Aodh Mac Cathmhaoil

The Most Reverend Aodh Mac Cathmhaoil (anglicised: Hugh McCaghwell) O.F.M.
Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland
Aodh "McAingil" MacCathmhaoil (anglicised: Hugh McCaghwell) by an unknown artist, painted sometime between 1596 and 1626.
Church	Roman Catholic Church
Archdiocese	Armagh
Appointed	17 March 1626
Term ended	22 September 1626
Predecessor	Peter Lombard
Successor	Hugh O'Reilly
Orders
Consecration	7 June 1626 by Gabriel de Trejo
Personal details
Born	1571 Dunen (Downpatrick), County Down, Ireland
Died	22 September 1626 (aged 55) College of St. Isidore, Ludovisi, Rome
Buried	Church of St. Isidore, Ludovisi, Rome
Nationality	Irish
Denomination	Roman Catholic

Aodh Mac Cathmhaoil, O.F.M., (Latin: Hugo Cavellus; anglicised: Hugh MacCaghwell) (1571 – 22 September 1626), was an Irish Franciscan theologian and Archbishop of Armagh. He was known by Irish speakers at Louvain by the honorary name Aodh Mac Aingil ("Mac Aingil" is Irish for "Son of an Angel"), and it was under this title that he published the Irish work Scáthán Shacramuinte na hAthridhe.

Mac Cathmhaoil was born at Saul, County Down, and received his earliest education in his native place, trained at one of the bardic schools still operating in Ulster and then passed to a famous school in the Isle of Man. On his return to Ireland he was selected by Hugh O'Neill, The O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone, as tutor to his sons Henry and Hugh.

Mac Cathmhaoil was sent by the Earl as special messenger to the Court of Spain to solicit aid for the Ulster forces. During his stay at Salamanca, where the Court then resided, he frequented the schools of the university and took doctor's degrees in divinity. Soon afterwards he entered the Order of Friars Minor. He enjoyed a great reputation as a theologian, and his commentaries on the theologian Duns Scotus (1266–1308) were held in high repute. It was principally due to his great influence at the Spanish Court that the Irish Franciscan College of St. Anthony was founded at Leuven (Louvain).

After his admission into the Order, Mac Cathmhaoil taught for some time in the University of Salamanca, then he was appointed superior and lecturer at St. Anthony's, Leuven. Among his pupils were John Colgan, Patrick Fleming, Hugh Ward, and Antony Hickey. He was summoned to Rome to lecture in the convent of Aracoeli; but his energies were not limited to his work as professor. He was employed by the pope on several commissions. He carried out a papal mission to Ulster in 1613 and over the next three decades Louvain produced a remarkable outpouring of Gaelic scholarship and devotional texts in Irish. In scouring the north and midlands of Ireland for all available manuscripts, to produce an ecclesiastical history of Ireland, his associates (Mícheál Ó Cléirigh, a trained historian) and Aodh Mac an Bhaird (Hugh Ward) are credited with saving many of the Irish manuscripts now in existence.