Mary Bonaventure Browne
Encyclopedia
Mother Mary Bonaventure Browne, Poor Clare and Irish historian, born after 1610, died after 1670.
. Andrew was a first cousin of Sir Dominick Browne, former Mayor of Galway
and the father of Father Valentine Browne ofm
, Provincial of Franciscans 1629-1635. Her elder brother, Francis, later joined the Franciscans, while Mary and her sister Catherine joined the Poor Clares in 1632. In that year her father Andrew was elected one of the town sheriffs but refused to take the Oath of Supremacy
, as had his father in 1609, and thus was not sworn in.
, a remote area on the shores of Lough Ree
some eight miles (13 km) north-west of Athlone and four and a half miles southwest of Ballymahon
, County Longford
. Within a few years there were sixty members.
Following a request from some citizens of Galway
, twelve sister and two novice
s moved there during or immediately after January 1642. Mary and Catherine, who were professed at Bethlehem in 1633, were among the group. The Abbess
at Bethleham was Mother Cicely Dillon, a sister of Sir James Dillon. At Galway the Abbess was, successively, Mary Gabriel Martyn
, Mary Clare Kennedy
, and Mary during 1647-50, being succeeded by her sister Catherine. The convent was located in or near what is now St. Augustine Street.
to complete the work of translating The Rule of St. Clare and related documents. This had been begun prior to October 1636 by Father Aodh O Raghailligh and Seamus O Siaghail. It was transcribed in mid-October 1636 by Brother Mícheál Ó Cléirigh
. Mac Fhirbhisigh translated and transcribed the remaining sections (some two-thirds of the total) from English
into Irish
and "designed it to be a continuation of the manuscript executed by Ó Cléirigh. It was completed on the 8th December 1657 and is now Royal Irish Academy
MS D i 2.
Helena Concannon remarks that "It is additional proof of Mother Bonaventure's keen interest in Irish to find that she had brought this MS with her from Bethleham." The fact that she commissioned Mac Fhirbhisigh to complete the work is a very interesting marker of the high status of the Irish language, all the more surprising in a convent twelve of who's members were of Old English stock.
While Abbess, Mother Mary oversaw plans for founding a daughter-house of the Galway convent at Loughrea
. The foundation document, now preserved in the Poor Clare archives in Galway, led to the house's apparent existence in 1649-50, but due to the warfare which soon arose in the county seems to have been short-lived.
In the summer of 1649, Mother Mary sent a petition to the "Mayors, Sheriffs, Free Burgesses and Commonalty of the Towne of Galway" stating that, due to excessive rent, they would be obliged to leave their current home at the end of the lease, which occurred the following May. Therefore she petitioned that "you may be pleased to grant them sufficient room for building a monastery and rooms convenient thereunto a garden and orchard in the next island adjoining to the bridge Illaun Altenagh." The Mayor and Recorder recommended the grant on 1 July and on the 10 July the Corporation unanimously agreed and granted the petition. The convent on Oileán Ealtanach - now called Nun's Island - was "a good large and spacious house with other conveniences with the cost and charge of two hundred and odd pounds of the Sisters' portions in timber and other materials."
; Mother Cicely Dillon died en route. Mary's sister, Mother Catherine Bernard Browne died in Madrid
in 1654.
While almost the entire of the records of El Cavallero de Garcia, including this book, are now thought to be lost, there is a strong suggestion that the narrative which opens the annals of the Poor Clares of Galway could be an English translation of the second tractae of her book. Mother Mary's work comprised the following:
Celsus O'Brien quotes the Poor Clare Annalist: "The Third Abbess of said Convent, Mary Bonaventure (alias) Browne, was a very good holy and perfect religious Sister, and was endowed with many rare virtues, as obedience, poverty, chastity, humility and charity. She was prudent and wise, well spoken in English, Irish and Spanish. She was the mirror and looking glass of religious observance that belonged to her Rule and status all of her lifetime. She left a True Chronicle written under her own hand, which she sent to this convent of Saint Clare, Galway, and a Remonstrance, a chalice, a holy curious relic, many pictures, books, ornaments, and other fine things fitting for the alter and Divine Service. All the aforesaid things were lost and burnt in the late wars, 1691."
