.jpg)
Attributed
to Richard Rowlands (1550–1640), Coloured
engraving from Richard Verstegan, Theatrum crudelitatum haereticorum nostri
temporis, 1587 (ULiège, R00354B) - https://hdl.handle.net/2268.1/3566
Richard
Verstegen's depiction of the 1584 torture and execution of Archbishop
Dermot O'Hurley. The 1579 hanging of fellow Irish Catholic Martyrs Bishop Patrick
O'Hely and Friar Conn Ó Ruairc is shown in the background.
Bienheureux Dermot
O'Hurley
Archevêque de Cashel,
martyr irlandais (+ 1584)
Dermot O'Hurley, archevêque de Cashel, martyr irlandais
Mis à mort pour trahison sous le règne d'Elizabeth 1ère
Béatifié par Jean-Paul II le 27 septembre 1992 à Rome en même temps que Margaret Ball et d'autres martyrs irlandais.
Homélie en différentes langues
A lire: Dermot O'Hurley, archevêque de Cashel, le martyr le plus résistant et le plus illustre - 'History of Ireland in the reign of Elizabeth' en anglais
Archidiocèse de Cashel et
Emly - site en anglais
SOURCE : https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/12616/Bienheureux-Dermot-O-Hurley.html
Bienheureux Dermot
O’Hurley, évêque martyr
Irlandais de naissance
Dermot O’Hurley, né en 1530, étudia à Louvain et à Paris. Après avoir obtenu
les diplômes de docteur en droit civil, en théologie et en droit canon il
enseigna quatre ans à Louvain avant de partir pour Rome. C’est là qu’il sera
ordonné prêtre et qu’il fera la connaissance du pape Grégoire XIII. Ce dernier,
ayant constaté ses qualités le nommera quelques années plus tard archevêque de
Cashel en Irlande. Les catholiques de ce pays subissaient alors une terrible
persécution de la part de la reine d’Angleterre Élisabeth 1er Tudor. Sachant
parfaitement cela le nouvel archevêque rejoignit son diocèse mais prit soin de
garder des vêtements civils et de se faire héberger chez des amis fidèles.
C’est ainsi que pendant deux ans, il parvint à administrer les sacrements, à
prêcher l’évangile et à organiser son diocèse en échappant aux recherches des
anglais.
Mais au mois de septembre
1583, il fut arrêté et emprisonné à Dublin. Après une période d’isolement il
fut présenté à un tribunal qui lui demanda d’abjurer sa foi et de se soumettre
à l’autorité religieuse de la reine, ce qu’il refusa en démontrant à ses juges
la fausseté de leur nouvelle foi. Il fut alors soumis à la torture plusieurs
jours de suite. Horrifiés par tant de cruauté, des nobles anglais dénoncèrent
ces actes de barbarie. Rien n’y fit. Pour éviter un soulèvement de la
population, les agents de la reine conduisirent Dermot O’Hurley, pendant une
nuit de juin 1584, en dehors de la ville et le pendirent.
Des juristes anglais à la
rescousse d'un évêque irlandais
Une violente persécution
anti-catholique
JUIN 20, 2013 00:00ANITA
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Le martyrologe romain
fait aujorud’hui mémoire du bienheureux irlandais Dermot O’Hurley et de ses
compagnons, martyrs (XVIe s.).
La persécution des
Catholiques en Irlande, entre 1579 et 1654, fit de nombreuses victimes, dont
l’archevêque de Cashel, Dermot O’Hurley, et 16 autres martyrs, et laissa des
blessures profondes et durables.
En effet,
l’excommunication de la reine Elisabeth Ière – qui règna de 1558 à 1603 – par
le pape saint Pie V, en 1570, déchaîna une nouvelle vague de persécutions en
Angleterre.
En Irlande, le
soulèvement des nobles provoqua une répression semblable. D’autres martyrs
trouvèrent la mort entre 1602 et 1621. De nouvelles persécutions furent
déclenchées par l’insurrection de 1641. Enfin, les dernières victimes tombèrent
à l’époque terrible d’Olivier Cromwell, Lord Protecteur d’Angleterre, de 1653 à
1658.
