This collection contains Father Cuthbert Dunne's collection of papers related to the death of Oscar Wilde and consist of his memoirs of officiating at Wilde's deathbed conversion, correspondence, and transcriptions of newspaper accounts.

Father Cuthbert Dunne, C.P. was an Irish Passionist priest born in Dublin, Ireland in 1869. In 1900, he was officiating at St. Joseph's Church on Avenue Hoche in Paris, when Robert Ross came to request a priest to visit Oscar Wilde's bedside at the Hotel d'Alsace. Father Dunne baptised Wilde, and adminstered the last rites before his death; he also later officiated at Wilde's funeral. Dunne did not speak publicly about Wilde's death until 1945, when he finally responded to inaccurate portrayals of Wilde in a pamphlet titled "The Pure of Heart" by Rev. Daniel A. Lord. Dunne died in Dublin November 4, 1950.

1 box (5 linear inches)

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