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A MAN OF SORROWS AND ACQUAINTED WITH GRIEF
Date: 28th MarchLocation: St. Eugene's Cathedral, Derry
A MAN OF SORROWS AND ACQUAINTED WITH GRIEF
Date: 28th March
Location: St. Eugene's Cathedral, Derry
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Jun 20 - The Irish Martyrs of the (16th & 17th centuries)
Summary: The Irish Martyrs of the (16th and 17th centuries) The canonisation of Oliver Plunkett in 1975 brought an awareness of the other men and women who died for the Catholic faith in the 16th and 17th centuries. On 22nd September 1992 Pope John Paul II proclaimed a representative group from Ireland as martyrs and beatified them.
What is a martyr?
Originally, it's a Greek word meaning "witness". In the Acts of the Apostles, Peter, speaking to those in Jerusalem at Pentecost, claimed he and all the apostles were "martyrs" i.e. witnesses, in this case to Jesus's resurrection. Later the word came to mean a person who followed the example of Christ and gave up their lives rather than deny their faith.
The canonisation of English and Irish Martyrs
Henry VIII's rejection of the Pope's authority in 1534 led to the setting up of a State Church in England and in Ireland. In 1560 the Act of Supremacy made Queen Elizabeth the supreme head of the Church in England and Ireland. So it became a treasonable offence to refuse to acknowledge the English monarch as head of the Church and many Catholics were put to death for their faith in both countries.
Forty English martyrs were canonised in 1970 and Oliver Plunkett was canonised in 1975. In 1992 a representative seventeen Irish martyrs, chosen from a list of almost three hundred who died for their faith in the 16th and 17th centuries, were beatified by Pope John Paul II. The amount of information we know about these seventeen varies. About some, such as Archbishop Dermot O'Hurley of Cashel, we know quite a lot; about others, such as the Wexford sailors, we know little more than their names and the fact of their death.
Here are their names in the chronological order of their deaths:
1. Bishop Patrick O'Healy and Father Cornelius O'Rourke, Franciscans: tortured and hanged at Kilmallock 22nd August 1579
2. The Wexford Martyrs: Matthew Lambert and sailors - Robert Tyler, Edward Cheevers and Patrick Cavanagh: died in Wexford 1581
3. Bishop Dermot O'Hurley: tortured and hanged at Hoggen Green (now College Green), Dublin, 20th June 1584
4. Margaret Ball: lay woman, died in prison 1584
5. Maurice Kenraghty (or MacEnraghty): secular priest, hanged at Clonmel on 20th April 1585
6. Dominic Collins: Jesuit brother, hanged in Youghal 1602
7. Bishop Conor O'Devany and Father Patrick O'Loughran: Franciscans, hanged 6th February 1612
8. Francis Taylor of Swords, lay man, Lord Mayor of Dublin: died in prison 1621
9. Father Peter Higgins, Dominican, Prior of Naas: hanged at Hoggen Green, Dublin 23rd March 1642
10. Bishop Terence Albert O'Brien, Dominican: hanged and beheaded at Gallow's Green, Limerick 30th October 1651
11. John Kearney, Franciscan, hanged 11th March 1653
12. William Tirry, Augustinian, hanged 2nd May 1654
13. Others
1. Patrick O'Healy was born about 1545 in Co Leitrim and became a Franciscan. He was educated at the University of Alcalá in Spain. He seems to have spent some time in Rome - perhaps sent there with letters from King Philip II of Spain requesting help from Pope Gregory XIII for an invasion of Ireland. It may have been while he was there that he was made bishop of Mayo in 1576. He spent some time in Paris where he took part in public disputations at the university, amazing his hearers by his mastery of patristic and controversial theology, as well as of Scotist philosophy.
After Pope St Pius V (1566-72: Antonio Ghislieri OP) excommunicated Queen Elizabeth in 1571, the Earl of Desmond spent some time on the continent negotiating with King Philip II of Spain and Pope Gregory XIII (Ugo Buoncompagni: 1572-85) to make Ireland a kingdom allied under Spain with the Pope's illegitimate son, Giacomo, a possible candidate for King. Patrick O'Hely was certainly involved in these negotiations at the start, but after an abortive attempt to sail to Ireland from Ferrol in north-west Spain went to France.
In autumn, 1579, he and fellow Franciscan Father Conn O'Rourke from the ruling house of Breifne sailed from Brittany and arrived off the coast of Kerry. Whether aware of it or not, they were seen as part of the invasion force of Spaniards and Italians with James Fitzmaurice Earl of Desmond which had landed at Smerwick harbour.
2. O'Healy and O'Rourke landed at Askeaton, were captured and brought to Limerick. Sir William Drury, Elizabethan President of Munster and the Chief Justice offered to promote O'Healy if he would take the Oath of Supremacy. Both refused, were tried and found guilty of treason.
The sentence of death was carried out at Kilmallock in 1579. Before their execution they imparted absolution to each other and recited litanies together. In the Church of SS. Peter and Paul, Kilmallock, there is a stained glass window of three martyrs - Bishop Patrick O'Healy and Father Conn O'Rourke, and Father Maurice MacEnraghty, a secular priest and native of Kilmallock, who was martyred in Clonmel in 1585 (see 5. below).
3. The Wexford Martyrs: Matthew Lambert and sailors - Robert Tyler, Edward Cheevers and Patrick Cavanagh: died in Wexford 1581
Matthew Lambert was a Wexford baker who had arranged with five sailor acquaintances to provide safe passage by ship out of Wexford for Viscount Baltinglass and his Jesuit chaplain Robert Rochford when English troops were pursuing them after the fall of the Second Desmond Rebellion (1579-83). The authorities heard of the plan beforehand and Matthew was arrested together with his five sailor friends. Thrown into prison, they were questioned about politics and religion. Lambert’s reply was: “I am not a learned man. I am unable to debate with you, but I can tell you this, ‘I am a Catholic and I believe whatever our Holy Mother the Catholic Church believes.’”
They were all found guilty of treason and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered. Only three of the names of the five sailors are known – Robert Tyler, Edward Cheevers and Patrick Cavanagh. Their execution took place in Wexford in 1581.
4. Bishop Dermot O'Hurley: tortured and hanged at Hoggen Green, Dublin, 20th June 1584
Dermot O'Hurley was born near Emly, Co. Tipperary, about 1530. His family were well off and as a young man Dermot went to study law at Louvain. In 1581 Pope Gregory XIII asked Dermot, still a layman, to become Archbishop of Cashel and he accepted, knowing that this appointment would make him a fugitive working in dangerous conditions. He reached Ireland in 1583, but while he was sheltering at Slane Castle he was recognised, arrested, imprisoned in Dublin Castle. Accused of plotting to overthrow the Queen's government in Ireland, he was repeatedly questioned and tortured. He persistently protested that his mission was one of peace and he had no information to give his captors.
On 20th June 1584 he was taken to Hoggen Green, near St Stephen's Green, to be hanged. Before his death he said: I am a priest anointed and also a bishop, although unworthy of so sacred dignities, and no cause could they find against me that might in the least degree deserve the pains of death, but only my function of priesthood wherein they have proceeded against me in all points contrary to their own laws. When the report of his execution spread in the city, some devout women carried his body with great respect to the Church of St Kevin (near Kevin St) where he was buried. A monument to his memory was erected there in 1992.
5. Margaret Ball: died in prison in Dublin 1584
Born Margaret Bermingham about 1515 in Skreen, Co Meath, she married Bartholomew Ball, a prosperous merchant in Dublin. Her eldest son, Walter, however, became a Protestant and an opponent of the Catholic faith. Margaret provided 'safe houses' for bishops and priests passing through Dublin and would invite Walter to dine with them, hoping for his re-conversion.
