Churches of the Day
Pictorial Thought for Today
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. OthersSix 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.
Church of the Irish Martyrs, Ballycane, Naas, Co. Kildare
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.
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Memorable Saying for Today
I believe in the sun even when it is not shining.
I believe in love even when if I don't feel it.
I believe in God even if he is silent.
~ Written on a cell wall in Germany during the Holocaust ~
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Liturgical Readings for: Saturday, 20th June, 2026
Saturday of the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time, Cycle 2
Saturday Mass of Our Lady
Saint of the Day; 20 June; The Blessed Irish martyrs, men and women
C/f short history of today’s memorial saints can be found below today’s Readings and Reflection
FIRST READING
A reading from the second book of Chronicles 24:17-25
You murdered Zechariah between the sanctuary and the altar.
After the death of Jehoiada, the officials of Judah came to pay court to the king, and the king now turned to them for advice. The Judaeans abandoned the Temple of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, for the worship of sacred poles and idols. Because of their guilt, God's anger fell on Judah and Jerusalem. He sent them prophets to bring them back to the Lord, but when these gave their message, they would not listen. The spirit of God took possession of Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood up before the people and said,
'God says this, "Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord to no good purpose? You have deserted the Lord, now he deserts you."'
They then plotted against him and by order of the king stoned him in the court of the Temple of the Lord. King Joash, forgetful of the kindness that Jehoiada, the father of Zechariah, had shown him, killed Jehoiada's son who cried out as he died, 'The Lord sees and he will avenge!'
When a year had gone by, the Aramaean army made war on Joash. They reached Judah and Jerusalem, and executed all the officials among the people, sending back to the king at Damascus all that they had plundered from them. Though the Aramaean army had by no means come in force, the Lord delivered into its power an army of great size for having deserted him, the God of their ancestors.
The Aramaeans treated Joash as he had deserved, and when they retired they left him a very sick man; and his officers, plotting against him to avenge the death of the son of Jehoiada the priest, murdered him in his bed. So he died, and they buried him in the Citadel of David, though not in the tombs of the kings.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 88: 4-5. 29-34. R/v 29
Response I will keep my love for him always.
1. 'I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn to David my servant:
I will establish your dynasty for ever and set up your throne through all ages. Response
2. '1 will keep my love for him always; for him my covenant shall endure.
I will establish his dynasty for ever, make his throne as lasting as the heavens. Response
3. If his sons forsake my law and refuse to walk as I decree
and ever they violate my statutes, refusing to keep my commands;
then I will punish their offences with the rod,
then I will scourge them on account of their guilt. Response
4. 'But I will never take back my love: my truth will never fail.’ Response
Gospel Acclamation Mt 4: 4
Alleluia, alleluia!
Man does not live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
Alleluia!
Or 2 Cor 8: 9
Alleluia, alleluia!
Jesus Christ was rich, but he became poor for your sakes,
to make you rich out of his poverty.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew 6:24-34 Glory to you, O Lord
Do not worry about tomorrow.
Jesus said to his disciples:
'No one can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second, or treat the first with respect and the second with scorn. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money.
'That is why I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat,
nor about your body
and how you are to clothe it. Surely life means more than food, and the body more than clothing!Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are we not worth much more than they are.
Can any of you, for all his worrying, add one single cubit to his span of life? And why worry about clothing? Think of the flowers growing in the fields; they never have to work or spin; yet I assure you that not even Solomon in all his regalia was robed like one of these. Now if that is how God clothes the grass in the field which is there today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, will he not much more look after you, you men of little faith?
So do not worry; do not say, "What are we to eat? What are we to drink? How are we to be clothed?"
It is the pagans who set their hearts on all these things. Your heavenly Father knows you need them all. Set your hearts on his kingdom first, and on his righteousness, and all these other things will be given you as well.
So do not worry about tomorrow: tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gospel Reflection Saturday Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time Matthew 6:24-34
We all worry about something or someone. We worry about those we care for and love. We worry over what matters to us. Jesus must have worried about his disciples, especially when they did not seem to be fully receptive to his message. There is, however, a certain kind of worry that can take over our lives and leave us with very little freedom to attend to others. This seems to be the kind of worry that Jesus warns against in today’s gospel reading, a fretful preoccupation about what is not of ultimate importance. We can be overly preoccupied about food and clothing; we can fret about what we don’t yet possess.
