(From Tanner’s Societas Jesus, &c., p. 7 and Bruodin’s Propugnaculum, p.428) Bruodin gives 16-3-1575, as his date of death. WHEN Elizabeth was striving to root out the Catholic faith, Pope Gregory XIII, sent members of the Society of Jesus to Ireland to succour the faithful. F.Edmund M’Donnell, met with a glorious death very soon after he reached there, and was the first of them to proclaim the truth of the Catholic religion by the shedding of his blood. He was a native of Limerick, and returned to comfort the Catholics, who were sorely persecuted, with FF. Thomas Good,2, and David Wolfe,3.  He was seized by order of the President of Munster, and confined in prison in Limerick. The ministers made him all kinds of promises if he would join the Reformers, and when he continued unmoved, he was taken to Cork to be questioned still further. During the whole journey his hands were tied behind his back, and he suffered all the hardships usually inflicted on murderers and traitors. He was thrust into the common prison, and endured various tortures at different times his firmness remained unbroken.  He was accused of high treason and condemned in open court. The reasons publicly alleged were such as prove that he well deserves the proud title of martyr, viz., that he stubbornly continued to profess the Catholic faith, which was 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 impiously 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 who was then at the head of the Irish Catholics in arms against the heretics in defence of the Catholic faith. Gregory XIII., in his letter of May 13th, 1580, to the Archbishops, chiefs, and people of Ireland, mentions his previous letters to them, 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 M’Donnell listened with great pleasure and joy to his sentence, and bowing to the judges, thanked them. He was then led away to the usual place of execution. Here 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, and tearing out his heart, showed it to the people & cast it into the fire. The rest of the body was quartered and set on stakes at different places until it fell to pieces.  He suffered death at Cork in the year 1580. Bruodin gives March 16th, 1575, as the date of his death. See 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 this country in 1564, and passed five years here. He died at Naples in 1586. See Records of the English Province S.J., iv. 477 3 He was a native of Limerick. Pope Pius IV. Appointed him Commissary-General for the whole of Ireland. He was a prisoner in the Castle of Dublin for at least four years. See a notice of his life in Moran’s Archbishops of Dublin, p. 77. and in Hogan’s Distinguished Irishmen, p.1. 4 Gregory XIII., in his letter of May 13th, 1580, to the Archbishops, chiefs, and people of Ireland, makes mention of 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.’ See O’Sullevan’s Hist. Cath., p.121 Please pray for final perseverance for all of us! May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

(From Bruodifl’S propUgnaCUIum, p. 467) HE was a native of Ulster and Bishop of Connor.2 (This is a mistake. He was appointed Bishop of Killala in 1545 and transferred to Derry in 1569. ) He was attacked at night in his own house by some English soldiers of the garrison of Lough Foyle, and with three other priests cruelly put to death.  He was in his 9Oth year and in the 60th of his episcopate.  A State Paper, dated July 28th, 1592, says:  In Ulster is one Redmundus O’Gallagher, bishop of Derry, legate to the Pope and Custos Armaghnen, being one of the three Irish Bishops that were in the Council of Trent.3 (The three Bishops were Donald McCongail of Raphoe, Thomas O’Herlihy of Ross and Eugene O’Hart of Achonry.) This Bishop used all manner of spiritual jurisdiction throughout all Ulster, consecrating churches, ordaining priests, confirming children, and giving all manner of dispensations riding with pomp and company from place to place, as it was accustomed in Queen Mary’s days.’4 (He received a faculty from the Pope to exercise a certain jurisdiction in Armagh during the Primate’s absence.) The Annals of the Four Masters under the date 1601, says Redmund O’Gallagher, bishop of Derry, was killed in Oireacht Ui Chathain.’5 (O’Kane’s territory, which included the present baronies of Tirkeeran, Keenaght, and Dungiven, in Co. Derry) He was put to death on March 15th. The spot where he was slain is on the high road nearly midway between O’Kane’s Castle and Dungiven. See also Sander, Rothe, Copinger, O’Sullivan, Ward, Porter, and De Burgo. 2 This is a mistake. He was appointed Bishop of Killala in 1545 and transferred to Derry in 1569. See Brady’s Epis. Succ., li.173 3 The three Bishops were Donald McCongail of Raphoe, Thomas O’Herlihy of Ross and Eugene O’Hart of Achonry. 4 He received a faculty from the Pope to exercise a certain jurisdiction in Armagh during the Primate’s absence. Ibid. 5 O’Kane’s territory, which included the present baronies of Tirkeeran, Keenaght, and Dungiven, in Co. Derry Please pray for final perseverance for all of us! May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

The martyrdom of Nicholas Fitzgerald Please pray for final perseverance for all of us! May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

