(From Hartry’s Triumphalia, p. 257.)

ON the 8 of September, 1620, the Rev. James Eustace received the crown of martyrdom, and by sufferings on earth like those of his brother in religion Nicholas Fitzgerald,[1] obtained a reward in heaven. 

The author says he heard the account of the martyrdom of these two religious from a venerable priest, Richard Kelly, then in the seventy-sixth year of his age and in the fifty-first of his priesthood.

[1] See p. 120, antea

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

THIS priest was a native of Leinster. 

He was accused by the heretics of celebrating Mass.[1]

He was hanged and quartered by order of the cruel tyrant Marshal Burrowes, and so deserved to obtain a martyr’s crown September 4th, 1597.

See also Copinger and Wadding.

[1] For that he said Mass to Teig MacHugh.’ Copinger
 

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

(From Hartyr’s Synopsis, p. 251)

F. NICHOLAS FITZGERALD, to escape from the cruel persecution, fled to a wood, and lay concealed there. 

He was seized in his monastic habit, taken in chains to the city of Dublin, and condemned by the Viceroy, who was never sated with the blood of Catholics, to be hanged, and while half-alive to be quartered. 

He endured that manner of death courageously for the Catholic faith, wearing his religious habit.

The faithful, influenced by pious devotion, preserved the clothes and blood of the courageous martyr, dividing them into small portions as relics in the year of Christ’s birth 1581, in the month of September. 

His father Maurice Fitzgerald, and his mother, Margaret FitzRedmond, obtained, as a very great favour, that the four quarters of their beloved son, when cut asunder, should be given to them for burial in the tomb of his ancestors in the church of the Nuns of the Order of St. Brigid, in Kildare. 

Our glorious martyr was descended from the noble race of the Geraldines.[1]

There is a tombstone close by the vestry door of the cathedral of Kildare which bears the names of the parents of Nicholas Fitzgerald.[2]

If the original position of this stone was ascertained, it would determine the place where the martyr was buried.

[1] Thomas, 2nd son of Thomas, 7th Earl of Kildare, settled at Lackagh, midway between Kildare and Monasterevan
[2] The inscription is given in Comerford’s Dioceses of Kildare arid Leighlin, ii.29
 

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

(From O’Sullevan’s Hist. Cath., p. 294)

Comemorate on 31st August, Anniversary of contemporary Archbishop of Cashel, David Kearney, Archbishop from 1603 to 1624

THE murder of Sir Patrick Purcell, knight, worn out by old age, is well known. 

In his eightieth year, he was accused of having entertained at supper, in Elizabeth’s time, a Catholic knight who was fighting on the side of the Catholics. 

He was hanged, and cut down when only half dead, and his bowels were cast into the fire, at Fethard in the year 1612. 

He was known to be a patron and protector of priests.

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

(From Bouchier’s Hist. De Martyrio FE Ordinis S.F.)

DR. O’HELY was a native of Connaught & from his early youth he was devoted to the practice of virtue. He entered the Franciscans, and 5 years after his profession he was sent to Spain, by order of his superiors, that he might pursue his studies at the famous University of AIcalã. 

In 1575 he was called to Rome by the General of the Order, F. Christopher à Capite Fontis. While there, he resided in the Convent of Ara Coeli. 

He frequently petitioned to be allowed to return in order to aid the Irish people then resisting the attacks of heresy. The report of his learning and virtues, and especially of his zeal for souls, reached the ears of Pope Gregory XIII., and in 1576 he was appointed to the See of Mayo,[1] then vacant. 

He set off from Brittany, accompanied by Cornelius O’Rourke,[2] the eldest son of the Prince of Brefny[3], who had abandoned the pleasures and enticements of the world in order to pass his life in humility and poverty in the Order of St Francis. 

They landed at Dingle, Co. Kerry. They were immediately recognized by spies, stationed along the southern coast. The sheriff seized them, and took them before the Countess of Desmond.[4]

The Earl, who was then absent, ruled over the southern part of the kingdom almost as a sovereign.[5] She received them with great kindness, the Geraldines being at all times the chief patrons and protectors of the Franciscan Order. 

But not wishing to run any risk of losing the Queen’s favour, she sent a company of soldiers with O’Hely and his companion to Limerick, and bade them to be handed over to Goulden, who held some official position there, and was at all times most zealous in carrying out the Queen’s wicked purposes. He put them immediately into the common jail. 

A few days after they were taken to Kilmallock, 12 miles from Limerick, Where Drury, the President of Munster, a fierce persecutor of the Catholics,[6]then was. 

He ordered the prisoners to be chained still more securely and to be beaten with sticks. He then examined them. 

O’Hely replied for himself and his companion. 

