Life
fl.1615-1638; b. Diocese of Meath; ed. Irish College, Paris; STD; issued Offices of SS. Patrick, Brigid, Columba, et al., 1620; rector of the Irish College, then a seminary, 1621, on appt. of Thomas Dease as bish. of Meath (5 May, 1621); prothonorary Apostolic, acting for Irish bishops to Vatican; organised missionary work and antiquarian salvage in Ireland; prepared rules for the Irish College, approved by Bishop of Paris, 1926; issued Florilegium Insulæ Sanctorum (1624), containing a treatise on St. Patrick’s Purgatory, in Lough Derg; appt. to the Deanery of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, in succession to Henry Byrne; corresponded with Father Luke Wadding, OFM; consulted by the Vatican on candidates for Irish sees; wrote to Wadding warning that expectation of easing of religious disabilities by Charles I was vain (15 July 1630); believe to have resigned or died in 1638, after which his name no longer appears in records of the Irish Church or Vatican.
Works
Florilegium insulae sanctorum, seu, Vitae et acta sanctorum Hiberniae. Quibus accesserunt non vulgaria monumenta hoc est, Sancti Patricii Purgatorium, S. Malachiae prophetia de summis pontificibus, aliaque nonnulla quorum elenchus post praefationem habetur. Omnia nunc primum partim ex ms. codicibus, partim typis editis collegit & publicabat Thomas Messinghamus (Paris 1624).
Criticism
Jourdain’s Histoire de l’Université de Paris (Paris 1866); Boyle, The Irish College in Paris (London 1901); Report on Franciscan Manuscripts (Dublin: Irish MSS Commission 1905); W. H. Grattan-Flood, “Thomas Messingham”, in Catholic Encyclopaedia (vol X).
References
There is an online copy of the article by W. H. Flood in the Catholic Encyclopedia.
Notes
Franciscan Manuscripts (Killiney, Dublin) contain letter by David Rothe, Vice-Primate of All Ireland, to my ‘loving friend Mr. Thomas Messingham at his chambers in Paris’, dated 1615.
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