Background
Born Christopher Fleming, his father was great-grandson of Christopher Fleming, 8th Baron Slane. His mother was a daughter of Robert Cusack, a Baron of the Exchequer and a close relative of Lord Christopher Nugent.
Born Christopher Fleming, his father was great-grandson of Christopher Fleming, 8th Baron Slane. His mother was a daughter of Robert Cusack, a Baron of the Exchequer and a close relative of Lord Christopher Nugent.
Five years after his, he went to Rome with Hugh MacCaghwell, the Definitor General of the Order, and when he had completed his studies at the College of Saint Isidore, was ordained a priest.
In 1612 Fleming went to Flanders, and became a student, first at Street Patrick College of Douai (university of Douai), and then at the College of Saint Anthony of Padua at Leuven (French: Louvain). A year later he made his solemn profession of religious vows. From Rome Fleming was sent by his superiors to Leuven and for some years lectured there on philosophy.
During that time he established a reputation for scholarship and administrative capacity, and when the Franciscans of the Strict Observance, the branch to which he belonged, opened a college in Prague, Fleming was appointed its first Guardian.
He was also named a lecturer in theology. The Thirty Years" War was raging at this time, and in 1631 the Elector of Saxony invaded Bohemia and threatened Prague.
Fleming, accompanied by a fellow-countryman named Matthew Hoar, fled from the city. On 7 November the fugitives encountered a party of armed Calvinist peasants, who attacked and murdered the friars.
Fleming"s body was carried to the monastery of Voticium, four miles away, and there buried.