Hugh O'Flaherty
| Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty | |
|---|---|
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
| School | Mungret College |
| Personal | |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Born |
28 February 1898 Lisrobin, Kiskeam, County Cork |
| Died | 30 October 1963 (aged 65) Cahersiveen, County Kerry |
| Resting place | Daniel O'Connell Memorial Church |
| Religious career | |
| Ordination | 20 December 1925 |
Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, CBE (28 February 1898 – 30 October 1963), was an Irish Catholic priest and senior official of the Roman Curia, and significant figure in Catholic resistance to Nazism. During World War II, the Monsignor was responsible for saving 6,500 Allied soldiers and Jews. His ability to evade the traps set by the German Gestapo and Sicherheitsdienst (SD), earned O'Flaherty the nickname "The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican". He was the first Irishman named Notary of the Holy Office.
Shortly after Hugh O'Flaherty's birth in Lisrobin, Kiskeam, County Cork, his parents, James and Margaret, moved to Killarney. The family lived on the golf course where James O'Flaherty worked as a steward. By his late teens, young O'Flaherty had a scratch handicap and a scholarship to a teacher training college.
However, in 1918 he enrolled at Mungret College, a Jesuit college in County Limerick dedicated to preparing young men for missionary priesthood. Normally, students ranged from 14 to 18 years of age. At the time when O'Flaherty came in, he was a little older than most of the students, about 20. The college allowed for some older people to come in if they had been accepted by a bishop who would pay for them.
O'Flaherty's sponsor was the Bishop of Cape Town, Cornelius O'Reilly, in whose diocese he would be posted after ordination, a big step for a young man who had never stepped foot outside of Munster. At the time when O'Flaherty was in Mungret, the Irish War for Independence was ongoing. He was posted to Rome in 1922 to finish his studies and was ordained on 20 December 1925. He would never join his diocese. Instead, he stayed to work for the Holy See, serving as a Vatican diplomat in Egypt, Haiti, Santo Domingo, and Czechoslovakia. In 1934, he was appointed Monsignor.
...
Wikipedia