Bishop Thomas Burke

Alfred Webb

A Compendium of Irish Biography

1878

Burke, Thomas, Bishop of Ossory, was born of the stock of the De Burghs, in Dublin, about 1709. When quite young he was sent to Rome, and in 1724 was invested with the habit of the Dominican order. In 1741 he was commissioned by the Irish clergy to solicit from the Pope the confirmation of ten new Offices of Irish Saints; a matter in which he succeeded with Benedict XIV. In 1743 he returned to Ireland in full orders, in 1749 and 1757 was definitor of a provincial chapter, and in 1759 was promoted to the see of Ossory. His great work, Hibernia Dominicana, was printed in 1762, at Kilkenny, nominally at Cologne. A supplement was added in 1772. The whole was in 1775 publicly condemned by seven of the Irish Catholic Bishops, as tending to "weaken allegiance," "disturb the public peace," "sow the seeds of dissension," and "give a handle to those who differ in religious principles from us." Bishop Burke died at Kilkenny, 25th September 1776.

Sources

8. Anthologia Hibernica (1). 4vols. Dublin, 1793-'4.

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