Malachy, St (or St Maol Maedoc) (1094–1148)

Irish archbishop, and principal church reformer in Ireland in the 12th century. Malachy was responsible for introducing the Cistercian order into Ireland, in 1142, when he founded the monastery at Mellifont, and was the first Irishmen to be canonized (1190). His reforms included replacing Celtic with Roman liturgy, renewing the use of the sacraments, and establishing a regular hierarchy in the Church in Ireland. His feast day is 3 November.

Malachy was born in Armagh. He became abbot of Bangor in 1121, bishop of Connor in 1125, and archbishop of Armagh in 1134. In 1139 he went to Rome, and became acquainted with the influential Cistercian monk St Bernard of Clairvaux. He was to die at Clairvaux in St Bernard's arms during a second visit to Rome in 1148.

The so-called ‘Prophecies of St Malachy’, first published in Lignum Vitae 1595, by the Flemish Benedictine monk Arnold Wion, are spurious.