Jesus calls on us to have the kind of trusting relationship with God that preserves us from being unnecessarily anxious and fretful. He wants us to trust that God will look after us, just as he looks after the flowers of the field and the birds of the air, and, we, of course, are even more precious in his sight than those. There is a healthy worry, but there is also an unhealthy worry that Jesus is warning against and that shows a lack of trust in God as our loving and caring Father.
At the end of the gospel reading, Jesus suggests what we need to be anxious about, namely, God’s kingdom and his righteousness, the coming of God’s kingdom and the way of life that helps to bring it about. Jesus says that if we give this the priority it deserves, then God will see to it that all our other needs will be met.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd. and used with the permission of the publishers. http://dltbooks.com/
The Scripture Reflection is made available with our thanks from his book Reflections on the Weekday Readings : The Word is near to you, on your lips and in your heart by Martin Hogan and published by Messenger Publications , c/f www.messenger.ie/bookshop/
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Saint of the Day; 20 June; The Irish martyrs, men and women, lay and clergy
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. They were The Irish Martyrs of the (16th and 17th centuries)
Patrick Duffy documents here their names and stories.
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
Dublin martyrs: Bl Francis and hisgodmother Bl Margaret Ball (image left)
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).
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.
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 Peter 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, bishop 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. OthersSix 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.
Church of the Irish Martyrs, Ballycane, Naas, Co. Kildare
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Memorable Saying for Today
I believe in the sun even when it is not shining.
I believe in love even when if I don't feel it.
I believe in God even if he is silent.
~ Written on a cell wall in Germany during the Holocaust ~
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Liturgical Readings for: Saturday, 20th June, 2026
CÉAD LÉACHT Sliocht as an dara Leabhar na gCroinicí 24:17-25
Tá sibh tar éis an Tiarna a thréigean; tá sibhse do bhur dtréigean aigesan anois.
Tar éis bhás Iahóideá tháinig prionsaí Iúdá le hómós a thabhairt don rí, agus ghlac an rí lena gcomhairle. Thréigeadar Teampall an Tiarna, Dia a sinsear, agus d’adhradar na cuaillí naofa agus na híola. Tháinig fraoch feirge sa mhullach ar Iúdá, agus ar Iarúsailéim mar gheall ar an gcoir sin. Ach ina dhiaidh sin agus uile chuir [Dia] fáithe chucu chuniad a sheoladh ar ais chun an Tiarna, ach ní éistfidís lena dteachtaireacht siúd, nuair a cháin siad iad. Ansin ghabh spiorad Dé seilbh ar Zacairiá mac Iahóideá an sagart. D’éirigh sé ina sheasamh os comhair an phobail agus dúirt leo:
“Seo mar a deir Dia: ‘Cad chuige a sáraíonn sibh aitheanta an Tiarna, agus gur miste sibh é? Tá sibh tar éis an Tiarna a thréigean; tá sibhse do bhur dtréigean aigesan anois.’” Rinneadar uisce faoi thalamh ina aghaidh agus ar fholáireamh an rí chlochadar é i gclós Theampall an Tiarna. Ar an gcaoi sin rinne an rí Ióáis dearmad den bhuanghrá a bhí ag Iahóideá athair Zacairiá dó, ach mharaigh sé a mhac. Nuair a bhí seisean ag fáil bháis, dúirt sé:
“Go bhfeice an Tiarna é seo agus go mbaine sé díoltas amach!”
Faoi cheann bliana chuir arm Arám cogadh ar Ióáis. Tháinig siad fad le Iúdá agus le Iarúsailéim, chuireadar prionsaí an phobail chun báis agus sheoladar an chreach ar ais go dtí rí na Damaisce. Bíodh gur tháinig arm Arám ar bheagán slua, thug an Tiarna arm an-mhór suas dóibh, toisc gur thréigeadarsan an Tiarna, Dia a sinsear. Thugadar an íde a bhí tuillte aige ar Ióáis, agus d’fhágadar ina ndiaidh é, agus é gortaithe go mór. Rinne a fheidhmeannaigh comhcheilg ina aghaidh in éiric bhás mhac Iahóideá an sagart agus mharaíodar é ina leaba. Is mar sin a fuair sé bás; agus chuireadar é i gcathair Dháiví ach níor chuireadar é i dtuamaí na ríthe.
