Father Mathew

For other people named Theobald Mathew, see Theobald Mathew (disambiguation).

The Reverend
Theobald Mathew
Theobald Mathew, by Edward Daniel Leahy
Born(1790-10-10)10 October 1790
Thomastown, County Tipperary, Ireland
Died8 December 1856(1856-12-08) (aged 66)
Queenstown, County Cork, Ireland
ReligionChristianity (Roman Catholic)
ChurchLatin Church

Theobald Mathew (10 October 1790 – 8 December 1856)[1] was an Irish Catholic priest and teetotalist reformer, popularly known as Father Mathew. He was born at Thomastown, near Golden, County Tipperary, on 10 October 1790, to James Mathew and his wife Anne, daughter of George Whyte, of Cappaghwhyte.[2] Of the family of the Earls Landaff (his father, James, was a first cousin of Thomas Mathew, father of the first earl),[3] he was a kinsman of the clergyman Arnold Mathew.[4][5][6]

He received his schooling in County Kilkenny, then moved for a short time to Maynooth.[7] From 1808 to 1814 he studied in Dublin, where in the latter year he was ordained to the priesthood. Having entered the Capuchin order, after a brief period of service at Kilkenny, he joined the mission in Cork.[8]

Statues of Mathew stand on St. Patrick's Street, Cork, by J. H. Foley (1864), and on O'Connell Street, Dublin, by Mary Redmond (1893).[9] There is a Fr. Mathew Bridge in Limerick City, named after the temperance reformer when it was rebuilt between 1844 and 1846.[10] The Capuchin church in Cork, Holy Trinity, stands on Father Mathew Quay and was commissioned by him.[11]

  1. ^ Curtin-Kelly 2015, pp. 21, 29.
  2. ^ The Catholic Encyclopaedia, ed. Charles George Herbermann, Universal Knowledge Foundation, 1913, p. 47
  3. ^ Burke's Landed Gentry of Ireland, 1976, Mathew pedigree
  4. ^ The History and Antiquities of Glamorganshire and Its Families, Thomas Nicholas, Longmans, Green & Co., 1874, p. 120
  5. ^ "Estate: Mathew (Thomastown)". Landed Estates Database. National University of Ireland Galway. Archived from the original on 9 August 2020. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
  6. ^ Genealogy of the Earls of Landaff, of Thomastown, County Tipperary, Murray Alexander Mathew, Capuchin Franciscan Friars, Church Street
  7. ^ Mathew 1894, p. 32.
  8. ^ Augustine 1911.
  9. ^ Irish Times. 28 October 2010. p. 17.
  10. ^ "Edward Uzuld". Dictionary of Irish Architects. Irish Architectural Archive.
  11. ^ "1889 – Holy Trinity & Capuchin Monastery, Cork". Archiseek. 6 November 2009. Retrieved 17 January 2017.