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Paul Cardinal Cullen (29 April 1803 – 24 October 1878) was Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin and previously of Armagh, and the first Irish cardinal. His Ultramontanism spearheaded the Romanisation of the Catholic Church in Ireland and ushered in the Devotional Revolution experienced in Ireland through the second half of the 19th century and much of the 20th century. A trained biblical theologian and scholar of ancient languages, Cullen crafted the formula for papal infallibility at the First Vatican Council.

Early life

Cullen was born at Prospect, Narraghmore, Athy, County Kildare, one of 16 children of Hugh and Judith (Maher) Cullen, six of whom were from Hugh's first marriage. His first school was the Quaker Shackleton School in nearby Ballitore.

Following the relaxation of some of the Penal Laws, his father purchased some , giving him the status of a Catholic "strong farmer", a class that greatly influenced 19th-century Irish society. They were fervent in their Catholicism and fearful of the sort of social unrest that had led to the failed 1798 Rising. His great-nieces, Mary and Elizabeth Cullen became nuns, and two great-nephews entered the priesthood.

Cullen entered St Patrick's College, Carlow, in 1816, and, in 1820, he proceeded to the Pontifical Urban College in Rome, where his name is registered on the roll of students of 29 November 1820. At the close of a distinguished course of studies, he was selected to hold a public disputation in the halls of the Propaganda on 11 September 1828, in 224 theses from all theology and ecclesiastical history. The theological tournament was privileged in many ways, for Pope Leo XII, attended by his court, presided on the occasion, while no fewer than ten cardinals assisted at it, together with all the élite of ecclesiastical Rome. Vincenzo Pecci, the future Pope Leo XIII, was present at the disputation. Cullen graduated a doctor of divinity.

He was ordained in 1829.

During the revolution that saw the authority of the Papal States violently displaced for the short lived Roman Republic, he accepted the position of rector of the College of Propaganda while retaining charge of the Irish College. As all the rectors of Colleges in Rome, who were not foreigners, had to leave the city, Cullen was left in charge, temporally, of their interests. Soon after his appointment the Revolutionary Trimuvirate issued orders that the College of Propaganda was to be dissolved and the buildings appropriated. The rector appealed to Lewis Cass Jr., the chargé d'affaires of the United States diplomatic mission, to protect the citizens of the United States who were students of the college. Within an hour, the American flag was floating over the Propaganda College. The order of confiscation was withdrawn.

Armagh and Dublin

Cullen was appointed Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh on 19 December 1849 and consecrated by the Cardinal Prefect of Propaganda at the Irish College in Rome on 24 February 1850. He was also named Apostolic Delegate. His first major act as Archbishop of Armagh was to convene the Synod of Thurles (1850),

Cullen was transferred to the See of Dublin on 1 May 1852 and 14 years later, in 1866, was made a cardinal as Cardinal Priest of San Pietro in Montorio, the first Irish cardinal.

Cullen was sent to Ireland to bring the Irish church into conformity with Roman canon law and usage

Cullen was particularly intent on promoting Roman Catholic religious education in Ireland. From the first days of his episcopate Cullen had planned and pursued a Roman Catholic university for Ireland. The university project was welcomed generally by the Irish at home and abroad and the beginnings of the institution in Dublin gave some promise. In 1862, the cornerstone of the new University building was laid with Archbishop Hughes of New York preaching on the occasion. In political matters, Cullen made it a rule to support every measure, whatever its provenance, conducive to the interests of his vision for the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland. Desmond Bowen considers Cardinal Cullen "a cautious, suspicious, and usually shrewd product of the Roman school of diplomacy". The term also refers to a style of leadership resembling that of Cullen, characterised as "authoritative" and "intransigent".

Father Thomas N. Burke, O.P., in a sermon at a solemn Requiem mass, the "Month's Mind" of 27 November 1878, said: "The guiding spirit animating, encouraging and directing the wonderful work of the Irish Catholic Church for the last twenty eight years was Paul, Cardinal Cullen."

Cullen has been credited with the revival of regular Catholic devotion in Ireland. An extreme Ultramontanist, he vigorously opposed secret societies with revolutionary aims, as well as the system of mixed education then in force. His opposition was largely responsible for the failure of Gladstone's Irish Universities Bill in 1873.

Although a devout Catholic herself, Mary Jane, wife of Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, wrote a blistering response in her poem, "Tis for the Glory of the Faith", to what she saw as Cullen's suggestion that Irish emigrants had the role of spreading Catholicism abroad.

See also

  • St. Vincent's Industrial School, Goldenbridge

References

Further reading

  • Bowen, Desmond. Paul Cardinal Cullen and the Shaping of Modern Irish Catholicism (1983) excerpt
  • O'Connor, Anne. "Translating the Vatican: Paul Cullen, power and language in nineteenth-century Ireland." Irish Studies Review 22.4 (2014): 450-465.
  • Rafferty, Oliver P. "Cardinal Cullen, early fenianism, and the Macmanus funeral affair." British Catholic History 22.4 (1995): 549-563.
  • Translating the Vatican: Paul Cullen, power and language in nineteenth-century Ireland
  • Paul Cullen – Catholic Encyclopedia article