ICONOGRAPHIE CHRÉTIENNE: Saint OLIVER PLUNKETT, évêque et martyr

Edward Luttrell (1650–1724), Oliver Plunkett (copy possibly after an original of 1681 by Edward Lutterell), circa 1700, 52.1 x 44.5, National Portrait Gallery

Saint Olivier Plunkett

Évêque d'Armagh, martyr (+ 1681)

Il naquit à l'époque où le gouvernement royal d'Angleterre dépossédait les Irlandais de leurs terres pour les donner aux Anglais protestants qu'il installait dans l'île catholique. Il eut vingt ans au moment où Cromwell noya dans le sang la révolte de ses compatriotes. Ordonné prêtre en 1654, il fut nommé archevêque d'Armagh quinze ans plus tard. Il s'y montra toujours courageux, entreprenant et d'humeur joyeuse. Quand il fut arrêté, il ne perdit rien de sa bonne humeur et de sa courtoisie. On l'accusait d'avoir préparé le débarquement de 20 000 soldats français en Irlande et d'avoir taxé son clergé pour mettre sur pied une armée de 70 000 hommes. Le jury le condamna à "être pendu, vidé et démembré." Saint Olivier remercia le juge et pardonna aux dénonciateurs qui l'avaient calomnié. "Je suis heureux d'aller auprès du Christ dont je vous ai tant parlé."

C'était le 1er juillet, selon l'ancien calendrier, c'est-à-dire le 11 juillet de l'année 1681; selon les divers calendriers, il est fêté le 11 ou le 12 juillet. Il figure au 1er juillet sur le martyrologe romain.

Olivier Plunket a été béatifié le 23 mai 1920 à Rome par le Pape Benoît XV et canonisé le 12 octobre 1975 à Rome par le Pape Paul VI.

"Le zèle pastoral de Saint Oliver Plunkett, canonisé en ce jour, est d'abord un exemple saisissant et entraînant pour tous ceux qui portent la charge de l'épiscopat! Mais cette cérémonie, si réconfortante, est également pour les fidèles un appel pressant à l'union autour de leurs Évêques, pour avancer dans la Foi et pour collaborer davantage à l'Évangélisation du monde d'aujourd'hui! Que le Seigneur vous donne à tous cette grâce de choix!" (source: homélie de Paul VI - multilingue - site du Vatican)

"Saint Oliver Plunkett, l'archevêque martyr d'Armagh, est l'exemple le plus célèbre d'une multitude de fils et de filles courageux d'Irlande, prêts à donner leur vie pour la fidélité à l'Evangile."

Lettre pastorale aux catholiques d'Irlande - Benoît XVI - le 19 mars 2010.

en anglais: sanctuaire de Drogheda, paroisse Saint Peter and Saint Oliver, diocèse d'Armagh en Irlande.

Au 1er juillet du martyrologe romain: à Londres, en 1681, la passion de saint Olivier Plunkett, évêque d'Armagh en Irlande et martyr. Faussement accusé de haute trahison, sous le roi Charles II, et condamné à mort, devant la potence, en présence d'une grande foule, il pardonna à ses ennemis et professa jusqu'au bout, avec courage, la foi catholique.

Martyrologe romain

SOURCE : https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/1600/Saint-Olivier-Plunkett.html

Bienheureux Olivier Plunkett

Né en 1629 à Longherew (Irlande), il eut à souffrir la persécution anticatholique de Cromwell. Ordonné prêtre en 1654, il fut nommé archevêque d'Armagh en 1669. Courageux, et d'humeur toujours joyeuse et courtoise, il passa de longues années dans les prisons de Londres et fut condamné à être « pendu, vidé et démembré ». Il pardonna à ceux qui l'envoyaient à la mort et écrivit sa dernière lettre : « Je ne crains pas la mort; je suis au contraire heureux d'aller auprès du Christ. Et aussi de montrer à mes chers Irlandais que je tâche de pratiquer ce que je leur ai si souvent enseigné. » Son exécution eut lieu le 11 juillet 1681.

SOURCE : http://www.paroisse-saint-aygulf.fr/index.php/prieres-et-liturgie/saints-par-mois/icalrepeat.detail/2015/07/12/925/-/bienheureux-olivier-plunkett

Saint OLIVER PLUNKETT

Saint Olivier Plunkett naquit en Irlande dans le comté de Meath, le 1er novembre 1625. Il deviendra évêque d'Armagh et Primat d'Irlande en 1669.

Son pays ayant été ravagé par les guerres de religion, il s'attache à réorganiser l'Église. Il est bientôt traqué par des Protestants anglais. Il passe alors dans la clandestinité et poursuit son ministère pastoral, toujours entreprenant et d'humeur joyeuse. Accusé d'avoir comploté contre l'Angleterre et préparé un débarquement français, l'évêque Olivier est arrêté à Dublin et transféré à Londres. Pendant les longs mois qu'il passa en prison, il ne perd rien de sa courtoisie et de son enjouement. Le jury le condamne à être "pendu, vidé et démembré". Olivier va jusqu'à remercier chaleureusement ses juges, en pardonnant à ceux qui l'avaient dénoncé. Avant de subir le martyre à Londres le 11 juillet 1681, il écrit une dernière lettre qui a été conservée. Il y déclare : "Je ne crains pas la mort ; au contraire, je suis heureux de rejoindre le Christ et de montrer à mes chers Irlandais que je tâche de pratiquer ce que je leur ai si souvent enseigné".

C'est le Pape Paul VI qui a élevé sur les autels, en 1975, l'évêque d'Armagh Olivier Plunkett, dont le corps repose en Angleterre à l'abbaye de Downside, et la tête en Irlande dans un "mémorial" à Drogheda. C'est un magnifique symbole pour invoquer l'intercession d'Olivier Plunkett en faveur de la paix entre les deux Iles Britanniques : Angleterre, Irlande.

Il a bien illustré le sens de son prénom, comme ce bel arbre, symbole d'élégance morale, et comme son fruit, l'olive, aux multiples vertus de remède, de lumière et de vigueur ainsi que le rameau d'olivier, annonciateur de la paix introuvable.

Rédacteur : Frère Bernard Pineau, OP

SOURCE : http://www.lejourduseigneur.com/Web-TV/Saints/Olivier

Oliver Plunket

Sant'Oliviero Plunkett

Saint Oliver Plunkett

Also known as

Oileabhéar Pluincéad

Oliver Plunket

Memorial

1 July

10 July in some parts of Ireland

Profile

Oliver was born to the Irish nobility, part of a family who supported King Charles I and the fight for Irish national freedom from England. Growing up, he was greatly influenced by his uncle Patrick, a Cistercian monk who later became bishop of the Irish dioceses of Ardagh and Meath. Beginning in 1647, Oliver studied at the newly established Irish College in Rome, Italy, an institute operated by the Jesuits. He was ordained a priest in Rome in 1654. He loved the city of Rome and stayed there to serve as professor of theology at the Propaganda Fide College from 1654 through 1669, and part of the time as procurator or agent in Rome for the bishops of Ireland. In 1669 Father Oliver was chosen archbishop of Armagh, Ireland, making him the primate, or primary Church official, of all Ireland.

Bishop Oliver’s return to Ireland was a rough one; discipline was lax among the priests, and many clergy and laity were so provincial that they objected to a man from County Meath becoming bishop in Armagh. Oliver worked to return the faithful to the faith, and his diocese to their support. He established the Jesuits in Drogheda, where they ran a school for boys, and a college for theology students. He enforced clerical discipline and worked to send students to the colleges in Rome. He extended his ministry to Gaelic speaking Catholics of the highlands and the isles off the coast of Ireland, but due to a increase in the persecution of Catholics, he was forced to conduct much of his ministry covertly.

Saint Oliver was arrested and at Dundalk, Ireland in 1679 on a charge of conspiring against the state as part of the “Titus Oates” plot to overthrow King Charles II. He was initially lodged at Dublin Castle where he gave final absolution to Archbishop Peter Talbot of Dublin. Oliver was accused to taxing the clergy to pay for 70,000 men, 20,000 of whom would be French soldiers that the bishop would bring into the country in an effort to overthrow the government. The English authorities knew that Oliver would never be convicted in Ireland, and had him moved to Newgate prison in London, England. His first trial was an aquittal, but he was not released. Instead, a second trial was arranged, and it was complete kangaroo court; Lord Campbell, writing of the judge, Sir Francis Pemberton, called it a disgrace to himself and his country. Plunkett was found guilty of high treason “for promoting the Catholic faith,” and was condemned to a gruesome death. He was the last Catholic to die for his faith on the gallows at Tyburn in London, and was the first of the Irish Martyrs to be beatified.

Born

30 September 1629 at Loughenew, County Meath, Ireland

Died

hanged, drawn, and quartered on 1 July 1681 at Tyburn, England

body initially buried in two tin boxes next to five Jesuits who had died before him

his head is in Saint Peter’s Church at Drogheda, Ireland

most of his body is at Downside Abbey, Somerset, England

some relics in other churches in Ireland

Venerated

17 March 1918 by Pope Benedict XV

Beatified

21 May 1920 by Pope Benedict XV at Rome, Italy

Canonized

12 October 1975 by Pope Paul VI at Rome, Italy

Patronage

Armagh, Ireland, archdiocese of

Additional Information

Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate

Catholic Encyclopedia

Catholic World: An Irish Martyr

New Catholic Dictionary

Oliver Plunkett, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland, by Anna Theresa Sadlier

books

Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints

other sites in english

Canonization Homily, by Pope Paul VI

Find A Grave: Saint Peter’s Cathedral, Drogheda, Ireland

Find A Grave: Saint Giles in the Fields, Holburn, London, England

Franciscan Media

Independent Catholic News

images

video

sitios en español

Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición

sites en français

La fête des prénoms

fonti in italiano

Cathopedia

Martirologio Romano, 2005 edition

Santi e Beati

nettsteder i norsk

Den katolske kirke

MLA Citation

“Saint Oliver Plunkett“. CatholicSaints.Info. 16 June 2023. Web. 5 February 2026. <https://catholicsaints.info/saint-oliver-plunkett/>

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-oliver-plunkett/

Book of Saints – Oliver Plunket

Article

Bishop, Martyr (July 1) (17th century) Born in 1629 and ordained priest in 1654, this Irish Saint devoted himself to the saving of souls. Consecrated (A.D. 1669) Archbishop of Armagh, he laboured successfully in restoring the discipline of the Irish Church, laid waste by the continuous persecuting of Catholicism in that age. He was arrested on a charge of complicity in one of the sham plots of the time, and brought for trial to London. The notorious Jeffries, not yet a Judge, was the prosecuting counsel. Chief Justice Pemberton, “whose conducting of the trial (writes Lord Campbell) was a disgrace to himself and his country,” in condemning the Martyr to death, said: “Your treason is of the highest nature. A greater crime cannot be committed against God than for a man to endeavour to propagate your religion.” Blessed Oliver was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn (A.D. 1681). The words: “I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ” are his last recorded utterance. His body is now enshrined at Downside Abbey, near Bath. He was beatified by Pope Benedict XV (A.D. 1920).