In addition, she is said to have written a life, in English, of her sister, Catherine Browne. The dowry of Catherine - "due by bond of Andrew Browne and Sir Dominick Browne, knight, was put in trust for them in the names of Patrick Darcy
and Richard Óge Martyn, Esq." Sir Dominick's wife was a sister of Darcy, while he and Richard Martyn were married to two of the sisters and heiress, Mary and Magdalene,who were daughters of Sir Peter French.
Her year of death is unknown, but she is believed to have been after 1670, and before 1691.
Background
A daughter of Andrew Browne fitz Oliver, a wealthy merchant and a member of The Tribes of Galway. She was a niece of Martin Browne, whose townhouse doorway, the Browne doorway, now stands in Eyre SquareEyre Square
John F. Kennedy Memorial Park is an inner-city public park in Galway, Ireland, formerly officially named Eyre Square and still widely known by that name...
. Andrew was a first cousin of Sir Dominick Browne, former Mayor of Galway
Mayor of Galway
The office of Mayor of Galway is an honorific title used by the of Galway City Council. The Council has jurisdiction throughout its administrative area which is the city of Galway – the largest city in the province of Connacht, in the Republic of Ireland. The office was originally established by a...
and the father of Father Valentine Browne ofm
OFM
OFM can refer to:* Office of Foreign Missions, part of the US Department of State* OFM , UK alternative indie/rock band* OFM, Inc, a furniture manufacturer and distributor in North Carolina...
, Provincial of Franciscans 1629-1635. Her elder brother, Francis, later joined the Franciscans, while Mary and her sister Catherine joined the Poor Clares in 1632. In that year her father Andrew was elected one of the town sheriffs but refused to take the Oath of Supremacy
Oath of Supremacy
The Oath of Supremacy, originally imposed by King Henry VIII of England through the Act of Supremacy 1534, but repealed by his daughter, Queen Mary I of England and reinstated under Mary's sister, Queen Elizabeth I of England under the Act of Supremacy 1559, provided for any person taking public or...
, as had his father in 1609, and thus was not sworn in.
The Poor Clares
Following their banishment from Dublin in November 1630, the Poor Clares removed to Bethleham, in what was then the townland of Bleanphuttogue, parish of Kilkenny West, County WestmeathCounty Westmeath
-Economy:Westmeath has a strong agricultural economy. Initially, development occurred around the major market centres of Mullingar, Moate, and Kinnegad. Athlone developed due to its military significance, and its strategic location on the main Dublin–Galway route across the River Shannon. Mullingar...
, a remote area on the shores of Lough Ree
Lough Ree
Lough Ree is a lake in the midlands of Ireland, the second of the three major lakes on the River Shannon. Lough Ree is the second largest lake on the Shannon after Lough Derg. The other two major lakes are Lough Allen to the north, and Lough Derg to the south, there are also several minor lakes...
some eight miles (13 km) north-west of Athlone and four and a half miles southwest of Ballymahon
Ballymahon
Ballymahon on the River Inny is a town in the southern part of County Longford, Ireland. It is located at the junction of the N55 National secondary road and the R392 regional road. Ballymahon derives its name from Gaelic Baile Mathuna Town of Mahon...
, County Longford
County Longford
County Longford is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Midlands Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Longford.Longford County Council is the local authority for the county...
. Within a few years there were sixty members.
Following a request from some citizens of Galway
Galway
Galway or City of Galway is a city in County Galway, Republic of Ireland. It is the sixth largest and the fastest-growing city in Ireland. It is also the third largest city within the Republic and the only city in the Province of Connacht. Located on the west coast of Ireland, it sits on the...
