'The John Nepomucene of Ireland': John O'Dowd, O.F.M.

Recently we looked at the cases of two martyrs from the Franciscan monastery of Moyne, County Mayo and today we look at a third, a man described by Father Thomas Walsh in his 1856 History of the Irish Hierarchy as 'the John Nepomucene of Ireland'. For Irish Franciscan priest, John O'Dowd, is also remembered as a martyr for the Seal of the Confessional. Cardinal Moran, who did much to reawaken interest in the Irish martyrs during the nineteenth-century, wrote a succinct summary of his case giving the date June 9, 1577 as the day of Father O'Dowd's martyrdom and the Elizabethan conquest of Connacht as its backdrop:

The convent of Moyne, in Mayo, was rendered illustrious in 1577, by the heroism of Father O'Dowd. The soldiers of Fitton (then president of Connaught) had occupied that convent, and some of their prisoners having made their confessions to that courageous father, they seized on him, and by promises and threats, sought to induce him to reveal to them the secrets which he had heard. His refusal kindled their demoniac ferocity, and binding the cord of his habit around his head, they forced and screwed it till his eyes burst from their sockets. Under this frightful torture he expired on the 9th of June, attesting by his martyrdom the inviolability of the sacred sacramental seal. 

Rev Dr. Moran, History of the Catholic Archbishops of Dublin Since the Reformation, Vol. I,  (Dublin, 1864), p.142.

A number of Franciscan writers recorded the martyrdom of Father O'Dowd. In 1869 Myles O'Reilly drew on the account of Donatus Mooney O.F.M. (c.1577-1624), himself a survivor of the attack on Donegal Friary in 1601. He was appointed Provincial of the Order in 1615 and undertook an official visitation to all of the Irish Franciscan foundations. Father Mooney spoke to eyewitnesses who testified to the horrible death suffered by Father O'Dowd, even if the passage of time had blunted their memories of his name and the location of the monastery:

FATHER O'DOWD, FRANCISCAN.

 Father Mooney did not know the name of this martyr, which, however, we learn from other authorities; but I give his account as the fullest and most authentic, as it was derived from the actors in the tragedy. He also states it to have taken place in the convent of Elphin, in the episcopal city  of Elphin, while others lay the scene in the convent of Moyne, in the county of Mayo. Clearly the English soldiers who assisted at the massacre and narrated it to Father Mooney knew little of the name of the place where it occurred or of the priest whom they saw slain; but they are the very best authorities as to the fact having taken place. Father Mooney thus narrates the event: 

 "In this same convent, on another time, certain English soldiers seized a certain priest of our order and some other prisoners. They pressed a certain secular, who was one of their captives, to tell them something of the plots which they said. he had made with others against the Queen of England; but he protested he could tell nothing but the truth, and that there were no plots; so they determined to hang him. When they said this, he begged he might be allowed to make his confession to the brother; this they granted the more readily that they thought the priest, if he were tortured, would reveal what might be told him. As soon as the confession was over, the secular was hung; and then they asked the priest, who was also to be hung, if he had learned aught of the business in confession. He answered in the negative, and, refusing to reveal anything of a confession, they offered him life and freedom if he would reveal, and threatened torture if he refused. He answered he could not, and they immediately knotted a cord round his forehead, and, thrusting a piece of wood through it, slowly twisted it so tightly that at length, after enduring this torment for a long time, his skull was broken in, and, the brain being crushed, he died. I have seen and examined ocular witnesses of this fact, who were serving in that body of English troops, and sought absolution from me; but they did not remember the name of the brother or the exact year; but it was about 1577." — Mooney, p. 35.

M. O'Reilly, Memorials of those who Suffered for the Catholic Faith in Ireland in the 16th, 17th and 18th Centuries, (New York 1869), 43-44.

 In his 1896 compilation Our Martyrs, Father Denis Murphy SJ used the account of Louvain scholar Luke Wadding, O.F.M. (1588 – 1657). Wadding follows the Mooney narrative for the most part but adds the detail that Father O'Dowd prayed to God and the Blessed Virgin Mary throughout his ordeal:  

1579. John O'Dowd, O.S.F.

(from Wadding's Annales Minorum, xxi. 208.) 

In our convent of Elphin, 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 is 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.

Rev. Denis Murphy, S.J. , Our Martyrs,  (Dublin, 1896), 108-109.

