HE was a priest of this same convent.  He had been seized some time before, but escaped from his captors, owing to the carelessness of his guard.  He was again seized, and hanged from the nearest tree with his own girdle  in the same year as F. Cornelius. See Wadding Please pray for final perseverance for all of us! May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

HE was ordained priest in the year 1581, and belonged to the convent of Askeaton.  He was seized by ten English soldiers by order of Nicholas Malby.1 These inflicted three or four great wounds on his head, and another soldier pierced him through with a sword.  The martyr died, invoking the glorious name of Christ, in the year 1587. See also Wadding 1 See p. 144, antea Please pray for final perseverance for all of us! May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

(From Ward’s Synopsis) HE was sacristan of the Convent of lrrelagh, now known under the name of Muckross,[1] and hearing of the fury displayed by the English soldiers against other convents, he hid a portion of the church ornaments in a certain island in the neighbouring lake.  When he returned with a companion to carry away the rest, they found the monastery taken possession of by soldiers, and these stoned them almost to death. As soon as they recovered somewhat, they were asked where they had hidden the ornaments, and especially the chalices. As they would not tell, they were put to the torture, and the following night they rested in the Lord, in the year 1586. 1 The monastery of Oirbealach at Carraignanchiull, at the eastern end of Lough Leine, was founded for Franciscan friars by McCarthy Mor, prince of Desmond (Donnell, son of Tadhg), and the chiefs of the country selected burial places for themselves in this monastery.  Among these were O’Sullivan Mor, and the two O’Donoghues. Annals FM. ad.Ann. 1340. Please pray for final perseverance for all of us! May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

1584 (?)1 CISTERCIAN MONKS OF GRAIGUENAMANAGH.23 (From O’Sullevan’s Decas Patriciana, fol. 163 b.) O’SULLEVAN gives the following account of the martyrdom of the Cistercians of Graiguenamanagh, Co. Kilkenny : - ‘This noble monastery is situated on the river Barrow. The robbers went to seize on it.  When they were approaching, twelve of the religious went in ecclesiastical procession to meet them.  When they were ordered by those wicked men to take off their sacred vestments and to yield obedience to Queen Elizabeth, their superior replied (this was the Prior, for the Abbot Charles Cavenagh, who is buried in the old monastery, had died a few days before) : That could not be done if they would keep in tact the faith which they had pledged to God, his Virgin Mother, and St. Bernard, and the Christian piety of which they would not violate their promise or their duty as Christians.  The others gave their assent to his resolution, and they were all slain.’ 1 There is no means of fixing the date accurately 2 Founded in 1207 by William Marshal the elder. A facsimile of the Charter is given in Gilbert’s Facsimiles of Irish MSS., pt. 2. no. lix.  The church is now used as the Catholic church of the parish. Please pray for final perseverance for all of us! May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

