The Irish Martyrs Podcast: Recent Episodes
Manus Mac Meanmain
On the Catholic Martyrs of Ireland.A reading of Father Dennis Murphy's book 'Our Martyrs,' on Ireland's Catholic Martyrs.
The martyrdom in Derry of the Prior Donagh Olvin OP & his priest brother John Olvin[1] O.P.
(From De Burgo’s Hib. Dom., p.559)
AMONG our Irish martyrs assuredly these may well claim the first place.
They are spoken of at length in the work bearing the title Palma Fidel Ordinis Prœdicatorum composed by the Rev. Father B. Peter Malphæus, OP., prior of Brussels ; viz:’
Donough, alias William, Olvin, prior of the convent of Derry in Ulster[2]: he was hanged, with many secular priests, in the square of the said city, and quartered, by the English heretics in the year 1608.[3]
The brother of the Prior; he too was a religious of the Order of preachers, and was hanged some time before the Prior suffered, in the same city, because he professed the Catholic faith, as we read in the said Malphæus.
See also O’Sullevan, Molanus, O’Daly, and Porter
[1] Or O’Laighen
[2] Founded by O’Donnell, chief of his clan, in 1244. Hib. Dom. P.281
[3] There is some uncertainty about the date. The above is that given in Hib. Dom., p.559
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
- LAURENCE O’MOORE, OLIVER PLUNKETT, AND WILLIAM WALSH
LAURENCE O’MOORE was descended from a very ancient and respectable family in Ireland.
He was a priest remarkable for holiness of life, as Sander testifies.[1]
When the Spanish General San Jose surrendered the castle of Smerwick,[2] in the western part of Co. Kerry, to Lord Grey, who was the Deputy, the conditions were that the garrison should be allowed to march out with their arms, ammunition, and other property.
But the treacherous heretics did not think themselves bound either by their oath or by the laws that are held sacred even by barbarous nations.
The Spaniards, nine hundred in number, were made to give up their arms, and all but ten and the cowardly commander either cast into the sea or slain in cold blood.
O’Moore and two Irishmen of noble birth, Oliver Plunkett and William Walsh, were taken there also.
These the Deputy required to be handed over to him.
He strove to induce them to abjure the Catholic faith and to embrace Protestantism; and when they refused, and said that with God’s grace they would continue even till death to profess the Catholic faith, he sent them to a blacksmith’s forge and had their limbs broken to pieces with a hammer.
This butchery lasted for twenty-four hours.
During all that time these noblemen displayed extraordinary courage, having been strengthened with the sacraments, which they had received from Father Laurence.
All three expired almost at the same moment, their last words being :
‘Into Thy hands, 0 Lord, I commend my spirit.’
They were put to death August 1580.
The State Papers confirm fully the above narrative:
This day was executed an Englishman who served Dr. Saunders, one Plunkett, and an Irish priest.
Theire armes and legges were broken, and hanged upon a gallowes upon the wall of the fort.’[3]
Sander was the Papal Legate, who died soon after in the woods at Aherlow, raving in a phrenesy.’[4]
Plunkett, the writer says, was born near Drogheda.
See also Holing, Rothe, O’Sullevan, Copinger, Henriquez, Molanus, Hartry, and Porter.
[1] See Spic. Ossor., i. 88
[2] See Hennessy’s Raleigh in Ireland, p. 10. The castle was called Dún an Óir.
[3] Ibid., p.211. Letter of Sir R, Bingham to Walsingham.
[4] See the Introduction to Sander’s Anglican Schism, p.20
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
Ireland's first known reformation martyr was John Travers. This is the story of his martyrdom.
- VENERABLE JOHN TRAVERS[1], I.O.S.A.
(From Bruodin’s Propugnaculum, p. 426)
The first of our martyrs in later times mentioned by name, for others no doubt preceded him whose names are written only in the Book of Life, was John Travers, a native of Dublin, a priest of the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine, and a Doctor of Theology.
He wrote anonymously a famous work bearing the title On the Authority of the Roman Pontiff.[2]
In it he proved clearly that the primacy of Henry VIII. was a mere fiction, and only a name, without any foundation in fact or in reason.
Whereupon he was seized by the King’s ministers and sent to London.
He was kept in the Tower for four months in succession.
During that time he was examined on four different occasions, And put to various kinds of torture, and being found faithful and steadfast, he was declared guilty of high treason by Cromwell and the other flatterers of the King.
He was led out, as is the custom among the English, his hands tied behind his back and a rope round his neck, placed on a hurdle, and taken in this manner to the usual place of execution. [3]
(A hurdle is a moveable section of light fence traditionally made from wattle, in medieval England a hurdle was used as a makeshift sledge, to which a prisoner was tied to be dragged behind a horse to a place of execution.)[4]
When he reached the top of the ladder leading to the gallows, he prayed for pardon, and heartily exhorted the bystanders to pray earnestly to God, the refuge of sinners, for the conversion and salvation of the King and of all the mad heretics who adhered to him.
And then he exclaimed in a loud voice.
‘It is not for any crime, Christian hearers, that I have been sent hither from Ireland, my native country, but rather because I professed the Catholic faith, which I, like my ancestors, have drunk in with my mother’s milk; and also, because I am supposed to be the author of a certain work lately spread abroad among the Catholics.
The moment of my death is now close at hand, which will surely open for me the door to eternal life.
Hence it behoves me not to use any ambiguous or obscure language for the purpose of concealing the truth.
Wherefore I declare openly that I am a priest of the Catholic and Apostolic Church, and, moreover, that it was with these three fingers,’ and he raised aloft the three fingers of his right hand, ’I wrote that work on the Authority of the Roman Pontiff.’
When he had said these words, the sheriff gave the order; he was hanged, cut down before life was quite extinct, and quartered.
A wonderful thing then took place.
His right hand and his intestines were cast into the fire; and while other parts were reduced to ashes, the three fingers of his right hand which he had raised aloft on the scaffold, were seen in a like position in the midst of the flames, and afterwards were found whole and fresh, as if they had never been cast into the fire, like the right hand of King Oswald, the martyr, which the Venerable Bede[5] tells us remained up to his own time fresh and uncorrupted, in token, no doubt, of the divine approval of his charity to the poor.
Harpsfield[6] says he was assured by eye-witnesses that the flesh on the martyr’s fingers remained fresh long after his death.
O’Sullevan says Travers was put to death on the 30th July; Fitzsimon on the 31st
He is one of the two hundred and sixty Venerable Servants of God put to death in England for the faith, whose cause of beatification or declaration of martyrdom has been allowed by the decree of December 4th, 1886, to be introduced in the Sacred Congregation of Rites.
See also Harpsfield, Bridgewater, Fitzsimon, White, Copinger, O’SuJlevan , O’Daly, and Lynch.
[1] Broudin writes the name Tanner; but it is usually written as above.
The complete identity of the facts given under both names by the different authors shows that they refer to one person only, not to two, whatever his name may have been.
[2] Though I’ve searched for this book, I have not been able to find a copy of it in any library in this country.
[3] Tyburn, close to the present Marble Arch. A stone marks the spot where Tyburn Gate stood.
[4] Channel4.com (25 March 2009) "Perkin Warbeck (1474-99)" Henry VIII: The Mind of a Tyrant. Retrieved 2011-11-19
[5] Hist. Eccl.Angl., iii.6
[6] In whose work he is called Gravesius, no doubt a misprint for Traversius See Dial, p995
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
STEPHEN PETTIT, O.R[1]
(From the Acts of the General Chapter, OP., 1644)
Comemmorate 25th July, date of appointment in 1625 of Anthony Martin, contemporary bishop of Meath
WHILST he was encouraging the Catholics in the faith, and in the midst of war and battles was looking to the welfare of their souls and discharging the office of confessor at the same time in a Praiseworthy manner, he was struck by a bullet, in a battle against the heretics, and so exchanged life for death.
O’Daly adds he was prior of Mullingar,[2] and that while he was engaged at Ballenacorra in hearing the confession of a soldier going into the fight, he was caught sight of by one of the garrison of a neighbouring castle, who fired at him and wounded him mortally.
He died the next day of the wound.
See also O’Daly
[1] De Burgo thinks there were two of this name also, who were killed in the same way, one of the convent of Athenry, the other of Mullingar.
The first, he says, suffered death in 1642, the other in 1651. ibid., pp.562 and 570.
[2] Founded in 1237 by the Pettit family, barons, palatine of Mullingar; De Burgo thinks by the Nugents. ibid., p.217
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Rothe’sAnalecta, p.391)
THESE were citizens of Wexford and pious Catholics.
With the aid of some other Catholic sailors, they had secretly carried over to France a certain Father of the Society of Jesus, and some of the priests and laymen who were driven from their native country on account of their faith.
They were seized, put to the torture, and hanged; and when they were only halfdead, they were taken down and quartered, July 5th, 1581.
Bruodin[2] says they were executed for bringing Father Rochford, S.J., from Belgium, and entertaining priests in their houses.
He gives July 15th of that year as the date of their martyrdom.
Instead of Patrick Canavan, given by Rothe, he sets down John O’Lahy as having been martyred with the two first mentioned.
See also Holing, Molanus, and Bruodin.
[1] He is called Meiler by Rothe.
The Narator has come across the surname Meyler in southwest Wexford where it is quite common.
[2] Propug., p. 443
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
ROBERT MILLER,[1] EDWARD CHEEVERS, JOHN O’LAHY, AND PATRICK CANAVAN
(From Rothe’sAnalecta, p.391)
THESE were citizens of Wexford and pious Catholics.
With the aid of some other Catholic sailors,
they had secretly carried over to France a certain Father of the Society of Jesus,
and some of the priests and laymen who were driven from their native country on account of their faith.
They were seized, put to the torture, and hanged;
and when they were only halfdead, they were taken down and quartered,
July 5th, 1581.
Bruodin[2] says they were executed for bringing Father Rochford, S.J., from Belgium,
and entertaining priests in their houses.
He gives July 15th of that year as the date of their martyrdom.
Instead of Patrick Canavan, given by Rothe,
he sets down John O’Lahy as having been martyred with the two first mentioned.
See also Holing, Molanus, and Bruodin.
[1] He is called Meiler by Rothe.
The Narator has come across the surname Meyler in southwest Wexford where it is quite common.
[2] Propug., p. 443
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
The martyrdom in 1617 of Franciscan Thomas Fitzgerald commissary & visitor of the Irish province.
(From Bruodin’s Propugnaculum, p.499)
HE was descended from the very ancient family of the Earls of Desmond.[1]
From his very childhood he was so virtuous that he was considered a saint.
When he was enrolled in the Seraphic Order, not only did he strengthen himself by vows in the virtues which he practised in the secular state, but he added others to them.
He completed his studies in Spain, and in 1609 he taught theology in the College of St. Anthony of Padua at Louvain.[2]
Filled with zeal for the salvation of souls, he returned to Ireland at a time when the pestilential heresy of the English was rampant everywhere.
He was Commissary and Visitor of the Irish province.
For many months he was unwearied in his task of feeding the Catholic people of Munster and Leinster with the word of God, at one time preaching to them in the woods and caves, at another administering the sacraments in private houses, at all times setting before them an example of every virtue, especially of charity, modesty, the token of his inward purity, religious humility, and burning zeal.
When he had passed four years in this secret and hidden way, consoling the Catholics, he was seized by the heretics, taken to Dublin, and cast into an underground prison. [3]
Worn out by hardships he died therein on the 12th, of July, 1617.
The citizens having asked for his body, celebrated his obsequies for three or four days with much devotion, to the great surprise and indignation of the heretics, who strove to prevent them.
At length his remains were laid in the same cemetery as those of the Bishop.[4]
See also Rothe, O’Sullevan, Ward, Wadding, Porter, and Hueber.
[1] Molanus says the residence of the branch of the Desmond family to which he belonged was Dabronopolis, perhaps Achadbronagh, near Castleisland.
[2] Founded for the Irish Franciscans by Isabella, Regent of the Netherlands, in 1616. See the Journal of the R.S.A.I., for October, 1893, P. 237
[3] Diary of Lord cork, April, 1613 ‘Captain Goar apprehended Thomas Fitzgerald, the friar, in Youghal, I being then at Dungarvan ; and when I came home, I brought him from the gaol and kept him in my own house for fifteen days, till the Lord Deputy sent for him.
Lismore Papers, 1st series, i.21
[4] The reference is most probably to O’Devany, buried in St. James’. The account of him immediately precedes that of Fitzgerald in Bruodin.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
The martyrdom of the Carmelite Thomas Aquinas of Jesus in 1642.
(From F. Eusebius’ Enchiridion, p.202)
FATHER THOMAS AQUINAS was a distinguished preacher and a zealous missionary, who earned for himself the hatred of the heretics by the assiduity and successful results of his preaching and labours in confirming the oppressed and persecuted Catholics in the faith, and in winning several back who had fallen into the errors of heresy.
He was captured, while engaged in his apostolic work, in the house of a noble family recently converted by him.
The Puritans, having obtained information of his whereabouts through the treachery of a servant, invested the house on all sides, like wolves raging for the blood of the priest, and threatened the inmates with all manner of excesses and cruelties if the Papist priest were not given up to them.
They searched the house in every part, but having searched in vain retired, and prepared to set it on fire.
Seeing the impending danger, Father Thomas, more solicitous for the safety of others than for his own, came out of his own accord and surrendered himself into the hands of his pursuers, by whom, in their savage exultation, he was most cruelly beaten, bound with cords, and in that state carried almost lifeless to Drogheda, and there cast into prison, where he was left to languish for a considerable time.
Under treatment so harsh he suffered no expression of complaint to escape from his lips but he bore all with joy, rejoicing to suffer for Christ, and meditating on the words of the Apostle ‘I am apprehended by the Lord.”[1]
Among many others imprisoned, for the same cause, was a priest of the Order of St. Francis, the Guardian of the Franciscan community in Drogheda.
By him Father Thomas was received with extreme joy, and with his assistance succeeded in procuring the sacred habit of the Order, with which he clothed himself in prison.
To prepare himself for the conflict, he carefully confessed to this Franciscan Father the faults of his whole life, celebrated Mass daily, thus fortifying himself with the bread of the Strong.
The remainder of the day he spent in comforting and encouraging the Catholic Prisoners,
in company with the good Franciscan.
He devoted the greater part of the night to mental and vocal prayer ;
he fasted continually, and chastised his body with great severity, in order to detach it from the love of this present life, and lest it should impede his spirit from union with its Lord, to whom he frequently offered the sacrifice of his life.
He besought the Blessed Mother of God and all the heavenly citizens to succour him in his struggle.
Early on the morning of the 6th of July, while the Father was offering the Holy Sacrifice, a messenger from the Governor[2] of the town announced to him that he was condemned to be hanged within an hour.
Father Thomas received the announcement of his fate unmoved by the fear of death.
He thanked God, confessed again, and prepared himself for death.
When the time had come, he took a last leave of his fellow-prisoners implored the assistance of their prayers, and then resigned himself into the hands of the Puritan satellites.
These men, strange to say, notwithstanding their abhorrence of all religious garbs and symbols, suffered him to retain his religious habit to the last.
Holding a crucifix in one hand and a rosary in the other, he went forth to execution, joyously chanting the Litany of the Blessed Virgin.
On his way the heretical ministers sought to persuade him to adopt their views but they Were repulsed by the good Father, who, fixing his eyes on his crucifix, asked them to say what might be the true faith of heretics, who believed or disbelieved according as each one liked for himself.
Rather return,’ he said to them, to the old faith taught by the Apostles, and hitherto professed by your own nation.’
A minister told him that, by authorization of the Governor, he could give him a choice of offices in the army, provided only he would ‘repent and not perish.’
To this offer Father Thomas answered that his duty was not to hesitate to die for the faith.
Towards the end of the journey, the Father was met by an unhappy woman condemned to death for her crimes.
Being promised pardon on condition of renouncing her religion, she was grievously tempted to apostatize; but a few earnest words of exhortation from Father Thomas confirmed her in the faith, with the happy result that, having first made public profession of the true faith, she cheerfully faced her doom.
Having reached the scaffold, Father Thomas was commanded to ascend, which he accordingly did, professing the faith aloud in the meantime, and earnestly conjuring all the Catholics present to contend for it manfully unto death.
But the Commander, fearing a tumult among the people, ordered the executioner to hasten his work.
Not without the intense amazement of the spectators, the rope, although a stout one, snapped, letting Father Thomas fall to the ground, not dead but unconscious.
The Catholics attributed this extraordinary circumstance to the intervention of divine Providence, that thus the cause of one unjustly condemned might be vindicated before the vast multitude of people.
Scarcely had he revived, when the Commander again ordered him to mount the scaffold but here again the divine Power showed itself, for the holy confessor ascended without difficulty, and speaking without the least trouble, he appealed to the Puritan officer to state the cause for which he had been condemned to die, protesting that this conscience was his witness that he had done no wrong to any man, nor committed any crime deserving of death.
The Puritan replied angrily:
‘Why do you ask of me the cause of your condemnation ; are you not a Papist, a priest, and a monk?’
‘It is so; it is enough,’ the Father replied
‘I am guilty of no crime.
Let it therefore appear to all men that I die for the Catholic faith and the religious profession, for which I also die gladly.’
The Puritan now reminded him of the Governor’s promises; that they yet remained good; that time enough yet remained in which he could change his mind.
But when he understood that he was offering suggestion to deaf ears, he ordered the executioner to end his work.
Not only were the Catholics Profoundly grieved by the death of the servant of God, but many Protestants as well, who, since they had dissented from the ancient faith under pretext of liberty,
considered that to put anyone to death merely on account of his religion was to destroy liberty.
The confessor’s body was taken away and interred by the Catholics in the cemetery adjoining the Augustinian convent, recently wrecked by the Puritans.
God, to show that He has ever at heart the care of the honour of His servants,
caused a brilliant heavenly light to shine over the Carmelite’s grave on the following night.
The light was visible to the Soldiers stationed at one of the gates of the town Opposite, as well as to many other persons in the neighbourhood.
The soldiers, being of opinion that the light was brought there by Catholics burying their dead, went, forty strong, to the spot in which they thought the light had appeared.
In the cemetery they could see no one ; all was utter darkness; they were much terrified, and fled.
They saw it again when they returned to their station at the gate.
The Captain himself next proceeded in the direction of the mysterious light, taking with him fifty men, but only to find the same utter darkness.
He immediately fled from the cemetery, terror-stricken himself bravely leading the way.
Having thus failed as a brave soldier, the Captain next, assuming a more puritanical frame of mind, declared with due solemnity that the light must have issued from hell with the devil, who had come to carry off the Papist’s body along with his soul.
This irreverent remark having received but scant applause from his comrades, who had not yet quite recovered from their fear, abandoning his infernal theory, the Captain now swore by his Puritan soul that the Papist was not buried there at all.
The event showed that in this too he was mistaken, for next morning he visited the grave, and found the body of the friar there calmly reposing.
He stripped it of the white mantle and scapular, carried both away with him, and went about relating to all he met his wondrous visions and experiences of the previous eventful night.
Another soldier took away the friar’s crucifix, which he refused to sell to the Catholics for any price, declaring earnestly that he would cherish it all his life a most precious memorial of a man who had been unjustly put to death.
[1] Phil. ii.12
[2] Lord Moore of Mellifont. See DAlton’s H. of Drogheda 1.226
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Challoner’s Memoirs,[3] 3.168)
JOHN CORNELIUS was born at Bodmin,[4] in Cornwall of Irish parents, & brought up at school in the same town; from whence he was sent to Oxford by Sir John Arundel, who was much taken with his rare genius and diligence in learning.
But Mr. Cornelius, liking the old religion better than the new, left Oxford and went beyond the seas to Rheims (the English college having been lately translated thither from Douay), & was there received by Dr. Allen,[5] the institutor and first president of that seminary of martyrs.
After some stay here he was sent in 1580 to Rome, to finish his studies in the English college of that city, where he remained for some years.
Here he was made priest, and from there was sent upon the English mission, where he laboured with great fruit for about ten years.
He was a man of most mortified life and greatly addicted to prayer and contemplation, but, withal, zealous and diligent in his pastoral functions, & had a notable talent in preaching, so that he was admired and loved by all who knew him.
He was apprehended in the house[6] of the widow of Sir John Arundel, upon the information of a wicked servant, on the second Sunday after Easter, in April, 1594, by Mr Trenchard,[7] Sheriff of Dorsetshire, & with him Mr Thomas Bosgrave, a Cornish gentleman, a kinsman of Sir John Arundel, who was also hurried away to prison, because, seeing Mr. Cornelius in the hands of officers, hurried away without any hat, he clapped his own hat upon the confessor’s head, saying:
‘The honour I owe to your function may not suffer me to see you go bareheaded.’
Upon which the Sheriff told him he should bear him company, and, as we shall see by and by, for this offence he afterwards also suffered with him.
John, or as others call him Terence, Carey, and Patrick Salmon,[8] both natives of Dublin, and servants in the family were also committed to prison on this occasion, as aiding and assisting Mr. Cornelius.
The confessor was first carried to the Sheriff’s house, where some Protestant ministers strongly attacked him on the subject of religion; but Mr Cornelius maintained the Catholic cause with such strong arguments that the Sheriff, fearing the influence his words would make upon those that were present, put a stop to the dispute.
Shortly after, the Council being informed of all that had passed, the confessor was ordered to be sent up to London ;
where he was examined by the Lord Treasurer,[9] the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury,[10]
and others of the Privy Council, who strove to extort out of him, first by words, and afterwards by the rack,
the names of such Catholics as had harboured or relieved him ;
but his constancy was proof against all their efforts, and he refused to the last to make any discovery,
which might redound to the prejudice of his benefactors.[11]
Upon this he was sent back into the country, there to take his trial, and there to die.
The three last days before the assizes he spent wholly in prayer and in pious exhortations to his fellow prisoners, without eating, in a manner, or sleeping, and so prepared himself for his conflict.
After this he was brought to the bar with his three companions, where they were all found guilty by the jury; Mr. Cornelius of high treason, for being a priest, and coming into this kingdom, and remaining here; Mr. Bosgrave and the other two, of felony, for aiding and assisting Mr. Cornelius, knowing him to be a priest.
After the jury had brought in their verdict, the three laymen cast themselves at the feet of Mr. Cornelius to crave his blessing; and they were all sent back to prison, sentence not being to be pronounced till the next day.
They prepared themselves for it by prayer, and animated one another by pious colloquies, in which they passed that night; and on the following day they were all sentenced to die.
It was observed that Judge Walmsley pronounced the sentence with tears in his eyes.
Mr Cornelius would have spoken to the judges after sentence was given, but was ordered to be silent.
However, the judges assured them all that their lives would be saved if they would conform and go to the Protestant church ; which they all stoutly refusing, were sent back to prison, there to prepared for their last end.
They were condemned on the 2nd of July, 1594, and on the 4th were carried out to their martyrdom.[12]
Mr Cornelius was drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution; the other three walked on foot.
The confessor animated them by the way to suffer death with courage and constancy; and, indeed, it appeared by their countenances that they went to the gallows with as much content and satisfaction as if they had been going to a feast.
Mr Cornelius made also the best use he could of his time in favour of a malefactor, who was to suffer with them whom he so effectually exhorted to faith and repentance, that the man declared aloud he looked upon himself as happy that he was to die in such good company.
The first that was ordered up the ladder was John Carey, a man of great courage.
He kissed the rope when it was put about his neck, saying, ‘0 precious collar’; then he made a profession of his faith, for which he declared he died ; and so was turned off.
The next was Patrick Salmon, a man much admired and beloved for his virtues.
In dying he admonished the people, that the only way to secure their eternal welfare was to embrace that faith for which he and his companions laid down their lives.
Mr Bosgrave was called upon next, who being a man of reading, made a speech to the people of the certainty of the Catholic faith; which was heard with great attention, the ministers standing by and not offering a word in vindication of their religion.
And now it was come to Mr. Cornelius’ turn to ascend the ladder; at the foot of which he knelt down, and prayed a little while; then kissed the ground, and afterwards the feet of his companions, who were still hanging; then addressing himself to the gallows, he saluted it with these words of St. Andrew
‘O bona crux, diu desiderata,’ &c. O good Cross, a long time desire, &c.
And going up the ladder, he offered thrice several times to speak to the people and was as often interrupted.
Then he declared what had hitherto been kept a secret, viz., that he was admitted into the Society of Jesus in London by the Superior of the English Jesuits; and was to have gone over with others to make his noviciate in Flanders,[13] had he not been prevented by his apprehension.
After which he prayed aloud for his persecutors, for the conversion of the Queen, and so was flung off the ladder, and shortly after cut down and quartered.
His quarters were set up on four poles, but afterwards were taken down by the Catholics, and buried with the bodies of his companions.
His head was nailed to the gallows, till it was removed at the desire of the town, apprehending the scourges of God upon them, as they had experienced before on the like occasion.
Yet we are told that the following year a dreadful plague ensued among them, which carried off so many that the living were not sufficient to bury the dead.
Mr. Cornelius and his companions suffered at Dorchester, July 4th, 1594.
Bruodin gives July 3 as the date.
See also Alegambe and Bruodin.
[1] He is called McMahon, and Mahony by various writers.
[2] These are among the two hundred and sixty-one Venerable Servants of God put to death in England for the faith whose cause was allowed to be introduced in the S. Congregation of Rites by the decree of December, 1886.
[3] From a MS, in Dr.C.’s possession, and from an account sent from England three months after Mr C’s death (Challoner’s note)
[4] ‘The ship on which his parents were flying from the persecution of the English was driven by a storm into a Cornish port.
Fitsimon says he always spoke of himself as an Irishman.
See Bruodin’s Propugnaâulum, p. 458, and Hogan’s Ibemia Ignat., p.33
[5] Founder of the English Colleges of Douay, Rheims, and Rome. He was made a Cardinal in 1587. He died in 1594.
[6] Chidiock Castle, says Oliver. Collections illustrating the History of the Catholic Church in Devon, p. 37
[7] Bruodin gives John Morton as his name. Propug., p.46O
[8] Bruodin gives the names as Patrick O’Hogan, and John McConsidine, and says they were natives of Thomond. Ibid., p.461.
[9] William Cecil, Lord Burghley.
[10] John Whitgift was Archbishop from 1583 to 1604
[11] Bruodin says it was then he was received into the Society of Jesus. Propug., p.461
[12] At Dorchester
[13] Foley, Records of the English Province S.J., iv. 141, vii.169, has some further details about him.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
The story of the martyrdom of Cornelius O'Neill, Bishop of Limerick and the other Trinitarians of that city.
25th June 1539
CORNELIUS O’NEILL, BISHOP OF LIMERICK,AND THE RELGIOUS OF THE TRINTARIAN CONVENT OF THAT CITY
The Convent of Limerick was dedicated to the Holy Cross; it was one of the largest of the whole country, its inmates numbering forty-six religious.
Cornelius O’Neill, then Bishop of Limerick, had been a religious of the Order, and was much attached to the brethren.
He belonged to the princely family of O’Neill of Tyrone.
He was remarkable for his charity and humility, and had filled different offices, and of late that of Provincial, with much advantage to the Order.
He had been Consulted by the King about the divorce from his lawful wife, Queen Catharine, which he wishes to bring about, and gave his opinion firmly in her favour.
The King was much angered thereat and declared he would have his revenge.
The Bishop was aware of the dangers that were threatening.
He called the Trinitarian Community together and addressed them in the following words
"A beginning like this does not lead to a good end. The King and his kingdom are lost. The Catholic Church is in great danger, and heresy will be introduced amongst us unless God’s omnipotence protects us."
He advised them to be prepared, to sell all the Property of the monastery, even the gold and silver vessels, lest they might be profaned by the enemies of God, and to distribute the money among the poor.
He gave a like warning to the other religious Orders, and to the secular clergy under his jurisdiction.
When he learned of the destruction of the monastery of Adare and the death of the religious there, he called the brethren together, and solemnly intoning the ‘Te Deum,’ he earnestly besought the Most Holy Trinity to grant them courage and Strength, that they might imitate their brethren who had been martyred.
The Bishop let it be known to the people that he would preach on the feast of St. John in the cathedral.
A large congregation assembled.
He set before them the grounds of the Catholic faith and of the Pope’s authority; he declared that the commands of the King were heretical and that he, his counsellors, and all who adhered to him were anathematized and he concluded by asking from God strength for himself and for all under his care to defend the Catholic faith, even at the peril of their lives.
The King’s officials were afraid to offer him any violence in the church but on the evening of that day, some of them went to his house; and being admitted, they told him that he should obey the King’s order or suffer instant death.
Throwing himself on his knees and raising his eyes to Heaven, he exclaimed:
‘Lord, to-day I offered to Thee the unbloody sacrifice of the Body of my Lord Jesus Christ. Now accept the sacrifice of my life, to Thy greater honour and glory.’
And then fixing his eyes on a picture of the Most Holy Trinity, he ejaculated ‘Sancta Trinitas, unus Deus, Miserere nobis.’
A moment after the executioner with one blow of the sword severed his head from his body.
The officials then went through the house, and seized on the religious who happened to be there, and slew them.
Their anger was all the greater when they found that nothing was left for them to plunder.
The Minister and his brother, who had come to visit the Bishop, were seized the next day.
They were brought to the public square and ordered to swear obedience to the King.
As they refused, they were beheaded on the spot.
The other religious in the convent were also asked to take the oath; and as all refused, some were hanged, other slain, others tied to the tails of horses and dragged along until they were dead.
And so all triumphed gloriously on the 25th, of June, 1539.
‘The other convents of the Order,’ says Moran, Cork, Kilkenny, Ross, Dundalk, Galway, and Cashel, showed the same fortitude.
All were plundered of whatever they possessed, And there was not one of them but was adorned with the palm of martyrdom.
So universal indeed was the ruin that fell upon this religious Order, that all vestige of it has disappeared from the subsequent history of our Church.[1]
[1] Archbishops of Dublin, p.26. It is very probable that Lopez had his information about the sufferings of his brethren through F. Richard Goldie, a native of Limerick, who died at Madrid in 1652. See Noticias, p.521. O’Sullevan derived his knowledge from the same source.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
O'Hurley was born in Lickadoon Castle, Ballyneety, County Limerick, around the year 1530. His father, William, was the O'Hurley clan's Chief of the Name and steward to James FitzGerald, 14th Earl of Desmond. The O'Hurley clan claims descent from the Dál gCais, one of the more powerful Irish clans in Munster's history.
O'Hurley was educated by tutors and then sent to Flemish Brabant to study at the University of Leuven.[2] In 1551 he graduated with a Master of Arts degree, then a doctorate of Law and was appointed a professor of philosophy in one of that university's greater colleges, where he remained for 15 years. In 1574 he was appointed a professor of canon and civil law in the Faculty of Law of Reims University, at which he spent 4 years.[3]
Fugitive archbishop
In 1570 Pope Pius V excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I of England in the papal bull Regnans in Excelsis. This led to the Second Desmond Rebellion in 1579–83, which was still in progress when O'Hurley was required to travel to Ireland. On 11 September 1581, while still a layman, he was appointed Archbishop of Cashel by Pope Gregory XIII. He was ordained and consecrated and set out on his mission in 1583.[3] O'Hurley's voyage was fraught with danger because of the state of war between the Pope and England, but he accepted the risks involved and arranged for a sea captain from Drogheda to smuggle him into Ireland. He disembarked on Holmpatrick Strand in County Dublin in the autumn of 1583. His letters, which had been sent via a different ship, were intercepted by priest hunters.