MLA Citation

Monks of Ramsgate. “Oliver Plunket”. Book of Saints, 1921. CatholicSaints.Info. 1 May 2016. Web. 5 February 2026. <https://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-oliver-plunket/>

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-oliver-plunket/

New Catholic Dictionary – Saint Oliver Plunket

Article

Archbishop of Armagh, Ireland; martyr; born Loughcrew, County Meath, Ireland, 1629; died London, England, 1681. Of an illustrious family, he was educated privately at Dublin, and at the Irish College in Rome. Ordained in 1654, he taught in the College of the Propaganda, 1657-1669. Appointed Archbishop of Armagh, he was consecrated at Ghent, 1669. During his episcopacy he convened a national council, 1670, a provincial synod, 1678, defended the rights of his see against Dublin, and promoted Catholic education. During the renewed persecmion of the Irish Church, Plunket was arrested, 1679, and imprisoned in Dublin Castle. His trial was held in London in order to secure his conviction, and there he was hanged and quartered. Beatified 1920; canonized 1975 Feast, 11 July.

MLA Citation

“Saint Oliver Plunket”. New Catholic Dictionary. CatholicSaints.Info. 12 August 2018. Web. 5 February 2026. <https://catholicsaints.info/new-catholic-dictionary-saint-oliver-plunket/>

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/new-catholic-dictionary-saint-oliver-plunket/

CANONIZATION OF OLIVER PLUNKETT

HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER PAUL VI

12 October 1975

Dia's muire Dhíbh, a chlann Phádraig! Céad mile fáilte rómhaibh! Tá Naomh nua againn inniu: Comharba Phádraig, Olibhéar Naofa Ploinéad. (God and Mary be with you, family of Saint Patrick! A hundred thousand welcomes! We have a new Saint today: the successor of Saint Patrick, Saint Oliver Plunkett). Today, Venerable Brothers and dear sons and daughters, the Church celebrates the highest expression of love-the supreme measure of Christian and pastoral charity. Today, the Church rejoices with a great joy, because the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, is reflected and manifested in a new Saint. And this new Saint is Oliver Plunkett, Bishop and Martyr-Oliver Plunkett, successor of Saint Patrick in the See of Armagh-Oliver Plunkett , glory of Ireland and Saint, today and for ever, of the Church of God, Oliver Plunkett is for all-for the entire world-an authentic and outstanding example of the love of Christ. And on our part we bow down today to venerate his sacred relics, just as on former occasions we have personally knelt in prayer and admiration at this shrine in Drogheda.

For the suffering undergone by Oliver Plunkett is another expression of the triumph and victory of Christ's grace. Like his Master, Oliver Plunkett surrendered his life willingly in sacrifice (Cfr. Is. 53, 7; Io. 10, 17). He laid it down out of love, and thereby freely associated himself in an intimate manner with the sufferings of Christ. Indeed, his dying words were: «Into thy hands, o Lord, I commend my spirit. Lord Jesus, receive my soul». The merits of the Lord's Passion, the power of his Cross, and the dynamism of his Resurrection are active and made manifest in the life of his Saint. We praise God-Father, Son and Holy Spirit-who gave the glorious gift of supernatural faith to Oliver Plunkett-a faith so strong that it filled him with the fortitude and courage necessary to face martyrdom with serenity, with joy and with forgiveness. Being put to death for the profession of his Catholic Faith, he was, in the expression of our predecessor Benedict XV, crowned with «martyrdom for the faith» (Cfr. Apostolic Brief of Beatification, 23 May 1920: AAS 12, 1920, p. 238).

And after the example of the King of Martyrs, there was no rancour in his heart. Moreover, he sealed by his death the same message and ministrv of reconciliation (Cfr. 2 Cor. 5, 18. 20) that he had preached and performed during his life. In his pastoral activities, his exhortation had been one of pardon and peace. With men of violence he was indeed the advocate of justice and the friend of the oppressed, but he would not compromise with truth or condone violence: he would not substitute another gospel for the Gospel of peace. And his witness is alive today in the Church, as he insists with the Apostle Peter: «Never pay back one wrong with another» (1 Petr. 3, 9). O what a model of reconciliation: a sure guide for our day! Oliver Plunkett had understood with Saint Paul that «it was God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the work of handing on this reconciliation» (2 Cor. 5, 18). From Jesus himself he had learned to pray for his persecutors (Cfr. Matth. 5, 44) and with Jesus he could say: «Father, forgive them» (Luc. 23, 31).

In his speech on the scaffold, his words of pardon were in fact: «I do forgive all who had a hand directly or indirectly in my death and in my innocent blood». O what an example in particular for all those who have a special relationship with Oliver Plunkett, for all those whose life he shared! As an illustrious son of Ireland he is the honour and strength of the people who transmitted to him the Catholic Faith. In 1647 Oliver Plunkett, with five companions, was conducted to Rome by the well-known and revered Oratorian Peter Francis Scarampi; and for the next twenty-two years he remained in this City of Peter and Paul. As a student at the Irish College he is an example of fortitude and piety to the seminarians of today. For three years, after his ordination to the priesthood in 1654, Oliver Plunkett served as Chaplain with the Oratorians at S. Girolamo della Carità and visited the sick in the nearby Hospital of the Holy Spirit. As a minister of Jesus Christ and servant of fraternal love he is a pattern of zeal for his brother priests in the modern world. For twelve years he taught in the College of Propaganda Fide, and as an ecclesiastical professor he is a luminary of true supernatural wisdom to his colleagues today.

Oliver Plunkett was, above all, a Bishop of the Church of God, serving as Primate of Ireland for twelve years. He was a vigilant preacher of the Catholic Faith and champion of that pastoral charity which is fostered in prayer and manifested in solicitude for his brethren in the clergy-that pastoral charity which is expressed in zeal for the Christian instruction of the young, for the promotion of Catholic education, for the consolation of all God's people. Drawing strength from the inexhaustible fountain of grace, from the power of the Cross-which is itself eminently contained in the Eucharist, source of all the Church's power (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 10), and in which the work of Redemption is renewed-he infused into his flock new strength and fresh hope in time of trial and need. Yes, Oliver Plunkett is a triumph of Christ's grace, a model of reconciliation for all, and a particular example for many-but Oliver Plunkett is also a teacher of the supreme values of Christianity. As the world enters the last quarter of the twentieth century and the concluding decades of this millennium, at a moment decisive for all Christian civilization, the testimony of Saint Oliver Plunkett proclaims to the world that the summit of wisdom and the «power of God» (1 Cor. 1, 18) is in the mystery of the Cross.

And the Church raises her voice in solemn affirmation, to authenticate and consecrate this testimony, and to reaffirm for this generation and for all time the true hierarchy of evangelical values in the world. The message of Oliver Plunkett offers a hope that is greater than the present life; it shows a love that is stronger than death. Through the action of the Holy Spirit may the whole Church experience his insights and his wisdom, and with him be able to hear the challenge that comes from Peter: «Put your trust in nothing but the grace that will be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed» (1 Petr. 1, 13). May the Church understand this as yet another call to renewal and holiness of life, knowing as she does that, by reason of the power of God, there is no limit to love's forbearance (Cfr. 1 Cor. 13, 7), and that even the sufferings of the present time cannot be compared with the glory that awaits us (Cfr. Rom. 8, 18). And so we exhort our dear sons and daughters of Ireland, saying with immense affection and love: «Remember your leaders, who preached the word of God to you, and as you reflect on the outcome of their lives, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same today as he was yesterday» (Hebr. 13, 7).

Let this then be an occasion on which the message of peace and reconciliation in truth and justice, and above all the message of love for one's neighbour, will be emblazoned in the minds and hearts of all the beloved Irish people-this message signed and sealed with a Martyr's blood, in imitation of his Master. May love be always in your hearts. And may Saint Oliver Plunkett be an inspiration to you all. And to the whole world we proclaim: «There is no greater love than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends» (Io. 15, 13). This is what we have learned from the Lord, and with profound conviction we announce it to you. Venerable Brothers and dear sons and daughters: let us praise the Lord, for today and for ever Oliver Plunkett is a Saint of God!

Nel momento in cui da questa Roma degli apostoli e dei martiri sale il primo e ufficiale tributo di venerazione al novello santo, non possiamo dimenticare che di Roma egli fu ospite dal 1647 al 1669: cioè da quando vi giunse, poco più che ventenne, al seguito del Padre Scarampi, fino alla sua nomina a Vescovo di Armagh e Primate d'Irlanda. In Roma compì gli studi, in Roma fu ordinato sacerdote, in Roma esercitò il ministero a favore degli ammalati di S. Spirito, in Roma insegnò teologia nel Collegio di «Propaganda Fide» e fu Consultore nella Curia Romana. La granitica formazione della sua personalità di pastore e di maestro trova qui la sua propedeutica, la sua maturazione, la sua fioritura: e perciò, mentre ne godiamo spiritualmente, affidiamo alla sua intercessione anche la nostra diletta città di Roma, e in particolare le schiere dei giovani che vi si preparano al sacerdozio, lieta e imprevedibile riserva dell'avvenire della Chiesa.

Le zèle pastoral de Saint Oliver Plunkett, canonisé en ce jour, est d'abord un exemple saisissant et entraînant pour tous ceux qui portent la charge de l'épiscopat! Mais tette cérémonie, si réconfortante, est également pour les fidèles un appel pressant à l'union autour de leurs Evêques, pour avancer dans la Foi et pour collaborer davantage à 1'Evangélisation du monde d'aujourd'hui! Que le Seigneur vous donne à tous tette grâce de choix!

La iglesia tiene desde hoy un nuevo modelo que imitar, un nuevo Santo. Se trata de Oliver Plunkett, un ejemplo sobre todo de solidez en la fe, por la que tanto hubo de sufrir, dejando un testimonio heroico de verdadero seguidor de Cristo. Ninguna dificultad, ningun esfuerzo, ningun sufrimiento fue capaz de doblegar la constancia intrépida de este hombre de Dios, que vivia de fe y que por ella todo soportaba. ¡Hermosa lección para el mundo de hoy!

Unser neuer heiliger, Oliver Plunkett, ist Bischof und Märtyrer. Durch seinen Martertod gab er seinen Verfolgern und der ganzen Welt das Zeugnis des Glaubens und der Liebe zu Christus. Denn durch die freiwillige Annahme des Todes um des Glaubens willen wird der Christ dem göttlichen Meister ähnlich, der durch seinen Opfertod das Heil der Welt gewirkt hat. Legen auch wir im persönlichen und öffentlichen Leben mutig Zeugnis ab für unseren Glauben und unsere Kirche.

The Holy See

SOURCE : https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/homilies/1975/documents/hf_p-vi_hom_19751012.html

St. Oliver Plunkett

Feastday: July 1

Patron: of Peace and Reconciliation in Ireland

Birth: 1629

Death: 1681

Oliver Plunkett was born in Loughcrew in County Meath, Ireland on November 1, 1629. In 1647, he went to study for the priesthood in the Irish College in Rome. On January 1, 1654, he was ordained a priest in the Propaganda College in Rome.

Due to religious persecution in his native land, it was not possible for him to return to minister to his people. Oliver taught in Rome until 1669, when he was appointed Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland. Archbishop Plunkett soon established himself as a man of peace and, with religious fervor, set about visiting his people, establishing schools, ordaining priests, and confirming thousands.

