• [7] During the revolution that saw the authority of the Papal States violently displaced for the short lived Roman Republic, he accepted the position of rector of the College
  of Propaganda while retaining charge of the Irish College.

• [10] Cullen was sent to Ireland to bring the Irish church into conformity with Roman canon law and usage[2] and to that end he recruited new clergy and orders of religious
  brothers and sisters.

• This later charge he resigned in 1832, after being appointed Rector of the Pontifical Irish College in Rome, but during the short term of his administration, he published
  a standard edition of the Greek and Latin Lexicon of Benjamin Hedericus, which still holds its place in the Italian colleges; he also edited the Acts of the congregation in seven quarto volumes, as well as other important works.

• [15] Father Thomas N. Burke, O.P., in a sermon at a solemn Requiem mass, the “Month’s Mind” of 27 November 1878, said: “The guiding spirit animating, encouraging and directing
  the wonderful work of the Irish Catholic Church for the last twenty eight years was Paul, Cardinal Cullen.

• From the first days of his episcopate Cullen had planned and pursued a Roman Catholic university for Ireland.

• [12] In political matters, Cullen made it a rule to support every measure, whatever its provenance, conducive to the interests of his vision for the Roman Catholic Church
  in Ireland.

• His relatives, friends, and students, referred to as “Cullenites”, exerted great influence overseas, with his nephew, Patrick Francis Moran, archbishop of Sydney, one notable
  example.

• The university project was welcomed generally by the Irish at home and abroad and the beginnings of the institution in Dublin gave some promise.

• Following the relaxation of some of the Penal Laws, his father purchased some 700 acres (2.8 km2), giving him the status of a Catholic “strong farmer”, a class that greatly
  influenced 19th-century Irish society.

• The theological tournament was privileged in many ways, for Pope Leo XII, attended by his court, presided on the occasion, while no fewer than ten cardinals assisted at it,
  together with all the élite of ecclesiastical Rome.

• In 1862, the cornerstone of the new University building was laid with Archbishop Hughes of New York preaching on the occasion.

• Legacy Cullen is most notable today for being the first Irish cardinal.

• [9] Cullen also started the practice of Irish priests wearing Roman collars and being called “Father” (instead of “Mister”) by their parishioners.

• Addressing a small gathering in the Crypt of the Pro-Cathedral at the reinterment, Archbishop Dermot Farrell prayed: “We come together to bring the body of Cardinal Paul Cullen,
  my predecessor, to its new resting place.

• Through mediation from Archbishop Hughes of New York and others, Cullen became convinced of the character of the accused and was able to obtain a grant of reprieve for Burke.

• [9] Cullen was transferred to the See of Dublin on 1 May 1852 and 14 years later, in 1866, was made a cardinal as Cardinal Priest of San Pietro in Montorio, the first Irish
  cardinal.

• His first major act as Archbishop of Armagh was to convene the Synod of Thurles (1850),[7] the first Roman Catholic national synod held in Ireland since the Reformation.

• [11] Cullen was particularly intent on promoting Roman Catholic religious education in Ireland.

• [4] Cullen entered St Patrick’s College, Carlow, in 1816,[5] and, in 1820, he proceeded to the Pontifical Urban College in Rome, where his name is registered on the roll of
  students of 29 November 1820.

• He was later appointed to the chairs of Hebrew and Sacred Scripture in the schools of the Propaganda, and receiving at the same time the charge of the famed printing establishment
  of the Congregation of Propaganda Fidei.

• With his experience and friendships in Rome he was able to influence the choice of appointments to episcopal sees in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Canada.

• He astutely fostered relationships with the Irish hierarchy, on whom he relied for students, often becoming their official Roman agent.

• “[18] Although a devout Catholic herself, Mary Jane, wife of Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, wrote a blistering response in her poem, “Tis for the Glory of the Faith”, to what she
  saw as Cullen’s suggestion that Irish emigrants had the role of spreading Catholicism abroad.

• At the close of a distinguished course of studies, he was selected to hold a public disputation in the halls of the Propaganda on 11 September 1828, in 224 theses from all
  theology and ecclesiastical history.

 

Works Cited

[‘1. Miranda, Salvador. “Paul Cullen”. The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. Retrieved 23 June 2009.
2. ^ Jump up to:a b c John N. Molony, ‘Cullen, Paul (1803–1878)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian
National University, published in hardcopy 1969, accessed online 7 November 2014
3. ^ Jump up to:a b Bowen, Desmond. Paul Cardinal Cullen and the shaping of modern Irish Catholicism, Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press, 1983; ISBN 9780889201361
4. ^ Earner-Byrne,
Lindsey; Geoghegan, Patrick M. (2009). “Cullen, Mary Teresa”. In McGuire, James; Quinn, James (eds.). Dictionary of Irish Biography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
5. ^ Canning, Bernard (1988). Bishops of Ireland 1870-1987. Ballyshannon:
Donegal Democrat. pp. 169–173. ISBN 1870963008.
6. ^ Jump up to:a b c Moran, Patrick Francis Cardinal. “Paul Cullen.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 6 Nov. 2014
7. ^ Jump up to:a b c Review of Cardinal
Cullen & his World at Pontificio Collegio Irlandese, 2 December 2011
8. ^ Jump up to:a b Chadman, Charles E., “Cullen, Cardinal Paul”, Cyclopedia of Law, Charles Erehart
9. ^ Jump up to:a b c “Paul Cullen (1852–1878)”, Archdiocese of Dublin
10. ^
Larkin, Emmet (2004). “Cullen, Paul (1803–1878)”. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 9 February 2011.
11. ^ Essay by David Kennedy The Catholic Church in Ulster since 1800, BBC publications, 1958, p. 178
12. ^
Miller, David W.(2013). Cardinal Paul Cullen and His World ed. by Dáire Keogh and Albert McDonnell (review). The Catholic Historical Review, Vol.99, No.1, p.168. The Catholic University of America Press, 2013
13. ^ Buckley, James; Bauerschmidt,
Frederick Christian; Pomplun, Trent (2010). The Blackwell Companion to Catholicism. John Wiley & Sons. p. 223. ISBN 9781444337327.
14. ^ Magee, Jack (2001). Barney: Bernard Hughes of Belfast, 1808-1878: Master Baker, Liberal and Reformer. Ulster
Historical Foundation. p. 112. ISBN 9781903688052.
15. ^ Jenkins, Brian (2006). Irish Nationalism and the British State: From Repeal to Revolutionary Nationalism. McGill-Queen’s Press. p. 183. ISBN 9780773560055.
16. ^ “The Life and Times of
Cardinal Cullen”, The Tablet, 7 December 1878
17. ^ J. L. Hammond, Gladstone and the Irish Nation (1938) pp 124-25.
18. ^ James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
19. ^ Irish Lyrical Poems, Mrs. O’Donovan Rossa, New York, 1868.
pp. 18-20
Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/wonderlane/4561670472/’]