Theobald Mathew

Theobald Mathew (born Oct. 10, 1790, Thomastown, County Tipperary, Ire.—died Dec. 8, 1856, Cobh, County Cork) was an Irish priest and orator known as the “Apostle of Temperance.”

Ordained in 1813, Mathew entered the Capuchin order, of which he was made provincial in 1822. Concurrently, the earliest European temperance organizations were forming in Ireland, and in 1838 Mathew became president of the Cork Total Abstinence Society. Between 1838 and 1842 he traveled throughout Ireland. People flocked to hear him, and whole crowds took the temperance pledge. The number of abstainers in Ireland alone in 1841 was estimated to be 4,647,000, and in three years the consumption of spirits dropped approximately 50 percent—much of this decrease attributable to Mathew’s efforts. He went to Scotland and England in 1842–43 and to the United States in 1849, where, despite failing health, he preached in 25 states. Incapacitated by a stroke, he returned to Ireland two years later, where he remained relatively inactive for the remainder of his life.