Hugh O'Flaherty
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Hugh O'Flaherty (28 February 1898 – 30 October 1963) was an Irish
Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
priest, a senior official of the
Roman Curia The Roman Curia () comprises the administrative institutions of the Holy See and the central body through which the affairs of the Catholic Church are conducted. The Roman Curia is the institution of which the Roman Pontiff ordinarily makes use ...
and a significant figure in the Catholic resistance to Nazism. During the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, O'Flaherty was responsible for saving 6,500 Allied soldiers and
Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
. His ability to evade the traps set by the German ''
Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
'' and ''
Sicherheitsdienst ' (, "Security Service"), full title ' ("Security Service of the ''Reichsführer-SS''"), or SD, was the intelligence agency of the Schutzstaffel, SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Established in 1931, the SD was the first Nazi intelligence ...
'' (SD) Chief Herbert Kappler earned him the nickname "
The Scarlet Pimpernel ''The Scarlet Pimpernel'' is the first novel in a series of historical fiction by Baroness Orczy, published in 1905. It was written after her stage play of the same title (co-authored with her husband Montague Barstow) enjoyed a long run in Lo ...
of the
Vatican Vatican may refer to: Geography * Vatican City, an independent city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy * Vatican Hill, in Rome, namesake of Vatican City * Ager Vaticanus, an alluvial plain in Rome * Vatican, an unincorporated community in the ...
". After the war, he was named a papal domestic prelate by Pope
Pius XII Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...
and served as notary of the
Holy Office The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) is a department of the Roman Curia in charge of the religious discipline of the Catholic Church. The Dicastery is the oldest among the departments of the Roman Curia. Its seat is the Palace o ...
. He worked alongside and closely assisted Cardinal
Alfredo Ottaviani Alfredo Ottaviani (29 October 1890 – 3 August 1979) was an Italian cardinal of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII named him cardinal in 1953. He served as secretary of the Holy Office in the Roman Curia from 1959 to 1966 when that dicastery ...
until 1960. Prior to being incapacitated by a stroke in that same year, O'Flaherty was about to be removed from all his Curia positions and "promoted" by
Pope John XXIII Pope John XXIII (born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli; 25 November 18813 June 1963) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 28 October 1958 until his death on 3 June 1963. He is the most recent pope to take ...
to
Papal Nuncio An apostolic nuncio (; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international organization. A nuncio is a ...
to
Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...
. He returned to his native Ireland, where he died in 1963. Despite O'Flaherty and Delia Murphy's joint role in helping to save more than 5,000
Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
lives through their Rome Escape Line network during the
Holocaust in Italy The Holocaust saw the persecution, deportation, and murder of Jews between 1943 and 1945 in the Italian Social Republic, the part of the Kingdom of Italy occupied by Nazi Germany after the Italian surrender on 8 September 1943, during World War ...
,
Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the State rel ...
and
Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
nurse Mary Elmes still remains the only Irish person honoured as a
Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( ) is a title used by Yad Vashem to describe people who, for various reasons, made an effort to assist victims, mostly Jews, who were being persecuted and exterminated by Nazi Germany, Fascist Romania, Fascist Italy, ...
by
Yad Vashem Yad Vashem (; ) is Israel's official memorial institution to the victims of Holocaust, the Holocaust known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (). It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; echoing the stories of the ...
.