Walter was elected Mayor of Dublin. He had his mother arrested and drawn through the streets on a wooden hurdle, as she could no longer walk, to Dublin Castle. Here she remained imprisoned for the rest of her life. If she had renounced her faith she could have returned home, but she refused and died in prison aged 70 in 1584. The chapel-of-ease at Santry in Larkhill parish was named in her honour.
6. Maurice Kenraghty (or MacEnraghty): secular priest, hanged at Clonmel on 20th April 1585
Maurice was born the son of a silversmith at Kilmallock He enjoyed the patronage of the Earl of Desmond and became his chaplain and confessor. In September, 1583, a fugitive with the earl, he was surprised on Sliabh Luachra by Lord Roche's gallowglasses, and handed over to the Earl of Ormond. By Ormond's command he was chained to one Patrick Grant, and sent to prison at Clonmel. Here he lay in irons, exhorting, instructing, and hearing confessions at his prison grate until April, 1585. His jailer was then bribed by Victor White, a leading townsman, to release the priest for one night to say Mass and administer the Paschal Communion in White's house. The jailer secretly warned the President of Munster to take this opportunity to capture most of the neighbouring recusants (those refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy) at Mass. In the morning an armed force surrounded the house, arrested White and others, seized the sacred vessels, and looked for the priest everywhere. He had hidden under straw at the first alarm, and, though wounded when the heap was probed, ultimately escaped to the woods. Learning, however, that White's life could only be saved by his (Kenraghty's) surrender, he gave himself up, and was at once tried by martial law. Pardon and preferment were offered him if he agreed to conform, but he resolutely maintained the Catholic faith and the pope's authorlty, and was executed as a traitor. His head was set up in the market-place, and his body, purchased from the soldiers, was buried behind the high altar of the Franciscan convent.
7. Dominic Collins: Jesuit brother, hanged in Youghal 1602
Dominic was born into a leading Catholic family in Youghal in 1566, both his father and brother serving as mayor in the town. He was well educated and even learned some Latin as a boy perhaps by the Jesuits who had a school in Youghal at that time. After the failure of the Desmond Rebellion he went to France and served with honour in both the French and Spanish armies. He entered the Jesuits in Spain as a late vocation in 1589 and in 1601 came back to Ireland as a professed Jesuit brother with the Spanish fleet sent by King Philip III to assist the O'Neills and the O'Donnells.
After the Battle of Kinsale he retreated with O'Sullivan Beare to Dunboy Castle in west Cork, where after a siege he was captured, bribed to change his religion and tortured. Eventually he was hanged in his own town of Youghal. Before his execution he spoke to the crowd saying he longed for a martyr's death. The hangman refused to execute him and the soldiers forced a passerby, a poor fisherman, to do the work. He died with the words of the psalm on his lips: "Into your hands I commend my spirit." His fame quickly spread in Ireland and through Europe. In the Irish colleges of Douai and Salamanca the Jesuits showed his portrait.
8. Bishop Conor O'Devany and Father Patrick O'Loughran: hanged 6th February 1612
Conor O'Devany came from Raphoe in Co Donegal and entered the Franciscans in Donegal town as a young man around 1550. He was appointed bishop of Down and Connor by Pope Gregory XIII while he was in Rome in 1582. He was one of six bishops who attended a synod in Clogher which promulgated the decrees of the Council of Trent in 1587. After the failure of the Spanish Armada in 1588 he was captured, but was released and went back to his diocese, but in the years after the flight of the Earls he was again taken prisoner to Dublin Castle in 1611. He was accused of colluding with Hugh O'Neill in treason. He admitted being in the O'Neill territory as bishop during the Nine Years' War, but he protested that he was being charged because of his religion.
Another priest, Father Patrick O'Loughran from Co Tyrone, had been in Rome as chaplain with Hugh O'Neill and later studied at the Irish College in Douai. Returning to Ireland, he was arrested on landing in Cork. He admitted he had been chaplain to Hugh O'Neill and had gone with him overseas and had visited the Pope. He refused to be tried by jury as this would mean certain conviction. Read more
Both Father Patrick and Bishop Conor were executed at George's hill in Dublin on 6th February 1612. The executions, planned to frighten Catholics, only stiffened the resolve not only of the Irish but also of the Old English to remain faithful to their Catholic faith.
9. Francis Taylor of Swords, layman, Lord Mayor of Dublin: died in prison 1621
Francis Taylor was born into a wealthy family in Swords about 1550. In 1595 he was elected Lord Mayor of Dublin. A convinced Catholic, he refused to accept the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity and was put in prison where he remained until he died seven years later. He is said to be buried in the family grave in St Audeon's Church. A bronze sculpture of him along with Margaret Ball stand to the left of the main entrance to the Pro-Cathedral in Marlborough St, Dublin (image).
10. Father Peter Higgins, Dominican, Prior of Naas: hanged at Hoggen Green, Dublin 23rd March 1642
Peter Higgins was born in Dublin about 1600. He was received into the Domincan order probably at the Priory of St Saviour's in Dublin (where the Four Courts stands now) and may have been ordained there before going to Spain for further studies. By 1627 he was a Dominican priest residing in Spain and probably returned to Ireland to become Prior of Naas in the 1630s.
During the Rebellion of 1641 when the Irish Ulstermen came south of the Boyne, the Catholic Lords of the Pale opted to join them while the Governor of Dublin, Sir Charles Coote, opted for a policy of "exterminate all Catholics". Law and order collapsed and plunder became a daily occurrence. Both Protestant landowners and even Catholics known to be government supporters were looted by the rebels.
Peter Higgins as Prior of Naas made efforts to restrain the violent and sheltered the homeless. He intervened to save the Protestant rector of Donadea, William Pilsworth, who was about to be put to the gallows by Catholics and upbraided the Catholics for their unchristian behaviour. In January 1642 the Earl of Ormond mobilised a Protestant force in Dublin to strike back at Catholics.
Among those taken into custody was Peter Higgins, who in fact did not resist arrest, knowing he had done so much to save and protect Protestants and that he was innocent of any crime. Ormond tried to intervene on Higgins's behalf presenting petitions from at least twenty Protestants who had known Higgins urging that the priest's life be spared. But Ormond was amazed when on the morning of 23rd March 1642 he heard that Higgins's body was hanging from a gallows; Sir Charles Coote had executed him without trial. At the gallows Higgins was offered a chance to deny his faith, but declined saying: "I die a Catholic and a Dominican priest. I forgive from my heart all who have conspired to bring about my death. Deo gratias." Among the crowd stood William Pillsworth, rector of Donadea. He cried out: "This man is innocent, this man is innocent. He saved my life." His words fell on deaf ears. No one knows where he was buried. His story became known outside Ireland through the martyrologies of the Dominican Order. A stone statue of him stands outside the Dominican Church in Newbridge. Read more.
11. Bishop Terence Albert O'Brien, Dominican: hanged and beheaded at Gallow's Green, Limerick 30th October 1651
Terence O'Brien was born into a well-off farming family near Cappamore in east Limerick in 1601. He became a Dominican in 1621 taking the name Albert. He studied in Toledo, Spain, where he was ordained in 1627. Returning to Ireland, he served as prior in Limerick and Lorrha near Portumna before becoming Provincial of the Irish province in 1643. He attended the general chapter of his order in Rome in 1644 where he made known the martyrdom of Father Peter Higgins mentioned above.
On his way home he visited two Irish Dominican foundations in Portugal and it was while he was there that he learned of his appointment as co-adjutor to the ailing bishop of Emly. This was the time of the Catholic confederation of Kilkenny. The Confederation was divided between the Old English, generally of Norman families who were prepared to agree on moderate terms with King Charles and the Irish, led by returned exiles and supported by the papal nuncio Rinuccini. In 1649 the parliamentarians under Cromwell abolished the monarchy and Cromwell wreaked havoc in Ireland.
