Bishop Bedell

Bishop William Bedell is remembered for his saintly life and his work of translating the scriptures into the Irish language. His Irish neighbours called him "optimus Anglorum", the best of the English and his nobility, charity and ecumenism were renowned in an age of tyranny, injustice and bitter divisions in Ireland. "In every instance he was on the side of equity and honesty and was fighting against corruption and oppression, according to one biographer. Samuel Taylor Coleridge called Bedell "the most faultless character in all ecclesiastical history". 

He was born at Black Notley, near Braintree (50 miles north-east of London), Essex, England, on or near Christmas day, 1571.

He studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge and was ordained in 1597, after which he settled at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. In 1607 he went to Venice as chaplain to Sir Henry Wotton, British ambassador to that city. He returned parochial work in England in 1610. In 1627 he was appointed Provost of Trinity College, Dublin. He served as Provost for two years, during which time he was highly successful in restoring discipline and religious observance in the College., where he introduced a rule that all Irish students of divinity should study Irish, so that they could better minister to their flock. Bedell also introduced a yearly grant of £3 per student to assist  them in the study of the language. Bedell rejected many of the usual trappings of his office in Trinity, favouring native clothing instead of the more formal attire of the establishment and travelling alone on horseback instead of using the coaches and retinue of the gentry. 

In 1629 he became bishop of the united dioceses of Kilmore and Ardagh (County Longford). In 1633 he resigned the latter see, believing that the proper administration of the diocese required a separate bishop. 

The present Cathedral at Kilmore

Bishop Bedell endured many difficulties in running his dioceses. Shortly after his arrival in Kilmore, he wrote that "the plantations are raw and the churches ruined; my cathedral is without steeple, bell or font". He worked hard to repair his churches, often with the assistance of his Catholic friends and neighbours, and to relieve the great hardship and poverty among his flock, amid much opposition.

His devotion to the Irish language was legendary. He avidly studied the language,and spoke it whenever possible. He also insisted that the clergy in his diocese be able to speak, read and write the language correctly. On his instructions, prayers were read in Irish every Sunday in the Cathedral. In 1631, he published a short summary of Christian Doctrine in English and Irish, and later an Irish grammar. His greatest achievement was probably the translation of the Old Testament into Irish, which was made under his supervision, with assistance from Murtagh King, James Nangle, and Denis Sheridan. 

Many of the landed gentry in Co. Cavan and elsewhere complained to the authorities in Dublin that Bedell's promotion of the Irish language was a breach of the anti-Irish laws of the time.  Bedell replied that his Irish-speaking flock needed religious instruction, and that this could not wait until they learned English. The authorities supported him in this belief. His courage won him great esteem among the people.

On October 23rd 1641, the Confederate Catholics rose in rebellion against the State forces. On that day, the local Confederate leader Feidhlim O'Raghallaigh visited Bishop Bedell to reassure him that he would not be disturbed or molested in the rising. The rebellion started with the killing of some English and Scottish planters. Historians have differed over the centuries as to the scale of the massacres. Many planters were driven from their lands  and left to die from exposure and hunger. 

Bedell's Sycamore Tree in Kilmore, pictured in 2001

The Inscription on Bedell's Tomb

Amid the mayhem, Bedell refused to leave his diocese and he sheltered hundreds of fugitives from the Confederate Armies. The insurgents objected to his charity but the Bishop was emphatic about his duty to look after these people. Finally, O'Raghallaigh and his forces came to Kilmore to drive out the unfortunate refugees from the Bishop's outhouses. 

Bedell continued to minister in his church as the war progressed. He again refused many offers of refuge elsewhere including one from the Catholic Bishop, Dr MacSuibhne. Finally, on December 18th, MacSuibhne arrived at Kilmore to claim Bedell's residence and Church. He was accompanied by Feidhlim O'Raghallaigh, the local insurgent leader. O'Raghallaigh arrested Bedell, along with his two sons, their wives and a stepson-in-law. They were imprisoned in Cloghoughter Castle. One of his sons later wrote that they were kept in reasonably comfortable quarters there and allowed to practise their religion freely. In January 1642, the Bedells were allowed to move to the house of a clergyman friend, Rev. Dennis Sheridan at Drumcor. The Bishop was now 71 years old and the hardships of his tenure in Kilmore had seriously affected his health. He died of fever there on February 7^th, 1642. His last words were "Whether we live or die we are the Lord's". 

News of his death caused much grief and mourning among both sides in the war, including his former captors. The Catholic Bishop was unwilling to have the Protestant Bedell buried in Kilmore Churchyard, but O'Raghallaign's forces intervened and permission was given for him to be buried where Bedell himself had wished, alongside his wife Leah, in a grave underneath a giant sycamore tree, which the Bishop himself had planted. 

The famous sycamore tree survived intact until damaged in a storm in the early years of the 21st century.

The Confederate forces provided a military guard of honour at his funeral and among his pallbearers was the famous rebel leader, Myles the Slasher.

Bedell's Old Testament was published after his death in 1685, by Archbishop Marsh, founder of the famous Marsh's Library which still stands adjacent to St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, and by Robert Boyle, the famous physicist and philosopher.