HE was a citizen of Wexford. 

Being an earnest Supporter of the Catholic faith, he was denounced by spies not only for having given shelter to Catholic bishops and priests who were pursued, but also for conveying them to France and Spain. 

By order of Lord Grey, the Viceroy, he was taken to Dublin and imprisoned there, though he had already paid a very heavy fine. 

This excellent man, worn out by the filth and hardships of the prison, died in the Lord, December 4, 1600.

[1] Probably the same whom Rothe calls Haius, though the date of his death is set down by that Writer as 1581. 
The facts related of both are the same.
 

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

(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.

(From Hartyr’s Triumphalia, p.253)

GELASIUS O’CULLENAN[1] was born in Connaught. He was the oldest of 6 brothers, 5 joined the clergy. 

He went to Louvain and Rome. Having completed his studies, he returned to Ireland. 

He entered the Cistercian Order. 

His great virtue pointed him out as a fit person to be appointed Abbot of Boyle. 

One of the gentry had taken possession of the monastery and lands, by the edict of Elizabeth. The Abbot went to the usurper, admonished him of the guilt he was incurring and of the curse he would bring down on his whole family. 

The nobleman gave him up the monastery and lands; and sometime after, he too renounced the world and embraced the religions institute.

 In 1580, Gelasius was arrested by order of the Government, and together with Hugh Mulkeeran, abbot of the monastery of the Holy Trinity,[2 imprisoned in the public gaol.

John O’Garwin’[3] Protestant Dean of Christ Church, was among those who assisted at his first interrogatory. 

Many inducements were held out to him to abandon the Catholic faith if he would renounce the Catholic creed and the authority of the Supreme Pontiff. 

His answer was: 

The benefices you offer me are very valuable in truth; but how long will you allow me to enjoy them?’ ‘As long as you live,’ they answered. ‘And what length of life will you give me,’ he asked. ‘We can not determine the end of your life or prolong it, nor do we know the day of your death.’ 

‘Well then,’ he replied, ‘is it not much wiser for me to obey Him and to keep his law who can, if he pleases, prolong my life, and give me a life of eternal happiness in the world to come, than to obey you who cannot lengthen my life by one instant, and are striving by your deceitful and perishable gifts to lead me away from the laws of heaven?‘[4]

The English were angered by this answer and ordered his fingers, arms, and legs to be crushed with blows of a hammer. 

And when they could not break down his courage, they ordered him and Hugh Mulkeeran to be hanged.

The Abbot asked that Hugh should suffer death first, as he wept. 

He was hanged first. 

The Abbot was then put to death, and while he was on his way to scaffold, 500 heretics were converted by the sight of his constancy. 

At the request of his friends, his body was not cut in pieces. However it was set on the top of the Castle. The English used it as a mark to fire at. 

Many took away his clothes as relics. They suffered, November 21st, 1584. 

Henriquez[5] styles O’Cullenan in his Menologium Cisterciense, ... the ornament of the Cistercian Order, the light of our century, the glory of all Ireland.

Rothe says Eugene Cronius, a secular priest, was martyred with him.

See also Rothe, Copinger, O’Sullevan, Annus CistercienSiS, Molanus, Henriquez, Hartry, Porter, and Bruodin.

[1] He is called O’Boyle by Bruodin and others.
The mistake arose, no doubt, from his having been Abbot of the monastery near Boyle.
[2] In one of the islands of Lough Ce, near Boyle. It was founded by Clarus M’Mailin, Archdeacon of Elphin, in 1213 for Premonstratensians.
    See Mon. Hib., 0.615
[3] John Garvey, who became Protestant Archbishop of Armagh in 1584
[4] ‘Just such a colloquy is said to have taken place between Sir Thomas More and his wile.
    See his Life, by Roper, p.89
[5] 2 The learned Historiographer of the Order, in his Menologium Cisterciense, p. 389

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

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

(From Bruodin’s Propugnaculum, p. 673

THIS pious and zealous priest was a native of Wexford. 

At the risk of his life he used to comfort the flock confided to his care, and encourage them to persevere in the profession of the faith of their fathers, at a time when the heretics were persecuting the Catholics cruelly. 

