CARON, REDMOND

Irish Franciscan theologian, the first to publish a systematic course on missiology; b. near Athlone, West-meath, Ireland, c. 1605; d. Dublin, May 1666. He studied for the priesthood in Drogheda, Salzburg, and Louvain and then taught philosophy and theology in St. Anthony's College, Louvain. His mission (1649) as canonical visitor of the Irish Franciscan province was disastrous and his acts were annulled. Subsequently, he served in Ghent and Antwerp (1651–52), in Paris (1652), in Flanders as chaplain to Spanish troops (1653–54), again in Paris (1655–61), in Britain (1661–65), and, finally, in Dublin. Meanwhile, he cared for refugee Irish Poor Clares (1655). He supported the Remonstrance (1661), a formal statement of grievances and allegiance to King Charles II written by Anglo-Irish laymen and championed by Peter walsh, and in its defense wrote his Loyalty Asserted and Remonstrantia Hibernorum contra Lovanienses. In 1653 he published a manual of apologetics and another of missiology for regular clergy and, in 1659, a general work on missiology.

Bibliography: t. f. henderson, The Dictionary of National Biography from the Earliest Times to 1900 (London 1885–1900) 3:1062. f. Ó briain, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques (Paris 1912–) 11:1140–41. e. d'alencon, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique (Paris 1903–50) 2.2:1799. b. millett, The Irish Franciscans 1651–1665 (Rome 1964), passim. m. o. n. walsh, "Irish Books Printed Abroad 1475–1700," The Irish Book 2 (1963) 9. Archivium Hibernicum 24 (1961), passim; 25 (1962), passim; 26 (1963), passim.

[b. millett]