After the siege of Limerick in 1651, O'Brien, who had encouraged citizens to resist, was captured as he tended the sick in the plague house. Tried by court-martial, he was condemned to death. As he went to the gallows, he spoke to the people: "Do not weep for me, but pray that being firm and unbroken in this torment of death, I may happily finish my course." After his death by strangulation his body was left hanging for three hours and treated with indignity by the soldiers. They cut off his head and spiked it on the river gate where it remained fresh and incorrupt, because, people said, he had preserved his virginity throughout his life. His headless body was buried near the old Dominican priory of Limerick, a wall of which still stands in the grounds of St Mary's Convent of Mercy.
A small silver pectoral cross of Terence Albert was given to the Irish Dominicans by the last surviving member of the O'Briens of Tuogh. According to family tradition, the bishop gave the cross to his mother shortly before his execution, and it had been passed on as a family heirloom from generation to generation. The image accompanying this article is a detail from a stained glass window (by Murphy and Devitt) in the Terence Albert O'Brien Chapel in St Saviour's Church, Glentworth, Street, Limerick.
11. John Kearney, Franciscan, hanged 11th March 1653
John Kearney was born in Cashel in 1619 of a prominent Catholic family. Ordained a priest in 1642 after his studies in Louvain, he was captured on his return to Ireland, but managed to escape. He ministered as a priest first in Cashel and later in Waterford. In 1653 he was captured again, taken to Clonmel and charged with functioning as a priest in defiance of the law. Witnesses testified that he had celebrated and administered the sacraments. He was hanged on 11th March 1653.
12. William Tirry, Augustinian, hanged 2nd May 1654
William Tirry was born in Cork in 1608 into a well-to-do Catholic Anglo-Irish family. In the 200 years from 1505 no fewer than twenty members of the family held the office of Mayor of Cork. He joined the Augustinians and studied in Vallodalid where he was ordained priest and did further studies in Paris and Brussels.
Returning to Ireland, he ministered with the local Augustinian community in Cork and became secretary to his his uncle, William, then bishop of Cork and Cloyne. He was appointed as prior to Skryne in Co Meath, but by that time Cromwell had come, so he lived the life of a fugitive for three years.
In the end he was taken captive from the house of a relative, Mrs Amy Everard, in Fethard, Co Tipperary. He had just vested for the Easter Mass when soldiers entered the house and took him to Clonmel where he was executed on 2nd May 1654. From the scaffold he spoke to the people who listened with rapt attention. Many miracles were reported after this death.
14. Others
Six Catholics of Irish birth or connection executed for the faith in England had already been beatified in 1929 and 1987: They are: John Roche (alias Neale), John (Terence) Carey, Patrick Salmon, John Cornelius (alias John Conor O'Mahoney), Charles Meehan, Ralph Corby (Corbington).
A further list of 42 other Irish martyrs was submitted to Rome for beatification in 1998. It includes Richard Creagh (1523-86), Archbishop of Armagh.
One extraordinary omission, due it seems to an editorial error in the early days of the process, was Archbishop Patrick Russell of Dublin (1629-92), who after harrassment and arrest following the defeat of the Jacobite army at the Boyne, died in a filthy underground prison in Dublin.
Patrick Duffy documents here their names and stories.
Dublin martyrs: Bl Francis and his godmother Bl Margaret Ball
What is a martyr?
Originally, it's a Greek word meaning "witness". In the Acts of the Apostles, Peter, speaking to those in Jerusalem at Pentecost, claimed he and all the apostles were "martyrs" i.e. witnesses, in this case to Jesus's resurrection. Later the word came to mean a person who followed the example of Christ and gave up their lives rather than deny their faith.
The canonisation of English and Irish Martyrs
Henry VIII's rejection of the Pope's authority in 1534 led to the setting up of a State Church in England and in Ireland. In 1560 the Act of Supremacy made Queen Elizabeth the supreme head of the Church in England and Ireland. So it became a treasonable offence to refuse to acknowledge the English monarch as head of the Church and many Catholics were put to death for their faith in both countries.
Forty English martyrs were canonised in 1970 and Oliver Plunkett was canonised in 1975. In 1992 a representative seventeen Irish martyrs, chosen from a list of almost three hundred who died for their faith in the 16th and 17th centuries, were beatified by Pope John Paul II. The amount of information we know about these seventeen varies. About some, such as Archbishop Dermot O'Hurley of Cashel, we know quite a lot; about others, such as the Wexford sailors, we know little more than their names and the fact of their death.
THE IRISH MARTYRS OF THE 16TH AND 17TH CENTURIES
Here are their names in the chronological order of their deaths:
1. Bishop Patrick O'Healy and Father Cornelius O'Rourke, Franciscans: tortured and hanged at Kilmallock 22nd August 1579
2. The Wexford Martyrs: Matthew Lambert and sailors - Robert Tyler, Edward Cheevers and Patrick Cavanagh: died in Wexford 1581
3. Bishop Dermot O'Hurley: tortured and hanged at Hoggen Green (now College Green), Dublin, 20th June 1584
4. Margaret Ball: lay woman, died in prison 1584
5. Maurice Kenraghty (or MacEnraghty): secular priest, hanged at Clonmel on 20th April 1585
6. Dominic Collins: Jesuit brother, hanged in Youghal 1602
7. Bishop Conor O'Devany and Father Patrick O'Loughran: Franciscans, hanged 6th February 1612
8. Francis Taylor of Swords, lay man, Lord Mayor of Dublin: died in prison 1621
9. Father Peter Higgins, Dominican, Prior of Naas: hanged at Hoggen Green, Dublin 23rd March 1642
10. Bishop Terence Albert O'Brien, Dominican: hanged and beheaded at Gallow's Green, Limerick 30th October 1651
11. John Kearney, Franciscan, hanged 11th March 1653
12. William Tirry, Augustinian, hanged 2nd May 1654
13. Others
1. Patrick O'Healy was born about 1545 in Co Leitrim and became a Franciscan. He was educated at the University of Alcalá in Spain. He seems to have spent some time in Rome - perhaps sent there with letters from King Philip II of Spain requesting help from Pope Gregory XIII for an invasion of Ireland. It may have been while he was there that he was made bishop of Mayo in 1576. He spent some time in Paris where he took part in public disputations at the university, amazing his hearers by his mastery of patristic and controversial theology, as well as of Scotist philosophy.
After Pope St Pius V (1566-72: Antonio Ghislieri OP) excommunicated Queen Elizabeth in 1571, the Earl of Desmond spent some time on the continent negotiating with King Philip II of Spain and Pope Gregory XIII (Ugo Buoncompagni: 1572-85) to make Ireland a kingdom allied under Spain with the Pope's illegitimate son, Giacomo, a possible candidate for King. Patrick O'Hely was certainly involved in these negotiations at the start, but after an abortive attempt to sail to Ireland from Ferrol in north-west Spain went to France.
In autumn, 1579, he and fellow Franciscan Father Conn O'Rourke from the ruling house of Breifne sailed from Brittany and arrived off the coast of Kerry. Whether aware of it or not, they were seen as part of the invasion force of Spaniards and Italians with James Fitzmaurice Earl of Desmond which had landed at Smerwick harbour.
2. O'Healy and O'Rourke landed at Askeaton, were captured and brought to Limerick. Sir William Drury, Elizabethan President of Munster and the Chief Justice offered to promote O'Healy if he would take the Oath of Supremacy. Both refused, were tried and found guilty of treason.