Briathar an Tiarna Buíochas le Dia
Salm le Freagra Sm 88: 4-5. 29-34. R/v 29
Freagra Coinneoidh mé mo chineáltas go deo dó
1. “Cheangail mé conradh,” [a dúirt tú,] “leis an té a roghnaigh mé;
dhearbhaigh mé do Dháiví mo sheirbhíseach:
‘Socróidh mé do shliocht go brách, agus bunóidh mé do ríchathaoir go deo.’” Freagra
2. Coinneoidh mé mo chineáltas go deo dó; agus seasfaidh mo chonradh go daingean leis.
Socróidh mé a shliocht go síoraí agus a ríchathaoir mar laethanta na bhflaitheas. Freagra
3. Má thréigeann a chlann mhac mo dhlí, mura siúlann siad de réir mo phroiceaptaí,
más amhlaidh a sháraíonn siad m’fhorálacha, nó más amhlaidh a bhriseann siad m’aitheanta,
agróidh mé a gcion orthu leis an tslat; agus agróidh mé a gcoir orthu leis an lasc. Freagra
4. Ach ní bhainfidh mé mo bhuanghrá de go deo; ná ní rachaidh mé siar ar mo bhriathar. Freagra
SOISCÉAL
Go raibh an Tiarna libh. Agus le do spiorad féin
Sliocht as an Soiscéal naofa de réir Naomh Mhatha 6:24-34 Glóir duit, a Thiarna.
Ná bígí imníoch faoin lá amárach.
San am sin dúirt Íosa lena dheisceabail,
“Ní féidir do dhuine ar bith dhá mháistir a riaradh; óir beidh fuath aige do dhuine acu agus grá aige don duine eile, nó beidh sé ag déanamh dúthrachta do dhuine acu agus ag déanamh neamhshuime den duine eile. Ní féidir daoibh Dia a riaradh agus an t-airgead.
“Sin é an fáth a ndeirim libh: ná bígí imníoch faoi bhur mbeatha i dtaobh bia nó dí, na faoi bhur gcorp i dtaobh éadaigh. Nach mó le rá an bheatha ná an bia agus an corp ná an t-éadach?
“Féachaigí éanlaith an aeir: ní dhéanann siad síolchur ná fómhar ná cnuasach sna sciobóil, agus tugann bhur nAthair neamhaí bia dóibh. Nach mó is fiú sibhse ná iad sin? Cé agaibh a d’fhéadfadh, le bheith ag déanamh imní, aon bhanlámh amháin a chur le fad a shaoil? Agus cé an fáth a bhfuil sibh imníoch i dtaobh an éadaigh? Tugaigí faoi deara lilí an bháin, mar a fhásann siad; ní dhéanann siad saothar ná sníomh.
Ach deirim libh nach raibh ar Sholamh féin, dá mhéad a ghlóir, cóir éadaigh mar atá ar cheann díobh seo. Lus an bháin a bhíonn ann inniu agus atá le caitheamh sa sorn amárach, má éadaíonn Dia mar sin é, nach móide go mór dó sibhse a éadú, a lucht an bheagán creidimh? Dá bhrí sin, ná bígí go himníoch ag fiafraí: ‘Cá bhfaighimid bia, nó deoch, nó éadach?’ Nithe iad siúd uile a mbíonn na págánaigh ar a dtóir; rud eile, tá a fhios ag bhur nAthair neamhaí go bhfuil gá agaibh leis na nithe sin uile.
Ach déanaigí ríocht Dé agus a fhíréantacht a lorg ar dtús, agus tabharfar na nithe sin uile daoibh chomh maith.
Mar sin, ná bígí imníoch faoin lá amárach; beidh an lá amarach imníoch faoi féin. Is leor do gach lá a chuid féin den trioblóid.
Soiscéal an Tiarna. Moladh duit, a Chriost
AN BÍOBLA NAOFA
© An Sagart
Liturgical Readings for: Sunday, 21st June, 2026
Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A
FIRST READING
A reading from the book of the Prophet Jeremiah 20:10-13
He has delivered the soul of the needy from the hands of evil men.
Jeremiah said: I hear so many disparaging me,
"Terror from every side!" Denounce him! Let us denounce him!'
All those who used to be my friends watched for my downfall,
'Perhaps he will be seduced into error. Then we will master him and take our revenge!'