Dermot O’Hurley avait
étudié à Louvain, Reims, et Rome, et il était devenu un brillant défenseur de
la foi. Il fut nommé évêque de Cashel en 1581, par le pape Grégoire XIII, mais
il fut arrêté presque immédiatement par les autorités anglaises qui
espéraient lui faire dévoiler les plans des grandes familles irlandaises.
Il fut soumis à la
torture : on lui huila les jambes avant de les exposer au feu, plusieurs
jours de suite. Aucune information ne sortit pourtant de ses lèvres.
Horrifiés à la nouvelle
d’une telle cruauté, des juristes anglais dénoncèrent cette détention sans
fondement et les tortures. Rien n’y fit. Il fut pendu au Saint Stephen’Greeen,
entre le 19 et le 29 juin 1584.
Des
juristes anglais à la rescousse d'un évêque irlandais | ZENIT - Français
SOURCE : https://fr.zenit.org/2013/06/20/des-juristes-anglais-a-la-rescousse-d-un-eveque-irlandais/
Bienheureux Dermot O’Hurley
Le 20 juin 2022
LE BON COMBAT DE LA FOI
Alors qu’il est invité à un dîner au château de Slane
(Irlande), chez un baron anglo-irlandais, l’archevêque Dermot O’Hurley
(1530-1584) n’y tient plus : il dit son fait à ceux qui défendent l’Acte
de suprématie fondant l’Église anglicane établie par Henri VIII, et repris par
la reine Élisabeth Ire. Formé à Louvain, Paris et Rome, docteur en théologie et
en droit, en ces temps de persécution des catholiques par la couronne
d’Angleterre, il est choisi spécialement par le pape Grégoire XIII pour le
siège épiscopal de Cashel. Il a tôt fait de réfuter les doctrines hérétiques et
devient alors clairement suspect d’allégeance au pape, traître et passible de
mort. Il est soumis plusieurs fois à des interrogatoires musclés. Devant le
gibet, il déclare que sa foi catholique et son ministère épiscopal sont les
seules raisons de sa mort.
Seigneur Jésus, tu es venu pour rendre témoignage à la
vérité, et Dermot n’a pas cherché à protéger sa vie pour te suivre.
Temps de silence
À la prière du bienheureux Dermot O’Hurley, donne-nous
de vivre l’obéissance de la foi non comme une contrainte mais comme un abandon.
Ce mois-ci, à l’écoute de Louis de Gonzague
Il y a un mois, je fus sur le point de recevoir de
Dieu la plus précieuse des grâces, celle, comme je l’espérais, de mourir dans
son amour. Mais la maladie s’est changée en fièvre lente.
SOURCE : https://francais.magnificat.net/magnificat_content/bienheureux-dermot-ohurley/
Bienheureux martyrs
irlandais des XVIe et XVIIe siècle
Martyrs entre 1572 et
1681
20 juin fête des martyrs irlandais (1572-1681), Conor O'Devany et Patrick O'Lougham et de nombreux martyrs béatifiés le 27 septembre 1992 par Jean-Paul II à Rome:
Dermot O'Hurley, Margaret Bermingham Ball, Francis Taylor et leurs quatorze compagnons ont été des témoins fidèles qui sont restés constants dans leur engagement au Christ et à l'Eglise jusqu'au sacrifice de leurs vies.
Evêques, prêtres séculiers ou religieux, religieux et religieuses, laïcs dont Margaret Bermingham Ball, une femme de grande intégrité qui supporta les souffrances physiques qui lui ont été infligées et la douleur d'être trahie par son fils.
Ils sont un témoignage pour l'Eglise en Irlande et un modèle de fidélité. Avec saint Olivier Plunket, ces bienheureux sont une petite partie des martyrs irlandais de cette époque de persécutions et d'oppression liées aux 'Penal Laws' (lois de discrimination envers les catholiques en Grande-Bretagne et en Irlande)
Plusieurs d'entre eux pardonnèrent publiquement à ceux qui avaient participé à leur martyre.
Homélie
de Jean-Paul II (en diverses langues)
Photograph
of St Ailbe's Cross, and Church of St Ailbe, Emly, Co. Tipperary, on the site
of an earlier cathedral and monastery. The Former Roman Catholic Cathedral of
St. Ailbe in Emly, County
Tipperary, where Dermot O'Hurley was first educated.
