CULLEN, PAUL. - Cardinal, b. 29 Apr. 1803 at Prospect in County Kildare, Ireland, d. 24 Oct. 1878 at Dublin. He devoted himself to the study of Oriental languages and especially of Hebrew. Ordained priest in 1829, he became rector of the Irish College in Rome in 1832. The revolutionary disturbances of 1848 caught him while he was rector of the Urban College of Propaganda Fide, and during the period of the Roman Republic he placed himself under the protection of America. In 1849 he was appointed primate of Armagh and, as papal legate, presided over the Synod of Turles in Aug. 1850.
As a true patriot, he took an active interest in the public affairs of his country, participating in the Irish movements of 1850-52. But the keen disappointment caused him by the impatience of Mac Hale and the consequences of the dissension that arose with the latter led him away from active politics, to the point of forbidding his clergy to concern themselves with politics. He was an energetic opponent of Fenianism, a secret revolutionary organization founded in America by J. O' Mahony. In 1857 he was appointed archbishop of Dublin, where he founded the Catholic University, and in 1866 he was created cardinal by Pius IX, who held him in great esteem. He took part in the Vatican Council.