Through its elaborate spy system, the government in Dublin had knowledge of Dermot's appointment to the See of Cashel, and Elizabeth's spies were soon on his tracks. He never reached Cashel.[3] O'Hurley lodged with Thomas Fleming, 10th Baron Slane, at Slane, and from there he spread his activities through the territory of the O'Reilly clan. While sheltering at Slane Castle he was recognised. Under pain of severe penalties, Fleming was ordered to arrest O'Hurley who had by then left Slane. O'Hurley was arrested at Carrick-on-Suir in September 1583, while staying with Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond, a Protestant, referred to as dubh (the black), who was the Lord Treasurer of Ireland at the time. Butler was much offended and distressed at the arrest, and afterwards did his best to rescue O'Hurley from the executioners.[4] On 8 October 1583 O'Hurley was imprisoned in Dublin Castle.
Martyrdom
St. Kevin's in Camden Row, burial place of O'Hurley
O'Hurley was subjected to savage torture, including the boiling boot, in which his bare feet were imprisoned in iron boots, filled with water, that were slowly heated over a gentle fire until the water boiled and consumed both flesh and bone.[4] Yet, O'Hurley refused to embrace Protestantism. According to surviving correspondence between Dublin and Whitehall, Elizabeth I was reluctant to dispense with a fair trial under English Law, but her mind was changed by Sir Francis Walsingham and she approved of a trial by military tribunal. O'Hurley was tried in a day and sentenced to death.
The Chancellor, learning that Butler was coming, by whose influence and power they feared O'Hurley would be saved, determined to put him to death as soon as possible.[4] In the early morning of 19,[5][6][7] or 20,[1][8] June 1584, O'Hurley was taken outside the walls of Dublin and hanged at Hoggen Green. In his last speech, he proclaimed,
Be it therefore known unto you...that I am a priest anointed and also a Bishop, although unworthy of soe sacred dignitites, and noe cause could they find against me that might in the least deserve the paines of death, but merely for my funcon of priesthood wherein they have proceeded against me in all pointes cruelly contrarie to their own lawes ...and I doe injoin you (Deere Christian Brethren) to manifest the same to the world and also to beare witness on the Day of Judgment of my Innocent death, which I indure for my function and profession of the most holy Catholick Faith.[9]
He was buried in St. Kevin's Church, Camden Row, Dublin. His gravesite remained a site of pilgrimage for many years.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
Comemorate 9th June date of appointment in 1625 of Baothgalach Mac Aodhagáin, the contemporary Bishop of Elphin
- RAYMOND KEOGHY, O.P.
(From the Acts of the General Chapter, OP., 1656[1])
THIS year F. Keoghy, of the Convent of Roscommon,[2] was seized by the heretics and put to death through hatred of the Catholic faith, and so found eternal life in death.
The Acts of the General Chapter of 1644 make mention of another of this name, who. De Burgo thinks, must be a different person from the above, for the one was a priest, the other a lay-brother.
See also O’Heyne.
[1] See Hib. Dom., p. 562
[2] Founded by Phelim O’Connor, King of Connaught in 1253, whose tomb is there. ibid., p. 258
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
.
EDMUND TANNER, BISHOP OF CORK
He was a native of the city of Cork.[1] He lived for some years in the Society of Jesus, and during that time made extraordinary progress in virtue; but after some years, owing to illness, he left the Order, with the full consent of the Fathers.[2]
He was appointed Bishop of Cork[3] November 5th 1574. But hardly had the burthen of the episcopate been laid on him, when he was taken to Dublin and imprisoned there for having opposed the unjust laws of the Queen.
While in prison he was tortured in divers ways, and more than once he was hung up for two hours, while his hands were tied behind his back with a rope.
Broken with these and various other sufferings, he went to receive the reward of his labours on the 4th of June, 1578, after an imprisonment of eighteen months.
See also Holing, Rothe, Copinger, and Lynch.
[1] In a papal document in the Irish Ecci. Record, 6. 147, he is said to have been a native of the (ecclesiastical) province of Dublin.
[2] Through great sickness and not without the licence of his superiors, and the advice of physicians, he was enforced to come forth out of the Society.’ Lynch, De Pres. Hib., ii. 612
[3] See Brady’s Epis. Succession, ii.86, and Irish Ecci. Record, i.316
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Molanus’ Idea, p. 73)
Comemorate 30th May, date of Papal appointment
HE was a Doctor of Theology, and Vicar Apostolic of the diocese of Ross.[1]
This active and courageous labourer in promoting the cause of Catholicity, both by his prayers and his exhortations to others, received a wound from a body of armed heretics, who fell on him and left him for dead.
His friends found him still breathing and almost expiring, and bore him off late in the evening to a neighbouring village.
Both himself and the place where he was lying are said to have been lighted up throughout the whole of that night. They buried him with much honour in the neighbouring monastery of Timoleague,[2] belonging to the Order of St. Francis.
See also Rothe, O’Sullevan, and Porter.[3]
Appointed vicar apostolic by papal brief on 30 May 1597 (N.S.).
[1] O’Sullevan says he was Bishop elect of Ross. His. Cath., p.244. His name, however, is not given in Bradys Ep. Succ
[2] Ten miles south of Bandon, on the western side of Courtmacsherry Bay. See Meehan’s Franc. Mon., p. 52. It was founded by the Barry family.
[3] None of these writers gives the date of his death. Rothe places him between Patrick Locheran (1612) and Donagh Daly (1614).
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
- JOHN MEAGH,[1] S.J.
(From Alegamb’eS MorteS lllustreS, p. 538)
JOHN MEAGH was a native of Cork, in the province of Munster.
To remove him from the persecution of the heretics, he was taken by his father first to France, and then to Naples.
After his father’s death, he entered the service of the Duke of Ossuna, the Viceroy.
But disliking the frivolous amusements of the Court, he began to think of leaving it; and he would have done so if the Viceroy had not been recalled just then to Spain.
ln this way John found the means of going there, and asking for some favour from the King.
He was received in so kindly a way that he obtained very soon an annual pension; with this he returned to Naples.
But mark by what wonderful ways God draws men to Him.
The young man prayed to God to make known to him when he opened a book, the manner of life which he should enter on.
He opened it, and found there the Life of St. Dympna,[2] a maiden of royal birth, who fled from Ireland to avoid her father’s fury, and was afterwards slain by him.
John thought the history of a woman unsuited to him for imitation, and was thinking of looking for some other; but in the mean time he went on reading it; again and again he deliberated about turning over the leaves, and searching for another, and yet he hesitated to turn them.
‘What if God wishes me to leave the world,’ said he, ‘and to flee from all occasions of sin, as that royal maiden did when she left her native country.’
Wherefore, he determined to enter the religious state without further delay; and whilst he was yet hesitating somewhat, he was wrongfully accused of a grievous crime, and taken into custody.
Seeing in the prison a statue of St. Ignatius, he consoled himself with the thought that he too, was thrown into prison though free from all guilt.
Wherefore, he placed himself under this Saint’s protection, and asked his aid.
Soon after he was released.
This occurred during the year of the Jubilee.
Through devotion he set off from Rome.
On the way his leg was hurt somehow, and he was hospitably entertained by our Fathers, and nursed until he recovered.
Full of gratitude for their kindness,
and remembering that St. lgnatius too had broken his leg, he determined to enter the Society.
He was ordained a priest, and set back to Naples with letters from the General to the Provincial.
There he entered the noviciate, and having gone through it in a blameless manner, he was sent to Bohemia for a short time, in order to acquire some experience before he returned to Ireland to be employed in the saving of souls.
His zeal and earnestness were specially remarked, his great piety while offering the sacrifice of the Mass, which was often witnessed by those who assisted thereat, and his great eagerness to divert the conversation to divine things.
He was about to depart for Ireland, and he had prepared himself for the journey by make the spiritual exercises.
Indeed, he had a sort of presentiment that he should be called onto offer up his life for the faith.
John Pauer, who after the death of Gustavus Adolphus
commanded the Swedish army that harassed Germany so long,
made an incursion into Bohemia in 1639 and laid siege to Prague, its capital city.
The Fathers who were then in the College of Cattemberg,
terrified at the approach of such a powerful enemy, looked for some safe place where they might take refuge.
The College of Neuhaus seemed better suited to their wants than any other place.
Several were told to go there by different roads; these were best with robbers, whom the hardship of times or the hope of booty induced to arm themselves, to the ruin of travellers.
Moreover, many of the people were still infected with wicked doctrine, and though it had been preached against some years before throughout the whole of Bohemia, yet the consequences of that evil teaching remained deeply fixed in the minds of many, and induced these rude men to assail those who strove to root out such principles by their preaching.
Many of these were robbed and forced to fly.
Three of them were slain, namely, John Meagh, Martin Ignatius, and Wenceslaus Trnoska.
There are two reasons for asserting that they were put to death through hatred of the Catholic faith.
One is the hatred which the heretics have for the very name of Jesuit, because they find them to be among the most active and zealous defenders and teachers of the faith.
The second is, that they did no harm whatever to the other persons who were travelling with ours, nay, even they bade them put away all fear and take courage; this is a certain fact.
John received one wound in the breast from a small leaden bullet.
Martin was wounded in the breast, and received a deadly blow on the head from an axe.
Wenceslaus was shot through the temples.
The place where they were murdered is one mile from Guttenberg, on the road to Neuhas.
The date was May 31st, 1639.
Their bodies were taken away by the nobleman Bernard De Gerschoff, and buried in the church of the Holy Trinity, in the village of Litz.
On June 3rd following they were transferred to the church of St. Barbara, at the Rector’s request.
F. John Meagh was put to death in his 39th year, thirteen of which he has passed in the Society of Jesus.
See also Rothe, Tanner, and Bruodin.
[1] Probably a native of Cork. Several of the named were Mayors of Cork between 1379 and 1437.
[2] Her feast is o May 15”. See OHanlons Lives of the Irish Sa,ntS, v. 264
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
- CORMAC EGAN, O.P.
Comemorate on the 26th of May, anniversary of death in 1644 of Dominican bishop of Kildare Ros MacAodhagáin, (Ross Geoghegan)
HE was a laybrother of the Dominican Order.
He was hanged by the heretics about this time.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
NICHOLAS NUGENT,[1] DAVID SUTTON, JOHN SUTTON, THOMAS EUSTACE, JOHN EUSTACE, WILLIAM WOGAN, ROBERT SHERLOCK, JOH CLINCH, THOMAS NETHERFIELD AND ROBERT FITZGERALDN.
AMONG the chiefs who took up arms in defence of the Catholic faith professed by their ancestors against the unjust persecutions of Queen Elizabeth about the year 1580, we must reckon these illustrious champions, Viscount Baltinglass[2] and John, Baron of Dunkellin.
The English executioners, whose thirst for the innocent blood of Catholics was insatiable, put to death in several ways many noble Catholics through hatred of the faith, under one false pretext or another, and especially because they were suspected of sharing in the sentiments of the aforesaid nobles.
Among the many noble knights who were put to death in Dublin in the year 1581, for their constancy in the Catholic faith rather than for the above reason invented by the heretics, were Nicholas Nugent, David Sutton, and his brother John Sutton[3], Thomas Eustace and his son John[4], William Wogan, lord of Rathcoffy; Robert Sherlock, John Clinch, lord of Scrine Thomas Netherfield,[5] and Robert Fitzgerald.
All these most famous men, no regard being had to their high birth or the respectability of their families, were hanged and then quartered in Dublin on the 26th of May, 1581.
‘Nugent,’ says Camden, ‘a man of singular good life and reputation, was merely circumvented (as the Irish report) by the cunning of his adversaries.
He, relying upon the conscience of his own innocency, when the Lord Deputy faithfully promised him his life if he would confess himself guilty, chose rather, being guiltless, to undergo an infamous death, than by betraying his own innocency to lead an infamous[6] 1ife.’
It is to these, no doubt, the Annals of Loch Cé refer[7], under the date 1581.
‘Eighteen heirs of the nobles of the foreigners of Meath were put to death in Dublin by the Justiciary of Erin this year.’
See also Holing, Rothe, Copinger, Molanus, and Lynch
[1] He was Chief Justice of the Common Pleas.
[2] An Act of parliament was passed in 1585, 27 Eliz. Ci., attainting him and his four brothers. He died in Portugal.
[3] Of Castletown, Co. Kildare. Archdall, vi. 178
[4] Copinger says : Mr Thomas Eustace, with his son and heir, said the litanies going up the ladder.’ Spic. Ossor., iii.42
[5] Or Netterville
[6] Annals, p. 311
[7] ii.447
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From O’Daly’s Relatio, p.364)
F. MALPHÆUS, O.P. gives a detailed account of him.
He landed in England.
He was soon after accused in London of having said that it's lawful for any one to kill the King of England.
He was found guilty, & hanged.
But when the matter was brought too late to the notice of the Queen,[1] he was declared to have been falsely accused.
F. Malphus relates wonderful things that happened.
1stly that when the rope was cut and he was let down and his heart and entrails cut out, and while the executioner was shewing his heart to the crowd, he turned his eyes towards the executioner, and spat at him; 2ndly, when the executioner was throwing his entrails into the fire, a man, seeing the liver outside the fire, thrust it in, and went away cursing his religion.
But his sacrilegious hand immediately trembled, and he was struck down with such pains that he was obliged to throw himself down on the nearest mound of earth.
Some women perceived a very sweet odour. A German, a dealer in spices perceived the same sweet smell.
One judge declared that he suffered in consequence.
We have several accounts of his trial and death written at the time.
‘On Wednesday, the 27th November, Arthur Gohagan was drawn on a hurdle ...to Tiburne, ...where ... he spake these words : -
“In manus tuas commendo spiritum meum qula redemisti me, 0 Deus veritatis meæ,”...
Then ... he earnestly commended his soul to God, and said
“0 thou glorious Virgin Mother of our Lord and Saviour, pray to thy Son Jesus Christ to receive my soul. I would fain have received the Holy Sacrament, according to the injunction of our Order, but I could get not priest to give it me.”
Then ... earnestness, repeating:
“In manus tuas, et.,” ...some of his friends obtained the disposing of them, and sent them over sea to be interred as he requested.[2]
2 days after his execution the Spanish Ambassador,[3] wrote :
‘They hanged an Irish Dominican Friar here 2 days ago. He can enter into the number of the Martyrs. ...whatever the French may ... this Friar suffered for religion.
His persecutors maliciously invented a pretext, and all I could do with the King and his ministers was of no avail.’
The General Chapter of the Order held in Rome in 1644, thus speaks of him:
‘The Venerable F.B. Arthur Geoghegan, ... was seized by the English heretics and cast into prison in London.
He ... was brought to trial on a charge of high treason, ... and was condemned to death.
...
He was hanged, and while half-alive he was cut down, his limbs cut asunder, and his entrails burnt.
And so he ended his life gloriously in the year 1633.[4]
[1] Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I. And sister of Louis XII., King of France
[2] Mostyn MSS., in Irish Ecci. Record for November, 1894
[3] He asked on the Scaffold that ‘his body be not dismembered and that the Spanish Ambassador would Sent it to be buried in some abbey or place belonging to an abbey of St. Dominick’ Ibid
[4] Hib. Dom., p.559
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Hartyr’s Triumphalia, p.253)
GELASIUS O’CULLENAN[1] was born in Connaught. He was the oldest of 6 brothers, 5 joined the clergy.
He went to Louvain and Rome. Having completed his studies, he returned to Ireland.
He entered the Cistercian Order.
His great virtue pointed him out as a fit person to be appointed Abbot of Boyle.
One of the gentry had taken possession of the monastery and lands, by the edict of Elizabeth. The Abbot went to the usurper, admonished him of the guilt he was incurring and of the curse he would bring down on his whole family.
The nobleman gave him up the monastery and lands; and sometime after, he too renounced the world and embraced the religions institute.
In 1580, Gelasius was arrested by order of the Government, and together with Hugh Mulkeeran, abbot of the monastery of the Holy Trinity,[2 imprisoned in the public gaol.
John O’Garwin’[3] Protestant Dean of Christ Church, was among those who assisted at his first interrogatory.
Many inducements were held out to him to abandon the Catholic faith if he would renounce the Catholic creed and the authority of the Supreme Pontiff.
His answer was:
The benefices you offer me are very valuable in truth; but how long will you allow me to enjoy them?’ ‘As long as you live,’ they answered. ‘And what length of life will you give me,’ he asked. ‘We can not determine the end of your life or prolong it, nor do we know the day of your death.’
‘Well then,’ he replied, ‘is it not much wiser for me to obey Him and to keep his law who can, if he pleases, prolong my life, and give me a life of eternal happiness in the world to come, than to obey you who cannot lengthen my life by one instant, and are striving by your deceitful and perishable gifts to lead me away from the laws of heaven?‘[4]
The English were angered by this answer and ordered his fingers, arms, and legs to be crushed with blows of a hammer.
And when they could not break down his courage, they ordered him and Hugh Mulkeeran to be hanged.
The Abbot asked that Hugh should suffer death first, as he wept.
He was hanged first.
The Abbot was then put to death, and while he was on his way to scaffold, 500 heretics were converted by the sight of his constancy.
At the request of his friends, his body was not cut in pieces. However it was set on the top of the Castle. The English used it as a mark to fire at.
Many took away his clothes as relics. They suffered, November 21st, 1584.
Henriquez[5] styles O’Cullenan in his Menologium Cisterciense, ... the ornament of the Cistercian Order, the light of our century, the glory of all Ireland.
Rothe says Eugene Cronius, a secular priest, was martyred with him.
See also Rothe, Copinger, O’Sullevan, Annus CistercienSiS, Molanus, Henriquez, Hartry, Porter, and Bruodin.
[1] He is called O’Boyle by Bruodin and others.
The mistake arose, no doubt, from his having been Abbot of the monastery near Boyle.
[2] In one of the islands of Lough Ce, near Boyle. It was founded by Clarus M’Mailin, Archdeacon of Elphin, in 1213 for Premonstratensians.
See Mon. Hib., 0.615
[3] John Garvey, who became Protestant Archbishop of Armagh in 1584
[4] ‘Just such a colloquy is said to have taken place between Sir Thomas More and his wile.
See his Life, by Roper, p.89
[5] 2 The learned Historiographer of the Order, in his Menologium Cisterciense, p. 389
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Bruodin’s Propugnaculum, p. 673
THIS pious and zealous priest was a native of Wexford.
At the risk of his life he used to comfort the flock confided to his care, and encourage them to persevere in the profession of the faith of their fathers, at a time when the heretics were persecuting the Catholics cruelly.
Wherefore he was seized by them, and hanged and quartered in Dublin November 12th, 1610.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
HE was Vicar General of Dublin, Kildare, and Ferns.[1
According to Chichester on 26-2-1606: ‘They have taken one Lawler, a priest... He ...called himself Vicar General of Dublin and Kildare...’[2
On 7-3-1806, the Lord Deputy[3 wrote:
On the 26th of last month, ...there was apprehended ... Robert Lalor, a priest, ... who ...occupied the place of Vicar General in ... Dublin, Kildare, and Ferns; first, by a commission .....[4 authorized by Bulls from Rome, and since by ... Mathias de la Vega,[5 ...who came to Kinsale with Don John,[6 .... They now in examination of him.’[7]
He was indicted under the 2 Eliz.c.i.
According to Cox, he ...made a recognition,-
1-That he was not lawful Vicar General....
2-He doth acknowledge King James to be his supreme governor in all causes....
3-That all bishops ordained by the King’s authority ...are lawful bishops.
4-He professeth himself willing to obey the King ....’
Upon this confession,’ says Cox., he ... would undoubtedly have been enlarged ... if he had not privately denied what he had publicly done, ..., it was resolved to try him upon the statute of præmunire.[8]
In the trial, Sir John Davis urged that this law was made by Catholics. ....’[9]
He was found guilty, and Justice Sarsfield pronounced the sentence against him.
In July 1607, Sir John Davis wrote to Salisbury;
‘it was the first judgment ... of præmunire ... among the records of the Kingdom. ...., so it has bred no small terrors, ... to divers gentlemen ...who have been maintainers and abettors of this priest ...whereby they have also incurred the danger of præmunire, for it appeared ... that sundry gentlemen had taken from him sundry dispensations …… Besides, this priest had obtained such credit and trust among them that he was feoffee of trust to divers lords and gentlemen of all their lands of inheritance, all which are forfeited to the Crown by this attainder. Among the rest, he is feoffee of the greatest part of the lands of the Earldom of Kildare and the barony of Delvyn.’[10]
On 23-4-1606 the Deputy wrote to the Council, that ‘...of the apprehension of one Lalor, a priest. ... they find by his own confession that he hath incurred the old statute of præmunire....’ [11]
Cox didn't hear that sentence was executed[12]. His name is not in Rothe’s Catalogue of Martyrs. He was a prisoner in the Dublin Castle on 12th-11-1606.[13] There's no further mention of him in State Papers.
1-Letter of F. Holywood, S.J., in Dist. irishmen, p. 171
2-C.S.P.I. (1603-1606) p. 406
3-Sir Arthur Chichester
4-Dermot Creagh, appointed Bishop of Cork and Cloyne in 1560. His date of death is uncertain. See Brady’s Epis. Succ., ii.90
5-Matthew de Oviedo, Archbishop of Dublin from 1600 to 1609. See Moran’s Archbishops, p. 193
6-The commander of the Spanish forces which came to assist the Irish in 1601
7-C.S.Rl. (1606— 1608), p.416
8-Hib. Angi., ii.II
9-See preface to C.S.PI. (1606-8), p. lxxv.
10-Ibid.,p.210
11-Ibid., p. 448
12-Hib. Angl.., ii, ll
13-C.S.P.I. (1 606-1608), p. 18
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
He returned to Ireland. He and Shane O’Neill disagreed on many things. The Primate was dissatisfied at the hardships which the king inflicted on clergy and violation of privileges and immunities of the churches. The Primate excommunicated him.
Creagh was seized by Myler Hussey and surrendered by him. Upon capture he was sent to Dublin & from there to London. He had escaped from the Tower in 1565, and died there October 14th, 1585.
The Bishop of Clogher visited Creagh to offer him high dignity, wealth, and honours, if he would renounce obedience to the Holy See, and take the oath. But he bade him begone.
A jailer accused him of having offered violence to his daughter. He had to undergo examination before 12 jurors. He disproved the crimes. The jury pronounced him innocent. Even the girl declared that she had been suborned.
An order was issued to bring imprisoned priests to the Tower chapel to hear a heretical sermon. Creagh declared he would not go. The Knight ordered his servants to drag him by force, to the chapel. When he heard the thundering against Catholics, and blasphemies against the Saints and their Queen etc, he interrupted the sermon and took the preacher to task.
They used great violence and forced him to desist.
He adjured all not to believe the lying preacher, a seducer of souls, and he declared that whosoever would hold by his lies and errors would perish for ever.
He was taken back to the prison, and as there was no hope of shaking his constancy in the faith, one Culligius, an under-warder of the Tower, put poison in some cheese and gave a mouthful of it to the venerable Prelate, knowing well it was a kind of food which he would accept readily.
He, suspecting no harm, ate it, and presently felt great pains in his stomach. Then his throat swelled, and his whole body became affected.
The next day he sent a boy with an account of his symptoms to a Catholic physician in the city named Arclous.
When he learned the cause of the illness, he was roused to indignation, and he cast a bottle containing a lotion over the wall; he declared that the Bishop was poisoned, and that as the poison had already penetrated the vital parts, no human aid could be of any avail to him.
Feeling himself growing worse, and bearing in mind his duty as a Christian, he had a confessor called in to him from a neighbouring chamber, F. Crighton, of the Society of Jesus, who was a prisoner there for the faith.
Father Crighton heard his confession, gave him absolution, and did everything that the difficulty of their position allowed.
He died October 14th, 1585.
Mr Froude says he died in exile.
The Propaganda, in the Rescript appointing his successor, dated July 1587, says he died the preceding year in prison in England.’
Stanihurst and White say he was poisoned by means of a cheese.
He is alluded to by Sander:
‘The Elizabethan prelates finding no duly consecrated bishop willing to impart Episcopal ordination to them, importuned an Irish Archbishop, then a prisoner in London, to succour them in the straits they were in.
They promised to set him at liberty and to reward him for his services if he would preside at their ordination. But the good man would not be persuaded to lay hallowed hands on heretics or take any part in the sins of others.’
He wrote several works; including On the Origin of the Irish Language, Controversies on Faith against the Heretics, these two in Latin; An Irish Catechism.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
HE was a member of the Third Order of St. Francis.
After enduring great hardships in prison, he died in chains for the faith in the year 1628.[1]
Anno 1628, upon the 2nd of November, being Sunday at night, the titular Bishop of Down and Connor died in the Castle of Dublin.
He was accused by one Patrick O’Mulvany, a Popish priest, of a conspiracy to bring in foreign powers.
The Tuesday following, at four o’clock in the morning, he was brought forth and buried in St. Warborough’s churchyard.’
Hunting of the Romish Fox, p.195
On the 7 of September of the following year, the Archbishop elect of Armagh, the Archbishop of Dublin, and the Bishop elect of Kilmore, in a letter to Pope Urban VIII,., pray him to appoint Bonaventure Magennis, O.S.F., to the See, and they add:
‘We pity the desolate condition of the church of Down and Connor more than that of any other, for it has been deprived of two most illustrious champions of the faith one after the other.’[2]
[1] Anno 1628, upon the 2nd of November, being Sunday at night, the titular Bishop of Down and Connor died in the Castle of Dublin.
He was accused by one Patrick O’Mulvany, a Popish priest, of a conspiracy to bring in foreign powers.
The Tuesday following, at four o’clock in the morning, he was brought forth and buried in St. Warborough’s churchyard.’ Hunting of the Romish Fox, p.195
[2] Brady’s Epis. Succession, .270. Theo there was Cornelius O’Devany. See p. 238, antea
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Holing’s Compendium.[1])
MAURICE EUSTACE, of an illustrious family, student of theology and Master of Arts, became a novice of the Society of Jesus at Bruges. When his father[2], a rich powerful man, learned this, he was displeased and wrote to the Superiors of the Order, asking them to send his son to him, as he was his heir and the only son of his 1st marriage.
They sent him home. His father offered him money, a rich and handsome wife too, in order to turn him from his purpose.
But Maurice begged earnestly to be allowed devote himself to God’s service in the Society of Jesus; and reminded his father that he had other children of a second marriage, one of whom he might make his heir. But he wouldn't consent.
Maurice remained for some days, waiting for an opportunity of returning to Flanders. He went to Bruges and was received by the Fathers.
But these learning the father’s wish, and thinking too that the young man might be more useful to the Church in the world than in the religious state, sent him away, much against his will. On his return to Ireland, he was appointed a captain of horse.
He brought back to the Catholic faith some of those who served under him; others he confirmed in it by his advice and exhortations, especially by his example in frequenting the sacraments every eight or fifteen days.
After some months, he fell in with a Catholic Bishop, and received Orders from him, without his father’s knowledge.
A servant, who had been appointed to attend on him, told what had taken place.
The father, indignant at his son’s conduct, sent soldiers to seize him, as he could do being a judge, and ordered him to be imprisoned in Dublin.
He, (the father) died soon after.
The younger brother, eager to get his father’s property into his hands, denounced Maurice as a Jesuit and a priest, and enemy to the Queen, and a friend of those who were at war with her.
Maurice denied that he was a Jesuit or a priest, but openly confessed that he was a Catholic; he showed that he had no opportunity of communicating with anyone but the jailer.
He often disputed with the heretical Bishops and ministers, and always confounded them, for he surpassed them far in learning.
The Chancellor[3] offered to set him free and to give him his daughter in marriage with an ample dowry, if he would change his faith.
He refused to do so, and was sent back to prison.
On the appointed day he was brought to trial before a jury of twelve heretics, as is the custom in Ireland and in England, and found guilty of high treason.
He was drawn at a horse’s tail to the place of execution.
The Chancellor again repeated his offer, and again Maurice rejected it.
For Jesus Christ’s sake,’ he exclaimed, 1 have come here, ready to suffer ignominy and pain, and to shed my blood.
Great is my joy.
I will not abandon Christ for a heretical wife, for an uncertain life, and for my liberty; and as He died for me on the cross, I desire and hope to die for Him on the scaffold.’
Finally this brave soldier of Christ, asking God’s help and the prayers of the Catholics, was hanged and quartered, and so earned the martyr’s crown in the month of November, 1581[4].
See also Rothe, Copinger, Molanus, and Bruodin.
[1] See. Spic. Ossor., i. 95
[2] Copinger says he was Sir John Eustace, of Castlemartin, Co. kildare, Ibid., ii.42.
[3] Adam Loftus, then Protestant Archbishop of Dublin.
[4] Bruodin gives 1588 as the date of his death.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
While waiting for a ship to Ireland, he was entertained by a priest. [1] He was called to exorcise a woman, and he was going through the prayers, perchance,’ said the serpent, you threaten me, relying on the aid of that Irish Bishop.’
He was astonished, and he told the Primate what what the devil had said to him, and he besought him to pray for the poor woman when offering the sacrifice of the Mass.
During the whole time of the Mass the woman cried out that she was persecuted by the Irish Bishop. Her pains came to an end, and she obtained relief.
He went to Spain. When his strength was restored, he returned to Ireland; and he was again seized[2] and brought before the Viceroy and Council in Dublin.
The nominal charge against him was his connection with Shane O’Neill,[3] his real crime was his adhering to and maintaining the Papal authority.[4]
He proved his innocence, and explained his capture and the manner of escape.
The jurors returned a verdict of not guilty;’ but they were all cast into prison and fined.
After an imprisonment which lasted about six months, he again Contrived to escape.
In a letter which he wrote from the Tower of London to the Privy Council, he gives the reasons why he made his escape from the Dublin prison:
‘My going away, I think no man would wonder that should know how I was dealt therein withal: first, in a hole where without candle there was no light in the world, and with candle (when I had it), it was so filled with the smoke thereof (chiefly in summer), that had there not been a little hole in the next door to draw in breath with my mouth set upon it, I had been soon undone.’[5]
[1] Demonic possession
[2] April 3Q5, 1567
[3] See Richey’s Lectures on Irish Histo,y, 2 series, p. 273
[4] Memorial for Ireland,’ Spic. Ossor., I. 43. His examination is given Ibid., p.44
[5] See Ibid., p. 49
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
He was consecrated, and reached Ireland.[1] He was seized, taken to London, and shut in the Tower.[2]
His courage to endure increased day by day.
‘The faithful man,’,[3] ‘should grow in faith while suffering affliction.’ [4]
The Archbishop escaped from the Tower.
The account of his escape is among the Japanese letters at Louvain (p.290). [9]
Our Primate was interrogated before the Queen.[11] He was thrown into the Tower on the feast of Peter’s Chair.[12]
He had dreams that he had escaped. He saw souls of those to whom he had applied indulgences granted to him by the Pontiff.
