(From Tanner’s Societas Jesus, &c. p.7 and Bruodin’s Propugnaculum, p.428)

WHEN Elizabeth was striving to root out the True faith, Pope Gregory XIII., sent Jesuits into England and Ireland to succour the faithful. The 1st of these who exposed their lives to the danger of death were Robert Parsons and Edmund Campion[1], who set out in June, 1580.

The Pontiff, consulting for the welfare of Ireland, sent others of the same Society, Edmund M’Donnell met with a glorious death, and was the 1st of them to proclaim the truth of the Catholic religion by the shedding of his blood. 

He, a Limerickman, by order of the Pope returned to his native land to comfort the persecuted Catholics, with Thomas Good,[2] an Englishman, and David Wolfe, [3] later Apostolic Legate. 

He was employed in teaching youth Christian doctrine and literature. Soon, he was seized by order of John Perrott, President of Munster, and confined in Limerick. 

He was made all kinds of promises if he would join the Reformers, and when unmoved, was taken to Cork, to be questioned further. During the entire journey his hands were tied behind his back, and he suffered all the hardships usually inflicted on murderers and traitors. 

He was accused of high treason and condemned in open court. 

The reasons publicly alleged prove that he deserves the proud title of martyr, viz., that he stubbornly continued to profess the Catholic faith, proscribed by Elizabeth in England under the penalty of high treason, that he had come to gain over to and confirm in the same his fellow citizens both by word and deed, that he refused to the Queen the title of Head of the Church in England, and that he had brought letters from Pope Gregory XIII. to James Fitzmaurice,[4]  then at the head of the Irish Catholics in arms in defence of the Catholic faith.

Gregory XIII., in his letter of May 13th, 1580, to the Archbishops, chiefs, and people of Ireland, mentions letters written by him to them in the preceding years, exhorting them ‘to recover their liberty and to defend it against the heretics, and to aid James Geraldine, who was desirous of delivering them from the hard yoke of slavery imposed on them by the English, who had abandoned the holy Roman Church.’

Fr Edmund M’Donnell listened with great pleasure and joy to this glorious sentence decreeing him a triumph, and humbly bowing to the judges, he thanked them.

He was led away, as one guilty of high treason, to the place of execution. He was hanged, and while he was still alive, the rope was cut and he fell to the ground. The executioner cut open his body, tore out his heart, showed it to the people, and cast it into the fire. The rest of the body was quartered and set on stakes at different places in order that the sight might inspire those who beheld it with fidelity to the Queen and wiser thoughts. 

He suffered death at Cork in the year 1580. 

Bruodin gives March 16th, 1575, as the date of his death. See also Holing, Fitzsimon, Rothe, Copinger, O’Sullevan, Alegambe, and Jouvency.

[1] See his life in Challoners Memoirs, i. 30
[2] His Christian name was William. He came to Ireland in 1564, passing 5 years here. He was held in the highest esteem by Cardinal Allen. He died at Naples in 1586. See Records of the English Province S.J., iv. 477
[3] A

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