Early life

Shortly after Hugh O'Flaherty's birth in Lisrobin,
Kiskeam Kiskeam or Kishkeam () is a village in north-west County Cork, Ireland. It is in the civil parish of Kilmeen in the Barony of Duhallow. Kiskeam is within the Cork North-West Dáil constituency. It is around 35 km west of Mallow, and 55 km nor ...
,
County Cork County Cork () is the largest and the southernmost Counties of Ireland, county of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, named after the city of Cork (city), Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster ...
, his parents, James and Margaret, moved to
Killarney Killarney ( ; , meaning 'church of sloes') is a town in County Kerry, southwestern Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The town is on the northeastern shore of Lough Leane, part of Killarney National Park, and is home to St Mary's Cathedral, Killar ...
. The family lived on the golf course, and James O'Flaherty worked there as a steward. By his late teens, young O'Flaherty had a scratch handicap and a scholarship to a teacher training college. However, in 1918, he enrolled at
Mungret College Mungret College was a Jesuit apostolic school and a lay secondary school near Limerick, Ireland. Located on the western outskirts of the modern-day suburban town of Raheen, it was operational from 1882 until 1974 when it closed as a school fo ...
, a
Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
college in
County Limerick County Limerick () is a western Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Reg ...
dedicated to preparing young men for missionary priesthood. Normally, students ranged from 14 to 18 years. When O'Flaherty came in, he was a little older than most of the students, at about 20. The college allowed for some older people to come in if they had been accepted by a bishop who would pay for them. O'Flaherty's sponsor was the Bishop of Cape Town, Bernard Cornelius O'Riley, in whose
diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...
he expected to be posted after ordination, a major step for a young man who had never set foot outside of
Munster Munster ( or ) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (). Following the Nor ...
. When O'Flaherty was in Mungret, the Irish War for Independence was ongoing. He was posted to
Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
in 1922 to finish his studies and was
ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...
on 20 December 1925. He never joined his diocese, however, but he stayed to work for the
Holy See The Holy See (, ; ), also called the See of Rome, the Petrine See or the Apostolic See, is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City. It encompasses the office of the pope as the Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop ...
and served as a
Vatican Vatican may refer to: Geography * Vatican City, an independent city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy * Vatican Hill, in Rome, namesake of Vatican City * Ager Vaticanus, an alluvial plain in Rome * Vatican, an unincorporated community in the ...
diplomat in
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
,
Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...
,
Santo Domingo Santo Domingo, formerly known as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic and the List of metropolitan areas in the Caribbean, largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. the Distrito Na ...
, and
Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...
. In 1934, he was appointed a
papal chamberlain A papal gentleman, formally a Gentleman of His Holiness, is a lay attendant of the pope and his papal household in Vatican City. Papal gentlemen serve in the Apostolic Palace near St. Peter's Basilica in ceremonial positions, such as escorting d ...
with the title of ''
Monsignor Monsignor (; ) is a form of address or title for certain members of the clergy in the Catholic Church. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian ''monsignore'', meaning "my lord". "Monsignor" can be abbreviated as Mons.... or Msgr. In some ...
''. He was originally ascribed to the Sacred Congregation De Propaganda Fide through which, in collaboration with the Cardinal Prefect, Pietro Fumasoni Biondi, and the Pro-Rector of the Pontifical Urban College De Propaganda Fide, Saverio Maria Paventi di San Bonaventura, he began to establish a network of assistants with whom he managed to save approximately 6,500 people such as civilians, military personnel and Jews, whom he lodged in Vatican extraterritorial residences and religious institutes during the
German occupation of Rome The expression Failed defense of Rome (also conceptually referred to as the German occupation of Rome) refers to the events that took place in the Italian capital and the surrounding area, beginning on 8 September 1943, and in the days immediately ...
in the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. That activity, which was carried out while he evaded repeated traps by Herbert Kappler and Pietro Koch, resulted in O'Flaherty being nicknamed "
The Scarlet Pimpernel ''The Scarlet Pimpernel'' is the first novel in a series of historical fiction by Baroness Orczy, published in 1905. It was written after her stage play of the same title (co-authored with her husband Montague Barstow) enjoyed a long run in Lo ...
of the Vatican".


