This image counterposes O’Devany and O’Loughran (background) with the sufferings of 16th century martyr Archbishop Dermot O’Hurley (foreground).
Bx Conor O’Devany, évêque et Patrick O’Lougham, prêtre, martyrs
Conor O'Devany, né en 1532 en Irlande du Nord, prêtre franciscain, ordonné évêque de Down et Connor le 2 février 1583. Patrick O’Lougham, né vers 1577, prêtre franciscain originaire de l'archidiocèse d'Armagh furent martyrisés et pendus à Dublin le 1er février 1612 sous le roi Jacques Ier, à cause de la foi catholique.
Bienheureux Conor O’Devany et Patrick O’Lougham
Martyrs en Irlande (+ 1612)
Conor O'Devany, né en 1532 en Irlande du Nord, prêtre franciscain, ordonné évêque de Down et Connor le 2 février 1583. Patrick O’Lougham, né vers 1577, prêtre franciscain de l'archidiocèse d'Armagh. Martyrisés le 1er février 1612 à Dublin en Irlande et béatifiés le 27 septembre 1992.
À Dublin, en 1612, les bienheureux martyrs Conor O’Devany, évêque de Down et Connor, franciscain, et Patrick O’Lougham, prêtre, qui, sous le roi Jacques Ier, furent condamnés à mort à cause de la foi catholique et subirent le supplice de la pendaison.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/11406/Bienheureux-Conor-O%92Devany-et-Patrick-O%92Lougham.html
Also known as
Conchubhar Ó Duibheanaigh
20 June as
one of the Irish
Martyrs
Profile
Franciscan Friars
Minor (Observants) priest.
Chosen bishop of
the diocese of Down
and Connor, Ireland on 13 May 1582 by Pope Gregory
XIII. Arrested in 1588 in
the anti–Catholic panic
following the failed invasion by the Spanish Armada. Arrested again
in 1611,
he is one of the Irish
Martyrs.
Born
c.1530 in Ulster, Armagh, Ireland
hanged on 1 February 1611 in Dublin, Ireland
6 July 1991 by Pope John
Paul II
27
September 1992 by Pope John
Paul II in Rome, Italy
Additional Information
books
Book of Saints, by the Monks of
Ramsgate
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
other sites in english
sitios en español
Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
fonti in italiano
Martirologio Romano, 2005 edition
MLA Citation
“Blessed Conor O’Devany“. CatholicSaints.Info. 31
January 2017. Web. 13 April 2021.
<https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-conor-odevany/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-conor-odevany/
Cornelius O'Devany
(Conchobhar
O'Duibheannaigh)
Bishop of Down and Connor, Ireland, b. about 1532;
d. at Dublin, 11
February, 1612 (N. S.). He was a Franciscan of
Donegal Convent, and while in Rome in 1582 was
appointed Bishop of Down and Connor,
and consecrated,
2 February, 1583. In 1588 he was committed to Dublin Castle. Failing to convict
him of any crime punishable with death, Lord Deputy Fitzwilliam sought
authority from Burghley to "be rid of such an obstinate enemy of God and so rank a
traitor to her Majesty as no doubt he is".
He lay in prison until
November, 1590, being then released ostensibly on his own petition but
doubtless through policy. He was protected by O'Neill until 1607, and escaped
arrest until the middle of 1611, when, almost eighty years old, he was taken
while administering confirmation and again committed to Dublin Castle. On 28
January, 1612, he was tried for high treason, found guilty by the majority of a
packed jury, and sentenced to die on 1 February (O.S.). He was drawn on a cart
from the Castle to the gallows beyond the river; the whole route was crowded
with Catholics lamenting
and begging his blessing. Protestant clergymen pestered
him with ministrations and urged him to confess he died for treason. "Pray
let me be", he answered, "the viceroy's messenger to me here present,
could tell that I might have life and revenue for going once to that temple",
pointing to a tower opposite. He kissed the gallows
before mounting, and then proceeding to exhort the Catholics to
constancy, he was thrown off, cut down alive, and quartered. With him suffered
Patrick O'Loughran, a priest arrested
at Cork. The
people, despite the guards, carried off the halter, his clothes, and even
fragments of his body and chips of the gallows. They prayed all night by
the remains, an infirm man was reported cured by touching them, and Mass after
Mass was said there from Midnight until day. Such was the concourse that the
viceroy ordered the members to be buried on the spot, but next night the Catholics exhumed
them and interred them
in St. James's Churchyard. A list of martyrs compiled by
Dr. O'Devany was used by Rothe in his
"Analecta".