‘By God’s grace we are both priests and religious of the Order of St. Francis. Moreover, I am the Bishop of Mayo, having been appointed to that office and consecrated by the Supreme Head of the Church on earth, Gregory XIII., and I have been sent by him to Ireland to visit, and gather together, and feed with the word of Life the Catholic people confided to my care, and now scattered by the fury of the heretics. This is my calling and the cause of my return to my native country.’ 

‘do you dare,’ asked Drury, ‘to assert, like a rebel, that the Pope is the Supreme Head of the Church in Ireland, notwithstanding the lawful decrees made by the Queen and parliament to the contrary?’

‘If these laws were just,’ replied the Bishop, ‘they would not contradict what I say; and to prove the truth of my assertion, I am ready to suffer any torments you please and to lay down my life, if necessary.’ 

His companion answered in the same strain. Promises of wealth and honours were held out to them to induce them to change their resolution. They were threatened with torture and death, but to no avail. 

Drury, enraged at their answers, condemned them by martial law, without any legal formality, to be first put to the torture, and then to be hanged from a tree that was near.His orders were executed faithfully. 

The two athletes of Christ were stripped; beaten with rods; then placed on the rack; sharp points and needles were thrust between the nails and the flesh, their fingers were cut off, their arms and feet beaten with hammers, and their thigh-bones broken. 

In the midst of these cruel tortures they exhorted each other to be patient and firm, they urged the Catholics who were present to perseverance, and they preached repentance to the heretics.

Drury, at heart a Catholic, moved by their exhortations, thought of a plan by which he would save them from death.

He sent an attendant, who knew the Irish language, to the Bishop, and asked him whether he would conform, at least outwardly, and obey the laws of the Queen. 

The Bishop sent him back word by the same messenger that he had now reached the time when he could not dissemble in matters of faith, and that he would be willing to endure a thousand deaths rather than deny publicly or privately what had been defined as true by the Church or subscribe to what was condemned.

Drury again offered them rich benefices and positions of honour. As they paid no heed to his offer, he ordered the sentence to be carried out. 

They were taken from the rack and hanged with the girdles which they wore as a part of their religious habit, on the 22 of August, 1578.[7]

 When the Bishop reached the top of the ladder, just before he was taken hold of by the executioner and thrown off, he called out to Drury, and warned him that within a very few days he should appear before the judgment-seat of God. 

Three days after he was seized by a disease which baffled all the skill of the physicians. 

When the malady was at its height he admitted that he had done wrong, and he declared openly that he was punished by God for the unjust sentence which he had pronounced against the Bishop.

The bodies of the martyrs were kept hanging in chains. 

They were lowered so that their feet almost touched the ground, so that they might be devoured by wolves and wild dogs. Yet, to everyone's wonder they were not touched, even by the birds of the air. 

Every day, however, they were made targets of by the heretical soldiers, one crying out, ‘I will hit the Pope’s Bishop in the head,’ and another, ‘I will strike his hand.’ 

During the whole 14 days they were hanging in this way, it was remarked that the expression of their features remained unchanged ; it was calm and joyful as during life. 

Moreover, a fragrant odour issued from them. 

The people of the neighbourhood came in great numbers to the place, and took away with them pieces of their clothing. 

The Earl of Desmond ordered the bodies to be removed and buried with great honour at Clonmel, in order to atone in some measure for what the Countess, his wife, had done. 

Seventy years after, they were transferred, and deposited, together with the instruments of their torture, in the monastery of their Order at Askeaton.[8]

In F. Holing’s manuscript, Magna Supplicia, the following passage occurs in reference to Drury :-

Anno 1577. William Drury, an Englishman, Viceroy of Ireland, was summoned by the Most Rev. Patrick Hely, of the Order of St. Francis, bishop (whom with his brother in religion he had condemned to death solely on account of his faith), before the judgment-seat of God to give an account of his deed. 

He was seized with a very violent disease, and died soon after mad and uttering blasphemies. 

On the day he was buried, there was such darkness, thunder, and lightning as Ireland never saw before or since.’[9]

In the book entitled Thetarum Crudelitatum Haereticorum, published at Antwerp in 1592, there's a print representing O’HeIy and his companion hanging from a cross beam.[10]

There is uncertainty as to the precise year of his death. Some say 1577, others 1578, others 1579. The date given above is that most commonly accepted.

See also the Annals of Loch Ce, Gonzaga, Harpsfield, Sander, Bozius, Verstegan, Bridgewater, Fitzsimon, Rothe, O’Sullevan, Molanus, Ward, Wadding, O’DaIy, Bruodin, Lynch, Porter, and Hueber.

