CatholicSaints.Info

Also known as

• Archidioecesis Armachanus
• Diocese of Armagh

Founded

• 445 by Pope Leo the Great as the Diocese of Armagh

Elevated

• 1152 by Pope Eugene III to an Archdiocese

Suffragans

• Diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnois, Ireland
• Diocese of Clogher, Ireland

Profiled Bishops

• Archbishop Edmund MacGauran
• Archbishop George Dowdall
• Archbishop William Crolly
• Cardinal Cahal Brendan Daly
• Cardinal Paul Cullen
• Saint Celsus of Armagh
• Saint Cornelius McConchailleach
• Saint Diarmaid of Armagh
• Saint Dubtach of Armagh
• Saint Faendelach of Armagh
• Saint Gelasius of Armagh
• Saint Jarlath of Armagh
• Saint Malachy O’More
• Saint Melchu of Armagh
• Saint Oliver Plunkett
• Saint Suibhne the Sage
• Saint Thomian of Armagh

Notes

Primatial see of Ireland. Saint Patrick built a stone church on Ard-Macha (the Hill of Macha; Macha was a legendary queen), and made it his see in 445 in the papacy of Pope Saint Leo the Great. He held a synod here in 448, one of the still-extant canons of which states that cases of conscience, if too difficult to be disposed of by the Archbishop of Armagh, should be referred to the See of Rome. King Brian Boru captured the city in 1004, but acknowledged its primacy; he was buried here. Formally elevated to an archdiocese in 1152 by Pope Eugene III. The 12th-century cathedral, built on the site of the church built by Saint Patrick, has been in Protestant hands since the Reformation. The last historical mention of the Culdees is at Armagh in 1633, when they were incorporated in the Catholic cathedral chapter by Primate Hugh O’Reilly; to this day, their estates belong to the “vicars choral” of the Protestant cathedral.

MLA Citation

• “Archdiocese of Armagh, Ireland“. Gazetteer of the Faith. CatholicSaints.Info. 19 October 2023. Web. 25 April 2024. <>