Also
known as
Dermit
Diarmaid Ó Hiarlatha
Profile
Born to a wealthy family,
the son of William O’Brien O’Hurley and Honoria. Studied at
the University of
Leuven, Belgium where
he obtained his law degree.
Dean of the law school at
Leuven for 15 years. Taught in Rheims, France for
4 years. Chosen archbishop of Cashel, Ireland by Pope Gregory
XIII in 1581 while
Dermot was still a layman;
he received the pallium on 27
November of that
year.
He returned to Ireland in
secret and kept on the move as Protestant authorities were watching for him.
However, to save one of his hosts from trouble with the authorities, he
surrendered when they caught up with him. Imprisoned, tortured and executed in
the persecutions of Elizabeth
I for the treason of refusing to acknowledge her as head of the Church.
One of the Irish
Martyrs.
Born
c.1530 in
Emly, County Tipperary, Ireland
hanged on 20 June 1584 at
Hoggen Green, (modern College Green) Dublin, Ireland
buried at
the church of Saint Kevin in Dublin
6 July 1991 by Pope John
Paul II
27
September 1992 by Pope John
Paul II in Rome, Italy
Additional
Information
books
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
other
sites in english
video
sitios
en español
Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
fonti
in italiano
Dicastero delle Cause dei Santi
Dicastero delle Cause dei Santi
Martirologio Romano, 2005 edition
MLA
Citation
“Blessed Dermot
O’Hurley“. CatholicSaints.Info. 16 October 2023. Web. 19 June 2024.
<https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-dermot-ohurley/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-dermot-ohurley/
O'HURLEY, DERMOT, BL.
Archbishop, listed among
Irish martyrs proposed for canonization; b. Lycadoon, Limerick, 1519; d.
Dublin, June 30, 1584. After graduating at Louvain in 1551, he taught
philosophy there and subsequently canon and civil
law at Reims. He was consecrated in Rome in 1581, and appointed
archbishop of Cashel September 11, receiving the pallium November 27. Landing
near Dublin in September 1583, he escaped capture in Drogheda and Slane and
proceeded to his own province. Because of the government's threats to his host
in Slane, he surrendered at Carrick–on–Suir and was imprisoned in Dublin Castle
October 7. He was examined repeatedly by lord justices Loftus and Wallop and,
on instructions of Elizabeth's secretary Walsingham, was tortured. Denying
charges of treason but refusing religious conformity, he was, on Elizabeth's
mandate, hanged after being condemned by martial
law, there being no evidence for conviction by civil courts. According to
tradition, he was buried in St. Kevin's churchyard, Dublin. O'Hurley was
beatified on Sept. 27, 1992.
Bibliography: S. Ó Murthuile, A
Martyred Archbishop of Cashel (Dublin 1935).
[J. Hurley]
New Catholic Encyclopedia
SOURCE : https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/ohurley-dermot-bl
Blessed Dermot O'Hurley,
the Archbishop of Cashel
MANY IRISH CATHOLICS
SUFFERED AND DIED FOR THEIR FAITH IN THE 16TH AND 17TH CENTURIES. ACN IRELAND’S
OUR MARTYRS RECORDS THE IRISH MARTYRS FROM THIS PERIOD. IN THIS ARTICLE WE WILL
LOOK AT THE MARTYRDOM OF ONE OF THESE MARTYRS, BLESSED DERMOT O’HURLEY, THE
ARCHBISHOP OF CASHEL.
By Conn McNally
Like many Irish
Catholics, I grew up with an awareness of the persecution our forefathers went
through for their faith. I did not know much about the details though. I was
aware of the destruction caused by Oliver Cromwell’s army, and I knew the
general story of the martyrdom of St. Oliver Plunket. Still, even with these
examples, I just knew very general accounts that lacked detail. The details of
individual stories can be as illuminating in understanding a period of history
as broad narratives. This is what I found when reading Our Martyrs. It helped
me see the Irish Catholic martyrs as real people, giving a face to those
Irishmen and women who suffered for their refusal to renounce the Catholic
Faith. The accounts also offered glimpses into people’s daily lives in Ireland
during the 16th and 17th centuries and helped even more in humanising and
grounding these martyrs. I found the most memorable of the martyrs recorded in
the book to be Blessed Dermot O’Hurley, the Archbishop of Cashel, who was
martyred in 1584.