[1] See Bede’s Hist. Ecci. Ang., v.4, and Lanigan’s Eccl.Hist of Ireland, iN.79, for an account of its foundation. Its last Bishop was Adam Magauran, appointed in 1585. It is now united toTuam,
[2] The Annals of Loch Cé say he was the son of Brian, son of Eoghan O’Ruairc, ii. 427.
[3] Now Co .Leitrim.
[4] Daughter of Edmund, Lord Dunboyne. After the death of the Earl of Oesmond, she married O’Conor Sligo. There is a mural monument erected to her and O’Conor Sligo in the Dominican priory of Sligo.
[5] Earl Gerald
[6] He was appointed President of Munster in 1576, and held that office for three years. In the second year of his office he hanged 400 persons by justice and martial law.’ Webb’s Irish Biography.
[7] O’Rourke was visited in prison the night before his execution by the famous F.James Archer, S.J., who afterwards described him ‘as being comely of feature, kindly in his address, young in years ; he had hardly reached his thirtieth year.’ See Triumphalia S. Crucis. p. 257
[8] Founded in 1420 by James 61h Earl of Desmond. See Meehan’s Franc. Mon., p.96
[9] 2 Spic. Ossor., iii.25.
[10] See the print facing the title-page. The two hanging from the same beam are O’Hely and O’Rourke

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

(From De Burgo’s Hib. Dom., p.559)

AMONG our Irish martyrs assuredly these may well claim the first place. 

They are spoken of at length in the work bearing the title Palma Fidel Ordinis Prœdicatorum composed by the Rev. Father B. Peter Malphæus, OP., prior of Brussels ; viz:’

Donough, alias William, Olvin, prior of the convent of Derry in Ulster[2]: he was hanged, with many secular priests, in the square of the said city, and quartered, by the English heretics in the year 1608.[3]

The brother of the Prior; he too was a religious of the Order of preachers, and was hanged some time before the Prior suffered, in the same city, because he professed the Catholic faith, as we read in the said Malphæus.

See also O’Sullevan, Molanus, O’Daly, and Porter

[1] Or O’Laighen
[2] Founded by O’Donnell, chief of his clan, in 1244. Hib. Dom. P.281
[3] There is some uncertainty about the date. The above is that given in Hib. Dom., p.559

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

LAURENCE O’MOORE was descended from a very ancient and respectable family in Ireland. 

He was a priest remarkable for holiness of life, as Sander testifies.[1]

When the Spanish General San Jose surrendered the castle of Smerwick,[2] in the western part of Co. Kerry, to Lord Grey, who was the Deputy, the conditions were that the garrison should be allowed to march out with their arms, ammunition, and other property.

But the treacherous heretics did not think themselves bound either by their oath or by the laws that are held sacred even by barbarous nations. 

The Spaniards, nine hundred in number, were made to give up their arms, and all but ten and the cowardly commander either cast into the sea or slain in cold blood.

 O’Moore and two Irishmen of noble birth, Oliver Plunkett and William Walsh, were taken there also. 

These the Deputy required to be handed over to him. 

He strove to induce them to abjure the Catholic faith and to embrace Protestantism; and when they refused, and said that with God’s grace they would continue even till death to profess the Catholic faith, he sent them to a blacksmith’s forge and had their limbs broken to pieces with a hammer. 

This butchery lasted for twenty-four hours. 

During all that time these noblemen displayed extraordinary courage, having been strengthened with the sacraments, which they had received from Father Laurence. 

All three expired almost at the same moment, their last words being :

‘Into Thy hands, 0 Lord, I commend my spirit.’ 

They were put to death August 1580.

The State Papers confirm fully the above narrative: 

This day was executed an Englishman who served Dr. Saunders, one Plunkett, and an Irish priest. 

Theire armes and legges were broken, and hanged upon a gallowes upon the wall of the fort.’[3]

Sander was the Papal Legate, who died soon after in the woods at Aherlow, raving in a phrenesy.’[4]

Plunkett, the writer says, was born near Drogheda.

See also Holing, Rothe, O’Sullevan, Copinger, Henriquez, Molanus, Hartry, and Porter.

[1] See Spic. Ossor., i. 88
[2] See Hennessy’s Raleigh in Ireland, p. 10. The castle was called Dún an Óir.
[3] Ibid., p.211. Letter of Sir R, Bingham to Walsingham.
[4] See the Introduction to Sander’s Anglican Schism, p.20

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

1535. VENERABLE JOHN TRAVERS[1], I.O.S.A.

(From Bruodin’s Propugnaculum, p. 426)

The first of our martyrs in later times mentioned by name, for others no doubt preceded him whose names are written only in the Book of Life, was John Travers, a native of Dublin, a priest of the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine, and a Doctor of Theology.

