Fr Benignus MillettBenignus Millett, who has died at the age of 84, was a Franciscan priest, scholar and editor of the periodical Collectanea Hibernica. With Anselm Ó Fachtna, Canice Mooney, Cuthbert McGrath and others he established the Franciscan house of study in Killiney, Co Dublin, as a centre of Celtic scholarship and historical research, thereby continuing a tradition of learning associated with Irish Franciscans that dates from the 17th century.
Based in Irish colleges in Louvain, Rome and Prague, Franciscan scholars channelled their intellectual energies into devotional, apologetic and historical writings in Irish and Latin that identified with Catholic Europe and asserted the continuity of Catholicism in Ireland. These scholars of the Counter-Reformation did not confine themselves to providing spiritual reading for Irish Catholics; they also made a considerable contribution to the evolution of modern literature in the Irish language.
By the late 19th century there existed a body of Irish Franciscan spiritual writings in Irish, some still in manuscript form and others printed but needing new editions. There also existed a large collection of material relating to the history of the order's Irish province. These collections were housed in the Franciscan friary at Merchants' Quay, Dublin, until the 1940s when a permanent home was found for them at Dún Mhuire in Killiney, Co Dublin. It was here that he devoted himself to a life of prayer and scholarship. Born Austin Millett in April 1922 in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, he was the eldest of the eight children of Matthew Millett, a tax consultant and auditor, and his wife, May. He entered the Franciscan novitiate in Killarney, Co Kerry, in 1939, taking the name Benignus and was professed the following year.
He later studied at University College Galway, where he secured a BA degree. He then spent four years studying theology in Rome at the College of Saint Isidore, administered since 1625 by the Irish Franciscans. In 1947 he was ordained in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran. Having obtained a diploma in library science, he began work on his doctoral thesis at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. The thesis formed the basis of his first book, The Irish Franciscans 1651-1665, published in 1964. In the early 1950s he returned to Ireland and established the library at Dún Mhuire, where he remained for the rest of his life.
His second book, Survival and reorganisation 1650-1695, part 7 of A History of Irish Catholicism, was published in 1968; Four Franciscan Martyrs of Ireland followed in 1990.
He was a contributor to A New History of Ireland, writing a chapter on Irish literature in Latin and, with Christopher J Woods, contributing a chapter on the Irish hierarchy. In addition to editing Collectanea Hibernica, which began publication in 1958 and was devoted to the editing of source material for history, he published a long series of calendars of 17th-century material in the archives of Propaganda Fide. He also wrote for a wide range of scholarly journals.
Widely travelled, he enjoyed good food. For almost 40 years he celebrated 10 o'clock Mass every day at the Church of Saints Alphonsus and Columba, Ballybrack. He is fondly remembered by parishioners, particularly for his sermons that were noted for being, in the spirit of Saint Francis, short and to the point. He is survived by his brothers, Canon Desmond, Parish Priest of St Mary's, Chippenham; Anthony, Gerard and Vincent and sisters, Pearl, Rebecca and Rose.
Father Benignus Millett: born April 1st, 1922; died August 11th, 2006