Wherefore he was seized by them, and hanged and quartered in Dublin November 12th, 1610.

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

HE was Vicar General of Dublin, Kildare, and Ferns.[1

According to Chichester on 26-2-1606: ‘They have taken one Lawler, a priest... He ...called himself Vicar General of Dublin and Kildare...’[2

On 7-3-1806, the Lord Deputy[3 wrote:

On the 26th of last month, ...there was apprehended ... Robert Lalor, a priest, ... who ...occupied the place of Vicar General in  ... Dublin, Kildare, and Ferns; first, by a commission .....[4 authorized by Bulls from Rome, and since by ... Mathias de la Vega,[5 ...who came to Kinsale with Don John,[6 .... They now in examination of him.’[7]

He was indicted under the 2 Eliz.c.i. 

According to Cox, he  ...made a recognition,- 

1-That he was not lawful Vicar General....

2-He doth acknowledge King James to be his supreme governor in all causes.... 

3-That all bishops ordained by the King’s authority ...are lawful bishops. 

4-He professeth himself willing to obey the King ....’

Upon this confession,’ says Cox., he ... would undoubtedly have been enlarged ... if he had not privately denied what he had publicly done, ..., it was resolved to try him upon the statute of præmunire.[8]

In the trial, Sir John Davis urged that this law was made by Catholics. ....’[9]

He was found guilty, and Justice Sarsfield pronounced the sentence against him.

In July 1607, Sir John Davis wrote to Salisbury; 

‘it was the first judgment ... of præmunire ... among the records of the Kingdom. ...., so it has bred no small terrors, ... to divers gentlemen ...who have been maintainers and abettors of this priest ...whereby they have also incurred the danger of præmunire, for it appeared ... that sundry gentlemen had taken from him sundry dispensations …… Besides, this priest had obtained such credit and trust among them that he was feoffee of trust to divers lords and gentlemen of all their lands of inheritance, all which are forfeited to the Crown by this attainder. Among the rest, he is feoffee of the greatest part of the lands of the Earldom of Kildare and the barony of Delvyn.’[10]

On 23-4-1606 the Deputy wrote to the Council, that ‘...of the apprehension of one Lalor, a priest. ... they find by his own confession that he hath incurred the old statute of præmunire....’ [11]

Cox didn't hear that sentence was executed[12]. His name is not in Rothe’s Catalogue of Martyrs. He was a prisoner in the Dublin Castle on 12th-11-1606.[13] There's no further mention of him in State Papers.

1-Letter of F. Holywood, S.J., in Dist. irishmen, p. 171
2-C.S.P.I. (1603-1606) p. 406
3-Sir Arthur Chichester
4-Dermot Creagh, appointed Bishop of Cork and Cloyne in 1560. His date of death is uncertain. See Brady’s Epis. Succ., ii.90
5-Matthew de Oviedo, Archbishop of Dublin from 1600 to 1609. See Moran’s Archbishops, p. 193
6-The commander of the Spanish forces which came to assist the Irish in 1601
7-C.S.Rl. (1606— 1608), p.416
8-Hib. Angi., ii.II
9-See preface to C.S.PI. (1606-8), p. lxxv.
10-Ibid.,p.210
11-Ibid., p. 448
12-Hib. Angl.., ii, ll
13-C.S.P.I. (1 606-1608), p. 18

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

He returned to Ireland. He and Shane O’Neill disagreed on many things. The Primate was dissatisfied at the hardships which the king inflicted on clergy and violation of privileges and immunities of the churches. The Primate excommunicated him.

Creagh was seized by Myler Hussey and surrendered by him. Upon capture he was sent to Dublin & from there to London. He had escaped from the Tower in 1565, and died there October 14th, 1585.

The Bishop of Clogher visited Creagh to offer him high dignity, wealth, and honours, if he would renounce obedience to the Holy See, and take the oath. But he bade him begone.

A jailer accused him of having offered violence to his daughter. He had to undergo examination before 12 jurors. He disproved the crimes. The jury pronounced him innocent. Even the girl declared that she had been suborned.