Ward is a reference to Donegal native Hugh Ward, O.F.M. (c.1593 –1635), also a scholar at the Irish College of Louvain. His testimony confirms the main details but associates Father O'Dowd with Moyne and suggests 1579 as the year when these shocking events took place:

Fr John O'Dowd, of the Convent of Moyne, having heard the confessions of some of the faithful, was seized by the English heretics and put to the torture at different times, to compel him to reveal what he heard in confession. They put a rope round his head and tightened it with a stick, until his eyes were forced out and his brains were driven out through his ears. All the time he was praying to God and to the Blessed Virgin Mary. He was then put to death - 1579.

Ward, M.S. Catalogue. in the Franciscan Archives, Dublin. 

'Our Martyrs III' in The Lyceum - A Monthly Educational and Literary Magazine and Review, Vol. I, no 10 (June 1888), p.300

I am unsure where Cardinal Moran sourced the date of June 9 as the day of Father O'Dowd's martyrdom but was pleased to learn that according to the book Archdioceses and Dioceses of Ireland published by Veritas in 2000, the death of John O'Dowd on June 9, 1579 is still remembered locally.

Father John O'Dowd, O.F.M. is number 44 on the Official List of Irish Martyrs (1918), where he is described as 'of the Convent of Moyne, diocese of Killala; put to death, 1577-1579.' No further progress has been made with his cause.

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Father Thomas Aquinas of Saint Teresa, O.D.C.: an Irish Carmelite Martyr

 

There are three Irish Carmelites whose names appear on the Official List of Irish Martyrs. I have previously written here about one of them - Englishman George Halley (Angelus of Saint Joseph in religion), who was killed in August 1642 at Drogheda. Today we turn to the case of Carmelite priest Father Thomas Aquinas of Saint Teresa, who was also martyred at Drogheda in 1642 with some sources giving June 6 as the date, others July 6. The account below has been taken from Father James P. Rushe's 1903 history of the Carmelite Order in Ireland. What is remarkable about the report of Father Thomas's martyrdom is that the Puritans who killed him not only subsequently accepted his innocence but also cherished the relics of his mantle and crucifix:

 

I. Father Thomas Aquinas of St. Teresa.

The signs of the vocation-grace must have been very evident in a postulant anxious to embrace the Teresian Reform at Dublin in the year 1635. For he was at once received into the community, being thenceforth known as Fra Thomas Aquinas of St. Teresa. The young novice was then in the twenty-third year of his age; his parents being Catholics, and residing in Dublin probably. From childhood Fra Thomas had been encouraged to devote himself to God in Religion; but it was after he had obtained a thorough education, and distinguished himself at college, that he felt called to the cloister. His fervour during the time of probation was most exemplary; not even the austerities of the Primitive Rule could satisfy his desire for mortification, which had, nevertheless, to be moderated by Obedience, — a virtue considered to be the basis of Religious perfection by the Discalced Carmelites. Having taken the Solemn Vows, Brother Thomas was sent to Drogheda to study for the priesthood. He must have been ordained there before the year 1641; because at the outbreak of the persecution in that city, he had already gained fame as a distinguished preacher.

The Puritans vainly thought that by arresting this popular Friar, and making an example of him, they could intimidate the resolute Catholics of Drogheda. But it was no easy matter to effect their purpose, as the Faithful grew daily more anxious for Father Thomas's safety; indeed his retreat might never have been discovered were it not for the treachery of a heretical servant.

Among the converts, whom the young priest had received into the Church, were the members of an influential family; a gentleman, his wife and son — an only child. On making open profession of their faith, the father and son were seized and cast into prison. Distracted with grief, the lady was on the point of simulating the errors of her persecutors, knowing that by doing so she could at least save the lives of her husband and son. Father Thomas heard of her deplorable state, and risking every peril, hastened at once to her assistance. He explained to her the grievous sinfulness of her design, which she immediately renounced, resolving to trust those dearest to her to God's loving care. And, acting on her director's advice, she resolved to escape the vengeance of the Puritans by flight. The annalists do not say whether so beautiful a spirit of Christian resignation was rewarded on earth by the happy reunion of those fervent converts.

While Father Thomas was still engaged in discharging this duty of charity, one of the lady's own servants summoned the soldiers of the garrison, who came and surrounded the house silently. Yet, the Friar might have eluded all their precautions, had he not the welfare of others to consider. They had searched for him in vain, and were about to set fire to the building, when he himself appeared and bade them desist. They did comply; surprised at this unexpected event, and giving loud expression to their grim satisfaction at having captured him so easily. They treated him most barbarously as they dragged him back to Drogheda to await there in prison his certain doom. 

