A worldwide celebrated Irish Dominican orator, Father Thomas Burke was born in Galway in 1830. His parents, though in moderate circumstances, gave him a good education. He studied at first under the care of the Patrician Brothers and was afterwards sent to a private school. An attack of typhoid fever when he was fourteen years old, and the famine year of 1847, had a sobering effect. Toward the end of that year he asked to be received into the Order of Preachers, and was sent to Perugia in Italy, to make his novitiate. He was clothed there on December 29, and received the religious name of Thomas.
Shortly afterward he was sent to Rome to begin his studies in the Convent of the Minerva. He passed thence to the Roman Convent of Santa Sabina. His superiors sent him, while yet a student, as novice master to Woodchester, the Novitiate of the resuscitated English Province. He was ordained to the priesthood on March 26, 1853, and on August 3, 1854, defended publicly the thesis in Universâ Theologiâ, earning the degree of lector.
Early in the following year, Father Burke was recalled to Ireland to found the novitiate of the Irish Province at Tallaght, near Dublin. In 1859, he preached his first notable sermon on "Church Music". It immediately lifted him into fame.
Elected prior of Tallaght in 1863, he went to Rome the following year as rector of the Dominican Convent of San Clemente and attracted great attention by his preaching. He returned to Ireland in 1867 and delivered his oration on Daniel O'Connell at Glasnevin before fifty thousand people.
Bishop Leahy took him as his theologian to the First Vatican Council in 1870, and the following year he was sent as visitor to the Dominican convents in America. He was besieged with invitations to preach and lecture. The seats were filled hours before he appeared and his audiences overflowed the churches and halls in which he lectured. In New York, he delivered the discourses in refutation of the English historian James Froude.
In eighteen months he gave four hundred lectures, exclusive of sermons, the proceeds amounting to nearly $400,000. His mission was a triumph, but the triumph was dearly won, and when he arrived in Ireland on March 7, 1873, he was spent and broken.
During the next decade he preached in Ireland, England, and Scotland. He began the erection of the Church in Tallaght in 1883, and the following May preached a series of sermons in the new Dominican Church, London. In June, he returned to Tallaght in a dying condition, and preached his last sermon in the Jesuit Church, Dublin, in aid of the starving children of Donegal. He died a few days later, conscious to his last breath. Father Tom is buried in the Church of Tallaght, now a memorial to him.
Many of his lectures and sermons were collected and published in various editions in New York, as were also the four lectures in reply to Froude (1872), the latter with the title "The Case of Ireland Stated".
Shortly afterward he was sent to Rome to begin his studies in the Convent of the Minerva. He passed thence to the Roman Convent of Santa Sabina. His superiors sent him, while yet a student, as novice master to Woodchester, the Novitiate of the resuscitated English Province. He was ordained to the priesthood on March 26, 1853, and on August 3, 1854, defended publicly the thesis in Universâ Theologiâ, earning the degree of lector.
Early in the following year, Father Burke was recalled to Ireland to found the novitiate of the Irish Province at Tallaght, near Dublin. In 1859, he preached his first notable sermon on "Church Music". It immediately lifted him into fame.
Elected prior of Tallaght in 1863, he went to Rome the following year as rector of the Dominican Convent of San Clemente and attracted great attention by his preaching. He returned to Ireland in 1867 and delivered his oration on Daniel O'Connell at Glasnevin before fifty thousand people.
Bishop Leahy took him as his theologian to the First Vatican Council in 1870, and the following year he was sent as visitor to the Dominican convents in America. He was besieged with invitations to preach and lecture. The seats were filled hours before he appeared and his audiences overflowed the churches and halls in which he lectured. In New York, he delivered the discourses in refutation of the English historian James Froude.
In eighteen months he gave four hundred lectures, exclusive of sermons, the proceeds amounting to nearly $400,000. His mission was a triumph, but the triumph was dearly won, and when he arrived in Ireland on March 7, 1873, he was spent and broken.
During the next decade he preached in Ireland, England, and Scotland. He began the erection of the Church in Tallaght in 1883, and the following May preached a series of sermons in the new Dominican Church, London. In June, he returned to Tallaght in a dying condition, and preached his last sermon in the Jesuit Church, Dublin, in aid of the starving children of Donegal. He died a few days later, conscious to his last breath. Father Tom is buried in the Church of Tallaght, now a memorial to him.
Many of his lectures and sermons were collected and published in various editions in New York, as were also the four lectures in reply to Froude (1872), the latter with the title "The Case of Ireland Stated".