, twelve sister and two novice
Novice
A novice is a person or creature who is new to a field or activity. The term is most commonly applied in religion and sports.-Buddhism:In many Buddhist orders, a man or woman who intends to take ordination must first become a novice, adopting part of the monastic code indicated in the vinaya and...
s moved there during or immediately after January 1642. Mary and Catherine, who were professed at Bethlehem in 1633, were among the group. The Abbess
Abbess
An abbess is the female superior, or mother superior, of a community of nuns, often an abbey....
at Bethleham was Mother Cicely Dillon, a sister of Sir James Dillon. At Galway the Abbess was, successively, Mary Gabriel Martyn
Mary Gabriel Martyn
Maria Gabriel Martyn, Abbess of the Poor Clares of Galway, born 1604, died 1672.-Background:Born Helen Martyn, she was a member of one of The Tribes of Galway, the merchant families who ruled Galway from the late medieval to the early modern era...
, Mary Clare Kennedy
Mary Clare Kennedy
Mary Clare Kennedy, second Abbess of the Poor Clares of Galway, fl. 1647.Kennedy became abbess sometime in the mid-1640s. Ó Muraíle has drawn attention to the fact that of the twelve sisters and two novices that founded the Galway convent, twelve had Anglo-Irish surnames yet two, including Kennedy,...
, and Mary during 1647-50, being succeeded by her sister Catherine. The convent was located in or near what is now St. Augustine Street.
Abbess in Galway
In her first year, Mary commissioned Dubhaltach Mac FhirbhisighDubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh
Dubhaltach MacFhirbhisigh, also known as Dubhaltach Óg mac Giolla Íosa Mór mac Dubhaltach Mór Mac Fhirbhisigh, Duald Mac Firbis, Dudly Ferbisie, and Dualdus Firbissius was an Irish scribe, translator, historian and genealogist...
to complete the work of translating The Rule of St. Clare and related documents. This had been begun prior to October 1636 by Father Aodh O Raghailligh and Seamus O Siaghail. It was transcribed in mid-October 1636 by Brother Mícheál Ó Cléirigh
Mícheál Ó Cléirigh
Mícheál Ó Cléirigh , sometimes known as Michael O'Clery, was an Irish chronicler, scribe and antiquary and chief author of the Annals of the Four Masters, assisted by Cú Choigcríche Ó Cléirigh, Fearfeasa Ó Maol Chonaire, and Peregrinus Ó Duibhgeannain.-Background and early life:Grandson of Tuathal...
. Mac Fhirbhisigh translated and transcribed the remaining sections (some two-thirds of the total) from English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
into Irish
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
and "designed it to be a continuation of the manuscript executed by Ó Cléirigh. It was completed on the 8th December 1657 and is now Royal Irish Academy
Royal Irish Academy
The Royal Irish Academy , based in Dublin, is an all-Ireland, independent, academic body that promotes study and excellence in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is one of Ireland's premier learned societies and cultural institutions and currently has around 420 Members, elected in...
MS D i 2.
Helena Concannon remarks that "It is additional proof of Mother Bonaventure's keen interest in Irish to find that she had brought this MS with her from Bethleham." The fact that she commissioned Mac Fhirbhisigh to complete the work is a very interesting marker of the high status of the Irish language, all the more surprising in a convent twelve of who's members were of Old English stock.
While Abbess, Mother Mary oversaw plans for founding a daughter-house of the Galway convent at Loughrea
Loughrea
Loughrea is a town in County Galway, Ireland. The town lies north of a range of wooded hills, the Slieve Aughty Mountains.The town expanded in recent years as it increasingly becomes a commuter town for the city of Galway.- Name :...
. The foundation document, now preserved in the Poor Clare archives in Galway, led to the house's apparent existence in 1649-50, but due to the warfare which soon arose in the county seems to have been short-lived.