 

Having then much work of a like gruesome kind on hand, the fanatics left Father Thomas to endure for a time the horrors of a cruel captivity. But in this they were disappointed. One of the Confessor's fellow-prisoners was a Franciscan Friar who had obtained favour with the governor, and who now secured for Father Thomas several of the privileges which he himself enjoyed; among others that of visiting the Catholics suffering for their faith, and of saying Mass almost every day. This zealous son of St. Francis was also able to procure the Teresian habit for the young Carmelite, who was very anxious to die clothed as became the members of his Order. Hence we may infer that there were other Discalced Carmelites in Drogheda with whom the Franciscan Father held secret communication. 

 

Early on the morning of the sixth day of his imprisonment a messenger came to tell Father Thomas that he had been sentenced to death, and that the soldiers would be ready to lead him to the scaffold within an hour. Happily he had just offered the Holy Sacrifice; so, merely inclining his head, in meek submission to God's will, he continued his prayer. He looked upon such a death as an exceeding great act of mercifulness; his life's work was well accomplished, nor could he reproach himself with having left anything undone. His only regret was at being taken away from the Faithful, who sadly needed the poor comfort his words - could give them in the hour of trial. On hearing of his terrible fate the Catholic prisoners raised a wail of bitter grief, and even many of the Puritans were touched with pity, so calm and fearless did the young Friar seem. But a crowd of heretics had assembled outside, clamouring for his death, and scoffing at his constancy. A number of pious people had also come to receive his blessing, for which they knelt, unmindful of the threats of their persecutors. 

 

When on his way to the place of execution, Father Thomas saw them lead forth a wretched woman who was about to suffer death for some crime. To his horror he distinctly heard the Puritans offer her life, and freedom, and wealth if she would only renounce her faith. Calling out to her, he warned her to beware lest she should forfeit eternal happiness by accepting those things that must pass with time. His zeal was well rewarded, for even before he himself reached the scaffold that woman's soul was safe with God. 

 

And yet his executioners tried to bribe him with the very allurements he had just exhorted a weak woman to despise! But he silenced them by asking whether they could think him so foolish as to reject doctrine which he knew to be infallibly true, in exchange for the mere invention of human caprice? He reminded them, moreover, of the dangers of their own state, and implored them to return to that Church to which their ancestors had once been so loyal. This filled them with unspeakable rage, making them still more eager for the Teresian Friar's death. 

 

The scene at the foot of the gibbet is not difficult to realise: the fierce soldiers dressed in buff jerkins, and wearing caps and breastplates of steel; in their midst the young priest, clothed with the lovely habit and mantle of Carmel, a crucifix and beads in his hands, his lips moving in earnest prayer; and the instrument of death reared against a fair summer sky. 

 

The Puritans themselves being the executioners, the final preparations were hastily gone through. The cord was fastened in its place, the signal impatiently given and eagerly obeyed. But Father Thomas did not die. The strong halter was wrenched in twain to the astonishment of all present, whose surprise gave place to awe when another rope yielded like the first, and they beheld the Confessor standing still uninjured before them. Raising his voice he asked them why they had condemned him to death, and he guilty of no crime. Then they accused him of being a Catholic, and a Priest, and a Monk. He joyfully admitted the charge, saying that he was now ready to lay down his life in testimony of his faith. They instantly placed him under the gibbet again, and, with a prayer for the conversion of his persecutors, this time Father Thomas received his Crown. 

 

The Catholics took his body away, no one trying to prevent them, and they interred it within the ruins of an Augustinian abbey, beyond the walls of Drogheda. They kept watch by the Confessor's grave until late in the evening, when soldiers were sent to drive them forth from that hallowed place. Late at night one of the sentinels saw the old abbey brilliantly lighted up by torches which appeared to be suspended in mid-air over the place where he knew the body of the martyred Friar had been laid, and having drawn a comrade's attention to the strange sight, they both deserted their posts, and hastened to report the matter to the officer in charge. Instead of reprimanding them for their cowardice, the captain went to see those lights for himself, but no sooner had he beheld them than he also was seized with a great dread. However, he dissembled his fear, and assigned an absurd reason for the apparition. Accompanied by the more courageous of his men, he paid a visit to the ruins to make sure that the Catholics had not removed the martyr's body. They found the grave undisturbed, and clearing away the loose stones and clay, they gazed once more on the young Friar's face, still most beautifully composed in the happy death-sleep. The soldiers then declared that a just man had been slain without cause, and while one of them took possession of the crucifix which Father Thomas had held clasped to his breast on the scaffold, another claimed the white mantle. And we are told that neither of the Puritans could ever be persuaded to part with those relics, although they had previously deemed Father Thomas worthy of death for having persevered in his holy profession.

