O'Fihely, Maurice
O'FIHELY, MAURICE
Also known as Mauritius de Portu Fildaeo, Scotist Franciscan Conventual; b. Baltimore or Clonfert, Ireland, c. 1460; d. Galway, March 25, 1513. O'Fihely studied at Oxford, became regent of studies at the Franciscan friary in Milan by 1488, and regent at the Padua friary in 1491. Shortly thereafter he held the chair of Scotistic theology in the university. Julius II consecrated him archbishop of Tuam, Ireland, on June 26, 1506. In 1513, having attended the first two sessions of the Fifth Lateran Council, he left Italy to take possession of his diocese, but died on the way. The leading Scotist of his day, he is still one of the best interpreters of John duns scotus, many of whose works he edited. A number of his own theological and metaphysical works were included in the Wadding edition of Scotus's Opera omnia. To his contemporaries he was known as Flos mundi.
Bibliography: j. h. sbaralea, Supplementum et castigatio ad scriptores triium ordinum S. Francisci a Waddingo (Rome 1906–36) 2:242–243. a. g. little, The Grey Friars in Oxford (Oxford 1892) 267–268. c. eubel, et al. Hieraarchia Catholica medii (et recentioris) aevi (Padua 1958) 3:340. e. longprÉ, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, ed. a. vacant et al., (Paris 1903–50) 10.1:404–405.
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