Theobald Stapleton

Theobald Stapleton, alias Teabóid Gálldubh[1] (1589 – 13 September 1647[1]), was an Irish Roman Catholic priest born in County Tipperary,[2] Ireland. Little is known of his career, except that he was a priest living in Flanders.

Stapleton was responsible for the establishment of the Irish College in Seville in 1612 and the Irish College in Madrid in 1629[3]

In 1639, he published a catechism in Early Modern Irish to promote the use of the language in religious literature. It was the first Roman Catholic book in which the Irish language was printed in antiqua type. The book, published in Brussels, was called Catechismus seu doctrina christiana latino-hibernica or, in Irish, Cathcismus sen Adhon, an Teagasc Críostaí iar na foilsiú a Laidin & a Ngaoilaig.[4]

Stapleton's catechism was also the first notable attempt to simplify Irish spelling. He advocated and used a simplified spelling of Irish to encourage literacy among less educated people. In Stapleton's system, silent letters in certain words were replaced, e.g., ⟨idhe⟩ in the word suidhe ('sitting') was replaced by ⟨í⟩ in suí (as in modern Irish). He also brought the spelling closer to the pronunciation, e.g. by replacing ⟨thbh⟩ as in uathbhás ('terror') by ⟨f⟩, giving uafás as in modern Irish. However, only authors of devotional literature adopted his spelling system; the classical spelling system remained in place until the 20th century.

On 27 September 1647, in the Sack of Cashel, during the Irish Confederate Wars Stapleton was captured in the cathedral at Cashel by Parliamentarian soldiers under the command of Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin, and put to death on the spot.

Due to his martyrdom in Pope John Paul II venerated him in 1991 and in 1992 beatified him, making him Blessed Theobald Stapleton.[5]