1673 brought a renewal of religious persecution, and bishops were banned by edict. Archbishop Plunkett went into hiding, suffering a great deal from cold and hunger. His many letters showed his determination not to abandon his people, but to remain a faithful shepherd. He thanked God "Who gave us the grace to suffer for the chair of Peter." The persecution eased a little and he was able to move more openly among his people. In 1679 he was arrested and falsely charged with treason. The government in power could not get him convicted at his trial in Dundalk. He was brought to London and was unable to defend himself because he was not given time to bring his own witnesses from Ireland. He was put on trial, and with the help of perjured witnesses, was sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn. With deep serenity of soul, he was prepared to die, calmly rebutting the charge of treason, refusing to save himself by giving false evidence against his brother bishops. Oliver Plunkett publicly forgave all those who were responsible for his death on July 1, 1681. On October 12, 1975, he was canonized a saint. His feast day is July 1st.

SOURCE : https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=372

St. Oliver Plunkett

St. Oliver Plunkett was born on 1 November 1625 into an influential Anglo-Norman family at Loughcrew, near Oldcastle, Co Meath. In 1647, he went to the Irish College in Rome to study for the priesthood and was ordained a priest in 1654. The arrival of Cromwell in Ireland in 1649 initiated the massacre and persecution of Catholics. Cromwell left in 1650 but his legacy was enacted in anti-Catholic legislation. During the 1650s, Catholics were expelled from Dublin and landowners were dispossessed. Catholic priests were outlawed and those who continued to administer the sacraments were hanged or transported to the West Indies. To avoid persecution, Plunkett petitioned to remain in Rome, and in 1657 became a professor of theology.

When anti-Catholicism eased, Plunkett returned to Ireland. In 1657 he became archbishop of Armagh. He set about reorganising the ravaged Church, and built schools both for the young and for clergy whom he found ‘ignorant in moral theology and controversies’. He tackled drunkenness among the clergy, writing ‘Let us remove this defect from an Irish priest, and he will be a saint.’

In 1670, he summoned an episcopal conference in Dublin, and later held numerous synods in his own arch diocese. However, he had a long standing difference with the archbishop of Dublin, Peter Talbot, over their rival claims to be primate of Ireland. He also antagonised the Franciscans, particularly when he favoured the Dominicans in a property dispute.

With the onset of new persecution in 1673, Plunkett went into hiding, refusing a government edict to register at a seaport and await passage into exile. In 1678, the so-called Popish Plot concocted in England by Titus Oates led to further anti-Catholicism. Archbishop Talbot was arrested, and Plunkett again went into hiding. The privy council in London was told he had plotted a French invasion.

In December 1679, Plunkett was imprisoned in Dublin Castle, where he gave absolution to the dying Talbot. Taken to London, he was found guilty in June 1681 of high treason on perjured evidence from two disaffected Franciscans. On 1 July 1681, Plunkett became the last Catholic martyr in England when he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn. He was beatified in 1920 and canonised in 1975, the first new Irish saint for almost seven hundred years.

SOURCE : http://www.ucatholic.com/saints/saint-oliver-plunkett/

St. Oliver Plunkett

Patron of Peace and Reconciliation in Ireland

1629 - 1681

SOURCE : http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=372

Sant'Oliviero Plunkett

Sacello di Sant'Oliviero Plunkett a Drogheda (Irlanda)

Saint Oliver Plunket

[Editor's Note: St. Oliver Plunkett was canonized by Pope Paul VI on October 10, 1975.]

Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland, born at Loughcrew near Oldcastle, County Meath, Ireland, 1629; died 11 July, 1681. His is the brightest name in the Irish Church throughout the whole period ofpersecution. He was connected by birth with the families which had just then been ennobled, the Earls ofRoscommon and Fingall, as well as with Lords Louth and Dunsany. Till his sixteenth year, his education was attended to by Patrick Plunket, Abbot of St. Mary's, Dublin, brother of the first Earl of Fingall, afterwards bishop, successively, of Ardagh and Meath. He witnessed the first triumphs of the Irish Confederates, and, as an aspirant to the priesthood, set out for Rome in 1645, under the care of Father Scarampo, of the Roman Oratory. As a student of the Irish College of Rome, which some twenty years before had been founded by Cardinal Ludovisi, his record was particularly brilliant. The Rector, in after years, attested that he "devoted himself with such ardour tophilosophy, theology, and mathematics, that in the Roman College of the Society of Jesus he was justly ranked amongst the foremost in talent, diligence, and progress in his studies, and he pursued with abundant fruit the course of civil and canon law at the Roman Sapienza, and everywhere, at all times, was a model of gentleness, integrity, and piety". Promoted to the priesthood in 1654, Dr. Plunket was deputed by the Irish bishops to act as their representative in Rome. Throughout the period of the Cromwellian usurpation and the first years of Charles II's reign he most effectually pleaded the cause of the suffering Church, whilst at the same time he discharged the duties of theological professor at the College of Propaganda. In the Congregation of Propaganda, 9 July, 1669, he was appointed to the primatial see of Armagh, and was consecrated, 30 Nov., at Ghent, in Belgium, by the Bishop of Ghent, assisted by the Bishop of Ferns and another bishop. The pallium was granted him inConsistory 28 July, 1670.

Dr. Plunket lingered for some time in London, using his influence to mitigate the rigour of the administration of the anti-Catholic laws in Ireland, and it was only in the middle of March, 1670, that he entered on his apostolate in Armagh. From the very outset he was most zealous in the exercise of the sacred ministry. Within three months he had administered the Sacrament of Confirmation to about 10,000 of the faithful, some of them being sixty years old, and, writing to Rome in December, 1673, he was able to announce that "during the past four years", he had confirmed no fewer that 48,655 people. To bring this sacrament within the reach of the suffering faithfulhe had to undergo the severest hardships, often with no other food than a little oaten bread; he had to seek out their abodes on the mountains and in the woods, and as a rule, it was under the broad canopy of heaven that theSacrament was administered, both flock and pastor being exposed to the wind and rain. He made extraordinary efforts to bring the blessings of education within the reach of the Catholic youth. In effecting this during the short interval of peace that marked the beginning of his episcopate his efforts were most successful. He often refers in his letters to the high school which he opened at Drogheda, at this time the second city in the kingdom. He invited Jesuit Fathers from Rome to take charge of it, and very soon it had one hundred and fifty boys on the roll, of whom no fewer than forty were sons of the Protestant gentry. He held frequent ordinations, celebrated twoProvincial Synods, and was untiring in rooting out abuses and promoting piety.

One incident of his episcopate merits special mention: there was a considerable number of so-called Tories scattered through the province of Ulster, most of whom had been despoiled of their property under the Act of Settlement. They banded themselves together in the shelter of the mountain fastnesses and, as outlaws, lived by the plunder of those around them. Anyone who sheltered them incurred the penalty of death from the Government, anyone who refused them such shelter met with death at their hands. Dr. Plunket, with thesanction of the Lord Lieutenant, went in search of them, not without great risk, and reasoning with them in a kind and paternal manner induced them to renounce their career of plundering. He moreover obtained pardons for them so that they were able to transfer themselves to other countries, and thus peace was restored throughout the whole province. The contemporary Archbishop of Cashel, Dr. Brennan, who was the constant companion of Dr. Plunket, in a few words sketches the fruitful zeal of the primate: "During the twelve years of his residence here he proved himself vigilant, zealous, and indefatigable, nor do we find, within the memory of those of the present century, that any primate or metropolitan visited his diocese and province with such solicitude andpastoral zeal as he did, - benefitting, as far as was in his power, the needy; wherefore he was applauded andhonoured by both clergy and people".

The storm of persecution burst with renewed fury on the Irish Church in 1673; the schools were scattered, thechapels were closed. Dr. Plunket, however, would not forsake his flock. His palace thenceforward was some thatched hut in a remote part of his diocese. As a rule, in company with the Archbishop of Cashel, he layconcealed in the woods or on the mountains, and with such scanty shelter that through the roof they could at night count the stars of the sky. He tells their hardship in one of his letters: "The snow fell heavily, mixed with hailstones, which were very large and hard. A cutting north wind blew in our faces, and snow and hail beat sodreadfully in our eyes that up to the present we have scarcely been able to see with them. Often we were in danger in the valleys of being lost and suffocated in the snow, till at length we arrived at the house of a reduced gentleman who had nothing to lose. But, for our misfortune, he had a stranger in his house by whom we did not wish to be recognized, hence we were placed in a garret without chimney, and without fire, where we have been for the past eight days. May it redound to the glory of God, the salvation of our souls, and of the flock entrusted to our charge".

Writs for the arrest of Dr. Plunket were repeatedly issued by the Government. At length he was seized and cast into prison in Dublin Castle, 6 Dec., 1679, and a whole host of perjured informers were at hand to swear his life away. In Ireland the character of those witnesses was well known and no jury would listen to their perjured tales, but in London it was not so, and accordingly his trial was transferred to London. In fact, the ShaftesburyConspiracy against the Catholics in England could not be sustained without the supposition that a rebellion was being organized in Ireland. The primate would, of course, be at the head of such a rebellion. His visits to the Tories of Ulster were now set forth as part and parcel of such a rebellion. A French or Spanish fleet was chartered by him to land an army at Carlingford Bay, and other such accusations were laid to his charge. But there was no secret as to the fact that his being a Catholic bishop was his real crime. Lord Brougham in "Lives of the ChiefJustices of England" brands Chief Justice Pemberton, who presided at the trial of Dr. Plunket, as betraying thecause of justice and bringing disgrace on the English Bar. This Chief Justice set forth from the bench that there could be no greater crime than to endeavour to propagate the Catholic Faith, "than which (he declared) there is not anything more displeasing to God or more pernicious to mankind in the world". Sentence of death was pronounced as a matter of course, to which the primate replied in a joyous and emphatic voice: "Deo Gratias".

On Friday, 11 July (old style the 1st), 1681, Dr. Plunket, surrounded by a numerous guard of military, was led to Tyburn for execution. Vast crowds assembled along the route and at Tyburn. As Dr. Brennan, Archbishop ofCashel, in an official letter to Propaganda, attests, all were edified and filled with admiration, "because he displayed such a serenity of countenance, such a tranquillity of mind and elevation of soul, that he seemed rather a spouse hastening to the nuptial feast, than a culprit led forth to the scaffold". From the scaffold he delivered a discourse worthy of an apostle and martyr. An eye-witness of the execution declared that by his discourse and by his heroism in death he gave more glory to religion than he could have won for it by many years of a fruitful apostolate. His remains were gathered with loving care and interred apart in St. Giles' churchyard. In the first months of 1684 they were transferred to the Benedictine monastery at Lambspring in Germany, whence after 200 years they were with due veneration translated and enshrined in St. Gregory's College, Downside, England. The head, in excellent preservation, was from the first enshrined apart, and since 1722 has been in the care of the Dominican Nuns at their Siena Convent at Drogheda, Ireland. Pilgrims come from all parts of Ireland and from distant countries to venerate this relic of the glorious martyr, and many miracles are recorded.

The name of Archbishop Plunket appears on the list of the 264 heroic servants of God who shed their blood for the Catholic Faith in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which was officially submitted for approval to the Holy See, and for which the Decree was signed by Leo XIII 9 Dec., 1886, authorizing their Causeof Beatification to be submitted to the Congregation of Rites. The Blessed Oliver Plunket's martyrdom closed the long series of deaths for the faith, at Tyburn. The very next day after his execution, the bubble of conspiracy burst. Lord Shaftesbury, the chief instigator of the persecution, was consigned to the Tower, and his chiefperjured witness Titus Oates was thrown into gaol. For a few years the blessings of comparative peace were restored to the Church of Ireland.

