Francois Anglade

Francois (Francis) Anglade (1758–1834), was a French priest and academic, who was exiled following the French revolution and moved to Ireland.^[1]

Anglade from Millau (in Occitan, Milhau), studied at the College of Rodez before going to Paris where he graduated from the Sorbonne in Theology and Philosophy, and became a Professor of Divinity at the University of Paris, Sorbonne, in 1791, just before the revolution.

Finding refuge in Britain, he worked as a gardener for a Protestant family in Wales,^[2] where he would regularly return to holiday while teaching in Maynooth, maintaining his passion for gardening he would return with plants unavailable in Ireland for the college.^[3]

In 1802, he was appointed the professor of Logic and Metaphysics and Ethics, at the newly established Royal College, of St. Patrick, Maynooth, Ireland, succeeding fellow French exile André Darré.^[4] In 1810, he moved to the chair of Moral Theology succeeding his fellow Frenchman, Sorbonne alumni, and faculty, Louis-Gilles Delahogue who recommended him. He wrote the moral theology textbook that was used in Maynooth.

Anglade was one of the four exiles from France, the others being Louis-Gilles Delahogue(Sorbonne, Paris), André Darré (Toulouse), and Pierre-Justin Delort (Bordeaux),^[5] sometimes called the French "founding fathers" of Maynooth.^[6]

Anglade was credited with bringing the Presentation Sisters to Maynooth, setting up their school in the former Charter School,^[7] and assisted with the building of the convent chapel in 1832.^[2] The Presentation Sisters would later provide laundry services to the college, and a hostel for sisters studying in Maynooth. Anglade, along with Delahouge, Brown, and John MacHale, were signatories to the because of the two French clerics, the so-called Sorbonne Manifesto, in Maynooth, which stated that the training they gave to priests in Maynooth was not in conflict with the government.^[8]

Anglade was the executor of Delahogue's will. Charles McNally Bishop of Clogher was executor of Anglade's will, his papers were placed in the Clogher Diocesean Archive.^[9] He remained in Maynooth until his death in 1834, and he is buried in the college cemetery.