(From Rothe’s Analecta, p.505) She lived in Dublin, the widow of Bartholomew Baal.  According to the words of St. Paul : ‘Honour widows that are widows indeed, + have learned first to govern their own house and to make a return of duty to their parents, who being widows indeed and desolate, trust in God + continue in supplications + prayers night + day.’1 Such was this widow.  ‘For she that liveth in pleasures is dead whilst she is living.’ She was not such a one, but ‘blameless, having care of her own, especially those of her household.’ Everyone will admit that she had ‘testimony of her good works, and brought up her children, and ministered to them that suffered tribulation, and diligently followed every good work.’  In addition to her morning and night prayers, which she hardly ever omitted, she devoted whatever time she could spare from the duties of her household + the occupations of Martha to reciting the rosary, the penitential psalms, the litanies, + other prayers. (The narrator confesses to not knowing what the term ‘the occupations of Martha’ might mean. The word Martha means mistress, whilst in the Gospel, Lazarus’ sister Martha, was so caught up in domestic chores that her sister Mary kept Our Lord company)  On feast days she heard Mass, + thought it almost a crime to be absent from it even on ordinary days when she could assist at it.  And that she might be more sure of being able to satisfy her devotion and assist at Mass each day, although the times were evil, she had a priest always in her house, whom she supplied + gave a yearly stipend. For this reason charges were made against her frequently. At they arrested her and the priest.  Both were brought into the presence of the Viceroy, Chancellor, and the Council; and hurried off in a cart to the prison.  For a while, she endured the hardships of imprisonment. But money smoothed the way, + some noblemen begged + importuned the royal ministers on her behalf, + so at last she was set free, and allowed to return home. After she was let out of prison, she acted just as she had done before her imprisonment.  She was earnest in her prayers and other exercises of piety. ‘She was still, and saw how sweet the Lord Was.’4 She relieved the wants of the poor, and this she did all the more readily and willingly, because she was grateful to God for being restored to freedom and to her own home. In her house she was to all a mirror of integrity and purity, of piety and innocence, of modesty and virtue to her household, to strangers, to all far and near. To virgins she was a model of purity; to widows, of continence ; to all, a lamp of faith, religion, + holiness. Hence it was that noble ladies, who were anxious to have their children brought up in piety and virtue, used to send them from a great distance to be educated in her household, as being the home of piety and school of virtue. These, when handed over to her for training, she made handmaids of virtue.  But her eldest son, Walter Baal, grieved her soul. He served Baal and adored him. There was no priest, secular or regular, no bishop or anyone else in any way remarkable for his learning and piety whom, whenever an opportunity offered, she did not beg to aid her in the work of his conversion.  When he became Mayor, he was so hard-hearted that he had her put into prison; and on account of her feeble condition he placed her by force on a litter, to be borne on it as on a bier.  All this she endured with patience, and leaving behind her a sweet odour of constancy, patience, and untarnished faith, she died happily in prison in the year of our Lord, 1584. See also Holing, Molanus, + Lynch Please pray for final perseverance for all of us! May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

THOMAS COURSY, a native of Munster, was a most zealous priest.  He resided at Kinsale.  He was Vicar General, and in discharge of his office he used to visit the parish priests who were under this authority, and urge them to watch anxiously over the flocks committed to their care. When thus engaged, he fell into the hands of the emissaries of that wicked tyrant, Sir John Perrott,[1] an Englishman, then President of Munster.  By his order he was hanged, and so gained the victory for Christ on the 30th of March in the year 1577. Sir John Perrott was President of Munster from 1571 to 1574 and Lord Deputy from 1583 and 1588.  He died a prisoner in the Tower of London, having been charged with exciting the Irish people to throw off the Queen’s authority. Se also Bridgewater, Sander,2 and Copinger. 1 He was President of Munster from 1571 to 1574 and Lord Deputy from 1583 and 1588. He died a prisoner in the Tower of London, having been charged with exciting the Irish people to throw off the Queen’s authority. Sir William Drury was President of Munster in 1577. 2 This author gives ‘Thomas Chone, Waterfordensis,’ in the list of ‘Archidiaconi aut vincti aut exules.’ De Ecci. Visib., p. 668; most probably he was the martyr. Please pray for final perseverance for all of us! May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