Sources
O'Laverty, Diocese of Down and Connor, V (Dublin,
1895); Rothe, Analecta Nova et Mira, ed. Moran (Dublin, 1884); O'Reilly,
Memorials of those who suffered for the Catholic Faith (London, 1868); Murphy,
Our Martyrs (Dublin, 1896).
Cornelius O'Devany." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton
Company, 1911. 13 Apr.
2021 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11207a.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for
New Advent by William D. Neville.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. February
1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal
Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2020 by Kevin Knight. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11207a.htm
Also known as
Pádraig Ó Lochráin
Patrick O’Lochran
20 June as
one of the Irish
Martyrs
Profile
Priest in
the archdiocese of Armagh, Ireland.
One of the Irish
Martyrs.
Born
c.1577 in Ulster, Armagh, Ireland
1
February 1611 in Dublin, Ireland
6 July 1991 by Pope John
Paul II
27
September 1992 by Pope John
Paul II in Rome, Italy
Additional Information
books
Book of Saints, by the Monks of
Ramsgate
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
other sites in english
MLA Citation
“Blessed Patrick O’Loughran“. CatholicSaints.Info.
15 June 2015. Web. 13 April 2021.
<https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-patrick-oloughran/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-patrick-oloughran/
The martyrdom of Bishop O’Devaney
30 November, 1999
Henry Peel OP tells the story of the 17th century
martyrdom of Bishop Conor O’Devaney and a young priest, Fr Patrick O’Loughran.
George’s Hill on Dublin’s Northside is best known
today because it is the site of George’s Hill Presentation Convent. This was
the first foundation of the Presentation Sisters in the city. It dates from
1794. The site has also been identified as the place of martyrdom of the
Franciscan bishop of Down and Connor, and a priest, Patrick O’Loughran, who had
been arrested in Cork on his return from the continent. They were hanged, drawn
and quartered on February 1st, 1612.
The bishop was in his eighties and the priest about
thirty five. They are included in the seventeen Irish martyrs whose annual
memorial is celebrated on June 20. There are ten separate accounts of the
martyrdom which agree substantially about the details. Two of these claim to be
based on the testimony of eyewitnesses. The third was written by a Franciscan
from Dundalk within three months of the event. He would certainly have met
people who were present. The fourth was compiled by Franciscans in Louvain from
letters received from Ireland a short time after the martyrdom.
Place of execution
In 1612 George’s Hill was simply a hill outside the
city. There was then only one bridge over the river Liffey. It gave its name to
Bridge Street which it connected with Church Street, named after the Church of
St. Michan. It was over that bridge that Conor O’Devany and Patrick O’Loughran
were brought by cart from Dublin Castle to George’s Hill on February 1st, 1612.
The bishop is reported as saying that he was being carried to his place of
execution while Christ had to carry his cross. Crowds gathered to accompany
them on their journey and it is estimated that there were several thousand at
the place of execution. The Catholic population of Dublin was certainly well
represented. Until the last moment the prisoners were offered a pardon and
preferment if they would take the Oath of Supremacy.
On arrival at the place of execution the prisoners
were released from the cart to which they had been tied lying on their backs
faced upwards. Immediately, they knelt to pray. The Sheriff, surrounded by
soldiers, ordered them to approach the gallows. The bishop threw off his cloak
and appeared in his Franciscan habit. He had told a woman who visited him in
prison to make sure that he was buried in his Franciscan habit saying that he
esteemed it more than the insignia of a bishop. He requested that the priest
should be the first to suffer lest the spectacle of his own suffering should
weaken his resolution. The request was refused.
As he mounted the scaffold a great cry arose from the
crowd. Even at this last moment he was offered his freedom and preferment if he
would confess his treason and take the Oath of Supremacy. He replied that he
was being put to death for his faith and not for treason.
Scaffold bathed in red glow
On reaching the top step of the scaffold the bishop
prayed aloud for all who were present. He prayed for the Catholics of Dublin
and of Ireland, urging them to persevere in their faith. He prayed for all
heretics and for their reunion with the Church and he forgave his persecutors.
He kissed the hangman’s rope, placed it around his neck, drew the veil over his
face and held out his hands to be tied.
It was at this moment that an event occurred which was
recorded by almost all the sources and evidently was remembered by all the
witnesses. The sky had been dark and overcast all that day. Now as the sun was
setting the clouds parted and the scaffold was bathed in the red glow of the
setting sun. While the bishop hung on the gallows the clouds closed over again.
After the bishop had been hanged the executioner cut
off his head and held it up with the customary cry: ‘Look on the head of a
traitor’. The work of dismembering the body was completed and the crowd surged
forward, seeking some relics of the martyr.
