The Irish Martyrs Podcast

Comemorate 9th June date of appointment in 1625 of Baothgalach Mac Aodhagáin, the contemporary Bishop of Elphin1642. RAYMOND KEOGHY, O.P. (From the Acts of the General Chapter, OP., 1656[1])THIS year F. Keoghy, of the Convent of Roscommon,[2] was seized by the heretics and put to death through hatred of the Catholic faith, and so found eternal life in death.The Acts of the General Chapter of 1644 make mention of another of this name, who. De Burgo thinks, must be a different person from the above, for the one was a priest, the other a lay-brother.See also O’Heyne.[1] See Hib. Dom., p. 562[2] Founded by Phelim O’Connor, King of Connaught in 1253, whose tomb is there. ibid., p. 258Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

.EDMUND TANNER, BISHOP OF CORKHe was a native of the city of Cork.[1] He lived for some years in the Society of Jesus, and during that time made extraordinary progress in virtue; but after some years, owing to illness, he left the Order, with the full consent of the Fathers.[2]He was appointed Bishop of Cork[3] November 5th 1574. But hardly had the burthen of the episcopate been laid on him, when he was taken to Dublin and imprisoned there for having opposed the unjust laws of the Queen. While in prison he was tortured in divers ways, and more than once he was hung up for two hours, while his hands were tied behind his back with a rope. Broken with these and various other sufferings, he went to receive the reward of his labours on the 4th of June, 1578, after an imprisonment of eighteen months.See also Holing, Rothe, Copinger, and Lynch.[1] In a papal document in the Irish Ecci. Record, 6. 147, he is said to have been a native of the (ecclesiastical) province of Dublin.[2] Through great sickness and not without the licence of his superiors, and the advice of physicians, he was enforced to come forth out of the Society.’ Lynch, De Pres. Hib., ii. 612[3] See Brady’s Epis. Succession, ii.86, and Irish Ecci. Record, i.316Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

(From Molanus’ Idea, p. 73)Comemorate 30th May, date of Papal appointment HE was a Doctor of Theology, and Vicar Apostolic of the diocese of Ross.[1]This active and courageous labourer in promoting the cause of Catholicity, both by his prayers and his exhortations to others, received a wound from a body of armed heretics, who fell on him and left him for dead. His friends found him still breathing and almost expiring, and bore him off late in the evening to a neighbouring village.Both himself and the place where he was lying are said to have been lighted up throughout the whole of that night. They buried him with much honour in the neighbouring monastery of Timoleague,[2] belonging to the Order of St. Francis.See also Rothe, O’Sullevan, and Porter.[3]Appointed vicar apostolic by papal brief on 30 May 1597 (N.S.).[1] O’Sullevan says he was Bishop elect of Ross. His. Cath., p.244. His name, however, is not given in Bradys Ep. Succ[2] Ten miles south of Bandon, on the western side of Courtmacsherry Bay. See Meehan’s Franc. Mon., p. 52. It was founded by the Barry family.[3] None of these writers gives the date of his death. Rothe places him between Patrick Locheran (1612) and Donagh Daly (1614). Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

