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.

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

St. Caimin, (Died 653 CE), 

[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 O’DaIy’s Relatio, p. 335)

HE was Prior of Naas,[1] and a famous preacher of the word of God. 

He was seized by the heretics and brought before the Viceroy of Ireland in Dublin, as teaching doctrine opposed to the Anglican creed and leading the people astray. 

For this he was cast into prison. 

But when nothing could be proved against him that would deserve capital punishment by the laws of the country, he was told he would be set free and amply rewarded if he would abandon the Catholic religion and enter the Protestant sect. 

On the very morning that he was to be led to the scaffold, a messenger was sent by the Viceroy to the Father in prison, and these terms were again offered to him. 

But he answered wisely and fearlessly. 

Today.’ Said he, ‘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 thinking that he was terrified and almost overcome, ordered the execution to be carried out; he signed the promise under the aforesaid condition, and the paper was handed to the courageous Father as he was about to mount the first step of the ladder. 

He took it in his hand with a smile. 

The heretics showed their delight, thinking they would lead off this convert in triumph; perhaps the Catholics dreaded the scandal that would be given. 

But the man of God, in full possession of all his faculties, did not stop short; he went up with still greater delight; 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 who were standing round, in this manner:

‘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 had been cast off, his body still hanging was frequently shaken by the executioner, and while it hung quietly, he sent forth a deep sigh, ‘Deo gratias.’ 

Having thus defeated the cunning of the Viceroy and Confounded the hopes of the heretics, he died.[2]

Carte gives the following account of his death:[3]-

There was one Father Higgins, a Franciscan,[4] a very quiet, inoffensive, pious man, much respected by those who knew him, who officiated as a Roman Catholic Priest at the Naas and in the neighbourhood. <

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

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.

In our convent of Elphin[1], 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.

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.

WHEN Elizabeth was striving to root out the True faith, Pope Gregory XIII., sent Jesuits into England and Ireland to succour the faithful. The 1st of these who exposed their lives to the danger of death were Robert Parsons and Edmund Campion[1], who set out in June, 1580.

The Pontiff, consulting for the welfare of Ireland, sent others of the same Society, Edmund M’Donnell met with a glorious death, and was the 1st of them to proclaim the truth of the Catholic religion by the shedding of his blood. 

He, a Limerickman, by order of the Pope returned to his native land to comfort the persecuted Catholics, with Thomas Good,[2] an Englishman, and David Wolfe, [3] later Apostolic Legate. 

He was employed in teaching youth Christian doctrine and literature. Soon, he was seized by order of John Perrott, President of Munster, and confined in Limerick. 

He was made all kinds of promises if he would join the Reformers, and when unmoved, was taken to Cork, to be questioned further. During the entire journey his hands were tied behind his back, and he suffered all the hardships usually inflicted on murderers and traitors. 

He was accused of high treason and condemned in open court. 

The reasons publicly alleged prove that he deserves the proud title of martyr, viz., that he stubbornly continued to profess the Catholic faith, 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 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]  then at the head of the Irish Catholics in arms in defence of the Catholic faith.

Gregory XIII., in his letter of May 13th, 1580, to the Archbishops, chiefs, and people of Ireland, mentions 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.’

Fr Edmund M’Donnell listened with great pleasure and joy to this glorious sentence decreeing him a triumph, and humbly bowing to the judges, he thanked them.

He was led away, as one guilty of high treason, to the 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, and cast it into the fire. The rest of the body was quartered and set on stakes at different places in order that the sight might inspire those who beheld it with fidelity to the Queen and wiser thoughts. 

He 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 Ireland in 1564, passing 5 years here. He was held in the highest esteem by Cardinal Allen. He died at Naples in 1586. See Records of the English Province S.J., iv. 477
[3] A

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

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, not merely by threats but by the infliction of the severest punishments and tortures on the faithful, and especially on priests and religious, 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 of the Society who exposed their lives to the daily danger of death were FF. Robert Parsons and Edmund Campion[1], who set out from Rome in June, 1580.

