WADDING
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WADDING
which the generosity of his friends enabled him to
purchase. The college, as it stands to-day, is practi-
cally his exclusive creation. He procured for the
hbrary 5000 select works, besides a precious collec-
tion of MSS. bound in 800 volumes. Dui-ing the
first thirty years of its existence this college educated
200 students, 70 of which number filled chairs of
philosophy and theology in various countries of
Europe. Others, returning to Ireland, worked in the
ministry, and many of them were called to lay down
their fives for the Faith. Each year Wadding kept
the Feast of St. Patrick with great solemnity at St.
Isidore's; and it is due to his influence, as member of
the commission for the reform of the Breviary, that
the festival of Ireland's Apostle was inserted on 17
March in the calendar of the Universal Church. A
few years after the foundation of the College for Irish
Franciscans, Wadding prevailed on Cardinal Ludo-
visi, protector of Ireland, to signahze his protectorate
by the endowment of a similar institution for the
Irish secular clergy. The cardinal consented, and,
W^adding having dra'n-n up a code of constitutions,
the college was opened on 1 Jan., 1628. The students
attended lectures in the halls of St. Isidore's until
1635, when Wadding and his brethren surrendered
the administration of the college to the .Jesuits. By
a Rescript of Alexander VII given at Castel Gandolfo
in 1656, Wadding founded another house at Capran-
ica, a town some thirty miles north of Rome, to serve
as a novitiate to St. Isidore's.
Wadding was not only the official representative and indefatigable agent in the Roman Curia of the archbishops and bishops of Ireland, but the Holy See itself took no measure of importance concerning that country without consulting him. The Supreme Council of the Confederates, by letters patent of 6 Dec, 1642, nominated him their agent and pro- curator in Rome and the whole of Italy. It was at his suggestion that Father Scarampi, the Oratorian, was sent in 1643 as p.apal envoy to Ireland, with supplies of arms, ammunition, and money. Wadding himself had sent similar suppfies in the preceding year, as well as Irish officers trained in the armies of France and the Netherlands. He procured letters from the Holy See to the CathoUc powers of Europe to enfist their sympathies and secure their aid in favour of the Irish war. In 1645 he prevailed on the new pope. Innocent X, to send another envoy to Ireland, with the powers and dignity of an Apostolic nuncio. Archbishop Rinuccini being sent. On his departure from Rome the nuncio received from Wadding the sum of 26,000 scndi towards the Irish cause. Wadding sent him a similar sum the year after through Dean Massari, to mention only some of his contributions. Great was the interest now evinced in Irish affairs at the Roman Court. The tidings of O'Neill's victory at Benburb (5 June, 1646) caused much rejoicing; a solemn Te Deuni was sung in the Basifica of St. IMary Major, and the standards taken in the battle, being sent out by the nuncio, were hung as trophies in the cupola of St. Peter's. Innocent X, through Wadding, sent his blessing to Owen Roe O'Neill and with it the sword of the great Earl of TjTone. But jealousy and di.sunion among the Confederate chiefs ruined all, and no one felt the blow so much as Wadding.
V. Official Caref.u. — Luke W^adding was a leclnr jubilahis of sacred theology and " chronologist of the whole Order of Friars Alinor". He was guardian, for four terms, of St. Isidore's, and pr(rf:es of the Irish College. He was appointed procurator of tlie order in 1630, but did not take office; reappointed in 16.'?2, he retained the position to 1634. In his capacity of procurator he was Lenten preacher to the pai)al Court. Being nominated vice-commissary of the order in the Roman Curia in 1645, he insisted on being dispensed; but he was obliged to assume the
duties of commissary in 1648. Paul V nominated
him qualificator of the Holy Office, and Gregory XV
consultor of the Index. He was made consultor of
the Rites and of the Propaganda by Urban VIII, and
named member of the commission for the reform of
the Roman Breviary and the other hturgical books
by the same pontifT. He was, besides, the trusted
adviser of successive popes, many cardinals, and the
superiors of his order. Were it not for his humility,
he might have attained to the highest honours in the
Church. He was postulated for many episcopal and
metropoUtan sees, but constantly refused the dignity.