Blessed Dermot O’Hurley
was born close to Limerick City in the middle of the 16th century. His father,
William O’Hurley, owned a small estate and was employed by the Norman Earl of
Desmond, James Fitzgerald. As a young man, Dermot went to the University of
Louvain to study and was commenced as a Master of Arts and a Doctor of Law. He
then began teaching in the same university. In 1581, Pope Gregory XIII
appointed Dermot as the Archbishop of Cashel on account of his piety and
learning. Dermot was then ordained as a priest and consecrated as a bishop. The
newly appointed archbishop returned to Ireland via Brittany.
The archbishop landed in
Drogheda, County Louth. He then travelled south towards his archdiocese. The
situation in Ireland was very dangerous at the time. This was the period of the
Second Desmond Rebellion in Munster, where the archbishop’s diocese was
located. Partly motivated by the persecution of Catholics in Ireland, the
Norman and Gaelic Catholics of the south of Ireland rebelled against the
Protestant English Crown. The rebellion was ruthlessly crushed, with English
troops often resorting to scorched earth tactics, which caused widespread
famine as much as one-third of Munster’s population died. During and after the
rebellion, the English authorities accelerated their persecution of Catholics.
In this context, Archbishop Dermot O’Hurley travelled south towards his
diocese, which was a warzone.
The archbishop stopped to
rest in Slane during his journey and stayed with Thomas Fleming, the Baron of
Slane. The baron’s wife, Catherine Preston, was a devote Catholic, so the
archbishop believed he was in safe company. Word reached the authorities in
Dublin Castle that the new Catholic Archbishop of Cashel had landed in Ireland.
Agents of the Crown began to track him down. They arrived at Slane after the
archbishop had left. The royal agents discovered that the Catholic bishop had
stayed with the local baron. They then told the baron that he would need to
assist with the archbishop’s arrest to avoid charges. The baron chased after
the archbishop and caught up with him at the residence of Thomas Butler, the
Earl of Ormond. The archbishop was staying there as a guest of the Earl of
Ormond, who was a Protestant. The Baron of Slane arrested the archbishop
against the Earl of Ormond’s loud protests. The archbishop was brought to
Dublin and imprisoned in Dublin Castle.
The archbishop was
subjected to horrendous torture in Dublin Castle. The objective was to get him
to renounce the Catholic Faith and recognise the English Queen, Elizabeth
Tudor, as the head of the Irish Church. The archbishop refused to leave the
Faith. The most horrific torture involved his feet being boiled in oil over a
fire. Much to his credit, the Protestant Earl of Ormond continued to lodge
protests over the arrest and treatment of his guest. He even travelled to
Dublin to attempt to have the archbishop released. This all failed. The Queen
ordered for the archbishop to be tried under a military tribunal. He was tried,
found guilty and sentenced to death in one day.
The archbishop was taken
from Dublin Castle and hung until dead in the area in front of what is now
Trinity College. He was buried close by but was later reburied by his friends
in St. Kevin’s Church, Camden Row. His grave became a pilgrimage site, and many
miracles were credited to his intercession. On 27th September 1992, Dermot
O’Hurley, the Archbishop of Cashel, was beatified by Pope Saint John Paul II.
If you want to learn more about Blessed Dermot O’Hurley and the other Irish
martyrs, please consider purchasing Our Martyrs off ACN Ireland. Please be
assured that the proceeds of all book sales will support the Persecuted and
Suffering Church of today.