The Holy Pontiff, consulting for the welfare of Ireland, which was then harassed in the same way owing to the wickedness of that Queen, sent thither missioners of the same Society.

F.Edmund M’Donnell, called by some M’Donough, 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 by order of the Pope had returned to his native country to comfort the Catholics, who were then sorely persecuted, with FF. Thomas Good,[2] an Englishman, and David Wolfe,[3] later Apostolic Legate. 

He was employed for a while in teaching youth the Christian doctrine and profane literature.

Very soon after he was seized by order of that blood-thirsty man, Sir John Perrott, President of Munster, and confined in a close prison in Limerick for a long time. 

His constancy was assailed in many ways. 

The ministers made him all kinds of promises if he would join in the treachery of the Reformers, and when the confessor of God continued unmoved, he was taken to Cork, a distance of forty miles, to be questioned still further by the cruel heretics. 

During the whole of that journey his hands were tied behind his back, and he suffered from his cruel guards all the hardships that are 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 by the blood-thirsty magistrate for inflicting this infamous punishment on the accused, 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.

Indeed, 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.’

Fr Edmund M’Donnell listened with signs of great pleasure and joy to this glorious sentence decreeing him a triumph, and humbly bowing to the judges, he thanked them.

He was then led away, as one guilty of high treason, to the usual place of execution. 

Here he was hanged, and after a short time, while he was still alive, the rope was cut and he

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 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.[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 De Burgo.

[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.

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’DaIy 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.

Commemorate 10th January, date of appointment in 2013 of Bishop of Limerick Brendan Leahy

HE was a Limerick priest. 

He studied the sacred sciences in Paris, and then returned to Ireland to labour for the salvation of souls, 

and discharged that duty with great zeal for many years. 

At length he was seized by the heretics, taken to Dublin, and thrown into prison. 

He ended his life happily therein, about the year mentioned above.

Bruodin says he was imprisoned in Dublin Castle in 1594, with George Power and Bernard Moriarty, and died there.

See also Copinger, Molanus, and Bruodin

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

In our convent of Elphin[1], 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.

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.

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.

HE was a priest, and because he had spread the Catholic faith with all his might throughout every province of Ireland, then convulsed with war, he was seized through hatred of the faith, and torn to pieces by means of four wild horses, and so he ended his life, to be followed by a triumphant entrance into eternal bliss, in the year 1609.

See also Rothe, Copinger, O’Sullevan, and Ward

[1] Another of similar name will be found at p. 125, antea. 
Clearly they are two distinct persons ; one was a Franciscan, the other a parish priest, The manner of their death is different too.

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

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.

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.

In our convent of Elphin[1], 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.

HE was a Limerick priest. 

He studied the sacred sciences in Paris, and then returned to Ireland to labour for the salvation of souls, and discharged that duty with great zeal for many years. 

At length he was seized by the heretics, taken to Dublin, and thrown into prison. 

He ended his life happily therein, about the year mentioned above.

Bruodin says he was imprisoned in Dublin Castle in 1594, with George Power and Bernard Moriarty, and died there.

See also Copinger, Molanus, and Bruodin

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

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.
 

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May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

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.

HE was a native of Cork, and a bright and shining light of the Order of St. Francis. 

Having completed his studies in Spain and Belgium, he returned to his native country during the reign of King James, and did much to promote the glory of God, the salvation of the Catholic people, and the increase of the Seraphic Order. 

When somewhat advanced in years, he was twice Minister General of the Irish Province, twice Commissary-General, and lastly Guardian of the College of St Antony, at Louvain.

While Guardian in Cork, in the year 1642, he was seized by the heretical Governor of the city[2] and cast into prison.

A few days after he was examined. 

He declared that he was a Franciscan but he denied what he was charged with, namely, that he had attempted to betray the city to the Catholics. 

His firm attachment to the faith was put to the test in many ways. 