He left the cell. He invoked God, and went out through the six gates. He reached the guard. When asked he answered that he was the servant of a certain very important person in a more open part of the prison. He was allowed to go.
He wandered London, and heard of the escape of the Archbishop with a white beard, which they understood to mean grey from age. He was taken aboard ship by a captain. The pursuivants came and interrogated the sailors whether they knew anything of the grey-haired Bishop.
They had no suspicion, as he young, and spoke French. He escaped and reached Brabant safe.[13]
There can be no doubt that this strange escape must have disturbed the Queen’s mind.[14]
He met in the harbour a vessel about to sail.
He hid his breviary in the hold; and when the sailors were moving the cargo, one of them caught sight of it, and read it. All agreed to take him back to London, hoping to be well rewarded.
But the wind changed, and so he escaped their wicked plottings.
1] In April, 1564, Dr. Creagh was consecrated, came to Ireland in October.
He was arrested, and confined in the Tower. He escaped from the Tower on the Octave of Easter, 1565. In 1567 he was arrested, brought to trial, and acquitted. He was kept in prison and taken to London and confined in the Tower, where he died October 14’, 1585.
2] Ceti atrium.
3] Epis 256
4] early hermit. St Jerome wrote his Life
9] xi. 3-10
10] Cardinal Fisher executed June 22, 1535, and Sir Thomas More July 5th
11] See. Spic. Ossor., i.43
12] St. Peter’s Chair at Rome, January 16, or at Antioch, February 22nd
13] See also Spic. Ossor., i.40
14] October 1 ‘, 1560. There is another account of escape, probably by himself, in Spic. Ossor., i.40
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
HE was a native of Connaught, a priest, and a member of the Franciscan Order.
After he had spent many years in religion a model to all of every virtue, and had discharged the office of pastor very zealously among the persecuted Catholics of Leinster, he was seized by the English heretics in Dublin and cast into prison.
After six weeks of imprisonment, rejecting with contempt the honours and benefices offered to him in the King’s name if he would change his religion, he was most cruelly tortured, then hanged, and quartered, and so triumphed gloriously October 14th, 1618.
See also O’Sullevan.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
From Rothe’s Analecta, p395
He was native of Limerick.
In his youth he had charge of the sale of saffron and other aromatic herbs in a merchant’s shop. Once he perceived that bags of saffron were damp. His conscience fearing there might be wrong done to the buyers, he set out the plant to dry in the sun, lest his soul might suffer from the addition in its weight.
He was worried by the thought of the dangers to which those in trade are exposed in buying, managing, and selling their wares. [2] He considered saffron and cinnamon and all other precious balsams as dirt, that he might gain Christ.[3]
Abandoning this trade, he devoted himself to study and piety, to engage in another trade, of that precious pearl, the great value of which is set forth in the Gospel,[4] he sold all he possessed in order to purchase it.
As soon as he was freed from the service of the merchant he gave forth an odour of balm and ambrosia.
‘I gave forth a sweet fragrance like cinnamon and aromatic balm; I yielded a sweetness of odour like the choicest myrrh.’[5]
To him might be applied the words of St. Basil:
‘As the sweet smelling herbs diffuse through the surrounding air a peculiar fragrance which refreshes those who are near, so a good man is useful and agreeable to all who dwell in his neighbourhood.’
This he showed in reference to those with whom he was in daily intercourse.
Once he was about to sail from Spain, where he'd gone on business, he entered a church and as Mass was just commencing, he assisted at it to its close.
When he came out, the ship in which he was to sail was clearing the harbour with a favourable wind. But while still within sight of shore, she was struck by a gust and sunk.[6]
He went and devoted himself to the study of polite literature in the famous University of Louvain.[7]
When he had gone through the course of philosophy and taken the degree of Master of Arts, he devoted himself wholly to sacred theology, and after passing some years in that study, he was found worthy to receive the degree of Bachelor.
He was a priest when he returned from abroad. He zealously, exhorted in private, preached in public, performed all the duties of a priest; he warned all earnestly against the oath asserting the ecclesiastical primacy claimed by the Queen, against all communication with schismatical officials.
He devoted to the training of youth in virtuous practices whatever time he could spare, bearing in mind what St. lrenus remarked:
‘The knowledge of what we have learned in our youth grows with our growth, and is firmly fixed in our soul.’ ‘A young man according to his way; even when he is old, he will not depart from it.’[8]
He opened a school and taught. ‘What greater or better service can we render to the state than to teach and instruct youth,’ says the father of Roman eloquence.
For as the ruin of town and country alike is brought about the neglect or improper performance of this duty, so the common weal is promoted by its proper discharge. For how can the country be secure, how will its government be good, unless its rulers are good? And how can magistrates be good unless the citizens from whom they are chosen are good too?
And these cannot be so unless they are virtuous in their childhood and in their youth.’
Our
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(Ibid., p. 456)
HE was a native of Wexford, and a Bachelor of Theology.
Moved by charity towards the Catholics, he return to Ireland from Spain.
Hardly had he landed at Wexford when he was taken and examined, and being found constant in the faith, by order of the judge he was, after various tortures, hanged and quartered, October 4th, 1588.
See also Holing, Rothe, and Copinger.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Bruodin’s Propugnaculum, p. 497.)
AMONG the many bold athletes who in the County of Limerick courageously sacrificed their property,
and even shed their blood to uphold the ancient Catholic faith, we must mention this brave man.
He was of noble descent, and lord of Ballyrobert.[1]
When the teachers of heresy were raging throughout Ireland, he joined with Gerald, Earl of Desmond, and offered and active opposition to the unjust decrees of the Queen and the efforts of her Ministers.
This man, well known throughout the whole of Munster for his prudence, piety, courage, and generosity, could not hold out long against the great powers of darkness.
He fell into the hands of the Queen’s officers, and because he refused to admit the Queen’s Supremacy and abandon the Church of Christ, he was run through with spears and beheaded, and so bore off the glorious crown of a martyr.
His head was placed on the point of a spear, by orders of the President of Munster, and taken from the place where he was executed to Listowel, in triumph; there it was exposed publicly to the mockery of the heretics.
He suffered death on the 15th of September, 1584.
[1] There are several places of this name in Co. Cork, in the Ordnance Survey list of towniands, but none in Co. Limerick
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
- JAMES DOWDALL
(From Bruodin’s Propugnaculum, p. 467)
(A few different dates are given in the narrative I wonder if three different martyrs killed in the same area have been given the name of the known martyr.)
HE was a Drogheda merchant, & when returning from France to Ireland he was driven by contrary winds into a harbour in the south of England.
The Mayor questioned him about the spiritual supremacy of Elizabeth.
Dowdall answered, as a Catholic should, that he recognized no other as Head of the Church than the Roman Pontiff.
Because he had spoken thus, his merchandise was confiscated, and he was taken to Exeter, his hands bound behind his back as if he were a robber.
There after being put to the rack, he was hanged and his body was cut into four parts; and in this way, in return for temporal goods, this very wise merchant got in exchange eternal life.
He suffered September 20th, 1600.
‘This year’ (1599), says Challoner,[1] ‘I find two of the laity executed for religious matters, viz., Mr. John Lyon... and Mr. James Dowdal, an Irish merchant, native of Wexford, who for the same cause was hanged, bowelled, and quartered at Exeter, August 13, whose burial-place, says his countryman, John Mullan of Cork, is said to be illustrated with miracles to this day.’
Rev. Dr. Oliver, who obtained access to the official records of Devon, says[2] :
‘The only victims I have met within Devonshire are …. . and James Doudal, an Irish merchant and a native of Wexford.
For denying the Queen’s spiritual supremacy he was thrown into Exeter gaol.
When I examined the calendar of the prisoners in September, 1824.
I found this minute at the autumn assizes of 1598
“Jacobus Dowdall remanet in gaola per mandatum Concilii Privati.’[3]
(J.D. remains in prison by order of the privy Council)
At the following Lent assizes he is thus noticed:
‘Jacobus Dowdall remanet quia judicandus pro proditione.”[4]
(J.D. remains because he is to be tried for high treason)
At the autumn assizes
“Jacobus Dowdall suspendatur, &c., pro proditione.”[5]
(J.D. shall be hanged, &c., for high treason)
His execution took place on the 13th of August, 1598.’
See also Rothe, Copinger, and Molanus.
[1] Memoirs, i. 198
[2] See his Collections, p. 2
[3] J.D. remains in prison by order of the privy Council
[4] J.D. remains because he is to be tried for high treason
[5] J.D. shall be hanged, &c., for high treason
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Hartyr’s Synopsis, p. 251)
F. NICHOLAS FITZGERALD, to escape from the cruel persecution, fled to a wood, and lay concealed there.
He was seized in his monastic habit, taken in chains to the city of Dublin, and condemned by the Viceroy, who was never sated with the blood of Catholics, to be hanged, and while half-alive to be quartered.
He endured that manner of death courageously for the Catholic faith, wearing his religious habit.
The faithful, influenced by pious devotion, preserved the clothes and blood of the courageous martyr, dividing them into small portions as relics in the year of Christ’s birth 1581, in the month of September.
His father Maurice Fitzgerald, and his mother, Margaret FitzRedmond, obtained, as a very great favour, that the four quarters of their beloved son, when cut asunder, should be given to them for burial in the tomb of his ancestors in the church of the Nuns of the Order of St. Brigid, in Kildare.
Our glorious martyr was descended from the noble race of the Geraldines.1
There is a tombstone close by the vestry door of the cathedral of Kildare which bears the names of the parents of Nicholas Fitzgerald.2
If the original position of this stone was ascertained, it would determine the place where the martyr was buried.
1 Thomas, 2nd son of Thomas, 7th Earl of Kildare, settled at Lackagh, midway between Kildare and Monasterevan
2 The inscription is given in Comerford’s Dioceses of Kildare arid Leighlin, ii.29
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Hartry’s Triumphalia, p. 257.)
ON the 8 of September, 1620, the Rev. James Eustace received the crown of martyrdom, and by sufferings on earth like those of his brother in religion Nicholas Fitzgerald,[1] obtained a reward in heaven.
The author says he heard the account of the martyrdom of these two religious from a venerable priest, Richard Kelly, then in the seventy-sixth year of his age and in the fifty-first of his priesthood.
1 See p. 120, ante-a
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
Comemorate 6th September
While striving to protect the flock entrusted to his care from heresy, he was captured, and ended his life in prison.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
THIS priest was a native of Leinster.
He was accused by the heretics of celebrating Mass.1
He was hanged and quartered by order of the cruel tyrant Marshal Burrowes, and so deserved to obtain a martyr’s crown September 4th, 1597.
See also Copinger and Wadding.
1 For that he said Mass to Teig MacHugh.’ Copinger
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Bouchier’s Hist. De Martyrio FE Ordinis S.F.)
In 1576 he was appointed Bishop of Mayo. 1
With Con O’Rourke OSF, he landed at Dingle, and immediately recognised.
They were taken to Drury, President of Munster. 2 O’Hely replied for both.
‘By God’s grace we are both priests and religious of the Order of St. Francis. Moreover, I am the Bishop of Mayo, having been appointed to that office and consecrated by the Supreme Head of the Church on earth, Gregory XIII., and I have been sent by him to Ireland to visit, and gather together, and feed with the word of Life the Catholic people confided to my care, and now scattered by the fury of the heretics. This is my calling and the cause of my return to my native country.’
‘do you dare,’ asked Drury, ‘to assert, like a rebel, that the Pope is the Supreme Head of the Church in Ireland, notwithstanding the lawful decrees made by the Queen and parliament to the contrary?’
‘If these laws were just,’ replied the Bishop, ‘they would not contradict what I say; and to prove the truth of my assertion, I am ready to suffer any torments you please and to lay down my life, if necessary.’
They were stripped; beaten; & racked; sharp points thrust between the nails and the flesh, their fingers cut off, arms and feet beaten with hammers, and their thigh-bones broken.
They exhorted each other, urged Catholics present to persevere, and preached repentance.
Drury sent an attendant to ask whether he would conform outwardly.
The Bishop stated that he would endure a thousand deaths rather than deny publicly or privately what had been defined as true by the Church or subscribe to what was condemned.
They were hanged on 22nd of August, 1578. When the Bishop reached the top of the ladder, he warned Drury that within a few days he should appear before the judgment-seat of God. 3 days after he was seized by a disease which baffled all the physicians.
He declared that he was punished by God for the unjust sentence against the Bishop.
The Earl of Desmond ordered the bodies removed and buried with great honour. 70 years later, they were transferred to Askeaton monastery. 3
F. Holing’s manuscript, Magna Supplicia, states:-
'1577. William Drury, an Englishman, Viceroy of Ireland, was summoned by the Most Rev. Patrick Hely, of the Order of St. Francis, bishop (whom with his brother in religion he had condemned to death solely on account of his faith), before the judgment-seat of God to give an account of his deed.
He was seized with a very violent disease, and died soon after mad and uttering blasphemies. On the day he was buried, there was such darkness, thunder, and lightning as Ireland never saw before or since.’ 4
The year of death is uncertain. Some say 1577, others 1578, others 1579.
See also Annals of Loch Ce, Gonzaga, Harpsfield, Sander, Bozius, Verstegan, Bridgewater, Fitzsimon, Rothe, O’Sullevan, Molanus, Ward, Wadding, O’DaIy, Bruodin, Lynch, Porter, and Hueber.
[1] Its last Bishop was Adam Magauran, appointed in 1585. Now united to Tuam,
[2] Appointed President in 1576, held office for 3 years. In year 2 hanged 400 persons. Webb’s Irish Biography.
[3] Founded 1420 by James 6th Earl of Desmond. See Meehan’s Franc. Mon., p.96
[4] 2 Spic. Ossor., iii.25.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Hartry’s Synopsis, p. 259
IN the Abbey of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Assaroe1 in the Co. Donegal, the Abbot, Eugene O’Gallagher and Bernard O’Trevir, his Prior, and the other monks to the number of thirty, lived according to their rule, undisturbed from the first erection of the abbey till some years after the suppression of nearly all the other monasteries,2 while the power of O’Neill and O’Donnell lasted.
But when they fled across the sea the monks too were forced to fly, and when they died at Rome in 1609,3 the English took occasion to seize on their vast domains and possessions, threw down the monastery, and drove out the monks.
The venerable Eugene O’Gallagher who happened to be away from his monastery, was slain by the aforesaid enemies through hatred of the faith.
So too, Bernard O’Trevir, one of his monks, when flying from his persecutors, was slain near the monastery in the year 1606, in the same year and month as the Abbot, but not on the same day, and entered heaven wearing a martyr’s crown.
The author says he heard the account of the martyrdom of these two religious from a venerable priest, Richard Kelly, then in his seventy-sixth year.
See also Rothe, O’Sullevan Henriquez, and Bruodin.
1 The abbey is close to the town of Ballyshannon. It was founded in 1178 by O'Cannanan, chief of Tyrconnell.
2 See Introduction p.7
3 See Meehans Flight of the Earls
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Bruodin’s Propugnaculum, p. 467)
HE was a Drogheda merchant, & when returning from France to Ireland he was driven by contrary winds into a harbour in the south of England.
The Mayor questioned him about the spiritual supremacy of Elizabeth.
Dowdall answered, as a Catholic should, that he recognized no other as Head of the Church than the Roman Pontiff.
Because he had spoken thus, his merchandise was confiscated, and he was taken to Exeter, his hands bound behind his back as if he were a robber.
There after being put to the rack, he was hanged and his body was cut into four parts; and in this way, in return for temporal goods, this very wise merchant got in exchange eternal life.
He suffered September 20th, 1600.
‘This year’ (1599), says Challoner,1 ‘I find two of the laity executed for religious matters, viz., Mr. John Lyon... and Mr. James Dowdal, an Irish merchant, native of Wexford, who for the same cause was hanged, bowelled, and quartered at Exeter, August 13, whose burial-place, says his countryman, John Mullan of Cork, is said to be illustrated with miracles to this day.’
Rev. Dr. Oliver, who obtained access to the official records of Devon, says2 :
‘The only victims I have met within Devonshire are …. . and James Doudal,
an Irish merchant and a native of Wexford.
For denying the Queen’s spiritual supremacy he was thrown into Exeter gaol.
When I examined the calendar of the prisoners in September, 1824.
I found this minute at the autumn assizes of 1598
“Jacobus Dowdall remanet in gaola per mandatum Concilii Privati.’3
(J.D. remains in prison by order of the privy Council)
At the following Lent assizes he is thus noticed :
‘Jacobus Dowdall remanet quia judicandus pro proditione.”4
(J.D. remains because he is to be tried for high treason)
At the autumn assizes
“Jacobus Dowdall suspendatur, &c., pro proditione.”5
(J.D. shall be hanged, &c., for high treason)
His execution took place on the 13th of August, 1598.’
See also Rothe, Copinger, and Molanus.
1 Memoirs, i. 198
2 See his Collections, p. 2
3 J.D. remains in prison by order of the privy Council
4 J.D. remains because he is to be tried for high treason
5 J.D. shall be hanged, &c., for high treason
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Ward’s Catalogue)
F. TADHG DONALD, of the convent of Bantry1, a famous preacher, and his companion2, were seized by English soldiers near the same monastery.
They were tied together with their girdles, and thrown into the sea from a high rock.
Bruodin says they were put to death on the 10th of August.
Notes:
The convent of Bantry was ‘founded by Dermot O’Sullevan, about 1460, on the water’s edge, a mile west of the town. Nothing remains of it now.
Bruodin says the name of Fr Donald’s companion was John Hanly.
1 ‘Founded by Dermot O’Sullevan, about 1460, on the water’s edge, a mile west of the town.
Nothing remains of it now.
2 Bruodin says his name was John Hanly.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From De Burgo’s Hib. Dom., p.559)
AMONG our Irish martyrs assuredly these may well claim the first place.
They are spoken of at length in the work bearing the title Palma Fidel Ordinis Prœdicatorum composed by the Rev. Father B. Peter Malphæus, OP., prior of Brussels ; viz:’
Donough, alias William, Olvin, prior of the convent of Derry in Ulster2 : he was hanged, with many secular priests, in the square of the said city, and quartered, by the English heretics in the year 1608.3
The brother of the Prior; he too was a religious of the Order of preachers, and was hanged some time before the Prior suffered, in the same city, because he professed the Catholic faith, as we read in the said Malphæus.
See also O’Sullevan, Molanus, O’Daly, and Porter
1 Or O’Laighen
2 Founded by O’Donnell, chief of his clan, in 1244. Hib. Dom. P.281
3 There is some uncertainty about the date. The above is that given in Hib. Dom., p.559
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
LAURENCE O’MOORE was descended from a very ancient and respectable family in Ireland.
He was a priest remarkable for holiness of life, as Sander testifies. 1
When the Spanish General San Jose surrendered the castle of Smerwick, (2) in the western part of Co. Kerry, to Lord Grey, who was the Deputy, the conditions were that the garrison should be allowed to march out with their arms, ammunition, and other property.
But the treacherous heretics did not think themselves bound either by their oath or by the laws that are held sacred even by barbarous nations.
The Spaniards, nine hundred in number, were made to give up their arms, and all but ten and the cowardly commander either cast into the sea or slain in cold blood.
O’Moore and two Irishmen of noble birth, Oliver Plunkett and William Walsh, were taken there also.
These the Deputy required to be handed over to him.
He strove to induce them to abjure the Catholic faith and to embrace Protestantism; and when they refused, and said that with God’s grace they would continue even till death to profess the Catholic faith, he sent them to a blacksmith’s forge and had their limbs broken to pieces with a hammer.
This butchery lasted for twenty-four hours.
During all that time these noblemen displayed extraordinary courage, having been strengthened with the sacraments, which they had received from Father Laurence.
All three expired almost at the same moment, their last words being:
‘Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.’
They were put to death August 1580.
The State Papers confirm fully the above narrative:
This day was executed an Englishman who served Dr. Saunders, one Plunkett, and an Irish priest. Theire armes and legges were broken, and hanged upon a gallowes upon the wall of the fort.’(3) Sander was the Papal Legate, who died soon after in the woods at Aherlow, raving in a phrenesy.’(4) Plunkett, the writer says, was born near Drogheda.
See also Holing, Rothe, O’Sullevan, Copinger, Henriquez, Molanus, Hartry, and Porter.
1 See Spic. Ossor., i. 88
2 See Hennessy’s Raleigh in Ireland, p. 10. The castle was called Dún an Óir.
3 Ibid., p.211. Letter of Sir R, Bingham to Walsingham.
4 See the Introduction to Sander’s Anglican Schism, p.20
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Bruodin’s Propugnaculum, p. 426)
The first of our martyrs in later times mentioned was John Travers, a native of Dublin, a priest of the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine, and a Doctor of Theology.
He wrote anonymously a famous work bearing the title On the Authority of the Roman Pontiff.2 In it he proved that the primacy of Henry VIII was a mere fiction, without any foundation in fact or in reason. Whereupon he was seized by the King’s ministers and sent to London.
He was kept in the Tower for four months in succession. During that time he was examined, and put to various kinds of torture, and being found faithful and steadfast, he was declared guilty of high treason by Cromwell and other flatterers of the King.
He was led out, hands tied behind his back, rope round his neck, placed on a hurdle, and taken to the usual place of execution. 3
(A hurdle's a moveable section of light fence made from wattle. A hurdle was used as a makeshift sledge, to which a prisoner was tied to be dragged behind a horse to his execution.)4
At the top of the ladder, he prayed for pardon, and heartily exhorted the bystanders to pray earnestly to God, the refuge of sinners, for the conversion and salvation of the King and of all the mad heretics who adhered to him.
And then he exclaimed in a loud voice.
‘It is not for any crime, Christian hearers, that I have been sent hither from Ireland, my native country, but rather because I professed the Catholic faith, which I, like my ancestors, have drunk in with my mother’s milk; and also, because I am supposed to be the author of a certain work lately spread abroad among the Catholics. The moment of my death is now close at hand, which will surely open for me the door to eternal life. Hence it behoves me not to use any ambiguous or obscure language for the purpose of concealing the truth. Wherefore I declare openly that I am a priest of the Catholic and Apostolic Church, and, moreover, that it was with these three fingers,’ and he raised aloft the three fingers of his right hand, ’I wrote that work on the Authority of the Roman Pontiff.’
When he had said this, he was hanged, cut down before life was quite extinct, and quartered.
His right hand and intestines were cast into the fire; and while other parts were reduced to ashes, the three fingers of his right hand which he had raised aloft on the scaffold, were seen in a like position in the flames, and afterwards found whole and fresh, as if they had never been cast into the fire, like the hand of King Oswald, which Bede5 tells us remained fresh and uncorrupted.
Harpsfield6 says he was assured by eye-witnesses that the flesh on the martyr’s fingers remained fresh long after his death.
O’Sullevan says Travers was put to death on the 30th July; Fitzsimon on the 31st
See also Harpsfield, Bridgewater, Fitzsimon, White, Copinger, O’SuJlevan , O’Daly, and Lynch.
Broudin writes Tanner; but it is usually written as above.
The identity of the facts given under both names by different authors shows that they refer to one person only.
2 Though I’ve searched for this book, I have not been able to find a copy of it.
3 Tyburn, close to Marble Arch. A stone marks the spot where Tyburn stood.
4 Channel4.com (25 March 2009) "Perkin Warbeck (1474-99)" Henry VIII: The Mind of a Tyrant. Retrieved 2011-11-19
5 Hist. Eccl.Angl., iii.6
6 In whose work he is called Gravesius, no doubt a misprint for Traversius See Dial, p995
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Rothe’sAnalecta, p.391)
THESE were citizens of Wexford and pious Catholics.
With the aid of some other Catholic sailors, they had secretly carried over to France a certain Father of the Society of Jesus, and some of the priests and laymen who were driven from their native country on account of their faith.
They were seized, put to the torture, and hanged; and when they were only halfdead, they were taken down and quartered, July 5th, 1581.
Bruodin2 says they were executed for bringing Father Rochford, S.J., from Belgium, and entertaining priests in their houses.
He gives July 15th of that year as the date of their martyrdom.
Instead of Patrick Canavan, given by Rothe, he sets down John O’Lahy as having been martyred with the two first mentioned.
See also Holing, Molanus, and Bruodin.
1 He is called Meiler by Rothe.
The Narator has come across the surname Meyler in southwest Wexford where it is quite common.
2 Propug., p. 443
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Bruodin’s Propugnaculum, p.499)
HE was descended from the very ancient family of the Earls of Desmond.1
From his very childhood he was so virtuous that he was considered a saint.
When he was enrolled in the Seraphic Order, not only did he strengthen himself by vows in the virtues which he practised in the secular state, but he added others to them.
He completed his studies in Spain, and in 1609 he taught theology in the College of St. Anthony of Padua at Louvain.2
Filled with zeal for the salvation of souls, he returned to Ireland at a time when the pestilential heresy of the English was rampant everywhere.
He was Commissary and Visitor of the Irish province.
For many months he was unwearied in his task of feeding the Catholic people of Munster and Leinster with the word of God, at one time preaching to them in the woods and caves, at another administering the sacraments in private houses, at all times setting before them an example of every virtue, especially of charity, modesty, the token of his inward purity, religious humility, and burning zeal.
When he had passed four years in this secret and hidden way, consoling the Catholics, he was seized by the heretics, taken to Dublin, and cast into an underground prison. 3
Worn out by hardships he died therein on the 12th, of July, 1617.
The citizens having asked for his body, celebrated his obsequies for three or four days with much devotion, to the great surprise and indignation of the heretics, who strove to prevent them.
At length his remains were laid in the same cemetery as those of the Bishop.4
See also Rothe, O’Sullevan, Ward, Wadding, Porter, and Hueber.
1 Molanus says the residence of the branch of the Desmond family to which he belonged was Dabronopolis, perhaps Achadbronagh, near Castleisland.
2 Founded for the Irish Franciscans by Isabella, Regent of the Netherlands, in 1616. See the Journal of the R.S.A.I., for October, 1893, P. 237
3 Diary of Lord cork, April, 1613 ‘Captain Goar apprehended Thomas Fitzgerald, the friar, in Youghal, I being then at Dungarvan ; and when I came home, I brought him from the gaol and kept him in my own house for fifteen days, till the Lord Deputy sent for him.
Lismore Papers, 1st series, i.21
4 The reference is most probably to O’Devany, buried in St. James’. The account of him immediately precedes that of Fitzgerald in Bruodin.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From F. Eusebius’ Enchiridion, p.202)
FR THOMAS AQUINAS was captured, and cast into prison.
He meditated on the words of the Apostle ‘I am apprehended by the Lord.”1
He confessed to a priest, celebrated Mass daily, fortifying himself.
He devoted the night to mental and vocal prayer; fasted and chastised his body. He besought the Blessed Mother and all the saints to succour him.
On the 6th of July, a messenger from the town Governor2 told him that he was to be hanged within an hour.
He thanked God, confessed again, and prepared for death.
He implored the assistance of his fellow-prisoners prayers. Holding a crucifix and a rosary he went joyously chanting the Litany of the Blessed Virgin. Heretical ministers sought to persuade him but they were repulsed. Rather return,’he said to them, to the old faith taught by the Apostles, and hitherto professed by your own nation’
A minister told him he could give him a choice of offices in the army, provided he would ‘repent and not perish.’
Fr Thomas answered that his duty was not to hesitate to die for the faith.
A condemned woman, promised pardon on condition of renouncing her religion, was grievously tempted; but he confirmed her in the faith, andhaving made public profession, she cheerfully faced her doom.
Fr Thomas asked for the cause for which he was condemned.
The Puritan replied angrily:
‘Why do you ask of me the cause of your condemnation ; are you not a Papist, a priest, and a monk?’
‘It is so; it is enough,’ the Father replied ‘I am guilty of no crime. Let it therefore appear to all men that I die for the Catholic faith and the religious profession, for which I also die gladly.’
His body was taken away and interred. God, caused a brilliant heavenly light to shine over the Carmelite’s grave on the following night.
The soldiers went to the spot they thought the light had appeared. All was utter darkness; they were much terrified, and fled. They saw it again when they returned to their station.
The Captain proceeded with fifty men, to find the same darkness. He immediately fled. The Captain declared that the light must have issued from hell, then swore that the Papist was not buried there at all. The next morning he visited the grave, and found the body there.
He went about relating to all he met his wondrous visions and experiences of the previous eventful night.
Another soldier took the crucifix, which he refused to sell for any price, declaring that he would cherish it all his life.
1 Phil. ii.12
2 Lord Moore of Mellifont. See DAlton’s H. of Drogheda 1.226
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Challoner’s Memoirs,3 3.168)
J CORNELIUS, born at Bodmin,4 in Cornwall of Irish parents; was sent to Oxford by John Arundel.
Cornelius left Oxford, went to Rheims (the English college), and was received by Dr. Allen,5 first president of the seminary.
He was sent to finish his studies in the English college of Rome.
Here he was made priest, and sent on the English mission, where he worked for 10 years.
He was captured in the house6 of John Arundel's widow April, 1594, by Trenchard,7 Sheriff of Dorset, and with him Thomas Bosgrave, who was taken, because, seeing Mr. Cornelius hurried away without any hat, he put his own hat on the priest’s head, saying:
‘The honour I owe to your function may not suffer me to see you go bareheaded.’
The Sheriff told him for this offence he suffered with him.
John, or as others call him Terence Carey, and Patrick Salmon,8 natives of Dublin, and servants in the family were also committed, as aiding Mr. Cornelius.
He was first carried to the Sheriff’s house, where Protestant ministers attacked him on the subject of religion; but Mr Cornelius maintained the Catholic cause with such strong arguments that the Sheriff, fearing the influence his words would make upon those that were present, put a stop to the dispute.
He was sent to London; where he was examined by the Lord Treasurer,9 the Archbishop of Canterbury,10 and others of the Privy Council, who strove to extort out of him, first by words, and the rack, the names of such as had harboured or relieved him; but he refused to the last to make any discovery, which might redound to the prejudice of his benefactors.11
Upon this he was sent back into the country, there to take his trial, and die.
The 3 last days before assizes he spent wholly in prayer and in pious exhortations to his fellow prisoners, without eating, in a manner, or sleeping, and so prepared himself for his conflict.
He with his three companions, were all found guilty; Mr. Cornelius of high treason, for being a priest, and coming into the kingdom, and remaining here; Mr. Bosgrave and the others, of felony, for aiding Mr. Cornelius, knowing him to be a priest.
After the verdict, the 3 laymen cast themselves at the feet of Mr. Cornelius to crave his blessing; and they were all sent back to prison, sentence not being to be pronounced till the next day.
Judge Walmsley pronounced the sentence with tears in his eyes.
The judges assured them that their lives would be saved if they would conform and go to the Protestant church; which they all refusing, were sent back to prison.
They were condemned on the 2nd July, 1594, and on the 4th were carried out to their martyrdom.12
Mr Cornelius was drawn on a hurdle; the others walked on foot.
It appeared that they went to the gallows as if they had been going to a feast.
Mr Cornelius made the best use he could of his time in favour of a malefactor, who was to suffer with them whom he so effectually exhorted to faith and repentance, that the man declared aloud he looked
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
HE was a priest, and had charge of a parish in the neighbourhood of Dublin.
The heretics took him prisoner, and sent him to the city.
