WHITE, STEPHEN. - Jesuit and historian, b. at Clonmel (Ireland) in 1573 (or 1574), d. at Galway in 1646.
Having entered the Order in 1596, he was sent to Germany in 1606 and for many years taught theology at Ingolstadt, at Dillingen, at Kassel, and then moved (1627-28) to Metz. After another twelve years of teaching activity in the French and German colleges of the Order, he was permitted to return to Ireland to take up the direction of the new College of Dublin, which, having been closed before long by the English government, left him free to devote himself to the pastoral ministry in the dioceses of Waterford and Lismore.
W.'s fame is linked particularly to his hagiographic and historical works, among which the biographies of Irish saints, widely used by the Bollandists for the compilation of the Acta Sanctorum, are of special value. Other texts of his, especially theological ones, have been published in the Bibliotheca historico-philologico-theologica (Bremen 1719-25). To him is also owed the discovery, in the libraries of numerous German abbeys, of ancient Irish literary and chronicle monuments, which he published with learned commentaries, marked by a passionate love for his homeland. Of this the most famous of his works is a document, the Apologia pro Hibernia adversus Cambri calumnias, composed to refute the arguments of Gerald of Wales (Lat. Cambria), which were - in his judgment - injurious to Irish honor.
Bibliography5 worksthe Apologia, with biographical introduction and notes, was edited by M. Kelly, Dublin 1849; anonymous, s. v. in Dict. of Nat. Biography, XX
BIBL.: the Apologia, with biographical introduction and notes, was edited by M. Kelly, Dublin 1849; anonymous, s. v. in Dict. of Nat. Biography, XXI, London 1909, pp. 75-76; J. Hogan, Life of father S. W., S. J., in The Waterford Arch. Journ., 3 (1897); M. J. Flaherty, s. v. in Cath. Enc., XV, pp. 612-13; Sommervogel, VIII, 1093-1099.
Montini, Renzo Uberto. “White, stephen.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. XII, coll. 1678–1679. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1954. https://azioneromana.com/article/white-stephen.
MLA
Montini, Renzo Uberto. “White, stephen.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. XII, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1954, coll. 1678–1679. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/white-stephen.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec12_white_stephen,
author = {Montini, Renzo Uberto},
title = {White, stephen},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {XII},
pages = {1678--1679},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1954},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/white-stephen}
}
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