St Patrick's College, Maynooth
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| St Patrick's College, Maynooth | |
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| Established: | 1795 |
| President: | Monsignor Hugh Connolly |
| Location: | Maynooth, Republic of Ireland |
| Website: | http://www.maynoothcollege.ie/ |
St Patrick's College, Maynooth (Irish: Coláiste Naoimh Phádraig, Maigh Nuad) is the "National Seminary for Ireland", a college and seminary often called Maynooth College located at Maynooth, Ireland. The college was officially established as the Roman Catholic College of St Patrick by an Act of Parliament in 1795. There are 67 men studying for the priesthood at Maynooth, in 2006, now the only seminary in Ireland.
Degrees at the college are awarded by the associated Pontifical University of Maynooth which is Ireland's only private university and was established by a Pontifical Charter of 1896. The Pontifical Charter entitles the university to grant degrees in canon law, philosophy and theology.
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[edit] History
The college was created against the background of the upheaval during the French Revolution and the gradual removal of the penal laws. Until this time a significant number of Catholic priests were educated on the European continent, particularly in France, outside of Ireland.
The college was established in 1795, by act of the Parliament of Ireland to provide "for the better education of persons professing the popish or Roman Catholic religion". The college was intended to provide for the education of Catholic priests in Ireland who prior to the act had to go to the continent for training; also the added value in this was the reduction of the amount of priests returning from training in revolutionary France (with whom Britain was at war) thus discouraging potential revolution. The value to the government was proved by the condemnation by the Catholic Church hierarchy of the 1798 rebellion and later support for the Act of Union.
In 1800, John Butler, 12th Baron Dunboyne died and left a substantial fortune to the College. Butler had been a Roman Catholic, Bishop of Cork, who had embraced Protestantism in order to marry and guarantee the succession to his hereditary title. However, there were no children to his marriage and it was alleged that he had been reconciled to the Catholic Church at his death. Were this the case, a penal law demanded that the will was invalid and his wealth would pass to his family. Much litigation followed before a negotiated settlement in 1808 that led to the establishment of a Dunboyne scholarship fund.[1]
The land was donated by the 2nd Duke of Leinster. The building work was paid for by the British Government; parliament continued to give it an annual grant until the Irish Church Disestablishment Act became law. When this law was passed the College received a capital sum of £369,000. The trustees invested 75% of this in mortgages to Irish landowners at a yield of 4.25% - 4.75% per annum. This would have been considered a secure investment at that time but agitation for land reform and the depression of the 1870's eroded this security. The largest single mortgage was granted to the Earl of Granard. Accumulated losses on these transactions reached £35,000 by 1906. [2].
The first building to go up on this site was designed by, and named after, John Stoyte; Stoyte House, which can still be seen from the entrance to the old campus, is a well-known building to Maynooth students and stands in close proximity to the very historic Maynooth Castle. Over the next 15 years, the site at Maynooth underwent rapid construction so as to cater for the influx of new students, and the buildings which now border St. Joseph's Square (to the rear of Stoyte House) were completed by 1824.
Following the controversy regarding the Maynooth Grant, the College received a higher annual grant from the British Government, as well as a sum for repairs.
The Rev. Dr. Laurence F. Renehan (1797-1857) - a noted antiquarian, church historian, and cleric - served as president of St. Patrick's from 1845 through 1857. Under Renehan, many of the college's most important buildings were constructed by Augustus Pugin.
[edit] Expansion
In 1876 the college became a constituent college of the Catholic University of Ireland, and later offered Royal University of Ireland degrees in arts and science. Even after the granting of the Pontifical Charter in 1896 the college became a recognised college of the National University of Ireland in 1910, and from this time its arts and science degrees were awarded by the National University of Ireland. However during this time the Pontifical University of Maynooth continued to confer its degrees, as theology degrees were prohibited in the Royal University of Ireland, and its successor the National University of Ireland until 1997.
In 1966 the first lay students entered, these being the members of lay religious orders, and in 1968 all laity where accepted; by 1977 they outnumbered religious. Finally in 1997 the Universities Act, 1997 was passed by the Oireachtas and Chapter IX provided for the creation of the separate National University of Ireland, Maynooth. This new university was created from the faculties of art, celtic studies and philosophy, and science of the college.
[edit] Micheál Ledwith
- See also: Ferns Inquiry
Dr Micheál Ledwith, a priest of the Diocese of Ferns was nominated to the position of president of the College in 1994 by Dr Brendan Comiskey, Bishop of Ferns. Ledwith resigned this position in 1994 following allegations of a sexual relationship with a minor. He was succeeded by Mgr Matthew O'Donnell who was previously Professor of Ethics and later Philosophy.
[edit] Current status
Any student of the college, prior to the passing of the Universities Act, 1997, upon whom a degree of the National University of Ireland was conferred is now legally considered to be a graduate of the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. The college continues to share its campus with National University of Ireland, Maynooth but remains a separate legal entity with training in canon law, philosophy and theology and awards the degrees of the Pontifical University and is associated with several other colleges.
There are 5,101 priests in Ireland in 2006 - 2,412 diocesan and 2,619 in religious congregations. But the number of ordinations at Maynooth have not kept pace with historic trends: 9 in 2003, 8 in 2004, 7 in 2005 and 8 in 2006, and a mere 2 in 2007. There has been a rise in the number of men beginning studies for the priesthood in 2006. 26 students started the seven-year course of study at the college, up from last year's intake of 22, on August 20, 2006. This is the highest number since the beginning of the decade, with entrants numbering in the high teens with the exception of 2004 when 22 men started at the college[3]. however it is unclear as to how many remain in St Patricks - the only figure being a drop out rate of 60% being suggested by former president Monsignor Farrell.
[edit] References
- ^ O'Connor, T. (2004) "Butler, John, styled twelfth Baron Dunboyne (1731–1800)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, accessed 9 Aug 2007 (subscription required)
- ^ Dooley, Terence (2001). The Decline of the Big House in Ireland. Wolfhound Press Ltd. ISBN 0-86327-850-7.
- ^ "Intake of priesthood candidates rises to 26", Irish Independent, 2006-08-21.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- St Patrick's College - Official web site
"Maynooth College". Catholic Encyclopedia. (1913). New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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