In the summer of 1649, Mother Mary sent a petition to the "Mayors, Sheriffs, Free Burgesses and Commonalty of the Towne of Galway" stating that, due to excessive rent, they would be obliged to leave their current home at the end of the lease, which occurred the following May. Therefore she petitioned that "you may be pleased to grant them sufficient room for building a monastery and rooms convenient thereunto a garden and orchard in the next island adjoining to the bridge Illaun Altenagh." The Mayor and Recorder recommended the grant on 1 July and on the 10 July the Corporation unanimously agreed and granted the petition. The convent on Oileán Ealtanach - now called Nun's Island - was "a good large and spacious house with other conveniences with the cost and charge of two hundred and odd pounds of the Sisters' portions in timber and other materials."
Exile
Though at least one new sister was professed as late as 1652, the years during and after the move to Nun's Island was marked by a visitation of plague, a nine-month siege, warfare and famine. Galway surrendered to Sir Charles Coote and his army in April 1652, marking the advent of a very different regime. In January 1653 an edict "commanding all nuns of whatsoever condition, to marry or quit the kingdom." Most of the Galway community travelled by ship to SpainSpain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
; Mother Cicely Dillon died en route. Mary's sister, Mother Catherine Bernard Browne died in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
in 1654.
Her work as a historian
During her years of exile in Madrid, Mother Mary wrote "a huge work, in quarto, in the Irish language." Written c. 1670 at the convent of El Cavallero de Garcia, "it is particularly regrettable that the original of the great work is no longer extant, since a prose work in Irish by a pre-twentieth century female author would be a very rare thing indeed."While almost the entire of the records of El Cavallero de Garcia, including this book, are now thought to be lost, there is a strong suggestion that the narrative which opens the annals of the Poor Clares of Galway could be an English translation of the second tractae of her book. Mother Mary's work comprised the following:
- I - Historical disquisition concerning haeresiarchs and the persecutions for which they are responsible.
- II - The Martyrdom of certain Poor Clares and Tertiaries during the reign of terror in Ireland.
- III - The Life of Henry VIII.
- IV - the Life of Anne Boleyn.
- V - the Life of Queen Catherine.
- VI - the Acts of Saint Colette.
- VII - The Life of Blessed Margaret del Pilar, Poor Clare.
- VIII - The Life of the Saintly Queen of Sicily.
- IX - Historical Tract concerning various people who lived devout lives in the world.
- X - Concerning the Devotion of the Rosary and its origin.
- XI - Concerning other Rosaries granted by the bounty of God to those devout to him.
Celsus O'Brien quotes the Poor Clare Annalist: "The Third Abbess of said Convent, Mary Bonaventure (alias) Browne, was a very good holy and perfect religious Sister, and was endowed with many rare virtues, as obedience, poverty, chastity, humility and charity. She was prudent and wise, well spoken in English, Irish and Spanish. She was the mirror and looking glass of religious observance that belonged to her Rule and status all of her lifetime. She left a True Chronicle written under her own hand, which she sent to this convent of Saint Clare, Galway, and a Remonstrance, a chalice, a holy curious relic, many pictures, books, ornaments, and other fine things fitting for the alter and Divine Service. All the aforesaid things were lost and burnt in the late wars, 1691."
In addition, she is said to have written a life, in English, of her sister, Catherine Browne. The dowry of Catherine - "due by bond of Andrew Browne and Sir Dominick Browne, knight, was put in trust for them in the names of Patrick Darcy
Patrick Darcy
Patrick Darcy is the name of:* Patrick D'Arcy , Irish nationalist* Pat Darcy , American baseball player...
and Richard Óge Martyn, Esq." Sir Dominick's wife was a sister of Darcy, while he and Richard Martyn were married to two of the sisters and heiress, Mary and Magdalene,who were daughters of Sir Peter French.
Her year of death is unknown, but she is believed to have been after 1670, and before 1691.
