Wadding, Luke
Creators: name: Falà, Jacopo Francesco
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019

description: Luke Wadding was born on October 16, 1588 in Waterford (Ireland). He was the youngest son of a fourteen children wealthy Catholic family: his father Walter was a rich merchant, while his mother Anastasia Lombard was a relative of Peter Lombard, Archibishop of Armagh from 1601. As a result of the profound Catholic faith of the whole family, many of his brothers, cousins and nephews became Franciscans, Jesuits or Augustinians. When his parents died, both in 1602, because of a plague epidemy, Luke was put under the authority of his elder brother Matthew, who took with him to Portugal in the following year (1603).

They first arrived in Lisbon, where Luke continued his studies in the Irish College of the same city. In 1606, at the age of 17, Luke became a Franciscan friar in Matosinhos, near Porto, in the convent ruled by the Recollects dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. In the following year, he was sent to the Convent of Leiria for a two years course of Philosophy in the <em>studium</em> of the same Franciscan House, in order to complete his formation in the field of the <em>artes liberales</em>. Wadding nostalgically recalls this first portuguese period in his <em>Annales Minorum</em> (Castro 1958: 111-112). Afterwards, he entered the University, first in Lisbon, for a very short period, and then in Coimbra, where he studied Sacred Theology between 1609 and 1613. Wadding attended the Franciscan Saint Bonaventure College, placed (still nowadays) in Rua da Sofia, next to the Dominican and Carmelite ones. Coimbra can be considered as one of the most important european universities of that time. Among his professors, we find prominent figures, like the jesuit Francisco Suárez and the augustinian Egidio da Apresentação. Wadding himself, gratefully remembering the university years, confesses how lucky he was to study «under such learned professors, awarded with many titles, among the most recommended in all Europe» (Wad., <em>An. Min</em>., VII, n. 27). In 1613 he successfully completed his academic studies and was ordained priest in Viseu, before going back to the Convent of Leiria, where he began to train in the art of preaching (both in Portuguese and Spanish). In the same year he participated to the Provincial Chapter in Lisbon, where he met the Vicar General of the Order, the Spanish Antonio de Trejo, who chaired the assembly. Impressed by the theological erudition and dialectic skills of the young Irish friar, Trejo decided to take Wadding with him to the renown Saint Francis College of Salamanca, in order to complete his theological formation.

In the first period of his staying in Spain, Wadding devoted himself to the learning of Hebrew, a language crucial for Biblical studies. For this purpose, he moved for about one year (1615) to the Franciscan Convent of Alba de Tormes, where Hebrew was especially cultivated by Francisco Castillo, whose lessons Wadding attended.

In 1616, however, he was called back to Salamanca: here his academic career starts, as he teaches for the first time Sacred Theology at the local Convent. Later, he lectured the same discipline also at the Saint Francis Convent of León, before coming back again again to Salamanca. In June 2, 1618 he took part to the Franciscan General Chapter of Salamanca, defending some theological <em>Conclusiones</em> in such a brilliant way that he was selcted to integrate the embassy of the King Philip III (headed by Antonio de Trejo) to the Holy See, whose mission was to define the dogma of Immaculate Conception. Wadding, as theologician, was in charge of advocating the Immaculate Conception doctrine in front of the Roman Curia. At the age of 30, the Irish friar leaves the Iberian Peninsula: he will never come back.

When the embassy reaches Rome, it is warmly welcomed by the brother of Antonio de Trejo, the Cardenal Gabriel. The cause, however, meets major difficulties: first, the strong theological opposition of the Dominicans; second, the political hostility of the Pope, who considered the royal embassy as an intrusion, a violation of the exclusive authority of the Holy See on religious issues (a sort of neo-caesaropapist attempt). This is why the mission failed and no new Immaculate Conception dogma was established at that time (Broggio 2010: 157-167). While the embassy failed and Trejo was called back in Spain, Wadding stopped in Rome, and here he will stay for the rest of his life. In the first years, he lived in the Franciscan Convent of San Pietro in Montorio, belonged by Spanish friars. Then, in 1625, he was asked to take the responsability for the recently-founded Franciscan House dedicated to Saint Isidore (cf. the special Bull of Pope Urban VIII on October 20, 1625). In few years, he trasformed this yet to be finished building in a flourishing cultural center - equipped with an enormous library containing ca. 5000 volumes (MacMahon &amp; McCafferty 2010: 99) -, the first Franciscan Irish College, where many of the most famed Irish Franciscans in history have been trained. Wadding also founded, three years later (1628), the Ludovisian College, this time for the formation of Irish secular priests. His life in Rome was devoted to an abundand literary activity focused on the history of the Franciscan Order, inasmuch as <em>chronista</em> of the same Order. It should not be forgotten, however, the key political role he played in favour of Ireland, as he managed to become a sort of Irish ambassador to the Holy See, diplomatically and financially sustaining the Irish Catholic Confederation. He was also responsible for the introduction of the Saint Patrick’s day (March, 17) celebration in the liturgical calendar. Moreover, he took part in some of the most important curial commissions (consultor of the <em>Index</em>, of the <em>Congregatio Rituum</em> and <em>de Propaganda Fide, </em>qualificator of the Holy Office, member of the special Commission created by Pope Urban VIII for the reform of the Liturgy, member of the Commission that condemned the five theses of the Dutch theologian Cornelius Jansen). Finally, he should be remembered for his patronage of art, chiefly for the church of Saint Isidore’s College (Fidanza 2016). Wadding died in Rome on November 18, 1657 and is buried in the same Saint Isidore’s church.