He wrote anonymously a famous work bearing the title On the Authority of the Roman Pontiff.[2]

In it he proved clearly that the primacy of Henry VIII. was a mere fiction, and only a name, without any foundation in fact or in reason.

Whereupon he was seized by the King’s ministers and sent to London.

He was kept in the Tower for four months in succession.

During that time he was examined on four different occasions, And put to various kinds of torture, and being found faithful and steadfast, he was declared guilty of high treason by Cromwell and the other flatterers of the King.

He was led out, as is the custom among the English, his hands tied behind his back and a rope round his neck, placed on a hurdle, and taken in this manner to the usual place of execution. [3]

(A hurdle is a moveable section of light fence traditionally made from wattle, in medieval England a hurdle was used as a makeshift sledge, to which a prisoner was tied to be dragged behind a horse to a place of execution.)[4]

When he reached the top of the ladder leading to the gallows, he prayed for pardon, and heartily exhorted the bystanders to pray earnestly to God, the refuge of sinners, for the conversion and salvation of the King and of all the mad heretics who adhered to him.

And then he exclaimed in a loud voice.

‘It is not for any crime, Christian hearers, that I have been sent hither from Ireland, my native country, but rather because I professed the Catholic faith, which I, like my ancestors, have drunk in with my mother’s milk; and also, because I am supposed to be the author of a certain work lately spread abroad among the Catholics.

The moment of my death is now close at hand, which will surely open for me the door to eternal life.

Hence it behoves me not to use any ambiguous or obscure language for the purpose of concealing the truth.

Wherefore I declare openly that I am a priest of the Catholic and Apostolic Church, and, moreover, that it was with these three fingers,’ and he raised aloft the three fingers of his right hand, ’I wrote that work on the Authority of the Roman Pontiff.’

When he had said these words, the sheriff gave the order; he was hanged, cut down before life was quite extinct, and quartered.

A wonderful thing then took place.

His right hand and his intestines were cast into the fire; and while other parts were reduced to ashes, the three fingers of his right hand which he had raised aloft on the scaffold, were seen in a like position in the midst of the flames, and afterwards were found whole and fresh, as if they had never been cast into the fire, like the right hand of King Oswald, the martyr, which the Venerable Bede[5] tells us remained up to his own time fresh and uncorrupted, in token, no doubt, of the divine approval of his charity to the poor.

Harpsfield[6] says he was assured by eye-witnesses that the flesh on the martyr’s fingers remained fresh long after his death.

O’Sullevan says Travers was put to death on the 30th July; Fitzsimon on the 31st 

He is one of the two hundred and sixty Venerable Servants of God put to death in England for the faith, whose cause of beatification or declaration of martyrdom has been allowed by the decree of December 4th, 1886, to be introduced in the Sacred Congregation of Rites.

See also Harpsfield, Bridgewater, Fitzsimon, White, Copinger,  O’SuJlevan , O’Daly, and Lynch.

[1] Broudin writes the name Tanner; but it is usually written as above.
The complete identity of the facts given under both names by the different authors shows that they refer to one person only, not to two, whatever his name may have been.
[2] Though I’ve searched for this book, I have not been able to find a copy of it in any library in this country.
[3] Tyburn, close to the present Marble Arch. A stone marks the spot where Tyburn Gate stood.
[4] Channel4.com (25 March 2009) "Perkin Warbeck (1474-99)" Henry VIII: The Mind of a Tyrant. Retrieved 2011-11-19
[5] Hist. Eccl.Angl., iii.6
[6] In whose work he is called Gravesius, no doubt a misprint for Traversius See Dial, p995
 

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

(From the Acts of the General Chapter, OP., 1644)

Comemmorate 25th July, date of appointment in 1625 of Anthony Martin, contemporary bishop of Meath 

WHILST he was encouraging the Catholics in the faith, and in the midst of war and battles was looking to the welfare of their souls and discharging the office of confessor at the same time in a Praiseworthy manner, he was struck by a bullet, in a battle against the heretics, and so exchanged life for death. 

O’Daly adds he was prior of Mullingar,[2] and that while he was engaged at Ballenacorra in hearing the confession of a soldier going into the fight, he was caught sight of by one of the garrison of a neighbouring castle, who fired at him and wounded him mortally. 

He died the next day of the wound.

See also O’Daly

[1] De Burgo thinks there were two of this name also, who were killed in the same way, one of the convent of Athenry, the other of Mullingar.
The first, he says, suffered death in 1642, the other in 1651. ibid., pp.562 and 570.
[2] Founded in 1237 by the Pettit family, barons, palatine of Mullingar; De Burgo thinks by the Nugents. ibid., p.217

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

THESE were citizens of Wexford and pious Catholics. 