The sentence of death was carried out at Kilmallock in 1579. Before their execution they imparted absolution to each other and recited litanies together. In the Church of SS. Peter and Paul, Kilmallock, there is a stained glass window of three martyrs - Bishop Patrick O'Healy and Father Conn O'Rourke, and Father Maurice MacEnraghty, a secular priest and native of Kilmallock, who was martyred in Clonmel in 1585 (see 5. below).
3. The Wexford Martyrs: Matthew Lambert and sailors - Robert Tyler, Edward Cheevers and Patrick Cavanagh: died in Wexford 1581
Matthew Lambert was a Wexford baker who had arranged with five sailor acquaintances to provide safe passage by ship out of Wexford for Viscount Baltinglass and his Jesuit chaplain Robert Rochford when English troops were pursuing them after the fall of the Second Desmond Rebellion (1579-83). The authorities heard of the plan beforehand and Matthew was arrested together with his five sailor friends. Thrown into prison, they were questioned about politics and religion. Lambert’s reply was: “I am not a learned man. I am unable to debate with you, but I can tell you this, ‘I am a Catholic and I believe whatever our Holy Mother the Catholic Church believes.’”
They were all found guilty of treason and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered. Only three of the names of the five sailors are known – Robert Tyler, Edward Cheevers and Patrick Cavanagh. Their execution took place in Wexford in 1581.
4. Bishop Dermot O'Hurley: tortured and hanged at Hoggen Green, Dublin, 20th June 1584
Dermot O'Hurley was born near Emly, Co. Tipperary, about 1530. His family were well off and as a young man Dermot went to study law at Louvain. In 1581 Pope Gregory XIII asked Dermot, still a layman, to become Archbishop of Cashel and he accepted, knowing that this appointment would make him a fugitive working in dangerous conditions. He reached Ireland in 1583, but while he was sheltering at Slane Castle he was recognised, arrested, imprisoned in Dublin Castle. Accused of plotting to overthrow the Queen's government in Ireland, he was repeatedly questioned and tortured. He persistently protested that his mission was one of peace and he had no information to give his captors.
On 20th June 1584 he was taken to Hoggen Green, near St Stephen's Green, to be hanged. Before his death he said: I am a priest anointed and also a bishop, although unworthy of so sacred dignities, and no cause could they find against me that might in the least degree deserve the pains of death, but only my function of priesthood wherein they have proceeded against me in all points contrary to their own laws. When the report of his execution spread in the city, some devout women carried his body with great respect to the Church of St Kevin (near Kevin St) where he was buried. A monument to his memory was erected there in 1992.
5. Margaret Ball: died in prison in Dublin 1584
Born Margaret Bermingham about 1515 in Skreen, Co Meath, she married Bartholomew Ball, a prosperous merchant in Dublin. Her eldest son, Walter, however, became a Protestant and an opponent of the Catholic faith. Margaret provided 'safe houses' for bishops and priests passing through Dublin and would invite Walter to dine with them, hoping for his re-conversion.
Walter was elected Mayor of Dublin. He had his mother arrested and drawn through the streets on a wooden hurdle, as she could no longer walk, to Dublin Castle. Here she remained imprisoned for the rest of her life. If she had renounced her faith she could have returned home, but she refused and died in prison aged 70 in 1584. The chapel-of-ease at Santry in Larkhill parish was named in her honour.
6. Maurice Kenraghty (or MacEnraghty): secular priest, hanged at Clonmel on 20th April 1585
Maurice was born the son of a silversmith at Kilmallock He enjoyed the patronage of the Earl of Desmond and became his chaplain and confessor. In September, 1583, a fugitive with the earl, he was surprised on Sliabh Luachra by Lord Roche's gallowglasses, and handed over to the Earl of Ormond. By Ormond's command he was chained to one Patrick Grant, and sent to prison at Clonmel. Here he lay in irons, exhorting, instructing, and hearing confessions at his prison grate until April, 1585. His jailer was then bribed by Victor White, a leading townsman, to release the priest for one night to say Mass and administer the Paschal Communion in White's house. The jailer secretly warned the President of Munster to take this opportunity to capture most of the neighbouring recusants (those refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy) at Mass. In the morning an armed force surrounded the house, arrested White and others, seized the sacred vessels, and looked for the priest everywhere. He had hidden under straw at the first alarm, and, though wounded when the heap was probed, ultimately escaped to the woods. Learning, however, that White's life could only be saved by his (Kenraghty's) surrender, he gave himself up, and was at once tried by martial law. Pardon and preferment were offered him if he agreed to conform, but he resolutely maintained the Catholic faith and the pope's authorlty, and was executed as a traitor. His head was set up in the market-place, and his body, purchased from the soldiers, was buried behind the high altar of the Franciscan convent.
7. Dominic Collins: Jesuit brother, hanged in Youghal 1602
Dominic was born into a leading Catholic family in Youghal in 1566, both his father and brother serving as mayor in the town. He was well educated and even learned some Latin as a boy perhaps by the Jesuits who had a school in Youghal at that time. After the failure of the Desmond Rebellion he went to France and served with honour in both the French and Spanish armies. He entered the Jesuits in Spain as a late vocation in 1589 and in 1601 came back to Ireland as a professed Jesuit brother with the Spanish fleet sent by King Philip III to assist the O'Neills and the O'Donnells.
After the Battle of Kinsale he retreated with O'Sullivan Beare to Dunboy Castle in west Cork, where after a siege he was captured, bribed to change his religion and tortured. Eventually he was hanged in his own town of Youghal. Before his execution he spoke to the crowd saying he longed for a martyr's death. The hangman refused to execute him and the soldiers forced a passerby, a poor fisherman, to do the work. He died with the words of the psalm on his lips: "Into your hands I commend my spirit." His fame quickly spread in Ireland and through Europe. In the Irish colleges of Douai and Salamanca the Jesuits showed his portrait.
8. Bishop Conor O'Devany and Father Patrick O'Loughran: hanged 6th February 1612
Conor O'Devany came from Raphoe in Co Donegal and entered the Franciscans in Donegal town as a young man around 1550. He was appointed bishop of Down and Connor by Pope Gregory XIII while he was in Rome in 1582. He was one of six bishops who attended a synod in Clogher which promulgated the decrees of the Council of Trent in 1587. After the failure of the Spanish Armada in 1588 he was captured, but was released and went back to his diocese, but in the years after the flight of the Earls he was again taken prisoner to Dublin Castle in 1611. He was accused of colluding with Hugh O'Neill in treason. He admitted being in the O'Neill territory as bishop during the Nine Years' War, but he protested that he was being charged because of his religion.
Another priest, Father Patrick O'Loughran from Co Tyrone, had been in Rome as chaplain with Hugh O'Neill and later studied at the Irish College in Douai. Returning to Ireland, he was arrested on landing in Cork. He admitted he had been chaplain to Hugh O'Neill and had gone with him overseas and had visited the Pope. He refused to be tried by jury as this would mean certain conviction. Read more
Both Father Patrick and Bishop Conor were executed at George's hill in Dublin on 6th February 1612. The executions, planned to frighten Catholics, only stiffened the resolve not only of the Irish but also of the Old English to remain faithful to their Catholic faith.
9. Francis Taylor of Swords, layman, Lord Mayor of Dublin: died in prison 1621
Francis Taylor was born into a wealthy family in Swords about 1550. In 1595 he was elected Lord Mayor of Dublin. A convinced Catholic, he refused to accept the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity and was put in prison where he remained until he died seven years later. He is said to be buried in the family grave in St Audeon's Church. A bronze sculpture of him along with Margaret Ball stand to the left of the main entrance to the Pro-Cathedral in Marlborough St, Dublin (image).