Writings

The Martyr's discourse at Tyburn was repeatedly printed and translated into other languages. Dr. Plunket published in 1672 a small octavo of fifty-six pages with the title "Jus Primatiale"; or the Ancient Pre-eminence of the See of Armagh above all other archbishoprics in the kingdom of Ireland, asserted by "O.A.T.H.P.", which initials represent "Oliverus Armacanus Totius Hiberniae Primas", i.e. "Oliver of Armagh, Primate of All Ireland".

Moran, Patrick Francis Cardinal. "Blessed Oliver Plunket." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 13 Jul. 2015 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12169b.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Marie Jutras.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. June 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.

SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12169b.htm

Catholic World – An Irish Martyr

Towards the close of the year 1645, the venerable oratorian, Father Peter Francis Scarampo, who had spent two years in Ireland on a special mission from the Holy See, was permitted to resign his position and return to Rome. He was accompanied thither by five young students whose relatives desired that they should complete their theological studies in the colleges of the Eternal City. Of these, the most distinguished for early proficiency and gentleness of disposition was a youth named Oliver Plunket, then in his sixteenth year, having been born at Loughcrew, county of Meath, in 1629, a near relative and protégé of the Bishop of Ardagh, Doctor Patrick Plunket, and closely connected by ties of kindred with some of the noblest families of Ireland, and with many distinguished ecclesiastics at home and on the Continent. Father Scarampo had borne himself so wisely and with so much charity and discretion while in Ireland, that his departure was regarded as a public misfortune, and his retiring footsteps were followed to the sea-coast by thousands of pious and grateful people; and, though his humble spirit would not allow him to accept the distinguished post of Papal Nuncio, and so remain among them, he never ceased to remember their hospitality and long-suffering and to befriend their cause at Rome upon all occasions. On the young men entrusted to his care he bestowed every possible favor, and especially on young Plunket, in whom he took a fatherly interest up to the day of his untimely death on the plague-stricken Island of Saint Bartholomew, even to the extent of defraying that student’s expenses for the first three years of his novitiate.

Soon after his arrival in Rome, Oliver Plunket entered the Irish College of that city, then under the charge of the Jesuit Fathers, and for eight years devoted himself with great industry and success to the study of philosophy, mathematics, and theology, subsequently attending the usual course of lectures on canon and civil law in the Roman University. Previous to his appointment to the See of Armagh, the Rector of the Irish College, in response to an enquiry of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda, presented the following honorable testimony of the character and abilities of the future Primate:

“I, the undersigned, certify that the Very Reverend Dr. Oliver Plunket, of the diocese of Meath, in the province of Armagh, in Ireland, is of Catholic parentage, descended from an illustrious family; on the father’s side, from the most illustrious Earls of Fingal; on the mother’s side, from the most illustrious Earls of Roscommon, being also connected by birth with the most illustrious Oliver Plunket, Baron of Louth, first nobleman of the diocese of Armagh; and in this our Irish College he devoted himself with such ardor to philosophy, theology, and mathematics, that in the Roman College of the Society of Jesus he was justly ranked among the foremost in talent, diligence, and progress in his studies; these speculative studies being completed, he pursued with abundant fruit the course of civil and canon law under Mark Anthony de Mariscotti, Professor of the Roman Sapienza, and everywhere and at all times he was a model of gentleness, integrity, and piety.”

Having at length received his ordination in 1654, Dr. Plunket was obliged by the rules of the college either to proceed forthwith on the Irish mission or to obtain leave from his superiors to remain to further perfect his studies. He chose the latter course, and at his own request the General of the Society of Jesus, to whom he applied, permitted him to enter San Girolamo della Charità, where for three years he quietly devoted himself to the accumulation of knowledge and the duties of his sacred calling. Marangoni, in his life of Father Cacciaguerra, speaks of Doctor Plunket’s conduct while in that secluded retreat in the following eulogistic terms:

“Here it is incredible with what zeal he burned for the salvation of souls. In the house itself, and in the city, he wholly devoted himself to devout exercises; frequently did he visit the sanctuaries steeped with the blood of so many martyrs, and he ardently sighed for the opportunity of sacrificing himself for the salvation of his countrymen. He, moreover, frequented the Hospital of Santo Spirito, and employed himself even in the most abject ministrations, serving the poor infirm, to the edification and wonder of the officials and assistants of that place.”

The disturbed condition of his native country has been alleged as the cause of Dr. Plunket’s delay in Rome, and this in itself would be sufficient reason, if we reflect that at that time the soldiers of Cromwell were in full possession of every nook and corner of it, and that hundreds of priests, left without congregations, were obliged to fly for their lives to the Continent, or to seek refuge in mountains and morasses; but it is more than probable that the young ecclesiastic had an additional motive for remaining longer in the Holy City, and, having a forecast of his future eminence in the church, and of the vast benefits he was capable of rendering to the cause of religion and his country, desired, as far as possible, to qualify himself for the glorious task to which he was afterwards assigned at the fountain-head of Catholicity, before undertaking a labor which he must have known would be accompanied by many trials and dangers.

But even from the seclusion of San Girolamo his fame as an accomplished and profound scholar soon spread to the outer world, and in 1657 Dr. Plunket was appointed professor of theology and controversy in the College of the Propaganda, a position which he held with great credit for twelve years, until his departure from Rome. Though thus occupied in the responsible and laborious duties of his professorship, he was also consultor of the Sacred Congregation of the Index and of other congregations. In the performance of the high trusts thus imposed upon him, the young professor was frequently brought in contact with many of the most exalted personages of the Roman Court, some of whom subsequently filled the chair of Saint Peter, from all of whom he experienced the greatest kindness and repeated proofs of affection, as he frequently mentions with gratitude in his correspondence. Still the confidence reposed in him and the companionship of so many holy and erudite men failed to satisfy the cravings of his soul or reconcile him to his enforced exile. Of a highly sensitive and even poetic nature, his patriotism and attachment to his family were second only to his love for learning and religion, and his mind was constantly tormented by the accounts daily received in Rome of the barbarities practised on his compatriots and co-religionists by the licentious soldiery of the English Commonwealth. In writing to Father Spada, in 1656, on the occasion of the death of his friend and counsellor Father Scarampo, he exclaims in the bitterness of his spirit:

“God alone knows how afflicting his death is to me, especially at the present time, when all Ireland is overrun and laid waste by heresy. Of my relations, some are dead, others have been sent into exile, and all Ireland is reduced to extreme misery: this overwhelmed me with an inexpressible sadness, for I am now deprived of father and of friends, and I should die through grief were I not consoled by the consideration that I have not altogether lost Father Scarampo; for I may say that he in part remains, our good God having retained your reverence in life, who, as it is known to all, were united with him in friendship and in charity and in disposition, so as even to desire to be his companion in death, from which, though God preserved you, yet he did not deprive you of its merit.”

But, notwithstanding his own afflictions, he was ever ready to succor by his slender purse and powerful influence such of his destitute young countrymen who sought an opportunity in Rome to procure an education, of which they were so systematically deprived at home; and it was doubtless from a just perception of his great repute and thorough acquaintance with ecclesiastical affairs in Rome that, in the early part of 1669, he was requested by the Irish bishops to act as their representative at the Papal Court, an office which he cheerfully accepted and filled to the entire satisfaction of his venerable constituency.

But he was not long allowed to occupy this subordinate position in connection with the church in Ireland, nor even to retain his chair in the Propaganda. He had now entered on his fortieth year, his mind fully developed and stored with all the sacred and profane learning befitting one called to a higher destiny, and his soul imbued with a zeal so holy and so far removed from worldly ambition that no temptation was likely to overcome his faith, and no persecution, no matter how severe, to shake his constancy. He was therefore appointed Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland, to succeed Dr. Edmond O’Reilly, recently deceased in Paris. Like the great apostle of his country, of whom he was about to become the spiritual successor, he had spent a long probation in the society of men remarkable for the purity of their lives and the extent of their knowledge, and as Saint Patrick longed to revisit the land of his adoption, he also yearned to be once again among the Irish people. Yet his appointment to the primacy of Ireland was neither sought nor anticipated by Dr. Plunket at this time, as we learn from a letter from the Archbishop of Dublin to Monsignor Baldeschi, Secretary of the Propaganda, in which he says:

“Certainly, no one could be appointed better suited than Dr. Oliver Plunket, whom I myself would have proposed in the first place, were it not that he had written to me, stating his desire not to enter for some years in the Irish mission, until he should have completed some works which he was preparing for the press.”

The names of many clergymen distinguished for piety, devotion, and learning had been forwarded to Rome, from which to select a fitting successor to Dr. O’Reilly; but, while their various merits were under discussion, the Holy Father, Clement IX., it is said, simplified the matter by suggesting Dr. Plunket as the person best qualified to fill the vacant see, and to govern by his experience and force of character the hierarchy, and, through it, the priesthood of Ireland. The views of the Pope met with unanimous approval, and, the selection being thus made, it was out of the power of Dr. Plunket, no matter how diffident he might have been of his own abilities to fill so elevated a position, to decline. We have seen how this important decision of the Sacred Congregation was viewed by Dr. Talbot, of Dublin, and his opinions seemed to have been shared by all the bishops and priests in Ireland. Dr. O’Molony, of Saint Sulpice, Paris, afterwards Bishop of Killaloe, writes:

“You have already laid the foundations of our edifice, erected the pillars, and given shepherds to feed the sheep and the lambs; but, now that the work should not remain imperfect, you have crowned the edifice, and provided a pastor for the pastors themselves, appointing the Archbishop of Armagh, for it is not of the diocese of Armagh alone that he has the administration, to whom the primacy and guardianship of all Ireland is entrusted. One, therefore, in a thousand had to be chosen, suited to bear so great a burden. That one you have found—one than whom none other better or more pleasing could be found; with whom (that your wise solicitude for our distracted and afflicted country should be wanting in nothing) you have been pleased to associate his suffragan of Ardagh, a most worthy and grave man.”

The Bishop of Ferns, also, in addressing the Secretary of the Sacred Congregation, says: “Applauding and rejoicing, I have hastened hither from Gand, to the Most Reverend and Illustrious Internunzio of Belgium, to return all possible thanks to our Holy Father, in the name of my countrymen, for having crowned with the mitre of Armagh the noble and distinguished Oliver Plunket, Doctor of Theology;” and Dr. Dowley, of Limerick, adds, “Most pleasing to all was the appointment of Dr. Plunket, and I doubt not it will be agreeable to the government, to the secular clergy, and to the nobility.”

