Joseph Mullooly, (19 March 1812 – 25 June 1880) was an Irish Dominican

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

priest and archaeologist from Lehery, Lanesborough, County Longford, Ireland. He is noted for excavating the temple of

Mithras Mithraism, also known as the Mithraic mysteries or the Cult of Mithras, was a Roman mystery religion centered on the god Mithras. Although inspired by Iranian worship of the Zoroastrian divinity (''yazata'') Mithra, the Roman Mithras is link ...

, (a

Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheistic ...

and

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deity widely venerated in the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...

at dating from the reign of

Nero Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68), was the fifth Roman emperor and final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 unti ...

) beneath the

Basilica of San Clemente The Basilica of Saint Clement ( it, Basilica di San Clemente al Laterano) is a Latin Catholic minor basilica dedicated to Pope Clement I located in Rome, Italy. Archaeologically speaking, the structure is a three-tiered complex of buildings: (1) ...

in Rome. In 1849, Mullooly became lector in Sacred Theology at the College of Saint Thomas in Rome, the future Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, ''Angelicum''. Mullooly wrote ''Saint Clement, Pope and Martyr, and His Basilica in Rome'' about the excavation project at San Clemente. "Mullooly’s courage and desire to preserve ancient artifacts can be noted in his defense of the Basilica of San Clemente from destruction. When

Garibaldi Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi ( , ;In his native Ligurian language, he is known as ''Gioxeppe Gaibado''. In his particular Niçard dialect of Ligurian, he was known as ''Jousé'' or ''Josep''. 4 July 1807 – 2 June 1882) was an Italian general, pat ...

’s revolutionary forces took over Rome in 1848, Mullooly defended his church even after the

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

fled the Vatican". To emphasise, San Clemente as a Dominican house of studies and as an Irish national college, and under the protection of Queen Victoria, he branded it ‘Collegium Hiberniae Dominicanae de Urbe’. Princess Alice of Great Britain and Ireland and later Grand Duchess of Hesse mentions in a letter dated 9 April 1873 to her mother, Queen Victoria, that Joseph Mullooly had shown her around San Clemente during her visit to Rome in April 1873: "We visited San Clemente two days ago, and Father Mulooly ictook us through the three churches - one under the other"

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