Rev. James P. Rushe, Carmel in Ireland: A Narrative of the Irish Province of Teresian or Discalced Carmelites A.D. 1625-1896, (Dublin and London, 1903), 89-95.

 

Father Thomas Aquinas of Saint Theresa is number 148 on the Official List of Irish Martyrs (1918) whose causes were submitted for official consideration. No further progress has been made.

Inspired by Saint Dymphna: John Meagh, S.J.

On May 31, 1639, Irish Jesuit John Meagh was murdered at Kuttenburg (Kutná Hora), near Prague. This Cork native had left for exile in Europe only to encounter the strife unleashed by the Reformation in a place far from home. The case of Father Meagh provides us with a rare opportunity to read an account of an Irish martyr by John, Canon O'Hanlon (1821-1905), author of the Lives of the Irish Saints whose work provided the original inspiration behind my blog Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae. He researched those medieval Irish saints who were active in Europe but did not explore the cases of the later Irish martyrs. It appears to be the part played by Saint Dymphna in the story of this particular martyr which made him the exception. Father John Meagh's devotion to Saint Dymphna is recorded by Jesuit historian Matthew Tanner (1630-1692) in his 1675 work Societas militans on which O'Hanlon based his own account below:

Article IX.—The Blessed John Meagh, S.J., Martyr, near Prague, Bohemia. *

[Seventeenth Century].

A peculiarly religious interest connected with the Life of a holy servant of Christ, and as serving to illustrate the devotion of an Irish martyr towards St. Dympna, Virgin and Martyr, deserves to be recorded. His career closed, also, with the victorious laurel of martyrdom.

John Meagh, a native of Cork, in Ireland, having voluntarily exiled himself from a country, then suffering from dire calamities, travelled through France, Spain and Italy. While this pious man lived at Naples, he happened to meet a book, which contained an account of the lives and acts of various saints. Touched with a sudden inspiration, he besought the Almighty to guide him, whilst casually opening this book, to the life of some saint, whose example might become the model by which his own future course should be guided. On opening the leaves, he first met with the Life of St. Dympna, the Martyr. Thinking, however, that the biography of this youthful virgin was somewhat inapplicable to the purpose had in view, he was about to try again, if a more suitable subject for reading should be presented. Yet, on considering for a moment, the pious man resolved—still with some degree of reluctance—on studying the lessons to be derived from a perusal of St. Dympna's acts. While passing over the pages, his interest in the subject gradually increased; especially when he found, that this noble virgin, when persecuted by the dreaded and unnatural solicitations of her father, fled as an exile from her friends and country, to avoid idolatry, and as a consequence of her heroic resolutions, she obtained the crown of martyrdom, in reward for her virtues of faith and holy purity. The following train of reflections then took possession of his mind: "How, if God should desire me, flying from the heresy now introduced into Ireland, to resolve on a farther flight from sinful occasions, by embracing a religious state? And, afterwards, when I am ordered to return, might I not obtain a share in St. Dympna's crown of martyrdom?"

We are next informed, that this good Irishman was induced to join the Society of Jesus, in which he was advanced to the sacred order of priesthood. While preparing himself for a return to Ireland, being destined by the Superior-General to labour on that mission, he was sent to Bohemia. In the year 1639, the Jesuit College of Guttenberg, near Prague, having been destroyed by the Swedes, Father John Meagh was obliged with his companions to fly elsewhere for safety, on the 31st of May. They had hardly proceeded one mile from this place, however, when they were suddenly attacked by some Protestant peasants, who issued from a wood. All the fugitives escaped, excepting Meagh, who, while reciting the Litany of Loretto with another companion, fell, having been pierced through the breast with a leaden bullet. At the same time, two Jesuit lay brothers shared this crown of martyrdom, which their Reverend Father had expected to meet in Ireland. They carried many sacred relics with them at the time, intending to remove these precious treasures to a place of greater security. Thus, in another respect, also, the devoted priest resembled his patroness, St, Dympna, who shed her blood for the faith, in a country far distant from the land of her nativity.