SOURCE : https://www.acnireland.org/journal/2021/3/15/blessed-dermot-ohurley-the-archbishop-of-cashel
Dermond O'Hurley
Archbishop of Cashel, Ireland; died 19-29
June, 1584. His father, William O'Hurley of Lickadoon, near Limerick, a man of
substance and standing, holding land under the Earl of Desmond, secured him a
liberal education on
the continent. He took his doctorate in utroque jure, taught first
at Louvain and
then at Reims,
and afterwards went to Rome. Appointed Archbishop of Cashel by Gregory XIII, he
was consecrated on
11 September, 1581, per saltum, not having previously taken priesthood. Two years
later he landed at Drogheda, stayed a short time with the Baron of Slane, and
proceeded for his diocese,
expecting protection from the Earl of Ormonde. Loftus, Protestant Archbishop of Dublin, and Sir Henry
Wallop, then lords justices, having secret information, so intimidated Lord
Slane that he hastened to Munster and brought back his guest. The archbishop was
committed to Dublin Castle in October, 1583, while the justices, dreading
Ormonde's resentment and his influence with Queen Elizabeth, obtained authority
to use torture, hoping that he would inform against the Earl of Kildare and
Lord Delvin. Still apprehensive, they suggested as Dublin was unprovided with
rack, that their prisoner could
be better schooled in the Tower of London. Walsingham replied by bidding them
toast his feet in hot boots over a fire. The barbarous suggestion was adopted,
and early in March, 1584, the archbishop's legs
were thrust into boots filled with oil and salt, beneath which a fire was
kindled. Some groans of agony were wrung from the victim, and he cried aloud,
"Jesus, son of David, have mercy
on me!," but rejected every proposal to abandon his religion. Ultimately
he swooned away, and fearing his death, the torturers removed him; as the boots
were pulled off, the flesh was stripped from his bones. In this condition he
was returned to prison,
and the Justices again sought instructions from England, reporting what
had been done, and intimating the lawyer's opinion that no charge of treason
could be sustained in Irish law
against Dr. O'Hurley. Walsingham, having consulted the queen, wrote back her
approval of the torture, and her authority to dispatch the archbishop by
martial law. He was secretly taken out at dawn, and hanged with a withe on the
gibbet near St. Stephen's Green, 19-29 June, 1584. His body was buried by some
friends in St. Kevin's churchyard.
McNeill,
Charles. "Dermond O'Hurley." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton
Company, 1911. <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11228b.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Tim Drake.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. February 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D.,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2023 by Kevin Knight.
Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11228b.htm
Bl. Dermot O'Hurley and
Companions
(Died 1579-1654)
This column has often
featured saints and blesseds who were martyred during the English Reformation
and the anti-Catholic centuries that followed. Many British who died for their
Catholic faith in these years have been declared Venerable; others, Blessed;
and 42, beginning with St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More, have been canonized
saints. Since some 600 Catholics in all suffered martyrdom in England and Wales
during those times, it is safe to say that in the future, other names will be
added to the church calendar by the popes.
But what about Ireland?
The Irish, too, were subjected by the English rulers to persecution for their
Catholicism. Did not Ireland also have its martyrs?
It certainly did; and
although the campaign against Catholicism in Ireland differed somewhat from
that in England, over 250 Irish women and men have been singled out as possible
candidates for beatification and canonization. A few of them have already
received the honors of the altar. Oliver Plunkett, Archbishop of Armagh, has
been declared a saint; and three natives of Ireland have been beatified along
with the English martyrs because they met death on English soil: Bl. Charles
Meehan, a Franciscan priest; and two Irish laymen, BB. John Carey and Patrick
Salmon, who were servants of an Anglo-Irish Jesuit.
The reason why the cause
for beatification of the Irish martyrs is so slow is an interesting one. To
qualify as a martyr, a candidate’s death for the faith must be clearly
documented. That was rather easy to do with most of the English martyrs,
because British law required the careful preservation of court records. It was
different in Ireland. As often as not, those executed for Catholicism were not
even put on trial, so the circumstances of their death were not preserved.
Church investigators would therefore have to search elsewhere for information -
a long, and perhaps fruitless task.
When Pope John Paul II,
on September 27, 1992, declared blessed seventeen Irish martyrs, he did the
next best thing. He made a start on the process of selecting, from among those
whose martyrdom had been verified, a group who represented a cross section of
Irish Catholics: men and women, bishops, priests and lay brothers, laity from
both higher and lower walks of life.
While there is still not
much known about many of these, let me list them with their years of death and
with brief comments:
Bl. Patrick O’Healy,
bishop of Mayo, and Bl. Conn O’Rourke, both Franciscans (1579). Bl. Matthew
Lambert, a baker, and three sailors: BB. Robert Mayler, Edward Cheevers, and
Patrick Cavanaugh (1581). Mrs. Margaret Bermingham Ball, a widowed housewife
who died in prison (1584). (She had been jailed at the insistence of her own
son, who abandoned the Catholic faith and handed her over to the British
officials. Bl. Margaret lived out her remaining life in patient suffering
rather than disown the pope.)