The execution of the priest followed in similar
fashion. The remains were buried on George’s Hill but disinterred the following
night and given honourable burial. One source which claims the testimony of an
eyewitness records simply that they were buried ‘with other martyrs’. This may
mean St. Kevin’s churchyard where the memory of the martyred Archbishop of
Cashel, Dermot O’Hurley was still green.
Member of the Franciscan Order
Conor O’Devany had entered the Observant branch of the
Franciscan Order in the friary of Donegal sometime around 1550 when he was a
very young man. This friary had been founded by the ruling O’Donnell family in
1474. It had not yet been confiscated since the royal writ did not run in the
Gaelic North until after the surrender of Hugh O’Neill in 1603. Conor O’Devany
was appointed bishop of Down and Connor by Pope Gregory XIII in May 1582. He
was one of three bishops consecrated on May 13th, 1582 in the Church of Santa
Maria dell’ Anima in Rome. He returned to Ireland shortly afterwards.
Conor O’Devany was one of six bishops and a gathering
of the clergy who attended a synod in Clogher in 1587 which promulgated the
decrees of the Council of Trent. He was captured and imprisoned in Dublin
Castle in the nervous aftermath of the failure of the Spanish Armada in 1588
but managed to obtain his release and returned to continue his pastoral care of
his diocese. In the early summer of 1611 he was again taken prisoner and lodged
in Dublin Castle.
The Elizabethan conquest was completed with the
surrender of Hugh O’Neill in 1603. What is known as the ‘flight of the
Earls’followed in 1607. There was no longer any political or military focus of
resistance to English rule.
Accused of treason
In 1612 O’Devany was accused of assisting Hugh O’Neill
and Brian MacArt O’Neill in their treasons. The bishop admitted that he had
lived in the war zone during the nine years war. He had done so because it was
his duty to discharge his pastoral care and he had confined himself to doing
his duty. He protested that he was being charged because of his religion and
not because of any treason which he denied having committed. The bishop also
denied the competence of a secular court to try him. The Chief Justice
commented that Christ had submitted to being tried by Pilate to which the
bishop replied that he was content to play the role that Christ played before
Pilate.
Lord Deputy Chichester had thought that by making an
example of a bishop and a priest he would cow the Catholics, particularly those
of the Pale into religious conformity. The attempt had the opposite effect and
provoked a demonstration of religious fervour in the heart of the Pale.
Martyrdom was forging a link between the Old English and the Gaelic Irish. Five
days after the execution Chichester reported to London ‘how a titular Bishop
and a priest being lately executed for treason merely are notwithstanding
thought martyrs and adored for saints’.
This article first appeared in The
St Martin Magazine (February 2001), a publication of the Irish
Dominicans.
SOURCE : https://www.catholicireland.net/the-martyrdom-of-bishop-odevaney/
1612:
Bishop Conor O’Devany and Father Patrick O’Loughran
February 1st, 2015 Headsman
On this date in 1612,* Bishop Conor O’Devan(e)y and Father Patrick
O’Loughran were hanged, drawn, and quartered as
traitors at George’s Hill outside of Dublin.
In the wake of the Gunpowder
Plot, Ireland’s Catholics found things increasingly uncomfortable
under King James.
In 1607, reacting to a squeeze on their incomes and
prerogatives, two native noblemen fled to the continent hoping to make
arrangements with the Spanish for a reconquest that would never come.
This Flight of
the Earls spelled the end of Ireland’s homegrown Gaelic aristocracy
and set the stage for the Plantation of Ulster,
the settler statelet that formed the germ of present-day Northern Ireland.
O’Loughran’s crime was very simple: already on the
continent himself, he had administered the sacraments to those attainted
fugitives, later having the boldness to return to Ireland.
There, the charge of collaborating with Bishop
O’Devany was also laid to his shoulders.
While O’Loughran was in the summer of his natural
life, O’Devany was around eighty years old. Consecrated a bishop in Rome in
1582, he had returned to the north of Ireland and been briefly detained in the
post-Spanish Armada security
scare.
In the 1600s, O’Devany’s protector had been Hugh
O’Neill, Earl of Tyronne, and unfortunately this man was one of the earls
in the aforementioned Flight.
He wasn’t a difficult man to target, but the somewhat
gratuitous decision by England’s viceroy to
do so was not widely supported even by the English and Protestant factions.
O’Loughran’s conduct could perhaps be stretched to resemble treason; O’Devany
was just an old man being persecuted for his faith. Going to his glory, the
bishop did not fail to play that angle up under the eyes of a sympathetic
Gaelic crowd.
