Wilfrid Harrington, O.P. - Death of Noted Irish Biblical Scholar
Death of Noted Irish Biblical Scholar
Fr Wilfrid Harrington, O.P., who died, aged 98, on 16 April, was a noted biblical scholar, with more than 40 books to his name.
Born in Eyeries, Co. Cork, in 1927, Jack Harrington (he received the name Wilfrid on entering the Dominican Order) was eldest child of Jeremiah, a farmer, and his wife Agnes (née McCarthy), a school teacher. There were two younger children in the family – a brother Reggie and a sister Florrie – who pre-deceased him.
The young Harrington received his primary education in Eyeries and for secondary school went as a boarder to Newbridge College, Co. Kildare. In the 1930, the journey each way took two days, and required an overnight stay in Cork. Entering the Dominican noviciate in Cork in 1946, Brother Wilfrid made first profession as a member of the Order 1947. He pursued studies in philosophy and theology at St Mary’s, Tallaght, and at the Angelicum in Rome, being ordained priest in Rome in 1953. Post-graduate studies in theology were followed by specialist biblical study at the Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem.
He would joke that his studies there were interrupted by Sir Anthony Eden. The second year of that course was cut short by the outbreak of the Suez war in 1956. The Ecole Biblique, though a Dominican study centre, was under the protection of the French government. The authorities felt that non-French students could not enjoy their protection during war-time. Accordingly, Harrington and others had to leave the Ecole, in east Jerusalem, then part of the Kingdom of Jordan. He journeyed by shared taxi to Damascus and from there to Beirut, to board ship for Rome. After a year’s private study in Rome he was awarded the Biblical Commission’s Licence in Sacred Scripture (LSS). In 1957 he was assigned to St Mary’s Priory, Tallaght, to teach Scripture. Tallaght remained his home and his centre for the rest of his life.
Fr Harrington taught Scripture not only in the Dominican house of studies at Tallaght, but also in St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, the Milltown Institute, UCD, and the Church of Ireland Theological College (now Institute). Singer Sinéad O’Connor was so impressed by auditing a course on the prophets he taught in the academic year 2003-2004 that she dedicated heer album Theology to him.
Starting in the summer of 1964, he was, for decades, a key figure in the summer school at St Mary’s College, Vermont, where he was renowned for knowing every student by name, and where he was told to ‘keep coming back till [his] summers ran out.’
In addition to his commitment to teaching, Fr Harrington was noted as the author of more than 40 books, many translated into French, Spanish, and Polish. His three-volume Key to the Bible became a standard text-book in many college and seminary courses.
We at Dominican Publications are saddened at his death, but feel greatly honoured that he trusted many of his books to us. Indeed, his last book is one we published, Like Father, Like Son.
We send our sincere condolences to his sister-in-law, Mrs Kitty Harrington of Castletownbeare, and to his five nephews and three nieces, and their families.