He was put to death rather from hatred to the Catholic religion, which he upheld with great zeal, than for the reason alleged against him, namely, that he had frequently given hospitality to the priest F. Rochford.1
He was hanged and quartered, and in this way died gloriously July l, 1581.
For an account of F. Rochford, see Hogan’s Distinguished Irishmen, p.17. He died at Lisbon in 1588.
Rothe gives in the list of laymen who suffered for the faith, Matthew Lamport, ‘a man of very tender conscience, who was hanged and quartered because he had received into his house James Eustace, Baron of Baltinglass, who was brought almost to death by hunger.’
See also Holing, Rothe, Copinger, and Molanus.
1 For an account of F. Rochford, see Hogan’s Distinguished Irishmen, p.17. He died at Lisbon in 1588.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From O’Sullevan’s Hist. Cath. Hib., p.158)
OF his early life we know nothing.
In 1581 he was appointed to the see of Ardagh.
In 1587 he was transferred to the primatial see of Armagh.[1]
Six years after we find him in Ireland, having come from Spain in the vessel of James Fleming, a Drogheda merchant.
He was commissioned by Pope Clement VIII. To exhort the Irish people to persevere steadily in the faith, and, if necessary, to shed their blood in defence of their religion;and by Philip II. of Spain, to assure them that he would send them speedy aid.
He went to Hugh Maguire, who was then in arms, and urged him to continue his efforts.
He took up his residence with this chieftain at Enniskillen, and was treated by him with great respect and kindness.
Sir William Russell,[2] hearing of his arrival, sent a messenger in all haste to Maguire, bidding him in the Queen’s name to deliver into his hands the Bishop, consecrated in a foreign country and belonging to another religion, who had lately landed in Ireland and had been received by him.
This illustrious man was too religious to obey such an order; but knowing that he could not offer any resistance to the English where he was, he left his castle at Enniskillen, and taking the Archbishop with him, he retired with his forces to a place that was better fortified.
After some time they were joined by Hugh O’Donnell, then in his twenty-first year, who had been seized by the English some years before by a trick, and confined in the Castle of Dublin for four years.[3]
Sir Richard Bingham, Governor of Connaught, sent William Guefert[4] with a small body of troops to attack him.
The armies met at a place called Sciath na bfeart,[5] i.e., the shield of miracles.
The cavalry of both was in the front, and advanced without any sound of trumpet.
The day was very dark, owing to a thick fog, so that they were close to each other before they knew it.
The signal was given, and both parties immediately began the combat.
Maguire, who was always on the alert, caught sight of the General of the opposite side, and pierced him through with a lance; the cavalry immediately gave way and fled.
During the fight the Primate was engaged in hearing the sacramental confession of a heretic, and reconciling him to the Church, and while so engaged he received a deadly wound from an heretical soldier.
There was some doubt about the precise date of his death, whether it took place in 1593 or 1598.
The date is now fixed by a letter of Sir Richard Bingham giving an account of his death to the Privy Council, dated June 28th, 1593.
See also Rothe, Copinger, Molanus, Ward, Annals EM., Lynch, Bruodin, Arsdekin, Porter, and Hueber.
[1] See Brady, Episc. Succession, i.221, 292
[2] He was Lord Deputy from 1594 to 1597
[3] See O’Clery’s Life of Hugh Roe O’Donnell, p.63
[4] Sir William Clifford.
[5] Near Tuisk, Co. Roscommon
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
The Convent of Limerick was dedicated to the Holy Cross; it was one of the largest of the whole country, its inmates numbering 46 religious.
Cornelius O’Neill, Bishop of Limerick, had been a religious of the Order, and was much attached to the brethren.
He had been Consulted by the King about the divorce from Queen Catharine, which he wishes to bring about, and gave his opinion firmly in her favour. The King was much angered thereat and declared he would have his revenge.
The Bishop was aware of the dangers that were threatening. He called the Trinitarian Community together and addressed them in the following words
"A beginning like this does not lead to a good end. The King and his kingdom are lost. The Catholic Church is in great danger, and heresy will be introduced amongst us unless God’s omnipotence protects us."
He advised them to sell the Property of the monastery, even the gold and silver vessels, lest they might be profaned by the enemies of God, and to distribute the money among the poor. He gave a like warning to the other Orders, secular clergy under his jurisdiction.
When he learned of the destruction of the monastery of Adare and the death of the religious there, he called the brethren together, and solemnly intoning the ‘Te Deum,’ he earnestly besought the Most Holy Trinity to grant them courage and Strength, that they might imitate their martyred brethren.
The Bishop let it be known that he would preach on the feast of St. John. A large congregation assembled.
He set before them the grounds of the Catholic faith the Pope’s authority; he declared that the commands of the King were heretical and that he, his counsellors, and all who adhered to him were anathematized and he concluded by asking from God strength for himself and all under his care to defend the Catholic faith, even at the peril of their lives.
The King’s officials were afraid to offer any violence in the church but that evening, some of them went to his house; and told him he should obey the King’s order or suffer instant death.
Throwing himself on his knees and raising his eyes to Heaven, he exclaimed : ‘Lord, to-day I offered to Thee the unbloody sacrifice of the Body of my Lord Jesus Christ. Now accept the sacrifice of my life, to Thy greater honour and glory.’
And fixing his eyes on a picture of the Most Holy Trinity, he ejaculated ‘Sancta Trinitas, unus Deus, Miserere nobis.’ A moment after the executioner with one blow of the sword severed his head from his body.
The officials went through the house, and seized the religious there, and slew them. Their anger was all the greater when they found that nothing was left for them to plunder.
The Minister and his brother were seized the next day. They were brought to the public square and ordered to swear obedience to the King. As they refused, they were beheaded on the spot.
The other religious in the convent were also asked to take the oath; and as all refused, some were hanged, other slain, others tied to the tails of horses and dragged along until they were dead.
And so all triumphed on the 25th, of June, 1539.
‘The other convents of the Order,’ says Moran, Cork, Kilkenny, Ross, Dundalk, Galway, and Cashel, showed the same fortitude. All were plundered of whatever they possessed, And there was not one of them but was adorned with the palm of martyrdom. So universal was the ruin of this religious Order, that all vestige of it has disappeared from the subsequent history of our Church.[1]
[1] Archbishops of Dublin, p.26. It is very probable that Lopez had his information through F. Richard Goldie, native of Limerick, who died at Madrid in 1652. See Noticias, p.521. O’Sullevan derived his knowledge from the same source.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
HE was a native of Connaught and parish priest of Coolrahen.[1]
When the soldiers of Elizabeth rushed into the village he took refuge in the church;
but to no purpose, for these persecutors of priests and profaners of churches, the English heretics, hanged him in the church opposite the high altar, and afterwards pierced him through with their swords, and so he ended his life in a very holy way, June 12th, 1582.
See also Copinger, Molanus, O’Sullevan, Ward, and Porter.
[1] Copinger gives the name Coleraine
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
He was a native of the city of Cork.[1] He lived for some years in the Society of Jesus, and during that time made extraordinary progress in virtue; but after some years, owing to illness, he left the Order, with the full consent of the Fathers.[2]
He was appointed Bishop of Cork[3] November 5th 1574. But hardly had the burthen of the episcopate been laid on him, when he was taken to Dublin and imprisoned there for having opposed the unjust laws of the Queen.
While in prison he was tortured in divers ways, and more than once he was hung up for two hours, while his hands were tied behind his back with a rope.
Broken with these and various other sufferings, he went to receive the reward of his labours on the 4th of June,
1578, after an imprisonment of eighteen months.
See also Holing, Rothe, Copinger, and Lynch.
[1] In a papal document in the Irish Ecci. Record, 6. 147, he is said to have been a native of the (ecclesiastical) province of Dublin.
[2] Through great sickness and not without the licence of his superiors, and the advice of physicians, he was enforced to come forth out of the Society.’ Lynch, De Pres. Hib., ii. 612
[3] See Brady’s Epis. Succession, ii.86, and Irish Ecci. Record, i.316
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Alegamb’es Mortes lllustres, p538)
He was a native of Cork.
He was taken by his father to France, then Naples.
He entered the service of the Viceroy. But disliking the frivolity of Court, he was thinking of leaving it; and would have if the Viceroy had not been recalled just then to Spain.
John found himself there, and asking for favour from the King. He obtained an annual pension; with this he returned to Naples.
He prayed to God to make known to him when he opened a book, the manner of life which he should enter on. He found the Life of St. Dympna,[2] who fled Ireland to avoid her father’s fury, and was slain by him.
John thought the history of a woman unsuited to him for imitation, but went on reading it. ‘What if God wishes me to leave the world,’ said he, ‘and to flee from all occasions of sin, as that royal maiden did when she left her native country.’
He was wrongfully accused of a grievous crime, and taken into custody. Seeing a statue of St. Ignatius, he consoled himself that he too, was thrown into prison though free from all guilt. He placed himself under this Saint’s protection. Soon after he was released.
He set off from Rome. On the way his leg was hurt, and he was entertained by our Fathers, and nursed until he recovered.
Full of gratitude, and remembering that St. lgnatius had broken his leg, he determined to enter the Society. He was ordained a priest, and sent back to Naples.
There he entered the noviciate, and having gone through it, he was sent to Bohemia to acquire experience before he returned to Ireland.
John Pauer, who commanded the Swedish army, in 1639 laid siege to Prague.
The Fathers in the College of Cattemberg, looked for some safe place where they might take refuge. The College of Neuhaus seemed better than any other place. Several were told to go there by different roads; these were beset with robbers, whom the hardship of times or the hope of booty induced to arm themselves, to the ruin of travellers.
Moreover, many of the people were infected with wicked doctrine, and that evil teaching remained deeply fixed in the minds of many, and induced these men to assail those who strove to root out such principles by their preaching.
Many were robbed and forced to fly. Three were slain, namely, John Meagh, Martin Ignatius, and Wenceslaus Trnoska.
There are two reasons for asserting that they were put to death through hatred of the Catholic faith.
One is the hatred which heretics have for the very name of Jesuit, because they find them to be among the most active and zealous defenders and teachers of the faith.
The second is, that they did no harm whatever to other persons travelling with ours, nay, even they bade them put away all fear and take courage.
John received one wound in the breast from a leaden bullet. Martin was wounded in the breast, and received a deadly blow on the head from an axe. Wenceslaus was shot through the temples.
The place where they were murdered is a mile from Guttenberg, on the road to Neuhas.
It was May 31st, 1639.
Their bodies were taken by Bernard De Gerschoff, and buried in the church of the Holy Trinity, in Litz. On June 3rd they were transferred to the church of St. Barbara.
See also Rothe, Tanner, and Bruodin.
[1] Probably a native of Cork. Several of the named wer Mayors of Cork between 1379 and 1437.
[2] Her feast is o May 15”. See OHanlons Lives of the Irish Saints, v.264
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
This priest was a native of Connaught.
He was slain by the heretical English soldiers in his parish church of Killatra[1] while celebrating the sacrifice of the Mass, May 1582.
See also Copinger.
[1] This name is not given in the list of towniands of the Ordnance Survey
Copinger calls it Killagh.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
AMONG the chiefs who took up arms in defence of the Catholic faith professed by their ancestors against the unjust persecutions of Queen Elizabeth about the year 1580, we must reckon these illustrious champions, Viscount Baltinglass[2] and John, Baron of Dunkellin.
The English executioners, whose thirst for the innocent blood of Catholics was insatiable, put to death in several ways many noble Catholics through hatred of the faith, under one false pretext or another, and especially because they were suspected of sharing in the sentiments of the aforesaid nobles.
Among the many noble knights who were put to death in Dublin in the year 1581, for their constancy in the Catholic faith rather than for the above reason invented by the heretics, were Nicholas Nugent, David Sutton, and his brother John Sutton[3], Thomas Eustace and his son John[4], William Wogan, lord of Rathcoffy; Robert Sherlock, John Clinch, lord of Scrine Thomas Netherfield,[5]and Robert Fitzgerald.
All these most famous men, no regard being had to their high birth or the respectability of their families, were hanged and then quartered in Dublin on the 26th of May, 1581.
‘Nugent,’ says Camden, ‘a man of singular good life and reputation, was merely circumvented (as the Irish report) by the cunning of his adversaries.
He, relying upon the conscience of his own innocency, when the Lord Deputy faithfully promised him his life if he would confess himself guilty, chose rather, being guiltless, to undergo an infamous death, than by betraying his own innocency to lead an infamous[6] life.’
It is to these, no doubt, the Annals of Loch Cé refer[7], under the date 1581.
‘Eighteen heirs of the nobles of the foreigners of Meath were put to death in Dublin by the Justiciary of Erin this year.’
See also Holing, Rothe, Copinger, Molanus, and Lynch
[1] He was Chief Justice of the Common Pleas.
[2] An Act of parliament was passed in 1585, 27 Eliz. Ci., attainting him and his four brothers. He died in Portugal.
[3] Of Castletown, Co. Kildare. Archdall, vi. 178
[4] Copinger says : Mr Thomas Eustace, with his son and heir, said the litanies going up the ladder.’ Spic. Ossor., iii.42
[5] Or Netterville
[6] Annals, p. 311
[7] ii.447
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
AMONG the chiefs who took up arms in defence of the Catholic faith professed by their ancestors against the unjust persecutions of Queen Elizabeth about the year 1580, we must reckon these illustrious champions, Viscount Baltinglass[2] and John, Baron of Dunkellin.
The English executioners, whose thirst for the innocent blood of Catholics was insatiable, put to death in several ways many noble Catholics through hatred of the faith, under one false pretext or another, and especially because they were suspected of sharing in the sentiments of the aforesaid nobles.
Among the many noble knights who were put to death in Dublin in the year 1581, for their constancy in the Catholic faith rather than for the above reason invented by the heretics, were Nicholas Nugent, David Sutton, and his brother John Sutton[3], Thomas Eustace and his son John[4], William Wogan, lord of Rathcoffy; Robert Sherlock, John Clinch, lord of Scrine Thomas Netherfield,[5]and Robert Fitzgerald.
All these most famous men, no regard being had to their high birth or the respectability of their families, were hanged and then quartered in Dublin on the 26th of May, 1581.
‘Nugent,’ says Camden, ‘a man of singular good life and reputation, was merely circumvented (as the Irish report) by the cunning of his adversaries.
He, relying upon the conscience of his own innocency, when the Lord Deputy faithfully promised him his life if he would confess himself guilty, chose rather, being guiltless, to undergo an infamous death, than by betraying his own innocency to lead an infamous[6] life.’
It is to these, no doubt, the Annals of Loch Cé refer[7], under the date 1581.
‘Eighteen heirs of the nobles of the foreigners of Meath were put to death in Dublin by the Justiciary of Erin this year.’
See also Holing, Rothe, Copinger, Molanus, and Lynch
[1] He was Chief Justice of the Common Pleas.
[2] An Act of parliament was passed in 1585, 27 Eliz. Ci., attainting him and his four brothers. He died in Portugal.
[3] Of Castletown, Co. Kildare. Archdall, vi. 178
[4] Copinger says : Mr Thomas Eustace, with his son and heir, said the litanies going up the ladder.’ Spic. Ossor., iii.42
[5] Or Netterville
[6] Annals, p. 311
[7] ii.447
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(from Broudin's Propugnaculum, p. 432)
MAURICE GIBBON, a native of Munster, and Archbishop of Cashel, a prelate endowed with every kind of virtue, was confined in prison for many years[2] in Cork because he refused to take the oath of Supremacy, and endured therein endless misery.
He ended his life very holily there[3],on May 6th, 1578.
See also Sander, Bridgewater, Bozius, Rothe, Copinger, and Arsdeken.
[1] Or Fitzgibbon. He is also called Maurice Reagh. See his Life in Renehans Collections, i.241.
[2] In his letter to Pope Gregory XIII. He speaks of his creberrims vincula.’ Spic. Ossor., i.70
[3] Holing, however, says he died at Oporto. Ibid., p.83
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Bruodin’s PropugnacUlUm, p.456)
HE was a native of Meath.
Because he upheld the Catholic religion, he was hanged and quartered in Dublin.
Wherefore, fighting bravely for Christ to the end, he obtained the martyr’s crown, and an increase of honour of his most illustrious family.
He suffered May 6th 1588.
This is probably the same person who is called by Copinger Sir Patrick of the Anally.[1]
[1] Spic. Ossor., iii.42
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Bruodin’s Propugnaculum, p.443)
He was a native of Wexford, and a pious and prudent priest.
He was imprisoned in Dublin, and for three years in succession he had to endure the filth and other miseries of the place, with robbers for his constant companions, because he defended the Catholic faith strenuously.
At last he was sentenced to die, and was sent to Wexford to be executed in the usual way.
But he died in the prison before he was taken out to be executed in public, May 5th, 1581.
See also Holing, Rothe, Copinger, Molanus, and Lynch.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Hartry’s Synopsis, p.278)
Robert Shiel was born in lveagh, Co.Down.
He joined the Cistercians,[1] and professed under the name Malachy.
He went to the monastery of St. Mary of Newry, then without a pastor.
He discharged his duty for 7 years with Br. Malachy O’Kea O. Cist. When he died, a secular priest, a relative, joined him.
The Scots[2] had almost depopulated Ulster and advanced to Newry, where the ruins of the monastery[3] are still visible.
F. Malachy laboured with his fellow priest, to encourage the Governor for the defence of the town and strong castle.
The enemy captured the town gate. Fr. Malachy and the priest urged the captain to defend the strong castle.
The fearful captain treacherously betrayed the castle. It's said he was promised quarter for himself, his soldiers, and the priests.
But as soon as the enemy got possession of the place, they seized the priests, threw them into prison, and that night they were condemned to death.
The following day, the feast of the Finding of the Cross,[4] in 1642, Fr. Malachy was hanged naked from the beams of a wooden bridge.
The bodies of the martyrs were thrown into the river that flowed by.
They were found on the bank and buried by the Catholics in clean winding-sheet. (a shroud)
But that night the soldiers stripped the bodies, leaving them naked above ground.
They were later buried in the cemetery of the monastery.
When Br. Malachy was being led to his execution, he burst into a laugh and when asked why, he replied ‘I rejoice at the things that were said to me : we shall go into the house of the Lord!’
While engaged in joyous prayer, he received the prize of martyrdom.
O’Mellan says Rory O’Shiel, a monk of the Order of St. Bernard, and a priest, was executed, and thrown from the bridge of Newry.’[5]
A letter[6] of Monroe, May 15th, 1642, to Leslie. 'We entered into examination of the townsmen if all were papists and the indifferent being severed from the bad, whereof sixty with two priests were shot and hanged.’[7]
Colonel Henry O’Neill:
‘Newry was surrendered upon the first summons by a fresh-water Governor upon mercy, which proved so merciless that a great many of the clergy and laity were hanged, killed, and drowned.
[1] Thumphalia, p. 283
[2] Monroe came to Ireland in April, 1642 with 2500 Scotch. Leslie came in August. Scotch troops in Ulster amounted to 10000 men.
[3] Founded for Cistercians about 1150 by Maurice Macloughlin, King of Ireland. See Triumphalia, Introd. Xiv. No trace remains.
[4] May 4th
[5] Irish MS., in library of the RI. Academy, 23. H.7
[6] Aphor. Disc., iii. 196
[7] Appendix to Aphor. Disc., i. 421
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
HE was born in Kilmallock & died in Clonmel.
He became confessor to Gerald, Earl of Desmond.
He fell into the hands of a hired trafficker in soldiers. He was handed over to Sir John Norris, President of Munster & thrown into Clonmel prison.
At Easter 1585, (21st April), Victor White, for a sum of money obtained that he pass a night in his house. But the spy sought to sell the pious host, the whole neighbourhood, and the priest to the President.
He went and told the President that he allowed Maurice to to pass the night in Victor's house, and that all the neighbourhood Catholics had been told that Mass would be celebrated there the next day.
The President got his soldiers ready. When Mass time was drawing near soldiers rushed in. The priest thrust himself into a heap of straw in the courtyard.
Victor was cast into prison, and risked losing his life and property. Victor and Maurice, vied with each other, the one to conquer, the other to die.
When Maurice heard that Victor was in peril; he returned to save him. Victor was set free, Maurice cast into prison.
He could have prevented its execution and saved his life, if he abjured the true faith and took the oath asserting the Queen’s supremacy. But he finished his course, and kept the faith.
Manuscript History of the Irish Martyrs says he was hanged, his head cut off and his body divided into four parts.
Others that after his head was cut off, the Catholics, induced the executioner not to mangle the headless body any further or cut it in pieces.
So Fr Robert Rochford, says in a letter about Maurice’s death. The difference may have arisen from the fact that some supposed the sentence had been carried out in the usual way, in accordance with the commonly received form of words, and spoke of the sentence rather as pronounced than as executed and therefore I should say that in the History of the Martyrs the sentence rather than its execution is spoken of.
But since at times, some part of the usual form of the sentence is omitted, those who examined the matter thoroughly, describe it in greater detail, and it may be that this was done more carefully in the narrative of Fr Rochford than in the Brief History.
Whether quartered or not, there is no doubt whatever but he was beheaded. His head exposed for several days to the view of the public.
The crowd that gathered each day used to perceive, about ten o’clock, an outburst of ruddy colour & perspiration of the forehead and cheeks. Some remarked that this was the time when Maurice, used to celebrate Mass. Some perceived too, that his hands after his death formed the sign of the cross.
When the soldiers who were on guard saw this, they strove to separate them and to straighten them, so that they should not be in the form of a cross, yet they returned to themselves to the same position; as the elements return naturally to their centre when the obstacle is removed, so the fingers of the martyr returned and formed a cross.
In this way he went to his crucified Lord, April 30”, in the year of our Lord 1585.
F. Mooney refers in the following notice:
In the convent of Clonmel is interred the Rev. F. Maurice. His remains were buried behind the high altar.’
See also Holing, Copinger, Molanus, Q’Sullevan, Wadding, Lynch, and Bruodin.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Bruodin’s Propugnaculum, p. 427)
FERGALL WARD, a native of Tyrconnell,[1] a member of the Seraphic Order of St. Francis, was a very eloquent preacher and most observant of poverty.
He had laboured zealously for three years in the vineyard of the Lord, and was then promoted to be Guardian of the convent of Armagh about the year 1575.
At this time the plague of heresy, introduced by Elizabeth, was raging through-out Ulster.
Ward opposed it as a skilful physician.
Wherefore he was seized by the Ministers of Elizabeth, and no regard being had for his great age or religious character, he was scourged cruelly and beaten.
At length when the holy martyr, persevering in his good purpose, exhorted his executioners to return to a better life, by order of the ministers he was hanged with his own girdle on the 28th of April, 1575, as Father John Good[2] writes, or in 1565, as Wadding states in his work on the Martyrs of the Order.
See also Ward, Wadding, and Hueber.
[1] The present Co. Donegal
[2] He came to Ireland with F. Edmund McDonaough, S.J., of whom more later. The title of this work is Theatre of Catholic and Protestant Religion ; Douay, 1620. There is not a copy of it in this country, so far as I can find.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
HE was born of a noble family, was a priest, and vicar of the diocese of Kilialoe.
This brave soldier and truly apostolic pastor did not fear to expose his life to danger when the wild beasts were laying the vineyard waste, opposing the heretics by word and deed.
He was seized by the heretical soldiers in a certain part of Ormond which he was visiting as pastor, his hands were tied behind his back as if he were a robber, and he was led on foot to Dublin, in the midst of heretical soldiers who were as wicked as those who crucified Christ.
It is easy to imagine what hardships he suffered on the way.
I have often heard an account of them from my mother Margaret Mollony, who was a near relative of the martyr, but for shortness’ sake I omit them here.
On reaching Dublin he was cast into prison in the Castle, and the different instruments, the boots, the iron gloves, the rack, with which the English executioners used to torture the confessors of Christ, were set before his eyes.
He was asked by the supreme judge whether he was ready to subscribe to the Queen’s laws and decrees made about religion ?
O’Mollony, full of the spirit of God, answered boldly, that he was willing to obey these laws so far as they were in accord with the laws of God and the decisions of Christ’s Vicar on earth.
The judge, more unjust than Pilate, replied that the Queen in her own kingdom was the sole vicar of Christ and Head of the Church.
‘You must accept her supremacy or suffer death.’
Mollony answered, ‘Either Paul, the teacher of the Gentiles, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, xiv., and to Timothy, ii., and Jesus Christ himself in his Gospels have erred frequently, or the Queen is not Christ’s Vicar.’
‘Then you do not admit,’ said the judge, ‘that the Queen has, next after Christ, supreme authority in things spiritual?’
O’Mollony replied ‘I cannot admit in any way the supremacy of a woman, for women are forbidden to speak in the Church.
Moreover, in defence of the opposite doctrine I am ready to endure the greatest torments and to lay down my life.’
Very well,’ said the judge; we shall see whether your deeds correspond with your words.’
About nine o’clock the next day the executioners put the iron gloves on his hands and the boots on his feet, and squeezed them so that the blood burst out.
And as this torture failed, for Donough very often prayed to God, while it lasted, that with the aid of divine grace he might be found worthy to suffer such tortures for Christ’s sake, he was placed on the rack for two hours, and drawn SO that he was one span longer.
All this time he was either praying or exhorting those who stood by to hold fast to that faith which is the sole way of salvation, and for which he did not hesitate to shed his blood and sacrifice his life.
The executioners, moved even to tears by the patience and pious exhortations of the noble soldier, took him back to prison half-dead, by order of the wicked judge, where he died very piously a few hours after, April 24th, 1601.
See also Copinger
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Mooney’s Provincia Hibernia Description)
ABOUT the beginning of the year 1569, though there seems to be some doubt as to the precise date, a certain brother, Daniel O’Duillian, of the convent of Youghal,[1] (Founded by Maurice Fitzgerald, 2nd baron of Offaly, in 1232) overcame the persecutors very bravely.
For when one Captain Dudal and his troops were torturing him, by order of Lord Arthur Grey[2], (who later served as the Viceroy, from 1580 to 1582.) first they took him to the gate which is called Trinity Gate, and tied his hands behind his back, and having fastened heavy stones to his feet, thrice pulled him up with ropes from the ground to the top of the tower, and left him hanging there for some time.
After many insults and tortures, he was hung with his head down and his feet in the air, at a mill near the monastery; and while hanging there, he never uttered an impatient word, but, like a good Christian, incessantly repeated prayers now aloud, now in a low voice.
At length the soldiers were ordered to shoot at him, as though he were a target; but yet, that his sufferings might be longer and more cruel, they should not aim at his head or heart, but as much as they pleased at ay other part of his body.
After he had received many balls, some one, with a cruel mercy, loaded his gun with two balls and shot him through the heart.
F. Ward says in his Catalogue that he suffered death on April 22nd of this year.[3] 1569
See also Copinger and Ward
[1] Founded by Maurice Fitzgerald, 2nd baron of Offaly, in 1232. He became a monk here later. See Earls of Kildare, p. 15
[2] He was Lord Deputy from 1580 to 1582. The Lord Deputy at this time was Sir Henry Sidney, who held that office three times between 1557 and 1578
[3] Copinger says, March 28”, 1580. Spic. Ossor., iii.41
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Ward’s Catalogue.) - April 13th, 1588
HE was Guardian of the convent of Donegal,[1] and a celebrated preacher.
When the English soldiers came there[2] he sent away the rest of the brethren to a place of security, intending to follow them later; but he was prevented by the soldiers.
He strove to gain them over by kindness, but he could not escape.
As he was going out of the gate of the monastery, the first soldier who met him ran him through with a sword, and pierced his head to the brain with three mortal wounds.
When he was slain in this way, and the soldiers had gone away with the plunder, the brethren returned and found F.Tadhg lying dead on the ground, his eyes piously raised to heaven, and his hands crossed on his breast, April 13th, 1588.
See also Rothe, Wadding, Bruodin and Hueber.
[1] Founded by Hugh Roe O’Donnell, chief of his tribe, for Franciscans, in 1474. See Meehan’s Franciscan Monasteries, p.4.
[2] The English who had taken possession of this monastery were driven from it by the young chief Hugh Roe O’Donnell, after his escape from Dublin Castle. See his Life by O’Clery, p.356
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
THESE religious were natives of Kerry, and born of respectable Catholic parents.
They were priests, and for more than thirty years had preached the word of God throughout different parts of Ireland, not without great profit to souls.
When the rest of the brethren fled from the heretics who were coming to seize them, these could not accompany them, owing to old age and loss of sight; the youngest of them was over seventy years of age. They took refuge in church of their monastery in the town of Lislachtin, near the village of Ballylongford.[2]
They were seized and dragged before the high altar, and there beaten with sticks, and run through with the sword.
The date of their death is 6th April, 1580.
Rothe gives it as 1582.
See also Holing, Rothe, Fitzsimon, Copinger, O’Sullevan, Molanus, Ward, Wadding, and Hueber.
[1] Perhaps O’Shea Copinger calls him 0’Lee
[2] Founded in 12470 by OConor Kerry. See Annals F.M., iv. 1071. Lislachtin is near the village of Ballylongford. Hueber says they were put to death at Ardfert.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From O’DaIy’s Relatio, p. 335)
HE was Prior of Naas,1 a famous preacher of the word of God. He was seized by the heretics and brought before the Viceroy in Dublin, as teaching doctrine opposed to the Anglican creed and leading the people astray.
He was cast into prison.
When nothing could be proved that would deserve capital punishment, he was told he would be set free and amply rewarded if he would enter the Protestant sect.
On the morning he was led to the scaffold, a messenger came from the Viceroy and these terms were again offered to him.
But he answered fearlessly. ‘I am about to be led to the scaffold; and everyone knows well that human nature is unwilling to face death; nor am I so weary of life as to wish to hasten my death, did not necessity oblige me.
The Viceroy has deigned to send me a promise written out by his own hand, which gives me complete and unhindered choice between life and death, so that if through love of life I should abandon my religion, the presence of death would in some measure excuse me from blame.’
The Viceroy signed the promise and the paper was handed to the Father as he was about to mount the first step of the ladder.
He took it in his hand with a smile; and when he had reached the top, he held out the letter signed by the Viceroy, and from his own writing proved the judge guilty of passing an unjust sentence.
Then he addressed the Catholics standing round:
‘Dearest brethren, member of the holy Roman Catholic Church, ever since I fell into the cruel hands of these heretics who are here, I have endured hunger, insult, and imprisonment in dark and noisome places. I knew not why I should suffer such penalties; and I was in doubt whether I should obtain the martyr’s crown. For it is not the punishment but the cause that makes the martyrs. But Almighty God who protects the innocent, disposing all sweetly, has brought things about so that, accused as a seducer and arraigned for certain crimes made such by the laws of this kingdom, the sole reason why I am condemned to death to-day is that I profess the Catholic religion. Here is the authentic proof of my innocence, the autograph letter of the Viceroy, offering to me very rich rewards and my life if I abandon the Catholic religion. I call God and man to witness that I firmly and unhesitatingly reject these offers, and that willingly and gladly I enter into this conflict Professing that faith.’
He then threw the paper to a friend of his, and bade the executioner do his duty.
After he was cast off, his hanging body was frequently shaken by the executioner, and he sent forth a deep sigh, ‘Deo gratias.’
Having thus Confounded the hopes of the heretics, he died.2
See also Bruodin.