Far from being cowed by the bishop’s butchery, those
onlookers swarmed the gallows, touching the spilled blood and the quartered
flesh as holy relics. “Some cut away all the hair from the head, which they
preserved for a relic; some others gave practice to steal the head away … the
body being dissevered into four quarters, they neither left finger or toe, but
they cut them off and carried them away … with their knives they shaed off
chips from the hallowed gallows; neither could they omit the halter with which
he was hanged, but it was rescued for holy uses.” (Barnabe Rich)
Days after the
executions, that aforementioned aggressive viceroy, Lord Chichester, reported
to London how “a titular Bishop and a priest being lately executed for treason merely are
notwithstanding thought martyrs and adored for saints.”
Thanks to the counterproductive outcome, the
British laid off the
policy of martyring Catholic priests thereafter (at least until Cromwell,
but that’s another
story).
Both men were beatified in 1992 among the Irish Catholic
Martyrs.
* The date was February 1 according to the Julian
calendar still in use by England at the time; it was February 12 according to
the Gregorian calendar. England occupied Ireland
through the period of the new Gregorian calendar’s initial 16th
century adoption by Europe’s Catholic countries, so the official date
in Ireland was February 1 … even though the padres’ boss in Rome would have
considered it February 12.
Possibly Related Executions:
1679: St. John Kemble,
80-year-old priest
1608: St. Thomas
Garnet, protomartyr of Stonyhurst
1581: Edmund
Campion, Ralph Sherwin and Alexander Briant
1582: John Payne, snitched out
1679: St. David Lewis, the
last Welsh martyr
1588:
Nicholas Garlick, Robert Ludlam, and Richard Simpson
1578: Blessed John Nelson, martyr
SOURCE : http://www.executedtoday.com/2015/02/01/1612-bishop-conor-odevany-and-father-patrick-oloughran/
Beati Conor O' Devany e Patrizio O' Lougham Martiri
>>>
Visualizza la Scheda del Gruppo cui appartiene
† Dublino, Irlanda, 1 febbraio 1611
Conor O' Devany e Patrizio O' Lougham, rispettivamente
vescovo di Down e Connor e sacerdote dell’arcidiocesi di Armagh, entrambi
nativi di Ulster nell’Irlanda del Nord furono impiccati sotto il regno di
Giacomo I per la loro fede cattolica. Papa Giovanni Paolo II li ha beatificati
il 27 settembre 1992.
Martirologio Romano: A Dublino in Irlanda, beati
martiri Conor O’Devany, vescovo di Down e di Connor, dell’Ordine dei Frati
Minori, e Patrizio O’Lougham, sacerdote, che, sotto il re Giacomo I, condannati
per la loro fede cattolica, subirono il supplizio dell’impiccagione.
Il martirio di questi due intrepidi testimoni della fede si colloca nel contesto delle persecuzione perpetrate in Gran Bretagna ed Irlanda verso quei cattolici che rifiutarono di firmare l’Atto di Supremazia, cioè il riconoscimento del sovrano inglese quale capo della Chiesa Anglicana in opposizione al Romano Pontefice.
Conor O' Devany [Conchubhar O Duibheanaigh] nacque a Raphoe, nella contea irlandese di Donegal. In giovane età divenne frate francescano nel 1550. Il 13 maggio 1582 il pontefice Gregorio XIII lo consacrò vescovo di Down e Connor nella chiesa di Santa Maria dell’Anima in Roma. Nel 1588, anno dell’Armada, fu arrestato ed imprigionato per alcuni anni. Una volta rilasciato continuò ad esercitare il suo ministero, ignorando le difficoltà che si moltiplicavano e rifiutando di essere coinvolto nella guerra dei Nove Anni con il grande Hugh O’Neill.
Patrick O’Loughran [Padraig Ó Lochrain] nacque a Donaghmore, nella contea irlandese di Tyrone, nel 1577. Divenuto presbitero, fu nominato cappellano di O’Neill. Nel 1607, dopo la fuga dei Conti, fu cappellano della contessa O’Neill presso Flanders. Tornato poi in Irlanda, venne immediatamente arrestato a Cork, insieme al vescovo Conor O' Devany.
Per i due compagni di prigionia fu celebrato un comune
processo all’inizio del 1612. Da Londra era giunto alle autorità protestanti di
Dublino l’ordine di giustiziare un vescovo e come compagno di quest’ultimo fu
designato il cappellano di O’Neill. L’accusa nei loro confronti fu di
tradimento ed il verdetto naturalemente di colpevolezza. Vennero dunque
impiccati insieme a Dublino il 1° febbraio 1612. Papa Giovanni Paolo II li ha
beatificati il 27 settembre 1992 insieme ad altre quindici vittime della
medesima persecuzione.
Autore: Fabio Arduino
