Tobias Kirby (1 January 1804 – 20 January 1895) was an Irish

Roman Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the Holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in layman's terms ''priest'' refers only ...

and

Bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

Life

Kirby was born in

Tallow, County Waterford Tallow (; ) is a town, civil parish and townland in County Waterford, Ireland. Tallow is in the province of Munster near the border between County Cork and County Waterford and situated on a small hill just south of the River Bride. History S ...

, Ireland, to David Kirby and Elizabeth Caplice. He was educated at St. John's College, Waterford. In 1827 he began studying at the

Roman Colleges The Roman Colleges, also referred to as the Pontifical Colleges in Rome, are institutions established and maintained in Rome for the education of future ecclesiastics of the Catholic Church. Traditionally many were for students of a particular nati ...

in Rome; one of his fellow students was Vincenzo Gioacchino Pecci, the future

Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII ( it, Leone XIII; born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2 March 1810 – 20 July 1903) was the head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 to his death in July 1903. Living until the age of 93, he was the second-old ...

. In 1833 he was ordained a priest at the

Archbasilica of St. John Lateran The Archbasilica Cathedral of the Most Holy Savior and of Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist in the Lateran ( it, Arcibasilica del Santissimo Salvatore e dei Santi Giovanni Battista ed Evangelista in Laterano), also known as the Papa ...

for service in his native diocese of

Roman Catholic Diocese of Waterford and Lismore The Diocese of Waterford and Lismore (Irish: ''Deoise Phort Láirge agus Leasa Móire'' ) is a Roman Catholic diocese in Ireland. It is one of six suffragan dioceses in the ecclesiastical province of Cashel (also known as Munster) and is subjec ...

but he spent hardly any significant part of his long ministry there. In 1837 he was appointed Vice Rector of the

Irish College Irish Colleges is the collective name used for approximately 34 centres of education for Irish Catholic clergy and lay people opened on continental Europe in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. History The Colleges were set up to educate Roma ...

and was accorded the title Monsignor in 1840. In 1849 he succeeded Cardinal Cullen as rector of the college. In total he spent 41 years as Rector and the College holds his entire collection of letters regarded by some as "one of the most important private collections for the history of the nineteenth century in the English speaking world." In recognition of his long service and, partly as a consequence of his long friendship with the then reigning Pontiff, he was appointed titular bishop of Lete in 1881, and titular archbishop of

Ephesus Ephesus (; grc-gre, Ἔφεσος, Éphesos; tr, Efes; may ultimately derive from hit, 𒀀𒉺𒊭, Apaša) was a city in ancient Greece on the coast of Ionia, southwest of present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built in t ...

in 1885. When Kirby eventually retired in 1891 he was succeeded by Michael Kelly (1850-1940). Kirby died in Rome on 20 January 1895, and was buried in Rome. Most of his papers are held at the

Pontifical Irish College The Pontifical Irish College is a Roman Catholic seminary for the training and education of priests, in Rome. The College is located at #1, Via dei Santi Quattro, and serves as a residence for clerical students from all over the world. Designated ...

.Kirby Papers in the Irish College Rome (1831-1895)
Irish College, Rome

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirby, Tobias 19th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Ireland People from Tallow, County Waterford Alumni of St John's College, Waterford 1804 births 1895 deaths 19th-century Roman Catholic titular archbishops Christian clergy from County Waterford