Elizabeth Nugent

Elizabeth Nugent (died 1645) was an Irish noblewoman from an Old English family, and a major patron of the Jesuit order in Ireland. Her marriage to Gerald FitzGerald gave her the title of Lady Kildare, and after his death she became known as the Dowager Countess of Kildare.

Biography Elizabeth Nugent was the daughter of Christopher Nugent, an Irish nobleman of Old English descent. The couple had one child, a son named Gerald, who died at the age of nine. Nugent therefore received five FitzGerald estates for the remainder of her life. The novitiate was forced to shut down soon after, due to political strife, but in 1637 Nugent again offered funding to re-establish it. In gratitude, Mutio Vitelleschi, the superior general of the Jesuits, ordered all Jesuits to offer three Masses and three rosaries for Nugent's soul. Robert Nugent described her as the mother of the Society of Jesus in Ireland.