View source for Father Mathew

{{Short description|Irish Catholic priest and teetotalist reformer}}
{{Other people|Theobald Mathew}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}
{{Infobox clergy
| honorific_prefix = [[The Reverend]]
| name             = Theobald Mathew
| image            = Theobald MathewTheobald Mathew by Edward Daniel Leahy.jpg
| caption          = ''Theobald Mathew'', by [[Edward Daniel Leahy]]
| alt              = 
| birth_name       = 
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1790|10|10|df=yes}}
| birth_place      = Thomastown, [[County Tipperary]], Ireland
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1856|12|8|1790|10|10|df=yes}}
| death_place      = [[Cobh|Queenstown]], [[County Cork]], Ireland
| residence        = 
| alma_mater       = 
| occupation       = 
| years_active     = 
| parents          = 
| relatives        =  <!--or: relations, family -->
| religion         = Christianity ([[Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]])
| church           = [[Latin Church]]
| ordained         = 
| writings         = 
| congregations    = 
| offices_held     = 
| title            = 
| signature        = 
| signature_alt    = 
| footnotes        = 
}}
'''Theobald Mathew''' (10 October 1790 – 8 December 1856){{sfn|Curtin-Kelly|2015|pp=21, 29}} was an [[Ireland|Irish]] [[Priesthood in the Catholic Church|Catholic priest]] and [[Teetotalism|teetotalist]] reformer, popularly known as '''Father Mathew'''. He was born at Thomastown, near [[Golden, County Tipperary]], on 10 October 1790, to James Mathew and his wife Anne, daughter of George Whyte, of Cappaghwhyte.<ref>The Catholic Encyclopaedia, ed. Charles George Herbermann, Universal Knowledge Foundation, 1913, p. 47</ref> Of the family of the [[Earl Landaff|Earls Landaff]] (his father, James, was a first cousin of Thomas Mathew, father of the first earl),<ref>Burke's Landed Gentry of Ireland, 1976, Mathew pedigree</ref> he was a kinsman of the clergyman [[Arnold Mathew]].<ref>The History and Antiquities of Glamorganshire and Its Families, Thomas Nicholas, Longmans, Green & Co., 1874, p. 120</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://landedestates.nuigalway.ie/LandedEstates/jsp/estate-show.jsp?id=2768 |title=Estate: Mathew (Thomastown) |website=Landed Estates Database |publisher=[[National University of Ireland Galway]] |access-date=5 December 2019 |archive-date=9 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809141405/http://landedestates.nuigalway.ie/LandedEstates/jsp/estate-show.jsp?id=2768 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>Genealogy of the Earls of Landaff, of Thomastown, County Tipperary, Murray Alexander Mathew, Capuchin Franciscan Friars, Church Street</ref>

He received his schooling in [[County Kilkenny]], then moved for a short time to [[Maynooth]].{{sfn|Mathew|1894|p=32}} From 1808 to 1814 he studied in [[Dublin]], where in the latter year he was ordained to the priesthood. Having entered the [[Order of Friars Minor Capuchin|Capuchin order]], after a brief period of service at [[Kilkenny]], he joined the mission in [[Cork (city)|Cork]].{{sfn|Augustine|1911}}

Statues of Mathew stand on [[St. Patrick's Street]], Cork, by [[John Henry Foley|J.&nbsp;H. Foley]] (1864), and on [[O'Connell Street]], [[Dublin]], by [[Mary Redmond]] (1893).<ref>''Irish Times''. 28 October 2010. p.&nbsp;17.</ref> There is a Fr. Mathew Bridge in [[Limerick City]], named after the temperance reformer when it was rebuilt between 1844 and 1846.<ref>{{cite web|title=Edward Uzuld|url=http://www.dia.ie/architects/view/5232|work=Dictionary of Irish Architects|publisher=Irish Architectural Archive}}</ref> The Capuchin church in Cork, [[Holy Trinity Church, Cork|Holy Trinity]], stands on Father Mathew Quay and was commissioned by him.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://archiseek.com/2009/holy-trinity-capuchin-monastery-cork/|title=1889 – Holy Trinity & Capuchin Monastery, Cork |work=Archiseek |date=6 November 2009 |access-date= 17 January 2017}}</ref>

==Total Abstinence Society==
[[File:Fr Matthew.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Father Mathew monument in St. Patrick's Street, Cork]]
The movement with which his name is associated began on 10 April 1838 with the establishment of the "[[Knights of Father Mathew]]", which in less than nine months enrolled no fewer than 150,000 names. Over time this became the Catholic Total Abstinence Society. It rapidly spread to [[Limerick]] and elsewhere, and some idea of its popularity may be formed from the fact that at [[Nenagh]] 20,000 persons are said to have taken the pledge in one day, 100,000 at [[Galway]] in two days, and 70,000 in Dublin in five days. At its height, just before the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine]] of 1845–49, his movement enrolled some 3 million people, or more than half of the adult population of Ireland. In 1844, he visited [[Liverpool]], [[Manchester]] and [[London]] with almost equal success.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} 