1639. JOHN MEAGH,[1] S.J.(From Alegamb’eS MorteS lllustreS, p. 538)JOHN MEAGH was a native of Cork, in the province of Munster. To remove him from the persecution of the heretics, he was taken by his father first to France, and then to Naples.After his father’s death, he entered the service of the Duke of Ossuna, the Viceroy. But disliking the frivolous amusements of the Court, he began to think of leaving it; and he would have done so if the Viceroy had not been recalled just then to Spain.ln this way John found the means of going there, and asking for some favour from the King. He was received in so kindly a way that he obtained very soon an annual pension; with this he returned to Naples.But mark by what wonderful ways God draws men to Him. The young man prayed to God to make known to him when he opened a book, the manner of life which he should enter on.He opened it, and found there the Life of St. Dympna,[2] a maiden of royal birth, who fled from Ireland to avoid her father’s fury, and was afterwards slain by him.John thought the history of a woman unsuited to him for imitation, and was thinking of looking for some other; but in the mean time he went on reading it; again and again he deliberated about turning over the leaves, and searching for another, and yet he hesitated to turn them. ‘What if God wishes me to leave the world,’ said he, ‘and to flee from all occasions of sin, as that royal maiden did when she left her native country.’ Wherefore, he determined to enter the religious state without further delay; and whilst he was yet hesitating somewhat, he was wrongfully accused of a grievous crime, and taken into custody. Seeing in the prison a statue of St. Ignatius, he consoled himself with the thought that he too, was thrown into prison though free from all guilt.Wherefore, he placed himself under this Saint’s protection, and asked his aid. Soon after he was released.This occurred during the year of the Jubilee. Through devotion he set off from Rome. On the way his leg was hurt somehow, and he was hospitably entertained by our Fathers, and nursed until he recovered. Full of gratitude for their kindness, and remembering that St. lgnatius too had broken his leg, he determined to enter the Society. He was ordained a priest, and set back to Naples with letters from the General to the Provincial. There he entered the noviciate, and having gone through it in a blameless manner, he was sent to Bohemia for a short time, in order to acquire some experience before he returned to Ireland to be employed in the saving of souls. His zeal and earnestness were specially remarked, his great piety while offering the sacrifice of the Mass, which was often witnessed by those who assisted thereat, and his great eagerness to divert the conversation to divine things. He was about to depart for Ireland, and he had prepared himself for the journey by make the spiritual exercises.Indeed, he had a sort of presentiment that he should be called onto offer up his life for the faith.John Pauer, who after the death of Gustavus Adolphus commanded the Swedish army that harassed Germany so long, made an incursion into Bohemia in 1639 and laid siege to Prague, its capital city. The Fathers who were then in the College of Cattemberg, terrified at the approach of such a powerful enemy, looked for some safe place where they might take refuge. The College of Neuhaus seemed better suited to their wants than any other place. Several were told to go there by different roads; these were best with robbers, whom the hardship of times or the hope of booty induced to arm themselves, to the ruin of travellers. Moreover, many of the people were still infected with wicked doctrine, and though it had been preached against some years before throughout the whole of Bohemia, yet the consequences of that evil teaching remained deeply fixed in the minds of many, and induced these rude men to assail those who strove to root out such principles by their preaching. Many of these were robbed and forced to fly. Three of them were slain, namely, John Meagh, Martin Ignatius, and Wenceslaus Trnoska. There are two reasons for asserting that they were put to death through hatred of the Catholic faith. One is the hatred which the heretics have for the very name of Jesuit, because they find them to be among the most active and zealous defenders and teachers of the faith. The second is, that they did no harm whatever to the other persons who were travelling with ours, nay, even they bade them put away all fear and take courage; this is a certain fact. John received one wound in the breast from a small leaden bullet. Martin was wounded in the breast, and received a deadly blow on the head from an axe. Wenceslaus was shot through the temples. The place where they were murdered is one mile from Guttenberg, on the road to Neuhas.The date was May 31st, 1639. Their bodies were taken away by the nobleman Bernard De Gerschoff, and buried in the church of the Holy Trinity, in the village of Litz. On June 3rd following they were transferred to the church of St. Barbara, at the Rector’s request. F. John Meagh was put to death in his 39th year, thirteen of which he has passed in the Society of Jesus.See also Rothe, Tanner, and Bruodin.[1] Probably a native of Cork. Several of the named were Mayors of Cork between 1379 and 1437.[2] Her feast is o May 15”. See OHanlons Lives of the Irish Sa,ntS, v. 264Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

1642. CORMAC EGAN, O.P.Comemorate on the 26th of May, anniversary of death in 1644 of Dominican bishop of Kildare Ros MacAodhagáin, (Ross Geoghegan)HE was a laybrother of the Dominican Order. He was hanged by the heretics about this time.Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

