Malachias Hibernicus

Who is Malachias Hibernicus?

Malachias Hibernicus, Archbishop of Tuam, fl. 1279–1300.

Malachias was a friar of the Franciscan convent of Limerick and was elected Archbishop of Tuam, not never officially installed. He was first mentioned in a letter of 1279 from Nicol Mac Máel Ísu, Archbishop of Armagh, to King Edward I, asking that Brother Malachy be appointed to Tuam. The king granted this in a letter of 22 April 1280. However, five of the seven canons of Tuam chosen as electors voted for Nicol Mac Flainn, a fellow canon. This resulted in Stephen de Fulbourn been transferred from Waterford to Tuam. Malachy had by then abandoned his claim, and his election was annulled.

Malachy wrote a treatise, De veneno, on the seven deadly sins which was published in Paris in 1518. The edition stated that he was a Franciscan preacher who was alive in 1300, "a doctor of theology, a strenuous expounder of the scriptures and a most zealous rebuker of vices." Apparently he also wrote a book of sermons, now lost. John Bale recorded that he was well received in Ireland, esteemed at Oxford, and preached before Edward II. Despite some later theories, nothing further is known for certain of him.