But the Lord is at my side, a mighty hero;
my opponents will stumble, mastered, confounded by their failure;
everlasting, unforgettable disgrace will be theirs.
But you, Lord of Hosts, you who probe with justice,
who scrutinise the loins and heart, let me see the vengeance you will take on them,
for I have committed my cause to you.
Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord, for he has delivered the soul of the needy from the hands of evil men.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 68:4-5. 29-34. R/v 29
Response In your great love, answer me, 0 God.
1. It is for you that I suffer taunts, that shame covers my face,
that I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my own mother's sons.
I burn with zeal for your house and taunts against you fall on me. Response
2. This is my prayer to you, my prayer for your favour.
In your great love, answer me, 0 God, with your help that never fails:
Lord, answer, for your love is kind; in your compassion, turn towards me. Response
3. The poor when they see it will be glad and God-seeking hearts will revive;
for the Lord listens to the needy and does not spurn his servants in their chains.
Let the heavens and the earth give him praise, the sea and all its living creatures. Response
SECOND READING
A reading from the letter of St Paul to the Romans 5:12-15
The gift itself considerably outweighed the fall.
Sin entered the world through one man, and through sin death, and thus death has spread through the whole human race because everyone has sinned. Sin existed in the world long before the Law was given. There was no law and so no one could be accused of the sin of 'law-breaking', yet death reigned over all from Adam to Moses, even though their sin, unlike that of Adam, was not a matter of breaking a law.
Adam prefigured the One to come, but the gift itself considerably outweighed the fall. If it is certain that through one man's fall so many died, it is even more certain that divine grace, coming through the one man, Jesus Christ, came to so many as an abundant free gift.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Gospel Acclamation Jn 1: 14.12
Alleluia, alleluia!
The Word was made flesh and lived among us;
to all who did accept him he gad.ve power to become children of God
Alleluia!
or Jn 15: 26.27
Alleluia, alleluia!
The Spirit of truth will be my witness; and you too will be my witnesses.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you And with your spirit.
A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew 10:26-33 Glory to you, O Lord
Do not be afraid of those who kill the body.
Jesus instructed the Twelve as follows:
'Do not be afraid of them therefore. For everything that is now covered will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the daylight; what you hear in whispers, proclaim from the housetops.'Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; fear him rather who can destroy both body and soul in hell. Can you not buy two sparrows for a penny? And yet not one falls to the ground without your Father knowing. Why, every hair on your head has been counted. So there is no need to be afraid; you are worth more than hundreds of sparrows.
'So if anyone declares himself for me in the presence of men, I will declare myself for him in the presence of my Father in heaven. But the one who disowns me in the presence of men, I will disown in the presence of my Father in heaven.
The Gospel of the Lord Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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For homily resources for this Sunday's Gospel click here: https://www.catholicireland.net/sunday-homily/
Taken from THE JERUSALEM BIBLE, published and copyright 1966, 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, 21st June, 2026
CÉAD LÉACHT Sliocht as an Leabhar Irimia, fáidh 20:10-13
Óir shaor sé anam an bhoicht ó láimh lucht déanta an oilc.
Dúirt Irimia, Cluinim mórán do mo tharcaisniú:
“Eagla ar gach aon taobh!
Sceithigí air! Sceithimis air!”Ag a raibh de chairde agam uair bhí súil in airde le mo threascairt:
“Meallfar é b’fhéidir, ansin béarfaimid bua air agus imreoimid díoltas air!”
Ach tá an Tiarna liomsa, curadh cumhachtach; ar an ábhar sin tuisleoidh lucht m’ionsaithe;
ní chloífidh siad mé; brisfear orthu; beidh siad trína chéile.
Ní dhéanfar dearmad go brách ar a náire shíoraí.
Ach, a Thiarna na Slua, a scrúdaíonn le fírinne, a ransaíonn na háranna agus an croí, feicim do dhíoltas orthu mar is duitse a d’fhoilsigh mé mo chúis.
Canaigí don Tiarna, molaigí an Tiarna, óir shaor sé anam an bhoicht ó láimh lucht déanta an oilc.
Briathar an Tiarna Buíochas le Dia
Salm le Freagra Sm 68; 4-5. 29-34. R/v 29
Freagra Éist liom de réir do bhuanghrá, a Thiarna.
