-'62.
339. Ware, Sir James,
Works: Walter Harris. 2 vols. Dublin, 1764.
SOURCE : http://www.libraryireland.com/biography/PatrickFleming.php
Fleming, Patrick
by Elaine Murphy
Fleming, Patrick
(1599–1631), Franciscan friar and scholar, was born on 17 April 1599 at Bel
atha Lagan, Clonkeen, Co. Louth, the son of Gerald Fleming and Elizabeth Cusack
of Cushintown. He was baptised Christopher and was a pious and hard-working child.
At the age of thirteen he was sent into the care of his uncle Christopher
Cusack, administrator of the Irish colleges in Flanders, to ensure his catholic
upbringing. Having studied humanities at Douai, he proceeded to the Franciscan
college of St Anthony of Padua at Louvain. On 17 March 1617 he began his
novitiate in that order and, exactly one year later, he made his solemn
profession, taking the name Patrick.
On completion of his
studies in 1623, he was chosen to accompany Hugh
MacCaghwell (qv), visitator of the order, to Rome. En route to Rome,
they passed through Paris, where Fleming became friendly with Father Hugh
Ward (qv); the two men shared an interest in collecting material
relating to Irish saints. During his journey and visit to Rome, Fleming visited
many libraries, including those at Bobbio and Clairvaux, sending to Ward any
information he discovered in relation to Irish saints. While in Rome, he
composed a sketch about MacCaghwell, who had been appointed primate of Armagh;
part of the sketch was incorporated by Vernulaeus in his panegyric on MacCaghwell.
On his return journey to Louvain, he stopped at Regensburg, there writing a
compendium to the chronicle of the Irish monastery of St Peter.
After his return from
Rome, Fleming held the chair of philosophy and theology at Louvain. In 1630,
because of his reputation for scholarship and his family connections, he was
appointed the first superior and lecturer in divinity of the newly founded
Irish college in Prague. He set out for Prague in November 1630 in the company
of Father Gerald Fitzgerald. When he reached the city, he set about
establishing the college, purchasing a site for 2,100 florins on 4 April 1631.
The solemn opening of the College of the Immaculate Conception took place on 6
July 1631 and, a month later, Fleming left for Vienna to try to secure a
permanent endowment for the college from the emperor. He was unsuccessful and
he returned to Prague, where, during the autumn of 1631, protestant military
successes led to a general exodus of catholic clergy from the city. The
Franciscans left for Vienna in two groups, with Fleming and Brother Mathew Hore
being among the second group to leave. On 7 November 1631, near Beneschau, they
were attacked by a group of peasants and both men were killed. Fleming's body
was taken to the nearby monastery at Voticium, where he was buried.
Before going to Prague in
1630, Fleming left his writings on St Columbanus and other Irish saints with
Moretus, a printer in Antwerp. This work remained unpublished for more than
thirty years, until it was edited by Thomas O'Sherrin, jubilate lector of
divinity at Louvain, who published it as Collectanea sacra in 1667.
William Reeves, ‘Irish
library no. 2’, UJA, ii (1854), 253–61; Allibone, i, 604; IER,
vii (1871), 59–65, 193–216; DNB, vii, 281–2; M. Pearde Beaufort, ‘Hugh
MacCaghwell and Patrick Fleming’, Irish Monthly, xlv (1917), 800–03;
Brendan Jennings, ‘The Irish Franciscans in Prague’, Studies, xxviii
(1939), 210–15; Brendan Jennings (ed.), Wadding papers,
1614–38, IMC (1953), 168, 410, 456; B. Jennings and C. Giblin
(eds), Louvain papers, 1606–1827, IMC (1968), 57; Liam MacMathuna, ‘Donagh
O'Daly O.S.M., 1600–c.1661’, Studia Hib., no. 19 (1979), 18
SOURCE : https://dib.cambridge.org/viewReadPage.do?articleId=a3286
FLEMING, PATRICK
(1599–1631), a Franciscan friar of the Strict Observance, was born on 17 April
1599 at Bel-atha-Lagain, now the townland of Lagan, in the parish of Clonkeen
and county of Louth, Ireland. His father, Gerald Fleming, was great-grandson of
Christopher Fleming, baron of Slane and treasurer of Ireland. His mother was
Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Cusack of Cushinstown, a baron of the exchequer,
by Catharine Nugent, daughter of Christopher, heir to the barony of Delvin. He
was baptised by Father William Jacson, and received the family christian name
of Christopher. At the age of thirteen he was sent by his parents to Flanders,
and placed under the care of his uncle, the Rev. Christopher Cusack, who was
administrator of the Irish colleges for the secular clergy in that country.
