Life
1802-1865 [Nicholas Patrick Stephen]; Cardinal, ; b. Seville,
2 Aug. 1802, s. of Irish merchant established there since an earlier generation;
childhood in Waterford, and ed. St. Cuthbert’s College, Ushaw, nr.
Durham; English college, Rome; wrote part of unpublished novel, Fabius;
met Gladstone, Macauley, and Froude there; returned England 1836; Pres.
St. Mary’s Coll., Oscott, 1840, and Bishop of Melipotamus in partibus;
president of the eccles. district of London, succeeding Dr. Walsh, Vicar
Apostolic of London, whose coadjudicator he was, in 1849; Cardinal, 1850;
his novel Fabiola, A Tale of the Catacombs (1854), written in opposition
to anti-Catholic sentiments, enjoyed a large success; 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; last public lecture, Royal soc., Jan. 1863; d.
Baker St. London; his writings include Recollections of the Last Four Popes [Pius VII, Leo XII, Pius VIII, Gregory XVI]; author of romance,
Fabiola, a vivid and lifelike description of worship in the Catacombs;
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
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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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