He was invited by prominent members of the cis-
montane section of the order to join their family,
with a view to qualifjdng for election to the generalate
(which they promised in that event), but hedecUned.
■The Su]3reme Council of the Confederation sent
letters to Urban VIII on 14 June, 1644, and to Inno-
cent X on 23 November of the same year, to raise
Wadding to the cardinalate. But he himself suc-
ceeded in suppressing the documents at Rome, and
it was only after his death that they were discovered
among his papers. W'riting to the Supreme Council,
Wadding excuses himself for this act of humifity,
alleging that he thought he could serve his country
more etTectively in a position less prominent than that
of cardinal. It is stated of Wadding by contemporary
writers that he received votes to be pope. If this
statement be true, it must have reference to the con-
claves of 1644 or 1655. Wadding's piety was equal
to his learning, and his death was that of a saint.
W.vddingus-Sbaralea, Scriptores ord. minarum (Rome, 1806); Joannes a S. Antonio, Bihliotheca universa Franciscana (Ma- drid, 1732); Marraccio, Bihliotheca Mariana (Rome, 1646); Works of Sit Jas. Ware, ed. Harris (Dublin, 1764) ; Nicholson. Irish Historical Library (Dublin, 1724); Ancient and Present Slate of Co. and City of Waterford (Dublin, 1746); Watt, Bibli- otheca Britannica (Edinburgh, 1824); Rtan, Worthies of Ireland (London, 1821); M'Gee. Irish Writers in the 17th Century (Dublin, 1S46): Webb, Dictionary of Irish Biography (Dublin, 1878); HoRE, History of Town and County of Wexford (London, 1904); Ulster Journal of Archaeology. VII.
Harold, Fr. Lucre Waddingi, annalium minorum authoris. Vita (Rome, 1662). prefixed to Harold, Epitome annalium: also in Annales minorum, I (2nd ed., Rome, 1731); MSS. in the archivea of the Franciscan Fathers. Merchants' Quay, Dublin, and in the archives of various libraries in Rome; Bhenan, Eccl. Hist, of Ireland. II (Dublin. 1840). 260-69; Gilbert, Hist, of Irish Confederation, I-VII (Dublin, 18S2-91), passim; Rinuc- cini, Nunziatura, ed. Aiazzi (Florence, 1844), 419; Holzapfel, Geschichte des Franziskanerordens (Freiburg, 1909). 580-3; Don- nelly. Irish College, Rome (Dublin), 3-5.
Gregory Cleary.
Wadding (Godinez) , Michael, mj'stical theologian, b. at Waterford, Ireland, in 1.591; d. in Mexico, Dec, 1644. At an early age he lost his father, Thomas Wad- ding, and his mother, Marie Valois. For two years he studied at the Irish seminary of Salamanca, entering the Society of Jesus, 15 April, 1609. After years at the novitiate of Villagarcia he obtained permission to go to the missions of Mexico, where he took the name of Godinez, by which he is best kno^^Ti. He made his profession, 26 Aug., 1626. He devoted several years to the rough mission of Sinaloa, and in 1620 he was among the Mayos and the Tephanes; he .also took charge of the Comicaris, and, at the cost of much labour, won over the Basiroas, whom he joined to Christian tribes. He relates in his "Teologia mistica" (I, 3, VID, as one who endured them himself, the privations and sufferings undergone by the mis- sionaries. He taught for several years in various col- leges in Mexico. Father Alegre remarks that accord- ing to the archives of his province he died on IS Dec, .and not 12, as is generally stated in agreement with Father La Reguera. Michael Wadding was distin- guished by his profound knowledge of the supernatural states and by rare prudence in the direction of souls. His "Practica de la teologia mistica", the fruit of long personal experience rather than of study, w.as published nearly 40 years after his death (1681), and has gone through 10 editions; but outside of Spanisli
