Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/O'Heney, Matthew
O'HENEY, MATTHEW (d. 1206), Cistercian biographer and archbishop of Cashel, called in Irish Ua Heinni, was a monk of the Cistercian house of Holy Cross in what is now Tipperary. He afterwards became archbishop of Cashel, and was made papal legate for Ireland in 1192 (Ann. Inisfalense, ap. O'Conor, Rer. Hibern. Script. ii. 120). In the same year he held a great synod in Dublin, at which the Irish magnates attended (ib.) His name rarely appears except in official documents, usually undated, relating to the affairs of various Irish churches (Chartularies of St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin, i. 143, 145, ii. 28, 29. 198, Rolls Ser.; Register of St. Thomas, Dublin, pp. 308, 317, Rolls Ser.) In 1195 he is mentioned as one of the prelates who brought the body of Hugh de Lacy, first lord of Meath [q. v.], one of the conquerors of Ireland, to the abbey of Bective on the Boyne in Meath, for re-interment (Annals of Ireland in Chartularies of St. Mary's, Dublin, ii. 307). He is said to have founded many churches, and to have been an able man, a worker of miracles, and religious beyond his fellow-countrymen. Retiring to his old monastery of Holy Cross, he died there, as a humble Cistercian monk, in 1206 (ib. ii. 278; Annals of Loch Cé, i. 235, Rolls Ser.)
O'Heney wrote a life of St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, letters to Popes Celestine III and Innocent III, and other tracts, none of which are known to be extant.
[In addition to the authorities cited in the text, see Hardy's Descriptive Catalogue of Brit. MSS. iii. 23; Cotton's Fasti Eccles. Hibern. i. 5, 2nd ed.; C. de Visch's Biblioth. Cisterc. p. 104; Tanner's Bibliothcai, p. 392; Ware's Works, ed. Harris, i. 469, ii. 72; Brady's Episcopal Succession.]