COLGAN, JOHN

Irish Franciscan hagiographer; b. Priest-town, near Carndonagh, County Donegal, c. 1592; d. St. Anthony's College, Louvain, Jan. 15, 1658. There is no definite information about Colgan's early years. He left Ireland for Spain or Belgium about 1612, and having done courses in philosophy and theology, was ordained about 1618. He entered the Franciscan Order at St. Anthony's College, Louvain, on April 26, 1620. A letter in Irish written by Colgan on Dec. 26, 1628 gives the impression that he had at that time been teaching for a period in Germany and indicates that he was being transferred to Mainz as lector of theology.

Sometime before June 1634, Colgan returned to St. Anthony's College, Louvain, where he was appointed lector in theology and master of novices. He also joined wholeheartedly in a scheme, which was then under way at St. Anthony's College, for the collection and publication of manuscript material dealing with the ecclesiastical history of Ireland and the lives of the Irish saints. This scheme grew out of a meeting between two Irish Franciscans, Hugh Ward and Patrick Fleming, and an Irish secular priest, Thomas Messingham, at Paris in 1623. Messingham was preparing a volume on the lives of the Irish saints, and Ward and Fleming decided to join with him in the project. The agreement reached with Messingham fell through, and Ward and Fleming continued on their own. It was their intention to gather, at St. Anthony's College, copies of the lives of the Irish saints to be found in the libraries of Europe, and Ward sent Brother Michael O'Clery to Ireland in 1626 to make copies of the material in the old books there. Many other Irish Franciscans took an active part in the work, and there is evidence to show that in 1628 Colgan was already interested in the project, since he was then inquiring about documents that could be copied from libraries in Central Europe.

Patrick Fleming was killed in Bohemia in 1631, and four years later Hugh Ward died. It fell to Colgan to direct the historical publications that they had had in mind. He set about his task by putting the finishing touches to Ward's work and by preparing for the printers manuscripts and copies of manuscripts that had been brought together at Louvain. He sought out new material, and if there was no biography available for some particular saint, Colgan compiled one from various scattered references.

Although he applied himself diligently to the task of preparing the lives of Irish saints for publication, poor health and lack of sufficient money thwarted his efforts. However, in 1645 he succeeded in having the first volume of the Acta Sanctorum published at Louvain; it contained the lives of Irish saints whose feast days fell in January, February, and March. A generous grant of money from Hugh O'Reilly, Archbishop of Armagh, covered the cost of printing. His Triadis Thaumaturgae Acta, appeared in 1647, containing the lives of SS. Patrick, Brigid, and Colmcille. Archbishop Thomas Fleming of Dublin met the expenses of this volume. Both volumes were illustrated with copious notes and valuable appendices.

In 1651 Colgan had been appointed commissary of the three Irish Franciscan colleges at Louvain, Prague, and Vielun (Poland), but because of failing health he found it necessary to ask his superiors to relieve him of this office in February of 1652. In 1655 he published at Antwerp a book of about 200 pages dealing with the life, writings, and fatherland of John Duns Scotus. He was an ardent defender of the Irish birth of Scotus. At the time of his death Colgan had a third volume on the Irish saints in an advanced stage of preparation; it contained the lives of those saints whose feast days fell in the months of April, May, and June, but the necessary financial support to have it printed was not forthcoming. It was his intention to publish seven or eight folio volumes in all, and three of these were to be devoted to the Irish apostolate abroad.

Bibliography: j. colgan, Triadis Thaumaturgae (Dublin 1996). r. sharpe, Medieval Irish Saints' Lives: An Introduction to Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae (Oxford 1991). c. plummer, ed., Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae (Dublin 1997).

[c. giblin]