Badges of the Order of St Patrick

Today is the feast of St Patrick, and on previous years I have posted about the Most Illustrious Order of St Patrick, founded by King George III in 1783 as the equivalent for Ireland of the Orders of the Garter and the Thistle.

There is a useful and comprehensive online account of the Order at Order of St. Patrick. 

As that explains until the Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland in 1869-70 the Archbishop of Armagh was Prelate of the Order and the Archbishop of Dublin Chancellor. The Knights had stalls with their banners in St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin.

 

Badge of the Archbishop of Armagh as Prelate of the Order

Ulster Museum

Image: Pinterest 

 

Badge of the Archbishop of Dublin as Chancellor of the Order
The small symbolic purse was worn suspended on a Patrick blue riband around the neck

Image: Lord Belmont in Northern Ireland 



Archbishop Richard Whately wearing the Chancellor's Badge
An Oriel man he was Archbishop of Dublin 1831-63

Image: Wikipedia

There are online accounts of the Archbishop at Richard Whately and at Archbishop Richard Whately from Alfred Webb A Compendium of Irish Biography, 1878. The most detailed life online is by Richard Brent in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and it can be viewed here.

Badge of the Usher of the Order

Image: Pinterest

My previous posts about the Order can be viewed at The Order of St Patrick (2011), Banners of the Knights of St Patrick (2012), The Order of St Patrick (2013), Insignia of the Order of St Patrick (2014), The Most Illustrious Order of St Patrick (2015), and Order of St Patrick (2016)

Just in case you feel like asking, yes, I am in favour of making new appointments to the Order and restoring it to its proper and historic place in the Honours system.

 

 

Archbishop John de St Paul of Dublin

Today is also the 650th anniversary of the death in 1362 of John de St Paul, Archbishop of Dublin. My particular interest is him arises from the fact that he was born in my home area, at Owston, which is south-east of Pontefract and north of Doncaster. His life and career is a good example of the way not a few clever young men from Yorkshire made their way in the fourteenth century world through the Church and by serving in the royal Chancery, rising to positions of influence and importance.

The most recent and detailed account of his life is by Philomena Connolly in the Oxford DNB  and which can be read here. There is another online account of him here.

 All Saints church Owston

Much of the structure is as it would have been in the lifetime of John de St Paul

Image: LANEXXX on Panoramio

Archbishop Hugh Curwen

 

For those who have not read them I would draw the attention of readers to three posts about Hugh Curwen (c.1500-68), successively Dean of Hereford, Archbishop of Dublin and Bishop of Oxford written by Fr Hunwicke. They can be read here, here and here. The more detailed Oxford Dictionary of National Biography account of Hugh Curwen can be found here.