Life
1130-1180 [var. 1128]; b. Leinster, son of the chief of Imaile; ed. Glendalough monastery of which he became abbot at 25; first native archbishop of Dublin - not seeking consecration at Canterbury as was the prevailing custom for Dublin bishops, 1162; treated with Strongbow, 1170 and lead army which briefly retook Dublin from the Normans for the high-king Roderic O’Conor [Ua Conchubair], but submitted to Henry in 1171; served as Counsel of Windsor representing O’Conor at court, 1175; attended the Third Lateran Council in Rome, 1179; appointed papal legate to Ireland; undertook an embassy for O’Connr in England, 1180; denied permission to return to Ireland by Henry; died Eu, in Normandy, while still seeking King’s permission to return; canonised 1226 (Feast Day 14 Nov.) ODNB DIB OCIL
Criticism
Canon John O’Hanlon, The Life of St. Laurence O’Toole, Archbishop of Dublin (Dublin: J. Mullany 1857); Desmond Forristal, The Man in the Middle: St Laurence O’Toole:Patron Saint of Dublin (Dublin: Veritas 1988), 95pp.
Commentary
John D’Alton, History of the Archbishops of Dublin, ‘Laurence O’Toole’, quoted in Cabinet of Irish Literature, ed., Charles Reade (1867), Vol. III: ‘In 1167 he assisted the council which King Roderic convened at Athboy, and which, in the mixed grades of those who attended it, greatly resembled a Saxon wittenagemote. ... The Political object of this assembly was to obtain more indisputable acknowledgements of the sovereignty of Roderic, and to calculate what aid and support he might expect in case of the then expected invasion of Dermot Mac Murrough’s auxiliaries. [.../] Upon the first invasion of the Welsh adventurers he adhered firmly to the independence of his country, and encouraged the inhabitants of Dublin to a vigorous defence against the invaders; they, however, daunted by the martial appearance and disciplined array of Strongbow’s forces before their walls, entreated the prelate to become a mediator of a peace, to effectuate which he passed out into the lines of the besiegers; but while the terms of surrender were yet under discussion, Raymond le Gros and Milo de Cogan, with a party of young and fiery spirits, scaled the walls, and at once possessed themselves of the city with frightful carnage.’ (End; p. 213.)
James Godkin, Ireland and Her Churches (London: Chapman & Hall 1867): ‘Laurence O’Toole, son of the chief of Imaile, became Arch bishop of Dublin in 11(32. He was the first of its bishops who did not go to Canterbury for consecration, and thence forth the custom was entirely abandoned. Though connected with an Irish sept, which long warred fiercely against the English of the Pale, Archbishop O’Toole worked harmoniously with Strongbow, Fitzstephen, and Raymond Le Gros, who co-operated in the enlargement of Christ Church Cathedral, the erection of the choir, the steeple, and two chapels. It was in this church that the remains of Strongbow, the “proud invader,” were peacefully laid with the Church’s blessing. This Irish prelate also assisted Cardinal Yivian. as legate at a council in Dublin, in 1177, confirming the King of England in his rights to the sovereignty of Ireland. And he afterwards went to Rome, where he obtained a Bull from the Pope, subjecting not only Glendalough, but Kildare, Ferns, Leighlin, and Ossory, to his metropolitan authority. But not being sufficiently tractable in the hands of his Royal Master, he was banished to Normandy, where he died in a monastery. He was soon after canonized, and became the patron saint of the diocese. This native prelate must have been a great troubler of the Pale, for he is said to have sent [34] nearly 200 of his clergy to Rome to seek the Pope's absolution for the sin of incontinence.’ (pp.33-34.)
S. C Hughes, The Church of S. Werburgh Dublin (1899), writes: ‘following 1172, when the English were permanently settled in Dublin, which was permanently assigned by Henry II in a Charter of that year to a colony from Bristol. Some time within the next seven years the colonists built first Church of S. Werburgh, for it is mentioned among Dublin Churches in the Bull ‘Cum teneamus’, obtained from Alexander III, by Archbishop O’Toole at the Lateran Council in 1179.’ (p.10)
Notes
Portrait: There is a bronze head by Melanie le Brocquy.
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