Pádraig de Brún

Pádraig de Brún (13 October 1889 – 5 June 1960), also called Patrick Joseph Monsignor Browne, was an Irish Roman Catholic priest, linguist, Classicist, and Celticist.

[citation needed] After a period at the University of Göttingen, de Brún was appointed professor of mathematics at St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, in 1914.

His friend Thomas MacGreevy referred to de Brún as, "Rector Magnificus", and praised his, "Olympian capacity to appreciate the most exalted works of art and literature, ancient and modern.

He further translated into Modern Irish many great works of the Western canon, including Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Sophocles' Antigone and Oedipus Rex, and Plutarch's Lives, as well as French stage plays by Jean Racine and Dante's The Divine Comedy.

"[1] The French Government awarded de Brún the title of Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur in 1949, and in 1956, the order Al Merito della Repubblica Italiana was conferred on him by the President of Italy.

They had a daughter who became, due to her mother and uncle's mentorship, the highly important and pioneering Irish language Modernist poet and literary scholar Máire Mhac an tSaoi.