Patrick Curtis (bishop)

Patrick Curtis was born in Stamullen, County Meath in 1746. He studied for the priesthood in Salamanca in Spain. Curtis was the Rector of the Irish College at Salamanca, Spain, from 1780 until 1817, and professor at the University of Salamanca, where he was known as Don Patricio Cortés. Whilst in Spain he was spymaster of a network that provided military intelligence to Wellesley's Anglo-Portuguese Army during the Peninsular War.^[4] His friendship with Wellington assisted in his promotion to Armagh. It is also thought to have paved the way to Catholic Emancipation, to which the Anglo-Irish Wellington was a late but genuine convert.^[5]

After his return to Ireland, he lived on a British Government pension until he was appointed the archbishop of the Metropolitan see of Armagh by the Propaganda Fide on 2 August and confirmed by Pope Gregory XVI on 8 August 1819.^[1][2][3] His episcopal ordination took place on 28 October 1819.^[2][3]