During the recent controversy about whether or not Mass should be celebrated at times in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, someone mentioned that the last time Mass was celebrated there was probably before the Reformation. Historians have confirmed this and one authority added that the record of nearby Christ Church could not compare with this. In fact, Mass was celebrated in Dublin's premier cathedral for a short period during the Jacobite supremacy in 1689-90.
This was while the so-called "Patriot Parliament" sat in Dublin after the arrival of King James in March 1689 - an event that set in train an extraordinary course of happenings and focused attention on an equally extraordinary group of people. One of those who accompanied James to Ireland was Thomas Cartwright, Bishop of Chester, who had tried, unavailingly, to make the king administer an oath to all his subjects in Ireland abjuring William and Mary. The bishop died in Dublin and was buried in Christ Church on April 15th, 1689.
Church plate
But his burial was used, in another strange twist, to thwart the possible use by the incoming Catholic clergy of the cathedral's church plate. Rather than allow the Catholics such use, the Chancellor, Michael Jephson, and his vergers hid two boxes containing chalices, patens, candlesticks, flagons and alms-dishes underneath Bishop Cartwright's coffin.
A few days later, on Saturday, October 26th, the priest whom King James had "intruded" into Christ Church, Father Alexius Stafford, took over the cathedral and next day celebrated Mass there. The wooden tabernacle and two iron candle-sticks which Father Stafford was forced to use are still in the possession of the cathedral authorities. He was not to know, that beneath his feet as he celebrated Mass, the church plate lay hidden in the vault.
Father Stafford himself was another remarkable character. He has been described as "the celebrated Doctor Alexius Stafford, doctor of the civil and canon laws, Dean of Christ Church, master in chancery, member of parliament and preacher to the King's Inns, likewise chaplain to King James's Royal Regiment of Irish Foot Guards".
Apart from these descriptions little enough is known about Stafford. He is likely to have been from Co Wexford where the name is common and, according to one historian, was born in Bannow. The link with Bannow is further strengthened by the fact that, as a Jacobite member of the "Patriot Parliament", he represented, together with Revenue Commissioner Francis Plowden, the town and borough of Bannow.
He was also a protege and friend of Luke Wadding, Bishop of Ferns 1683-1691, whose diocese included Bannow. In Bishop Wadding's Notebook which was edited by another Wexford clergyman, Mgr Patrick Corish of Maynooth, and published in 1970, there are references to Stafford being left a silver pyx gilt with gold by Wadding and to Wadding receiving from Stafford, via Bristol in 1683, "a pendula or cloke" (cloak). It would appear that Stafford was then in England and may have attached himself to the Jacobite cause there. On his arrival in Dublin in 1689 he was already chaplain to King James's Royal Regiment.
Lawsuit
His tenure of the deanery of Christ Church, however, was short-lived. There was first an attempt by Chancellor Jephson to oust him through a lawsuit, but this failed when James himself refused to hear "as much as a demurrer in Mr Stafford's case". Then the king, his army and followers left Dublin after the Battle of the Boyne in July, 1690. Where Alexius Stafford was between then and July 1691 is conjectural - probably with the Jacobite army.
There is no doubt, however, where he was on July 12th of that year, when the Battle of Aughrim took place. The eminent military historian G. A. Hayes-McCoy, in his Irish Battles (Dublin, 1980) writes: "Mass had been celebrated in the morning and the troops had been harangued by their preachers, including the redoubtable Dr Alexius Stafford, chaplain of the Foot Guards. .. The men had been reminded that they were about to fight for their religion and to fight also to reestablish King James's authority and to secure `the estates and liberties of an oppressed people'."
Undaunted zealot
According to other reports Dr Stafford, crucifix in hand, led the Royal Regiment "on the first charge". This "undaunted zealot and most pious churchman fell in front of the Royal Regiment as he was encouraging them on the first charge". Where his body lies is not known. In all the retrospective articles and books looking back at 1,400 years of Christianity in the diocese of Ferns, there is not a single reference to this remarkable man. The little we know of him may be augmented later this year with the publication of Dr Kenneth Milne's history of Christ Church, in which Stafford is described as a "scholar-warrior".
As for Christ Church itself: after the Jacobite army retired from Dublin, the Protestants regained possession of the cathedral, in the vaults of which "divers useful books and writings belonging to King James and his secretaries were secured for the Williamites by Thomas Carter of Robertstown in the county of Meath", according to John T. Gilbert in his History of the City of Dublin. Thus ended a unique chapter in the story of Dublin's historic premier cathedral.