With the aid of some other Catholic sailors, they had secretly carried over to France a certain Father of the Society of Jesus, and some of the priests and laymen who were driven from their native country on account of their faith. 

They were seized, put to the torture, and hanged; and when they were only halfdead, they were taken down and quartered, July 5th, 1581.

Bruodin[2] says they were executed for bringing Father Rochford, S.J., from Belgium, and entertaining priests in their houses. 

He gives July 15th of that year as the date of their martyrdom. 

Instead of Patrick Canavan, given by Rothe, he sets down John O’Lahy as having been martyred with the two first mentioned.

See also Holing, Molanus, and Bruodin.

[1] He is called Meiler by Rothe.
The Narator has come across the surname Meyler in southwest Wexford where it is quite common.
[2] Propug., p. 443

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

(From Rothe’sAnalecta, p.391)

THESE were citizens of Wexford and pious Catholics. 

With the aid of some other Catholic sailors, 

they had secretly carried over to France a certain Father of the Society of Jesus, 

and some of the priests and laymen who were driven from their native country on account of their faith. 

They were seized, put to the torture, and hanged; 

and when they were only halfdead, they were taken down and quartered, 

July 5th, 1581.

Bruodin[2] says they were executed for bringing Father Rochford, S.J., from Belgium, 

and entertaining priests in their houses. 

He gives July 15th of that year as the date of their martyrdom. 

Instead of Patrick Canavan, given by Rothe, 

he sets down John O’Lahy as having been martyred with the two first mentioned.

See also Holing, Molanus, and Bruodin.

[1] He is called Meiler by Rothe.
The Narator has come across the surname Meyler in southwest Wexford where it is quite common.
[2] Propug., p. 443

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

(From Bruodin’s Propugnaculum, p.499)

HE was descended from the very ancient family of the Earls of Desmond.[1]

From his very childhood he was so virtuous that he was considered a saint. 

When he was enrolled in the Seraphic Order, not only did he strengthen himself by vows in the virtues which he practised in the secular state, but he added others to them. 

He completed his studies in Spain, and in 1609 he taught theology in the College of St. Anthony of Padua at Louvain.[2] 

Filled with zeal for the salvation of souls, he returned to Ireland at a time when the pestilential heresy of the English was rampant everywhere. 

He was Commissary and Visitor of the Irish province. 

For many months he was unwearied in his task of feeding the Catholic people of Munster and Leinster with the word of God, at one time preaching to them in the woods and caves, at another administering the sacraments in private houses, at all times setting before them an example of every virtue, especially of charity, modesty, the token of his inward purity, religious humility, and burning zeal.

When he had passed four years in this secret and hidden way, consoling the Catholics, he was seized by the heretics, taken to Dublin, and cast into an underground prison. [3]

Worn out by hardships he died therein on the 12th, of July, 1617. 

The citizens having asked for his body, celebrated his obsequies for three or four days with much devotion, to the great surprise and indignation of the heretics, who strove to prevent them.

At length his remains were laid in the same cemetery as those of the Bishop.[4]

See also Rothe, O’Sullevan, Ward, Wadding, Porter, and Hueber.

[1] Molanus says the residence of the branch of the Desmond family to which he belonged was Dabronopolis, perhaps Achadbronagh, near Castleisland.
[2] Founded for the Irish Franciscans by Isabella, Regent of the Netherlands, in 1616. See the Journal of the R.S.A.I., for October, 1893, P. 237
[3] Diary of Lord cork, April, 1613 ‘Captain Goar apprehended Thomas Fitzgerald, the friar, in Youghal, I being then at Dungarvan ; and when I came home, I brought him from the gaol and kept him in my own house for fifteen days, till the Lord Deputy sent for him.
Lismore Papers, 1st series, i.21
[4] The reference is most probably to O’Devany, buried in St. James’. The account of him immediately precedes that of Fitzgerald in Bruodin.

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

(From F. Eusebius’ Enchiridion, p.202)

FATHER THOMAS AQUINAS was a distinguished preacher and a zealous missionary, who earned for himself the hatred of the heretics by the assiduity and successful results of his preaching and labours in confirming the oppressed and persecuted Catholics in the faith, and in winning several back who had fallen into the errors of heresy. 

He was captured, while engaged in his apostolic work, in the house of a noble family recently converted by him. 

The Puritans, having obtained information of his whereabouts through the treachery of a servant, invested the house on all sides, like wolves raging for the blood of the priest, and threatened the inmates with all manner of excesses and cruelties if the Papist priest were not given up to them. 

