MALACHY, mal'a-ki, O'MORGAIR, SAINT: Archbishop of Armagh; b. at Armagh, Ireland, between 1093 and 1095; d. at Clairvauz (33 m. s.e. of Troyes), France, Nov. 2 or 3, 1148. He came of a noble family, and received the usual education at the hands of Irish monks and clergy, after which he attached himself to the recluse Iomhar, who lived in a cell adjoining the church of Armagh. Iomhar (d, in Rome, 1134) was a strong supporter of the Roman tendency, and won his disciple for the came cause. Malachy was ordained priest about 1119, to be chosen a bishop shortly afterward and assigned to the district of Armagh. Determined to introduce Roman customs as far as possible, he felt the need of knowing them more thoroughly and of forming closer relations with like-minded prelates in the south of Ireland, so he spent some time with Bishop Malchus at Lismore in Munster. In 1124 he was chosen bishop of Connor in Ulster; but the see was laid waste two years later by one of the northern chieftains, and he and his clergy were driven out. He found a refuge at Ibrach in Kerry, where he founded a monastery; but in 1129 he was recalled to Armagh by the choice of Bishop Celsus on his dying bed as his successor. This was an uncanonical coup d'dat on the part of Celsus, who was an adherent of the Roman party, and the conservative party refused to recognize Malachy and set up a claimant of their own who gained possession of the see. In 1132 the papal legate Gilbert and Malchus of Lismore took a second revolutionary step by solemnly creating Malachy archbishop of Armagh, and urged him to go and assert his rights. The rival prelate, however, retained his footing in the city until his death in 1134. His successor was driven out by violence, and a compromise finally reached with him by a money payment. In 1136 Malachy appointed the monk Gelasius as his successor at Armagh and took himself the bishopric of Down in Ulster. He could now set to work at his plans for reorganizing the Irish Church, and in 1139 he went to Rome to ask that the gallium be given to two Irish archbishops, another to be named for Cashel in the south. Inno. cent II. made him papal legate for Ireland and sanctioned the erection of the archbishopric of Cashel, but refused to grant the pallia until they should be requested by the unanimous voice of a general Irish council. Malachy returned in 1140, passing by Clairvaux to consult with St. Bernard as to the introduction of Cistercian monks into Ireland, and renouncing only at the papal com, wand his desire to take the cowl himself in the famous abbey. He busied himself in the duties of his station, and won universal reverence by his saintly humility and asceticism, earning also the reputation of a miracle worker. In 1148 he succeeded in inducing a council at Innispatrick to ask for the pallis again, and so to win formal papal sanction for the reorganization of the Irish Church.

He started on this mission, but fell ill at Clairvaua, and died a fortnight later, St. Bernard preaching the sermon at his funeral in the abbey church.

Malachy's importance in Irish ecclesiastical history is analogous to that of Boniface in the Ger man. The result of his work was indeed a loss of independence for his people, but it was more than compensated by the gain in order, discipline, and higher culture. His life was written before 1152 by his admiring friend Bernard, and is one of the most finished works of the greatest of medieval stylists. It doubtless contributed to his canon ization, which was pronounced by Clement III. in 1190. The works attributed to him by later wri ters are almost certainly not his; some of them may belong to an Irish Franciscan of the same name who was at Oxford about 1390. The famous prophecy bearing his name, which consists of 141 mottos for all the popes from Celestine II. to the end of time, was first published by the Benedictine Wion in 1595, and is now thought to have been written by a partizan of Cardinal Si moncelli to support his candidacy in the conclave of 1590.

(H. Böhmer.)

Bibliography: J. O'Hanlon, Life of $t. Madacky O'Mor pair, Dublin, 1859; A. Bellesheim, Geschichte der katAola- ashen Rirche in IrZand, vol. i., Mainz, 1890; KL, viii. 639-542. On the prophecy consult: C. F. Menestrier, Refutation des prophetiea . . . our lee elections des gapes, Paris, 1689; J. J. I. von Döllinger, Fables Respecting the Popes, New York, 1872; The Marquis of Bute, in Dublin Review, Oct., 1885.