Paris, 1624. Printed work.
Thomas Messingham compiled and adapted pre-existing Latin Lives of the saints of Ireland, including Jocelin of Furness's Life of Patrick, Adomnán's Life of Columba and two lives of Brigit. The three patrons are depicted as the secular priest, monk and nun, the ideal vocations. Messingham also included St Bernard's Life of St Malachy. He argued that the saints' lives had an important role to play in preserving Ireland for Catholicism and addressed the dilemmas facing Irish Catholics when confronted by anti-Catholic legislation.
The same message was preached by Robert Rochford, an Irish Franciscan at Louvain, whose work The life of the glorious Bishop S. Patricke printed at St Omer in 1625. James Ussher's copy of Messingham's book, preserved in Trinity College Dublin contains Ussher's extensive corrections and annotations to the Life of Columba.