1 The Dominican priory was founded in 1356 by one of the Eustace family; hence it was dedicated to St. Eustachius, a Roman martyr, whose feast is on December 20. See Hib. Dom., p. 293
2 De Burgo gives 1641 as the year of his death, on the authority of the General Chapter of 1656. Probably he follows the old style.
3 Life of James Duke of Ormonde, .278
4 This is, of course, a mistake. He was a Dominican.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From De Burgo’s Hib. Dom., p. 561)
HE was a member of the Dublin Community.
When the war was begun by the Catholics for their faith and country,2 he was seized by the heretics and cast into a prison, where he endured much from the hardships of the place and want of food.
Yet no one made a charge against him, nay rather, many heretics by word of mouth and writing declared he was innocent of any crime.
While in prison he made his confession three times to his prior, who by disguising himself contrived to obtain admittance to him.
He declared publicly that he was innocent of any crime, and he openly professed his adhesion to the Catholic faith.
His constancy in the midst of his sufferings, and the joy shown on his face, moved many of the heretics to tears ; others were still more maddened thereby, so that not only did they expose his dead body to insult, but they would not allow it to be buried within the city; and when it was passing outside the gate, they broke the skull with a blow of the butt of a gun.
He was hanged on March 23rd, 1642.
1 De Burgo shows he was a different person from Peter O’Higgin.
The one was Prior, the other held no such office, as is shown by the fact that his Prior is spoke of above.
In the Acts of the Chapter of the Order, held in 1644 and 1656 they are spoken of as different persons.
2 The motto of the Confederate Catholics was Pro Deo, rege, et patria Hiberni unanimes
See Gilbert’s History of the Confederation ii.85
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Lynch’s De Prœsulibus Hib., ii. 495)
HE belonged to a respectable family.
His extensive knowledge of theology and Canon Law, as well as his great virtue, caused him to be much esteemed.
On the 24th of January, 1567, he was appointed Bishop of Emly.
He was one of those sent over in 1568 to the King of Spain and the Pope by the Earl of Desmond and his confederates in Munster, to implore their aid in saving this country and the Catholic religion from oppression.
On the 26th March, 1578, Drury, president of Munster, wrote from Waterford to Walsingham, to inform him that a Liverpool vessel had brought from Calais some papistical vestments belonging to Morrough O’Brien the pretended Bishop of Emly, who had landed at Galway.1
In 1584 he was imprisoned in Dublin Castle, resolved to allow his limbs to waste away in the most foul den rather than deny his faith. O’Mulrian, Bishop of Killaloe, writing to Cardinal DeComo, October 29th, 1584, after speaking of the sufferings and heroism of Dermot O’Hurley, says:
The Bishop of Emly, who is equally constant in the faith, is at present confined in the Dublin dungeons.
They are now preparing for him too the leaden boots, and mean to apply the fiery ordeal, as they did with the Archbishop,2 that thus, if possible, they may compel him to abandon his religion.
He died in prison in Dublin, March 17th, 1586.
The Processus presented to the Consistory for the appointment of his successor says: The See of Emly is vacant owing to the death of Morrough O’Brien, its last bishop, who died several years ago in the Dublin prisons for the faith.’3
There is some doubt about the precise year of his death.4
We give above that set down by most writers.
See also Holing, Rothe, Copinger, Molanus, Mooney, and Bruodin.
1 Brady’s Episc. Succession, ii.35
2 ‘i.e., Dermot O’Hurley. See P. 138, antea.
3 Brady, Epis. Succ., ii.37
4 Perrott, the Lord Deputy, in 1586, gave a list of the pledges then in the Castle of Dublin.
Among them is ‘Mortagh McBrian, Bishop of Emly, for usurpation from Rome, committed to prison by Myler M’Grath, Archbishop of Cashel.’ C.S.RI. (1586—1588), p. 230
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
Bruodin gives March 16th, 1575, as the date of his death.
WHEN Elizabeth was striving to root out the Catholic faith, Christ’s Vicar on earth, Pope Gregory XIII., thought fit to send some members of the Society of Jesus into England and Ireland to succour the faithful who were then sorely tried.
The first were Robert Parsons & Edmund Campion[1], who left Rome in June, 1580.
The Pope sent thither missioners of the same Society.
F.Edmund M’Donnell, or M’Donough, was the 1st of them to proclaim the truth of the faith by the shedding of his blood.
He was a native of Limerick, and by Papal order had returned to his native country to comfort the persecuted Catholics, with FF. Thomas Good,[2] an Englishman, & David Wolfe,[3] later Apostolic Legate.
He was employed in teaching youth Christian doctrine and profane literature. He was seized by order of Sir John Perrott, President of Munster, and kept in a Limerick prison.
The ministers made him all kinds of promises if he would join in the treachery of the Reformers, and when unmoved, he was taken to Cork to be questioned still further. During the whole 40 mile journey his hands were tied behind his back. He was thrust into the common prison, and tortured at different times his firmness remained unbroken.
He was accused of high treason.
The public reasons for inflicting this punishment, were such as prove that he well deserves the proud title of martyr, viz., that he stubbornly continued to profess the Catholic faith, proscribed by Elizabeth under the penalty of high treason, that he had come to gain over and confirm his fellow citizens both by word and deed, that he impiously refused to the Queen the title of Head of the Church, and that he had brought letters from Pope Gregory XIII. to James Fitzmaurice,[4]then at the head of the Irish Catholics in defence of the Catholic faith.
Indeed, Gregory XIII., in his letter of 13-5-1580, mentions letters in preceding years, exhorting them ‘to recover their liberty and to defend it against the heretics, and to aid James Geraldine, who was desirous of delivering them from the hard yoke of slavery imposed on them by the English, who had abandoned the holy Roman Church.’
Fr Edmund M’Donnell listened to this glorious sentence decreeing him a triumph, and humbly bowing to the judges, he thanked them.
He was then led away to the usual place of execution. He was hanged, and while he was still alive, the rope was cut and he fell to the ground.
The executioner cut open his body, tore out his heart, showed it to the people. Then he cast it into the fire. The rest of the body was quartered and set on stakes at different places until it fell to pieces, in order that the sight might inspire those who beheld it with fidelity to the Queen and wiser thoughts.
This famous man suffered death at Cork in the year 1580. Bruodin gives March 16th, 1575, as the date of his death.
See also Holing, Fitzsimon, Rothe, Copinger, O’Sullevan, Alegambe, and Jouvency.
[1] See his life in Challoners Memoirs, i. 30
[2] His Christian name was William. He came to this country in 1564, and passed 5 years here. He was a man of great virtue, and held in the highest esteem by Cardinal Allen. He died at Naples in 1586. Records of the English Province S.J., iv. 477
[3] A native of Limerick. Pope Pius IV. Appointed him Commissary-General for all Ireland. He was a prisoner in the Castle of Dublin for four+ years. See Moran’s Archbishops of Dublin, p. 77. and Hogan’s Distinguished Irishmen, p.1.
[4] See O’Sullevan’s Hist. Cath., p.121
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
HE was a native of Ulster and Bishop of Connor.[1]
(This is a mistake. He was appointed Bishop of Killala in 1545 and transferred to Derry in 1569. )
He was attacked at night in his own house by some English soldiers of the garrison of Lough Foyle, and with three other priests cruelly put to death.
He was in his 90th year and in the 60th of his episcopate.
A State Paper, dated July 28th, 1592, says:
In Ulster is one Redmundus O’Gallagher, bishop of Derry, legate to the Pope and Custos Armaghnen, being one of the three Irish Bishops that were in the Council of Trent.[2]
(The three Bishops were Donald McCongail of Raphoe, Thomas O’Herlihy of Ross and Eugene O’Hart of Achonry.)
This Bishop used all manner of spiritual jurisdiction throughout all Ulster, consecrating churches, ordaining priests, confirming children, and giving all manner of dispensations riding with pomp and company from place to place, as it was accustomed in Queen Mary’s days.’[3]
(He received a faculty from the Pope to exercise a certain jurisdiction in Armagh during the Primate’s absence.)
The Annals of the Four Masters under the date 1601, says Redmund O’Gallagher, bishop of Derry, was killed in Oireacht Ui Chathain.’[4]
(O’Kane’s territory, which included the present baronies of Tirkeeran, Keenaght, and Dungiven, in Co. Derry)
He was put to death on March 15th.
The spot where he was slain is on the high road nearly midway between O’Kane’s Castle and Dungiven.
See also Sander, Rothe, Copinger, O’Sullivan, Ward, Porter, and
[1] This is a mistake. He was appointed Bishop of Killala in 1545 and transferred to Derry in 1569. See Brady’s Epis. Succ., li.173
[2] The three Bishops were Donald McCongail of Raphoe, Thomas O’Herlihy of Ross and Eugene O’Hart of Achonry.
[3] He received a faculty from the Pope to exercise a certain jurisdiction in Armagh during the Primate’s absence. Ibid.
[4] O’Kane’s territory, which included the present baronies of Tirkeeran, Keenaght, and Dungiven, in Co. Derry
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Bruodin’s Propugnaculum, p. 465)
HE was a native of LeinSter, a priest, and a zealous preacher.
He was taken by the heretics and sent to Dublin, where he obtained a glorious victory for Christ.
He was thrown into prison by order of the chief judge, and iron chain was bound round his body, his hands and feet were tied to a beam, and he was forced to stand for forty hours without sleep.
He was flogged, and salt and vinegar were rubbed into his wounds by the executioners.
Being then asked whether he would take the oath of Supremacy, he answered with great firmness, that he would rather die than swear that a woman, who St. Paul says should be silent in the church, was the Head of the Church.
The fierce and blood-thirsty judge, Walter Raleigh by name, angry at this answer, ordered Fernan to be put to the torture of the rack.
The executioners had not been long engaged in drawing asunder the limbs of this confessor of Christ, when he exclaimed,
Lord, into Thy hands I commend my spirit,’ and gave up his soul to his Creator March 12th 1597.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From the Barberini Archives, Rome.)
ON March 9th, 1642, the Most Rev. Dr. Comerford, Bishop of Waterford, wrote to a friend resident in Paris
Last week, the President of Ulster, having received reinforcements, once more took the field, together with the Earl of Cork, the Earl of Barrymore, Lord Broghill, and Sir John Browne.
Marching to Dungarvan and seizing on the Castle, they set fire to the town and put to death F. Edmund Hore and F. John Clancy, both priests, together with others of the principal citizens.
They then sacked the place, and retired leaving a strong garrison in the Castle.’
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Hueber’s Martyrologium, p. 644)
WHEN the English soldiers rushed madly into the convent of Kilcrea,[1] on the river Bride, in Muskerry, they seized one of the brethren, Matthew O’Leyne, an aged priest, as he was striving to escape from them across the river, and cruelly pierced him through with their spears, March 6th, 1590.
See also Wadding and Ward.
[1] Founded by Cormac Laidher McCarthy, lord of Muskerry, in 1465. The castle of that
branch of the McCarthys is close by.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Lopez’ Noticias Hisforicas, p. 150)
The convent of Adare was the first house of the Order in this country.[1]
The church is now the catholic parochial Church. Some parts of the convent are still standing.
It was founded in 1230 by Thomas FitzGerald, third son of the second Baron of Offaly,[2]
at the suggestion of the Earl of March, a Scotch nobleman, who was a patron of the Order.
The Minister[3] of this convent in 1539 was Brother Robert.
It was at this time that the impious decrees of the King were published,
and officials sent to put them into execution.
Having read the decrees and mastered their contents,
Robert Summoned the Community, which then consisted of forty-two members,
told them what the new doctrines were, and declared that the King was a heretic,
and, moreover, that he sought to make them share in this crime.
Such was the impression which he made on these hearers
that all declared they were ready to lay down their lives in defence of the Catholic faith
and of the Pope’s supremacy;
and knowing that the convent would be plundered immediately,
they set to work at once to distribute among the poor all the provisions and clothing they had.
They hid away the sacred vessels and ornaments of the altar in various places,
so that when the agents of the Government arrived,
they could not find even a wooden crucifix on which to vent their impious rage.
Three times summoned before the magistrate,
Father Robert was immovable in rejecting the honours offered to him by the Court,
and in declaring his devoted attachment to the Catholic faith.
None, he said, had ever sought to propagate their religious tenets by the sword
except the pagan Emperors in the early ages and Mahomet in later times.
As for himself and the community,
they were determined that no violence should move them from the principles of truth.
They recognised no Head of the Catholic Church save the Vicar of Christ;
and as for the King of England,
they regarded him not even as a member of that holy Church,
but as the Head of the synagogue of Satan.
When the venerable Father had uttered these words, a heretical officer drew his sword,
and with one blow severed the holy man’s head from his body.
The other agents of the Court were at once let loose against the unoffending Community.
As the public prison was full of other victims,
the religious were confined in private houses.
There many died of the injuries and maltreatment which they received.
Some too were murdered secretly, whilst others were publicly hanged in the market-place.
It was on the 12th and 13th of February, 1539, that these happy Fathers obtained their eternal crown.
[1] La casa capital de la isla,’ says Lopez, p.19. The church is now the catholic parochial Church. Some parts of the convent are still standing. See Lord Dunravens Memorials of Adare, p. 36. Adare is 9 miles S.W. of Limerick.
[2] 3Lopez, p. 18 and the Earls of Kildare, by the Marquis of Kildare, p.19
[3] This is the name of the Superior of a convent of this Order
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
From Rothe’s Analecta, p. 456 and O’Sullevan’s Cath. Hist., p. 298
CORNELIUS O’DEVANY was born in 1533.
He entered the Order of St. Francis. He went to Rome & on the 18th, of April, 1582, he was appointed to the united Sees of Down and Connor.
He returned soon after. He discharged the duties of his office as a good pastor should. He was one of the prelates who in 1587 solemnly promulgated the Council of Trent.
5 years after, he was imprisoned in the Dublin Castle.
He was set free after an imprisonment that lasted three years,
Only a short time elapsed when the Queen’s ministers repented of what they had done, and tried every art and means to get him again into their power.
He was seized in June, 1611.
The priest Patrick was seized the same month in Cork, having returned from Belgium.
He confessed that he had been the companion to those exiled lords, whom fear for their own safety or their love of religion had made to fly from their lordships and wide domains.
They were taken to Dublin.
O’Devany was brought to trial on the 28th of January. The charge was that in the last war, he had joined the side of the Earl of Tyrone, and was consequently guilty of high treason and all the more because he had aided the Earl by his advice and help when he fled.
He answered, that he was consecrated bishop & as his See lay in that part of Ulster which Earl Hugh ruled over, it was his office, to direct all people in the way of salvation.
The true reason which was in the minds of the judge and jury was, that he was a Catholic, a religious, a Bishop, that he had administered the sacraments, preached the word of God, worn the religious habit which was hateful to them.
They offered him his life if he would abandon the Catholic religion and pass over to their sect. When he heard this, he called the whole Christian world to bear witness that he wished to die in the Catholic faith and for its defence; that he would be unjust towards himself and deny God, if for such a trifling reward he abandoned the true faith.
The crowd of people, closely packed together, filled the field in the northern part of the city. The moment the Bishop mounted the first step of the ladder, a great shout and a cry of lamentation was raised by the faithful. When he was thrown off the ladder the whole crowd gave one great shout of anguish, and then the place became as silent as if there were not a man there.
The executioners took him down very soon. Then they cut off his head, opened his body, burned his bowels, and divided him into four quarters. One seized the head as soon as it was cut off, and rushed into the crowd; he was never found.The field was covered with men, women, and children, all wishing to be as near as possible that they might see and hear, and each strove and struggled to carry away some of his relics, a piece of his clothes or shoes, a portion of his hair, a fragment of bone or skin.
The same day Patrick O’Loghran suffered death.
The bodies of the martyrs were left on the scaffold during the night and were guarded by the Catholics.
The next day the city was emptied of people who went to see them and commend themselves to them, to the rage of the heretics, and the Viceroy ordered them to be buried at the place of execution.
The following night twelve Catholic youths disinterred and brought them to a decent place, where they were buried with other martyrs.
The bodies of these holy men were buried in St. James church.
See also Fitzimon, Copinger, O’Sullevan, Molanus, Ward, Wadding, O’Daiy, Lynch, Arsdeken, Porter, and Hueber.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Bouchier’s Hist. De Martyrio FE Ordinis S.F.)
He was from Connaught.
5 years after Franciscan profession he was sent to Spain. In 1575 he was called to Rome.
In 1576 he was appointed to the See of Mayo,1.
He passed through Paris and set off from Brittany, accompanied by Cornelius O’Rourke,2 son of the Prince of Brefny3, who had joined the Franciscans. They landed at Dingle, in Kerry.
They were recognized, seized and taken before the Countess of Desmond.4 The Earl was absent.5 She sent soldiers with O’Hely to Limerick.
They were put into jail and then taken to Kilmallock, Where Drury, the President of Munster,6 was. He ordered them to be chained and beaten before questioning.
Promises of wealth and honours were held out to them. They were threatened with torture and death, but to no avail.
Drury condemned them by martial law, without any legal formality, to be first put to the torture, and then to be hanged from a tree that was near.
They were stripped; beaten with rods; and tortured.
Drury sent an attendant who knew Irish, to the Bishop, to ask him whether he would conform outwardly.
The Bishop replied that he would be willing to endure a thousand deaths rather than deny what had been defined as true by the Church or subscribe to what was condemned.
Drury again offered rich benefices and honour. As they paid no heed to his offer, he ordered the sentence to be carried out.
They were taken from the rack and hanged with the girdles which they wore as a part of their religious habit, on the 22 of August, 1578.7
The Bishop, before he was thrown off, warned Drury that within a very few days he should appear before the judgment-seat of God. Three days after he was seized by a disease. He declared that he was punished by God for the unjust sentence against the Bishop.
The people took away pieces of their clothing.
The Earl of Desmond ordered the bodies buried with great honour at Clonmel. 70 years after, they were transferred with the instruments of their torture, to Askeaton.8
In F. Holing’s Magna Supplicia, the following passage occurs in reference to Drury :-
- William Drury, was summoned by Patrick Hely, bishop, before the judgment-seat of God to give an account of his deed. He was seized with a very violent disease, and died soon after mad and uttering blasphemies.
On the day he was buried, there was such darkness etc9 In Thetarum Crudelitatum Haereticorum, 1592, there's a print of O’HeIy hanging.10
There is some uncertainty as to the year of death.Some will have it to be 1577, others 1578, others in fine 1579.
See also the Annals of Loch Ce, Gonzaga, Harpsfield, Sander, Bozius, Verstegan, Bridgewater, Fitzsimon, Rothe, O’Sullevan, Molanus, Ward, Wadding, O’DaIy, Bruodin, Lynch, Porter, and Hueber.
1 See Bede’s Hist. Ecci. Ang., v.4, and Lanigan’s Eccl.Hist of Ireland, iN.79, for an account of its foundation. Its last Bishop was Adam Magauran, appointed in 1585.
2 The Annals of Loch Cé say he was the son of Brian, son of Eoghan O’Ruairc, ii. 427.
3 now Leitrim.
4 Daughter of Edmund, Lord Dunboyne.
5 Earl Gerald
6 He was appointed President of Munster in 1576. In the second year of his office he hanged 400 persons.’ Webb’s Irish Biography.
7 O’Rourke was visited in prison the eve his execution by the famous F.James Archer, S.J., who afterwards described him ‘as being comely of feature, kindly in his address, young in years ; he had hardly reached his thirtieth year.’ See Triumphalia S. Crucis. p. 257
8 Founded in 1420 by James 61h Earl of Desmond. See Meehan’s Franc. Mon., p.96
9 2 Spic. Ossor., iii.25.
10 See the print facing the title-page.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
GEORGE HALLEY, (Br Angelus of St. Joseph), was born in England, of Catholic parents, he was entrusted for his education to the care of a Carmelite.
In 1640 at 18 he came to Ireland to join the Carmelites. He received the habit on the 5th of May, the feast of St. Angelus, the Carmelite Martyr. Having completed the noviciate, he was sent to Drogheda,1 in 1642, to study.
This year almost all Catholics were driven from the town by the Puritan garrison. Br. Angelus, contrived to depart unobserved. But he was discovered and thrown into prison, where Protestant ministers tried to make him renounce Catholicism; but he remained firm.
He was subjected to injury and insult, and constrained to fast on bread and water. He opposed a rigours and unbroken silence, occasionally replying : -
‘The way of the Lord is immaculate, and the ways of heretics vile.’
Br Angelus, ceased not to beseech the Almighty to grant him perseverance and constancy. He offered his life, and expressed to his desire to shed his blood for the faith. All attempts to subdue the constancy of the dauntless friar having entirely failed, He was released from prison.
He set off to join his religious brethren.
On his way he rested in a certain town, probably Slane. The place was attacked by the Puritans under Lord Moore,1 on August, the 14th and was captured by him during the following night.
Brother Angelus, assisted at morning Mass, together with some nuns and received; after which he exhorted the nuns to continue steadfast, faithfully observe their vows, and, if necessary, to defend them by a glorious death. He then offered up his own life.
He endeavoured to escape in the company of the nuns, with whom he appeared before Lord Moore.4
The nuns were granted their liberty. But not Brother Angelus, the tyrant informed him that no mercy would be shown to him, whom, he knew to be an Englishman, a Papist, and a monk, escaped from prison. One way was left open by which he might save his life, profess the reformed religion. Br. Angelus replied that he had not left his country in order to desert the orthodox faith, and that he would not barter his soul for life or liberty.
Lord Moore pronounced sentence of death. The holy confessor only asked that this execution should not be deferred beyond the festival of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. The Puritan immediately gave orders to shoot him. Br Angelus was led to the place of execution, singing the Litany of the Blessed Virgin.
A heretical minister pressed him to adopt his errors but Br Angelus bade him, ‘Get thee behind me, Satan.’
At the place, he fell on his knees, and raising his heart to God, awaited death. The soldiers fired three times, but he remained unhurt by the bullets; whereupon, by Command of Lord Moore,5 a soldier despatched him with a sword. The nuns related all the circumstances to our Fathers.
The confessor’s body was transferred to the principal church, where it was interred by them with all the Sacred rites of Christian burial.
1 Archdall and De Burgo make no mention of a Carmelite House in Drogheda
2 The convent here was founded by Rudolph Pipard in the reign of Edward I., Monast., P450
3 The founder was William Do Loundres in 1317. Ibid. p.513
4 Edward Moore came to Ireland in the reign of Elizabeth, was knighted and received the Abbey of Mellifont, where his descendants resided till they came about 1750 to reside at Monasterevan, inherited from Lord Loftus of Ely.
See Archdalls Peerage, ii.92.
His son Garrret was created Baron Moore in 1615, and Viscount.
The above-mentioned was his son Charles, 2nd Viscount.
5 He was killed by a cannonball during the siege of Portlester castle 1643
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
1585 (?) FORTY CISTERCIANS OF ST. MARY’S, NENAY
(From Bruodin’s Propugnaculum, p. 450)
THERE was formerly in the diocese of Limerick a celebrated monastery of the holy Order of Citeaux,
situated on the river Maigue,1 from which the monastery took its name.
It was founded in a most generous way by Donald O’Brien formerly Prince, or as other say, King of Limerick.2
Here a large community of monks, under the gentle rule of the Mellifluous Doctor, Bernard,
employed themselves profitably night and day praising God,
till Henry VIII., King of England, begat Elizabeth, the active agent of the Prince of darkness.
While she was on the throne, and, like her father, creating disorder everywhere throughout Ireland,
she determined to put an end to the pious exercises of the monks of Nenay, so odious to the demons.
The children of the holy Order of Citeaux refused to obey the unjust laws of that frantic woman.
Wherefore her impious satellites made a sudden attack on the monastery,
and slew at the same time forty monks and their abbot with spears and daggers,
and cut off their heads, in the very church before the Blessed Sacrament.
They awaited the attack calmly, and encouraged each other to contend bravely for the faith.
This happened on August 14th ; but I do not know the year.3
Hartry adds: Very many grave authors whom the Chrysostom4 of our Orders cites,
have given a very remarkable account of forty Cistercian monks in Ireland,
who with their Abbot died for the Catholic Faith, and after their glorious death are commemorated :
Concerning Ireland there is a constant tradition in reference to forty monks, martyrs,
who suffered the death of the body by the swords of the impious on August 14th, and on the same day
having had their heads miraculously restored to them they sang at vespers in the choir.’5
1 This river rising in Milford, Co. Cork, passes through Croom, and Adare, and falls into the Shannon seven miles below Limerick.
Hence the name of the monastery De Magio
2 Hartyr says in 1151. Triumphalia, p. 192
3 Bruodin inserts this sketch between 1585 and 1586
4 S. Henriquez, the historian of the Order.
5 Triumphalia, p. 243
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
- JAMES DOWDALL
(From Bruodin’s Propugnaculum, p. 467)
HE was a Drogheda merchant, & when returning from France to Ireland he was driven by contrary winds into a harbour in the south of England.
The Mayor questioned him about the spiritual supremacy of Elizabeth.
Dowdall answered, as a Catholic should, that he recognized no other as Head of the Church than the Roman Pontiff.
Because he had spoken thus, his merchandise was confiscated, and he was taken to Exeter, his hands bound behind his back as if he were a robber.
There after being put to the rack, he was hanged and his body was cut into four parts; and in this way, in return for temporal goods, this very wise merchant got in exchange eternal life.
He suffered September 20th, 1600.
‘This year’ (1599), says Challoner,1 ‘I find two of the laity executed for religious matters, viz., Mr. John Lyon... and Mr. James Dowdal, an Irish merchant, native of Wexford, who for the same cause was hanged, bowelled, and quartered at Exeter, August 13, whose burial-place, says his countryman, John Mullan of Cork, is said to be illustrated with miracles to this day.’
Rev. Dr. Oliver, who obtained access to the official records of Devon, says2 :
‘The only victims I have met within Devonshire are …. . and James Doudal, an Irish merchant and a native of Wexford.
For denying the Queen’s spiritual supremacy he was thrown into Exeter gaol.
When I examined the calendar of the prisoners in September, 1824.
I found this minute at the autumn assizes of 1598
“Jacobus Dowdall remanet in gaola per mandatum Concilii Privati.’3
(J.D. remains in prison by order of the privy Council)
At the following Lent assizes he is thus noticed :
‘Jacobus Dowdall remanet quia judicandus pro proditione.”4
(J.D. remains because he is to be tried for high treason)
At the autumn assizes
“Jacobus Dowdall suspendatur, &c., pro proditione.”5
(J.D. shall be hanged, &c., for high treason)
His execution took place on the 13th of August, 1598.’
See also Rothe, Copinger, and Molanus.
1 Memoirs, i. 198
2 See his Collections, p. 2
3 J.D. remains in prison by order of the privy Council
4 J.D. remains because he is to be tried for high treason
5 J.D. shall be hanged, &c., for high treason
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Ward’s Catalogue)
F. TADHG DONALD, of the convent of Bantry1, a famous preacher,
and his companion2, were seized by English soldiers near the same monastery.
They were tied together with their girdles, and thrown into the sea from a high rock.
Bruodin says they were put to death on the 10th of August.
Notes:
The convent of Bantry was ‘founded by Dermot O’Sullevan, about 1460, on the water’s edge, a mile west of the town. Nothing remains of it now.
Bruodin says the name of Fr Donald’s companion was John Hanly.
1 ‘Founded by Dermot O’Sullevan, about 1460, on the water’s edge, a mile west of the town.
Nothing remains of it now.
2 Bruodin says his name was John Hanly.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
LAURENCE O’MOORE was descended from a very ancient and respectable family in Ireland.
He was a priest remarkable for holiness of life, as Sander testifies.1
When the Spanish General San Jose surrendered the castle of Smerwick,2 in the western part of Co. Kerry, to Lord Grey, who was the Deputy, the conditions were that the garrison should be allowed to march out with their arms, ammunition, and other property.
But the treacherous heretics did not think themselves bound either by their oath or by the laws that are held sacred even by barbarous nations.
The Spaniards, nine hundred in number, were made to give up their arms, and all but ten and the cowardly commander either cast into the sea or slain in cold blood.
O’Moore and two Irishmen of noble birth, Oliver Plunkett and William Walsh, were taken there also.
These the Deputy required to be handed over to him.
He strove to induce them to abjure the Catholic faith and to embrace Protestantism; and when they refused, and said that with God’s grace they would continue even till death to profess the Catholic faith, he sent them to a blacksmith’s forge and had their limbs broken to pieces with a hammer.
This butchery lasted for twenty-four hours.
During all that time these noblemen displayed extraordinary courage, having been strengthened with the sacraments, which they had received from Father Laurence.
All three expired almost at the same moment, their last words being :
‘Into Thy hands, 0 Lord, I commend my spirit.’
They were put to death August 1580.
The State Papers confirm fully the above narrative:
This day was executed an Englishman who served Dr. Saunders, one Plunkett, and an Irish priest. Theire armes and legges were broken, and hanged upon a gallowes upon the wall of the fort.’3
Sander was the Papal Legate, who died soon after in the woods at Aherlow, raving in a phrenesy.’4
Plunkett, the writer says, was born near Drogheda.
See also Holing, Rothe, O’Sullevan, Copinger, Henriquez, Molanus, Hartry, and Porter.
1 See Spic. Ossor., i. 88
2 See Hennessy’s Raleigh in Ireland, p. 10. The castle was called Dún an Óir.
3 Ibid., p.211. Letter of Sir R, Bingham to Walsingham.
4 See the Introduction to Sander’s Anglican Schism, p.20
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Bruodin’s Propugnaculum, p. 426)
The first of our known later martyrs was John Travers, a Dublinman, a priest of the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine, and a Doctor of Theology.
He wrote anonymously a famous work: 'On the Authority of the Roman Pontiff.2' In it he proved that the primacy of Henry VIII was a mere fiction, and only a name, without any foundation in fact or in reason. Whereupon he was seized by the King’s ministers.
He was kept in the Tower for 4 months. During that time he was examined on four different occasions, and put to various kinds of torture, and being found faithful and steadfast, he was declared guilty of high treason by Cromwell and the other flatterers of the King.
He was led out, his hands tied behind his back and a rope round his neck, placed on a hurdle, and taken to the usual place of execution.3
(A hurdle is a moveable section of light wattle, in medieval England a hurdle was used as a makeshift sledge, to which a prisoner was tied to be dragged behind a horse to a place of execution.)4
When he reached the top of the ladder leading to the gallows, he prayed for pardon, and exhorted the bystanders to pray earnestly to God, the refuge of sinners, for the conversion and salvation of the King and of all the mad heretics who adhered to him. And then he exclaimed in a loud voice.
‘It is not for any crime, Christian hearers, that I have been sent hither from Ireland, my native country, but rather because I professed the Catholic faith, which I, like my ancestors, have drunk in with my mother’s milk; and also, because I am supposed to be the author of a certain work lately spread abroad among the Catholics.
The moment of my death is now close at hand, which will surely open for me the door to eternal life. Hence it behoves me not to use any ambiguous or obscure language for the purpose of concealing the truth. Wherefore I declare openly that I am a priest of the Catholic and Apostolic Church, and, moreover, that it was with these three fingers,’ and he raised aloft the three fingers of his right hand,
’I wrote that work on the Authority of the Roman Pontiff.’
