[1] Educated at the school of Mrs. Jane Barden in Waterford and of Peter White in Kilkenny, in 1604 he went to study in Lisbon and at the University of Coimbra.

He was ordained priest in 1613 by João Manuel, Bishop of Viseu, and in 1617 he was made President of the Irish College at the University of Salamanca, and Master of Students and Professor of Divinity.

Wadding collected the funds for the establishment of the College of St. Isidore in Rome, for the education of Irish priests, opened 24 June 1625, with four lecturers – Anthony O'Hicidh of a famous literary family in Thomond, Martin Breathnach from Donegal, Patrick Fleming from Louth, and John Punch from Cork.

(This spirit of patriotism originated by Wadding had a lasting impact, so that in the 19th century, Sir George Errington, who was sent by British prime minister Gladstone to explain the relation of English and Irish politics in Rome, reported that those Irish politicians thought most extreme in England were conservatives compared with the collegians of St.

[citation needed] Wadding died on 18 November 1657 at the age of 69 and is buried in the church of the College of San Isidore, in Rome.

In the 1950s, a statue of Wadding by Gabriel Hayes was erected on the Mall in Waterford, adjacent to Reginald's Tower and one of the city's most prominent locations.

The Waterford-born Franciscan's literary, academic and theological attributes were denoted by a quill pen held poised in the statue's right hand.

He also published a Bibliotheca of Franciscan writers, an edition of the works of Duns Scotus, and the first collection of the writings of St Francis of Assisi.