10. Father Peter Higgins, Dominican, Prior of Naas: hanged at Hoggen Green, Dublin 23rd March 1642
Peter Higgins was born in Dublin about 1600. He was received into the Domincan order probably at the Priory of St Saviour's in Dublin (where the Four Courts stands now) and may have been ordained there before going to Spain for further studies. By 1627 he was a Dominican priest residing in Spain and probably returned to Ireland to become Prior of Naas in the 1630s.
During the Rebellion of 1641 when the Irish Ulstermen came south of the Boyne, the Catholic Lords of the Pale opted to join them while the Governor of Dublin, Sir Charles Coote, opted for a policy of "exterminate all Catholics". Law and order collapsed and plunder became a daily occurrence. Both Protestant landowners and even Catholics known to be government supporters were looted by the rebels.
Peter Higgins as Prior of Naas made efforts to restrain the violent and sheltered the homeless. He intervened to save the Protestant rector of Donadea, William Pilsworth, who was about to be put to the gallows by Catholics and upbraided the Catholics for their unchristian behaviour. In January 1642 the Earl of Ormond mobilised a Protestant force in Dublin to strike back at Catholics.
Among those taken into custody was Peter Higgins, who in fact did not resist arrest, knowing he had done so much to save and protect Protestants and that he was innocent of any crime. Ormond tried to intervene on Higgins's behalf presenting petitions from at least twenty Protestants who had known Higgins urging that the priest's life be spared. But Ormond was amazed when on the morning of 23rd March 1642 he heard that Higgins's body was hanging from a gallows; Sir Charles Coote had executed him without trial. At the gallows Higgins was offered a chance to deny his faith, but declined saying: "I die a Catholic and a Dominican priest. I forgive from my heart all who have conspired to bring about my death. Deo gratias." Among the crowd stood William Pillsworth, rector of Donadea. He cried out: "This man is innocent, this man is innocent. He saved my life." His words fell on deaf ears. No one knows where he was buried. His story became known outside Ireland through the martyrologies of the Dominican Order. A stone statue of him stands outside the Dominican Church in Newbridge. Read more.
11. Bishop Terence Albert O'Brien, Dominican: hanged and beheaded at Gallow's Green, Limerick 30th October 1651
Terence O'Brien was born into a well-off farming family near Cappamore in east Limerick in 1601. He became a Dominican in 1621 taking the name Albert. He studied in Toledo, Spain, where he was ordained in 1627. Returning to Ireland, he served as prior in Limerick and Lorrha near Portumna before becoming Provincial of the Irish province in 1643. He attended the general chapter of his order in Rome in 1644 where he made known the martyrdom of Father Peter Higgins mentioned above.
On his way home he visited two Irish Dominican foundations in Portugal and it was while he was there that he learned of his appointment as co-adjutor to the ailing bishop of Emly. This was the time of the Catholic confederation of Kilkenny. The Confederation was divided between the Old English, generally of Norman families who were prepared to agree on moderate terms with King Charles and the Irish, led by returned exiles and supported by the papal nuncio Rinuccini. In 1649 the parliamentarians under Cromwell abolished the monarchy and Cromwell wreaked havoc in Ireland.
After the siege of Limerick in 1651, O'Brien, who had encouraged citizens to resist, was captured as he tended the sick in the plague house. Tried by court-martial, he was condemned to death. As he went to the gallows, he spoke to the people: "Do not weep for me, but pray that being firm and unbroken in this torment of death, I may happily finish my course." After his death by strangulation his body was left hanging for three hours and treated with indignity by the soldiers. They cut off his head and spiked it on the river gate where it remained fresh and incorrupt, because, people said, he had preserved his virginity throughout his life. His headless body was buried near the old Dominican priory of Limerick, a wall of which still stands in the grounds of St Mary's Convent of Mercy.
A small silver pectoral cross of Terence Albert was given to the Irish Dominicans by the last surviving member of the O'Briens of Tuogh. According to family tradition, the bishop gave the cross to his mother shortly before his execution, and it had been passed on as a family heirloom from generation to generation. The image accompanying this article is a detail from a stained glass window (by Murphy and Devitt) in the Terence Albert O'Brien Chapel in St Saviour's Church, Glentworth, Street, Limerick.
11. John Kearney, Franciscan, hanged 11th March 1653
John Kearney was born in Cashel in 1619 of a prominent Catholic family. Ordained a priest in 1642 after his studies in Louvain, he was captured on his return to Ireland, but managed to escape. He ministered as a priest first in Cashel and later in Waterford. In 1653 he was captured again, taken to Clonmel and charged with functioning as a priest in defiance of the law. Witnesses testified that he had celebrated and administered the sacraments. He was hanged on 11th March 1653.
12. William Tirry, Augustinian, hanged 2nd May 1654
William Tirry was born in Cork in 1608 into a well-to-do Catholic Anglo-Irish family. In the 200 years from 1505 no fewer than twenty members of the family held the office of Mayor of Cork. He joined the Augustinians and studied in Vallodalid where he was ordained priest and did further studies in Paris and Brussels.
Returning to Ireland, he ministered with the local Augustinian community in Cork and became secretary to his his uncle, William, then bishop of Cork and Cloyne. He was appointed as prior to Skryne in Co Meath, but by that time Cromwell had come, so he lived the life of a fugitive for three years.
In the end he was taken captive from the house of a relative, Mrs Amy Everard, in Fethard, Co Tipperary. He had just vested for the Easter Mass when soldiers entered the house and took him to Clonmel where he was executed on 2nd May 1654. From the scaffold he spoke to the people who listened with rapt attention. Many miracles were reported after this death.
14. Others Six Catholics of Irish birth or connection executed for the faith in England had already been beatified in 1929 and 1987: They are: John Roche (alias Neale), John (Terence) Carey, Patrick Salmon, John Cornelius (alias John Conor O'Mahoney), Charles Meehan, Ralph Corby (Corbington).
A further list of 42 other Irish martyrs was submitted to Rome for beatification in 1998. It includes Richard Creagh (1523-86), Archbishop of Armagh.
One extraordinary omission, due it seems to an editorial error in the early days of the process, was Archbishop Patrick Russell of Dublin (1629-92), who after harrassment and arrest following the defeat of the Jacobite army at the Boyne, died in a filthy underground prison in Dublin.
Liturgical Readings for: Sunday, 20th June, 2021
Scripture ThemesIn the midst of the questions that life gives rise to, when God seems to be sleeping, do we have the faith and trust that Jesus asks for? The love of the Lord is everlasting and God will see justice done in his own good time. If a believer is disappointed it is because of lack of trust in God.
FIRST READING
A reading from the book of the Prophet Job 3:1.8-11
Here your proud waves shall break.
From the heart of tempest the Lord gave Job his answer. He said:
Who pent up the sea behind closed doors
when it leapt tumultuous out of the womb,
when I wrapped it in a robe of mist
and made black clouds its swaddling bands;
when I marked the bounds it was not to cross
and made it fast with a bolted gate?
Come thus far, I said, and no farther:
here your proud waves shall break.
The Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 106
Response O give thanks to the Lord,for his love endures for ever.
or Alleluia
1. Some sailed to the sea in ships
to trade on the mighty waters.
These men have seen the Lord's deeds,
the wonders he does in the deep. Response
2. For he spoke; he summoned the gale.
tossing the waves of the sea
up to heaven and back into the deep;
their soul melted away in their distress. Response
3. Then they cried to the Lord in their need
and he rescued them from their distress
He stilled the storm to a whisper:
all the waves of the sea were hushed. Response
4. They rejoiced because of the calm
and he led them to the haven they desired.
Let them thank the Lord for his love,
the wonders he does for men. Response
SECOND READING
A reading from the second letter of St Paul to the Corinthians 5:14-17
Now the new creation is here.