(From Wadding’s Annales Minorum, xxi. 208) In our convent of Elphin1, some English soldiers seized a certain priest of our Order and some other persons.  They pressed a layman, who was one of their captives, to tell something of the plots which they said he had entered into with others against the Queen of England; but he protested he could tell nothing but the truth, and that there were no such plots.  So they determined to hang him.  He begged that he might first be allowed to make his confession to the priest. This they granted readily because they thought that if the priest was put to the torture, he would reveal what was told him.  As soon as the confession was ended the layman was hanged, and then they asked the priest, who was also to be hanged, if he had learned anything of the business in the confession.  He answered in the negative, and refused to make known anything which he might have heard in the sacred tribunal. They offered him life and freedom if he would reveal what he had heard, and threatened him with torture if he refused.  He answered that he could not: Immediately they knotted a cord round his head, and putting a piece of wood through it, slowly twisted it so tight that at length, after he had endured this torment for a long time, his skull was broken in and his brain crushed.  All this time he was praying to God and to the Blessed Virgin Mary.  He died on the spot.  I have seen and examined ocular witnesses of this fact, who were then serving in that body of English soldiers.  But they did not remember the name of the friar or the exact year.  It was about 1577. Ward gives 1579 as the date of his death. 1 1 Founded by Cornelius, Bishop of Elphin, in 1450. Ward says O’Dowd was put to death at Moyne. Please pray for final perseverance for all of us! May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

(From Bruodin’s Propugnaculum, p. 465) HE was a native of LeinSter, a priest, and a zealous preacher. He was taken by the heretics and sent to Dublin, where he obtained a glorious victory for Christ.  He was thrown into prison by order of the chief judge, and iron chain was bound round his body, his hands and feet were tied to a beam, and he was forced to stand for forty hours without sleep.  He was flogged, and salt and vinegar were rubbed into his wounds by the executioners.  Being then asked whether he would take the oath of Supremacy, he answered with great firmness, that he would rather die than swear that a woman, who St. Paul says should be silent in the church, was the Head of the Church. The fierce and blood-thirsty judge, Walter Raleigh by name, angry at this answer, ordered Fernan to be put to the torture of the rack.  The executioners had not been long engaged in drawing asunder the limbs of this confessor of Christ, when he exclaimed,  Lord, into Thy hands I commend my spirit,’ and gave up his soul to his Creator March 12th 1597. Please pray for final perseverance for all of us! May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

1612 Letter from Archbishop Kearney of Cashel on life on the run Please pray for final perseverance for all of us! May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

WHILE striving to protect the flock entrusted to his care from heresy, he was captured, and ended his life in prison. See also Sander and Rothe. Please pray for final perseverance for all of us! May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

(From the Barberini Archives, Rome.) ON March 9th, 1642, the Most Rev. Dr. Comerford, Bishop of Waterford, wrote to a friend resident in Paris: 'Last week, the President of Ulster, having received reinforcements, once more took the field, together with the Earl of Cork, the Earl of Barrymore, Lord Broghill, and Sir John Browne.  Marching to Dungarvan and seizing on the Castle, they set fire to the town and put to death F. Edmund Hore and F. John Clancy, both priests, together with others of the principal citizens.  They then sacked the place, and retired leaving a strong garrison in the Castle.’ Please pray for final perseverance for all of us! May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

(From Molanus’ Idea, p. 66) He underwent great toil and hardships while the persecution was raging, in order to encourage the citizens of that very famous city.  When engaged in the performance of the sacred functions, he fell into the hands of the persecutors, and so ended his life gloriously in the year 1578.  He is buried in a marble tomb outside the choir of St. Peter’s church, Cork. See also Sander and Rothe. Please pray for final perseverance for all of us! May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

(From Wadding’s Annales Minorum, xxi. 208) In our convent of Elphin1, some English soldiers seized a certain priest of our Order and some other persons.  They pressed a layman, who was one of their captives, to tell something of the plots which they said he had entered into with others against the Queen of England; but he protested he could tell nothing but the truth, and that there were no such plots.  So they determined to hang him.  He begged that he might first be allowed to make his confession to the priest. This they granted readily because they thought that if the priest was put to the torture, he would reveal what was told him.  As soon as the confession was ended the layman was hanged, and then they asked the priest, who was also to be hanged, if he had learned anything of the business in the confession.  He answered in the negative, and refused to make known anything which he might have heard in the sacred tribunal. They offered him life and freedom if he would reveal what he had heard, and threatened him with torture if he refused.  He answered that he could not: Immediately they knotted a cord round his head, and putting a piece of wood through it, slowly twisted it so tight that at length, after he had endured this torment for a long time, his skull was broken in and his brain crushed.  All this time he was praying to God and to the Blessed Virgin Mary.  He died on the spot.  I have seen and examined ocular witnesses of this fact, who were then serving in that body of English soldiers.  But they did not remember the name of the friar or the exact year.  It was about 1577. Ward gives 1579 as the date of his death. 1 1 Founded by Cornelius, Bishop of Elphin, in 1450. Ward says O’Dowd was put to death at Moyne. Please pray for final perseverance for all of us! May the martyrs of old inspire us all.