Saints of the Month: The Irish Martyrs

The Irish Catholic Martyrs were the 24 Irish men and women who have been beatified or canonized for both a life of heroic virtue and for dying for their Catholic faith between the reign of King Henry VIII and the Catholic Emancipation in 1829.  But the full number of those who died for the faith is far greater.  In 1992, a representative group of 17 Irish martyrs, chosen from a list of almost 300 who died for their faith in the 16^th and 17^th centuries, were beatified by Pope John Paul II.

Religious persecution of Catholics in Ireland began under Henry VIII, when the English Parliament adopted the Acts of Supremacy, which established the king's supremacy over the Church, independent of the pope. In England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, bishops, priests, and laypeople who continued to recognize the pope were tortured and killed. Further legislation laid down that any act of allegiance to the pope was to be considered treason.  Religious houses were suppressed.  Their property sized by the crown and the monks tortured and killed if they did not acknowledge Henry as the supreme head of the Church of England.  Famous among these are the 18 Carthusian monk martyrs of London.  The more than three century-long religious persecution of the Catholic Church in Ireland came in waves, caused by an overreaction by the State to certain incidents and interspersed with intervals of comparative respite.  Interestingly, these persecutions followed here to the United States with the foundation of the 13 colonies and English Protestant fears of Catholic influence.  Here below are three of these martyrs, who died for Jesus Christ and His Bride.

By far the most famous martyr remains Archbishop Oliver Plunkett.  Following a show trial during the anti-Catholic witch hunt masterminded by Lord Shaftesbury and Titus Oates, Oliver was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn on 1 July 1681. Plunkett's execution following a show trial was motivated solely "in odium fidei" (out of hatred of the Faith).

For our next Martyr, we should note that the Irish were given a choice to become Protestant.  If they did, they would keep their ancestral lands and gain possession of those who refused to convert.  Born Margaret Bermingham about 1515 in Skreen.  Margaret married Bartholomew Ball, a prosperous merchant in Dublin. Her eldest son, Walter, however, became a Protestant and an opponent of the Catholic faith. Margaret provided ‘safe houses’ for bishops and priests passing through Dublin and would invite Walter to dine with them, hoping for his re-conversion.  When Walter was elected Mayor of Dublin. He had his mother arrested and drawn through the streets on a wooden hurdle, as she could no longer walk to Dublin Castle. Here she remained imprisoned for the rest of her life. If she had renounced her faith she could have returned home, but she refused and died in prison aged 70 in 1584.

Dominic Collins was born into a leading Catholic family in Youghal in 1566, both his father and brother serving as mayor in the town.  After the failure of the Desmond Rebellion he went to France and served with honor in both the French and Spanish armies. He entered the Jesuits in Spain as a late vocation in 1589 and in 1601 came back to Ireland as a professed Jesuit brother with the Spanish fleet sent by King Philip III to assist the O’Neills and the O’Donnells.  After the Battle of Kinsale he retreated with O’Sullivan Beare to Dunboy Castle in west Cork, where after a siege he was captured, bribed to change his religion and tortured. Eventually he was hanged in his own town of Youghal. Before his execution he spoke to the crowd saying he longed for a martyr’s death. The hangman refused to execute him and the soldiers forced a passerby, a poor fisherman, to do the work. He died with the words of the psalm on his lips: “Into your hands I commend my spirit.” His fame quickly spread in Ireland and through Europe.

What heroic virtue to stand fast in Faith in the midst of trails and persecution!  May we seek to emulate those who live in imitation of Jesus Christ and His glorious Cross! Irish Martyrs, pray for us!

In Christ,

Fr. Luke Fleck