These warm expressions of esteem and regard, if known to the new primate, must have inspired him with renewed courage to accept the grave responsibilities imposed upon him, and truly, if ever man required the support of friends to nerve him to encounter dangers and unheard-of opposition, he did. But he seems to have had within himself a courage not of this world, but superior to all earthly considerations. It is recorded on the very best authority that, when about to leave Rome, he was thus accosted by an aged priest, “My lord, you are now going to shed your blood for the Catholic faith.” To which he replied, “I am unworthy of such a favor; nevertheless, aid me with your prayers, that this my desire may be fulfilled.” The condition of the country to which the primate was hastening fully justified this prophecy. It was to the last degree forlorn and full of discouragement. The sufferings of the Irish people at this period defy description; and were it not that we have before us the penal acts of parliament, numerous authenticated state papers, and the published statements of some of the highest officials of the crown and the agents of the Commonwealth, we would be inclined to believe, if only for the credit of human nature, that the relation of the atrocities at this time perpetrated by English authority on the Catholics of Ireland was the work of some diseased mind that delighted in horrors and revelled in the contemplation of an imaginary pandemonium. The Tudors and the Stuarts as persecutors of Catholics were bad enough, but their ineffectual fires paled before the cool atrocity and sanctimonious villany of the followers of Cromwell; men, if we must call them such, who, arrogating to themselves not only the honorable title of champions of human liberty, but claiming to be the exemplars of all that was left of what was pure and holy in this wicked world, perpetrated in the name of freedom and religion a series of such deeds of darkness that not even a parallel can be found for them in the annals of the worst days of the Roman emperors. So deep indeed has the detestation of the barbarities of Cromwell taken root in the popular mind of Ireland, that, though more than two centuries have elapsed since his death, his name is as thoroughly and as heartily detested there to-day as if his crimes had been committed in our own generation. Previous to the Reformation, though wars were frequent and oftentimes bloody between the English invaders and the natives, they were generally conducted in a certain spirit of chivalry and with some degree of moderation, which usually characterize hostile Catholic nations even in times of the greatest excitement. Churches and the nurseries of learning and charity were respected, or, if destroyed through the stern necessities of warfare, were apt to be replaced by others. But the followers of the new religion knew no such charitable weakness, for from the first they seemed actuated, probably as a punishment for their sin of wilful rebellion against the authority of God’s law, with an unquenchable hatred of everything holy, and a craftiness in devising measures to destroy the faith and pervert the minds of the Catholics so preternatural in its ingenuity that we can only account for it by supposing it the emanation of the enemy of mankind. That any people stripped of all worldly possessions, debarred so long from religious worship and the means of enlightenment, outlawed by the so-called government, ensnared by the spy and the magistrate, and ground to dust beneath the hoofs of the trooper’s horse, should not only have preserved their existence and the faith, but have multiplied amazingly, both at home and abroad, is one of the most remarkable incidents in all history, as well as one of the strongest proofs of the enduring and unconquerable spirit of Catholicity.

There were probably at this time in Ireland nearly a million and a half of Catholics, though Sir William Petty estimates their number at about 1,200,000; the native population having been fearfully reduced by the late war and the pestilence and famine which succeeded it, by the emigration of forty or fifty thousand able-bodied men to Spain and other countries, and by the deportation of an equal number of women and children, as slaves, to the West Indies and the British settlements on our Atlantic coast. Yet, notwithstanding the immense loss of life occasioned soon after by the Williamite war, the constant drain on the adult male population in the latter part of the seventeenth and the first half of the eighteenth centuries, to fill up the decimated ranks of the Catholic armies of Europe, amounting, it is said, to three-quarters of a million, the periodical famines to which the peasantry were constantly exposed, and the great famine of 1846-7 and 1848, which swept away at least two millions, the Irish Catholics of to-day and their descendants in all quarters of the globe number at least fifteen million souls. It is a singular and interesting fact that the Irish Catholics resident in London out-number the entire population of the city of Dublin; that in the cities and towns of England and Scotland there are more Catholics of Irish birth than existed in every part of the world two hundred years ago; and that, while the children of Saint Patrick count nearly five millions on the soil which he redeemed from paganism, many more millions of them and their descendants born within the present century are planting the cross of Christ everywhere in America and Australasia. This indestructibility of the Irish race seems to have raised an insurmountable barrier against the designs of the reformers. James I. having planted part of Ulster with some success, the Long Parliament determined to follow his example on a more comprehensive scale, and to utterly exterminate the people who persisted in adhering to their ancient faith. Accordingly, in 1654, all Catholics were ordered under the severest penalties to remove before a certain day from the provinces of Ulster, Leinster, and Munster, and take up their abodes in Connaught, the least fertile and most inaccessible division of the island. In their front a strip of land some miles in width, following the sinuosity of the sea-coast, and another in their rear along the line of the Shannon, were reserved for the victors and protected by a cordon of military posts, the penalty of passing which, without special license, was death. Thus encompassed by the stormy Atlantic and the broad river, with an inner belt of hostile settlements, it was fondly hoped that the remnant of the gallant Irish nation, completely segregated from the world, would speedily perish, unnoticed and unknown, among the sterile mountains of the west. A more diabolical attempt on the lives of a whole people is not to be found recorded in either ancient or modern history, and, to do but justice to the canting fanatics who conceived the plan, no means were left untried to carry it out to a successful issue. But Providence, with whose designs the Cromwellians assumed to be well acquainted, decreed otherwise, and no sooner had their leader sunk into a dishonored grave, and the legitimate sovereign been restored to the throne, than every part of the country swarmed again with Catholics, who seemed to spring, as if by magic, from the very soil. The people, it was found, had actually increased in numbers, and the clergy, who it was supposed had been effectually destroyed by expatriation, famine, or the sword, still amounted to over sixteen hundred seculars and regulars, as devoted as ever to the spiritual interests of their flocks.

The restoration of Charles II. in 1660 was hailed by the Catholics as a favorable omen. They had faithfully supported his father, and had lost all in defending his own cause, and hence they naturally expected, if not gratitude, at least simple justice. But Charles was a true Stuart. Opposed to persecution from a constitutional love of ease and pleasure, as much as from any innate sense of right, he had neither the capacity to plan a reform nor the manhood to carry out the tolerant designs of others. He was, moreover, weak-minded, vacillating, and insincere, more disposed to conciliate his enemies by gifts and honors than to reward his well-tried friends by the commonest acts of justice. The greatest favor that the Catholics could obtain was a toleration of their worship in remote and secret places, and even this qualified boon was dependent on the whim of the viceroy, and was soon withdrawn at the command of parliament.

But the evils of the English Protestant system did not stop here. The death or involuntary exile of most of the Irish bishops and the dispersion of the clergy created a relaxation of ecclesiastical discipline, particularly among the regulars, and the impossibility of obtaining proper religious instruction at home, and the difficulty of procuring it elsewhere, necessarily lowered the standard of education among the priests of all ranks. Left for the most part to their own guidance, and only imperfectly trained for the ministry, many friars, particularly of the Order of Saint Francis, so illustrious for its many distinguished scholars and eloquent preachers, were disposed to rebel against their superiors when the least restraint was placed upon their irregular modes of living, and some were found base enough to lend the weight attached to their sacred calling to further the designs of the worst enemies of their creed and country. Ormond and other so-called statesmen, while avowing unqualified loyalty to their sovereign and a secret attachment to the church, were insidiously betraying the one by placing him in a false position before Catholics and Protestants, while vainly endeavoring to strike a blow at the other by using these apostates to create a schism in her ranks. In the latter scheme they signally failed, and their defeat was mainly due to the untiring energy and profound foresight of the Archbishop of Armagh during the ten years of his administration. The very announcement of Dr. Plunket’s appointment seems to have struck terror into the secret enemies of the church in Ireland, and to have given new hope to the friends of religion. This event occurred on the 9th of July, 1669, when the bulls for his consecration were immediately forwarded to the Internunzio at Brussels. Dr. Plunket was desirous of receiving the mitre in Rome, and even made a strong request to be granted that privilege, but the prudential motives which induced the Sacred Congregation to select Belgium in the first instance still remained, and the favor was reluctantly refused. As his first act of obedience, the archbishop bowed cheerfully to this decision, and after presenting his little vineyard, his only real property, and a few books to the Irish College, he bade a final adieu to his Roman friends in the following month, and commenced his homeward journey—his first step to a glorious immortality. He arrived during November in the capital of Belgium, and was cordially welcomed by the Internunzio, who was not unacquainted with his extensive learning and unaffected piety. At the request of that prelate, the Bishop of Ghent consented to administer consecration to Dr. Plunket, and the solemn ceremony was duly performed on the 30th of November, in the private chapel of the episcopal palace in that ancient city. Dr. Nicholas French, Bishop of Ferns, one of the few persons present on the occasion, thus describes it:

“I present a concise narrative of the consecration of the most illustrious Archbishop of Armagh. His excellency the Internunzio wrote most kind letters to the bishop of this diocese requesting him to perform it, and he most readily acquiesced. But I, on receiving this news, set out at once for Brussels to conduct hither his Grace of Armagh, bound by gratitude to render him this homage. A slight fever seized our excellent bishop on the Saturday before the Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost, which had been fixed for Dr. Plunket’s consecration; wherefore that ceremony was deferred till the first Sunday in Advent, on which day it was devoutly and happily performed in the capella of the palace, without noise, and with closed doors, for such was the desire of the Archbishop of Armagh. Remaining here for eight days after his consecration, he passed his time in despatching letters and examining my writings.”

After this short delay, the Primate continued his journey, stopping long enough in London to see his friends at the English court, and to present his credentials to the Queen, who was a devout Catholic, and who received him with great cordiality. He had also leisure to become somewhat conversant with the policy and views of the leading public characters in the English capital, and to study the workings and temper of the parliament. After a tedious and fatiguing journey, he at length landed in Ireland, in March, 1670, having been absent from that country a quarter of a century, where he was joyously received by his numerous relatives and friends. Great was the change which had been wrought in his life during those twenty-five years, but, alas! how much greater had been the alteration in the circumstances of his countrymen. As a lad he had left them in the full enjoyment of their religion in almost every part of the island, their nobility in the possession of their estates, the peasantry and farmers prosperous, the clergy respected and freely obeyed, and all full of hope for the future, and sanguine of yet attaining their independence. As an archbishop and primate, he returned to find nothing but desolation and ruin, sorrow and dejection. The nobility had either been banished or reduced to the condition of mere tenants on their own property, so that only three Catholic gentlemen in the province of Armagh, which embraces eleven dioceses, held any real estate; the original cultivators of the soil who had been spared by the sword and had not been transported or compelled to emigrate were formed into bands of plunderers, and infested the highways under the name of tories, while such as remained of the bishops and clergy were to be found only in bogs and mountains or in the most obscure portions of the larger towns and cities.

Undaunted by the scenes of woe and destruction around him, the Primate, like a diligent servant of God, had no sooner set foot on his native soil than he proceeded to the performance of his pastoral labors. Writing to Cardinal Barberini, Protector of Ireland, an account of his journey from Rome, he says:

“I afterwards arrived in Ireland in the month of March, and hastened immediately to my residence; and I held two synods and two ordinations, and in a month and a-half I administered confirmation to more than ten thousand persons, though throughout my province I think there yet remain more than fifty thousand persons to be confirmed. I remarked throughout the country, wherever I went, that for every heretic there are twenty Catholics. The new viceroy is a man of great moderation; he willingly receives the Catholics, and he treats privately with the ecclesiastics, and promises them protection while they attend to their own functions without intriguing in the affairs of government.”

