Patrick O'Hely

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Blessed

Patrick O'Hely
(Irish: Pádraig Ó hÉilí)

O.F.M.
Bishop of Mayo, Martyr
Bornbetween c. 1543 and c. 1546
Dromahair, County Leitrim, Ireland
Died31 August 1579 (aged between 33 - 36)
Outside one of the gates of Kilmallock
Venerated inRoman Catholic Church
Beatified27 September 1992 by Pope John Paul II
Feast31 August

Patrick O'Hely (Irish: Pádraig Ó hÉilí) (born between 1543 - 1546, died 31 August, 1579) was an Irish Franciscan priest and Bishop, who was tortured and executed as part of the Elizabethan era religious persecution of the Catholic Church in Ireland. Bishop O'Hely was Beatified, along with his companion Friar Conn Ó Ruairc, in 1992 by Pope John Paul II along with 15 other Irish Catholic Martyrs. Their martyrdom is commemorated every year on 20 June.[1]

Biography[edit]

Born in Dromahair, County Leitrim, and a native of Connacht, Patrick O'Hely joined the Franciscans at an early age. Four years after his profession he was sent to the Spanish University of Alcalá, where he surpassed his contemporaries in sacred studies.[2]

While residing in the Aracoeli monastery in Rome, O'Hely was proposed to the Pope at the 4 July 1575 consistory meeting for the bishopric of Mayo,[3][4] later merged in the archbishopric of Tuam. As the Catholic Church in Ireland was still strictly illegal and underground, Pope Gregory XIII empowered Bishop O'Hely to officiate in adjoining dioceses, if no Catholic bishop were at hand, and supplied him generously with money. At Paris he took part in public disputations at the Sorbonne university, amazing his hearers by his mastery of patristic, Renaissance humanist, and Counter-Reformation theology, as well as of Scotist philosophy.

In autumn, 1579, he sailed from Brittany and arrived off the coast of Kerry after James Fitzmaurice had landed at Ard na Caithne from Portugal with the remnant of Thomas Stukeley's expedition. All Munster was up in arms.

The House of Desmond was divided, and the Earl had withdrawn from the scene of action. The bishop and his companion, Conn O'Rourke (Irish: Conn Ó Ruairc, born c. 1549), a Franciscan Friar, son of Brian, Lord of Breifne, came ashore at Corca Dhuibhne and sought hospitality at Askeaton Castle, where, in the Earl's absence, the Countess entertained them. Next day, they departed for Limerick; but the Countess, probably so instructed, for the Rebel Earl later claimed the merit afterwards, gave information to the Lord Mayor of Limerick, who three days later seized the two ecclesiastics and sent them to Kilmallock, where Lord Justice Sir William Drury then was with an army.[3]

As Lord President of Munster, Drury had taken severe measures, in one year executing four hundred persons "by justice and martial law"; some he sentenced "by natural law, for that he found no law to try them by in the realm".

At first, he offered to secure Bishop Ó hÉilí in his see for the Church of Ireland if he would take the Act of Supremacy and disclose all business of the Holy See. The bishop replied that he could not barter his faith for life or honours. Bishop O'Hely also confessed that he belonged to the Franciscan Order and was the Bishop of Mayo. He explained that his reasons for returning to Ireland were purely religious and that his mission was always intended to be a peaceful one.[5]

Drury responded, "And do you dare to defend the authority of the Pope against the laws of the Queen and Parliament?!"[6]

O'Hely replied, "I repeat what I have said and I am ready if necessary to die for that sacred truth." Friar O'Rourke replied in the same strain.[7]

To questions about the plans of the Pope and King Philip II of Spain for invading Ireland he made no answer, and thereupon was delivered to torture.

According to Cardinal Patrick Francis Moran, "These orders from Drury were executed with an uncommon degree of barbarity. The two prisoners were first placed on the rack, their arms and feet were beaten with hammers, so that their thigh bones were broken and sharp iron points and needles were cruelly thrust under their nails, which caused an extreme agony of suffering. For a considerable time they were subjected to these tortures, which the holy confessors bore patiently for the love of Christ, mutually exhorting one another to constancy and perseverance."[8]

Blessed

Conn O'Rourke
(Irish: Conn Ó Ruairc)

