GRIFFITH, RAYMOND. – Irish Dominican bishop, born in Limerick on 15 October 1798, died in Cape Town on 18 June 1862.
A preacher in Ireland and prior of Dublin, he was consecrated in 1837 as apostolic vicar of the then newly established vicariate of the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.
His administration was so zealous and energetic that after only 10 years the vicariate had to be divided, and in 1850 the western one, in which he resided, had to be subdivided; upon his arrival there he had found no priest and only 700 Catholics. At his death there were 30,000 Catholics, and the vicariate was provided with churches, schools, priests, and religious.
BIBL.: Acta Capituli prov. Prov. Hiberniae..., a. 1864, p. 2; A. Coleman, The ancient dominican foundations in Ireland, Dundalk 1902, pp. 9-60; L. Nolan, The Irish Dominicans in Rome, Grottaferrata 1913, pp. 71-73. Abele Redigonda