They searched the house in every part, but having searched in vain retired, and prepared to set it on fire.

Seeing the impending danger, Father Thomas, more solicitous for the safety of others than for his own, came out of his own accord and surrendered himself into the hands of his pursuers, by whom, in their savage exultation, he was most cruelly beaten, bound with cords, and in that state carried almost lifeless to Drogheda, and there cast into prison, where he was left to languish for a considerable time. 

Under treatment so harsh he suffered no expression of complaint to escape from his lips but he bore all with joy, rejoicing to suffer for Christ, and meditating on the words of the Apostle ‘I am apprehended by the Lord.”[1]

Among many others imprisoned, for the same cause, was a priest of the Order of St. Francis, the Guardian of the Franciscan community in Drogheda. 

By him Father Thomas was received with extreme joy, and with his assistance succeeded in procuring the sacred habit of the Order, with which he clothed himself in prison. 

To prepare himself for the conflict, he carefully confessed to this Franciscan Father the faults of his whole life, celebrated Mass daily, thus fortifying himself with the bread of the Strong. 

The remainder of the day he spent in comforting and encouraging the Catholic Prisoners, 

in company with the good Franciscan. 

He devoted the greater part of the night to mental and vocal prayer ; 

he fasted continually, and chastised his body with great severity, in order to detach it from the love of this present life, and lest it should impede his spirit from union with its Lord, to whom he frequently offered the sacrifice of his life. 

He besought the Blessed Mother of God and all the heavenly citizens to succour him in his struggle.

Early on the morning of the 6th of July, while the Father was offering the Holy Sacrifice, a messenger from the Governor[2] of the town announced to him that he was condemned to be hanged within an hour. 

Father Thomas received the announcement of his fate unmoved by the fear of death. 

He thanked God, confessed again, and prepared himself for death. 

When the time had come, he took a last leave of his fellow-prisoners implored the assistance of their prayers, and then resigned himself into the hands of the Puritan satellites. 

These men, strange to say, notwithstanding their abhorrence of all religious garbs and symbols, suffered him to retain his religious habit to the last. 

Holding a crucifix in one hand and a rosary in the other, he went forth to execution, joyously chanting the Litany of the Blessed Virgin. 

On his way the heretical ministers sought to persuade him to adopt their views but they Were repulsed by the good Father, who, fixing his eyes on his crucifix, asked them to say what might be the true faith of heretics, who believed or disbelieved according as each one liked for himself. 

Rather return,’ he said to them, to the old faith taught by the Apostles, and hitherto professed by your own nation.’

A minister told him that, by authorization of the Governor, he could give him a choice of offices in the army, provided only he would ‘repent and not perish.’ 

To this offer Father Thomas answered that his duty was not to hesitate to die for the faith.

Towards the end of the journey, the Father was met by an unhappy woman condemned to death for her crimes. 

Being promised pardon on condition of renouncing her religion, she was grievously tempted to apostatize; but a few earnest words of exhortation from Father Thomas confirmed her in the faith, with the happy result that, having first made public profession of the true faith, she cheerfully faced her doom.

Having reached the scaffold, Father Thomas was commanded to ascend, which he accordingly did, professing the faith aloud in the meantime, and earnestly conjuring all the Catholics present to contend for it manfully unto death. 

But the Commander, fearing a tumult among the people, ordered the executioner to hasten his work. 

Not without the intense amazement of the spectators, the rope, although a stout one, snapped, letting Father Thomas fall to the ground, not dead but unconscious. 

The Catholics attributed this extraordinary circumstance to the intervention of divine Providence, that thus the cause of one unjustly condemned might be vindicated before the vast multitude of people. 

Scarcely had he revived, when the Commander again ordered him to mount the scaffold but here again the divine Power showed itself, for the holy confessor ascended without difficulty, and speaking without the least trouble, he appealed to the Puritan officer to state the cause for which he had been condemned to die, protesting that this conscience was his witness that he had done no wrong to any man, nor committed any crime deserving of death. 

The Puritan replied angrily:

‘Why do you ask of me the cause of your condemnation ; are you not a Papist, a priest, and a monk?’ 

‘It is so; it is enough,’ the Father replied 

‘I am guilty of no crime. 

Let it therefore appear to all men that I die for the Catholic faith and the religious profession, for which I also die gladly.’ 

The Puritan now reminded him of the Governor’s promises; that they yet remained good; that time enough yet remained in which he could change his mind. 

But when he understood that he was offering suggestion to deaf ears, he ordered the executioner to end his work.

Not only were the Catholics Profoundly grieved by the death of the servant of God, but many Protestants as well, who, since they had dissented from the ancient faith under pretext of liberty, 

considered that to put anyone to death merely on account of his religion was to destroy liberty.