[*This narrative taken from a work written by the Jesuit Father Matthias Tanner, entituled : "Societas Jesu usque ad sanguinis et vitae profusionem militans in Europa, Africa, et America, contra Gentiles, Mahometanos, Judaeos, Haereticos, Impios, pro Deo, Fide, Ecclesia, Pietate."—Prague, A.D. 1675.]

Rev. John O'Hanlon, Lives of the Irish Saints, Volume V, ( Dublin, 1875), 622-623.

Father Meagh was one of the martyrs included by Irish Jesuit Denis Murphy, in his 1896 catalogue Our Martyrs.  He drew on the 1657 work the Mortes Illustres by another Jesuit historian, Philip Alegambe (1592-1652).  Alegambe confirms that Saint Dymphna was instrumental in encouraging the vocation of John Meagh even though initially he 'thought the history of a woman unsuited to him for imitation'. He brings in another, decidedly masculine, intercessor in the person of the founder of the Society of Jesus, Saint Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556). Saint Ignatius suffered a severe leg injury in battle on May 20, 1521 and it was during his recovery that he reassessed his life's direction. Father Meagh also suffered a leg injury en route to Rome and this enabled his own decision to enter the Order, having earlier been inspired by the example of Saint Ignatius whilst in prison. It is noteworthy too that Father Alegambe's account concludes by laying out two reasons why Father Meagh and his companions were martyrs, killed out of hatred of the faith. This reminds us that martyrdom is judged according to the principle 'causa non poena' - the reason for the suffering, not the suffering itself. Had these Jesuits simply been the target of robbers or fallen while defending themselves they would certainly be tragic victims of violence but could not be said to have been killed in odium fidei. Thus Alegambe argues that they were singled out for attack because they were Jesuits, the Order's very name inspiring hatred amongst their Protestant assailants:

1639. John Meagh, S.J.

(From Alegambe's Mortes Illustres, 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. In this way John found the means of going there, and asking for some favours 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. They 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, 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 for 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. Ignatius too had broken his leg, he determined to enter the Society. He was ordained a priest, and sent 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 making the spiritual exercises.  Indeed, he had a sort of presentiment, that he should be called on to 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 Catternberg, 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 beset with robbers, whom the hardship of the 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 reason 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 thy 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 Neuhaus. 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 had passed in the Society of Jesus.

Rev. Denis Murphy, S.J., Our Martyrs,  (Dublin, 1896), pp. 268-271.

Although Father Murphy, the then Postulator,  devoted over three pages of his book to the case of Father John Meagh, his name does not appear on the Official List of Irish Martyrs (1918).  It is of course customary for the cause of a martyr to come under the jurisdiction of the Bishop in whose diocese the martyrdom took place. I have been unable to find out, however, if the cause of John Meagh S.J. and his companions has ever been promoted by the relevant authorities in the Czech Republic or where it currently stands.

Phelim O'Hara and Henry Delahoyde: Two Martyred Franciscans of Moyne

The names of two Franciscans, Phelim O'Hara and Henry Delahoyde (Delahayde, O'Lahaye), of Moyne, County Mayo have been linked in some of the sources as having suffered martyrdom together in the year 1578. In his 1905 book on Irish monasteries, Carmelite historian, Father James Rushe, gives a brief summary of Moyne Friary's history:

The Franciscan monastery of Moyne, county Mayo, was a superb edifice situated on the river Moy, near its entrance to the Bay of Killala, and affording a grand view of the Atlantic. It was the gift of MacWilliam Burke to St. Francis, at the instance of Father Nehemias O'Donoghoe — the first Vicar-Provincial of the Irish Observantines, renowned as a preacher and for his eminent holiness (A.D. 1460). The beautiful church was consecrated in 1462 by Donatus O'Connor, Bishop of Killala, and placed under the invocation of St. Francis. Soon after this solemn ceremony the founder had the claustral limits marked out by a massive stone wall. Beneath the church was a crypt wherein might be seen the tombs of many noble benefactors, not a few of whom had worn the humble habit of St. Francis during life. The library was very valuable, a great number of precious works having been collected there, this house being a college of the Irish Province for more than a hundred and fifty years: the community rarely comprised less than fifty religious — whether priests, students, or lay-brothers. Here, too, the Provincial Chapters were frequently held. When suppressed by command of Queen Elizabeth, the friary of Moyne became the scene of the martyrdom of several heroic sons of Saint Francis. 

Rev. James P. Rushe, O.D.C., A Second Thebaid: Being a Popular Account of the Ancient Monasteries of Ireland, (Dublin. London and New York, 1905), 201.

