Bishop of Raphoe

Bishop in Ireland

The Cathedral of St Eunan, Raphoe, the episcopal seat of the pre-Reformation and Church of Ireland bishops of Raphoe

The Cathedral of St Eunan and St Columba, Letterkenny, the episcopal seat of the post-Reformation Roman Catholic bishops of Raphoe

The Bishop of Raphoe (/ræˈfoʊ/ ra-FOH) is an episcopal title which takes its name after the town of Raphoe in County Donegal, Ireland. In the Roman Catholic Church it remains a separate title, but in the Church of Ireland it has been united with another bishopric.

History

In the earliest period of the diocese, the episcopal see was often referred to as Tír Conaill (the surrounding region). It was also sometimes written as Ráith Both, the Middle Irish spelling of the location. In 1266, Bishop Germanus of Derry forcibly transferred the Inishowen peninsula from the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Raphoe to the Diocese of Derry.

After the Reformation, there were parallel episcopal successions. In the Church of Ireland, the title continued until 1834 when it united with Derry and formed the united bishopric of Derry and Raphoe.

In the Catholic Church, the title continues as a separate bishopric. The current Incumbent is The Most Reverend Alan McGuckian, SJ, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Raphoe, who was appointed by the Holy See on 9 June 2017 and ordained Bishop on 6 August 2017.

Pre-Reformation

Reformation

Post-Reformation

Church of Ireland succession

Roman Catholic succession

Footnotes

1. The first three bishops are known only from a seventeenth-century catalogue of the bishop of Raphoe.^[1]

Notes

1. Moody, Martin & Byrne 1984, A New History of Ireland, volume IX, p. 288, fn. 27.
2. Cotton 1849, The Province of Ulster, pp. 347–349.
3. Fryde et al. 1986, Handbook of British Chronology, pp. 370–371.
4. Moody, Martin & Byrne 1984, A New History of Ireland, volume IX, pp. 278–280.
5. Cotton 1849, The Province of Ulster, p. 350.
6. Fryde et al. 1986, Handbook of British Chronology, pp. 371, 405, 441.
7. Moody, Martin & Byrne 1984, A New History of Ireland, volume IX, pp. 287–288, 352, 409.
8. Cotton 1849, The Province of Ulster, pp. 350–359.
9. Fryde et al. 1986, Handbook of British Chronology, p. 405.
10. Moody, Martin & Byrne 1984, A New History of Ireland, volume IX, pp. 409–411.
11. Fryde et al. 1986, Handbook of British Chronology, pp. 441–442.
12. Moody, Martin & Byrne 1984, A New History of Ireland, volume IX, pp. 352–354.
13. "Diocese of Raphoe". Catholic-Hierarchy.org. David M. Cheney. Retrieved 8 August 2009.
14. "Bishop Alexander Aloysius (Alan) McGuckian [Catholic-Hierarchy]". catholic-hierarchy.org.

References

• Cotton, Henry (1849). The Province of Ulster. Fasti Ecclesiae Hiberniae: The Succession of the Prelates and Members of the Cathedral Bodies of Ireland. Vol. 3. Dublin: Hodges and Smith.
• Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I., eds. (1986). Handbook of British Chronology (3rd, reprinted 2003 ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X.
• Moody, T. W.; Martin, F. X.; Byrne, F. J., eds. (1984). Maps, Genealogies, Lists: A Companion to Irish History, Part II. A New History of Ireland. Vol. IX. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-821745-5.