The confessor’s body was taken away and interred by the Catholics in the cemetery adjoining the Augustinian convent, recently wrecked by the Puritans. 

God, to show that He has ever at heart the care of the honour of His servants, 

caused a brilliant heavenly light to shine over the Carmelite’s grave on the following night. 

The light was visible to the Soldiers stationed at one of the gates of the town Opposite, as well as to many other persons in the neighbourhood. 

The soldiers, being of opinion that the light was brought there by Catholics burying their dead, went, forty strong, to the spot in which they thought the light had appeared. 

In the cemetery they could see no one ; all was utter darkness; they were much terrified, and fled. 

They saw it again when they returned to their station at the gate. 

The Captain himself next proceeded in the direction of the mysterious light, taking with him fifty men, but only to find the same utter darkness. 

He immediately fled from the cemetery, terror-stricken himself bravely leading the way. 

Having thus failed as a brave soldier, the Captain next, assuming a more puritanical frame of mind, declared with due solemnity that the light must have issued from hell with the devil, who had come to carry off the Papist’s body along with his soul.

This irreverent remark having received but scant applause from his comrades, who had not yet quite recovered from their fear, abandoning his infernal theory, the Captain now swore by his Puritan soul that the Papist was not buried there at all.

The event showed that in this too he was mistaken, for next morning he visited the grave, and found the body of the friar there calmly reposing. 

He stripped it of the white mantle and scapular, carried both away with him, and went about relating to all he met his wondrous visions and experiences of the previous eventful night. 

Another soldier took away the friar’s crucifix, which he refused to sell to the Catholics for any price, declaring earnestly that he would cherish it all his life a most precious memorial of a man who had been unjustly put to death.

[1] Phil. ii.12
[2] Lord Moore of Mellifont. See DAlton’s H. of Drogheda 1.226

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

JOHN CORNELIUS was born at Bodmin,[4] in Cornwall of Irish parents, & brought up at school in the same town; from whence he was sent to Oxford by Sir John Arundel, who was much taken with his rare genius and diligence in learning. 

But Mr. Cornelius, liking the old religion better than the new, left Oxford and went beyond the seas to Rheims (the English college having been lately translated thither from Douay), & was there received by Dr. Allen,[5] the institutor and first president of that seminary of martyrs. 

After some stay here he was sent in 1580 to Rome, to finish his studies in the English college of that city, where he remained for some years. 

Here he was made priest, and from there was sent upon the English mission, where he laboured with great fruit for about ten years.

He was a man of most mortified life and greatly addicted to prayer and contemplation, but, withal, zealous and diligent in his pastoral functions, & had a notable talent in preaching, so that he was admired and loved by all who knew him.

He was apprehended in the house[6] of the widow of Sir John Arundel, upon the information of a wicked servant, on the second Sunday after Easter, in April, 1594, by Mr Trenchard,[7] Sheriff of Dorsetshire, & with him Mr Thomas Bosgrave, a Cornish gentleman, a kinsman of Sir John Arundel, who was also hurried away to prison, because, seeing Mr. Cornelius in the hands of officers, hurried away without any hat, he clapped his own hat upon the confessor’s head, saying: 

‘The honour I owe to your function may not suffer me to see you go bareheaded.’ 

Upon which the Sheriff told him he should bear him company, and, as we shall see by and by, for this offence he afterwards also suffered with him. 

John, or as others call him Terence, Carey, and Patrick Salmon,[8] both natives of Dublin, and servants in the family were also committed to prison on this occasion, as aiding and assisting Mr. Cornelius.

The confessor was first carried to the Sheriff’s house, where some Protestant ministers strongly attacked him on the subject of religion; but Mr Cornelius maintained the Catholic cause with such strong arguments that the Sheriff, fearing the influence his words would make upon those that were present, put a stop to the dispute. 

Shortly after, the Council being informed of all that had passed, the confessor was ordered to be sent up to London ;

where he was examined by the Lord Treasurer,[9] the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury,[10] 

and others of the Privy Council, who strove to extort out of him, first by words, and afterwards by the rack, 

the names of such Catholics as had harboured or relieved him ;

but his constancy was proof against all their efforts, and he refused to the last to make any discovery, 

which might redound to the prejudice of his benefactors.[11]

Upon this he was sent back into the country, there to take his trial, and there to die. 

The three last days before the assizes he spent wholly in prayer and in pious exhortations to his fellow prisoners, without eating, in a manner, or sleeping, and so prepared himself for his conflict.