When he had said these words, the sheriff gave the order; he was hanged, cut down before life was quite extinct, and quartered. His right hand and his intestines were cast into the fire; and while other parts were reduced to ashes, the three fingers of his right hand which he had raised aloft on the scaffold, were seen in a like position in the midst of the flames, and afterwards were found whole and fresh, as if they had never been cast into the fire, like the right hand of King Oswald, the martyr, which the Venerable Bede5 tells us remained up to his own time fresh and uncorrupted, in token, no doubt, of the divine approval of his charity to the poor.
Harpsfield6 says that the flesh on the martyr’s fingers remained fresh long after his death.
O’Sullevan says Travers was executed on the 30th July; Fitzsimon on the 31st.
See also Harpsfield, Bridgewater, Fitzsimon, White, Copinger, O’SuJlevan , O’Daly, and Lynch.
1 Broudin writes the name Tanner; but it is usually written as above.
The complete identity of the facts given under both names by the different authors shows that they refer to one person only, not to two, whatever his name may have been.
2 Though I’ve searched for this book, I have not been able to find a copy of it in any library in this country.
3 Tyburn, close to the present Marble Arch. A stone marks the spot where Tyburn Gate stood.
4 Channel4.com (25 March 2009) "Perkin Warbeck (1474-99)" Henry VIII: The Mind of a Tyrant. Retrieved 2011-11-19
5 Hist. Eccl.Angl., iii.6
6 In whose work he is called Gravesius, no doubt a misprint for Traversius See Dial, p995
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From F. Eusebius’ Enchiridion, p.202)
Fr THOMAS AQUINAS was a distinguished preacher and zealous missionary, who earned for himself the hatred of the heretics by the assiduity and successful results of his preaching and labours in confirming the oppressed and persecuted Catholics in the faith, and in winning several back who had fallen into the errors of heresy.
He was captured in the house of a noble family recently converted by him. The Puritans, having obtained information of his whereabouts through the treachery of a servant, invested the house on all sides, threatened the inmates if the priest were not given up to them. They searched the house in every part, but having searched in vain retired, and prepared to set it on fire.
Seeing the danger to others, Fr Thomas came and surrendered himself to his pursuers, by whom he was most cruelly beaten, bound and carried almost lifeless to Drogheda, and cast into prison, where he was left to languish for a considerable time.
Under treatment so harsh he suffered no expression of complaint to escape from his lips but he bore all with joy, rejoicing to suffer for Christ, and meditating on the words of the Apostle ‘I am apprehended by the Lord.”1
Among many others imprisoned, for the same cause, was a priest of the Order of St. Francis, the Guardian of the Franciscan community in Drogheda.
By him Father Thomas was received with extreme joy, and with his assistance succeeded in procuring the sacred habit of the Order, with which he clothed himself in prison.
To prepare himself for the conflict, he carefully confessed to this Franciscan Father the faults of his whole life, celebrated Mass daily, thus fortifying himself with the bread of the Strong.
The remainder of the day he spent in comforting and encouraging the Catholic Prisoners, in company with the good Franciscan.
He devoted the greater part of the night to mental and vocal prayer; he fasted continually, and chastised his body with great severity, in order to detach it from the love of this present life, and lest it should impede his spirit from union with its Lord, to whom he frequently offered the sacrifice of his life.
He besought the Blessed Mother of God and all the heavenly citizens to succour him in his struggle.
Early on the morning of the 6th of July, while the Father was offering the Holy Sacrifice, a messenger from the Governor1 of the town announced to him that he was condemned to be hanged within an hour.
Fr Thomas received the announcement of his fate unmoved by the fear of death. He thanked God, confessed again, and prepared himself for death.
When the time had come, he took a last leave of his fellow-prisoners implored the assistance of their prayers, and then resigned himself into the hands of the Puritan satellites.
These men, strange to say, notwithstanding their abhorrence of all religious garbs and symbols, suffered him to retain his religious habit to the last. ..........
1 Phil. ii.12
2 Lord Moore of Mellifont. See DAlton’s H. of Drogheda 1.226
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(from Broudin's Propugnaculum, p. 432)
MAURICE GIBBON, a native of Munster, and Archbishop of Cashel, a prelate endowed with every kind of virtue, was confined in prison for many years,[2] in Cork because he refused to take the oath of Supremacy, and endured therein endless misery.
He ended his life very holily there [3], on May 6th, 1578.
See also Sander, Bridgewater, Bozius, Rothe, Copinger, and Arsdeken.
1 Or Fitzgibbon. He is also called Maurice Reagh. See his Life in Renehans Collections, i.241.
2 In his letter to Pope Gregory XIII. He speaks of his creberrims vincula.’ Spic. Ossor., i.70
3 Holing, however, says he died at Oporto. Ibid., p.83
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Bruodin’s PropugnacUlUm, p.456)
HE was a native of Meath.
Because he upheld the Catholic religion, he was hanged and quartered in Dublin.
Wherefore, fighting bravely for Christ to the end, he obtained the martyr’s crown, and an increase of honour of his most illustrious family.
He suffered May 6th 1588.
This is probably the same person who is called by Copinger Sir Patrick of the Anally. [1]
1 Spic. Ossor., iii.42
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Bruodin’s Propugnaculum, p.443)
He was a native of Wexford, and a pious and prudent priest.
He was imprisoned in Dublin, and for three years in succession he had to endure the filth and other miseries of the place, with robbers for his constant companions, because he defended the Catholic faith strenuously.
At last he was sentenced to die, and was sent to Wexford to be executed in the usual way.
But he died in the prison before he was taken out to be executed in public, May 5th, 1581.
See also Holing, Rothe, Copinger, Molanus, and Lynch.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
From Hartry’s Synopsis, p. 278
Hel was born in lveagh, Co.Down, in Ulster.
He asked to join the Cistercians, and was admitted by Br. Patrick Barnwell,[1] Abbot, for the monastery of Mellifont, and was professed under the name of Malachy.
His great humility and obedience, addition to the other gifts of grace of a perfect monk, filled all with wonder. It was the good pleasure of his superior to intrust to Malachy the care of souls under the jurisdiction of the monastery of St. Mary of Newry, then without a pastor to care for them. This he discharged for 7 years with a fellow monk, Br. Malachy O’Kea. When his brother in religion died, a secular priest, a relative of his, was joined with him.
About that time Scots,[2] united in arms with the English, almost depopulated Ulster and advanced to Newry, where the noble ruins of the monastery[3] are still to be seen.
F. Malachy laboured with his fellow priest to keep up the courage of the Governor to defend the place, especially the very strong castle on behalf of the Catholics.
The enemy suddenly got possession of the gate of the town.
Fr. Malachy and the priest entered the castle, and urged the captain and soldiers to defend the stronghold for the sake of the church and the honour of their country.
Fear seized on the captain, and he betrayed the castle, though it was strong and well manned. It is said he was promised quarter for himself, his soldiers, and the priests. But it turned out differently.
For as soon as the enemy got Possession of the place, they seized both priests and threw them into prison, and condemned to death that very night.
The following day, the feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross,[4] in 1642, Fr. Malachy was hanged quite naked from the beams of a wooden bridge.
The soldiers then fired two shots at him while he was half-dead. The secular priest was hanged. The bodies of the martyrs were thrown into the river. Soon after they were found on the bank and buried by the Catholics in clean winding-shee (a shroud). That night soldiers stripped the bodies of their covering, leaving them naked above ground. Afterwards they were buried in the cemetery of the monastery.
When Br. Malachy was led in chains to his execution, looking round at the soldiers, in his joy he burst into a laugh and when the executioner asked why he laughed, he replied ‘I rejoice at the things that were said to me : we shall go into the house of the Lord!’ While engaged in prayer, and with joy in his heart, he received the prize of martyrdom.
O’Mellan says Rory O’Shiel, a monk of the Order of St. Bernard, and a priest, was executed, and thrown from the bridge of Newry into the sea.’[5]
This narrative is confirmed by a letter[6] of Monroe, dated May 15th, 1642, addressed to Leslie.
After capturing Newry he says 'We entered into examination of the townsmen if all were papists and the indifferent being severed from the bad, whereof sixty with two priests were shot and hanged.’[7]
Colonel Henry O’Neill in his Relation ‘Newry was surrendered upon the first summons by a fresh-water Governor upon mercy, which proved so merciless that a great many of the clergy and laity were hanged, killed, and drowned about the bridge of the town.’[8]
1 See account of him in Thumphalia, p. 283
2 Monroe came to Ireland in April, 1642, with 2500 Scotch. Leslie the following August. The Scotch troops in Ulster amounted then to 10000 men.
3 Founded for Cistercians about 1150 by Maurice Macloughlin, King of Ireland. See Triumphalia, Introd. Xiv. no trace remains.
4 May 4th
5 Irish MS., in the library of the RI. Academy, 23. H.7
6 Aphor. Disc., iii. 196
7 Appendix to Aphor. Disc., i. 421
8 Ibid., iii. 127
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Rothe’s Analecta, p. 482)
HE was born in Kilmallock in Limerick, & died in Clonmel.
He was chaplain to the Earl of Desmond and when the Earl joined the chieftains, Maurice acted with the Earl; to join in the unity of the Catholic faith those who were divided into factions, and to combat Satan in their hearts.’[2]
He fell into the hands of Murtogh Swiney, a deserter from his lord, with whom he had been a leader of galloglasses.[5]
Maurice was seized and handed over to the English soldiers, and then to the President of Munster. Maurice was for more than a year in chains in the prison at Clonmel.
He urged whoever approached him to draw near to God; some he exhorted to penance, others to constancy in faith, others to restitution of property which they detained unjustly, others to almsgiving, all to piety.
He dwelt most of all on the unity of the Catholic faith, outside which there can be no salvation, as formerly all outside the ark were shipwrecked and drowned.
‘Behold, heaven is the Lord’s thy God, the heaven of heavens, the earth, and all things that are therein : and yet the Lord hath been closely joined to your fathers, and loved them, and chose their seed after them, that is to say, you, out of all nations, as this day it is proved.’[6]
About the feast of Easter, in the year 1585, Victor White,[7] a respectable citizen of Clonmel, was anxious to satisfy the piety of his neighbours, who were very eager to make their confession and receive Holy Communion from his hand.
He went to the head jailer, and for a bribe obtained that Maurice should be allowed out to pass that night in his house. The money was paid down, and the prisoner was let out, the other being security for his return.
But the wretched spy sought to sell the pious host, the whole neighbourhood, and the life of the priest to the President, who came there just at this time.
He went and told the President, that at the request of Victor, he allowed Maurice, to pass that night in his house; and that the Catholics were told Mass would be celebrated there the next day.
When Masstime was drawing near, while Maurice was still hearing confessions, after setting up the altar: the soldiers rushed in and seized on the people.
The terror of the Catholics was great. The women and children hid; others escaped by the roof, back doors, or through windows.
Some broke legs, some arms; but fear banished pain.
The priest thrust himself into a heap of straw. The soldiers tried this with their swords and pikes. They wounded the priest in the thigh, but he uttered no sound and escaped.
The master of the house was cast into prison. These two noble friends, Victor and Maurice, vied with each other, the one to conquer, the other to die.
When Maurice heard that Victor was in great peril; an exchange took place and Victor was set free, Maurice was bound hand and foot, placed in fetters, and cast prison,
Sentence of death was pronounced upon him, though he could have prevented its execution if he abjured the true faith and took the oath asserting the Queen’s supremacy.
Some say that he was hanged until he was half-dead, and his head then cut off and his body divided into four parts. So says the Manuscript History of the Irish Martyrs:
When he came to the place of execution, he turned to the people, and addressed them some pious words as far as time allowed; in the end he asked all the Catholics to pray for him, and he gave them his blessing.
He was hanged from the gallows, and taken down half-alive, his head was cut off, and his body was divided into four parts,
..........
In this way he went to his crucified Lord, April 30”, in the year of our Lord 1585.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Bruodin’s Propugnaculum, p. 427)
FERGALL WARD, a native of Tyrconnell,1 a member of the Seraphic Order of St. Francis, was a very eloquent preacher and most observant of poverty.
He had laboured zealously for three years in the vineyard of the Lord, and was then promoted to be Guardian of the convent of Armagh about the year 1575.
At this time the plague of heresy, introduced by Elizabeth, was raging through-out Ulster.
Ward opposed it as a skilful physician.
Wherefore he was seized by the Ministers of Elizabeth, and no regard being had for his great age or religious character, he was scourged cruelly and beaten.
At length when the holy martyr, persevering in his good purpose, exhorted his executioners to return to a better life, by order of the ministers he was hanged with his own girdle on the 28th of April, 1575, as Father John Good2 writes, or in 1565, as Wadding states in his work on the Martyrs of the Order.
See also Ward, Wadding, and Hueber.
1 The present Co. Donegal
2 He came to Ireland with F. Edmund McDonaough, S.J., of whom more later. The title of this work is Theatre of Catholic and Protestant Religion ; Douay, 1620. There is not a copy of it in this country, so far as I can find.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
HE was born of a noble family, was a priest, and vicar of the diocese of Kilialoe.
This brave soldier and truly apostolic pastor did not fear to expose his life to danger when the wild beasts were laying the vineyard waste, opposing the heretics by word and deed.
He was seized by the heretical soldiers in a certain part of Ormond which he was visiting as pastor, his hands were tied behind his back as if he were a robber, and he was led on foot to Dublin, in the midst of heretical soldiers who were as wicked as those who crucified Christ.
It is easy to imagine what hardships he suffered on the way.
I have often heard an account of them from my mother Margaret Mollony, who was a near relative of the martyr, but for shortness’ sake I omit them here.
On reaching Dublin he was cast into prison in the Castle, and the different instruments, the boots, the iron gloves, the rack, with which the English executioners used to torture the confessors of Christ, were set before his eyes.
He was asked by the supreme judge
whether he was ready to subscribe to the Queen’s laws and decrees made about religion ?
O’Mollony, full of the spirit of God, answered boldly, that he was willing to obey these laws so far as they were in accord with the laws of God and the decisions of Christ’s Vicar on earth.
The judge, more unjust than Pilate, replied that the Queen in her own kingdom was the sole vicar of Christ and Head of the Church.
‘You must accept her supremacy or suffer death.’
Mollony answered,
‘Either Paul, the teacher of the Gentiles, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, xiv., and to Timothy, ii., and Jesus Christ himself in his Gospels have erred frequently, or the Queen is not Christ’s Vicar.’
‘Then you do not admit,’ said the judge, ‘that the Queen has, next after Christ, supreme authority in things spiritual?’
O’Mollony replied
‘I cannot admit in any way the supremacy of a woman, for women are forbidden to speak in the Church. Moreover, in defence of the opposite doctrine I am ready to endure the greatest torments and to lay down my life.’
Very well,’ said the judge; we shall see whether your deeds correspond with your words.’
About nine o’clock the next day the executioners put the iron gloves on his hands and the boots on his feet, and squeezed them so that the blood burst out.
And as this torture failed, for Donough very often prayed to God, while it lasted, that with the aid of divine grace he might be found worthy to suffer such tortures for Christ’s sake, he was placed on the rack for two hours, and drawn so that he was one span longer.
All this time he was either praying or exhorting those who stood by to hold fast to that faith which is the sole way of salvation, and for which he did not hesitate to shed his blood and sacrifice his life.
The executioners, moved even to tears by the patience and pious exhortations of the noble soldier, took him back to prison half-dead, by order of the wicked judge, where he died very piously a few hours after, April 24th, 1601.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Ward’s Catalogue.) - April 13th, 1588
HE was Guardian of the convent of Donegal,[1] and a celebrated preacher.
When the English soldiers came there2 he sent away the rest of the brethren to a place of security, intending to follow them later; but he was prevented by the soldiers.
He strove to gain them over by kindness, but he could not escape.
As he was going out of the gate of the monastery, the first soldier who met him ran him through with a sword, and pierced his head to the brain with three mortal wounds.
When he was slain in this way, and the soldiers had gone away with the plunder, the brethren returned and found F.Tadhg lying dead on the ground, his eyes piously raised to heaven, and his hands crossed on his breast, April 13th, 1588.
See also Rothe, Wadding, Bruodin and Hueber.
1 Founded by Hugh Roe O’Donnell, chief of his tribe, for Franciscans, in 1474. See Meehan’s Franciscan Monasteries, p.4.
2 The English who had taken possession of this monastery were driven from it by the young chief Hugh Roe O’Donnell, after his escape from Dublin Castle. See his Life by O’Clery, p.356
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Molanus’ Idea, p. 73)
HE was a Doctor of Theology, and Vicar Apostolic of the diocese of Ross.[1]
This active and courageous labourer in promoting the cause of Catholicity, both by his prayers and his exhortations to others, received a wound from a body of armed heretics, who fell on him and left him for dead.
His friends found him still breathing and almost expiring, and bore him off late in the evening to a neighbouring village.
Both himself and the place where he was lying are said to have been lighted up throughout the whole of that night. They buried him with much honour in the neighbouring monastery of Timoleague,[2] belonging to the Order of St. Francis.
See also Rothe, O’Sullevan, and Porter.[3]
1 O’Sullevan says he was Bishop elect of Ross. His. Cath., p.244. His name, however, is not given in Bradys Ep. Succ
2 Ten miles south of Bandon, on the western side of Courtmacsherry Bay. See Meehan’s Franc. Mon., p. 52. It was founded by the Barry family.
3 None of these writers gives the date of his death. Rothe places him between Patrick Locheran (1612) and Donagh Daly (1614).
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Hartry’s Synopsis, p. 259
IN the Abbey of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Assaroe[1] in the Co. Donegal, the Abbot, Eugene O’Gallagher and Bernard O’Trevir, his Prior, and the other monks to the number of thirty, lived according to their rule, undisturbed from the first erection of the abbey
till some years after the suppression of nearly all the other monasteries, [2] while the power of O’Neill and O’Donnell lasted.
But when they fled across the sea the monks too were forced to fly, and when they died at Rome in 1609,[3] the English took occasion to seize on their vast domains and possessions, threw down the monastery, and drove out the monks.
The venerable Eugene O’Gallagher who happened to be away from his monastery, was slain by the aforesaid enemies through hatred of the faith.
So too, Bernard O’Trevir, one of his monks, when flying from his persecutors, was slain near the monastery in the year 1606, in the same year and month as the Abbot, but not on the same day, and entered heaven wearing a martyr’s crown.
The author says he heard the account of the martyrdom of these two religious from a venerable priest, Richard Kelly, then in his seventy-sixth year.
See also Rothe, O’Sullevan Henriquez, and Bruodin.
1 The abbey is close to the town of Ballyshannon. It was founded in 1178 by OCannanan, chief of Tyrconnell.
2 See Introduction p.7
3 See Meehans Flight of the Earls
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Ward’s Catalogue.)
THESE were religious of the convent of Multyfarnham,1 Co. Meath.
In the year 1590 they were seized by English heretics, who were led on by Dudley Loftus2 and Richard Greame.
The first was sent to Dublin and put in prison there.
The two others, old and decrepit, were cast into the prison of Ballyboy.3
All three died in prison the following year.
See also Wadding.
1 Founded by William Delamer in 1305. See Meehan’s Franc. Mon., p.38
2 He was a son of Archbishop Loftus.
3 Near Frankfort, King’s County.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
From Broudin's Propugnaculum, p.440)
THESE religious were natives of Kerry, and born of respectable Catholic parents.
They were priests, and for more than thirty years had preached the word of God throughout different parts of Ireland, not without great profit to souls.
When the rest of the brethren fled from the heretics who were coming to seize them, these could not accompany them, owing to old age and loss of sight; the youngest of them was over seventy years of age. They took refuge in church of their monastery in the town of Lislachtin, near the village of Ballylongford.[2]
They were seized and dragged before the high altar, and there beaten with sticks, and run through with the sword.
The date of their death is 6th April, 1580.
Rothe gives it as 1582.
See also Holing, Rothe, Fitzsimon, Copinger, O’Sullevan, Molanus, Ward, Wadding, and Hueber.
1 Perhaps O’Shea Copinger calls him 0’Lee
2 Founded in 12470 by OConor Kerry. See Annals F.M., iv. 1071. Lislachtin is near the village of Ballylongford. Hueber says they were put to death at Ardfert.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Rothe’s Analecta, p.391)
HE was a student of humanities.
He was seized by the heretics, and because he remained firm in the faith, he suffered martyrdom, at Galway, in the year of our Lord 1588.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
HE was a priest of this same convent.
He had been seized some time before, but escaped from his captors, owing to the carelessness of his guard.
He was again seized, and hanged from the nearest tree with his own girdle
in the same year as F. Cornelius.
See Wadding
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
HE was ordained priest in the year 1581, and belonged to the convent of Askeaton.
He was seized by ten English soldiers by order of Nicholas Malby.1
These inflicted three or four great wounds on his head, and another soldier pierced him through with a sword.
The martyr died, invoking the glorious name of Christ, in the year 1587.
See also Wadding
1 See p. 144, antea
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Ward’s Synopsis)
HE was sacristan of the Convent of lrrelagh, now known under the name of Muckross,[1] and hearing of the fury displayed by the English soldiers against other convents, he hid a portion of the church ornaments in a certain island in the neighbouring lake.
When he returned with a companion to carry away the rest, they found the monastery taken possession of by soldiers, and these stoned them almost to death.
As soon as they recovered somewhat, they were asked where they had hidden the ornaments, and especially the chalices.
As they would not tell, they were put to the torture, and the following night they rested in the Lord, in the year 1586.
1 The monastery of Oirbealach at Carraignanchiull, at the eastern end of Lough Leine, was founded for Franciscan friars by McCarthy Mor, prince of Desmond (Donnell, son of Tadhg), and the chiefs of the country selected burial places for themselves in this monastery.
Among these were O’Sullivan Mor, and the two O’Donoghues. Annals FM. ad.Ann. 1340.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
1584 (?)1 CISTERCIAN MONKS OF GRAIGUENAMANAGH.23
(From O’Sullevan’s Decas Patriciana, fol. 163 b.)
O’SULLEVAN gives the following account of the martyrdom of the Cistercians of Graiguenamanagh, Co. Kilkenny : -
‘This noble monastery is situated on the river Barrow.
The robbers went to seize on it.
When they were approaching, twelve of the religious went in ecclesiastical procession to meet them.
When they were ordered by those wicked men to take off their sacred vestments and to yield obedience to Queen Elizabeth, their superior replied (this was the Prior, for the Abbot Charles Cavenagh, who is buried in the old monastery, had died a few days before) : That could not be done if they would keep in tact the faith which they had pledged to God, his Virgin Mother, and St. Bernard, and the Christian piety of which they would not violate their promise or their duty as Christians.
The others gave their assent to his resolution, and they were all slain.’
1 There is no means of fixing the date accurately
2 Founded in 1207 by William Marshal the elder. A facsimile of the Charter is given in Gilbert’s Facsimiles of Irish MSS., pt. 2. no. lix.
The church is now used as the Catholic church of the parish.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Rothe’s Analecta, p.505)
She lived in Dublin, the widow of Bartholomew Baal.
According to the words of St. Paul : ‘Honour widows that are widows indeed, + have learned first to govern their own house and to make a return of duty to their parents, who being widows indeed and desolate, trust in God + continue in supplications + prayers night + day.’1 Such was this widow.
‘For she that liveth in pleasures is dead whilst she is living.’ She was not such a one, but ‘blameless, having care of her own, especially those of her household.’ Everyone will admit that she had ‘testimony of her good works, and brought up her children, and ministered to them that suffered tribulation, and diligently followed every good work.’
In addition to her morning and night prayers, which she hardly ever omitted, she devoted whatever time she could spare from the duties of her household + the occupations of Martha to reciting the rosary, the penitential psalms, the litanies, + other prayers.
(The narrator confesses to not knowing what the term ‘the occupations of Martha’ might mean. The word Martha means mistress, whilst in the Gospel, Lazarus’ sister Martha, was so caught up in domestic chores that her sister Mary kept Our Lord company)
On feast days she heard Mass, + thought it almost a crime to be absent from it even on ordinary days when she could assist at it.
And that she might be more sure of being able to satisfy her devotion and assist at Mass each day, although the times were evil, she had a priest always in her house, whom she supplied + gave a yearly stipend. For this reason charges were made against her frequently.
At they arrested her and the priest.
Both were brought into the presence of the Viceroy, Chancellor, and the Council; and hurried off in a cart to the prison.
For a while, she endured the hardships of imprisonment. But money smoothed the way, + some noblemen begged + importuned the royal ministers on her behalf, + so at last she was set free, and allowed to return home. After she was let out of prison, she acted just as she had done before her imprisonment. She was earnest in her prayers and other exercises of piety.
‘She was still, and saw how sweet the Lord Was.’4
She relieved the wants of the poor, and this she did all the more readily and willingly, because she was grateful to God for being restored to freedom and to her own home. In her house she was to all a mirror of integrity and purity, of piety and innocence, of modesty and virtue to her household, to strangers, to all far and near. To virgins she was a model of purity; to widows, of continence ; to all, a lamp of faith, religion, + holiness. Hence it was that noble ladies, who were anxious to have their children brought up in piety and virtue, used to send them from a great distance to be educated in her household, as being the home of piety and school of virtue. These, when handed over to her for training, she made handmaids of virtue.
But her eldest son, Walter Baal, grieved her soul. He served Baal and adored him. There was no priest, secular or regular, no bishop or anyone else in any way remarkable for his learning and piety whom, whenever an opportunity offered, she did not beg to aid her in the work of his conversion.
When he became Mayor, he was so hard-hearted that he had her put into prison; and on account of her feeble condition he placed her by force on a litter, to be borne on it as on a bier.
All this she endured with patience, and leaving behind her a sweet odour of constancy, patience, and untarnished faith, she died happily in prison in the year of our Lord, 1584.
See also Holing, Molanus, + Lynch
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
THOMAS COURSY, a native of Munster, was a most zealous priest.
He resided at Kinsale.
He was Vicar General, and in discharge of his office he used to visit the parish priests who were under this authority, and urge them to watch anxiously over the flocks committed to their care.
When thus engaged, he fell into the hands of the emissaries of that wicked tyrant, Sir John Perrott,[1] an Englishman, then President of Munster.
By his order he was hanged, and so gained the victory for Christ on the 30th of March in the year 1577.
Sir John Perrott was President of Munster from 1571 to 1574 and Lord Deputy from 1583 and 1588.
He died a prisoner in the Tower of London, having been charged with exciting the Irish people to throw off the Queen’s authority.
Se also Bridgewater, Sander,2 and Copinger.
1 He was President of Munster from 1571 to 1574 and Lord Deputy from 1583 and 1588. He died a prisoner in the Tower of London, having been charged with exciting the Irish people to throw off the Queen’s authority. Sir William Drury was President of Munster in 1577.
2 This author gives ‘Thomas Chone, Waterfordensis,’ in the list of ‘Archidiaconi aut vincti aut exules.’ De Ecci. Visib., p. 668; most probably he was the martyr.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Challoner’s Memoirs, i. 98 and 227)
DR. BRIDGEWATER relates that Mr. Ailworth, a secular gentleman, for his constancy in the faith was not only cast into prison and there put in irons, but also thrust by the jailer into a nasty dungeon, or rather a common sewer, where he perished by the stench within eight days.[1]
Henry Holland in a letter gives some further details of his sufferings and death —
‘I cannot pass over in silence Mr. Ailworth,[2] a young Irish gentleman, of a singular zeal for religion, who had hired a house not in any street but among the gardens, commodious enough for preaching and mass, where the Catholics sometimes met in a pretty good number for the divine service, much to his content and satisfaction, who set more value upon what belonged to the honour and worship of God than upon any earthly toys.
But the thing became known and reached the ears of Fleetwood, the Recorder of the city.
This furious man with constables came to the house, and finding Mr. Ailworth in his chamber, carried him away to prison, even to the very worst prison in London.
And in this way being displeased at some word that the gentleman spoke, gave this most constant confessor a violent blow on the head, then ordered him to be put into a filthy dungeon, destitute of all things,strictly forbidding any one to be admitted to visit him or give him anything so that the young gentleman in eight days’ time was brought to his end by the stench and filth of the place.
1 Concertatio p. 412
2 A family of this name lived at Faithlegg, Co. Waterford. There is a shield over the doorway of the old castle of Passage East, inscribed Ailward’ in black letter. Sir Richard Aylward, in 1606, showed great servility in the matter of religion. See C.S.Pl. (1603- 1606), p. 466
3 There is no means of fixing the date accurately
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Bruodin’s Propugnaculum, p. 439)
DANIEL ONEILAN, born in Thomond of a noble family, consecrated himself to God by vows in the Order of St. Francis in the year 1560, and he lived in it for twenty years, both in Ireland and Spain.
During this time he made great progress both in virtue and in learning, so that he was the model of a good religious to all.
Urged by zeal for the salvation of souls, he returned to his native country which was then ravaged by the fury of the heretics.
Immediately on landing at the port of Youghal, he was seized by William Morgan, the Governor of the town, and closely questioned.
Daniel openly and fearlessly declared that he was a priest and a member of the Seraphic Order.
When the cruel tyrant heard this, without any process of law, he directed that Father Daniel’s hands should be tied behind his back, and then ordered him to be scourged, and salt and vinegar to be put into the wounds made on the skin by the lash.
At last the tyrants seeing Neilan’s courage, for he prayed without ceasing for himself and his persecutors, and despairing of changing his purpose, since he refused the honours offered to him if he would join with the heretics, ordered this brave champion of Christ to be hanged from the vane of a wind-mill with his head down, like Peter, the prince of the Apostles, and to be shot at till his whole body was pierced through with balls.
By such a martyrdom Daniel earned for himself a glorious crown in heaven.
He suffered at Youghal, in Munster, March 28th 1580.
See also Holing, Fitzsimon, Rothe, Copinger, O’Sullevan, Molanus, Ward, Wadding, and Hueber.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Ward’s Catalogue)
HE was a priest of the convent of (the name was not legible to the book’s original publisher)[1] . . . and was seized by some English horsemen that met him on the road.
They bound his hands together with his girdle, and led him along to the prison, tied to the reins of a horse.
He was told to run along with them, but he could not keep up with them, owing to his advanced age and the speed of the horses.
He was therefore dragged along the road for some time, and then trampled by the horses of their companions who came up.
His body was crushed in this way, and so he died a glorious martyr in the year 1584.
See also Wadding
1 The name is written very indistinctly
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
HUGH LACY, born of a noble family in Munster, was a man skilled in sacred and profane learning, and a priest of blameless life and character, for which reason he was chosen Bishop of Limerick[1] while Henry VIII. was still obedient to the Church.
When the King apostatized, he could not induce Hugh to join in his rebellion or to stain himself by subscribing to this supremacy.
Wherefore not only did he lose the King’s favour, but he was deprived first of his revenues and afterwards of his bishopric.
When the King could effect nothing by these means, he had Lacy shut up in a noisome prison in Cork, the filth of which almost caused his death.
When he was released from his imprisonment by the contrivance of his friends, he returned to Limerick, in order to collect and guard his flock, which had been scattered by the attacks of the English wolf.
As the evil grew in strength during the last years of Henry’s reign and under the sway of Seymour, the Calvinist, who governed the kingdom for Edward VI., the persecution was renewed against Hugh.