While Father Mathew founded the temperance movement in Ireland, it was part of a wider effort to improve the life chances of poor labourers. [[Teetotalism]] was first organised by the Preston Temperance Society, founded in 1833, and the organisations that followed had a huge worldwide impact in the 1800s.<ref>https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0013zl8 ''The Temperance Movement'', In Our Time, BBC 3 February 2022</ref> 

A biography, written shortly after his death, credits Mathew's work with a reduction in Irish crime figures of the era:<blockquote>The number of homicides, which was 247 in 1838, was only 105 in 1841.  There were 91 cases of 'firing at the person' reported in 1837, and but 66 in 1841. The 'assaults on police' were 91 in 1837, and but 58 in 1841. Incendiary fires, which were as many as 459 in 1838, were 390 in 1841. Robberies, thus specially reported, diminished from 725 in 1837, to 257 in 1841. The decrease in cases of 'robbery of arms' was most significant; from being 246 in 1837, they were but 111 in 1841. The offence of 'appearing in arms' showed a favourable diminution, falling from 110 in 1837, to 66 in 1841. The effect of sobriety on 'faction fights' was equally remarkable. There were 20 of such cases in 1839, and 8 in 1841. The dangerous offence of 'rescuing prisoners', which was represented by 34 in 1837, had no return in 1841!<br/> The number committed to jail fell from 12,049 in 1839 to 9,875 by 1845. Sentences of death fell from 66 in 1839 to 14 in 1846, and transportations fell from 916 to 504 over the same period.{{sfn|Maguire|1863|pp=200–201}}</blockquote>

==In the United States==
[[File:Father Mathew Statue O'Connell Street.JPG|thumb|upright|The Father Mathew monument in its former location on Dublin's O'Connell Street<ref>{{cite news |last=Fegan |first=Joyce |date=27 November 2014 |title=124-Year-Old Fr Mathew Statue Needs a New Home Due to Luas |url=https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/124yearold-fr-mathew-statue-needs-a-new-home-due-to-luas-30778351.html |work=Independent.ie |location=Dublin |access-date=29 July 2018}}</ref>]]
Mathew visited the United States in 1849, returning in 1851.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} While there, he found himself at the centre of the [[abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]] debate. Many of his hosts, including [[John Hughes (archbishop of New York)|John Hughes]], the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York|Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York]], were anti-abolitionists<ref>{{cite web |title=Archbishop John J. Hughes (1797–1863) |url=http://www.mrlincolnandnewyork.org/new-yorkers/archbishop-john-j-hughes-1797-1863/ |website=Mr. Lincoln and New York |publisher=Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History |access-date=15 April 2017}}</ref> and wanted assurances that Mathew would not stray outside his remit of battling alcohol consumption. But Mathew had signed a petition (along with 60,000 Irish people, including [[Daniel O'Connell]]) encouraging the Irish in the US not to partake in slavery in 1841 during [[Charles Lenox Remond]]'s tour of Ireland.{{sfn|Dooley|1998|pp=10–11}}

In order to avoid upsetting these anti-abolitionist friends in the US, he snubbed an invitation to publicly condemn [[chattel slavery]], sacrificing his friendship with that movement. He defended his position by pointing out that there was nothing in the scripture that prohibited slavery. He was condemned by many on the abolitionist side, including the former slave and abolitionist [[Frederick Douglass]] who had received the pledge from Mathew in Cork in 1845. Douglass felt "grieved, humbled and mortified" by Mathew's decision to ignore slavery while campaigning in the US and "wondered how being a Catholic priest should inhibit him from denouncing the sin of slavery as much as the sin of intemperance".{{sfn|Kerrigan|1991}} Douglass felt it was his duty to now "denounce and expose the conduct of Father Mathew".<ref>{{cite web |last=Hogan |first=Liam |date=29 September 2014 |title='Oh What a Transition It Was to Be Changed from the State of a Slave to That of a Free Man!' Frederick Douglass's Journey from Slavery to Limerick |url=http://www.theirishstory.com/2014/09/29/oh-what-a-transition-it-was-to-be-changed-from-the-state-of-a-slave-to-that-of-a-free-man-frederick-douglasss-journey-from-slavery-to-limerick |website=The Irish Story |access-date=8 September 2016}}</ref>
[[File:Bridge plaque-Gaeilge.jpg|thumb|commemoration plaque of Fr. Matthew Bridge over the river Liffey]]

