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 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.

1642. 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.

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.

(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.

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.

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.

PATRICK O’CONOR was descended from the very ancient and royal stock of the O’Conors in Connaught. 

Abandoning the deceitful pleasures of the world in the flower of youth, he made his religious profession in the celebrated monastery of Boyle,[1] in the diocese of Elphin, in Connaught, among the most observant of the disciples of the Mellifluous Doctor,[2] in the year of our Lord 1562. 

For twenty-three years he was seen to advance in every kind of virtue, in such a way that he became a shining light to his brethren by the practice of every good work. 

He was constant in prayer, and used to shed tears in abundance while so engaged. He was unwearied in works of charity, especially towards the sick. He was kindly to all, but he was very stern in chastising his own body. For the last fifteen years of his life he drank neither wine nor beer. He abstained from flesh meat during the whole time that he was a monk.

The Almighty wishing to reward these great merits, allowed that he and Father Malachy O’Kelly, a monk of the same monastery, a religious no less illustrious for his descent from and ancient and noble family than for his great virtues, should fall into the cruel hands of the fierce soldiers of Elizabeth. 

By these they were first hanged and then quartered at the aforesaid monastery, May 19th, 1585, through hatred of the Catholic faith, which this undaunted champion preached constantly up to his last breath. 

Bruodin refers the reader to a manuscript book in the College of Prague, in which an account is given of these martyrs, and also to Henriquez’s Menologium Cisterciense.

According to Hartry, Father Malachy O’KeIIy was pierced through the heart with a sword.[3]

See also Annus Cisterciensis, Henriquez and Hartry

[1] Founded for Cistercians in 1161. See Triumphalia, xxxviii
[2] This title is often given to St. Bernard, as that of Angelic Doctor to St. Thomas
[3] Ibid., p. 257
 

Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

THIS priest was a native of Connaught, and of noble birth.

Having overcome various torments in defence of the Catholic faith, broken down by the noisomeness and hardships of the prison in which he was confined in the company of robbers, he gave up his soul to God on May 15th, 1601 

Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

I WILL set down what I have learned from trustworthy persons. 

Robert Shiel was born in lveagh, Co.Down. 

He asked for the habit of the holy Cistercian Order, and was admitted by the Patrick Barnwell,[1] Abbot, for his own monastery of Mellifont, and was professed under the name of Malachy. 

His superior to entrusted to Malachy the care of souls within the jurisdiction of the monastery of St. Mary of Newry. This duty he discharged for 7 years with another monk, Br. Malachy O’Kea. When Br. Malachy died, a secular priest, was joined with him.

About that time the Scots,[2] united with the English in armed bodies, almost depopulated Ulster and advanced to Newry, where the ruins of the monastery[3] are still to be seen. 

F. Malachy laboured the whole day with his fellow priest to encourage the Governor for the defence of the place and especially of the very strong castle on behalf of the Catholics. The enemy suddenly got possession of the town gate. 

Fr. Malachy and the priest entered the castle, urging the captain and the soldiers to defend the stronghold for the sake of the church of their fathers and the honour of Ireland. 

Fear, dread, etc seized the captain, and he betrayed the castle, although strong and well manned. It's said he was promised quarter for himself, his soldiers, and the priests. But as soon as the enemy took possession, they seized both priests, and that very night they were condemned to death.

On the following day, the feast of the Finding of the Cross,[4] 1642, Fr. Malachy was hanged naked from the beams of a wooden bridge. The soldiers fired two shots at him while he was half-dead. The secular priest was hanged. 

Their bodies were thrown into the river. 

Soon after they were found on the bank and buried by the Catholics in clean winding-shee.

But the same night the soldiers stripped the bodies, leaving them naked above ground. Afterwards they were buried in the cemetery of the monastery. 

It is worth remarking that 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!’ 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]

A letter[6] of Monroe, May 15th, 1642, to Leslie 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 an account of him in Thumphalia, p. 283
[2] Monroe came to Ireland in April, 1642. Leslie came in the following August. The Scotch troops in Ulster amounted then to 10000 men.
[3] Founded about 1150 by Maurice Macloughlin, King of Ireland. See Triumphalia, Introd. Xiv. There is no trace of it remaining.
[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.

The territory of the O’Haras was Luigne, conterminous with the present diocese of Achonry, comprising parts of counties Mayo, Roscommon and Sligo.

Burning with love for a life of poverty such as Christ led, he entered the Order of the Friars Minors in the 21st years of his age, and wished to be considered the lowest among the lay brothers in it. 

During his years living in religion, he made such progress in virtue that he was reckoned among the most obedient and humble brothers and those most famed for holiness of life of the whole Province of Ireland; for he observed the rule of St. Francis given to him by God so exactly up to the very moment of his death, that he was never seen to transgress it in the slightest way. 

He fell into the hands of the heretics then raging throughout Connaught, not far from the convent of Killala,[3] where he was begging for the necessaries of life for the brothers. 

These tyrants, through hatred of the faith, first hanged and then quartered him. 

They did the like to his companion Brother Henry Delahayde, called O’Lahaye by some writers,  who was born of noble parents in Leinster. 

These two martyrs suffered for the Catholic religion May 1582.