The martyrdom of Brother Phelim O'Hara was one of the cases featured by Myles O'Reilly in his 1869 compilation of Irish martyrs. He drew on the account left by Father Donatus Mooney, O.F.M., (c.1577-1624). Father Mooney was a survivor of the assault on Donegal friary in 1601 and became Provincial of the Order in 1615.  He undertook an official visitation to all of the Irish Franciscan foundations and wrote a history of them at Louvain in 1617-1618. He begins by telling us that Brother Phelim was martyred as part of an attack on the Franciscans of  Elphin, but all other sources place him within the community at Moyne:

PHELIM O'HARA, FRANCISCAN.

 

"In the year 1578, the English heretics made an expedition to this convent, (that of Elphin, in the city of the same name,) and when the brethren learned their approach they fled across the sea in a boat which was there. The father provincial minister was there at the time, and when he asked who, for the merit of holy obedience, would remain alone in the monastery, Brother Phelim O'Hara, a lay brother, was chosen out of 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 benediction and remained. But the English, coming, despoiled the monastery and slew this brother, even before the high altar; nor did they dare to remain there long, but departed the same day. The other brethren who had fled, and who remained out at sea waiting, when they returned home found the brother, who had become a martyr through obedience, before the high altar, where it was believed he was praying when, on the approach of the enemies, he gave up his soul a grateful sacrifice to God. He is buried in the chapter house." 

 

* Father Mooney is our authority for this narrative.

 M. O'Reilly, Memorials of those who Suffered for the Catholic Faith in Ireland in the 16th, 17th and 18th Centuries, (New York 1869), 54-55.

Father Denis Murphy, S.J. in his 1896 compilation Our Martyrs, used Father Mooney as a source too but also used the 1669 account of Irish Franciscan martyrologist Anthony Bruodin. Bruodin upholds the depiction of Brother Phelim as an aged man who meets his death as a result of monastic obedience. However, he departs from the testimony of Mooney that the high altar at the monastery of Moyne was the scene of the martyrdom and instead records that Brother Phelim was captured 'not far from the convent of Killala, where he was begging for the necessities of life for the brothers.' This seems to imply that he was outside the monastic sanctuary altogether. He also links his martyrdom with that of Brother Henry Delahoyde and provides a date of May 1, 1582 for the event. Furthermore, Bruodin claims that both men were not simply run through by soldiers on the spot but were actually hanged and quartered. It puts a different complexion on their martyrdom but Bruodin ends by citing a family link to John O'Hara, the grand-nephew of Brother Phelim, from whom he claimed to have heard the story of the martyr's life and death:

1578. Phelim O'Hara and Henry Delahayde, O.S.F.

(From Bruodin's Propugnaculum, p.444)

The first was the son of that well-known man, John O'Hara, chief of his very extensive family and owner of large possessions in the County of Sligo in the province of Connaught. Burning with love for the life of poverty such as Christ led, he entered the Order of the Friars Minor in the 21st year of his age, and wished to be considered the lowest among the laybrothers in it. During the many years that he lived 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; and with good reason, 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. Adorned with various virtues and praised by all for them, he fell into the hands of the heretics then raging throughout Connaught, not far from the convent of Killala, where he was begging for the necessities 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 Delahyde, who was born of noble parents in Leinster. These two martyrs suffered for the Catholic religion May 1st, 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 Culrehil, 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.

Rev. Denis Murphy, S.J., Our Martyrs,  (Dublin, 1896), pp. 97-98.

Brother Phelim O'Hara and Brother Henry Delahoyde are numbers 55 and 56 on the Official List of Irish Martyrs (1918) whose causes were submitted to Rome for official consideration.  Brother Phelim is also number 14 on the list of Richard Creagh and 41 Companion Martyrs of Ireland whose causes are currently being re-submitted for further consideration. As this will require documentation of the martyr's cause perhaps some of the discrepancies around the details of Brother Phelim O'Hara's martyrdom can be resolved.

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'Worn out by Sufferings and the Squalor of Prison': Father John O'Kelly

 

May 15, 1601 saw the death of a Connaught priest, Father John O'Kelly, in prison in Dublin. As the reign of Queen Elizabeth wore on and particularly following her excommunication by Pope Pius V on February 25, 1570, the enforcement of her religious settlement hardened. As a modern scholar has said:

By declaring Elizabeth excommunicated and deposed, the pope lent legitimacy to Catholic resistance in England and Ireland. Deeming Elizabeth unfit to rule gave the rebellions against her credibility in the eyes of the rest of Catholic Europe and might convince more people on the ground in England and Ireland to join the resistance.

