Editing Luke Wadding (section)

==Life==

===Early life===
Wadding was born on 16 October 1588 in [[Waterford]] to Walter Wadding of Waterford, a wealthy merchant,<ref name="macgee">{{Cite book |last=Macgee |first=T.D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-2UdAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA90 |title=Gallery of Irish Writers: The Irish Writers of the Seventeenth Century |year=1857 |pages=90–102}}</ref> and his wife, Anastasia Lombard (sister of [[Peter Lombard, Archbishop of Armagh]] and Primate of Ireland).<ref name="macgee"/> Educated at the school of Mrs. Jane Barden in Waterford and of Peter White in [[Kilkenny]], in 1604 he went to study in [[Lisbon]] and at the [[University of Coimbra]].{{sfn|Herbermann|1913}}

===Franciscan friar===
After completing his university studies, Wadding became a Franciscan friar in 1607 and spent his [[novitiate]] at [[Matosinhos]], Portugal. He was ordained priest in 1613 by João Manuel, [[Bishop of Viseu]], and in 1617 he was made President of the Irish College at the [[University of Salamanca]], and Master of Students and Professor of Divinity.<ref name="macgee"/> The next year, he went to Rome as chaplain to the Spanish ambassador to the [[Papal States]], Bishop Antonio Trejo de Sande, O.F.M. Wadding collected the funds for the establishment of the [[College of St. Isidore]] in Rome, for the education of Irish priests, opened 24 June 1625, with four lecturers – [[Antony Hickey|Anthony O'Hicidh]] of a famous literary family in [[Thomond]], Martin Breathnach from [[Donegal (town)|Donegal]], [[Patrick Fleming (Franciscan)|Patrick Fleming]] from [[County Louth]], and [[John Punch (theologian)|John Punch]] from [[Cork (city)|Cork]]. He gave the college a library of 5,000 printed books and 800 manuscripts, and thirty resident students soon came. Wadding served as [[rector (academic)|rector]] of the college for 15 years. From 1630 to 1634, he was [[Procurator (Catholic Church)|Procurator]] of the Order of Friars Minor at their headquarters in Rome, and Vice [[Commissariat#Religious usage|Commissary]] from 1645 to 1648.  During the papal conclaves of 1644 and 1655, Wadding received votes to become pope, making him "as close as the church has come to having an Irish pope."<ref name="Cavanaugh2016">{{cite news|author1=Ray Cavanaugh|title=The Irish Franciscan who gave St. Patrick his feast day|url=https://www.ncronline.org/news/people/irish-franciscan-who-gave-st-patrick-his-feast-day|access-date=19 November 2017|work=National Catholic Reporter|date=11-24 Mar 2016|page=9}}</ref><ref>[http://www.irishphilosophy.com/2015/03/30/irish-colleges-17th-century/ Irish Colleges in the 17th Century] www.irishphilosophy.com</ref>

Wadding was an enthusiastic supporter of the Irish Catholics during the [[Irish Confederate Wars]], and his college became the strongest advocate of the Irish cause in Rome. (This spirit of patriotism originated by Wadding had a lasting impact, so that in the 19th century, Sir George Errington, who was sent by British prime minister [[William Ewart Gladstone|Gladstone]] to explain the relation of English and Irish politics in Rome, reported that those Irish politicians thought most extreme in England were conservatives compared with the collegians of St. Isidore.){{sfn|Moore|1899}} Wadding sent officers and arms to Ireland, and induced [[Pope Innocent X]] to send [[Giovanni Battista Rinuccini]] there.{{sfn|Moore|1899}}

The Confederate Catholics petitioned [[Pope Urban VIII]] to make Wadding a [[cardinal (Catholic Church)|cardinal]], but he found ways to intercept the petition, and it remained in the archives of the college.{{sfn|Moore|1899}}

Luke Wadding was an important art patron. He commissioned artworks for St. Isidore's church in Rome. The painters [[Andrea Sacchi]] and [[Carlo Maratti]] were among the most famous artists commissioned by Wadding.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}