Bl. Dermot O’Hurley,
archbishop of Cashel, was suspected of knowing of a plot by the pope and the
Spanish. His feet were therefore put into metal boots, filled with oil, and
roasted over a fire.
Since he had nothing to
confess, this brilliant man was finally given a choice between denying the pope
or hanging. He was hanged in 1584.
A secular priest, Bl.
Maurice McKenraghty was executed in 1585. Bl. Dominic Collins, a Jesuit lay
brother, died in 1602. Bl. Conor O’Devany, a Franciscan, bishop of Down and
Connor in Ulster, and Bl. Patrick O’Loughran, a priest, both died in 1612.
Bl. Francis Taylor was a
prominent merchant and alderman of Dublin, where he was martyred in 1642. Bl.
Terence O’Brien, the Dominican bishop of Emly, was executed in 1651. The last
two of the group were Bl. John Kearney, a Franciscan priest (1654), and Bl.
William Tirry, an Augustinian priest (1654).
Today, Ireland is torn
apart by strife, largely religious in background. In declaring these seventeen
“blessed”, the Holy Father pointed out how they had died for love, forgiving
their persecutors. And he prayed God to “sustain those who work for
reconciliation and peace in Ireland today.”
--Father Robert F.
McNamara
SOURCE : https://saints-alive.siministries.org/saints-alive/saint/bl-dermot-ohurley-and-companions/
Chapters towards a History of Ireland in the reign of Elizabeth
(Author: Philip O'Sullivan
Beare)
Chapter 19
p.33-36
Dermot O'Hurley,
Archbishop of Cashel, the most unconquerable and illustrious Martyr.
WHEN these wars in which
our Island suffered so pitiably were over, a new danger sprang up, far more
miserable and monstrous, namely the tyranny exercised against priests and other
Catholics. The first who fell under this persecution was Dermot O'Hurley,
Archbishop of Cashel, of whom we have already written, as follows: —
Dermot O'Hurley was by
birth an Irishman, the son of a gentleman, and in his boyhood was, under the
care of his parents, politely brought up, and instructed in the rudiments of
letters. As he grew older he made such progress at Louvain and Paris in the
higher studies that, if confronted with men of his own age, he was second to
scarcely anyone as a grammarian; he was equal to the most eloquent as a
rhetorician; superior to most in jurisprudence; and in theology inferior to
few. Having obtained the degree of Doctor in Theology and Civil and Canon Law,
he for four years publicly taught law at Louvain. Uniting to these
accomplishments a splendid presence, dignity, and gravity of mind, he seemed to
the Supreme Pontiff, Gregory XIII., after he had spent some years at Rome and
taken Holy Orders, worthy of being consecrated Archbishop of Cashel. As soon as
this office was imposed upon him, he returned to Ireland, to perish in that
most doleful time for his country when its sceptre was swayed by Elizabeth
Tudor, Queen of England, who was not only infected with the stain of most foul
heresy, but was also the bitterest enemy of the Catholic Faith and of holy
bishops and priests.
The cruelty of their
Princess in persecuting the Catholics was carried out by the Royalist governors
and ministers, not only in England, where they had now destroyed the splendour
of the Faith, but also in Ireland, where the natives, even to this day,
patiently endure all extremities for Christ's sake. However, our Archbishop,
with the greatest pains and zeal, administered the Sacraments to the flock of
his jurisdiction, and expounded the Gospel of the Lord, confirming all in the
Faith, and for nearly two years vainly sought after by the English, being
protected by the care and devotion of the Irish, and disguising his identity
and calling by wearing secular apparel. In this guise other priests also, in
Ireland, Scotland, and England, are going about to the present day, since the
fury of the English Kings rages against the Church of Jesus Christ. Eventually
it chanced that one day while the Archbishop was staying with Thomas Fleming,
an Anglo-Irish Baron, at his castle of Slane, in his own dominion, a grave
question was started at dinner, in the presence of the squint-eyed Robert
Dillon, one of the Queen's judges. The heretics, giving each his own opinion,
freely proceeded to such extreme folly, that Dermot, who was present, and long
kept silent lest he should betray himself, could not any longer stand their
rashness, and so, to the great astonishment of all, he easily refuted the silly
doctrines of the heretics, with an air of authority, and great eloquence and
learning. Hereupon Dillon was led to surmise that this was some distinguished
person who might greatly obstruct heresy. He related the matter to Adam Loftus,
Chancellor of Ireland, and to Henry Wallop, Lord Treasurer, both Englishmen, and
with whom the government of Ireland then rested, as the Viceroy was absent.