Now the new creation is here. The love of Christ overwhelms us when we reflect that if one man has died for all, then all men should be dead; and the reason he died for all was so that living men should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised to life for them.From now onwards, therefore, we do not' judge anyone by. the standards of the flesh. Even if we did once know Christ in the flesh, that is not how we know him now. And for anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old creation has gone, and now the new one is here.
The Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God.
Gospel Acclamation Eph 1:17. 18
Alleluia, alleluia!
May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christenlighten the eyes of our mind,
so that we can see what hope his call holds for us.
Alleluia!
Or Lk 7:16
Alleluia, alleluia!
A great prophet has appeared among us; God has visited his people.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
A reading from the Gospel according to Mark 4:35-41
Glory to you, O Lord.
'Who can this be? Even the wind and the sea obey him.'
With the coming of evening, Jesus said to his disciples, 'Let us cross over to the other side.' And leaving the crowd behind they took him, just as he was, in the boat; and there were other boats with him. Then it began to blow a gale and the waves were breaking into the boat so that it was almost swamped. But he was in the stern, his head on the cushion, asleep. They woke him and said to him, 'Master, do you not care? We are going down!'And he woke up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, 'Quiet now! Be calm!' And the wind dropped, and all was calm again. Then he said to them, 'Why are you so frightened? How is it that you have no faith?' They were filled with awe and said to one another, 'Who can this be? Even the wind and the sea obey him.' Christ calms the Storm by Giorgio de Chirico, 1914
The Gospel of the Lord
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Taken from THE JERUSALEM BIBLE, published and copyright 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House Inc, and used by permission of the publishers.
Liturgical Readings for: Sunday, 20th June, 2021
CÉAD LÉACHTSliocht as an Leabhar Iób, Fáidh. 38:1. 8-11
Anseo a theilgfear do thonnta uaibhreacha droim ar ais.
D’fhreagair an Tiarna Iób ansin as an anfa gaoithe agus dúirt:
Cé a d’iaigh an mhuir isteach le comhlaí,
Nuair a bhrúcht sí amach as an mbroinn?
Nuair a chuir mé an néal mar éide uirthi,
Agus an scamall dubh mar bhindealán uimpi.
Chuir mé teorainn léi,
Agus shocraigh mé barraí agus doirse di.
Agus dúirt mé: “An fad seo a thiocfaidh tú, ach gan teacht thairis seo;
Anseo a theilgfear do thonnta uaibhreacha droim ar ais.”
Briathar Dé
Salm le Freagra Sm 106
Freagra Ceiliúraigí an Tiarna óir maireann a ghrá go síorai.
Malairt Freagra Alleluia!
I. An mhuintir a sheol an mhuir i longa
a dhéanamh tráchtála ar an aigéan ollmhór,
chonaic siad oibreacha an Tiarna
agus a iontais san fharraige. Freagra
2. Labhair seisean agus mhúscail gaoth na doininne,
thóg tonnta na mara suas go hard.
D'éirigh siad chun na spéartha is thit chun an duibheagáin;
bhí a n-anam á shnoí sa ghátar. Freagra
3. Agus scread siad ar an Tiarna ina n-anacair,
agus sheol sé as a dtrioblóidí amach iad.
Chiúnaigh sé an t-anfa go raibh ina leoithne,
agus thit tonnta na mara ina dtost. Freagra
4. Bhí lúcháir orthu toisc iad a bheith ciúin;
agus threoraigh sé iad chun cuain a méine.
Gabhaidís buíochas leis .an Tiarna as ucht a ghrá
agus as ucht a iontas do chlann na ndaoine. Freagra
DARA LÉACHT
Sliocht as céad Litir Naomh Pól chuig Coirintigh 5:14-17
Tá gach rud cruthaithe as an nua.
A bhráithre, tá grá do Chríost dár dtiomáint ón uair a d’aithníomar go bhfuair aon duine amháin bás ar son cách uile agus dá réir sin go bhfuil an uile dhuine tar éis bháis. Agus fuair sé bás ar son cách d’fhonn is nach ar mhaithe leo féin a mhairfeadh na beo feasta ach ar mhaithe leis an té sin a fuair bás ar a son agus a d’aiséirigh ó mhairbh. As seo amach dá bhrí sin ní dhéanaimid neach ar bith a mheas do réir caighdeáin shaolta. Más ea féin go ndearnamar Críost a mheas de réir an chaighdeáin sin tráth, ní dhéanaimid amhlaidh a thuilleadh. Mar, aon duine atá i gCríost, is duine é atá cruthaithe as an nua; tá an sean i léig, féach, agus tá an nua tagtha.Briathar Dé.
Alleluia Véarsa Lc 7: 16
Alleluia, alleluia!
Tá fáidh mór éirithe inar measc”;
Rinne Dia a phobal a fhiosrú.
Alleluia!
SOISCÉAL
Sliocht as Soiscéal de réir Naomh Mhatha 4:35-41
Cé hé an duine seo a rá go ndéanann gaoth agus farraigí rud air?
Nuair a bhí an tráthnóna ann an lá sin, dúirt Íosa lena dheisceabail :
“Téimis trasna anonn.” Agus ag fágáil an tslua ina ndiaidh, thug siad leo é sa bhád mar a bhí sé, agus bhí báid eile á thionlacan. D’éirigh cuaifeach mór gaoithe, agus bhí na farraigí ag bualadh an bháid sa chaoi go raibh sí ag líonadh cheana féin. Bhí sé féin i ndeireadh an bháid ina chodladh agus a cheann ar an bpillín, agus mhúscail siad é agus dúirt leis: “A Mháistir, an ea nach cás leat go bhfuil an bás againn?”Agus ar dhúiseacht dó, bhagair sé ar an ngaoth agus dúirt leis an bhfarraige: “Éist, bí socair!” Agus thit an ghaoth, agus bhí sé ina théigle mhór. Dúirt sé leo: “Cén fáth a bhfuil an eagla seo oraibh? An ea nach bhfuil creideamh agaibh?” Bhí uamhan agus eagla orthu agus bhí siad á rá eatarthu féin: “Cé hé an duine seo, más ea, a rá go ndéanann gaoth agus farraige rud air?”
Soiscéal Dé
AN BÍOBLA NAOFA
© An Sagart
Liturgical Readings for: Sunday, 27th June, 2021
13th Sunday of Ordinary Time
FIRST READING
A reading from the Book of Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24
It was the devil's envy that brought death into the world.
Death was not God's doing,
he takes no pleasure in the extinction of the living.
To be - for this he created all;
the world's created things have health in them,
in them no fatal poison can be found,
and Hades holds no power on earth;
for virtue is undying.
Yet God did make man imperishable,
he made him in the image of his own nature;
it was the devil's envy that brought death into the world,
as those who are his partners will discover.
The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 29:2.4-6.11-13
Response I will praise you, Lord, you have rescued me.
1. I will praise you, Lord, you have rescued me
and have not let my enemies rejoice over me.
O Lord, you have raised my soul from the dead,
restored me to life from those who sink into the grave. Response
2. Sing psalms to the Lord, you who love him,
give thanks to his holy name.
His anger lasts but a moment; his favour through life.
At night there are tears, but joy comes with dawn. Response
3. The Lord listened and had pity.
The Lord came to my help.
For me you have changed my mourning into dancing,
O Lord my God, I will thank you for ever. Response
SECOND READING
A reading from the letter of St Paul to the Corinthians 8:7.9.13-15
To give relief to others balance what happens to be your surplus now against their present need.
You always have the most of everything - of faith, of eloquence, of understanding, of keenness for any cause, and the biggest share of our affection - so we expect you to put the most into this work of mercy too. Remember how generous the Lord Jesus was: he was rich, but he became poor for your sake, to make you rich out of his poverty.