(From Challoner’s Memoirs, i. 98 and 227) DR. BRIDGEWATER relates that Mr. Ailworth, a secular gentleman, for his constancy in the faith was not only cast into prison and there put in irons, but also thrust by the jailer into a nasty dungeon, or rather a common sewer, where he perished by the stench within eight days.[1] Henry Holland in a letter gives some further details of his sufferings and death — ‘I cannot pass over in silence Mr. Ailworth,[2] a young Irish gentleman, of a singular zeal for religion, who had hired a house not in any street but among the gardens, commodious enough for preaching and mass, where the Catholics sometimes met in a pretty good number for the divine service, much to his content and satisfaction, who set more value upon what belonged to the honour and worship of God than upon any earthly toys.  But the thing became known and reached the ears of Fleetwood, the Recorder of the city. This furious man with constables came to the house, and finding Mr. Ailworth in his chamber, carried him away to prison, even to the very worst prison in London.  And in this way being displeased at some word that the gentleman spoke, gave this most constant confessor a violent blow on the head, then ordered him to be put into a filthy dungeon, destitute of all things,strictly forbidding any one to be admitted to visit him or give him anything so that the young gentleman in eight days’ time was brought to his end by the stench and filth of the place.  1 Concertatio p. 412 2 A family of this name lived at Faithlegg, Co. Waterford. There is a shield over the doorway of the old castle of Passage East, inscribed Ailward’ in black letter. Sir Richard Aylward, in 1606, showed great servility in the matter of religion. See C.S.Pl. (1603- 1606), p. 466 3 There is no means of fixing the date accurately Please pray for final perseverance for all of us! May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

(From Bruodin’s Propugnaculum, p. 439) DANIEL ONEILAN, 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 port 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. See also Holing, Fitzsimon, Rothe, Copinger, O’Sullevan, Molanus, Ward, Wadding, and Hueber. Please pray for final perseverance for all of us! May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

(From Ward’s Catalogue) HE was a priest of the convent of (the name was not legible to the book’s original publisher)[1] . . . and was seized by some English horsemen that met him on the road.  They bound his hands together with his girdle, and led him along to the prison, tied to the reins of a horse.  He was told to run along with them, but he could not keep up with them, owing to his advanced age and the speed of the horses.  He was therefore dragged along the road for some time, and then trampled by the horses of their companions who came up.  His body was crushed in this way, and so he died a glorious martyr in the year 1584. See also Wadding 1 The name is written very indistinctly Please pray for final perseverance for all of us! May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

HUGH LACY, born of a noble family in Munster, was a man skilled in sacred and profane learning, and a priest of blameless life and character, for which reason he was chosen Bishop of Limerick[1] while Henry VIII. was still obedient to the Church.  When the King apostatized, he could not induce Hugh to join in his rebellion or to stain himself by subscribing to this supremacy.  Wherefore not only did he lose the King’s favour, but he was deprived first of his revenues and afterwards of his bishopric.  When the King could effect nothing by these means, he had Lacy shut up in a noisome prison in Cork, the filth of which almost caused his death.  When he was released from his imprisonment by the contrivance of his friends, he returned to Limerick, in order to collect and guard his flock, which had been scattered by the attacks of the English wolf. As the evil grew in strength during the last years of Henry’s reign and under the sway of Seymour, the Calvinist, who governed the kingdom for Edward VI., the persecution was renewed against Hugh.  Wherefore, following the example of the Apostles, he fled, and went to that Catholic country France. When Mary ascended the throne, he was called back by Cardinal Pole, and he returned to Limerick, to the great delight of all the diocese, where he tended his flock for many years in peace, like a good shepherd.  When he was over sixty years of age, Elizabeth, like a wild beast, began to lay waste the vineyard of the Lord.  Lacy, full of the spirit of God, was again driven from his See, deprived of all the means necessary or his support, and cast into prison, because he would not take the oath of Supremacy.  Worn out by these sufferings, he died on the 26th March, 1577.[2] The date given by Rothe, 1580, is most probably, the correct one, for Holinshed says, Lacy was upon some suspicions committed prisoner to his own house in 1579,and his successor was appointed in 1582. See also Holing, Rothe, and Copinger 1 Brady says he was appointed in 1556. Ep. Succ., ii.42 2 The date given by Rothe, 1580, is most probably, the correct one, for Holinshed says, Lacy was upon some suspicions committed prisoner to his own house in 1579. Chron., vi. 429 ; and his successor was appointed in 1582. See Moran’s Archbishops, p. 186 Please pray for final perseverance for all of us! May the martyrs of old inspire us all.