World War II

In the early years of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, O'Flaherty toured
prisoner-of-war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...
(POW) camps in Italy and tried to find out about prisoners who had been reported
missing in action Missing in action (MIA) is a casualty (person), casualty classification assigned to combatants, military chaplains, combat medics, and prisoner of war, prisoners of war who are reported missing during wartime or ceasefire. They may have been ...
. If he found them alive, he tried to reassure their families through
Radio Vatican Vatican Radio (; ) is the official broadcasting service of Vatican City. Established in 1931 by Guglielmo Marconi, today its programs are offered in 47 languages, and are sent out on short wave, DRM, medium wave, FM, satellite and the Internet. ...
. When
Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his overthrow in 194 ...
was removed from power by King
Victor Emmanuel III Victor Emmanuel III (; 11 November 1869 – 28 December 1947) was King of Italy from 29 July 1900 until his abdication on 9 May 1946. A member of the House of Savoy, he also reigned as Emperor of Ethiopia from 1936 to 1941 and King of the Albani ...
in 1943, thousands of Allied prisoners-of-war were either released or escaped after being deliberately left unguarded by their
Italian Royal Army The Royal Italian Army () (RE) was the land force of the Kingdom of Italy, established with the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy. During the 19th century Italy started to unify into one country, and in 1861 Manfredo Fanti signed a decree c ...
guards, but when
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
imposed an occupation over Italy, they were in danger of recapture. Some of them, remembering visits by O'Flaherty, reached Rome and asked him for help. Others went to the Irish embassy to the Holy See, the only English-speaking embassy to remain open in Rome during the war. Delia Murphy, who was the wife of Thomas J. Kiernan, the Irish ambassador (and in her day, she was a well-known
traditional singer A traditional singer, also known as a source singer, is someone who has learned folk songs in the oral tradition, usually from older people within their community. From around the beginning of the twentieth century, song collectors such as Cecil ...
of Irish ballads), was one of those who helped O'Flaherty. O'Flaherty did not wait for permission from his superiors. He recruited the help of other priests (including two young
New Zealanders New Zealanders are people associated with New Zealand, sharing a common History of New Zealand, history, Culture of New Zealand, culture, and language (New Zealand English). People of various ethnicities and national origins are citizens of Ne ...
, Fathers Owen Snedden and John Flanagan), two agents working for the
Free French Free France () was a resistance government claiming to be the legitimate government of France following the dissolution of the Third French Republic, Third Republic during World War II. Led by General , Free France was established as a gover ...
, François de Vial and Yves Debroise, communists and a Swiss
count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...
. One of his aides was British Major Sam Derry, an escapee. Derry along with the British officers and escaped POWs Lieutenants Furman and Simpson, and Captain Byrnes, a Canadian, were responsible for the security and operational organisation. O'Flaherty also kept contact with Sir D'Arcy Osborne, British Ambassador to the Holy See, and his butler, John May, whom O'Flaherty described as "a genius... the most magnificent scrounger". O'Flaherty and his allies concealed 4,000 escapees, mainly Allied soldiers and Jews, in flats, farms and convents. Among those sheltered was one Ines Gistron and a Jewish friend whom O'Flaherty placed in a ''pensione'' run by Canadian nuns at Monteverde (Rome), where they were given false identification. One of the first hideouts was beside the local SS headquarters. O'Flaherty and Derry co-ordinated all of that from his room at the
Collegio Teutonico The Collegio Teutonico (German College), historically often referred to by its Latin name Collegium Germanicum, is one of the Roman Colleges, Pontifical Colleges of Rome. The German College is the Pontifical College established for future ecclesi ...
. When outside the Vatican, O'Flaherty wore various disguises. The Gestapo eventually found out first that the leader of the network was a priest and then learned his identity; but could not arrest him inside the Vatican. When the secretly anti-Nazi German ambassador to the Holy See, Baron
Ernst von Weizsäcker Ernst Heinrich Freiherr von Weizsäcker (25 May 1882 – 4 August 1951) was a German naval officer, diplomat and politician. He served as State Secretary at the Foreign Office of Nazi Germany from 1938 to 1943, and as its Ambassador to ...
, violated German Foreign Office orders and revealed that to O'Flaherty, he began to meet his contacts on the stairs of
St. Peter's Basilica The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican (), or simply St. Peter's Basilica (; ), is a church of the Italian High Renaissance located in Vatican City, an independent microstate enclaved within the city of Rome, Italy. It was initiall ...
. Multiple SS conspiracies to kidnap or assassinate O'Flaherty, even on Vatican soil, failed. ''
Obersturmbannführer __NOTOC__ ''Obersturmbannführer'' (Senior Assault-unit Leader; ; short: ''Ostubaf'') was a paramilitary rank in the German Nazi Party ( NSDAP) which was used by the SA (''Sturmabteilung'') and the SS (''Schutzstaffel''). The rank of ' was juni ...
'' Herbert Kappler, the head of the '' SS
Sicherheitsdienst ' (, "Security Service"), full title ' ("Security Service of the ''Reichsführer-SS''"), or SD, was the intelligence agency of the Schutzstaffel, SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Established in 1931, the SD was the first Nazi intelligence ...
'' and ''
Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
'' in Rome, learned of O'Flaherty's actions and ordered a white line painted on the pavement at the opening of St. Peter's Square, which signified the border between
Vatican City Vatican City, officially the Vatican City State (; ), is a Landlocked country, landlocked sovereign state and city-state; it is enclaved within Rome, the capital city of Italy and Bishop of Rome, seat of the Catholic Church. It became inde ...