The nobleman here alluded to was Lord Berkeley, who held office in Ireland for a few years, and under whose politic and tolerant, if not very sincere, administration the Catholics enjoyed at least comparative security. Personally, he, as well as his successor, Lord Essex, entertained a very high respect for the primate, and treated him with great kindness, when it was possible to do so without incurring the displeasure of the ultra-Protestant faction. Indeed, Archbishop Plunket, well aware of the difficulties which constantly beset his path, and feeling the futility of defying the government authorities, set his mind from the first to conciliate those whom he knew had the power to thwart or second his efforts, without yielding anything of his episcopal dignity or compromising his character as an ardent patriot. His long probationary course in Rome and his intimate association with so many of the best and most accomplished minds at the Papal court must have eminently qualified him for dealing with the leading British officials in Ireland. In his voluminous correspondence with the Holy See, he frequently alludes to his interviews with the lord-lieutenant and other noblemen, and to the judicious use he was able to make of his influence with them for the benefit of his less fortunate or more demonstrative brethren in the ministry. In a letter addressed to Pope Clement, dated June 20, 1670, he says:

“Our viceroy is a man of great moderation and equity: he looks on the Catholics with benevolence, and treats privately with some of the clergy, exhorting them to act with discretion; and for this purpose he secretly called me to his presence on many occasions, and promised me his assistance in correcting any members of the clergy of scandalous life. I discover in him some spark of religion, and I find that many even of the leading members of his court are secretly Catholics.”

Again, to Dr. Brennan, his successor as Irish agent, he writes:

“In the province of Armagh, the clergy and Catholics enjoy a perfect peace. The Earl of Charlemont, being friendly with me, defends me in every emergency. Being once in the town of Dungannon to administer confirmation, and the governor of the place having prevented me from doing so, the earl not only severely reproved the governor, but told me to go to his own palace, when I pleased, to give confirmation or to say Mass there if I wished. The magistrate of the city of Armagh, having made an order to the effect that all Catholics should accompany him to the heretical service every Sunday, under penalty of half-a-crown per head for each time they would absent themselves, I appealed to the president of the province against this decree, and he cancelled it, and commanded that neither clergy nor Catholic laity should be molested.”

It is not, however, to be supposed from these isolated instances of toleration that the new primate was allowed the full exercise of his functions in the land of his nativity, and where his flock so vastly outnumbered their opponents. On the contrary, we learn from a letter of Lord Conway to his brother-in-law, Sir George Rawdon, that even before Dr. Plunket reached Ireland orders had been issued by the lord-lieutenant for his arrest as being one of “two persons sent from Rome, that lie lurking in the country to do mischief;” and even when he had taken possession of his see, his labors for the most part were performed in secret or in the night time. This was more particularly so after 1673, when the persecution was renewed against the Catholics, that we have his own authority and that of his companion in suffering, Dr. Brennan, Bishop of Waterford, for saying that at the most tempestuous times he was obliged to seek safety by flight, and frequently to expose himself to the horrors of a northern winter and almost to starvation in order to be amid his people, and ready to administer spiritual consolation to them.

“The viceroy,” he says, writing in January, 1664, “on the 10th or thereabouts of this month, published a further proclamation that the registered clergy should be treated with the greatest rigor. Another but secret order was given to all the magistrates and sheriffs that the detectives should seek out, both in the cities and throughout the country, the other bishops and regulars. I and my companions no sooner received intelligence of this than, on the 18th of this month, which was Sunday, after vespers, being the festival of the Chair of Saint Peter, we deemed it necessary to take to our heels; the snow fell heavily mixed with hail-stones, which were very hard and large; a cutting north wind blew in our faces, and the snow and hail beat so dreadfully in our eyes that to the present we have been scarcely able to see with them. Often we were in danger in the valleys of being lost and suffocated in the snow, till at length we arrived at the house of a reduced gentleman, who had nothing to lose; but for our misfortune he had a stranger in his house, by whom we did not wish to be recognized; hence we were placed in a large garret without chimney and without fire, where we have been during the past eight days. May it redound to the glory of God, the salvation of our souls, and the flocks entrusted to our charge!”

So great indeed was the danger of discovery at this time, and so watchful were the emissaries of the law, that he was compelled to write most of his foreign letters over the assumed signature of “Mr. Thomas Cox,” and was usually addressed by that name in reply. He even tells us that he was sometimes obliged to go about the performance of his duties in the disguise of a cavalier with cocked hat and sword.

Dr. Plunket is represented by his contemporaries as a man of delicate physical organization, highly sensitive in his temperament, and disposed naturally to prefer the seclusion of the closet to the excitement and turmoil of the world. The contrast between the scholastic retirement in which he had spent so many years of his life, and the circumstances by which he now found himself surrounded, must have been indeed striking, but like a true disciple he did not hesitate a moment in entering on his new sphere of usefulness. Shortly after his arrival in Dublin, on the 17th of June, 1670, he called together and presided over a general synod of the Irish bishops, at which several important statutes were passed, as well as an address to the new viceroy declaring the loyalty and homage, in all things temporal, of the hierarchy of Ireland to the reigning sovereign. Two synods of his own clergy had already been held, and in September following a provincial council of Ulster met at Clones, which not only reaffirmed the decrees of the synod of Dublin, but enacted many long required reforms in discipline and the manner of life of the clergy. In a letter from the assembled clergy of the province of Armagh, date October 8, 1670, and addressed to Monsignor Baldeschi, they thus speak of the untiring labors of their metropolitan:

“In the diocese of Armagh, Kilmore, Clogher, Derry, Down, Connor, and Dromore, although far separated from each other, he administered confirmation to thousands in the woods and mountains, heedless of winds and rain. Lately, too, he achieved a work from which great advantage will be derived by the Catholic body, for there were many of the more noble families who had lost their properties, and, being proclaimed outlaws in public edicts, were subsequently guilty of many outrages; those by his admonitions he brought back to a better course; he moreover obtained pardon for their crimes, and not only procured this pardon for themselves, but also for their receivers, and thus hundreds and hundreds of Catholic families have been freed from imminent danger to their body and soul and properties.”

But the good pastor was not contented with these extended labors among the laity. To make his reforms permanent and beneficial, he felt that he should commence with the clergy, who as a body had always been faithful to their sacred trust, but, owing to the disturbed state of the country for so many years past, had been unable to perform their allotted duties with that exactness and punctuality so desirable in the presence of a watchful and unscrupulous enemy. He therefore ordained many young students, whom he found qualified for the ministry, and, taking advantage of the temporary cessation of espionage consequent on the arrival of Lord Berkeley, he established a college in Drogheda, in which he soon had one hundred and sixty pupils and twenty-five ecclesiastics, under the care of three learned Jesuit fathers. The expenses of this school he defrayed out of his slender means, never more than sixty pounds per annum, and frequently not one-fifth of that sum, with the exception of 150 scudi (less than forty pounds sterling), annually allowed by the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda. When, in 1674, the penal laws were again put in force in all their original ferocity of spirit, the college was of course broken up; but Dr. Plunket in his letters to Rome was never tired of impressing on the minds of the authorities there the necessity of affording Irish students more ample facilities for affording a thorough education. His suggestions in regard to the Irish College at Rome, by which a larger number of students might be accommodated without increased expense, though not acted upon at the time, have since been carried out, and it was principally at his instance that the Irish institutions in Spain, previously monopolized by young men from certain dioceses of Ireland only, were thrown open to all.

In the latter part of 1671, we find Dr. Plunket on a mission to the Hebrides, where the people, the descendants of the ancient Irish colonists, still preserved their Gaelic language, and received him with all the gratitude and enthusiasm of the Celtic nature. In 1674, notwithstanding the storm of persecution then raging over the island, he made a lengthy tour through the province of Tuam, and in the following year we have a detailed report of his visitation to the eleven dioceses in his own province, every one of which, no matter how remote or what was the personal risk, he took pains to inspect, bringing peace and comfort in his footsteps, and leaving behind him the tears and prayers of his appreciative children.

If we add to this multiplicity of occupations the further one of being the chief and almost only regular correspondent of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda in the three kingdoms, we may presume that the primate’s life in Ireland was fully and advantageously occupied. The number of his letters to Rome on every subject of importance is immense, when we consider the difficulty and danger of communication in those days. He was also in constant correspondence with London, Paris, and Brussels, and, though he sometimes complains of the weakness of his eyesight, caused doubtless by exposure and change of climate, he frequently regrets more his poverty, which did not enable him to pay the postage on all occasions. At one time, indeed, he avers that all the food he is able to procure for himself is “a little oaten bread and some milk and water.”

The last important act of the primate was the convocation of a provincial synod at Ardpatrick, in August, 1678, at which were present the bishops or vicars-general and apostolic of all the dioceses of Ulster. Many decrees of a general and special nature were there passed with great solemnity, and upon being sent to Rome were duly approved. It was upon this occasion that the representatives of the suffragan diocese of Armagh, deeply impressed and edified as they were by the labors and sanctity of their archbishop, addressed a joint letter to the Sacred Congregation, eloquently describing the extent and good effect of his constant solicitude for his spiritual charge.

“We therefore declare (say those venerable men) that the aforesaid Most Illustrious Metropolitan has labored much, exercising his sacred functions not only in his own but also in other dioceses; during the late persecution he abandoned not the flock entrusted to him, though he was exposed to extreme danger of losing his life; he erected schools, and provided masters and teachers, that the clergy and youth might be instructed in literature, piety, cases of conscience, and other matters relating to their office; he held two provincial councils, in which salutary decrees were enacted for the reformation of morals; he, moreover, rewarded the good and punished the bad, as far as circumstances and the laws of the kingdom allowed; he labored much, and not without praise, in preaching the word of God; he instructed the people by word and example; he also exercised hospitality so as to excite the admiration of all, although he scarcely received annually two hundred crowns from his diocese; and he performed all other things which became an archbishop and metropolitan, as far as they could be done in this kingdom. In fine, to our great service and consolation, he renewed, or rather established anew, at great expense, correspondence with the Holy See, which, for many years before his arrival, had become extinct. For all which things we acknowledge ourselves indebted to his Holiness and to your Eminences, who, by your solicitude provided for us so learned and vigilant a metropolitan, and we shall ever pray the Divine Majesty to preserve his holiness and your Eminences.”

