Molloy, Francis
Molloy, Francis
(O’MOLLOY)
A theologian, grammarian born in King’s County, Ireland, at the beginning of the seventeenth century; died at St. Isidore’s, Rome, about 1684. At an early age he entered the Franciscan Order, and in the year 1642 he was appointed lecturer in philosophy at the college of Klosterneuberg, near Vienna, and in 1645 passed to the chair of theology at Gratz. Here he published a Scotist work on the Incarnation.
About 1650 he was called to Rome and appointed primary professor of theology in the College of St. Isidore. During his residence in Rome he wrote several works on theological subjects and a long Latin poem on Prince Prosper Philip of Spain. In 1676 he published an Irish catechism under the title of “Lucerna Fidelium seu Fasciculus decerptus de Doctrina Christiana”. This work, in the Irish language and characters, was printed at the office of the Congregation of the Propaganda, and was dedicated to Cardinal Altieri, Protector of Ireland. Father Molloy is best known as the author of the first Latin-Irish printed grammar (Grammatica Latino-Hibernica). This book also came from the press of the Propaganda (1677), and is dedicated to Cardinal Massimi, a great friend of the Irish. It is highly esteemed by writers on the Celtic languages, and is largely drawn upon by modern writers on Irish grammar.
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WADDING-SBARALEA, Scriptores Ord. Min. (Rome, 1806); O’REILLY, Irish Writers (Dublin, 1820); BRENNAN, Eccl. History of Ireland; RYAN, Worthies of Ireland (London, 1821); ANDERSON, Historical Sketches of the Native Irish (London, 1846); DOUGLAS HYDE, Literary History of Ireland (London, 1903); O’MOLLOY, Irish Prosody, tr. O’FLANNGHAILE (Dublin, 1908).
GREGORY CLEARY. Transcribed by Douglas J. Potter Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XCopyright © 1911 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, October 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Molloy, Francis
an Irish divine of some celebrity, flourished in the College of St. Isidor at Rome, Italy, in the second half of the 17th century, as professor of theology. He wrote Sacra Theologia (Rome, 1666, 8vo): Lucerna Fidelium (1676, 8vo), a Roman Catholic Catechism in Irish: Grammatica Latino-Hibernica compendiata (1677,12mo). Shingel, who gives an abstract of the last work in his Archeaological Britannica, says that it was the most complete Irish grammar then extant, although imperfect as to syntax, etc. See Ware, Writers of Ireland, volume 2.