The executioners covered all this aged mans fingers, first with canvas, then with pitch; and between each finger they put a pitch candle, and lighted it so that all his fingers were set on fire together. 

I happened to be in my native country at the time.

While his fingers were on fire in this way, and he was exhorting the Catholics who were standing by to constancy, and the heretics to repentance, a preacher, wondering at the extraordinary patience of the martyr, asked him whether he felt any pain. 

Put one of your fingers close to mine,’ replied Francis, and you will see.’ 

When all his fingers were burnt away to the very last joint, the cruel tyrant condemned him to be hanged. 

The man of God returned thanks, as well as he could, to his Saviour, and proceeded to the place of execution as if he was going to a feast. 

Having exhorted the people he mounted the ladder with joy. 

The rope was put round his neck.

He prepared himself piously for death, and again addressed the people. 

Then turning to the executioner, he bade him do his duty. 

He was thrown from the ladder, and remained hanging from eleven o’clock in the morning till five in the afternoon.

Every Catholic in the city was either a relative or a friend and acquaintance of Francis; one sister, two nephews, and four nieces were living there. 

Some of these, persons of high position, went to the heretical Governor and asked him to allow the dead body of the priest to be taken down from the gallows and buried in the tomb of a friend, with the ceremonies usual among Catholics. 

The Governor, though more cruel than Pilate, assented. 

Wherefore, taking the body down from the gallows, his friends carried it to the house of Francis’ sister, and clothing it in the habit of the Order, and laying it on a table, with lighted candles all round, 

they kept watch with great devotion round the deceased martyr of Christ.

About two o’clock in the morning, while the Catholics, who had come in crowds to the house, were praying, F. Francis made some movement, and looking at his sister and the others who were standing near, he bade them put away all fear, and take him down from the table. 

His friends drew near, and found that he was alive and in full health, and they congratulated him and one another that he had escaped the hands of the executioners by this extraordinary aid from God.

‘It is not so, my dearest friends,’ said Francis, restored to life; ‘for my soul happily released from the prison of my body, must again return to it by the command of God, who desires the salvation of heretics straying here and elsewhere from the true path. 

Call to me, therefore, the Governor of the City, that I may once more set before him the message of salvation.’ 

All the Catholics who were present, besought the Father with tears t

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

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.’[1]

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.’[2]

On March 7th, the Lord Deputy[3] 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,[4] authorized by Bulls from Rome, and since by a like confirmation to him by Mathias de la Vega,[5] a Spaniard, who came to Kinsale with Don John,[6] 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.’[7]

He was indicted under the 2 Eliz. c.i., for advancing and upholding foreign jurisdiction within this realm. 

If we are to believe Cox, he humbled himself to the Court, and voluntary and upon oath made a recognition, - 

1. That he was not lawful Vicar General in the dioceses of Dublin, Kildare, and Ferns.

2. He doth acknowledge King James to be his supreme governor in all causes, as well ecclesiastical as civil. 

3. That all bishops ordained by the King’s authority within any of his dominions are lawful bishops. 

4. He professeth himself willing to obey the King as in all his lawful commandments, either concerning his function of priesthood or any other duty belonging to a good subject.’

Upon this confession,’ says Cox., he was indulged with more liberty and the free access of his friends, and would undoubtedly have been enlarged the next term if he had not privately denied what he had publicly done, protesting that his confession did not extend to the King’s authority in Spiritual causes but in temporal only. 

And this being told the Lord Deputy, it was resolved to try him upon the statute of præmunire.[8]

In the trial, Sir John Davis urged that this law was made in ancient times by Catholics. 

‘Now, Master Lalor,’ he triumphantly asks, ‘what think you of such things? 

Did you believe that such laws were made against the Pope, 200, 250, 300 years since? 

Of what religion think you were the propounders and enacters of these laws? 

Were they good Catholics? Or good subjects? 