See also
- Tadhg Og Ó Cianáin
- Peregrine Ó Duibhgeannain
- Lughaidh Ó CléirighLughaidh Ó CléirighLughaidh Ó Cléirigh , sometimes anglicised as Lewey O'Clery, was an Irish Gaelic poet and historian. He is best known today as the author of Beatha Aodha Ruaidh Uí Dhomhnaill, a biography of Red Hugh O'Donnell.-Life:...
- Mícheál Ó CléirighMícheál Ó CléirighMícheál Ó Cléirigh , sometimes known as Michael O'Clery, was an Irish chronicler, scribe and antiquary and chief author of the Annals of the Four Masters, assisted by Cú Choigcríche Ó Cléirigh, Fearfeasa Ó Maol Chonaire, and Peregrinus Ó Duibhgeannain.-Background and early life:Grandson of Tuathal...
- James UssherJames UssherJames Ussher was Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland between 1625–56...
- Sir James WareSir James WareSir James Ware was an Irish historian.-Early life:Born at Castle Street, Dublin, Ware was the eldest son of James Ware, who arrived in Ireland in 1588 as a secretary to Lord Deputy FitzWilliam. His father was knighted by King James I, was elected M.P...
- Dubhaltach Mac FhirbhisighDubhaltach Mac FhirbhisighDubhaltach MacFhirbhisigh, also known as Dubhaltach Óg mac Giolla Íosa Mór mac Dubhaltach Mór Mac Fhirbhisigh, Duald Mac Firbis, Dudly Ferbisie, and Dualdus Firbissius was an Irish scribe, translator, historian and genealogist...
- Ruaidhrí Ó FlaithbheartaighRuaidhri Ó FlaithbheartaighRuaidhri Ó Flaithbheartaigh, King of Iar Connacht and Chief of the Name, fl. 1244-1273.-Biography:Ruaidhri was a brother of the preceding chief, Morogh...
- Uilliam Ó DuinnínUilliam Ó DuinnínUilliam Ó Duinnín was an Irish scribe.The son of Domhnall Óg Ó Duinnín, Uilliam was the owner of MS 1336, which he may have sold to Edward Lhuyd...
- Charles O'Conor (historian)Charles O'Conor (historian)Charles O'Conor Don, The O'Conor Don, Prince of Connacht of Belanagare was an Irish writer and antiquarian who was enormously influential as a protagonist for the preservation of Irish culture and history in the eighteenth century...
- Eugene O'CurryEugene O'Curry-Life:He was born at Doonaha, near Carrigaholt, County Clare, the son of Eoghan Ó Comhraí, a farmer, and his wife Cáit. Eoghan had spent some time as a travelling pedlar and had developed an interest in Irish folklore and music. Unusually for someone of his background, he appears to have been...
- John O'Donovan (scholar)John O'Donovan (scholar)John O'Donovan , from Atateemore, in the parish of Kilcolumb, County Kilkenny, and educated at Hunt's Academy, Waterford, was an Irish language scholar from Ireland.-Life:...
Sources
- Historic Galway Convents. I.The Poor Clares, Studies, xxviii (1949), pp. 439–46, Helena ConcannonHelena ConcannonHelena Concannon was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician, historian, author and language scholar.She was Professor of History at University College Galway...
- Poor Clares, Galway, 1642-1992, by Celsus O'Brien, 1992
- Aspects Intellectual Life in Seventeenth Century Galway, Nollaig Ó MuraíleNollaig Ó MuraíleNollaig Ó Muraíle is an Irish scholar. He published an acclaimed edition of Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh's Leabhar na nGenealach in 2004. He was conferred with the honour of admittance to the Royal Irish Academy in 2009.-Life and career:...
, in Galway:History and Society, ed. Gerard Moran and Raymond Gillespie, pp. 149–211, 1996. ISBN 0-906602-75-0. - The Tribes of Galway, Adrian James Martyn, Galway, 2001