Blessed Thaddeus McCarthy (Tadhg Mac Cárthaigh)

Life

Tadhg Mac Cárthaigh was born around 1455 in Innishannon, County Cork, into the MacCarthy Reagh dynasty of Carbery. His father was lord of Muskerry and his mother a daughter of Edmund Fitzmaurice, ninth Lord of Kerry. He studied for the priesthood under his uncle, Canon Thady Mac Cárthaigh, before completing his theological formation in Paris and in Rome.

At only 27 years of age he was appointed Bishop of Ross by Pope Sixtus IV on 3 May 1482. The appointment was at once contested: a rival claimant, supported by the powerful Earl of Desmond, occupied the see by force, and despite repeated papal interventions Thaddeus was never able to take possession of his cathedral. He returned to Rome to plead his case, was vindicated, and in 1490 Pope Innocent VIII translated him to the more important united see of Cork and Cloyne. Once again, on his return to Ireland, he found his diocese in the hands of a usurper backed by local lords.

Undeterred, the young bishop set out a second time for Rome to obtain papal redress. He walked most of the way as a poor pilgrim, dressed in plain clerical garb so as to escape recognition. Late on the evening of 24 October 1492, exhausted and ill, he sought shelter at a hostel of the Confraternity of Saint Anthony in Ivrea, in the Italian Piedmont. The keepers gave him a humble bed without knowing who he was. He died there in the night, on 25 October 1492, aged 36 or 37.

The following morning a strange light was seen coming from the room. When the local clergy investigated, they discovered the pilgrim's identity from the episcopal ring and documents on his person. He was buried with great honour in the cathedral of Ivrea, where his tomb at once became a place of pilgrimage. When the tomb was opened in 1742 the body was reportedly found incorrupt.

His cult, continuous since the day of his death in Ivrea, was confirmed by Pope Leo XIII on 26 August 1895, who gave him the title of Blessed. He is venerated as the 'White Martyr of Munster' — one who died for the faith not by shedding blood but by accepting exile, poverty and hardship for Christ's sake.