Aislinn Muller, The Excommunication of Elizabeth I:  Faith, Politics, and Resistance in Post-Reformation England, 1570-1603 (Brill, 2020), 2.

I have not been able to establish the details of Father O'Kelly's imprisonment.  Both Myles O'Reilly and Father Denis Murphy in their catalogues of Irish martyrs use the short account of Anthony Bruodin (1625-1680). Below is O'Reilly's translation from Bruodin's 1669 work Propugnaculum Catholicae Veritatis:

REV. JOHN O'KELLY, 

 "A priest of Connaught, of an illustrious race, endured many torments for the Catholic religion, and, worn out by sufferings and the squalor of prison, he yielded his soul to God, in prison, in Dublin, 15th May, 1601." — Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. xx. 

M. O'Reilly, Memorials of those who Suffered for the Catholic Faith in Ireland in the 16th, 17th and 18th Centuries, (New York 1869), 176.

 Father O'Kelly is number 24 on the Official List of Irish Martyrs (1918) whose causes were submitted to Rome for official consideration. No further progress has been made to date.

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'A most peculiar martyrdom': Daniel O'Nielan, O.F.M.

On March 28, 1580 Franciscan priest Daniel O'Neilan (Donal O'Neylan) was put to death in the town of Youghal by its military governor, Sir William Morgan (d. 1584).  The town was caught up in the Second Desmond Rebellion and had been occupied by the rebel leaders on November 15, 1579. W.H. Grattan Flood, drawing on the Calendar of State Papers, describes what happened next: 

During the Christmas of that year the citizens of Youghal were so terror-stricken that in January they fled, and when the Earl of Ormond entered Youghal on February 1st, 1580, the only inhabitant he found there was a Franciscan friar, Father Daniel Nealan, the martyr.

W.H. Grattan Flood, Notes on Strancally Castle, JCHAS, Vol. 25 (1919), p.112.

Father O'Neilan's execution was noted by a number of martyrologists, all of whom record that his was no ordinary hanging. In 1869 Myles O'Reilly used the work of these writers to describe the friar's 'most peculiar' martyrdom:

REV. DANIEL O'NIELAN 

Was a priest of the diocese of Cloyne, and endured a most peculiar martyrdom, on the 28th March, 1580. He was a most apostolic man, full of attention to the wants of the poor and of solicitude for all his flock. He was no sooner arrested and conducted under a military guard to Youghal, than two wicked men, named Norris and Morgan, undertook the task of his execution. They conducted him to the summit of Trinity Tower, and, having fastened a rope around his waist and arms, precipitated him from the battlements. The rope not being sufficiently strong to resist the shock, the holy man fell, mangled and almost lifeless, to the ground. 

The fury of his executioners, however, was not allayed. Observing that life was not yet extinct, they caused him to be dragged to a mill not far distant, when they tied him to the water-wheel. His lacerated body in a few minutes was wholly disfigured, and scarcely retained the semblance of human remains.

Philadelphus adds that John Norris was commander (what he calls prefect) and William Morgan captain of the troop that arrested him. He says he was an Observantine Franciscan. Dr. Moran, on the authority of Bruodin, calls him a secular priest. Wadding also claims him as a Franciscan.

 M. O'Reilly, Memorials of those who Suffered for the Catholic Faith in Ireland in the 16th, 17th and 18th Centuries, (New York 1869), 67.

I am unsure why O'Reilly introduced the notion that Father O'Neilan may have been a secular priest as all of the other sources affirm that he was a Franciscan. Indeed, despite O'Reilly's attribution of this idea to the martyrologist Anthony Bruodin (himself a Franciscan), the translation of Bruodin's account by Father Denis Murphy records that our martyr entered the Order of Saint Francis in 1560:

1580. Daniel O'Neilan, O.S.F.
(From Bruodin's Propugnaculum, p. 439)

Daniel O'Neilan, born in Thomond of a noble family, consecrated himself to God by vows in the Order of St. Francis in the year 1560, and he lived in it for twenty years, both in Ireland and Spain. During this time he made great progress both in virtue and in learning, so that he was the model of a good religious to all. Urged by zeal for the salvation of souls, he returned to his native country which was then ravaged by the fury of the heretics. 