O.F.M.
Franciscan friar, Martyr
Bornc. 1549
Brefney, Ireland
Died31 August 1579 (aged 29 - 30)
Outside one of the gates of Kilmallock
Venerated inRoman Catholic Church
Beatified27 September 1992 by Pope John Paul II
Feast31 August

Also according to Cardinal Moran, "When the martyr-prelate was being hurried to execution, he turned to Drury, and warned him that before many days he himself should appear before the tribunal of God to answer for his crimes. On the fourteenth day after, this unhappy man expired in great agony, at Waterford, of a distemper that baffled every remedy."[9] Drury Lane in London is still named in his honour.[10]

Bishop O'Hely and Friar Conn O'Ruairc were hanged from a tree just outside the gates of Kilmallock on 22nd/31rd August 1579.[11] Their bodies were left suspended from this improvised gallows for fourteen days,[3] during which both bodies were used for target practice by the local military garrison of the Tudor Army. Despite his own role in their arrest, the Rebel Earl of Desmond arranged for both Franciscans' bodies to be buried in the monastery Church of their Order in Clonmel, County Tipperary. In 1647, the relics were re-exhumed and solemnly reburied alongside the bodies of the Earls of Desmond at Askeaton Abbey, County Limerick.[12]

Legacy[edit]

Exiled English Recusant poet Richard Verstegen's depiction of the religious persecution of Irish Catholics, focusing mainly upon the torture and execution of Archbishop Dermot O'Hurley. The hanging of Bishop Patrick O'Hely and Friar Conn Ó Ruairc is shown in the background.

The torture and martyrdom of Bishop O'Hely and Friar Conn remains highly significant as a contributing cause for the Nine Years War, which formally began when Red Hugh O'Donnell expelled English High Sheriff of Donegal Humphrey Willis. According to Philip O'Sullivan Beare, "Being surrounded there [Willis] surrendered to Roe by whom he was dismissed in safety with an injunction to remember his words, that the Queen and her officers were dealing unjustly with the Irish; that the Catholic religion was contaminated by impiety; that holy bishops and priests were inhumanely and barbarously tortured; that Catholic noblemen were cruelly imprisoned and ruined; that wrong was deemed right; that he himself had been treacherously and perfidiously kidnapped; and that for these reasons he would neither give tribute or allegiance to the English."[13]

In September 1992, Pope John Paul II beatified O'Rouke and O'Hely alongside 15 other Irish Catholic Martyrs.[14]

References[edit]

  1. ^ CREAZIONE DI VENTUNO NUOVI BEATI: OMELIA DI GIOVANNI PAOLO II, Piazza San Pietro - Domenica, 27 settembre 1992.
  2. ^ "Patrick O'Hely." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 20 Feb. 2014
  3. ^ a b c Webb, Alfred. "Bishop Patrick O'Hely", A Compendium of Irish Biography, Dublin, M.H. Gill & Son, 1878
  4. ^ D.P. Conyngham, Lives of the Irish Martyrs, P.J. Kenedy & Sons, New York. Page 49.
  5. ^ D.P. Conyngham, Lives of the Irish Martyrs, P.J. Kenedy & Sons, New York. Page 50.
  6. ^ D.P. Conyngham, Lives of the Irish Martyrs, P.J. Kenedy & Sons, New York. Page 50.
  7. ^ D.P. Conyngham, Lives of the Irish Martyrs, P.J. Kenedy & Sons, New York. Page 50.
  8. ^ D.P. Conyngham, Lives of the Irish Martyrs, P.J. Kenedy & Sons, New York. Page 50-51.
  9. ^ D.P. Conyngham, Lives of the Irish Martyrs, P.J. Kenedy & Sons, New York. Page 51.
  10. ^ Thornbury, Walter. "The Strand (Northern Tributaries): Drury Lane and Clare Market". British History Online. Retrieved 2 December 2022.
  11. ^ D.P. Conyngham, Lives of the Irish Martyrs, P.J. Kenedy & Sons, New York. Page 50-51.
  12. ^ D.P. Conyngham, Lives of the Irish Martyrs, P.J. Kenedy & Sons, New York. Page 51.
  13. ^ Philip O'Sullivan Beare (1903), Chapters Towards a History of Ireland Under Elizabeth, page 68.
  14. ^ Edited by Patrick J. Cornish and Benignus Millet (2005), The Irish Martyrs, Four Courts Press, Dublin. Pages 19-31.

Sources[edit]

External links[edit]

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