From the late 17th century Ireland was very much under the control of Protestant England. Over the course of time, through what were known as the “Penal Laws”, Catholics lost their land, their rights and their lives. Catholics were not permitted to hold positions of authority, to own land, or to practice their faith.
When Daniel Delany was a boy in the mid 1700s, like many other Catholic children he gained his early education secretly behind hedges - “hedge schools” - or by private tuition from teachers prepared to risk the wrath of the British authorities. When Daniel wished to study for the priesthood he had to be smuggled away to France.
He returned to Ireland in 1776 to visit his mother, and she persuaded him to stay to help the people regain their Catholic faith.
The Brothers of Saint Patrick, popularly known in most countries as the Patrician Brothers, is a Roman Catholic Religious Congregation founded by Bishop Daniel Delany in Tullow, Ireland, on Tuesday the 2nd February, 1808.
Bishop Delany founded the Brothers to educate the boys of his diocese in the faith and traditions of the Catholic Church. Under British rule for several centuries, the Catholic faith in Ireland had been suppressed by the British and thus near forgotten by the Irish.
From this small Irish town, the Brothers reached out to every corner of Ireland and eventually to every corner of the globe. From Galway to Los Angeles, from Aitape to Chennai, from Dormaa to Sydney, the Brothers travelled with their primary message Christus in Corde Omnium: Christ is in all people and in all of His creation.