Seville's Illustrious Son

I was in Spain, recently, in the city of Seville. Its vast Cathedral is built over the former mosque and still employs the minaret as its bell tower. I wandered the streets early one morning, and came by chance upon this:

Which translates:

On 2 August 1802

was born in this house

Cardinal Wiseman

Archbishop of Westminster

Light of the Catholic Clergy

and glory of his homeland.

The esteemed Municipality

had this plaque erected

to preserve the memory of so illustrious a Sevillian.

1865

Despite the information on the plaque, the future Cardinal's baptism record and the journal of his father gives the date of birth as 3 August. He was baptised the following day in the Church of Santa Cruz by an Irish Capuchin, Fr James Ryan, and given the names of Nicholas Patrick Stephen.

The child's grandfather, James Wiseman, of Waterford in Ireland, had settled in Seville at the end of the eighteenth century where he was in business as a merchant. The Cardinal's father, also James, was the youngest son, and was also a merchant. Nicholas was the son of James' second marriage to Xaviera Starange, whom he had married in 1800 while on a visit to London.

James died in 1804, and Xaviera took her young family to Ireland. However, Nicholas retained memories of the land of his birth, and recalled the sailors coming ashore after the Battle of Trafalgar.

The image below, from Cardinal Wiseman's tomb in the crypt of Westminster Cathedral, shows his ordination on 10 March 1825.

Cardinal Wiseman died on 15 February 1865, and his tomb now stands beneath the high altar of the Cathedral