These ordered Baron Thomas under heavy penalties, to send them the Archbishop
in chains. The Archbishop, having meantime left Slane, was arrested by the
Baron and Royalists emissaries in the castle at Carrick-on-Suir in the month of
September, 1583, whilst staying with Thomas Butler, surnamed the Black, Earl of
Ormond, who was much offended and distressed at the arrest, and afterwards did
his best to rescue the Bishop from the executioners, except that he did not
take up arms as he ought to have done in such a case, and perhaps would have
done, but that he was a Protestant. His other efforts were unavailing.
The Bishop being brought
to Dublin, the chief city of the kingdom, was kept many days in chains in a
dark, dismal, and fetid prison, until that day in the following year, which is
kept under the name of the Lord's Supper, on which day he was attacked by the
heretics in this manner: First he was brought before Adam, the Chancellor, and
Henry, the Treasurer, and civilly and kindly invited to follow the tenets of
the heretics, and promised large rewards on condition of abjuring his sacred
character; relinquishing the office received from the Pope, and (O villainy!)
entering upon the Archbishopric under the Queen's authority. He told them that
he was bound and resolved never to desert the Church, Faith, or Vicar of Christ
Jesus for any consideration. Then the Chancellor and Treasurer endeavoured to
deceive him by cunning arguments, straining every nerve to establish the truth
of their falsehoods. Dermot not relishing this, especially as he was not
allowed to reply to their nonsense, bade them, stupid and ignorant men (such
was his high spirit), not to offer ridiculous and false doctrines to him, an
Archbishop, and Doctor of celebrated academies. Then the heretics, filled with
anger, exclaimed: ‘If we cannot convince you by argument, we will make you quit
this your false law and embrace our religion, or feel our power.’ The Bishop
was bound hand and foot, was thrown on the ground, and tied to a large stake.
His feet and legs were encased in top-boots (a kind of boot at that time
common, made of leather, and reaching above the knee), filled with a mixture of
salt, bitumen, oil, tallow, pitch, and boiling water. The legs so booted were
placed on iron bars, and horribly and cruelly roasted over a fire. When this
torture had lasted a whole hour, the pitch, oil, and other mixtures boiling up,
burned off not only the skin, but consumed also the flesh, and slowly destroyed
the muscles, veins, and arteries; and when the boots were taken off, carrying
with them pieces of the roasted flesh, they left no small part of the bones
bare and raw, a horrible spectacle for the bystanders, and scarcely credible.
But the martyr, having his mind filled with thoughts of God and holy things,
never uttered a word, but held out to the end of the torture with the same
cheerfulness and serenity of countenance he had exhibited at the commencement
of his sufferings, as if, flying the heat of the summer sun, he were lying in a
dainty bed upon a soft pillow, beneath an overshadowing tree, with spreading
leafy branches, and beside a rivulet humming with gentle murmur through
fragrant lilies, quietly refreshing himself after hard work and the weariness
of long vigils.
When, however, in this
savage way, the tyrants had failed to break the unconquerable spirit of the
martyr by their more than Phalaric cruelty, he was by their order, brought back
to his former prison, a foul place, filled with a dense fog, ready to endure
worse torments, if such could be devised.
There was at this time in
Dublin, Charles MacMoris, a priest of the Society of Jesus, skilled in medicine
and chirurgery, who, because he was of the Faith of Christ, had been imprisoned
by the English, and again discharged by them on account of curing some
difficult cases for certain noblemen. This man visited the holy Bishop in
prison, and gave him such medical treatment, that on the fourteenth day he was
able to get up from his bed for a little while. The Chancellor and Treasurer,
learning of this, and that the Earl of Ormond was coming, by whose influence
and power they feared Dermot would be saved, determined in their malign
wickedness to put him to death as soon as possible. Fearing, however, that the
people would raise a disturbance, and rescue their pastor from death if it were
generally known by the citizens that he was to be executed, they ordered the
dregs of their soldiers and executioners to bring out the Bishop on a car early
in the morning, before sunrise, and before the people were up, and hang him on
a gallows outside the city.
