The church of Saint MelChurch of St Mel, view across the graveyard. June 2013List of the Bishops of Ardagh in St Mel's Cathedral. This list gives the Catholic succession and includes Saint Mél, Melchu, Erhard of Regensburg, several abbots attested in medieval annals, and the Penal-era Vicars Apostolic.
Tradition states that a monastery was founded at Ardagh by St Patrick, and that his nephew, St. Mel (died c.490), was its bishop or abbot. Although there is no historical or archaeological evidence to support it, Mel is regarded as the founder of the see.[3]
Ardagh Cathedral was severely damaged by warfare in 1496 and was never restored. There are remains of an eighth- or ninth-century church at Ardagh, which is known as St. Mel's Cathedral, although it dates from three centuries after the saint's death, and predates the introduction of a diocesan system in Ireland.
In the Church of Ireland, Ardagh was intermittently held with Kilmore between 1604–1633, 1661–1692 and 1693–1742, then held with Tuam 1742–1839. Ardagh was again united to Kilmore 1839–1841. Since 1841, Ardagh has been part of the bishopric of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh.
Pre-Reformation bishops
Pre-Reformation Bishops of Ardagh
From
Until
Ordinary
Notes
bef.1152
1166
Mac Raith ua Móráin
Present at the Synod of Kells in March 1152; resigned in 1166; died 1168
bef.1172
1178
Gilla Crist Ua hEóthaig
Called "bishop of Conmaicne"; died in 1178; also known as Christianus
Elected before September 1373; appointed on 29 April 1374
1392
(Henry Nony, O.P.)
Appointed on 29 April 1392, but did not get possession of the see; acted as a suffragan bishop in the dioceses of Exeter 1396–99, and Bath & Wells 1400; died after 1400
1395
1400
Comedinus Mac Brádaigh
Appointed on 20 October 1395 and consecrated after 19 August 1396; died before February 1400; also known as Gilbert MacBrady
Appointed by Pope Paul III on 14 November 1541 in opposition to Ó Fearghail; recognised sole bishop in 1553 when Ireland restored Papal supremacy in the reign of Queen Mary I, but after the accession of Queen Elizabeth I his position is uncertain; died c. 1572 or 1575
Nominated on 8 April and consecrated in September 1633; also was Archdeacon of Derry 1622–34, then Archdeacon of Down 1639–54; left Ireland before the Rebellion of 1641; died in London on 11 August 1654
A These two bishops appear as rival bishops, and the rivalry was continued to 1237.
B There was a disputed election after the death of Uilliam Mac Carmaic in 1373. Cairbre Ó Feaghail died at Avignon in 1378, and it is not certain that he ever got possession of the see. John Aubrey, O.P., friar of Trim, was one of the three rival candidates in 1373. (The third candidate was Richard O'Farrell, Dean of Ardagh).
C The date of Cormac Mác Shamhradháin's resignation is uncertain, but a 'Joh.', bishop-elect of Ardagh, was in Rome in 1463.
References
^Fryde, Handbook of British Chronology, pp. 328–329, 378–379 and 412–413.
Cotton, Henry (1849). The Province of Ulster. Fasti Ecclesiae Hiberniae: The Succession of the Prelates and Members of the Cathedral Bodies of Ireland. Vol. III. Dublin: Hodges and Smith.
Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I., eds. (1986). Handbook of British Chronology (3rd, reprinted 2003 ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN0-521-56350-X.
Galloway, Peter (1992). The Cathedrals of Ireland. Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen's University of Belfast. ISBN0-85389-452-3.
Moody, T. W.; Martin, F. X.; Byrne, F. J., eds. (1984). Maps, Genealogies, Lists: A Companion to Irish History, Part II. New History of Ireland. Vol. XI. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN0-19-821745-5.
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