and Occupied Italy, and vowed that the priest would be killed if he crossed it. Italian Fascist Pietro Koch, the head of the Banda Koch, a special task force charged with hunting down partisans and rounding up deportees for the Gestapo, often boasted of his plans to personally torture and execute O'Flaherty if he were ever captured by Koch's unit. Adding to the dangers O'Flaherty faced was a
mole Mole (or Molé) may refer to: Animals * Mole (animal) or "true mole" * Golden mole, southern African mammals * Marsupial mole Marsupial moles, the Notoryctidae family, are two species of highly specialized marsupial mammals that are found i ...
inside the Curia: former
Russicum The Collegium Russicum (; ; ') is a Catholic college in Rome, originally founded by Pope Pius XI and dedicated to training priests for the newly organized Russian Greek Catholic Church. It is located near the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, se ...
seminarian Alexander Kurtna, a convert to the
Russian Greek Catholic Church The Russian Greek Catholic Church or Russian Byzantine Catholic Church is a ''sui juris, sui iuris'' (self-governing) Byzantine Rite Eastern Catholic Churches, Eastern Catholic particular church that is part of the worldwide Catholic Church. Hi ...
from Estonian Orthodoxy. Following his expulsion by the Russicum's rector in 1940, Kurtna served, with only one interruption between 1940 and 1944, as a translator for the Vatican's Congregation for the Eastern Churches. At the same time, he spied for the Soviet
NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...
, with devastating results for many underground priests and faithful on Soviet soil. Kurtna, who was always loyal to the USSR, only started also spying for
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
in 1943 because his handler, Herbert Kappler, threatened to send Kurtna and his wife to a
concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...
otherwise. Kurtna, however, betrayed Kappler by recruiting the latter's female secretary into stealing the codebooks from Kappler's office shortly before the
liberation of Rome The Battle of Anzio was a battle of the Italian Campaign of World War II that commenced January 22, 1944. The battle began with the Allied amphibious landing known as Operation Shingle, and ended on June 4, 1944, with the liberation of Rome. T ...
and passing them to the Soviets. Following the liberation of the city, Kurtna found the NKVD to be ungrateful masters and ended up as a
political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although ...
in the
Norillag Norillag, Norilsk Corrective Labor Camp () was a gulag labor camp set by Norilsk, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia and headquartered there. It existed from June 25, 1935 to August 22, 1956. *Karlo Štajner (1902-1992), Croatian writer *Nikolay Urvantsev ( ...
region of the Soviet
Gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...
. Several others, including priests, nuns and laypeople, worked in secret with O'Flaherty and even hid refugees in their own homes around Rome. Among them were the Augustinian Maltese Fathers Egidio Galea, Aurelio Borg and Ugolino Gatt, the Dutch Augustinian Father Anselmus Musters and Brother Robert Pace of the Brothers of Christian Schools. Another person who contributed significantly to the operation was Maltese national Chetta Chevalier, who hid refugees in her house with her children and escaped detection. Jewish religious services were conducted on the
Jewish Sabbath Shabbat (, , or ; , , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Friday–Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical stories describing the cre ...
and the
High Holy Days In Judaism, the High Holy Days, also known as High Holidays or Days of Awe (Yamim Noraim; , ''Yāmīm Nōrāʾīm'') consist of: #strictly, the holidays of Rosh Hashanah ("Jewish New Year") and Yom Kippur ("Day of Atonement"); #by extension, th ...
in the
Basilica di San Clemente The Basilica of Saint Clement () 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) the present basilica built just before ...
, which was under the
diplomatic protection In international law, diplomatic protection (or diplomatic espousal) is a means for a state to take diplomatic and other action against another state on behalf of its national whose rights and interests have been injured by that state. Diplomati ...
of the Irish Foreign Office, beneath a painting of
Tobias Tobias is the transliteration of the , which is a Graecisation of the Hebrew biblical name . With the biblical Book of Tobit being present in the Deuterocanonical books and Biblical apocrypha, Tobias is a popular male given name for both Chri ...
. When the Allies arrived in Rome in June 1944, 6,425 of the escapees were still alive. O'Flaherty demanded that German POWs be treated properly as well. He took a plane to
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
to inspect the conditions for Italian POWs and to
Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
to visit Jewish refugees. Of the 9,700 Jews in Rome, only 1,007 had been captured and shipped to
Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...
. The rest were hidden, over 5,000 of them by the Church, 300 in
Castel Gandolfo Castel Gandolfo (, , ; ), colloquially known as Castello in the '' Castelli Romani'' dialects, is a town located southeast of Rome, in the Italian region of Lazio. Situated on a hilltop in the Alban Hills with panoramic views of Lake Albano, Cast ...
, 200 or 400 (estimates vary) as "members" of the
Palatine Guard The Palatine Guard () was a military unit of Holy See, the Vatican. It was formed in 1850 by Pope Pius IX, who ordered that the two militia units of the Papal States be amalgamated. The corps was formed as an infantry unit, and took part in watch ...
and some 1,500 in monasteries, convents and colleges. The remaining 3,700 were hidden in private homes. During the
liberation of Rome The Battle of Anzio was a battle of the Italian Campaign of World War II that commenced January 22, 1944. The battle began with the Allied amphibious landing known as Operation Shingle, and ended on June 4, 1944, with the liberation of Rome. T ...
, O'Flaherty and Derry's organisation was caring for 3,925 escapees and men who had evaded arrest. Of them, 1,695 were British, 896 South African, 429 Soviet, 425 Greek and 185 American. The remainder were from a further 20 nations. That does not include Jews and sundry other men and women who were in O'Flaherty's personal care. O´Flaherty later flew to Palestine and aided in the resettlement of Jewish
Holocaust survivors Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no universall ...
.