Wherefore, following the example of the Apostles, he fled, and went to that Catholic country France.
When Mary ascended the throne, he was called back by Cardinal Pole, and he returned to Limerick, to the great delight of all the diocese, where he tended his flock for many years in peace, like a good shepherd.
When he was over sixty years of age, Elizabeth, like a wild beast, began to lay waste the vineyard of the Lord.
Lacy, full of the spirit of God, was again driven from his See, deprived of all the means necessary or his support, and cast into prison, because he would not take the oath of Supremacy.
Worn out by these sufferings, he died on the 26th March, 1577.[2]
The date given by Rothe, 1580, is most probably, the correct one, for Holinshed says, Lacy was upon some suspicions committed prisoner to his own house in 1579,and his successor was appointed in 1582.
See also Holing, Rothe, and Copinger
1 Brady says he was appointed in 1556. Ep. Succ., ii.42
2 The date given by Rothe, 1580, is most probably, the correct one, for Holinshed says, Lacy was upon some suspicions committed prisoner to his own house in 1579. Chron., vi. 429 ; and his successor was appointed in 1582. See Moran’s Archbishops, p. 186
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Ward’s Catalgoue.)
TEIGUE O’MORACHUE, the guardian of the convent of Enniscorthy,[2] with the vicar and the sacristan, were seized during the government of Henry Wallop,[3], Viceroy of Ireland, by the soldiers in the monastery, tortured in various ways for five days there, and slain in the year 1582
1 Anglicised Murphy
2 Founded in 1460 by Donald Kavanagh. The site is now occupied by the National Bank
3 He was Treasurer-at-War, and Lord Justice with Loftus, Archbishop of Dublin, from 1582 to 1584.
He is buried in St Patrick’s Dublin.
His descendant, the Earl of Portsmouth, still holds the lands of the monastery that were confiscated.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
THESE, the five first of whom were priests and the last a lay-brother, belonged to the Order of St. Francis.
They were pious and most zealous men, who in spite of every kind of danger used to travel through Connaught and Leinster without ceasing, in order to guide the people on the paths of justice and truth by preaching to them often and earnestly the word of God.
Wherefore they were seized by the heretics and thrust into the prison in the Castle of Dublin, where, worn out by the tortures by which their constancy was put to the test, and by the filth and squalor of the place, they died in the year 1582.
See also Copinger, Wadding, and Hueber.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
Peter Higghin, O.P.1
(From De Burgo’s Hib. Dom., p. 561)
HE was a member of the Dublin Community.
When the war was begun by the Catholics for their faith and country,2 he was seized by the heretics and cast into a prison, where he endured much from the hardships of the place and want of food.
Yet no one made a charge against him, nay rather, many heretics by word of mouth and writing declared he was innocent of any crime.
While in prison he made his confession three times to his prior, who by disguising himself contrived to obtain admittance to him.
He declared publicly that he was innocent of any crime, and he openly professed his adhesion to the Catholic faith.
His constancy in the midst of his sufferings, and the joy shown on his face, moved many of the heretics to tears ; others were still more maddened thereby, so that not only did they expose his dead body to insult, but they would not allow it to be buried within the city; and when it was passing outside the gate, they broke the skull with a blow of the butt of a gun.
He was hanged on March 23rd, 1642.
1 De Burgo shows he was a different person from Peter O’Higgin.
The one was Prior, the other held no such office, as is shown by the fact that his Prior is spoke of above.
In the Acts of the Chapter of the Order, held in 1644 and 1656 they are spoken of as different persons.
2 The motto of the Confederate Catholics was Pro Deo, rege, et patria Hiberni unanimes
See Gilbert’s History of the Confederation ii.85
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
1581 (?) DANIEL O’HANAN
(From Molanus’ Idea, p.90)
HE was a native of Ulster.
When the persecution was raging throughout that province so tenacious of the ancient religion, he refused to take part in the religious services of the innovators, and upheld the Catholic faith by professing it openly.
For so doing he was cast into prison and treated very harshly.
He was tempted to abandon the faith, but to no purpose.
Victorious over his enemies, he died in prison.
Molanus does not give the date of his death in his list, the name is placed between those of Patrick Hayes, who suffered death in 1581, and John Dowdall, who was executed in 1600.
See also Rothe.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Rothe’s Analecta, p. 482)
A copy of a letter of the Rev. Father Rochford concerning the martyrdom of Father Maurice Kinreghtin.
I send a welcome gift, the account of the martyrdom of my intimate friend, Maurice Kinreghtin, a very holy priest, the chaplain of the Earl of Desmond, whom you knew well.
For this reason he was seized by the English, taken to your native town Clonmel, and kept in prison there for over a year.
On the eve of Easter Sunday, in the year 1585, Victor White, a leading man of the town and pious Catholic, obtained from the head jailer permission for the priest to pass the night in his house.
This the jailer allowed; but he gave private information to the President of Munster, an English heretic, who happened to be then in the town, that if he wished to seize the principal citizens hearing Mass, he could easily come on them in the house of Victor White at dawn of day at the same time he bargained for a sum of money as the reward of his treachery.
At the hour already named the soldiers rushed into the house and seized on Victor.
The others, hearing the noise, escaped by the back doors and windows.
A certain lady in her flight fell and broke her arm.
The soldiers found the chalice and other things used for the celebration of Mass.
They looked everywhere for the priest (he had not yet begun the Mass) at last they came to a heap of straw under which the poor man was lying hid; and thrusting their swords through it, they wounded him in the thigh, but he kept silent, and concealed his suffering, fearing still worse; soon after he left the town and went into the country.
But the intrepid Victor, who could never be persuaded to go to the profane conventicles of the heretics, though he had suffered much in consequence, was now ordered to give up the priest and because he refused, he was thrown into prison.
He would have been put to death surely if Maurice, hearing of the danger in which his friend was, did not surrender of his own free accord to the President — and act of truly Christian friendship.
The President upbraided him at great length, and after condemning him to death, offered to pardon him if he abjured the Catholic faith and professed that the Queen was supreme Head of the Church.
A preacher came and for a long time, but vainly, strove to seduce the martyr, nor would he on any account betray any of those who had assisted at his Mass, or to whom he had administered the sacraments.
In fine he was dragged at the tail of a horse to the place of execution as one guilty of high treason.
When he came there, he exhorted the people with much learning and piety to be constant in the faith.
He was taken down when half-alive from the gallows and his head was cut off, and the preacher of error struck it a blow.
By entreaty and by bribes the Catholics obtained of the executioners that they would not mangle his body any further, and they buried it with as much respect as they could.
Farewell in the Lord, and be you imitators, if occasion offers, of the courageous Maurice Kinreghtin.
At least prepare your souls to be so.
Your affectionate friend
‘From the College of St. Anthony,
‘2Oth March, 1586.’
See also Holing, Copinger, Molanus, Q’Sullevan, Wadding, Lynch, and Bruodin.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Rothe’s Analecta, p. 391)
HE was a merchant and shipowner of Wexford.
He was imprisoned for a long time because he had given aid to Catholics in their distress, both bishops, priests and laymen.
Worn out at last by his long confinement and sufferings, he slept in the Lord in Dublin, in the year of our Lord 1581.
See also Holing, Copinger, and Molanus
1 Copinger gives the name as Hea.
He is most probably the same who is mentioned by Bruodin under the date 1600.
The facts connected with both are identical. See Propugnaculum, p. 467
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Lynch’s De Prœsulibus Hib., ii. 495)
HE belonged to a respectable family.
His extensive knowledge of theology and Canon Law, as well as his great virtue, caused him to be much esteemed.
On the 24th of January, 1567, he was appointed Bishop of Emly.
He was one of those sent over in 1568 to the King of Spain and the Pope by the Earl of Desmond and his confederates in Munster, to implore their aid in saving this country and the Catholic religion from oppression.
On the 26th March, 1578, Drury, president of Munster, wrote from Waterford to Walsingham, to inform him that a Liverpool vessel had brought from Calais some papistical vestments belonging to Morrough O’Brien the pretended Bishop of Emly, who had landed at Galway.1
In 1584 he was imprisoned in Dublin Castle, resolved to allow his limbs to waste away in the most foul den rather than deny his faith.
O’Mulrian, Bishop of Killaloe, writing to Cardinal DeComo, October 29th, 1584, after speaking of the sufferings and heroism of Dermot O’Hurley, says:
The Bishop of Emly, who is equally constant in the faith, is at present confined in the Dublin dungeons.
They are now preparing for him too the leaden boots, and mean to apply the fiery ordeal, as they did with the Archbishop,2 that thus, if possible, they may compel him to abandon his religion.
He died in prison in Dublin, March 17th, 1586.
The Processus presented to the Consistory for the appointment of his successor says:
The See of Emly is vacant owing to the death of Morrough O’Brien, its last bishop, who died several years ago in the Dublin prisons for the faith.’3
There is some doubt about the precise year of his death.4
We give above that set down by most writers.
See also Holing, Rothe, Copinger, Molanus, Mooney, and Bruodin.
1 Brady’s Episc. Succession, ii.35
2 ‘i.e., Dermot O’Hurley. See P. 138, antea.
3 Brady, Epis. Succ., ii.37
4 Perrott, the Lord Deputy, in 1586, gave a list of the pledges then in the Castle of Dublin.
Among them is ‘Mortagh McBrian, Bishop of Emly, for usurpation from Rome, committed to prison by Myler M’Grath, Archbishop of Cashel.’ C.S.RI. (1586—1588), p. 230
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Tanner’s Societas Jesus, &c., p. 7 and Bruodin’s Propugnaculum, p.428)
Bruodin gives 16-3-1575, as his date of death.
WHEN Elizabeth was striving to root out the Catholic faith, Pope Gregory XIII, sent members of the Society of Jesus to Ireland to succour the faithful.
F.Edmund M’Donnell, met with a glorious death very soon after he reached there, and was the first of them to proclaim the truth of the Catholic religion by the shedding of his blood. He was a native of Limerick, and returned to comfort the Catholics, who were sorely persecuted, with FF. Thomas Good,2, and David Wolfe,3.
He was seized by order of the President of Munster, and confined in prison in Limerick. The ministers made him all kinds of promises if he would join the Reformers, and when he continued unmoved, he was taken to Cork to be questioned still further. During the whole journey his hands were tied behind his back, and he suffered all the hardships usually inflicted on murderers and traitors. He was thrust into the common prison, and endured various tortures at different times his firmness remained unbroken.
He was accused of high treason and condemned in open court. The reasons publicly alleged were such as prove that he well deserves the proud title of martyr, viz., that he stubbornly continued to profess the Catholic faith, which was proscribed by Elizabeth in England under the penalty of high treason, that he had come to gain over to and confirm in the same his fellow citizens both by word and deed, that he impiously refused to the Queen the title of Head of the Church in England, and that he had brought letters from Pope Gregory XIII. to James Fitzmaurice,4 who was then at the head of the Irish Catholics in arms against the heretics in defence of the Catholic faith.
Gregory XIII., in his letter of May 13th, 1580, to the Archbishops, chiefs, and people of Ireland, mentions his previous letters to them, exhorting them ‘to recover their liberty and to defend it against the heretics, and to aid James Geraldine, who was desirous of delivering them from the hard yoke of slavery imposed on them by the English, who had abandoned the holy Roman Church.’
Fr M’Donnell listened with great pleasure and joy to his sentence, and bowing to the judges, thanked them. He was then led away to the usual place of execution. Here he was hanged, and while he was still alive, the rope was cut and he fell to the ground. The executioner cut open his body, and tearing out his heart, showed it to the people & cast it into the fire. The rest of the body was quartered and set on stakes at different places until it fell to pieces.
He suffered death at Cork in the year 1580. Bruodin gives March 16th, 1575, as the date of his death.
See Holing, Fitzsimon, Rothe, Copinger, O’Sullevan, Alegambe, and Jouvency.
1 See his life in Challoners Memoirs, i. 30
2 His Christian name was William. He came to this country in 1564, and passed five years here. He died at Naples in 1586. See Records of the English Province S.J., iv. 477
3 He was a native of Limerick. Pope Pius IV. Appointed him Commissary-General for the whole of Ireland. He was a prisoner in the Castle of Dublin for at least four years. See a notice of his life in Moran’s Archbishops of Dublin, p. 77. and in Hogan’s Distinguished Irishmen, p.1.
4 Gregory XIII., in his letter of May 13th, 1580, to the Archbishops, chiefs, and people of Ireland, makes mention of letters written by him to them in the preceding years, exhorting them ‘to recover their liberty and to defend it against the heretics, and to aid James Geraldine, who was desirous of delivering them from the hard yoke of slavery imposed on them by the English, who had abandoned the holy Roman Church.’ See O’Sullevan’s Hist. Cath., p.121
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Bruodifl’S propUgnaCUIum, p. 467)
HE was a native of Ulster and Bishop of Connor.2
(This is a mistake. He was appointed Bishop of Killala in 1545 and transferred to Derry in 1569. )
He was attacked at night in his own house by some English soldiers of the garrison of Lough Foyle, and with three other priests cruelly put to death.
He was in his 9Oth year and in the 60th of his episcopate.
A State Paper, dated July 28th, 1592, says:
In Ulster is one Redmundus O’Gallagher, bishop of Derry, legate to the Pope and Custos Armaghnen, being one of the three Irish Bishops that were in the Council of Trent.3
(The three Bishops were Donald McCongail of Raphoe, Thomas O’Herlihy of Ross and Eugene O’Hart of Achonry.)
This Bishop used all manner of spiritual jurisdiction throughout all Ulster, consecrating churches, ordaining priests, confirming children, and giving all manner of dispensations riding with pomp and company from place to place, as it was accustomed in Queen Mary’s days.’4
(He received a faculty from the Pope to exercise a certain jurisdiction in Armagh during the Primate’s absence.)
The Annals of the Four Masters under the date 1601, says Redmund O’Gallagher, bishop of Derry, was killed in Oireacht Ui Chathain.’5
(O’Kane’s territory, which included the present baronies of Tirkeeran, Keenaght, and Dungiven, in Co. Derry)
He was put to death on March 15th.
The spot where he was slain is on the high road nearly midway between O’Kane’s Castle and Dungiven.
See also Sander, Rothe, Copinger, O’Sullivan, Ward, Porter, and De Burgo.
2 This is a mistake. He was appointed Bishop of Killala in 1545 and transferred to Derry in 1569. See Brady’s Epis. Succ., li.173
3 The three Bishops were Donald McCongail of Raphoe, Thomas O’Herlihy of Ross and Eugene O’Hart of Achonry.
4 He received a faculty from the Pope to exercise a certain jurisdiction in Armagh during the Primate’s absence. Ibid.
5 O’Kane’s territory, which included the present baronies of Tirkeeran, Keenaght, and Dungiven, in Co. Derry
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
The martyrdom of Nicholas Fitzgerald
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Wadding’s Annales Minorum, xxi. 208)
In our convent of Elphin1, some English soldiers seized a certain priest of our Order and some other persons.
They pressed a layman, who was one of their captives, to tell something of the plots which they said he had entered into with others against the Queen of England; but he protested he could tell nothing but the truth, and that there were no such plots.
So they determined to hang him.
He begged that he might first be allowed to make his confession to the priest.
This they granted readily because they thought that if the priest was put to the torture, he would reveal what was told him.
As soon as the confession was ended the layman was hanged, and then they asked the priest, who was also to be hanged, if he had learned anything of the business in the confession.
He answered in the negative, and refused to make known anything which he might have heard in the sacred tribunal.
They offered him life and freedom if he would reveal what he had heard, and threatened him with torture if he refused.
He answered that he could not:
Immediately they knotted a cord round his head, and putting a piece of wood through it, slowly twisted it so tight that at length, after he had endured this torment for a long time, his skull was broken in and his brain crushed.
All this time he was praying to God and to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
He died on the spot.
I have seen and examined ocular witnesses of this fact, who were then serving in that body of English soldiers.
But they did not remember the name of the friar or the exact year.
It was about 1577. Ward gives 1579 as the date of his death.
1 1 Founded by Cornelius, Bishop of Elphin, in 1450. Ward says O’Dowd was put to death at Moyne.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Bruodin’s Propugnaculum, p. 465)
HE was a native of LeinSter, a priest, and a zealous preacher.
He was taken by the heretics and sent to Dublin, where he obtained a glorious victory for Christ.
He was thrown into prison by order of the chief judge, and iron chain was bound round his body, his hands and feet were tied to a beam, and he was forced to stand for forty hours without sleep.
He was flogged, and salt and vinegar were rubbed into his wounds by the executioners.
Being then asked whether he would take the oath of Supremacy, he answered with great firmness, that he would rather die than swear that a woman, who St. Paul says should be silent in the church, was the Head of the Church.
The fierce and blood-thirsty judge, Walter Raleigh by name, angry at this answer, ordered Fernan to be put to the torture of the rack.
The executioners had not been long engaged in drawing asunder the limbs of this confessor of Christ, when he exclaimed,
Lord, into Thy hands I commend my spirit,’ and gave up his soul to his Creator March 12th 1597.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
1612 Letter from Archbishop Kearney of Cashel on life on the run
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
WHILE striving to protect the flock entrusted to his care from heresy, he was captured, and ended his life in prison.
See also Sander and Rothe.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From the Barberini Archives, Rome.)
ON March 9th, 1642, the Most Rev. Dr. Comerford, Bishop of Waterford, wrote to a friend resident in Paris:
'Last week, the President of Ulster, having received reinforcements, once more took the field, together with the Earl of Cork, the Earl of Barrymore, Lord Broghill, and Sir John Browne.
Marching to Dungarvan and seizing on the Castle, they set fire to the town and put to death F. Edmund Hore and F. John Clancy, both priests, together with others of the principal citizens.
They then sacked the place, and retired leaving a strong garrison in the Castle.’
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Molanus’ Idea, p. 66)
He underwent great toil and hardships while the persecution was raging, in order to encourage the citizens of that very famous city.
When engaged in the performance of the sacred functions, he fell into the hands of the persecutors, and so ended his life gloriously in the year 1578.
He is buried in a marble tomb outside the choir of St. Peter’s church, Cork.
See also Sander and Rothe.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Wadding’s Annales Minorum, xxi. 208)
In our convent of Elphin1, some English soldiers seized a certain priest of our Order and some other persons.
They pressed a layman, who was one of their captives, to tell something of the plots which they said he had entered into with others against the Queen of England; but he protested he could tell nothing but the truth, and that there were no such plots.
So they determined to hang him.
He begged that he might first be allowed to make his confession to the priest.
This they granted readily because they thought that if the priest was put to the torture, he would reveal what was told him.
As soon as the confession was ended the layman was hanged, and then they asked the priest, who was also to be hanged, if he had learned anything of the business in the confession.
He answered in the negative, and refused to make known anything which he might have heard in the sacred tribunal.
They offered him life and freedom if he would reveal what he had heard, and threatened him with torture if he refused.
He answered that he could not: Immediately they knotted a cord round his head, and putting a piece of wood through it, slowly twisted it so tight that at length, after he had endured this torment for a long time, his skull was broken in and his brain crushed.
All this time he was praying to God and to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
He died on the spot.
I have seen and examined ocular witnesses of this fact, who were then serving in that body of English soldiers.
But they did not remember the name of the friar or the exact year.
It was about 1577. Ward gives 1579 as the date of his death.
1 1 Founded by Cornelius, Bishop of Elphin, in 1450. Ward says O’Dowd was put to death at Moyne.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Hueber’s MartyrolOgiUm, p. 644)
WHEN the English soldiers rushed madly into the convent of Kilcrea, [1] on the river Bride, in Muskerry, they seized one of the brethren, Matthew O’Leyne, an aged priest, as he was striving to escape from them across the river, and cruelly pierced him through with their spears, March 6th, 1590.
See also Wadding and Ward.
1 Founded by Cormac Laidher McCarthy, lord of Muskerry, in 1465. The castle of that
branch of the McCarthys is close by.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Rothe’s Analecta, p.67)
BECAUSE he defended the authority of the Church with great firmness, and asserted that the apostolic ceremonies should be retained and the novelties of the heretics rejected, he was frequently sought after by the emissaries of the Queen.
At length he was seized and cast into prison.
He died there.
See also Sander, Bridgewater, and Molanus
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
Apologies for the poor and rushed delivery. The recording failed on me a few times.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Molanus’ Idea, p. 66)
WHILE striving to protect the flock entrusted to his care from heresy, he was captured, and ended his life in prison.
See also Sander and Rothe.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Molanus’ Idea, p. 66)
He underwent great toil and hardships while the persecution was raging, in order to encourage the citizens of that very famous city.
When engaged in the performance of the sacred functions, he fell into the hands of the persecutors, and so ended his life gloriously in the year 1578.
He is buried in a marble tomb outside the choir of St. Peter’s church, Cork.
See also Sander and Rothe.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
Provision for imprisoned priests confined on the islands.
from
Commonwealth Council books A.24, p.374 & A86, p.213
From a manuscript in the Franciscan Convent, Dublin
de Proesulibus Hiberniae ii,631
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
On the confinement of priests on the offshore islands from
Spenser's view of Ireland p.114
Commonwealth Council Books A5, p.327 & A.10, p.277
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
1607 (?) ROBERT LALOR
HE was Vicar General of the dioceses of Dublin, Kildare, and Ferns, ‘a good and pious man, who has great influence in the ecclesiastical concerns of this kingdom.’2
His capture is thus spoken of in a letter of Chichester to the Earl of Salisbury, of February 26th, 1606 :
‘They have taken one Lawler, a priest, whose name is well known to the Lord Lieutenant.
They got him by the endeavour of Sir Oliver Lambert, who set his lieutenant, who was then one of their provost marshals, to watch him, and he was quietly taken, with some papers, and divers popish trinkets.
He is a notable seducer of the people and called himself Vicar General of Dublin and Kildare, and so reputed throughout Leinster.’3
On March 7th, the Lord Deputy4 wrote to the English Privy Council from Dublin :
On the 26th of last month, by intelligence from Oliver Lambert, there was apprehended by him in this city, one Robert Lalor, a priest, and a dangerous instrument for these many years, who by his own confession acknowledges that he has for the last twelve years occupied the place of Vicar General in the three principal dioceses of the Pale, to wit, Dublin, Kildare, and Ferns; first, by a commission from two Popish bishops and Bishop Cranagh,5 authorized by Bulls from Rome, and since by a like confirmation to him by Mathias de la Vega,6 a Spaniard, who came to Kinsale with Don John,7 and who after the composition made at Kinsale, sent a commission by Don Pedro under his hand and seal to the said Lalor, which he now confesseth he received.
They now in examination of him.’8
He was indicted under the 2 Eliz. c.i., for advancing and upholding foreign jurisdiction within this realm.
He was a prisoner in the Castle of Dublin on November 12th, 1606.14
Most probably he was confined there till his death, for there is no further mention of him in the State Papers.
1 Brady’s Epis. Succession, .270. Theo there was Cornelius O’Devany. See p. 238, antea
2 Letter of F. Holywood, S.J., in Dist. irishmen, p. 171
3 C.S.P.I. (1603-1606) p. 406
4 Sir Arthur Chichester
5 Dermot Creagh, appointed Bishop of Cork and Cloyne in 1560. The date of his death is uncertain. See Brady’s Epis. Succ., ii.90
6 Matthew de Oviedo, Archbishop of Dublin from 1600 to 1609. See Moran’s Archbishops, p. 193
7 The commander of the Spanish forces which came to assist the Irish in 1601
8 C.S.Rl. (1606— 1608), p.416
14 C.S.P.I. (1 606-1608), p. 18
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
The Trinitarian convent1 of Dublin was one of the principal houses of the Order in Ireland. It was founded In 1188 by allured Le Palmer.
It Stood on the site now Occupied by the Augustinian church, Thomas Street, and dedicated to St. John the Baptist. The building was large and ornamental, its revenues were considerable. The Community numbered about fifty.
On the first news of the King’s design to subvert the faith and introduce a new creed, the former Provincial, Fr Theobald, wrote to his successor suggesting that a meeting of the leading men of the Order should be convened in Dublin, to take the necessary measures in face of the danger that was imminent. The Provincial presided
Besides the superiors of houses, several other members remarkable for their learning and virtue were present; among them we find the names of FF. Thaddeus O’Brien, John Hogan, and William Hurley.
When the Chapter had assembled, each gave his opinion, upholding the Catholic faith and the pope’s authority, and declaring the impious decrees of the King to be heretical and the King to be a heresiarch; and putting their trust in the Most Holy Trinity, all took the resolution to lay down their lives in defence of the truth.
The conference was just ended when the news came of events at Adare. F. Theobald exclaimed: ‘The Most Holy Trinity has blessed our Order with a happy beginning and thus given us a pledge that the like grace will accompany us to the end.’
All signed a profession of the Catholic faith, which might be distributed among the faithful.
On February 24th the royal agents arrived in Dublin to enforce their master’s decrees. The next morning the exhortation of the Fathers was found posted in all the public squares and streets.
The Provincial and F. Theobald went about preaching to the people. The latter being thought the leader of the resistance, was immediately shot.
The Provincial was seized by a hired band and dragged through the streets. He repeated aloud that he would not abandon the faith so long as he had life.
The judges ordered the executioners to do their work.
A stroke of the hatchet put an end to his life.
His ribs were broken, and his heart taken out.
His body was thrown on a dunghill.
But when night came, the Catholics got possession of his scattered members, and buried them.
The other religious, some of whom had gone out into the streets to preach, while others remained in the convent, were all taken and put to death in divers ways.
Some were hanged, others beheaded, some stoned; others in fine were dragged through the streets until they expired; and their bodies were cast on the dunghills.
These, too, the faithful took away during the night and buried.
The triumph of these glorious martyrs took place on the 25th and 26th of February 1539.
1 Lismore Papers, 2 series, ii.86
2 In Spic. Ossor., Hi.32, there is a letter written by F.Thomas Fleming, O.S.F., from Dundal, April 25th, 1612, giving an account of ODevany’s and O’Loughran’s death, corresponding in every detail with that given above.
He says he saw some parts of the Martyrs’ bodies kept as relics. Ibid.
3 La casa capital de la isla,’ says Lopez, p.19. The church is now the catholic parochial Church. Some parts of the convent are still standing. See Lord Dunravens Memorials of Adare, p. 36. Adare is 9 miles S.W. of Limerick.
4 3Lopez, p. 18 and the Earls of Kildare, by the Marquis of Kildare, p.19
5 This is the name of the Superior of a convent of this Order
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Rothe’s Analecta, p.67)
BECAUSE he defended the authority of the Church with great firmness, and asserted that the apostolic ceremonies should be retained and the novelties of the heretics rejected, he was frequently sought after by the emissaries of the Queen.
At length he was seized and cast into prison.
He died there.
See also Sander, Bridgewater, and Molanus
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Hartry’s Synopsis, p.247)
St Mary’s Abbey was founded by Malachy ardrigh of Ireland, in 948, and by his vassals Gillemoholmoc and his wife Rose.
Some parts of it still remain, at the rere of No. 135 Capel Street1
ST. MARY’S ABBEY was for two centuries under the Benedictine rule.
It accepted the Cistercian reform about the time of the founding of Mellifont in 1142.’
It was the first house of the Order assailed when the persecution began.
Here is Hartry’s description of the sufferings of its inmates: -
The manner in which this very noble monastery was suppressed was a very sad spectacle to God and men.
Then, little by little, the other monasteries saw themselves ruined and desolate.
For, in accordance with the statutes of the parliament under Henry VIII., king of England, and owing to the ambition and avarice of the laity, which they had imbibed together with the pestilential heresy, they panted for the monastery and its very rich possessions.
Though they attempted three times, each time by the King’s authority, To wrest the monastery with its appurtenances from the monks, yet these resisted vigorously, defending the rights graciously granted and confirmed to them by Supreme Pontiffs and by the Kings of Ireland and England.
But the power of the King and of these greedy men prevailed, and the abbot and monks were put in chains, cast into prison by an armed crowd, in hunger, thirst, and nakedness.
Then they were taken to the village of Ballyboght, belonging to the said monastery, and slain.
‘At that time,’ says Philip O’Sullevan, ‘the religious of the monastery of Dublin were slain and rooted out by different kinds of death.
It was supposed that they were no less than fifty in the year 1541‘ 2
1 See The Chartulary of St.Mary’5 Abbey ii.8
2 2 Triumphalla S. Crucis, p.247.
This passage, however, taken from oSullevan’s Decas Patriciana, fol. 162 b., seems to refer rather to the Trinitarians.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From the Annals of the Four Masters, v. 1455)
The convent of Monaghan was founded by Féilim Mac Mathúna Lord of Oirghialla in 1462.
No trace of it remains.
The English throughout every part of Ireland where their power extended, were persecuting and banishing the Orders, and in particular they destroyed the convent of Monaghan, and beheaded the Guardian, with a number of the friars.
In Ward’s Catalogue the number of religious slain is said to have been sixteen, with their Prior, Patrick O’Brady.
The date which he gives is 1589 ; but as the Annals of the Four Masters make no mention of any Franciscans put to death at the later date, we must conclude that both refer to the same fact.
See also Annals of Loch Ce, Copinger, Ward, Bruodin, and Hueber.
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
(From Lopez’ Noticias Hisforicas, p. 150)
The convent of Adare was the first house of the Order in Ireland.13
It was founded in 1230 by Thomas FitzGerald, third son of the second Baron of Offaly,14 at the suggestion of the Earl of March, a Scotch nobleman & patron of the Order. The Minister15 of this convent in 1539 was Brother Robert.
It was at this time that the impious decrees of the King were published, & officials sent to put them into execution.
Having read the decrees and mastered their contents, Robert Summoned the Community of 42 members, told them what the new doctrines were, and declared that the King was a heretic, and, moreover, that he sought to make them share in this crime.
Such was the impression which he made on these hearersthat all declared they were ready to lay down their lives in defence of the Catholic faith and of the Pope’s supremacy; and knowing that the convent would be plundered immediately, they set to work at once to distribute among the poor all the provisions and clothing they had.
They hid away the sacred vessels and ornaments of the altar in various places, so that when the agents of the Government arrived, they could not find even a wooden crucifix on which to vent their impious rage.
Three times summoned before the magistrate, Father Robert was immovable in rejecting the honours offered to him by the Court, and in declaring his devoted attachment to the Catholic faith.
None, he said, had ever sought to propagate their religious tenets by the sword except the pagan Emperors in the early ages and Mahomet in later times.
As for himself and the community, they were determined that no violence should move them from the principles of truth. They recognised no Head of the Catholic Church save the Vicar of Christ; and as for the King of England, they regarded him not even as a member of that holy Church, but as the Head of the synagogue of Satan.
When the venerable Father had uttered these words, a heretical officer drew his sword, and with one blow severed the holy man’s head from his body.
The other agents of the Court were at once let loose against the unoffending Community. As the public prison was full of other victims,the religious were confined in private houses. There many died of the injuries and maltreatment which they received.
Some too were murdered secretly, whilst others were publicly hanged in the market-place.
It was on the 12th and 13th of February, 1539, that these happy Fathers obtained their eternal crown.
