On June 23rd, 1847, the Most Rev. Dr. Murray, Archbishop of Dublin, received at Maynooth a letter covering a bill of exchange for £40 (1,000 francs), sent for the relief of the famine-stricken poor of Ireland, by order of the good Bishop of Ivrea. The town of Ivrea (anciently Eporedia) is the capital of the Piedmontese province of the same name, which extends from the Po to the Alps. The province contains a population of over one hundred thousand, of whom about eight thousand reside in the town, where is also the bishop's see.
The letter to Dr. Murray enclosed a separate paper, of which the following is a copy:—
“De Beato Thaddeo Episcopo Hiberniae.
“Anno Domini millesimo quadringentesimo nonagesimo secundo, die vigesima quarta Octobris, Eporediae (antiquae urbis Transalpinae in Pedemontio) postremum obiit diem in hospitio peregrinorum sub titulo Sancti Antonii, quidam viator incognitus; atque eodem instante lux mira prope lectum in quo jacebat effulsit, et Episcopo Eporediensi apparuit homo venerandus, Pontificalibus indumentis vestitus. Thaddeum Machar Hiberniae Episcopum illum esse innotuit ex chartis quas deferebat, et in Cathedrali ejus corpus solemni pompa depositum est sub altari, et in tumulo Sancti Eusebii Episcopi Eporediensis, atque post paucos dies coepit multa miracula facere.
“Acta et documenta ex quibus ejus patria et character episcopalis tunc innotuerunt, necnon ad patratorum miraculorum seu prodigiorum memoriam exarata, interierunt occasione incendii quo seculo xvii. Archivium Episcopale vastatum est. In quadam charta pergamena caracteribus Gothicis scripta, quae in Archivio Ecclesiae Cathedralis servatur haec leguntur:
“Marmoreis tumulis hoc templo Virginis almae
Corpora Sanctorum plura sepulta jacent
Martinus hic . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
Inde Thaddeus adest, quem misit Hibernia praesul