Immediately on landing at the post of Youghal, he was seized by William Morgan, the Governor of the town, and closely questioned. Daniel openly and fearlessly declared that he was a priest and a member of the Seraphic order. When the cruel tyrant heard this, without any process of law, he directed that Father Daniel's hands should be tied behind his back, and then ordered him to be scourged and salt and vinegar to be put into the wounds made on the skin by the lash. At last the tyrants seeing Neilan's courage, for he prayed without ceasing for himself and his persecutors, and despairing of changing his purpose, since he refused the honours offered to him if he would join with the heretics, ordered this brave champion of Christ to be hanged from the vane of a wind-mill with his head down, like Peter, the prince of the Apostles, and to be shot at till his whole body was pierced through with balls. By such a martyrdom Daniel earned for himself a glorious crown in heaven. He suffered at Youghal, in Munster, March 28th, 1580.

Rev. Denis Murphy, S.J. , Our Martyrs,  (Dublin, 1896), pp. 111-112. 

An earlier seventeenth-century martyrologist also recorded the details of the Petrine-style execution meted out to Father O'Neilan and the denial of a swift end to the suffering inflicted by those taking aim at him:

5. Daniell Oneilan was apprehended at Youghull by Sr. William Morgan and captaine Peers which then kept garrison in that towne. He was hanged with his legges vpwardes, and his head downewards: and then all the souldiors were comaunded to leuell at him with their bulletts; Comaundement was also giuen that none should leuell at his harte, therby to encrease his paine by his lingering death: he was a priest of the order of S. Frauncis: this hapned the 28. of march 1580.

J. Copinger,  The Theatre of Catholique and Protestant Religion (St Omer, 1620), p. 581

 Daniel O'Neilan is number 45 on the Official List of Irish Martyrs (1918) whose names were submitted to Rome for official consideration. No further progress has been made with his cause but he is number 3 on the list of causes currently being re-submitted for further consideration. There he appears as Donal O'Neylan, professed priest, Franciscan Friars Minor.

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Six Franciscan Martyrs

 

In its entry on Irish Confessors and Martyrs, the 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia mentions a group of six Franciscan martyrs, all of whom died in prison in Dublin in the year 1582 and at least one of whom reputedly died on February 13: 

1582: Roger O'Donnellan, Cahill McGoran, Peter McQuillan, Patrick O'Kenna, James Pillan, priests, and Roger O'Hanlon, lay brother O.S.F. — died, 13 February, Dublin Castle, but the date can scarcely be correct for all.

 Perhaps inevitably there is also some degree of confusion around the names with McQuillan appearing as O'Chillian in some places and the possibility that 'Roger O'Hanlon' should be Rory McHenlea, according to the martyrologist John Copinger.

In 1896 Father Denis Murphy translated an account of the six from another seventeenth-century Irish martyrologist, Franciscan Anthony Bruodin (d.1680), who gives the background to their imprisonment. He attributes their arrest to the fact that they were travelling evangelists in the Counter-Reformation cause:

1582. Roger Donnellan, Charles Goran, Peter O'Chillian, Patrick O'Kenna, James Pillan and Roger O'Hanlon, O.S.F.

(From Bruodin's Propugnaculum, p. 445)

These, the first five of whom were priests and the last a lay brother, belonged to the Order of St. Francis. They were pious and most zealous men, who in spite of every kind of danger used to travel through Connaught and Leinster without ceasing, in order to guide the people on the paths of justice and truth by preaching to them often and earnestly the word of God. Wherefore they were seized by the heretics and thrust into the prison in the Castle of Dublin, where, worn out by the tortures by which their constancy was put to the test, and by the filth and squalor of the place, they died in the year 1582.

Rev. Denis Murphy, S.J. , Our Martyrs,  (Dublin, 1896), pp. 125-126.

Our martyrs also appear among a list of men referred to by John Copinger who confirms that:

'al these were catholique & died in the Castle of Dublin through hard usadg and restrainet. '

 J. Copinger,  The Theatre of Catholique and Protestant Religion (St Omer, 1620), p. 582

The six Franciscan martyrs, are numbers 49, 50, 51, 52, 53 and 54 on the Official List of Irish Martyrs (1918) whose names were submitted to Rome.  There they appear as Charles MacGoran, Rory O'Donnellan, Peter O'Quillan, Patrick O'Kenna, James or John Pillanus [Pillin], Rory O'Hanlon [O'Hanly?, MacEnlea?] No further progress has been made to date with their cause.

 

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