Formerly I lived on terms of intimacy with the grand-nephew of the martyr Brother Phelim, that famous soldier John O’Hara, the eldest of his family, who was married to Mathilda O’Higgin, the daughter of noble parents, Thaddeus O’Higgin, lord of Cuirehil, and Finola Bruodin, who played a very important part in the last war against the heretical Parliamentarians.

 I often heard this relative of mine describe at length the religious life and glorious death of this athlete of Christ, Phelim the martyr.

Mooney, in his Description, gives some further details of OHara’s death - ‘In the year 1578 the English heretics made an expedition to the convent of Elphin,[4] in the town of the same name, and approach some of them escaped in a boat. 

The Provincial, who was there at the time, asked who for the merit of holy obedience would remain alone in the monastery. 

Phelim O’Hara, a laybrother, was chosen out of the many who offered themselves, partly because he was prudent and far advanced in years, and partly because it was hoped he would be less obnoxious than the others. 

Wherefore he received the blessing and remained behind. 

But the English coming despoiled the altar and sanctuary, and slew this brother in front of the high altar. They did not dare to remain there long, but departed the same day. 

The other brethren, who had fled, and who had remained out at sea waiting, on returning home, found the brother, who had become a martyr through obedience, before the high altar, where it was supposed he was praying, when, on the approach of the enemy, he gave up his soul to God. 

He is buried in the chapter-house.

See also Gonzaga, Copinger, O’Sullevan, Ward, Wadding, and Hueber.

[1] He is called O’Lahaye by some writers.
[2] The territory of the O’Haras was Luigne, conterminous with the present diocese of Achonry, comprising Parts of counties Mayo, Roscommon and Sligo.
[3] Moyne, which is two miles SE. of Killala, Co. Mayo, on the western bank of the Moy. It was founded in 1460 by Thomas Oge De Burgo. See Mon. Hib., p.507, and Meehan’s Franc. Monasteries, p.55
[4] Rather Moyne, as we learn from Bruodin and the other authorities quoted here.

Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

He was chaplain to Gerald of Desmond. When the Earl joined the united chieftains, he attached himself to them to combat Satan in their hearts.[2] ‘For to the pure all things are pure, and blessed is he that condemneth not himself in that which he alloweth.’[3] Theologians agree that the lesser obligation must give way to the greater, the human to the divine, the positive to the natural, the profane to the sacred, ‘for all that is not of faith is sin.’[4]

He was captured by a gallowglass [5] deserter and imprisoned at Clonmel for over a year. 

About Easter, when Catholics must receive Holy Communion, Victor White,[7] to satisfy the piety of his neighbours, obtained that the prisoner be allowed out to pass this night in his house.

But the jailer told the President that local Catholics were told that Mass would be celebrated in Victor's house. Soldiers rushed in. Women and children hid; others escaped. The priest hid in straw and escaped. 

Victor was imprisoned, risking life if he didn’t bring back the priest. Maurice returned to save him. Victor was freed, Maurice cast into the prison. Sentence of death was pronounced. He could have saved his life, by taking the oath of supremacy. But he finished his course, and kept the faith. 

Some say that he was hanged, his head cut off, and his body divided into 4 parts. Others say that after his head was cut off, the Catholics induced the executioner not to mangle the body or cut it in pieces. So Fr Rochford, a Jesuit, says in a letter about Maurice’s death.

The difference may be that some supposed the sentence was carried out. Whether he was quartered, there is no doubt but he was beheaded. 

His head was exposed for days for public view. 

The crowd in the market-place used to perceive daily, an outburst of ruddy colour and of perspiration of the forehead and cheeks. Some remarked that this was the precise time Maurice used to celebrate Mass. His remains kept alive the flame of devotion, and the light of God’s love adorned the martyr’s forehead. Some perceived too, that his hands formed of themselves the sign of the cross, the first fingers being crossed, and the thumbs laid on the index fingers. 

When the soldiers saw this, they strove to separate and straighten them, so that they should not be in the form of a cross, yet they returned to themselves to the same position. 

In this way he went to his Lord, April 30” 1585.

It is to him that F. Mooney probably refers in the following notice: In the convent of Clonmel is in the Rev. F. Maurice, a priest who suffered martyrdom at the hands of the heretics in the same town about the year 1589. His remains were buried behind the high altar.’

See also Holing, Copinger, Molanus, Q’Sullevan, Wadding, Lynch, and Bruodin.

[1] The name is written by some MacKenrachty, and Kent

[2] Ephes. V. 13. Col. v.5

[3] Rom. Xiv. 22

[4] bid. xiv. 23

[5] An English writer described them as picked men of great and mighty bodies, cruel, without compassion, choosing rather to die than to yield.

The weapons they use most are a battle-axe or halberd, six feet long.’ Dymock, Treatise of Ireland, p.7

[6] Deut. x. 14,15

[7] There are remains of inscribed monuments of the White family in the grounds round St. Mary’s Catholic church in the lrishtown, Clonmel

[8] His feast is on June 22. Butler’s Lives of the Saints, i. 830

[9] 2 Tim. v.8

[10] He was sentenced to be hanged but commuted by the King to beheading, a favour which More hoped his friends might be spared. Lingard’s H. of England, iv. 221

[11] p.’119 antea

[12] Spic. Ossor., i. 89

Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

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.

April 24th, 1601

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.

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.

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.

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.

Comemorated on 3rd April, reported Date in 1580 when Nicholas Malby massacred the community of Monasteranenagh Cistercian Abbey.

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.

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 30 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.

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.