Lanigan, James (c.1747–1812), catholic bishop, was the son of Stephen Lanigan, a shopkeeper of Ballykeefe Castle in the parish of Kilmanagh, Co. Kilkenny. After his shop in Kilkenny city failed Stephen Lanigan moved with his family to Carrick-on-Suir where he opened another shop. James attended the local school run by a Mr Jackson and worked as an usher in the school. A talented student, in February 1771 he was ordained by Bishop Thomas Burke (qv) of Ossory and travelled to the Continent to continue his studies; he is believed to have taken his philosophy and theology courses at the Irish College in Nantes. He was appointed professor of mathematics at the University of Nantes (1775–82).
Returning to Ireland in June 1782, he was appointed curate at St. Canice's parish in Kilkenny. In 1782 a catholic relief act permitted catholics to open schools and Bishop John Thomas Troy (qv) of Ossory and later archbishop of Dublin, decided to open a school in Kilkenny. Burrell's Hall in the city was leased for the purpose and Lanigan and Dr John Dunne were appointed as co-rectors. In September 1783 Lanigan was made a canon of the diocese and, following Dunne's election as bishop of Ossory in 1787, remained as rector of the school. Dunne died suddenly in March 1789 and Lanigan was appointed as vicar capitular of the diocese. In June 1789 he was appointed bishop of Ossory and was consecrated in the Old Cathedral on 21 September 1789.
On his elevation to the bishopric, he appointed Dr Richard Mansfield, previously professor of theology at Nantes, to the rectorship of the Kilkenny school and, in 1792, he transferred the school to new premises beside St. Canice's Cathedral. He disliked having to send seminarians to the Continent to continue their ecclesiastical studies and, in 1793, established a philosophy class at the Kilkenny school. This was the first such course established in the country and seminarians from several dioceses studied there; the school was moved to new premises in Maudlin Street in 1811. In 1800 he founded the Presentation Convent School in Kilkenny.
Believing that a policy of ostentatious loyalty would pay best dividends for catholics, Lanigan presented a loyal address from his diocese to the government after conservatives led by the 4th Viscount Kenmare (qv) seceded from the catholic committee in December 1791 (although the address received little popular support). During the 1790s he condemned events in France and the growth of the United Irishmen. He excommunicated the insurgents who took part in the 1798 rebellion and in a strong pastoral letter (9 July 1798) denounced them as the ‘cruel and unnatural children’ of George III, ‘a tender and merciful parent’ (Keogh, 154). In July 1799 Lanigan chaired a meeting of Kilkenny catholics and signed a pro-union address to Lord Cornwallis (qv) that became notorious to later nationalists for the abject loyalty of its tone. He supported the act of union in the hope that it would be followed by catholic emancipation.
Lanigan was deeply disappointed by the government's failure to grant catholic emancipation and became one of the most determined opponents of the proposal to allow the government to exercise a veto on Irish episcopal appointments; he was one of the main advocates of the Irish hierarchy's anti-veto declaration of 15 September 1808. He occasionally engaged in theological controversies, publishing A defence of the errata (1807), a commentary on Thomas Ward's Errata to the protestant bible; his Catechetical conferences on penance (1830) and Catechetical conferences on the holy eucharist (1831) were published posthumously.
Lanigan died 11 February 1812 at the episcopal residence in James's Street, Kilkenny. He was buried in the Old Cathedral but his remains were later moved to the new cathedral of St. Mary's and his memorial plaque moved to St Kieran's College. There are large collections of his papers in the diocesan archive and in the Renehan collection in Maynooth College.