His Eminence Patrick Francis Moran |
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Cardinal, Archbishop of Sydney | |
Portrait of Cardinal Moran, taken in Brisbane, Queensland circa 1900
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Archdiocese | Sydney |
Installed | 1884 |
Term ended | 1911 |
Predecessor | Roger Vaughan |
Successor | Michael Kelly |
Other posts | Bishop of Ossory 1872–1884 |
Orders | |
Ordination | 19 March 1853 (Priest) |
Consecration | 5 March 1872 (Bishop) |
Created Cardinal | 27 July 1885 |
Rank | Cardinal priest of S. Susanna |
Personal details | |
Born | 16 September 1830 Leighlinbridge, County Carlow, Ireland |
Died | 16 August 1911 Sydney, Australia |
(aged 80)
Buried | St. Mary's Cathedral, Sydney |
Nationality | Irish |
Denomination | Roman Catholic Church |
Parents | Patrick Moran and Alicia Mary Cullen |
Alma mater | Irish College, Rome |
Coat of arms |
Patrick Francis Moran (16 September 1830 – 16 August 1911) was the third Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney and the first Australian cardinal.
Moran was born at Leighlinbridge, County Carlow, Ireland on 16 September 1830. His parents were Patrick and Alicia Cullen Moran. Of his three sisters, two became nuns, one of whom died nursing cholera patients. His parents died by the time he was 11 years old. In 1842, at the age of twelve, he left Ireland in the company of his uncle, Paul Cullen, rector of the Irish College in Rome. There Moran studied for the priesthood, first at the minor seminary and then at the major seminary.
Moran was considered so intellectually bright that he gained his doctorate by acclamation. By twenty-five he spoke ten languages, ancient and modern. He focused on finding and editing important documents and manuscripts related to Irish ecclesiastical history. Some editions of his works remain important source materials to this day.
He was appointed vice-rector at the Irish College and also took the chair of Hebrew at Propaganda Fide. He was also some-time vice-rector of the Scots College in Rome. In 1866 Moran was appointed secretary to his mother's half-brother, Cardinal Paul Cullen of Dublin. Moran was also appointed professor of scripture at Clonliffe College, Dublin. He founded the "Irish Ecclesiastical Record" (on which he later modelled the "Australasian Catholic Record").
In 1869 he accompanied Cardinal Cullen to the First Vatican Council, a council also attended by Melbourne's then first archbishop, James Alipius Goold. According to Michael Daniel, it is generally agreed that the definition of the Catholic doctrine of papal infallibility was based on Cullen's proposal, and Ayres suggests that there is strong evidence that Cullen's proposal was largely drafted by Moran. While in Rome and Ireland he was very active politically in opposing English Benedictine plans for monastic foundations undergirding the Catholic Church in Australia.