Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kearney, Barnabas
KEARNEY, BARNABAS, in Irish Brian O Cearnaidh (1567–1640), jesuit, born about 29 Sept. 1567, a native of Cashel, Ireland, was son of Patrick Kearney, by his wife Elizabeth Coney. His brother David was Roman catholic archbishop of Cashel from 1603 to 1625. Kearney entered the Society of Jesus at Douay, where he graduated M.A. in 1588, and commenced his noviceship at Tournay 17 Oct. 1589. He subsequently acted as professor of rhetoric and Greek at Antwerp and Lisle. He was sent to the mission of the jesuits in Ireland in 1603, and successfully evaded various attempts made by the government to arrest him. His difficulties are described in the letters which he addressed to the superiors of his society on the continent in 1604 and succeeding years. He is stated to have induced Thomas Butler, tenth earl of Ormonde [q. v.], to embrace the Roman catholic religion, and to have written an account of his relations with that nobleman, but this is not now accessible. Kearney was a zealous preacher. Latin versions of some of his sermons for Sundays and festival days were printed at Lyons in 1622, under the title of ‘Heliotropium.’ A second collection of his discourses was published at Paris in 1633, with the title, ‘Barnabæ Kearnæi, Cassellensis Hiberni, è Societate Jesu, sacerdotis, Heliotropium sive conciones de mysteriis redemptionis humanæ, quæ in Dominica passione continentur,’ 8vo. This volume was dedicated to Thomas Walsh, who succeeded Kearney's brother David as Roman catholic archbishop of Cashel. Kearney died in Ireland on 20 Aug. 1640.
[Foley's Records of the Society of Jesus, vii. 410; Irish Ecclesiastical Record, August 1874; Archives of Irish Jesuits; Bibliotheca Scrip. S.J. 1675; Collections by the Rev. G. Oliver, 1838; Ibernia Ignatiana, 1880; State Papers, Ireland, 1603–8; De Backer's Bibliothèque; Hist. MSS. Comm. 10th Rep. App. v. 340, &c.]