Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 16.djvu/64

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KEATING

slight fall, and was buried in St. Mary's Cemetery, Kensal Green. There is a lovinglj' inscribed tablet to his memory in Winchester College cloisters.

Lionel Johnson published only three books: "The Art of Thomas Hard)'", a singularly ripe essay and study (1894); his "Poems" (1895); and a second collection, "Ireland and Other Poems" (1897). Besides these, many of hi.s critical papers and fugitive reviews, with a brief memoir, have been gathered by an American editor, and issued by Elkin Mathews, London, under the title of "Post Liminium" (1911). There have been three small imprints of his selected verse, one of these (1912) containing a partly bio-

graphical study of the poet from "The Atlantic Monthly". He was a small, frail, young-looking man, with a fine head and brow, quick of foot, gentle of voice, and with manners of grave courtesy. He greatly loved his friends in a markedly spiritual way, always praying for them, absent or present. His sound Cathohc principles, his profound scholarship, his artistic sensitiveness, his play of wisdom and humor, his absolute literary honour, with its "passion for perfection" from the first, show nobly in his prose work. His lyrics are full of beauty and poignancy, but perhaps have in them something taxing.

L. I. GUINEY.

K

Kearney, Diocese of (Kearnbtiensis), Ne- braska. By Decree of the Sacred Consistorial Con- gi-egation of 8 March, 1912, Pius X divided into two parts the territory of the Diocese of Omaha, erecting the western part into a new and distinct diocese with its see at Kearney. The first Bishop is Right Rev. James Albert Duffy, ordained, 27 May, 1893, ap- pointed to the see, 25 January, 1913. He resides at Kearney. The diocese comprises an area of 38,000 square miles, and includes the following coun- ties: Keyapaha, Rock, Garfield, Valley, Sherman, Buffalo, Cheyenne, Kimball, Banner, Scotts, Bluff.s, Sioux, Dawes, Box Butte, Morrill, Garden, Sheridan, Cherry, Grant, Hooker, Thomas, McPherson, Logan, Custer, Blane, Loup, Brown, and part of the counties of Dawson, Lincoln, Keith, and Deuel. The new dio- cese was made suffragan to Dubuque. The Cathohc population is about 15,200. There are 58 churches, 21 parishes, 35 missions, 34 stations (without churches), 1 academy, and 3 parochial schools with over 680 pupils. The Sisters of St. Francis ihave schools at Ashton and Alhance, and an hospital at AUiance. (See Nebraska; Omaha, Diocese of).

MoiRA K. COTLE.

Keating, Geoffrey, Irish theologian, historian, and poet, b. at Burgess in the parish of Tubbrid, Co. Tipperary, about 1569; d. at Tubbrid about 1644. He studied first at a Latin school near Cahir, and afterwards frequented various Irish schools in Mun- ster and Leinster. In accordance with the custom which prevailed in Ireland during the period of Protestant persecution he was ordained a Mass- priest at the age of twenty-four and then sent abroad for his philosophical and theological studies. He formed one of the band of forty students who sailed in November, 1603, under the charge of the Rev. Diarmaid MacCarthy to Bordeaux to begin their studies at the Irish College which had been founded in that city by the Archbishop of Bordeaux, Cardinal Francois de Sourdis, in that same year. On his arrival m France he WTote a poetical "Fare- well to Ireland", and a "Lament on the Sad State of Ireland", when the news of the Flight of the Earls (14 Sept., 1607) reached him. After obtaining the degree of Doctor of Divinity at the University of Bordeaux he returned about 1610 to Ireland and was appointed to the cure of souls at Uachtar Achaidh in the parish of Knockraffan, near Cahir, where he put down the then prevalent abuse of delaying Mass until the neighbouring gentry arrived.

In 1613 a spy reported "Dr. Keating in the Countie of Tiperario", and in 1615 another spy reported that there was "in the diocese of Lismore Father Geoffrey Keating, a preacher and Jesuit, resorting to all parts of tlie diocese". About 1620, his fearless preaching aroused the anger of a lady of rather loose morals, EUinor Laffan, wife of Squire Mockler. She invoked the aid of her relative, Donough O'Brien, Earl of

Thomond, President of Munster, then residing at Limerick. The penal laws were put in force against Keating and he had to take refuge in a cave. Poll Grdnda, in Gleann Eatharlach in the recesses of the Galtees. When the storm had abated some- what, he resolved to devote himself to literary work and he travelled through the country in disguise under an assumed name. During the next six years he collected materials for his historical and theological works, visiting Leinster, Connaught, and Ulster. In spite of all obstacles he finished the preface to his history in 1629, the first part in 1631, and the second part in 1632 or somewhat later. The same year, 1631, also saw the completion of his "Trl Biorghaoithe an Bhdis" (The Three Shafts of Death), a series of moral reflections on death and on the conduct of human life, and his " Eochairsciath an Aifrinn" (The Key- Shield of the Mass), a defence of the Mass against heretics and an explanation of it for the faithful. A small silver chalice bearing the following inscription: "Dominus Galfridus Keatinge, Sacred (os) Sacra Theologiae Doctor me fieri fecit 23 Februarii 1634", is still preserved in the parish church of Cappoquin, Co. Waterford. He composed a poetical elegj' on Edmund Butler, third Lord Dunboyne, 17 March, 1640, and another on Thomas and John Butler, sons of Lord Dunboyne, who fell in battle. He had already written elegies on James Butler, son of the Earl of Knocktopher, 1620, John 6g Fitzgerald, Lord of the Decies, 1 March, 1626, and Thomas Butler, fourth Lord Cahir, 1627.

In 1644 during the supremacy of the Catholic Confederation a small oratory, called Teampul Chiarain, was built in the north-east corner of the graveyard of Tubbrid, his native parish, and a slab over the door of it bears an inscription which seems to indicate that Keating was dead at that time. The few poems of later date ascribed to him in some manu- scripts are probably the work of Pddraigln Haic^.id, a contemporary poet. In addition to his poems and the three great prose works above mentioned, "Eochair- sciath an Aifrinn", "Tri Biorghaoithe an Bhdis", and "Forus Feasa ar Eirinn", Keating also WTote two smaller devotional treatises, "Psaltair Mhuire" (The Psalter of Mary), a series of meditations on the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin, pubHshed for the first time in the "Irish Rosary" (Dubhn) August, 1908-August, 1909, by Richard Foley, and a similar work still unpublished, "Cor6in Mhuire" (The Crown of Mary). Geoffrey Keating was proficient in the Iri.sh, Latin, and Enghsh languages and his wTitings prove him a consummate master of Cathohc theology, Irish style, native history, and legendary lore. His history has been undeservedly criticized. It has been blamed for the inclusion of legends, which is in fact one of its greatest nierits and lias earned for him the title of the Irish llerodotus. But besides legends he has also preserved us some important early ecclesiastical records which would otherwise have