1 Ryche. A Catholic Conference. fo. 5
2 C.S.Pl. (1611-4), P. 244
3 Letter of F. Conway, S.J. in Spic. Ossor., I. 127
4 There is preserved in the archives of the Society of Jesus in Rome, a small parcel containing a piece of linen tinged with blood. On the outside is written :
‘Ex sanguine Cornelli Episcopi Dunensis et Conorensis.’ See introduction to Rothe’s Analecta, cvi. and Spic Ossor., iii.33
5 Annals F.M., vi.2371
6 Spic. Ossor., i. 123
7 Moran’s Archbishops, p.289
8 Dist. Irishmen, p. 474
9 Ob fidem Catholicam ab Hreticis obtruncati. Brady’s Epis. Succession, i.269
10 A mistake natural enough for a Protestant to make
11 Lismore Papers, 2 series, ii.86
12 In Spic. Ossor., Hi.32, there is a letter written by F.Thomas Fleming, O.S.F., from Dundal, April 25th, 1612, giving an account of ODevany’s and O’Loughran’s death, corresponding in every detail with that given above.
He says he saw some parts of the Martyrs’ bodies kept as relics. Ibid.
13 La casa capital de la isla,’ says Lopez, p.19. The church was later the catholic parish Church. Some parts of the convent are still standing. See Lord Dunravens Memorials of Adare, p. 36. Adare is 9 miles from Limerick.
14 3Lopez, p. 18 and the Earls of Kildare, by the Marquis of Kildare, p.19
15 The Superior of a convent of this Order
(From Rothe’s Analecta, p. 456 and O’Sullevan’s Cath. Hist., p. 298)
CORNELIUS O’DEVANY was born in 1533 in Ulster. He entered the Order of St. Francis.
He went to Rome & the Pope appointed him Bishop of Down & Connor on 18-4-1582.
He was one of the bishops who in 1587 in Clogher solemnly promulgated the decrees of the Council of Trent. 5 years after, he was jailed in Dublin Castle.
In 1588, Ó Duibheannaigh was committed to Dublin Castle. Failing to convict him of any crime punishable by death, Lord Deputy William Fitzwilliam sought authority from William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley to "be rid of such an obstinate enemy of God and so rank a traitor to Her Majesty as no doubt he is".[5] He lay in prison until November 1590, being then released ostensibly on his own petition but doubtless through policy. He was protected by Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone until 1607 (see the Flight of the Earls), and escaped arrest until the middle of 1611, when, almost eighty years old, he was taken while administering Confirmation and again committed to Dublin Castle.[5] His execution was at the personal wish of the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Sir Arthur Chichester, who was vehemently anti-Catholic, and seems to have been rather against the wishes of the Government as a whole.[citation needed]
On 28 January 1612, Ó Duibheannaigh was tried for high treason, found guilty by the majority of a packed jury, and sentenced to die on 1 February (Julian Calendar). He was drawn on a cart from the Castle to the gallows beyond the river; the whole route was crowded with Catholics. Protestant clergymen pestered him with ministrations and urged him to confess he died for treason. "Pray let me be", he answered, "the viceroy's messenger to me here present, could tell that I might have life and revenue for going once to that temple", pointing to a tower opposite. He kissed the gallows before mounting, and then proceeding to exhort the Catholics to constancy, he was thrown off, cut down alive, and quartered.[5]
With him suffered Patrick O'Loughran, a priest arrested at Cork. The people, despite the guards, carried off the halter, his clothes, and even fragments of his body and chips of the gallows. They prayed all night by the remains, an infirm man was reported cured by touching them, and Mass after Mass was said there from Midnight until day. Such was the concourse that the viceroy ordered the members to be buried on the spot, but next night the Catholics exhumed them and interred them in St. James's Churchyard. A list of martyrs compiled by Ó Duibheannaigh was used by Rothe in his "Analecta".[5]
23 George II. C.II:
An Act to provide for begging children and the better regulation of Charity Schools.
(From Challoner’s Memoirs, ii. 2331)
He was descended of an illustrious family. 2
Finding himself called, he went to Italy, & spent almost 20 years, studying & teaching, where he received the degree of Doctor; & the See of Armagh falling vacant, he was consecrated to it about 1669,
Challoner says: He was a worthy & good man, who, ....... was in a very mean state of life, as having nothing to subsist on but the contributions of a few poor clergy of his own religion in the province of Ulster, who ....... could not spare much to him.... But .... some lewd Irish priests ... had been censured by Dr. Plunkett for their lewdness; so ....they charged a plot upon that innocent, quiet man.... The evidences swore that .... he engaged to raise 60,000 or 70,000 Irish, ... to join with the French ..., & that besides the French army there was a Spanish army to join with them...... he was brought in guilty and condemned.
... the Earl of Essex ... applied to the King for pardon and told his Majesty the witnesses must needs be perjured; for these things sworn against him could not possibly be true.
Upon which the King in a passion said: ‘Why did you not attest this at the trial? It would have done him good then. I dare not pardon anyone.’
Father J. C1orker, writes of him: ‘The trial being ended, we had free intercourse by letters.7 And now it was that I clearly perceived the spirit of God in him and those lovely fruits of the Holy Ghost, charity, joy, peace, &c., transparent in his soul.
...there appeared in his words, in his actions, in his countenance something so divinely elevated, ...as manifestly denoted the divine goodness had made him fit for a victim, and destined him for heaven. None saw or came near him but received new comfort, new fervour, new desires to please, serve, and suffer for Jesus Christ by his very presence.
……… His love had extinguished in him all fear of death.
Hence the joy of our holy martyr seemed still to increase with his danger, and was fully accomplished by an assurance of death……. . .
After he certainly knew God Almighty had chosen him to the crown ... of martyrdom, he continually studied how to divest himself of himself, and become more and more an entirely pleasing and perfect holocaust; to which end he gave up his soul, with all its faculties, to the conduct of God; so, for God’s sake, he resigned the care and disposal of his body to unworthy me.’8
On July 1st, he was brought to Tyburn;
He forgave all concurring directly or indirectly to take away his life, and asked forgiveness of all whom he had ever offended by thought, word, or deed, ending thus:
Now that I have shown sufficiently (as I think), how innocent I am of any plot or conspiracy, I would I were able with the like truth to clear myself of high crimes committed against the Divine Majesty’s commandments, often transgressed by me, for which I am sorry with all my heart, and if I could or should live a thousand years,
I have a firm resolution and a strong purpose, by your grace, 0 my God, never to offend you.
And I beseech your Divine Majesty, by the merits of Christ, and by the intercession of His Blessed Mother, and all the holy Angels and Saints to forgive me my sins and to grant me eternal rest.’
After his speech, he recited devout aspirations, and continued recommending his soul into the hands of his Saviour till the cart was drawn away.
He was hung, cut down and bowelled, his body was interred (all but the head and arms to the elbows),
4 years after his body was taken up and found entire. It was sent to Lambspring, Germany. It was brought back to a Benedictine Monastery in England.
The head was given to Cardinal Howard, In 1714, Hugh McMahon,11 later Archbishop of Armagh, gave it to the Dominicans in Drogheda.
(p. 1512)
The Trinitarian convent1 of Dublin was one of the principal houses of the Order in Ireland.
It was founded In 1188 by allured Le Palmer.
It Stood on the site now Occupied by the Augustinian church, Thomas Street, and was dedicated to St. John the Baptist.
The building was large and ornamental, its revenues were considerable and the Community numbered about fifty.
On the first news reaching them of the King’s wicked design to subvert the Catholic faith and introduce a new creed, the former Provincial, Father Theobald, wrote to his successor suggesting that a meeting of the leading men of the Order should be convened in Dublin, to take the necessary measures in face of the danger that was imminent.
The Provincial presided.
Besides the superiors of houses, several other members remarkable for their learning and virtue were present; among them we find the names of FF. Thaddeus O’Brien, of Kilkenny, John Hogan, and William Hurley.
When the Chapter had assembled, each gave his opinion, upholding the Catholic faith and the pope’s authority, and declaring the impious decrees of the King to be heretical and the King to be a heresiarch; and putting their trust in the Most Holy Trinity, all took the resolution to lay down their lives in defence of the truth.
The conference was just ended when the news came of what had taken place at Adare.
F. Theobald exclaimed
‘The Most Holy Trinity has blessed our Order with a happy beginning and thus given us a pledge that the like grace will accompany us to the end.’
All signed a profession of the Catholic faith, which might be distributed among the faithful.
On February 24th the royal agents arrived in Dublin to enforcetheir master’s decrees.
The next morning the exhortation of the Fathers was found posted in all the public squares and streets.
The Provincial and F. Theobald went about preaching to the people.
The latter being thought the leader of the resistance, was immediately shot.
The Provincial was seized by a hired band and dragged through the streets.
He repeated aloud that he would not abandon the faith so long as he had life.
The judges ordered the executioners to do their work.
A stroke of the hatchet put an end to his life.
His ribs were broken, and his heart taken out.
His body was thrown on a dunghill.
But when night came, the Catholics got possession of his scattered members, and buried them.
The other religious, some of whom had gone out into the streets to preach, while others remained in the convent, were all taken and put to death in divers ways.
Some were hanged, others beheaded, some stoned; others in fine were dragged through the streets until they expired; and their bodies were cast on the dunghills.
These, too, the faithful took away during the night and buried.
The triumph of these glorious martyrs took place on the 25th and 26th of February 1539.
This did not publish when intended. Apologies!
(From Lopez’ Noticias Hisforicas, p. 150)
The convent of Adare was the first house of the Order in this country.1
The church is now the catholic parochial Church. Some parts of the convent are still standing.
It was founded in 1230 by Thomas FitzGerald, third son of the second Baron of Offaly,2 at the suggestion of the Earl of March, a Scotch nobleman, who was a patron of the Order.
The Minister3 of this convent in 1539 was Brother Robert.
It was at this time that the impious decrees of the King were published, and officials sent to put them into execution.
Having read the decrees and mastered their contents, Robert Summoned the Community, which then consisted of forty-two members, told them what the new doctrines were, and declared that the King was a heretic, and, moreover, that he sought to make them share in this crime.
Such was the impression which he made on these hearers that all declared they were ready to lay down their lives in defence of the Catholic faith and of the Pope’s supremacy; and knowing that the convent would be plundered immediately, they set to work at once to distribute among the poor all the provisions and clothing they had.
They hid away the sacred vessels and ornaments of the altar in various places, so that when the agents of the Government arrived, they could not find even a wooden crucifix on which to vent their impious rage.
Three times summoned before the magistrate, Father Robert was immovable in rejecting the honours offered to him by the Court, and in declaring his devoted attachment to the Catholic faith.
None, he said, had ever sought to propagate their religious tenets by the sword except the pagan Emperors in the early ages and Mahomet in later times.
As for himself and the community, they were determined that no violence should move them from the principles of truth.
They recognised no Head of the Catholic Church save the Vicar of Christ; and as for the King of England, they regarded him not even as a member of that holy Church, but as the Head of the synagogue of Satan.
When the venerable Father had uttered these words, a heretical officer drew his sword, and with one blow severed the holy man’s head from his body.
The other agents of the Court were at once let loose against the unoffending Community.
As the public prison was full of other victims, the religious were confined in private houses.
There many died of the injuries and maltreatment which they received.
Some too were murdered secretly, whilst others were publicly hanged in the market-place.
It was on the 12th and 13th of February, 1539, that these happy Fathers obtained their eternal crown.
1 La casa capital de la isla,’ says Lopez, p.19. The church is now the catholic parochial Church. Some parts of the convent are still standing. See Lord Dunravens Memorials of Adare, p. 36. Adare is 9 miles S.W. of Limerick.
2 3Lopez, p. 18 and the Earls of Kildare, by the Marquis of Kildare, p.19
3 This is the name of the Superior of a convent of this Order
On 1st February, he was called out by the guards, gathered round the hurdle on which he was to be drawn to the place of execution. When the Bishop saw his triumphal chariot, he sighed:
'My Lord Jesus Christ for my sake went on foot up the hill bearing His Cross on which he was to die for me & must I, like one unwilling to die for Him, be carried to obtain a glorious prize, which I ought to run to seize hold of gladly and fearlessly. Would that I might carry my sweet cross on my shoulders, & on foot do this last duty for my soul going to meet my Lord I'
Here is the testimony of ‘Barnaby Ryche, a servant to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty,’ a Protestant, who far from sympathising with the sufferings of the Bishop, or sharing in the feelings of horror which the Catholics manifested rather exults in the death of any enemy.
On the 28th January the Bishop & the priest were each condemned for treason, & adjudged to be executed the Saturday following, which day being come, a priest or two of the Pope’s brood, with holy water & other holy stuffs, were sent to sanctify the gallows whereon they were to die.
About 2 o’clock p.m. the traitors were delivered to the sheriffs of Dublin, who placed them in a small car, which was followed by a great multitude.
As the car progressed the multitude knelt down but the Bishop sitting still, like a block, would not vouch safe them a word, or turn his head aside. The multitude, however, following the car, made such a dole after him as the heavens themselves resounded the echoes of their outcries.
Being come to the gallows whither they were followed by troops of the citizens, men and women of all classes, most of the best being present, the latter kept up such a shrieking, such a howling, and such a hallooing as if St. Patrick himself had been going to the gallows, could not have made greater signs of grief.
But when they saw him turned from off the gallows, they raised the hubbub with such a main cry, as if the rebels had come to rifle the city.
Being ready to mount the ladder, when he was pressed by some of the bystanders to speak, he repeated frequently, Sine me quaeso. The executioner had no sooner taken off the Bishop’s head but the townspeople began to flock about him, some taking up the head with pitying aspect, accompanied with sobs and sighs; some kissed it with as religious an appetite as they ever kissed the Pax; some cut away all the hair from the head, which they preserved as a relic; some others were practisers to steal the head away, but the executioner gave notice to the sheriffs.
Now , when he began to quarter the body, the women thronged about him, & happy was she that could get but her handkerchief dipped in the blood of the traitor; & the body being once dissevered in four quarters, they neither left finger nor toe, but they cut them off and carried them away; & some others that could get no holy monuments that appertained to his person, with their knives they shaved off chips from the hallowed gallows; neither would they omit the halter wherewith he was hanged but it was rescued for holy uses.
The same night after the execution, a great crowd flocked about the gallows, & there spent the fore part of the night performing many popish ceremonies. And after midnight, being then Candlemas day in the morning, having their priests present in readiness, they had Mass after Mass, till daylight being come, they departed to their own houses.
‘The same night,’ writes the Archbishop of Cashel, ‘the Lord was pleased to honour the Bishop’s body with a miracle wrought on a paralytic, who, as best he could, crawled to it with reverence and faith, and as soon as he touched it was cured.’13
(From Bruodin’s propugnaculum,, p. 445)
HE was a priest, a native of Leinster, noble by birth but still more noble by reason of his reverence for the things of heaven.
He was seized by the heretics, and bore with wonderful patience the various kinds of torture inflicted on him.
At length he was sent to England, and imprisoned in the gaol at Worcester.
There he died of hunger and other hardships, and triumphed gloriously for Christ, January 20th, 1582
from Broudin's Propugnaculum, p. 505
HE was a native of Ulster, and a priest, and gained a victory at Derry of St Columkille, [1] as he would not obey the iniquitous laws of Elizabeth and James.
He overcame very cruel tortures, and preferred the ignominious death of the scaffold and the cutting of his body into four parts, to abandoning the way of truth.
He died, venerable by reason of his age and virtues, January 6th, 1618, and, as we may well hope, enjoys a crown of glory with the Saints.
See also Copinger and O’Sullevan.
1 Derry was called Doire Calgatch until it was given to St.Columkille by his relative Aedh, son of Ainmire.
The Saint built a monastery and a church here, which was known as Dubh Regles, on the site now occupied by the Long Tower Catholic church and the adjoining cemetery.
There is a holy well close by bearing the Saint’s name.
See the Ordnance Survey Memoir of Templemore
(From Holing’s Compendium1 and Bruodin’s Propugnaculum, p. 437)
BROTHER TADHG O’DALY, a native of Kinvarra, and a monk of the Order of St. Francis, was seized by the heretics in the monastery of Askeaton, because he wore the habit of his Order and made open profession of the Catholic faith.
He was led, as if he were a robber or a traitor, to Limerick, sixteen miles off.
There he was stripped of his habit and cast into prison by order of Drury, the President of the province.2
After nine weeks, during which time he gave proofs of his attachment to the faith and of his constancy, he was brought to trial, many crimes being laid to his charge.
But persevering in the confession of the Catholic faith, he was condemned to death by the verdict of twelve men, heretics and schismatics, because he would not admit that the Queen was Head of the Church.
To all the promises and threats held out to him by the heretics, he replied with a smile, that no one on account of bodily torments or even death itself should separate himself from the friendship of God.
‘I care not,’ he used to say, ‘how you treat this mortal body of mine; the Almighty God has given you no power to injure my soul.’
Again he was thrown into prison.
There he was often visited by pious Catholics and by a certain holy priest,who obtained access to him in the dress of a layman; from him he obtained absolution of all his sins and received the Blessed Eucharist.
The heretics took him out of the prison, and binding his hands behind his back, had him tied to a horse’s tail and dragged through the streets.
But he showing not sorrow but delight, repeated aloud with great devotion the hymn Te Deum laudamus.’
On the way to the place of execution, he besought his friends who accompanied him, to obtain from the heretics that he should be allowed to wear his religious habit at the time of his death.
These laughed at the request; but they granted it after a way, and ordered that the habit should be hung up too on the beam by the side of his body.
After he had hung for a short time, he was taken down half-alive.
Many of those who were standing by expressly stated that the martyr’s head when cut off uttered these words distinctly : ‘Lord, show me thy ways.’
The fact is attested by F. John good, S.J., who was then in Limerick in his Theatre of Protestant and Catholic Religion.
And so this brave soldier of Christ earned the palm of martyrdom on January 1st, 1579.
O’Sullevan says another Franciscan, whose name, however, he does not mention, was put to death with him.31
See also Gonzaga, Holing, Rothe, O’Sullevan, Molanus,Ward, Wadding, O’Daly, and Hueber.
1 In Spic. Ossor., i.92
2 Drury, of whom mention has been made already at p.102
3 Decas Patr., fol.. 165 b.
He,1 had the extensive lordship of Brittas,2 in Limerick, & other estates in the area.
His position & wealth induced Sir George Thornton to give his daughter Grace in marriage .
After some children were born, he set on visiting foreign countries, Spain especially.3
He had already witnessed what others had suffered at home, & he too had endured annoyances and hardships for religion, & heard from trustworthy persons of the splendour of the divine worship & the perfect liberty Catholics enjoyed in Spain, & how the people of Spain had befriended his own, not only account of their relationship by descent from a common stock,4 but still more, because they professed and practised the same orthodox faith.
Whilst John was preparing as secretly as he could for his journey, one of his servants discovered his purpose, and wished to stop him.
His father-in-law, having heard, employed all his own authority and that of his colleague, Sir Charles Wilmot.
Hindered from leaving, he resumed with more zeal and freedom the pious manner of life which he had entered on long before among his neighbours & relatives. He heard Mass openly, and assisted at sermons with his neighbours. He passed his time in this way until the Viceroy Mountjoy came to Munster.
At this very time Elizabeth died1, & the Catholics2 were endeavouring to restore the public exercise of religion, which hitherto they had carried on secretly.
Informers told the Viceroy of Sir John’s zeal and courage.
The charge was that he had made himself the ringleader of the city in the zeal for religion which the citizens had shown after the death of Elizabeth, when it was not quite certain what the intentions of King James were as to the religion he would adopt, whether he would follow the pious example of his mother3 or the new doctrine.
As there was some doubt about the choice the King would make, they thought they were at liberty to display their zeal and love for the Catholic faith, & to practise publicly. But everything was turned into a crime. The Viceroy caused Sir John to be imprisoned, & carried off to Dublin Castle. A contagious plague began to rage in Dublin. The public officers fled & almost all the prisoners were set free including Sir John.
When he returned home, he sought the acquaintance of Edmund Halaghan of the Order of Preachers, and became very close to him. He was enrolled in the Confraternity of the Roasary.1
The report of his piety spread throughout the whole neighbourhood & reached the ears of the President of Munster.2 Lord Theobald Burke & Sir Edmund Walsh,3 sheriff of that part of Limerick, in their letters, accused Sir John of being a notorious harbourer and patron of popish priests and religious throughout the whole country.
They added that he had erected an altar in his house as if it were a public oratory, to which crowds of people used to come to mutter their prayers.
1 Bruodin says he was also a member of the Third Order of St.Francis
2 President of Munster 1604-1607. Lynch says he persecuted the Catholics as cruelly as Antiochus did the Jews, and died, like him, devoured by vermin.
Camb. Evers., iii.101. See also letter of Dr. O’Kearney in the appendix to Moran’s Archbishops, p.432.
3 He is said by Rothe to have been a cruel persecutor of Catholics. Analecta, p.43, O’Sullevan Hist. Cath., p333.
The latter says he repented on his death-bed and died reconciled to the Catholic Church. Ibid.
1 March 24, 1603
2 See Introd., p.12 C.S.R1. (1603-1606), pp. 32 and 48, and Cambr. Ever., iii. 523
3 Mary, Queen of Scots, of whom Benedict XIV. Says: If the true reason of her martyrdom is inquired into, perhaps nothing would be found wanting of what is required for true martyrdom.’ Dc Can. SS., Iib.iii.ch.13
1 The families of Brittas and Castleconnell were descended from E
The Franciscan convent of Armagh was founded in 1263 by Maelpatrick OScannell, Archbishop of Armagh.
ON the 16th December, in the primatial city of Armagh, Roger Congaill and Cornelius Mac Varra were seized by a certain heretic named Donald, through hatred of the Catholic faith.
They were stripped of their religious habits, cruelly scourged, and taken through the public streets of the city.
In fine, worn out by the scourging they died victims of God.
See also Wadding.
A part of it is still standing. See Reeves’ Ancient Churches of Armagh, p32. He says it was destroyed in 1565.
See Stuart’s History of Armagh, p.512
THESE three members of the Franciscan Order were famous preachers of the word of God, and much respected by all the leading men throughout Leinster, not merely for their illustrious descent, but for their extraordinary prudence, pious eloquence, great learning, rare modesty, and extreme humility.
They fell, I know not how, into the nets of the heretics.
Wherefore the supreme judge of Leinster, with his usual ferocity, vented his wrath on them. By his order they were first beaten with sticks, and then scourged with whips till the blood came; and when even by this means they could not be diverted from the paths of justice, the wicked judge offered to them rich bishoprics if they would abjure papistry and obey the whims of Elizabeth.
These brave men could not be induced to abandon the Catholic faith of their father. Wherefore they were hanged and quartered at Abbeyleix,1 in Leinster, and so obtained the crown of martyrdom, December the 15th, 1588.
See also Copinger, Ward, and Hueber.
1 There was a Cistercian house here, founded by one of the O’Mores. The sole remains of it is a tomb in Lord De Vesci’s garden.
HE was the son of a citizen of Wexford.
When he had nearly completed his studies at Louvain, he was obliged, through ill health, to return home.
He was arrested at Bristol, examined, and asked to take the oath of Supremacy. He absolutely refused to stain his soul with such a perjury. In consequence he was sent to London.
First, he was flogged through the streets by the executioner in a very cruel manner. Then, after enduring the horrors of Newgate prison for four months, he was put to the torture of the scavenger’s daughter1, and under it gave up his soul to God, December 13th, 1590.
See also Copinger.
1 An instrument of torture invented by Skeffington, Lieutenant of the Tower in the time of Henry VIII., from whom it has its name. It was a circle of iron, in which the whole body was, as it were, folded up, and the hands, feet, and head bound together. See Challoner’s Memoirs, i.57
HE was a citizen of Wexford.
Being an earnest Supporter of the Catholic faith, he was denounced by spies not only for having given shelter to Catholic bishops and priests who were pursued, but also for conveying them to France and Spain.
By order of Lord Grey, the Viceroy, he was taken to Dublin and imprisoned there, though he had already paid a very heavy fine.
This excellent man, worn out by the filth and hardships of the prison, died in the Lord, December 4, 1600.
Note: Probably the same whom Rothe calls Haius, though the date of his death is set down by that Writer as 1581.
The facts related of both are the same.
O’Daly’s Relatio, p.364
When returning to his Ireland from Lisbon he landed in England. He was accused of having said in Spain that it was lawful to kill the King. He was convicted, hanged, his heart and entrails cut out.
But later he was declared to have been falsely accused and condemned; it was proved that he'd only asserted when debating a heretic, who denied free will, that nothing would be criminal, even the killing of a king, if liberty didn't exist.
2 or 3 things happened at his death. 1stly, when the rope was cut and he was let down and heart and entrails cut out, he was still alive; and whilst the executioner was shewing his heart to the crowd exclaiming:
‘This is the heart of a traitor,’ he turned his eyes to the executioner, and spat at him; secondly, when the executioner was throwing his entrails in the fire, a young man, thrust the liver of the martyr in the fire with a stick, and cursed the man and his religion. His sacrilegious hand immediately trembled, and he was struck down with such pains that he threw himself down on the nearest mound of earth.
Some women, perceived a very sweet odour, the nearer they came, the more fragrant it was. A German spice dealer perceived the same smell, he never met with any so sweet in his workshop.
In fine, Falkland, one of his judges, declared that he suffered in consequence, and his leg was broken in a wonderful way.
We have accounts from the time.
‘Arthur Gohagan was drawn on a hurdle from the King’s Bench to the City of London and so to Tiburne, from whence he was lifted off into a cart, where undismayed and with a fearless countenance he spake these words : -
“In manus tuas commendo spiritum meum qula redemisti me, O Deus veritatis meæ,”
which he often repeated.
Then he earnestly commended his soul to God, saying “O thou glorious Virgin Mother of our Lord and Saviour, pray to thy Son Jesus Christ to receive my soul. I would fain have received the Holy Sacrament, according to the injunction of our Order, but I could get not priest to give it me.”
Then being stript to his shirt, holding up his hands to heaven, repeating : “In manus tuas, et.,” when he hanged a little time ; then the rope was cut with a bill, the hangman holding him fast in his arms that he should not fall to the ground, at which time the cord being slack, he made a great noise in his throat.
They laid him on the earth, drew him along (being alive) near the fire, threw there his bowels and heart, laid him afterwards upon his face, cut off his head by the neck, divided his body by the waist, and then cut it asunder in four parts, which were not dispersed on the gates, but some of his friends obtained the disposing of them, and sent them over sea to be interred.2
2 days after his execution the Spanish Ambassador,3 wrote :
‘They hanged an Irish Dominican Friar here two days ago. He can enter into the number of the Martyrs. ..... they will see in Rome, .... that this Friar suffered for religion. His persecutors maliciously invented a pretext, and all I could do with the King and his ministers was of no avail.’
The General Chapter of the Order in 1644, speaks of him :
‘The Venerable F.B. Arthur Geoghegan, ......, when returning to his province was seized by the English heretics and cast into prison in London. He ... was brought to trial on a charge of high treason, ..., and was condemned to death. At the place of execution he made open profession that he was a Catholic and a Dominican. He was hanged, and while half-alive he was cut down, his limbs cut asunder, and his entrails burnt. And so he ended his life gloriously in the year 1633.3
1 Mostyn MSS., in Irish Ecci. Record for Nov 1894
2 He asked on the Scaffold that ‘his body be not dismembered & that the Spanish Ambassador send it to be buried in some abbey or place belonging to an abbey of St. Dominick’ Ibid
3 Hib. Dom., p.559
(From Hartyr’s Triumphalia, p.253)
GELASIUS O’CULLENAN1 was one of six brothers, 5 of whom devoted themselves to life in the clergy. He went to Louvain and Rome to study. Afterwards, he returned to Ireland. Soon after he entered the Cistercian Order. His great virtue pointed him out to the Holy See and his own brethren as fit to be appointed Abbot in Boyle.
At this time one of the gentry had taken possession of the monastery and lands, supported by the edict of Elizabeth.
The Abbot admonished the usurper of the guilt he was incurring and the curse he would bring down on his whole family in consequence. Touched by his exhortations, the nobleman gave up the monastery lands; and sometime after, he too renounced the world and embraced the religions institute.
In 1580, being in Dublin, Gelasius was arrested by order of the Government, and with Hugh Mulkeeran, abbot of the monastery of the Holy Trinity,1 imprisoned in the public gaol. John O’Garwin’2 then Protestant Dean of Christ Church, was among those who assisted at his first interrogatory. Many inducements were held out to him to abandon the Catholic faith a choice of the bishoprics of Connaught then vacant was given to him, if he would renounce the Catholic creed and the authority of the Supreme Pontiff.
His answer to the heretics was:
The benefices you offer me are very valuable in truth; but how long will you allow me to enjoy them?’
‘As long as you live,’ they answered.
‘And what length of life will you give me,’ he asked.
‘We can not determine the end of your life or prolong it, nor do we know the day of your death.’
‘Well then,’ he replied, ‘is it not much wiser for me to obey Him and to keep his law who can, if he pleases, prolong my life, and give me a life of eternal happiness in the world to come, than to obey you who cannot lengthen my life by one instant, and are striving by your deceitful and perishable gifts to lead me away from the laws of heaven?‘1
The English, angered by this answer, ordered his fingers, arms, and legs to be crushed with blows of a hammer. And when they could not break down his courage, they ordered him and Hugh Mulkeeran to be hanged.
The Abbot asked the executioners that Hugh should suffer death first, as he showed some fear and wept. He was hanged first. The Abbot was then put to death, and suffered courageously. While he was on his way to scaffold, five hundred heretics were converted to the Catholic faith by the sight of his constancy. He had been sentenced to be hanged and quartered; but at the request of his friends, his body was not cut in pieces. However it was set on the top of the Castle, a sad spectacle to the Catholics.
The English used it as a mark to fire at. Many who were present at the execution took away his clothes as relics. They suffered, November 21st, 1584. Henriquez,1 historiographer of the Order styles O’Cullenan, the ornament of the Cistercian Order, the light of our century, the glory of all Ireland.
Rothe says Eugene Cronius, a secular priest, who was in the company of O’Cullenan, a native of the same province, was martyred with him.
See also Rothe, Copinger, O’Sullevan, Annus CistercienSiS, Molanus, Henriquez, Hartry, Porter, and Bruodin.
November 27th
1 2 The learned Historiographer of the Order, in his Menologium Cisterciense, p. 389
1 ‘Just such a colloquy is said to have taken place between Sir Thomas More and his wile.
See his Life, by Roper, p.89
1 In one of the islands of Lough Ce, near Boyle. It was founded by Clarus M’Mailin, Archdeacon of Elphin, in 1213 for Premonstratensians.
See Mon. Hib., 0.615
2 John Garvey, who became Protestant Archbishop of Armagh in 1584
1 He is called O’Boyle by Bruodin and others. The mistake arose, no doubt, from his having been Abbot of the monastery near Boyle.
From Bruodin’s Propugnaculum, p. 673
THIS pious and zealous priest was a native of Wexford.
At the risk of his life he used to comfort the flock confided to his care,
and encourage them to persevere in the profession of the faith of their fathers,
at a time when the heretics were persecuting the Catholics cruelly.
Wherefore he was seized by them, and hanged and quartered in Dublin November 12th, 1610.