A worldwide celebrated Irish Dominican orator, Father Thomas Burke was born in Galway in 1830. His parents, though in moderate circumstances, gave him a good education. He studied at first under the care of the Patrician Brothers and was afterwards sent to a private school. An attack of typhoid fever when he was fourteen years old, and the famine year of 1847, had a sobering effect. Toward the end of that year he asked to be received into the Order of Preachers, and was sent to Perugia in Italy, to make his novitiate. He was clothed there on December 29, and received the religious name of Thomas.
Shortly afterward he was sent to Rome to begin his studies in the Convent of the Minerva. He passed thence to the Roman Convent of Santa Sabina. His superiors sent him, while yet a student, as novice master to Woodchester, the Novitiate of the resuscitated English Province. He was ordained to the priesthood on March 26, 1853, and on August 3, 1854, defended publicly the thesis in Universâ Theologiâ, earning the degree of lector.
Early in the following year, Father Burke was recalled to Ireland to found the novitiate of the Irish Province at Tallaght, near Dublin. In 1859, he preached his first notable sermon on "Church Music". It immediately lifted him into fame.
Elected prior of Tallaght in 1863, he went to Rome the following year as rector of the Dominican Convent of San Clemente and attracted great attention by his preaching. He returned to Ireland in 1867 and delivered his oration on Daniel O'Connell at Glasnevin before fifty thousand people.
Bishop Leahy took him as his theologian to the First Vatican Council in 1870, and the following year he was sent as visitor to the Dominican convents in America. He was besieged with invitations to preach and lecture. The seats were filled hours before he appeared and his audiences overflowed the churches and halls in which he lectured. In New York, he delivered the discourses in refutation of the English historian James Froude.
In eighteen months he gave four hundred lectures, exclusive of sermons, the proceeds amounting to nearly $400,000. His mission was a triumph, but the triumph was dearly won, and when he arrived in Ireland on March 7, 1873, he was spent and broken.
During the next decade he preached in Ireland, England, and Scotland. He began the erection of the Church in Tallaght in 1883, and the following May preached a series of sermons in the new Dominican Church, London. In June, he returned to Tallaght in a dying condition, and preached his last sermon in the Jesuit Church, Dublin, in aid of the starving children of Donegal. He died a few days later, conscious to his last breath. Father Tom is buried in the Church of Tallaght, now a memorial to him.
Many of his lectures and sermons were collected and published in various editions in New York, as were also the four lectures in reply to Froude (1872), the latter with the title "The Case of Ireland Stated".
Shortly afterward he was sent to Rome to begin his studies in the Convent of the Minerva. He passed thence to the Roman Convent of Santa Sabina. His superiors sent him, while yet a student, as novice master to Woodchester, the Novitiate of the resuscitated English Province. He was ordained to the priesthood on March 26, 1853, and on August 3, 1854, defended publicly the thesis in Universâ Theologiâ, earning the degree of lector.
Early in the following year, Father Burke was recalled to Ireland to found the novitiate of the Irish Province at Tallaght, near Dublin. In 1859, he preached his first notable sermon on "Church Music". It immediately lifted him into fame.
Elected prior of Tallaght in 1863, he went to Rome the following year as rector of the Dominican Convent of San Clemente and attracted great attention by his preaching. He returned to Ireland in 1867 and delivered his oration on Daniel O'Connell at Glasnevin before fifty thousand people.
Bishop Leahy took him as his theologian to the First Vatican Council in 1870, and the following year he was sent as visitor to the Dominican convents in America. He was besieged with invitations to preach and lecture. The seats were filled hours before he appeared and his audiences overflowed the churches and halls in which he lectured. In New York, he delivered the discourses in refutation of the English historian James Froude.
In eighteen months he gave four hundred lectures, exclusive of sermons, the proceeds amounting to nearly $400,000. His mission was a triumph, but the triumph was dearly won, and when he arrived in Ireland on March 7, 1873, he was spent and broken.
During the next decade he preached in Ireland, England, and Scotland. He began the erection of the Church in Tallaght in 1883, and the following May preached a series of sermons in the new Dominican Church, London. In June, he returned to Tallaght in a dying condition, and preached his last sermon in the Jesuit Church, Dublin, in aid of the starving children of Donegal. He died a few days later, conscious to his last breath. Father Tom is buried in the Church of Tallaght, now a memorial to him.
Many of his lectures and sermons were collected and published in various editions in New York, as were also the four lectures in reply to Froude (1872), the latter with the title "The Case of Ireland Stated".
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