==Death==
Mathew died on 8 December 1856 in Queenstown, County Cork (present-day [[Cobh]]),{{sfnm |1a1=Augustine |1y=1911 |1p=47 |2a1=Mathew |2y=1894 |2p=32}} and was interred in [[St. Joseph's Cemetery, Cork]], a cemetery which he had himself established.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/summarisedlifeof00thom|title=Summarised Life of the great Temperance Apostle : Fr. Theobald Mathew|last=Thomas|first=Fr|date=1902|publisher=Cork, Ireland : Guy and Co. Ltd.|others=University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign|pages=[https://archive.org/details/summarisedlifeof00thom/page/86 86]}}</ref>

== Tributes ==
=== Father Mathew's Tower ===
In 1868, at his own expense, landowner William O'Connor built a castellated neo-Gothic stone tower to commemorate Father Mathew on what was then called Mount Patrick and is now known as Tower Hill in [[Glounthaune]] outside [[Cork (city)|Cork city]]. The tower, which was subsequently converted into a private residence, retains a number of its original features, including a life-sized statue of Father Mathew in the tower's garden.{{fact|date=April 2024}} Around 2014, the refurbished and modernised tower was sold for approximately one million euro.<ref>https://www.independent.ie/business/the-irish-rapunzel-style-castle-selling-for-less-than-a-million/29923827.html ''The Irish Rapunzel-style castle selling for less than a million '', Irish Independent, 17 January 2014</ref>  An eyewitness description of the tower, from the summer of 1848, is included in [[Asenath Nicholson]]'s ''Annals of the Famine in Ireland in 1847, 1848 and 1849''.<ref>{{cite book | title = Annals of the Famine in Ireland in 1847, 1848 and 1849 | publisher = Ulsterbooks | date = 2017 | pages = 184–193 | first = Asenath |last = Nicholson | isbn = 978-1910375631}}</ref>

=== Postage stamps ===
[[File:Theobald Mathew postage stamp 1938.jpg|thumb|Theobald Mathew postage stamp, 1938]]

On 1 July 1938, the Irish [[Minister for Posts and Telegraphs|Department of Posts and Telegraphs]] released a set of postage stamps valued at two and three pence commemorating Mathew.<ref>{{cite book
	| title = Postage Stamps of Ireland: 70 years 1922 ~ 1992
	| date = 1992
	| publisher = [[An Post]]
	| location = Dublin
	| page = 35
	| isbn = 1-872228-13-5
}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Catholic temperance movement]]