Postwar

After the war, O'Flaherty received a number of awards, including appointment as a Commander of the
Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
(CBE) "for services to the Forces in Italy" and the American
Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, alongside the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by decision of the president of the United States to "any person recommended to the President ...
with Silver Palm. He was also honoured by Canada and Australia. He refused to use the lifetime pension that Italy had given to him. In 1954, he was promoted to domestic prelate. In the 1950s, the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy, in the form proposed by Mary Faustina Kowalska, who was later canonised by
John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...
, was under a ban from the Vatican. It was O'Flaherty who, as notary, signed the document that notified Catholics of the ban. He was the first Irishman named Notary of the Holy Office. O'Flaherty regularly visited his old nemesis, Herbert Kappler (the former ''SS'' chief in Rome), in prison month after month and was Kappler's only visitor. In 1959, Kappler converted to Catholicism and was baptised by O'Flaherty. In 1960, O'Flaherty suffered a serious stroke during Mass and was forced to return to
Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
. Shortly before his first stroke in 1960, he was about to be confirmed as the papal
nuncio An apostolic nuncio (; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international organization. A nuncio is ...
to
Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...
. He moved to
Cahersiveen Cahersiveen (), sometimes Cahirciveen, is a town in the south-west of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, in County Kerry. As of the 2022 census of Ireland, 2022 census, it had a population of 1,297. Geography Cahersiveen is on the slopes of 376-met ...
to live with his sister, at whose home he died on 30 October 1963, aged 65. He was buried in the cemetery of the Daniel O'Connell Memorial Church in Cahersiveen. There is a monument in Killarney Town and a grove of trees dedicated to his memory in the
Killarney National Park Killarney National Park (), near the town of Killarney, County Kerry, was the first national park in Ireland, created when the Muckross Estate was donated to the Irish Free State in 1932. The park has since been substantially expanded and en ...
. Some sources incorrectly state that in 2003, he became the first Irish person honoured as
Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( ) is a title used by Yad Vashem to describe people who, for various reasons, made an effort to assist victims, mostly Jews, who were being persecuted and exterminated by Nazi Germany, Fascist Romania, Fascist Italy, ...
by the
State of Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
. However, according to the official list, this is not the case and Mary Elmes remains the only Irish person so honoured. An application to have him added to the rolls was being prepared in 2017.