An order was issued to bring imprisoned priests to the Tower chapel to hear a heretical sermon. Creagh declared he would not go. The Knight ordered his servants to drag him by force, to the chapel. When he heard the thundering against Catholics, and blasphemies against the Saints and their Queen etc, he interrupted the sermon and took the preacher to task. 

They used great violence and forced him to desist. 

He adjured all not to believe the lying preacher, a seducer of souls, and he declared that whosoever would hold by his lies and errors would perish for ever.

He was taken back to the prison, and as there was no hope of shaking his constancy in the faith, one Culligius, an under-warder of the Tower, put poison in some cheese and gave a mouthful of it to the venerable Prelate, knowing well it was a kind of food which he would accept readily. 

He, suspecting no harm, ate it, and presently felt great pains in his stomach. Then his throat swelled, and his whole body became affected. 

The next day he sent a boy with an account of his symptoms to a Catholic physician in the city named Arclous. 

When he learned the cause of the illness, he was roused to indignation, and he cast a bottle containing a lotion over the wall; he declared that the Bishop was poisoned, and that as the poison had already penetrated the vital parts, no human aid could be of any avail to him. 

Feeling himself growing worse, and bearing in mind his duty as a Christian, he had a confessor called in to him from a neighbouring chamber, F. Crighton, of the Society of Jesus, who was a prisoner there for the faith. 

Father Crighton heard his confession, gave him absolution, and did everything that the difficulty of their position allowed. 

He died October 14th, 1585.

Mr Froude says he died in exile. 

The Propaganda, in the Rescript appointing his successor, dated July 1587, says he died the preceding year in prison in England.’

Stanihurst and White say he was poisoned by means of a cheese.

He is alluded to by Sander:

‘The Elizabethan prelates finding no duly consecrated bishop willing to impart Episcopal ordination to them, importuned an Irish Archbishop, then a prisoner in London, to succour them in the straits they were in. 

They promised to set him at liberty and to reward him for his services if he would preside at their ordination. But the good man would not be persuaded to lay hallowed hands on heretics or take any part in the sins of others.’

He wrote several works; including On the Origin of the Irish Language, Controversies on Faith against the Heretics, these two in Latin; An Irish Catechism. 

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

HE was a member of the Third Order of St. Francis. 

After enduring great hardships in prison, he died in chains for the faith in the year 1628.[1] 

Anno 1628, upon the 2nd of November, being Sunday at night, the titular Bishop of Down and Connor died in the Castle of Dublin. 

He was accused by one Patrick O’Mulvany, a Popish priest, of a conspiracy to bring in foreign powers. 

The Tuesday following, at four o’clock in the morning, he was brought forth and buried in St. Warborough’s churchyard.’ 

Hunting of the Romish Fox, p.195

On the 7 of September of the following year, the Archbishop elect of Armagh, the Archbishop of Dublin, and the Bishop elect of Kilmore, in a letter to Pope Urban VIII,., pray him to appoint Bonaventure Magennis, O.S.F., to the See, and they add: 

‘We pity the desolate condition of the church of Down and Connor more than that of any other, for it has been deprived of two most illustrious champions of the faith one after the other.’[2]

[1] Anno 1628, upon the 2nd of November, being Sunday at night, the titular Bishop of Down and Connor died in the Castle of Dublin.
He was accused by one Patrick O’Mulvany, a Popish priest, of a conspiracy to bring in foreign powers.
The Tuesday following, at four o’clock in the morning, he was brought forth and buried in St. Warborough’s churchyard.’ Hunting of the Romish Fox, p.195
[2] Brady’s Epis. Succession, .270. Theo there was Cornelius O’Devany. See p. 238, antea

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

(From Holing’s Compendium.[1])

MAURICE EUSTACE, of an illustrious family, student of theology and Master of Arts, became a novice of the Society of Jesus at Bruges. When his father[2], a rich powerful man, learned this, he was displeased and wrote to the Superiors of the Order, asking them to send his son to him, as he was his heir and the only son of his 1st marriage.

They sent him home. His father offered him money, a rich and handsome wife too, in order to turn him from his purpose. 

But Maurice begged earnestly to be allowed devote himself to God’s service in the Society of Jesus; and reminded his father that he had other children of a second marriage, one of whom he might make his heir. But he wouldn't consent. 

