(From O’Daly’s Relatio, p.364)

F. MALPHÆUS, O.P. gives a detailed account of him. 

He landed in England. 

He was soon after accused in London of having said that it's lawful for any one to kill the King of England. 

He was found guilty, & hanged. 

But when the matter was brought too late to the notice of the Queen,[1] he was declared to have been falsely accused. 

F. Malphus relates wonderful things that happened. 

1stly that when the rope was cut and he was let down and his heart and entrails cut out, and while the executioner was shewing his heart to the crowd, he turned his eyes towards the executioner, and spat at him; 2ndly, when the executioner was throwing his entrails into the fire, a man, seeing the liver outside the fire, thrust it in, and went away cursing his religion.

But his sacrilegious hand immediately trembled, and he was struck down with such pains that he was obliged to throw himself down on the nearest mound of earth. 

Some women perceived a very sweet odour. A German, a dealer in spices perceived the same sweet smell. 

One judge declared that he suffered in consequence.

We have several accounts of his trial and death written at the time. 

‘On Wednesday, the 27th November, Arthur Gohagan was drawn on a hurdle ...to Tiburne, ...where ... he spake these words : - 

“In manus tuas commendo spiritum meum qula redemisti me, 0 Deus veritatis meæ,”... 

Then ... he earnestly commended his soul to God, and said 

“0 thou glorious Virgin Mother of our Lord and Saviour, pray to thy Son Jesus Christ to receive my soul. I would fain have received the Holy Sacrament, according to the injunction of our Order, but I could get not priest to give it me.”

Then ... earnestness, repeating:

“In manus tuas, et.,” ...some of his friends obtained the disposing of them, and sent them over sea to be interred as he requested.[2]

2 days after his execution the Spanish Ambassador,[3] wrote : 

‘They hanged an Irish Dominican Friar here 2 days ago. He can enter into the number of the Martyrs. ...whatever the French may ... this Friar suffered for religion. 

His persecutors maliciously invented a pretext, and all I could do with the King and his ministers was of no avail.’

The General Chapter of the Order held in Rome in 1644, thus speaks of him: 

‘The Venerable F.B. Arthur Geoghegan, ... was seized by the English heretics and cast into prison in London. 

He ... was brought to trial on a charge of high treason, ... and was condemned to death. 

...

He was hanged, and while half-alive he was cut down, his limbs cut asunder, and his entrails burnt. 

And so he ended his life gloriously in the year 1633.[4]

[1] Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I. And sister of Louis XII., King of France
[2] Mostyn MSS., in Irish Ecci. Record for November, 1894
[3] He asked on the Scaffold that ‘his body be not dismembered and that the Spanish Ambassador would Sent it to be buried in some abbey or place belonging to an abbey of St. Dominick’ Ibid
[4] Hib. Dom., p.559
 

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