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Hugh O'Flaherty | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Church | Catholic Church |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 20 December 1925 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 28 February 1898 |
| Died | 30 October 1963 (aged 65) Cahersiveen, County Kerry, Ireland |
| Buried | Daniel O'Connell Memorial Church |
| Alma mater | Mungret College |
Hugh O'Flaherty CBE (28 February 1898 – 30 October 1963) was an Irish Catholic priest, a senior official of the Roman Curia and a significant figure in the Catholic resistance to Nazism. During the Second World War, O'Flaherty was responsible for saving 6,500 Allied soldiers and Jews. His ability to evade the traps set by the German Gestapo and Sicherheitsdienst (SD) Chief Herbert Kappler earned him the nickname "The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican".[1]
After the war, he was named a papal domestic prelate by Pope Pius XII and served as notary of the Holy Office. He worked alongside and closely assisted Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani until 1960. Prior to being incapacitated by a stroke in that same year, O'Flaherty was about to be removed from all his Curia positions and "promoted" by Pope John XXIII to Papal Nuncio to Tanzania. He returned to his native Ireland, where he died in 1963.
Despite O'Flaherty and Delia Murphy's joint role in helping to save more than 5,000 Jewish lives through their Rome Escape Line network during the Holocaust in Italy,[2] Anglo-Irish and Protestant nurse Mary Elmes still remains the only Irish person honoured as a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem.[3][4]
- ^ Rosen, Robyn (17 March 2011). "Tribute to the Irish Scarlet Pimpernel". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
- ^ Hugh O'Flaherty profile at rootsweb.com retrieved 9 December 2006
- ^ "Names and Numbers of Righteous Among the Nations - per Country & Ethnic Origin, as of January 1, 2020". Yad Vashem. 1 January 2020.
- ^ "Righteous Among the Nations: Ireland" (PDF). Yad Vashem. 1 January 2020.