This does not mean that to give relief to others you ought to make things difficult for yourselves: it is a question of balancing what happens to be your surplus now against their present need, and one day they may have something to spare that will supply your own need.That is how we strike a balance: as scripture says: The man who gathered much had none too much, the man who gathered little did not go short.The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Gospel Acclamation Eph 1:17. 18
Alleluia, alleluia!
Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life:
you have the message of etemal life.
Alleluia!
Or Lk 7:16
Alleluia, alleluia!
Our Saviour Christ Jesus abolished death,
and he has proclaimed life through the Good News.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark 5:21-43
Glory to you, O Lord.
Theme:Little girl, I tell you to get up.
When Jesus had crossed in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered round him and he stayed by the lakeside. Then one of the synagogue officials came up, Jairus by name, and seeing him, fell at his feet and pleaded with him earnestly, saying, 'My little daughter is desperately sick. Do come and lay your hands on her to make her better and save her life.' Jesus went with him and a large crowd followed him; they were pressing all round him.
Now there was a woman who had suffered from a haemorrhage for twelve years; after long and painful treatment under various doctors, she had spent all she had without being any the better for it, in fact, she was getting worse. She had heard about Jesus, and she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his cloak. '
If I can touch even his clothes,' she had told herself 'I shall be well again.' And the source of the bleeding dried up instantly, and she felt in herself that she was cured of her complaint. Immediately aware that power had gone out from him Jesus turned round in the crowd and said, 'Who touched my clothes?' His disciples said to him, 'You see how the crowd is pressing round you and yet you say, "Who touched me?" , But he continued to look all round to see who had done it. Then the woman came forward, frightened and trembling because she knew what had happened to her, and she fell at his feet and told him the whole truth. 'My daughter,' he said 'your faith has restored you to health; go in peace and be free from your complaint.'While he was still speaking some people arrived from the house of the synagogue official to say, 'Your daughter is dead: why put the Master to any further trouble?' But Jesus had overheard this remark of theirs and he said to the official, 'Do not be afraid; only have faith.'
And he allowed no one to go with him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. So they came to the official's house and Jesus noticed all the commotion, with people weeping and wailing unrestrainedly. He went in and said to them, 'Why all this commotion and crying? The child is not dead, but asleep.' But they laughed at him. So he turned them all out and, taking with him the child's father and mother and his own companions, he went into the place where the child lay. And taking the child by the hand he said to her, 'Talitha, kum!' which means, '.'Little girl I tell you to get up.' The little girl got up at once and began to walk about, for she was twelve years old. At this they were overcome with astonishment, and he ordered them strictly not to let anyone know about it, and told them to give her something to eat.The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
_________________________
Shorter form of the Gospel
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark 5: 21-24, 35-43
Glory to you, O Lord.
Theme: Little girl, I tell you to get up.
When Jesus had crossed in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered round him and he stayed by the lakeside. Then one of the synagogue officials came up, Jairus by name, and seeing him, fell at his feet and pleaded with him earnestly, saying, 'My little daughter is desperately sick. Do come and lay your hands on her to make her better and save her life.' Jesus went with him and a large crowd followed him; they were pressing all round him.
Some people arrived from the house of the synagogue official to say, 'Your daughter is dead: why put the Master to any further trouble?' But Jesus had overheard this remark of theirs and he said to the official, 'Do not be afraid; only have faith.' And he allowed no one to go with him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. So they came to the official's house and Jesus noticed all the commotion, with people weeping and wailing unrestrainedly. He went in and said to them, 'Why all this commotion and crying? The child is not dead, but asleep.' But they laughed at him. So he turned them all out and, taking with him the child's father and mother and his own companions, he went into the place where the child lay. And taking the child by the hand he said to her, 'Talitha, kum!' which means, '.'Little girl I tell you to get up.' The little girl got up at once and began to walk about, for she was twelve years old. At this they were overcome with astonishment, and he ordered them strictly not to let anyone know about it, and told them to give her something to eat.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Taken from THE JERUSALEM BIBLE, published and copyright 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House Inc, and used by permission of the publishers.
Liturgical Readings for: Sunday, 27th June, 2021
CÉAD LÉACHT Sliocht as an céad LeabharhEagna 1:13-15; 2:23-24
Trí éad an diabháill tháinig an bás isteach sa saol.
Mar níorbh é Dia a rinne an bás,
ná ní ábhar áthais dó bascadh na mbeo.
Is amhlaidh a chruthaigh sé gach rud
chun go mairfeadh sé go deo.
Is folláin iad dúile an domhain;
níl aon nimh mharfach iontu,
ná níl aon tiarnas ag ifreann ar talamh.
Is neamhbhásmhar í an fhíréantacht.
Ach chruthaigh Dia an duine
chun nach bhfaigheadh sé bás go deo.
Ar dheilbh a nádúir féin a rinne sé é.
Trí éad an diabhail tháinig an bás isteach sa saol
agus is iad na daoine atá i bpairt leis-sean a bhlaisfidh é.
Briathar Dé.
Salm le Freagra . Sm 29
Freagra Molfaidh mé thú, a Thiarna, de bhrí gur shaor tú mé.
1. Molfaidh mé thú, a Thiarna, de bhrí gur shaor tú mé.
is nár thug tú do mo naimhde gairdeas a dhéanamh umam.
A Thiarna, threoraigh tú m'anam amach as ifreann,
is dhealaigh tú mé ón dream a théann síos san uaimh. Freagra
2. A naomha, abraigí danta molta don Tiarna
is tugaigí buíochas dá ainm naofa.
Óir ní mhaireann a fhearg ach nóiméad,
ach maireann a chineáltas ó aois go bás.
Tig an gol um thráthnóna,
is an gáire arís ar maidin. Freagra
3. Éist liom, a Thiarna, is déan trócaire orm;
a Thiarna, bí mar chabhair dom.
Rinne tú rince de m'olagón;
a Thiarna, mo Dhia, molfaidh mé thú go brách. Freagra
DARA LÉACHT
Sliocht as an dara Litir Naomh Pól chuig na Coirintigh 8:7. 9. 13-15
An fuileach atá anois agaibhse, coinneoidh sé riar a gcáis leis bráithre bochta.
A bhráithre, Agus ós rud é go bhfuil flúirse den uile shórt agaibh, flúirse den chreideamh, den líofacht, den eolas, den uile dhíograis agus den ghrá a d’fhoghlaim sibh uainne, bígí flaithiúil sa charthanacht seo chomh maith. Tá a fhios agaibh go maith an chomaoin a chuir ár dTiarna Íosa Críost oraibh: siúd is go raibh sé saibhir rinne sé bochtán de féin ar mhaithe libhse, d’fhonn is go ndéanfaí daoine saibhre díbh trína bhochtaineachtsan. mar ní gá daoibh sibh féin a chreachadh ag fóirithint ar dhaoine eile. Níl ann ach ceist cothroime: an fuílleach atá agaibhse i láthair na huaire, coinneoidh sé riar a gcáis leo siúd: agus an fuílleach a bheidh acu sin coinneoidh sé riar bhur gcáis libhse ar ball, agus sa tslí sin beidh cothrom ann de réir mar atá scríofa: “An té a chnuasaigh mórán, ní raibh an iomarca aige, agus an té a chnuasaigh beagán, ní raibh easnamh air.”
Briathar Dé.
Alleluia Véarsa Eo 6: 63
Alleluia, alleluia!
Na focail atá ráite agat, a Thiarna, is spiorad agus is beatha iad.
Is agatsa atá briathra na beatha síoraí
Alleluia!
SOISCÉAL
Sliocht as an Soiscéal naofa de réir Naomh Marcas 5:21-43
A chailín bhig, deirim leat, éirigh!