1. Ar do shonsa a d'fhulaing mé aithisí, a bhí luisne na náire ar mo ghnúis.
Is strainséir mé do mo bhráithre féin, agus is comhthíoch mé do chlann mo mháthar.
Táim ar lasadh le dúthracht do do theach; is ormsa a thiteann aithisí lucht do cháinte. Freagra
2. Chugatsa a chuirim m'urnaí, a Thiarna, an uair is mian leat féin.
Éist liom de réir do bhuanghrá agus do chúnaimh chinnte.
Freagair mé as ucht do dhilghrá, a Thiarna; iompaigh chugam de réir do thrócaire. Freagra
3. Beidh áthas ar na hísle nuair a fheicfidh siad é; athbheofar croíthe lucht cuardaithe an Tiarna.
Éisteann an Tiarna leis na daoine bochta, is ní thugann droim láimhe dá bhraighdeanaigh.
Go mola na spéartha is an talamh é, an mhuir agus a maireann inti.
Rinneadh feoil den Bhriathar agus chónaigh sé inár measc,
An uile dhuine a ghlac é, thug sé de cheart dóibhgo ndéanfaí clann Dé díobh. Freagra
DARA LÉACHT
Sliocht as Litir Naomh Pól chuig na Rómhánaigh 5:12-15
Ní hé an dála céanna ag an tabhartas agus ag an gcoir é.
A bhráithre, tháinig an peaca isteach sa saol trí aon duine amháin agus an bás isteach tríd an bpeaca, sa tslí sin leath an bás i measc cách uile de bhrí go ndearna cách uile an peaca. Bhí an peaca ar an saol, ar ndóigh, sular tugadh an dlí ach ní chuirtear an peaca sa chuntas mura mbíonn dlí ann. Mar sin féin bhí an bás i réim ó Ádhamh anuas go Maois fiú amháin dóibh siúd nach raibh ciontach i mbriseadh reachta ar nós Ádhaimh.
Agus bhí Ádhamh ina shamhail ar an té úd a bhí le teacht. Ach ní hé an dála céanna ag an tabhartas agus ag an gcoir é. Mar, má fuair mórán bás de bharr choir an aon duine amháin, is fairsinge go mór do mhórán a bhí grásta Dé agus an tabhartas a dáileadh de dheonú an aon duine amháin, Íosa Críost.
Briathar an Tiarna Buíochas le Dia
Alleluia Véarsa Eo 1: 14: 12
Alleluia, alleluia!
Rinneadh feoil den Bhriathar agus chónaigh sé inár measc,
An uile dhuine a ghlac é, thug sé de cheart dóibhgo ndéanfaí clann Dé díobh
Alleluia!
SOISCÉAL
Go raibh an Tiarna libh. Agus le do spiorad féin
Sliocht as Soiscéal naofa de réir Naomh Mhatha 10:26-33 Glóir duit, a Thiarna
Ná bíodh eagla oraibh rompu seo a mharaíonn an corp.
San am sin dúirt Íosa:
Ná bíodh eagla oraibh rompu, mar sin. Níl aon ní i bhfolach nach bhfoilseofar, ná aon ní faoi cheilt nach mbeidh fios air. An rud a deirim libh sa dorchadas, abraigí i solas an lae é, agus an cogar a chuirtear in bhur gcluais, fógraígí é ó bharr na dtithe.“Ná bíodh eagla oraibh rompu seo a mharaíonn an corp ach nach féidir dóibh an t-anam a mharú: ní hea, ach bíodh eagla oraibh roimh an té ar féidir dó idir chorp agus anam a mhilleadh in ifreann. Nach mbíonn na gealbhain leathphingin an péire? Agus ní thitfidh gealbhan acu as an aer gan fhios do bhur nAthair. Maidir libhse, fiú amháin ribí bhur gcinn tá siad uile comhairthe. Mar sin, ná bíodh aon eagla oraibh; is mó is fiú sibhse ná dá liacht na gealbhain!
“Duine ar bith a admhóidh mise os comhair daoine, admhóidh mise eisean chomh maith os comhair m’Athar atá ar neamh. Ach duine ar bith a shéanfaidh os comhair daoine mé, séanfaidh mise eisean chomh maith os comhair m’Athar atá ar neamh.
Soiscéal an Tiarna. Moladh duit, a Chriost
AN BÍOBLA NAOFA
© An Sagart