Had the distinguished body of ecclesiastics who thus voluntarily testified to the merits of their archbishop anticipated the awful catastrophe that was soon to remove him from them and from the world, they could not have epitomized his career in more truthful and concise language for the benefit of posterity. The end, however, was now at hand. In the same year that the provincial synod was held, the persecution against the Catholics, intermittent like those of the early ages of the church, broke out with redoubled violence. Forced to the most extreme measures by the parliament, the English court sent the strictest orders to Ireland to have arrested and removed from the country the entire body of the bishops and the clergy. The statute of 2d Elizabeth, declaring it præmunire or imprisonment and confiscation for any person to exercise the authority of bishop or priest in her dominions, was revived, and liberal rewards for the discovery of such offenders were publicly offered, to stimulate the energy of that class of spies known as “priest-hunters.” Dr. Talbot, Archbishop of Dublin, was arrested and thrown into prison, where during a long confinement he languished and finally died. Dr. Creagh, Bishop of Limerick, the Archbishop of Tuam, and several of the inferior clergy, were also imprisoned and subjected to many annoyances and indignities previous to being expelled the kingdom. Dr. Plunket, who hoped that the storm would soon blow over, while prudently seeking a place of safety in a remote part of his diocese, frequently avowed his determination never to forsake his flock until compelled to do so by superior force. Learning, however, of the dangerous illness of his relative and former patron, Dr. Patrick Plunket, he cautiously left his concealment, and hastened to Dublin, to be with the good old bishop during his last moments, and it was in that city, on the 6th of December, 1679, that he was discovered and apprehended by order of the viceroy. For the first six months after his arrest he was confined in Dublin Castle, part of the time a close prisoner, but, as the only charge openly preferred against him was, to use the expression of one of his relatives, “only for being a Catholic bishop, and for not having abandoned the flock of our Lord in obedience to the edict published by parliament,” and as the punishment for this at the worst was expatriation, his friends did not fear for his life. They were not aware then that a conspiracy had been formed against him by some apostate friars under the patronage of the infamous Earl of Shaftesbury, the leader of the English fanatics, with the object of accusing him of high treason, and thus compassing his death. On the 24th of July following, he was sent under guard to Dundalk for trial; but so monstrous were the charges of treason against him, and so thoroughly was his character for moderation and loyalty known to all, that, though the jury consisted exclusively of Protestants, his accusers dared not appear against him, and he was consequently remitted back to Dublin. But his enemies on both sides of the Channel were thirsting for his blood, and, in October, 1680, he was removed to London, ostensibly to answer before the king and parliament, but, actually, to undergo the mockery of a trial in a country in which no offense was even alleged to have been committed, where the infamous character of his accusers was unknown, and where he was completely isolated from his friends. The result could not be doubtful. Without counsel or witnesses, in the presence of prejudiced judges and perjured witnesses, and surrounded by the hooting of a London mob, he was found guilty, and, on the 14th of June, 1681, he was sentenced to be executed at Tyburn, a judgment which was carried out on the 11th of July following, with all the barbaric ceremonies of the period. During the trial and on the scaffold, his bearing was singularly noble and courageous, so much so, indeed, that many who beheld him, and who shared the violent anti-Catholic prejudices of the hour, were satisfied of his perfect innocence. He repeatedly and emphatically denied all complicity in the treasonable plots laid to his charge, but openly declared that he had acted as a Catholic bishop, and had spent many years of his life in preaching and teaching God’s word to his countrymen. His life in prison between the passing and the execution of the sentence is best described by a fellow-prisoner, the learned Benedictine, Father Corker, who had the privilege of being with him in his last hours. In his narrative, he says:

“He continually endeavored to improve and advance himself in the purity of divine love, and by consequence also in contrition for his sins past; of his deficiency in both which this humble soul complained to me as the only thing that troubled him. This love had extinguished in him all fear of death. Perfecta charitas foras mittit timorem: a lover feareth not, but rejoiceth at the approach of the beloved. Hence, the joy of our holy martyr seemed still to increase with his danger, and was fully accomplished by an assurance of death. The very night before he died, being now, as it were, at heart’s ease, he went to bed at eleven o’clock, and slept quietly and soundly till four in the morning, at which time his man, who lay in the room with him, awaked him; so little concern had he upon his spirit, or, rather, so much had the loveliness of the end beautified the horror of the passage to it. After he certainly knew that God Almighty had chosen him to the crown and dignity of martyrdom, he continually studied how to divest himself of himself, and become more and more an entire and perfect holocaust, to which end, as he gave up his soul, with all its faculties, to the conduct of God, so, for God’s sake, he resigned the care and disposal of his body to unworthy me, etc. But I neither can nor dare undertake to describe unto you the signal virtues of this blessed martyr. There appeared in him something beyond expression—something more than human; the most savage and hard-hearted people were mollified and attendered at his sight.”

About two years afterward, this pious clergyman, upon being liberated, disinterred the body of the late primate, and had it forwarded to the convent of his order at Lambspring in Germany; the trunk and legs he had buried in the churchyard attached to that institution, and the right arm and head he preserved in separate reliquaries. The former is still preserved in the Benedictine Convent; the latter is in Dundalk, in the Convent of Saint Catharine of Sienna, a nunnery founded by the favorite niece of the martyred prelate.

Dr. Plunket’s judicial murder was the source of great grief to the friends of the church throughout Europe, and even many contemporary Protestant writers expressed their regret at his unmerited sufferings, while the unfortunate agents of his death, becoming outcasts and wanderers, generally ended their lives on the scaffold or in abject poverty, bemoaning their crimes, to the pity and horror of Christendom. The memory of Dr. Plunket, one of the most learned and heroic of the long line of Irish bishops, is sacredly and lovingly preserved in his own country and in the general annals of the church; and let us hope, in the language of the Rev. Monsignor Moran, who has done so much by his researches to perpetuate the name and fame of his glorious countryman, “that the day is not now far distant when our long-afflicted church will be consoled with the solemn declaration of the Vicar of Christ, that he who, in the hour of trial, was the pillar of the house of God in our country, and who so nobly sealed with his blood the doctrines of our faith, may be ranked among the martyrs of our holy church.”

– text taken from the article “An Irish Martyr”, author unknown, in the July 1871 editio of The Catholic World magazine

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/catholic-world-an-irish-martyr/

Sant'Oliviero Plunkett

Sant' Oliviero Plunkett Vescovo e martire

Festa: 1 luglio

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Loughcrew, Irlanda, 1625 - Londra, Inghilterra, 1 luglio 1681

Nato nel 1625 a Lougherew, Irlanda, Oliviero Plunkett studiò a Roma presso il Collegio irlandese e insegnò per 12 anni all'Urbaniana. Fu ordinato prete nella cappella dell'Ateneo missionario da un vescovo irlandese in esilio per la persecuzione di Cromwell. Quando quest'ultimo morì, si aprì un periodo tranquillo per la Chiesa. Oliviero tornò in patria come arcivescovo di Armagh per riorganizzare la comunità. Ripresa la persecuzione, si rifugiò sui monti per sfuggire all'esilio. Accusato di un inesistente «complotto cattolico», fu condannato a morte e giustiziato nel 1681. Papa Paolo VI lo canonizzò il 12 ottobre 1975. Nello stesso anno le reliquie del santo martire furono solennemente traslate nella cattedrale di Armagh.

Emblema: Palma

Martirologio Romano: Ancora a Londra, sant’Oliviero Plunkett, vescovo di Armagh e martire, che, falsamente accusato di cospirazione e condannato a morte sotto il re Carlo II, al cospetto della folla presente davanti al patibolo, perdonò i suoi nemici e professò fino all’ultimo con fermezza la sua fede cattolica.

Papa Paolo VI, nel ricordare quanti perirono per mano anglicana in odio al cattolicesimo romano, non si limitò a canonizzare i quaranta martiri di Inghilterra e Galles, ma volle onorare anche le terre di Scozia e di Irlanda. Quest’ultima fu chiamata l'isola dei santi dopo che San Patrizio l’evangelizzò e stabilì in essa vescovadi e monasteri, poi divenuti centri di cultura e di vita missionaria. Nel 1171 l’Irlanda cadde sotto la dominazione inglese. A prezzo di sofferenze inaudite, la sua popolazione ripudiò la fede e la liturgia anglicana al tempo del re Enrico VIII (+1547), della regina Elisabetta I (+1603), sua figlia, e di Oliviero Cromwell (+1658), fanatico puritano e dittatore dopo la sconfitta e la decapitazione del re Carlo I (+1649). Gli odi religiosi e politici causarono molte vittime, la più illustre delle quali fu Oliviero Plunket, arcivescovo di Armagh e primate d'Irlanda. Nato nel 1625 a Loughcrew, nella contea di Meath, da una famiglia che era imparentata con le più illustri case d'Irlanda, ancora bambino fu affidato alle cure di un suo parente, Patrizio Plunket, abate benedettino di Santa Maria a Dublino, e più tardi vescovo di Ardagh e di Meath. A diciannove anni fu scelto con altri quattro giovani e condotto a Roma dal Padre Pietro Francesco Scarampi perché si preparasse al sacerdozio nel collegio irlandese. Lo Scarampi, sacerdote oratoriano, era stato mandato da papa Urbano VIII in Irlanda nel 1643 in occasione delle lotte sorte tra gli anglo-irlandesi e vecchi cattolici da una parte, e il re Carlo I dall'altra, per la libertà di coscienza.

Per tre anni, finché non si rese vacante una delle borse di studio, Oliviero fu mantenuto agli studi da Padre Scarampi. Nel Collegio Romano della Compagnia di Gesù, alla scuola del Padre Pallavicino Sforza, fu ritenuto uno dei primi per ingegno, diligenza e profitto negli studi, e vero modello di gentilezza, di integrità di costumi e di pietà. Nel 1654 venne ordinato sacerdote. Secondo il giuramento fatto, avrebbe dovuto ritornare subito in patria per esercitare il ministero pastorale, ma poiché Cromwell aveva invaso l’Irlanda e sterminava i cattolici, domandò di rimanere a Roma, ospite dei Padri di San Girolamo della Carità. Completò così la sua cultura frequentando il corso di diritto canonico e civile presso l'Università della Sapienza. Allo stesso tempo si diede alla cura dei malati nell'ospedale di Santo Spirito in Sassia ed all’assistenza dei poveri, raccolti dal principe Don Marcantonio Odescalchi, con l'aiuto del cugino Benedetto Odescalchi, futuro papa Innocenze XI. Per il successo conseguito negli sudi, nel 1657 don Oliviero fu nominato lettore di teologia nel collegio di Propaganda Fide, consultore della Sacra Congregazione dell’Indice e, nel 1668, procuratore dei vescovi irlandesi presso la Santa Sede. Alla morte in esilio dell’arcivescovo di Armagh, primate d'Irlanda, Clemente IX, con "motu proprio" lo nominò a quella sede in data 9 giugno 1669. Per non ridestare le diffidenze del governo inglese fu deciso che avrebbe ricevuto la consacrazione episcopale non a Roma, bensì a Gand in Belgio, per mano del nunzio. Prima di lasciare Roma, mons. Plunket volle un’ultima volta far visita all’ospedale di Santo Spirito. Nell’abbracciarlo, un sacerdote polacco gli profetizzò: "Voi ora andate a spargere il sangue per la fede cattolica". Il santo vescovo gli rispose umilmente: "Non ne sono degno, tuttavia voi aiutatemi con le vostre orazioni affinché questa brama si adempia".

Il vescovo eletto giunse in Irlanda nel mese di marzo 1670 e fu ricevuto dal suo mentore, mons. Patrizio Plunket, divenuto vescovo di Meath. La situazione religiosa nell’isola era molto triste. Alla morte del Cromwell era stata ristabilita la monarchia, ma il re Carlo II (+1685), debole e dissoluto, non concesse agli irlandesi quella tolleranza che essi rivendicavano con insistenza. La loro sorte dipendeva dagli umori dei luogotenenti che si succedevano nel governo dell’isola. Nonostante le leggi persecutorie ancora vigenti, il santo svolse un intenso apostolato in dieci anni di relativa tranquillità, celebrando segretamente le funzioni sacre, girando in borghese e visitando il suo gregge solamente la notte. Appena prese possesso della sua sede, visitò parte della diocesi, fece conoscenza con il clero della sua provincia, celebrò due sinodi e conferì la cresima ad oltre diecimila fedeli. Ebbe a confidare a mons. Baldeschi, segretario di Propaganda Fide: "Iddio lo sa che io non penso giorno e notte ad altro che al servizio delle anime. Cose politiche o temporali non mi passano né per la mente, né per la bocca, né per la penna". Fu in gran parte suo merito se il 17 giugno 1670 venne convocato a Dublino un concilio nazionale dei vescovi irlandesi, da lui presieduto, durante il quale furono prese dieci deliberazioni volte a correggere alcuni abusi che erano invalsi nell’ultima persecuzione. Il 23 agosto dello stesso anno convocò a Clones, in un concilio provinciale, tutti i rappresentanti delle diocesi dell’Ulster. In accordo con essi, accettò solennemente i decreti del Concilio di Trento e le norme stabilite a Dublino per il rifiorire della disciplina ecclesiastica. Chiamò a Drogheda, nella diocesi di Armagh, i Padri Gesuiti per l’istruzione e l’educazione della gioventù e fabbricò per essi, con l’aiuto di Propaganda Fide, non ricevendo egli dalla diocesi che duecento corone annue, le scuole e la casa, dopo aver ottenuto dalle pubbliche autorità una benevola tolleranza. Per sovvenire ai bisogni delle scuole, mons. Plunket visse poveramente, contrasse debiti e si limitò a tenere al suo servizio soltanto due persone. Al segretario di Propaganda Fide scrisse il 20 gennaio 1672: "Per servire Dio e la Santa Sede, venderei ancora la croce e la mitra".