Dramatization

O'Flaherty was portrayed by
Gregory Peck Eldred Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an American actor and one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1970s. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, 12th-greatest male ...
in the 1983 television film '' The Scarlet and the Black'', which follows the exploits of O'Flaherty from the German occupation of
Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
to its liberation by the Allies. He was also the second principal character in a radio play by Robin Glendinning on Kappler's time seeking asylum in the Vatican, titled ''The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican'', which was first broadcast on 30 November 2006 on Radio 4, with
Wolf Kahler Wolf Kahler (born 3 April 1940) is a German character actor in stage, film, television, and voice actor. Early life Kahler was born in Kiel in Germany. Career With blue eyes, sculpted jawbone, and height of , Kahler was often chosen to play ...
as Kappler. Killarney-born actor and playwright Donal Courtney penned a new
one-man play A solo performance, sometimes referred to as a one-man show, one-woman show, or one-person show, features a single person telling a story for an audience, typically for the purpose of entertainment. This type of performance comes in many varieti ...
entitled ''God Has No Country'', which he premièred in Killarney as part of the Hugh O'Flaherty memorial celebrations for three nights in October 2013. Courtney portrays O'Flaherty during the wartime years in German-occupied Rome; the story is told from O'Flaherty's point of view and is a study of the torment and difficulty in the decisions he undertook in his fight for justice. In 2023,
Joseph O'Connor Joseph Victor O'Connor (born 20 September 1963) is an Irish novelist. His 2002 historical novel '' Star of the Sea'' was an international number one bestseller. Before success as an author, he was a journalist with the '' Sunday Tribune'' newspa ...
published ''My Father's House'', a novel based on the exploits of O'Flaherty and his resistance group.


Television

The
Irish-language Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Irish Gaelic or simply Gaelic ( ), is a Celtic language of the Indo-European language family. It is a member of the Goidelic languages of the Insular Celtic sub branch of the family and is indigenou ...
television station
TG4 TG4 (; , ) is an Irish free-to-air public service television channel. It launched on 31 October 1996 and is available online and through its on-demand service TG4 Player in Ireland and beyond. TG4 was initially known as (TnaG), before bein ...
broadcast a 51-minute documentary on O'Flaherty in 2008. It is available (in mixed Irish/English with English subtitles) on a region-free DVD entitled ''The Pimpernel of the Vatican – The Amazing Story of Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty''.


Awards and decorations

Monsignor O'Flaherty's commonly known awards and decorations.


References


Further reading

* 'The Rome Escape Line: The Story of the British Organization in Rome for assisting Escaped Prisoners-of-war 1943–44.', by Sam Derry (1960) * William C. Simpson 1996, ''A Vatican Lifeline'', Sparedon Press. * Stephen Walker 2011, ''Hide & Seek: The Irish Priest in the Vatican Who Defied The Nazi Command'', HarperCollins (London). * Gallagher, J.P. (2009). The Scarlet and the Black: The True Story of Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, Hero of the Vatican Underground. San Francisco: Ignatius Press. * 'The Vatican Pimpernel: The Wartime Exploits of Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty.', by Brian Fleming (2008) * Alison Walsh 2010, ''Hugh O'Flaherty: His Wartime Adventures''
Collins Press


External links


Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty: Hero of the Vatican



Hugh O'Flaherty Memorial Society
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oflaherty, Hugh 1898 births 1963 deaths Irish anti-fascists Diplomats for the Holy See Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Recipients of the Medal of Freedom Irish people of World War II 20th-century Irish Roman Catholic priests Christian clergy from County Kerry People from Killarney People who rescued Jews during the Holocaust Catholic resistance to Nazi Germany Irish expatriates in Italy Vatican City in World War II Irish expatriates in Egypt Irish expatriates in Haiti Expatriates in the Dominican Republic Christian clergy from County Cork