San am sin atheacht trasna do Íosa sa bhád go dtí an taobh eile, bhailigh slua mór ina thimpeall, agus bhí sé le hais na farraige. Tháinig duine de chinn urra na sionagóige, arbh ainm dó Iáras, agus ar a fheiceáil dó, chaith sé é féin ag a chosa agus rinne achainí go crua air ag rá: “Tá m’iníon bheag ar phointe an bháis. Tar agus cuir do lámha uirthi chun go mbeadh sí slán agus go mairfeadh.” D’imigh sé lena chois agus bhí slua mór á leanúint agus bhí siad ag plódú air.
Agus bean a raibh rith fola uirthi ar feadh dhá bhliain déag, agus a bhí tar éis mórán a fhulaingt óna lán lianna agus a raibh aici a chaitheamh, agus nárbh fhearrde í é, ach gur mhó a bhí sí ag dul in olcas, nuair a chuala sí scéala mar gheall ar Íosa, tháinig sí taobh thiar de sa slua agus bhain sí lena bhrat; mar dúirt sí: “Má bhainim lena chuid éadaigh fiú amháin, beidh mé slán.” Agus stad an doirteadh fola aici láithreach, agus mhothaigh sí ina corp go raibh sí leigheasta óna gearán. Ach d’airigh Íosa ann féin go ndeachaigh brí amach uaidh, chas sé timpeall láithreach sa slua agus dúirt: “Cé bhain le mo chuid eádaigh?” Dúirt a dheisceabail leis: “Feiceann tú an slua ag plódú ort, agus deir tú ‘Cé bhain liom?’” Agus dhearc sé ina thimpeall féachaint cé rinne é. Ach ó thuig an bhean cad a bhí déanta inti, tháinig sí go critheaglach agus chaith í féin síos roimhe agus d’inis an fhírinne go léir dó. Dúirt sé léi: “A iníon, do chreideamh a shlánaigh thú. Imigh leat faoi shíocháin, agus bí slán ó do ghearán.”Le linn dó bheith ag caint tháinig daoine ó theach cheann urra na sionagóige ag rá: “Tá d’iníon tar éis bháis; cén fáth a mbeifeá ag cur as don Mháistir níos mó?” Ba chlos d’Íosa an comhrá agus dúirt le ceann urra na sionagóige: “Ná bíodh eagla ort; ach amháin creid.”Agus ní ligfeadh sé do dhuine ar bith dul leis ach Peadar agus Séamas agus Eoin deartháir Shéamais. Ar theacht dóibh go dtí teach cheann urra na sionagóige, chonaic sé an callán agus na daoine ag gol agus ag olagón go hard. Agus ar dhul isteach dó dúirt sé leo: “Cén fáth a bhfuil sibh ag déanamh calláin agus ag gol? Ní marbh atá an leanbh ach ina codladh.” Agus bhí siad ag fonóid faoi. Ach chuir sé amach iad uile, agus rug sé leis athair agus máthair an linbh agus iad seo a bhí leis, agus chuaigh isteach mar a raibh an leanbh ina luí. Agus rug sé greim láimhe uirthi agus dúirt léi: “Talitá cúm” – focal a chiallaíonn: “A chailín bhig, deirim leat, éirigh!” D’éirigh an cailín agus shiúil sí thart, mar bhí sí dhá bhliain déag. Agus bhí ionadh agus alltacht orthu. Ach chuir sé mar acht orthu go crua gan a fhios seo a bheith ag aon duine, agus dúirt rud le hithe a thabhairt di.
Soiscéal Dé.
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SOISCÉAL GEARR
SOISCÉAL
Sliocht as an Soiscéal naofa de réir Naomh Marcas 5:21-43
A chailín bhig, deirim leat, éirigh!
San am sin atheacht trasna do Íosa sa bhád go dtí an taobh eile, bhailigh slua mór ina thimpeall, agus bhí sé le hais na farraige. Tháinig duine de chinn urra na sionagóige, arbh ainm dó Iáras, agus ar a fheiceáil dó, chaith sé é féin ag a chosa agus rinne achainí go crua air ag rá: “Tá m’iníon bheag ar phointe an bháis. Tar agus cuir do lámha uirthi chun go mbeadh sí slán agus go mairfeadh.” D’imigh sé lena chois agus bhí slua mór á leanúint agus bhí siad ag plódú air.
Le linn dó bheith ag caint tháinig daoine ó theach cheann urra na sionagóige ag rá: “Tá d’iníon tar éis bháis; cén fáth a mbeifeá ag cur as don Mháistir níos mó?” Ba chlos d’Íosa an comhrá agus dúirt le ceann urra na sionagóige: “Ná bíodh eagla ort; ach amháin creid.”Agus ní ligfeadh sé do dhuine ar bith dul leis ach Peadar agus Séamas agus Eoin deartháir Shéamais. Ar theacht dóibh go dtí teach cheann urra na sionagóige, chonaic sé an callán agus na daoine ag gol agus ag olagón go hard. Agus ar dhul isteach dó dúirt sé leo: “Cén fáth a bhfuil sibh ag déanamh calláin agus ag gol? Ní marbh atá an leanbh ach ina codladh.” Agus bhí siad ag fonóid faoi. Ach chuir sé amach iad uile, agus rug sé leis athair agus máthair an linbh agus iad seo a bhí leis, agus chuaigh isteach mar a raibh an leanbh ina luí. Agus rug sé greim láimhe uirthi agus dúirt léi: “Talitá cúm” – focal a chiallaíonn: “A chailín bhig, deirim leat, éirigh!” D’éirigh an cailín agus shiúil sí thart, mar bhí sí dhá bhliain déag. Agus bhí ionadh agus alltacht orthu. Ach chuir sé mar acht orthu go crua gan a fhios seo a bheith ag aon duine, agus dúirt rud le hithe a thabhairt di.
Soiscéal Dé.
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Machtnamh ar Bhriathar Dé dia Domhnaigh
Tionchar an teagmháil pearsanta
Is féidir go mbéidh tionchar dearfach ag éirí as gach teagmháil, fiú amháin iad a tharlaíonn gan phleanáil. Nuair a thárlaíonn a leithéad de briseadh isteach ar ár bpleanaí is féidir go gcuirfidh sé sinn díreach san áit ar chóir dúinn bheith ann. Tá briseadh-isteach de’n chineál sin i dtrácht i soiscéal an lae inniu. Iarrann fear arbh ainm Jairus are Íosa teacht chun beannacht a thabhairt d’á h’iníon a bhí go dona tinn. Nuair abhí Íosa ar an mbealach chun cuairt a thabhairt ar an cailín, bhuail sé le duine breoite eile, bean abhí ag fulaingt ó fuiliú trom, agus chuir an teagmháil sin moill ar a theacht go dtí theach Jairus. Cailleadh roinnt ama luachmhar, cé ná’r theastaigh leis an mbean breoite ach teagmháil le éadaigh Íosa. Ba é Íosa féin a rinne an teagmháil a iompú ó rud súarach, nóimeatach le rud éigin eile, teagmháil pearsanta a d’athraigh saol na mná. Spreagann an scéal seo dúinn féachaint ár teagmháil le daoine eile i solas níos dearfaí. Más rud é nach n-oibreoidh ceann dár bpleananna, is féidir leis an spás a chruthú le haghaidh rud nach raibh pleanáilte againn ach a thagann chun cinn níos fearr. i scéal Jairus, bhain Íosa maitheas as an bhriseadh-isteach, agus thug leigheas do’n bhean idir anam agus chorp.
Pádraig Ó Rúairí, cp,
Sliabh Argus, Átha Cliath.
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AN BÍOBLA NAOFA
© An Sagart