Ad un anno dal suo ingresso in Armagh, oltre che la sua diocesi, lo zelante pastore aveva già visitato sei delle sue diocesi suffraganee per istruire in inglese e irlandese i fedeli, cresimarli, risolvere contese e correggere abusi. Di tutto egli informava minutamente la Congregazione di Propaganda Fide. Con la nomina nel 1672 a luogotenente d'Irlanda del conte Arturo di Essex i cattolici vennero di nuovo sottoposti ad una violenta persecuzione. Le scuole chiusero, religiosi e vescovi costretti a nascondersi in attesa che la bufera passasse. Mons. Plunket con una provvista di libri e di candele si rifugiò in una capanna di paglia in mezzo ai boschi disposto piuttosto "a morire di fame e di freddo che abbandonare il gregge" o a farsi trascinare in esilio sopra una nave con la corda al collo. Passata la tempesta, ne approfittò per riordinare le scuole e la diocesi. Nel mese di agosto 1678 celebrò un secondo sinodo provinciale in Ardpatrick perché voleva che la sua provincia, "quanto al clero secolare e regolare, fosse santa, buona e riformata". L’arcivescovo di Cashel, dopo il martirio del Plunket, poté fare di lui questo elogio: "In dodici anni di residenza si mostrò vigilante, pieno di zelo e indefesso più dei suoi predecessori. Non consta che, a memoria di uomini di questo secolo, verun primate o metropolita di Armagh abbia visitato la sua diocesi e provincia con tanta sollecitudine e zelo pastorale come lui, riformando i cattivi costumi dei popoli e la scandalosa vita di alcuni ecclesiastici, castigando i colpevoli, premiando i meritevoli, consolando tutti, beneficando quanto poteva e soccorrendo i bisognosi. Onde ebbe applauso e fu onorato dal clero e dal popolo fuorché dai discoli, nemici della virtù e della osservanza ecclesiastica".

Una nuova levata di scudi contro i cattolici irlandesi avvenne con la fantasiosa congiura papale escogitata dall’avventuriero inglese Tito Oates. Anabattista al tempo dei Cromwell, anglicano al tempo di Carlo II e cappellano delle navi, nel 1678, fingendo una nuova conversione, riuscì a farsi accogliere in collegi di Gesuiti dai quali però fu allontanato per cattiva condotta. Egli se ne vendicò accusando i gesuiti di aver ordito una congiura per uccidere il re, fare strage dei protestanti e restaurare la Chiesa Cattolica in Inghilterra. Il parlamento, sobillato da lord Shafsterbury, abboccò a quelle accuse, seppur piene di contraddizioni. Furono arrestate oltre duemila persone, molte delle quali vennero impiccate. Tra le vittime ci fu anche il primate dell'Irlanda: Oliviero Plunket.

Uno dei primi ad essere imprigionato fu mons. Pietro Talbot (+1680), arcivescovo di Dublino, con il quale Plunket aveva avuto molte e aspre contese riguardo al primato d’Irlanda, ambito da entrambi. Ne diede avviso al nunzio di Bruxelles scrivendogli il 27 ottobre 1678: "Qui gli affari vanno di male in peggio. Con un editto pubblico si promettono 4 scudi a chi piglierà un prelato o gesuita, e 20 a chi piglierà un vicario generale o un frate. Gli sbirri, le spie e i soldati ne vanno alla caccia giorno e notte". Personalmente si aspettava l’esilio, ma gli eventi gli riserveranno il carcere ed il supplizio. Un giorno venne a sapere che mons. Patrizio Plunket, al quale era legato da parentela e gratitudine, stava morendo a Dublino. Uscì dal suo nascondiglio e lo andò a confortare. Fu però scoperto il 6 dicembre 1679, arrestato dai soldati per ordine del luogotenente, il conte di Ormond, e rinchiuso nella prigione del castello reale di Dublino sia in quanto vescovo cattolico, sia perché non aveva voluto abbandonare, in ossequio agli editti del parlamento, il gregge a lui affidato. In carcere il suo contegno fu decisamente edificante per quanti lo circondavano. Nel luglio 1680 fu trascinato davanti al tribunale di Dundalk, nella diocesi di Armagh, per essere giudicato della cospirazione papale della quale era considerato il principale organizzatore. Gli accusatori, tra cui figurava anche il francescano apostata Giovanni Mac Moyer, che il primate aveva dovuto sospendere per svariati delitti, furono esortati a provare le loro accuse, ma non ci riuscirono . Mons. Plunket, ricondotto nel carcere di Dublino, il 25 luglio 1680 informò segretamente il nunzio di essere accusato di avere settantamila cattolici pronti a trucidare tutti i protestanti ed a ristabilire il cattolicesimo nel paese, di avere inviato diversi agenti a diversi regni per ottenere soccorso, di avere girato e osservato tutte le fortezze del regno ed i posti marittimi, infine di avere tenuto un concilio provinciale nell'anno 1678 per introdurre i francesi in Irlanda.

Un senso di elementare giustizia esigeva che il processo di tradimento a carico del Plunket non fosse più rinnovato, o per lo meno venisse ripreso in Irlanda qualora fossero addotte nuove prove, invece fu ordinato che il primate il 21 ottobre 1680 venisse trasferito a Londra nel carcere di Newgate e giudicato da un tribunale composto di uomini disposti a condannare un innocente. Egli accettò la prova per la maggior gloria di Dio e la salvezza della propria anima. Per sostenere le spese fu costretto a vendere parte dei propri beni, persino il calice e la croce pettorale. Suoi accusatori furono alcuni preti e frati da lui sospesi per la vita scandalosa che conducevano. Il 3 maggio 1681 mons. Plunket apparve sul banco degli accusati senza che gli fosse concesso un avvocato per la propria difesa. Sentendosi rinfacciare le solite accuse, egli chiese un po’ di tempo onde addurre testimoni. Gli fu accordato, ma trentacinque giorni dopo il processo riprese ed il capo del giurì lo dichiarò colpevole. Il santo rispose con semplicità: "Siano rese grazie a Dio". Poiché a causa dei venti e di altre difficoltà, dall’Irlanda non erano ancora giunti né testimoni, né documenti, il prigioniero richiese ancora una dilazione di una decina di giorni, ma non gli venne concessa. Se avesse confessato la sua colpa e accusato altri avrebbe avuto salva la vita, ma egli respinse tale proposta perché avrebbe voluto "piuttosto morire diecimila volte che prendere a torto un quattrino dei beni di un uomo, un giorno della sua libertà e un minuto della sua vita".

Il 15 giugno 1681 il capo della giustizia, dopo una fiera invettiva contro la religione cattolica, sentenziò rivolgendosi all’imputato: "Voi dovete andare di qui al luogo donde siete venuto, e di là sarete trascinato per la città di Londra a Tyburn, là sarete appeso per il collo, ma calato giù prima che siate morto; vi saranno tratti fuori gl'intestini, e bruciati davanti ai vostri occhi; vi sarà tagliata la testa e il vostro corpo sarà diviso in quattro quarti da disporre come piace a sua Maestà. E prego Iddio che abbia misericordia dell'anima vostra". All'indomani dell'iniqua sentenza, il martire scrisse a Michele Plunket, suo parente, alunno in Roma del Collegio Irlandese, accennando alle accuse dei suoi nemici: "Io li perdono tutti e dico con Santo Stefano: Signore, non imputare loro questo peccato". E alcuni giorni dopo ancora: "La sentenza di morte non mi ha cagionato timore, ne mi ha tolto il sonno neppure un quarto d'ora. Io sono innocente di ogni tradimento come un bambino nato ieri. Per il mio carattere sacerdotale, per la mia professione religiosa e per le mie funzioni sacerdotali, lo ripeto pubblicamente, mi si da la morte; e io le vado incontro molto volentieri, ed essendo il primo degli irlandesi, con la grazia di Dio, sarò ad altri di esempio a non temere la morte... I cattolici inglesi furono qui molto caritatevoli a mio riguardo. Non badarono a spese per porgermi aiuto e durante il processo fecero per me ciò che non avrebbe fatto neppure un fratello, sono davvero cattolici rari e costanti nelle sofferenze".

L’11 luglio 1681 mons. Plunket, per volontà dei suoi carnefici, prima si vestì con gli abiti prelatizi, poi si lasciò distendere sopra una treggia e trascinare al luogo del patibolo. Sembrava uno sposo che si appropinquava alle nozze, tanto era raggiante di gioia. Dopo aver pubblicamente proclamato la propria innocenza e perdonato a tutti coloro che gli avevano fatto del male, dopo aver recitato il Miserere e mormorato: "Nelle tue mani, Signore, affido il mio spirito", fu impiccato, sventrato e squartato. Il suo corpo nel 1685 fu trasportato segretamente dall’Inghilterra al monastero benedettino di Lamspring, presso Hildesheim in Germania e nel 1883 nell’abbazia di Dowside (Inghilterra meridionale). La testa del martire è venerata a Drogheda, nel monastero delle Domenicane. Papa Benedetto XV lo beatificò il 23 maggio 1920 e Paolo VI infine lo canonizzò il 12 ottobre 1975. Nello stesso anno le reliquie del santo furono solennemente traslate nella cattedrale di Armagh.

Autore: Don Fabio Arduino

SOURCE : https://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/90987

Den hellige Oliver Plunkett (1629-1681)

Minnedag:

1. juli

Den hellige Oliver Plunkett var en irsk teolog og erkebiskop av Armagh som døde martyrdøden. Hans relikvier oppbevares i Drogheda. Han ble helligkåret i 1975 og kan minnes den 1. juli (og lokalt i Irland den 10. juli).

Sist oppdatert: 2000-02-01 21:34

SOURCE : https://www.katolsk.no/biografier/historisk/oplunket

SAINT OLIVER PLUNKETT : https://www.saintoliverplunkett.com/

SAINT OLIVER PLUNKETT, 1625-1681. ARCHBISHOP AND MARTYR : https://www.irelandseye.com/aarticles/history/people/whoswho/o_plunk.shtm

ICONOGRAPHIE CHRÉTIENNE

mardi 2 juillet 2013

Saint OLIVER PLUNKETT, évêque et martyr

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