==References==
===Footnotes===
{{reflist|22em}}

===Bibliography===
*{{cite encyclopedia
|last   =Augustine
|first  =Father
|year   =1911
|title  =[[wikisource:Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Theobald Mathew|Theobald Mathew]]
|editor1-last=Herbermann
|editor1-first=Charles G.
|editor1-link=Charles George Herbermann
|editor2-last=Pace
|editor2-first=Edward A.
|editor2-link=Edward A. Pace
|editor3-last=Pallen
|editor3-first=Condé B.
|editor3-link=Condé Benoist Pallen
|editor4-last=Shahan
|editor4-first=Thomas J.
|editor4-link=Thomas Joseph Shahan
|editor5-last=Wynne
|editor5-first=John J.
|encyclopedia=[[Catholic Encyclopedia]]
|volume  =10
|location=New York
|publisher=Encyclopedia Press
|publication-date=1913
|pages   =47–48
}}<br />This article incorporates text from this public-domain publication.
*{{cite EB1911
|wstitle = Mathew, Theobald
|volume  = 17
|page    = 886
}}
*{{cite book
|last     = Curtin-Kelly
|first    = Patricia
|year     = 2015
|title    = An Ornament to the City: Holy Trinity Church and the Capuchin Order
|location = Dublin
|publisher= The History Press Ireland
|isbn     = 978-1-84588-861-9
}}
*{{cite book
|last      =Dooley
|first     =Brian
|author-link=Brian J. Dooley
|year      =1998
|title     =Black and Green: The Fight for Civil Rights in Northern Ireland & Black America
|location  =London
|publisher =Pluto Press
|isbn      =978-0-7453-1295-8
}}
*{{cite journal
|last  =Kerrigan
|first =Colm
|year  =1991
|title =Irish Temperance and US Anti-Slavery: Father Mathew and the Abolitionists
|journal=History Workshop Journal
|volume=31
|issue =1
|pages =105–119
|doi   =10.1093/hwj/31.1.105
|issn  =1477-4569
}}
*{{cite book
|last   =Maguire
|first  =John Francis
|author-link=John Maguire (MP)
|year   =1863
|title  =Father Mathew: A Biography
|url    =https://archive.org/details/fathertmathewab03mathgoog
|location=London
|publisher=Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Green
|access-date=29 July 2018
}}
*{{cite encyclopedia
|last=Mathew
|first=James Charles
|year=1894
|title=[[wikisource:Mathew, Theobald (DNB00)|Mathew, Theobald]]
|editor-last=Lee
|editor-first=Sidney
|editor-link=Sidney Lee
|encyclopedia=[[Dictionary of National Biography]]
|volume=37
|location=New York
|publisher=Macmillan and Co.
|pages=32–34
}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite web
|title=19th Century
|url=http://www.kilkenny.irishcapuchins.com/19th_century.htm
|publisher=Capuchin Friars of Kilkenny
|access-date=29 July 2018
|archive-date=3 March 2016
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303170451/http://www.kilkenny.irishcapuchins.com/19th_century.htm
|url-status=dead
}}
*{{cite book
|last=Birmingham
|first=James
|year=1841
|orig-year=1840
|editor-last=Morris
|editor-first=P.&nbsp;H.
|title=A Memoir of the Very Rev. Theobald Mathew: with an Account of the Rise and Progress of Temperance in Ireland
|url=https://archive.org/details/amemoirveryrevt00morrgoog
|edition=2nd
|location=New York
|publisher=Alexander V. Blake
}}
*{{cite book
|last=Bradbury
|first=Osgood
|year=1844
|title=Life of Theobald Mathew, the Great Apostle of Temperance
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=czZfAAAAcAAJ
|location=Boston, Massachusetts
|publisher=J.&nbsp;N. Bradley & Co.
|access-date=29 July 2018
}}
*{{cite AV media
|last=Doherty
|first=John J.
|year=2008
|title=Frederick Douglass and the White Negro
|type=motion picture
}}
*{{cite book
|last=Foote
|first=Henry S.
|author-link=Henry S. Foote
|year=1849
|title=Rev. Theobald Mathew: Remarks of Hon. H.S. Foote, of Mississippi in the Senate, December 10, 1849, on the Resolution to Permit the Rev. Theobald Mathew to Sit Within the Bar of the Senate
|url=https://archive.org/details/revtheobaldmathe00foot
|location=Washington
|publisher=Congressional Globe Office
}}
*{{cite book
|last=Henshaw
|first=Joshua Sidney 
|year=1849
|title=The Life and Mission of the Rev. Theobald Mathew
|location=New York
|publisher=J.&nbsp;C. Riker
}}
*{{cite magazine
|last=Ireland
|first=John
|author-link=John Ireland (bishop)
|year=1890
|title=Theobald Mathew
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T4k4AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA465
|magazine=Donahoe's Magazine
|volume=24
|issue=5
|location=Boston, Massachusetts
|publisher=Thomas B. Noonan & Company
|pages=465–470
}}
*{{cite book
|last=Mathew
|first=Theobald
|year=1840
|title=An Accurate Report of the Very Rev. Theobald Mathew: In Dublin, in the Cause of Temperance&nbsp;...
|type=sermon
|location=Dublin
|publisher=R. Grace
|oclc=39517820
}}
*{{cite book
|last=Rogers
|first=Patrick
|year=1943
|title=Father Theobald Mathew, Apostle of Temperance
|location=Dublin
|publisher=Browne and Nolan
}}
*{{cite book
|last=Thomas
|first=Father
|year=1902
|title=Summarised Life of the Great Temperance Apostle Fr. Theobald Mathew
|url=https://archive.org/details/summarisedlifeof00thom
|location=Cork, Ireland
|publisher=Guy and Co.
|access-date=29 July 2018
}}
*{{cite book
|last=Townend
|first=Paul A.
|year=2002
|title=Father Mathew, Temperance, and Irish Identity
|location=Dublin
|publisher=Irish Academic Press
|isbn=978-0-7165-2737-4
}}

==External links==
* [http://www.capuchinfranciscans.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/5.-Descriptive-List-Web-Fr.-Theobald-Mathew-Research-and-Commemorative-Papers.pdf Fr. Theobald Mathew:Research and Commemorative Papers], Irish Capuchin Archives (PDF)

{{Subject bar |portal1=Biography |portal2=Catholicism |portal3=Ireland |commons=yes |commons-search=Category:Theobald Mathew |d=yes |d-search=Q983030}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mathew, Father}}
[[Category:Irish temperance activists]]
[[Category:1790 births]]
[[Category:1856 deaths]]
[[Category:Capuchins]]
[[Category:19th-century Irish Roman Catholic priests]]
[[Category:Christian clergy from County Tipperary]]
[[Category:Roman Catholic activists]]
[[Category:People from Golden, County Tipperary]]
[[Category:Burials at St. Joseph's Cemetery, Cork]]