They were Papists as well as you, but they thought it a good point of religion to be good subjects and to honour their King.’[9]

Upon this indictment he was tried and found guilty, and Mr. Justice Sarsfield pronounced the sentence of the law against him.

On July 1607, Sir John Davis wrote to Salisbury; 

‘Touching the attainder of Lalor, it was the first judgment in the case of præmunire that can be found among the records of the Kingdom. 

And as he was convicted by clear

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

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 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.

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

Commemorate on February 24th (date of order’s foundation in 1209 by St Francis of Assisi)

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.

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 Street[1] 

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.

He anonymously wrote: On the Authority of the Roman Pontiff.[2] He proved clearly that the primacy of Henry VIII. was mere fiction. He was seized and sent to London, kept in the Tower, examined, tortured, and being found steadfast,  declared guilty of treason.

He was led out, placed on a hurdle, and taken to the usual place of execution. [3]

(A hurdle is a section of fence made from wattle, used as a makeshift sledge, to which a prisoner was tied to be dragged to a place of execution.)[4]

 When he reached the top of the ladder, he prayed for pardon, and exhorted bystanders to pray for the conversion and salvation of the King and of all the  heretics.

And then he exclaimed:

'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 the 3 fingers of his right hand, ’I wrote that work on the Authority of the Roman Pontiff.’

When he had said these words, he was hanged, cut down and quartered.

His right hand and his intestines were cast into the fire; and while other parts were reduced to ash, 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 hand of Oswald, the martyr, which Bede[5] tells us remained up to his own time fresh and uncorrupted.

Harpsfield[6] says he was assured by eye-witnesses that the flesh on the fingers remained fresh long after his death. O’Sullevan says Travers was put to death on the 30th July; Fitzsimon the 31st

He is one of 260 Venerable Servants of God put to death in England for the faith, whose cause has been allowed by the decree of December 4th, 1886, to be introduced.

 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.

See also Rothe, Copinger, O’Sullevan, and Ward

[1] Another of similar name will be found at p. 125, antea. 
Clearly they are two distinct persons ; one was a Franciscan, the other a parish priest, The manner of their death is different too.

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

HE was born of noble parents in the Co. Roscommon. 

Having finished the study of humanities, he chose a more perfect life in the profession of evangelical poverty, which was observed very strictly in the convent of Elphin, this was the house of the Order in which he made his noviciate. 

The Fathers were satisfied with his courtesy, humility, piety, and learning, and promoted him to the priesthood. 

The pious manner of life of the brethren pleased him very much, and to conform to it, he went out one day to make the quest through the neighbourhood by order of the Guardian. 

This man, most gentle, and poor for Christ’s sake, was seized on the road by that merciless tyrant Charles Coote,[1] and by his order taken to Castlecoote and hanged there in the year 1642.

In the Journal of Henry Jones, Protestant Bishop of Meath,[2] and Scoutmaster General[3] of the army of parliament, we find under the date Friday, March 22, 1650, ‘Colonel Hammond, Governor of the castle (of Gowran, Co. Kilkenny), was, with Major Townley, and Captain Cary, shot to death, and a Franciscan Friar found in the place hanged; his name was Hilary Conry. 

He was chaplain to Ormond’s regiment.’[4]

Note:

Charles Coote, who was known for his cruelty was shot by friendly fire at the siege of Trim in 1642.  His body was interred in Dublin, ‘floods of English tears accompanying him to the grave.’ 

[1] He was killed at the siege of Trim in 1642, having been shot by one of his own men, whether by design or accident was never known.
He was interred in Dublin, ‘floods of English tears accompanying him to the grave.’
Borlase’s Rebthlion, p. 79, arid Aphor. Disc., i.32. Carte tells of his cruelty, Life of Ormonde, i. 245.
[2] See Ware’s Bishops, p. 160
[3] ‘A post not so decent for one of his function.’ Ibid
[4] Journal R.S.A.I. for March, 1893. This surely the same person mentioned by Bruodin

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

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

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

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.