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Bishop of Ossory

Ancient stone cathedra of the Bishops of Ossory in St Canice's Cathedral.
St Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny, the episcopal seat of the pre-Reformation and Church of Ireland bishops.
St. Mary's Cathedral, Kilkenny, the episcopal seat of the Roman Catholic bishops.

The Bishop of Ossory (Irish: Easpag Osraí) is an episcopal title which takes its name after the ancient of Kingdom of Ossory in the Province of Leinster, Ireland. In the Roman Catholic Church it remains a separate title, but in the Church of Ireland it has been united with other bishoprics.

History

The diocese of Ossory was one of the twenty-four dioceses established at the Synod of Rathbreasail in 1111 and coincided with the ancient Kingdom of Ossory (Osraige); this is unusual, as Christian dioceses are almost always named for cities, not for regions. The episcopal see has always been in Kilkenny, the capital of Ossory at the time of the Synod of Rathbreasail. The erroneous belief that the cathedral was originally further north at Aghaboe is traced by John Bradley to a 16th-century misinterpretation of a 13th-century property transfer, combined with the fact that the abbey at the site which became St Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny, was a daughter house of Aghaboe Abbey.[1]

Following the Reformation, there were parallel apostolic successions. In the Church of Ireland, the see of Ossory combined with Ferns and Leighlin to form the united bishopric of Ossory, Ferns and Leighlin in 1835.

In the Roman Catholic Church, the title continues as a separate bishopric. The bishop's seat (cathedra) is located at St. Mary's Cathedral, Kilkenny. The current Ordinary is the Most Reverend Niall Coll, who was appointed by the Holy See on 28 October 2022 and ordained bishop on 29 December 2022.

Pre-diocesan succession

List of bishops up to 1386. Note the change from Gaelic names to Norman and English names after the Norman conquest of Ireland
List of bishops from 1386 onward — Catholic succession

The following list of bishops is inscribed in St Mary's Cathedral, Kilkenny and was listed on the Roman Catholic diocese's website.[2] Bishops in the early Irish church ruled over a kingdom, in this case, Osraige or Ossory, but were also often associated with a particular monastery and may have been in some matters subordinate to its abbot.

Pre-Reformation bishops

Bishops during the Reformation

Post-Reformation Roman Catholic succession

Church of Ireland succession

References

  1. ^ Bradley, John (2015). "Pulp Facts and Core Fictions; Translating a Cathedral from Aghaboe to Kilkenny". In Purcell, Emer; MacCotter, Paul; Nyhan, Julianne; Sheehan, John (eds.). Clerics, Kings and Vikings: Essays on Medieval Ireland in Honour of Donnchadh Ó Corráin. Four Courts Press. pp. 169–184. ISBN 9781846822797.
  2. ^ "The Bishops of Ossory". ossory.ie. Roman Catholic Diocese of Ossory. Archived from the original on 9 April 2014. Retrieved 26 January 2018.
  3. ^ a b c d Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1986). Handbook of British Chronology (3rd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X.
  4. ^ a b c d Moody, T. W.; Martin, F. X.; Byrne, F. J., eds. (1984), Maps, Genealogies, Lists: A Companion to Irish History, Part II, New History of Ireland: Volume XI, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-821745-5
  5. ^ Bagwell, Richard (1885–1890). Ireland Under the Tudors. Vol. 1. p. 305.
  6. ^ Diocese of Ossory. Catholic-Hierarchy. Retrieved 17 December 2009.
  7. ^ "Monsignor Dermot Farrell named Bishop of Ossory". 3 January 2018.
  8. ^ "Donegal priest appointed new Bishop of Ossory". RTE News. Retrieved 28 October 2022.

External links