After this he was brought to the bar with his three companions, where they were all found guilty by the jury; Mr. Cornelius of high treason, for being a priest, and coming into this kingdom, and remaining here; Mr. Bosgrave and the other two, of felony, for aiding and assisting Mr. Cornelius, knowing him to be a priest.

After the jury had brought in their verdict, the three laymen cast themselves at the feet of Mr. Cornelius to crave his blessing; and they were all sent back to prison, sentence not being to be pronounced till the next day. 

They prepared themselves for it by prayer, and animated one another by pious colloquies, in which they passed that night; and on the following day they were all sentenced to die. 

It was observed that Judge Walmsley pronounced the sentence with tears in his eyes. 

Mr Cornelius would have spoken to the judges after sentence was given, but was ordered to be silent. 

However, the judges assured them all that their lives would be saved if they would conform and go to the Protestant church ; which they all stoutly refusing, were sent back to prison, there to prepared for their last end.

They were condemned on the 2nd of July, 1594, and on the 4th were carried out to their martyrdom.[12]

Mr Cornelius was drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution; the other three walked on foot.

The confessor animated them by the way to suffer death with courage and constancy; and, indeed, it appeared by their countenances that they went to the gallows with as much content and satisfaction as if they had been going to a feast. 

Mr Cornelius made also the best use he could of his time in favour of a malefactor, who was to suffer with them whom he so effectually exhorted to faith and repentance, that the man declared aloud he looked upon himself as happy that he was to die in such good company.

The first that was ordered up the ladder was John Carey, a man of great courage. 

He kissed the rope when it was put about his neck, saying, ‘0 precious collar’; then he made a profession of his faith, for which he declared he died ; and so was turned off. 

The next was Patrick Salmon, a man much admired and beloved for his virtues. 

In dying he admonished the people, that the only way to secure their eternal welfare was to embrace that faith for which he and his companions laid down their lives. 

Mr Bosgrave was called upon next, who being a man of reading, made a speech to the people of the certainty of the Catholic faith; which was heard with great attention, the ministers standing by and not offering a word in vindication of their religion.

And now it was come to Mr. Cornelius’ turn to ascend the ladder; at the foot of which he knelt down, and prayed a little while; then kissed the ground, and afterwards the feet of his companions, who were still hanging; then addressing himself to the gallows, he saluted it with these words of St. Andrew

‘O bona crux, diu desiderata,’ &c. O good Cross, a long time desire, &c. 

And going up the ladder, he offered thrice several times to speak to the people and was as often interrupted.

Then he declared what had hitherto been kept a secret,  viz., that he was admitted into the Society of Jesus in London by the Superior of the English Jesuits; and was to have gone over with others to make his noviciate in Flanders,[13] had he not been prevented by his apprehension. 

After which he prayed aloud for his persecutors, for the conversion of the Queen, and so was flung off the ladder, and shortly after cut down and quartered. 

His quarters were set up on four poles, but afterwards were taken down by the Catholics, and buried with the bodies of his companions. 

His head was nailed to the gallows, till it was removed at the desire of the town, apprehending the scourges of God upon them, as they had experienced before on the like occasion. 

Yet we are told that the following year a dreadful plague ensued among them, which carried off so many that the living were not sufficient to bury the dead.

Mr. Cornelius and his companions suffered at Dorchester, July 4th, 1594. 

Bruodin gives July 3 as the date.

See also Alegambe and Bruodin.

[1] He is called McMahon, and Mahony by various writers.
[2] These are among the two hundred and sixty-one Venerable Servants of God put to death in England for the faith whose cause was allowed to be introduced in the S. Congregation of Rites by the decree of December, 1886.
[3] From a MS, in Dr.C.’s possession, and from an account sent from England three months after Mr C’s death (Challoner’s note)
[4]  ‘The ship on which his parents were flying from the persecution of the English was driven by a storm into a Cornish port.
Fitsimon says he always spoke of himself as an Irishman.
See Bruodin’s Propugnaâulum, p. 458, and Hogan’s Ibemia Ignat., p.33
[5] Founder of the English Colleges of Douay, Rheims, and Rome. He was made a Cardinal in 1587. He died in 1594.
[6] Chidiock Castle, says Oliver. Collections illustrating the History of the Catholic Church in Devon, p. 37
[7] Bruodin gives John Morton as his name. Propug., p.46O
[8] Bruodin gives the names as Patrick O’Hogan, and John McConsidine, and says they were natives of Thomond. Ibid., p.461.

[9] William Cecil, Lord Burghley.
[10] John Whitgift was Archbishop from 1583 to 1604
[11] Bruodin says it was then he was received into the Society of Jesus. Propug., p.461
[12] At Dorchester

[13] Foley, Records of the English Province S.J., iv. 141, vii.169, has some further details about him.

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

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.