NICHOLAS NUGENT,[1] DAVID SUTTON, JOHN SUTTON, THOMAS EUSTACE, JOHN EUSTACE, WILLIAM WOGAN, ROBERT SHERLOCK, JOH CLINCH, THOMAS NETHERFIELD AND ROBERT FITZGERALDN.AMONG the chiefs who took up arms in defence of the Catholic faith professed by their ancestors against the unjust persecutions of Queen Elizabeth about the year 1580, we must reckon these illustrious champions, Viscount Baltinglass[2] and John, Baron of Dunkellin. The English executioners, whose thirst for the innocent blood of Catholics was insatiable, put to death in several ways many noble Catholics through hatred of the faith, under one false pretext or another, and especially because they were suspected of sharing in the sentiments of the aforesaid nobles. Among the many noble knights who were put to death in Dublin in the year 1581, for their constancy in the Catholic faith rather than for the above reason invented by the heretics, were Nicholas Nugent, David Sutton, and his brother John Sutton[3], Thomas Eustace and his son John[4], William Wogan, lord of Rathcoffy; Robert Sherlock, John Clinch, lord of Scrine Thomas Netherfield,[5] and Robert Fitzgerald. All these most famous men, no regard being had to their high birth or the respectability of their families, were hanged and then quartered in Dublin on the 26th of May, 1581.‘Nugent,’ says Camden, ‘a man of singular good life and reputation, was merely circumvented (as the Irish report) by the cunning of his adversaries. He, relying upon the conscience of his own innocency, when the Lord Deputy faithfully promised him his life if he would confess himself guilty, chose rather, being guiltless, to undergo an infamous death, than by betraying his own innocency to lead an infamous[6] 1ife.’It is to these, no doubt, the Annals of Loch Cé refer[7], under the date 1581. ‘Eighteen heirs of the nobles of the foreigners of Meath were put to death in Dublin by the Justiciary of Erin this year.’See also Holing, Rothe, Copinger, Molanus, and Lynch[1] He was Chief Justice of the Common Pleas.[2] An Act of parliament was passed in 1585, 27 Eliz. Ci., attainting him and his four brothers. He died in Portugal.[3] Of Castletown, Co. Kildare. Archdall, vi. 178[4] Copinger says : Mr Thomas Eustace, with his son and heir, said the litanies going up the ladder.’ Spic. Ossor., iii.42[5] Or Netterville[6] Annals, p. 311[7] ii.447Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

(From Bruodin’s Propugnaculum, p. 449)PATRICK O’CONOR was descended from the very ancient and royal stock of the O’Conors in Connaught. Abandoning the deceitful pleasures of the world in the flower of youth, he made his religious profession in the celebrated monastery of Boyle,[1] in the diocese of Elphin, in Connaught, among the most observant of the disciples of the Mellifluous Doctor,[2] in the year of our Lord 1562. For twenty-three years he was seen to advance in every kind of virtue, in such a way that he became a shining light to his brethren by the practice of every good work. He was constant in prayer, and used to shed tears in abundance while so engaged. He was unwearied in works of charity, especially towards the sick. He was kindly to all, but he was very stern in chastising his own body. For the last fifteen years of his life he drank neither wine nor beer. He abstained from flesh meat during the whole time that he was a monk.The Almighty wishing to reward these great merits, allowed that he and Father Malachy O’Kelly, a monk of the same monastery, a religious no less illustrious for his descent from and ancient and noble family than for his great virtues, should fall into the cruel hands of the fierce soldiers of Elizabeth. By these they were first hanged and then quartered at the aforesaid monastery, May 19th, 1585, through hatred of the Catholic faith, which this undaunted champion preached constantly up to his last breath. Bruodin refers the reader to a manuscript book in the College of Prague, in which an account is given of these martyrs, and also to Henriquez’s Menologium Cisterciense.According to Hartry, Father Malachy O’KeIIy was pierced through the heart with a sword.[3]See also Annus Cisterciensis, Henriquez and Hartry[1] Founded for Cistercians in 1161. See Triumphalia, xxxviii[2] This title is often given to St. Bernard, as that of Angelic Doctor to St. Thomas[3] Ibid., p. 257 Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

(From Broudin’s Propugnaculum, p. 469)THIS priest was a native of Connaught, and of noble birth.Having overcome various torments in defence of the Catholic faith, broken down by the noisomeness and hardships of the prison in which he was confined in the company of robbers, he gave up his soul to God on May 15th, 1601 Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

(From Rothe’s Analecta, p. 387)Commemorate 10th January, date of appointment in 2013 of Bishop of Limerick Brendan LeahyHE 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 BruodinPlease pray for final perseverance for all of us!May the martyrs of old inspire us all.