Antoine de Lamothe, Sieur de Cadillac
Tommaso de Vio Gaetani Cajetan
Diocese of Calahorra and La Calzada
Polidoro (da Caravaggio) Caldara
Vicariate Apostolic of Lower California
Congregation of Our Lady of Calvary
Jeanne-Louise-Henriette Campan
Jean-Pierre Camus de Pont-Carré
Vicariate Apostolic of Canelos and Macas
Canons Regular of the Immaculate Conception
Baptiste-Honoré-Raymond Capefigue
Episcopal and Pontifical Capitulations
Apostolic Prefecture of Caquetá
Diocese of Carcassonne (Carcassum)
Bartolommeo and Vincenzo Carducci
Caroline Books (Libri Carolini)
Diocese of Casale Monferrato (Casalensis)
Vicariate Apostolic of Casanare
Diocese of Castellammare di Stabia
Diocese of Castellaneta (Castania)
Count Carlo Ottavio Castiglione
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione
Francesco Castracane degli Antelminelli
Archdiocese of Catania (Catanensis)
Catholic University of America
German Roman Catholic Central Verein of North America
Archdiocese of Chambéry (Camberium)
Vicariate Apostolic of Changanacherry
Character (in Catholic Theology)
Civil Law Concerning Charitable Bequests
Congregation of the Brothers of Charity
François-René de Chateaubriand
Timoléon Cheminais de Montaigu
Maria Luigi Carlo Zenobio Salvatore Cherubini
Ancient Diocese of Chester (Cestrensis)
Jean-Louis Lefebvre de Cheverus
Ancient Catholic Diocese of Chichester (Cicestrensis)
Children of Mary of the Sacred Heart
Domingo (San Anton y Muñon) Chimalpain
Etienne-François, Duc de Choiseul
Gilbert Choiseul du Plessis-Praslin
Order of the Knights of Christ
Confraternity of Christian Doctrine
Brothers of Christian Instruction
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
Congregation of Christian Retreat
Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano
Prefecture Apostolic of Cimbebasia (Upper)
Diocese of Cività Castellana, Orte, and Gallese
Diocese of Civitavecchia and Corneto
Mathieu-Nicolas Poillevillain de Clémanges
Clerks Regular of the Mother of God of Lucca
Abbey and School of Clonmacnoise
Pierre-Suzanne-Augustin Cochin
Diocese of Colle di Val d'Elsa
Diocese of Concordia (Concordia Veneta)
Diocese of Concordia (Corcondiensis in America)
Congo Independent State and Congo Missions
Diocese of Constantine (Cirta)
Philippe du Contant de la Molette
Convent Schools (Great Britain)
Order of Friars Minor Conventuals
Convocation of the English Clergy
Vicariate Apostolic of Cooktown
François Edouard Joachim Coppée
Diocese of Cordova (Cordubensis)
Diocese of Cordova (Cordubensis in America)
Elena Lucrezia Piscopia Cornaro
Michel Corneille (the Younger)
Charles-Edmond-Henride Coussemaker
Brothers of the Cross of Jesus
Diocese of Cuenca (Conca in Indiis)
Vicariate Apostolic of Curaçao
The monastic School of Cork had a wide reputation, especially in the seventh and eighth centuries. The name is derived from the Irish corcagh, which means a marsh, for in ancient times the floods of the River Lee covered the low ground on which most of the present city of Cork was afterwards built. The founder of the School and Diocese of Cork was Barra or Bairre (Barry), more commonly called Finbarr the Fair-haired. His family belonged to the Hy Brinin Ratha, a tribe that dwelt on the eastern shore of Lough Corrib, in the County Galway; but his father, a skilful cerd, or certified worker in brass, was forced to migrate to Hy Liathain, in the west of the County Cork, where the saint was born about the middle of the sixth century. His chief teacher was a certain MacCuirp, or Curporius, who himself, it is said, had been a student under St. Gregory the Great in Rome. To perfect himself in the science of the saints, Barra retired to a hermitage in a small island of the lonely lake which still bears his name, Gougane Barra. Callanan's splendid poem in praise of the romantic beauty of this lake has made its name familiar to all Irishmen. From Gougane Barra, it would appear, Barra returned to his native territory, where he founded some dozen churches before he finally established himself near the marsh of Lough Eirc (Eirce), which appears to have been the original name of the place. There he founded a monastic school about 620, which in a short time attracted a multitude of students and produced many great scholars. The Irish "Life of Finbarr" gives the names of a dozen of these holy and learned men, who in turn became founders of churches and schools in the South of Ireland. The most distinguished of them was St. Colman Mac Ua Cluasaigh, Ferlegind or professor in the School of Cork about the year 664.
At that time all Ireland was devastated by a terrible yellow plague which carried off two-thirds of the population. There was a prevalent idea that the pestilence could not, or at least did not, extend beyond nine waves from the shore. So Colman and his pupils wisely resolved to migrate from their monastery in the marshes of Cork to one of the islands in the high sea. Being a poet and a holy man he composed a poem, mostly in Irish, committing himself and his pupils to the protection of God and His saints, especially the patron saints of Erin. As they sought their island refuge the students chanted the poem verse by verse, each one reciting his own stanza until it was finished, and then they began again. Fortunately most of this poem still survives, and is printed in the "Leabhar Imuin" or "Book of Hymns" (edited by J. H. Todd, Dublin, 1855-69). The language is of the most archaic type of Gaelic, and is interspersed here and there with phrases mostly taken from Scripture but made to rhyme with each other as the Gaelic lines themselves do. The School of Cork continued to flourish for many centuries, even after the Danes had established themselves there, in 874 we find recorded the death of a "Scribe of Cork", and in 891 we are told of the death of a certain son of Connudh, "a scribe, wise man, bishop and abbot of Cork". In 1134 the ancient monastery and School of Cork, which had fallen into decay, were refounded by the celebrated Cormac MacCarthy, King of Munster. (See FINBARR, SAINT.)
TODD, Book of Hymns (Dublin, 1869), II; HEALY, Ireland's Ancient Schools and Scholars (Dublin, 1890); Latin Lives of St. Finbarr, ed. CAULFIELD (London, 1864); O HANLON, Lives of the Irish Saints, 25 Sept.; FORBES in Dict. of Christ. Biog., I, 266 sq.; LANIGAN, Eccl. Hist. of Ireland (Dublin, 1829), II, 314 sqq.
JOHN HEALY