Having studied humanities at Douay he removed to the college of St. Anthony of
Padua at Louvain, where, on 17 March 1616–17, he took the probationary habit of
St. Francis from the hands of Anthony Hickey, the superior; and on the same day
in the following year he made his solemn profession, assuming in religion the
name of Patrick. In 1623 he journeyed to Rome in company with Hugh Mac
Caghwell, then definitor-general of the Franciscan order, and afterwards
archbishop of Armagh. In passing through Paris, Fleming contracted a close
friendship with Father Hugh Ward, to whom he promised a zealous co-operation in
searching out and illustrating the lives of the early saints of Ireland. He
completed his philosophical and theological studies in the Irish college of St.
Isidore at Rome (Wadding, Scriptores Ordinis Minorum, ed. 1806, p. 185),
and afterwards he was sent to teach philosophy at Louvain, where he continued
to lecture for some years. He removed to Prague in Bohemia on being appointed
the first superior of, and divinity lecturer in, the college of the Immaculate
Conception, recently founded in that city for Irish Franciscans of the Strict
Observance. When the elector Palatine invaded Bohemia, Fleming fled from the
city, in company with Matthew Hoar, a deacon. On 7 Nov. 1631 they were suddenly
attacked near the small town of Beneschau, by a party of armed peasants, who
killed them on the spot. Fleming's body was conveyed to the monastery of
Voticium, about four miles from the scene of the murder, and solemnly interred
in the presence of forty brethren.
His works are: 1. ‘Vita
S. Columbani, Abbatis Bobiensis, cum annotationibus.’ This work, and the lives
of some other Irish saints, with their ‘Opuscula,’ Fleming, before his
departure for Prague, gave to Moretus, the famous printer of Antwerp, with a
view to publication, but the design was not then carried into effect. The
manuscripts afterwards were edited by Thomas Sirinus, or O'Sherrin, jubilate
lector of divinity in the college of St. Anthony of Padua at Louvain, who
published them under the title of ‘Collectanea Sacra, seu S. Columbani Hiberni
Abbatis, magni Monachorum Patriarchæ, Monasteriorum Luxoviensis in Gallia, et
Bobiensis in Italia, aliorumque, Fundatoris et Patroni, Necnon aliorum aliquot
è Veteri itidem Scotiâ seu Hiberniâ antiquorum Sanctorum Acta & Opuscula,
nusquam antehàc edita, partem ab ipso brevibus Notis, partem fusioribus
Commentariis, ac speciali de Monastica S. Columbani institutione Tractatu,
illustrata,’ Louvain, 1667, fol. pp. 455. This work is of even greater rarity
than the scarce volumes of Colgan. A detailed account of its contents, by
William Reeves, D.D., will be found in the ‘Ulster Journal of Archæology,’ vol.
ii. 2. ‘Vita Reverendi Patris Hugonis Cavelli [Mac Caghwell],’ 1626. This
biography was incorporated by Vernulæus in the panegyric of the deceased
primate which he delivered at Louvain; and its chief facts are preserved by
Lynch in his manuscript ‘History of the Bishops of Ireland.’ 3. ‘Chronicon
Consecrati Petri Ratisbonæ,’ manuscript, being a compendium of the chronicle of
the monastery of St. Peter at Regensberg. 4. Letters on Irish hagiology
addressed to Hugh Ward, and printed in the ‘Irish Ecclesiastical Record.’
[Life by O'Sherrin,
prefixed to Fleming's Collectanea; Ware's Writers of Ireland (Harris), p. 112;
Preface to Colgan's Acta Sanctorum; Ulster Journal of Archæology, ii. 253;
Sbaralea's Suppl. et Castigatio ad Scriptores Trium Ordinum S. Francisci a
Waddingo aliisve descriptos, p. 573; Irish Ecclesiastical Record, vii. 59, 193;
Brenan's Eccl. Hist. of Ireland, p. 512; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn), p. 809.]
Dictionary of National
Biography volume 19
SOURCE :
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Dictionary_of_National_Biography_volume_19.djvu/287
