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Life
1802-1865 [Nicholas Patrick Stephen]; Cardinal; b. Seville, 3 Aug. 1802, son of an Irish merchant established there since an earlier generation, with his second wife Xaveira (née Strange); early education in Waterford, and later at St. Cuthbert’s College, Ushaw, nr. Durham; English College, Rome; wrote part of unpublished novel, Fabiola, a vivid description of worship in the Catacombs; met Gladstone, Macauley, and Froude when visiting in Rome; returned to England in 1836; President of St. Mary’s Coll., Oscott, 1840, and Bishop of Melipotamus in partibus [titular bish. of Trepezus]; president of the eccles. district of London, succeeding Dr. Walsh, Vicar Apostolic of London, whose coadjudicator he was, in 1849; made a Cardinal, 1850;
his novel Fabiola, A Tale of the Catacombs (1854), written in opposition to anti-Catholic sentiments, enjoyed a large success; he invited John Henry Newman to write his Callista for the same series; named Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, causing political repercussions in England; visited Ireland in 1859; left obliged to instruct Catholic parents not to send their children to Oxford or Cambridge; wrote against the acceptance of the bible as the unique authority on religion (viz., contra Protestant evangelism); gave is last public lecture, Royal Soc., Jan. 1863; d. 15 Feb. 1865, at Baker St. London; his writings include Recollections of the Last Four Popes [Pius VII, Leo XII, Pius VIII, Gregory XVI]; drama, The Hidden Gem, performed St. Cuthbert’s and Liverpool stages; essays reprinted from The Dublin Review, of which he was a founder. CAB ODNB JMC SUTH
[ Fabiola (1854) is available at Internet Archive - online. There is a substantial Wikipedia article. Both accessed 25.07.2023. ]
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Commentary
Maureen Wall, ‘John Keogh and the Catholic Committee’, in Catholic Ireland in the Eighteenth Century: Collected Essays, ed. Gerard O’Brien (Dublin: Geog. Publ. 1989), p.183, remarking that James Wiseman, grandfather of the cardinal, settled in Seville in the middle of the eighteenth century. Further notes that Sir James Caldwell wrote that ‘there is not a family in the island that had not a relative in the church, in the army, or in trade in France and Spain’ (A brief examination of the question whether it is expedient either in religious or a political view to pass an act to enable papists to take real securities for money which they may lend (Dublin 1764), p.27.)
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References
Charles Read, ed., A Cabinet of Irish Literature (3 vols., 1876-78), contains extracts on ‘Italian Gesticulation’ and ‘Shakespeare’. Justin McCarthy, ed., Irish Literature (1904) contains a biographical sketch [as supra].
De Burca Books (Cat. 18) lists The Sermons, Lectures and Sermons delivered during Cardinal Wiseman’s Tour of Ireland in 1858 (Duffy, 1859), pp vii, 416. Do., ... in Aug. & Sept. 1858, with a Connecting Narrative(1st edn. 1859), port., vii+416pp. [Hyland, 219; Oct. 1995].
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Notes
Religion goes first: Cardinal Wiseman noted on his visit to Ireland in 1858 that ‘religious progress is far in advance of what is considered social improvement.’ (Quoted in Malcolm Brown, The Politics of Irish Literature, 1972, pp.132-33.)
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