Maurice remained for some days, waiting for an opportunity of returning to Flanders. He went to Bruges and was received by the Fathers. 

But these learning the father’s wish, and thinking too that the young man might be more useful to the Church in the world than in the religious state, sent him away, much against his will. On his return to Ireland, he was appointed a captain of horse. 

He brought back to the Catholic faith some of those who served under him; others he confirmed in it by his advice and exhortations, especially by his example in frequenting the sacraments every eight or fifteen days.

After some months, he fell in with a Catholic Bishop, and received Orders from him, without his father’s knowledge. 

A servant, who had been appointed to attend on him, told what had taken place. 

The father, indignant at his son’s conduct, sent soldiers to seize him, as he could do being a judge, and ordered him to be imprisoned in Dublin. 

He, (the father) died soon after.

The younger brother, eager to get his father’s property into his hands, denounced Maurice as a Jesuit and a priest, and enemy to the Queen, and a friend of those who were at war with her. 

Maurice denied that he was a Jesuit or a priest, but openly confessed that he was a Catholic; he showed that he had no opportunity of communicating with anyone but the jailer.

He often disputed with the heretical Bishops and ministers, and always confounded them, for he surpassed them far in learning.

The Chancellor[3] offered to set him free and to give him his daughter in marriage with an ample dowry, if he would change his faith. 

He refused to do so, and was sent back to prison.

On the appointed day he was brought to trial before a jury of twelve heretics, as is the custom in Ireland and in England, and found guilty of high treason. 

He was drawn at a horse’s tail to the place of execution. 

The Chancellor again repeated his offer, and again Maurice rejected it. 

For Jesus Christ’s sake,’ he exclaimed, 1 have come here, ready to suffer ignominy and pain, and to shed my blood. 

Great is my joy. 

I will not abandon Christ for a heretical wife, for an uncertain life, and for my liberty; and as He died for me on the cross, I desire and hope to die for Him on the scaffold.’ 

Finally this brave soldier of Christ, asking God’s help and the prayers of the Catholics, was hanged and quartered, and so earned the martyr’s crown in the month of November, 1581[4].

See also Rothe, Copinger, Molanus, and Bruodin.

[1] See. Spic. Ossor., i. 95
[2] Copinger says he was Sir John Eustace, of Castlemartin, Co. kildare, Ibid., ii.42.
[3] Adam Loftus, then Protestant Archbishop of Dublin.
[4] Bruodin gives 1588 as the date of his death.

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

While waiting for a ship to Ireland, he was entertained by a priest. [1] He was called to exorcise a woman, and he was going through the prayers, perchance,’ said the serpent, you threaten me, relying on the aid of that Irish Bishop.’ 

He was astonished, and he told the Primate what what the devil had said to him, and he besought him to pray for the poor woman when offering the sacrifice of the Mass. 

During the whole time of the Mass the woman cried out that she was persecuted by the Irish Bishop. Her pains came to an end, and she obtained relief. 

He went to Spain. When his strength was restored, he returned to Ireland; and he was again seized[2] and brought before the Viceroy and Council in Dublin.

The nominal charge against him was his connection with Shane O’Neill,[3] his real crime was his adhering to and maintaining the Papal authority.[4]

He proved his innocence, and explained his capture and the manner of escape. 

The jurors returned a verdict of not guilty;’ but they were all cast into prison and fined.

After an imprisonment which lasted about six months, he again Contrived to escape. 

In a letter which he wrote from the Tower of London to the Privy Council, he gives the reasons why he made his escape from the Dublin prison: 

‘My going away, I think no man would wonder that should know how I was dealt therein withal: first, in a hole where without candle there was no light in the world, and with candle (when I had it), it was so filled with the smoke thereof (chiefly in summer), that had there not been a little hole in the next door to draw in breath with my mouth set upon it, I had been soon undone.’[5]

[1] Demonic possession
[2] April 3Q5, 1567
[3] See Richey’s Lectures on Irish Histo,y, 2 series, p. 273
[4] Memorial for Ireland,’ Spic. Ossor., I. 43. His examination is given Ibid., p.44
[5] See Ibid., p. 49

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