Daniel McAteer tells the story of the Irish priest who, while serving in Rome, made an one of the most extraordinary archaeological discoveries of the nineteenth century.

 

In the shadow of the colosseum in Rome today stands a basilica with a very strong Irish connection.

When one walks into the Basilica of San Clemente for the first time, there’s no escaping the feeling you are stepping into far more than a church. You are entering a time machine – one that allows you to travel from the Middle Ages down to the early Chris tian world, and deeper still into the days of the Roman Empire. This remarkable journey of discovery was first made possible by an Irish priest – Fr Joseph Mullooly from County Longford.

Born in Lehery, near Lanesborough in the heart of the midlands bogs on March 19, 1812, Joseph Mullooly grew up outside this quiet countryside village along the River Shannon, far removed from the ancient grandeur of Rome. Yet it was in the Eternal City that his name would become forever linked with one of the most extraordinary archaeological revelations of the nineteenth century. The son of Gilbert Mullooly and Brigid Dowd – he took more than a passing interest in the Dominican Order (well established in that period in county Longford) and set off for Italy in the 1940s – bound for the city of Rome, where he devoted himself to prayer, study and scholarship.

In 1849 he became a lecturer in Sacred Theology at the College of Saint Thomas – the institution that would later become the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, known today as the Angelicum. Those who knew him spoke of his intelligence and quiet determination, but no one could have foreseen just how significant his contribution to history would become.

It was beneath San Clemente – a basilica standing just a short distance from the Colosseum – that Father Mullooly’s life’s work would unfold. When he arrived the basilica was in poor shape, with little interest or funding, but the Irish man soon changed much of that.

Continue reading in this week’s Ireland’s Own