Which being done, out of
all the citizens, he was met by only two and a certain friend who had been
extremely faithful to him, and had made him his particular care from the time
of his capture. These followed him; and before he was strung up the Archbishop,
seizing the hand of his friend, and strongly squeezing it, is said to have
impressed on the palm, in an indelible red colour, the sign of the cross—a rare
and holy pledge of his gratitude to his most faithful friend. Thereupon he was
hung by a halter made of plaited osiers, and in a short time strangled, and, so
dying, acquired eternal reward in heaven in the year of Our Lord, 1584, on the
seventh day of the month of June.
It is said that on the
spot where Dermot perished, a noble lady was delivered from a wicked devil, by
whom she had been long tormented. William Fitzsimon, a citizen of Dublin,
removed the body of the martyr from the place where the heretics had buried it,
and placing it in a wooden coffin, interred it in a secret grave. Richard, a
famous musician, has celebrated this suffering and death in a plaintive and
pathetic piece called 'The Fall of the Baron of Slane.'
SOURCE : https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T100060/text020.html
O'Hurley, Dermot
Contributed by
McCormack, Anthony M.; Clavin, Terry
O'Hurley, Dermot
(c.1530–1584), catholic archbishop of Cashel and martyr, was the son of William
O'Hurley, a servant to the Fitzgerald earls of Desmond, and his wife Honora
O'Brien. He was born near Emly, Co. Tipperary, but his family later moved to
Lickadoon, Co. Limerick. Little is known of his early education in Ireland,
though he may have attended the cathedral school at Emly. He continued his
education at the university at Louvain, where in 1551 he
graduated MA from the Collège du Lis and, having won renown for his
commentaries on Aristotle, was appointed professor of philosophy at the college
in 1559. He also became a doctor of civil and canon law, and dean of the
College of St Ivo; he probably left Louvain about 1564. He then spent four
years as professor of law at Rheims university, before moving to
Rome c.1568, where he may have continued his academic career. Claims that
he was a member of the holy office (the inquisition) while in Rome come from
partisan sources; at most he may have given occasional legal advice. During his
time at Rome, he urged the papacy to support an invasion of Ireland to end the
persecution suffered by catholics there, and in 1581 acted as interpreter for a
representative in Rome of the rebel leader James Eustace (qv),
Viscount Baltinglass.
In 1581 Pope Gregory XIII
decided to appoint O'Hurley to the archdiocese of Cashel, though he was still a
layman. Gregory issued a papal brief in his favour on 15 July, and O'Hurley
received the clerical tonsure and was advanced to the four minor orders and
three major orders by Thomas Goldwell, bishop of St Asaph, within the space of
sixteen days: he received the tonsure on 29 July, and was made ostiary, lector,
and exorcist on 30 July, acolyte on 1 August, subdeacon on 6 August, deacon on
10 August, and priest on 13 August. He was provided to the archdiocese of
Cashel on 11 September at the secret consistory, and was granted the pallium in
person on 27 November 1581. His appointment was due to his family's closeness
to the earls of Desmond, the 15th earl, Gerald
Fitzgerald (qv), being then in rebellion against the crown. O'Hurley
was commissioned to take papal letters to Desmond encouraging him to remain
steadfast in his rebellion.
After leaving Rome in
summer 1582, O'Hurley reached Rheims in August, where he fell seriously ill; he
was not well enough to finish his journey home until August 1583. At the port
of Le Croisic at the mouth of the Loire, he gained passage to Holmpatrick, near
Skerries, Co. Dublin. He sent a bundle of documents and with them his pallium
to Ireland by a different ship, which was intercepted by the authorities. On
his arrival in Ireland in the summer of 1583 he was met by Father John Dillon,
who took him first to Drogheda, where they feared they had been discovered by a
government informer. They hastened to Slane castle where Dillon's relative,
Thomas Fleming, Baron Slane, provided sanctuary for them. O'Hurley hid for a
time in a secret chamber at Slane castle; he ventured out from Slane to Cavan
to visit some priests he had known from his time on the continent. Sir Robert Dillon (qv),
chief justice of the common pleas, on a visit to his cousin for dinner, spoke
with O'Hurley, who posed as a guest. Dillon's suspicions were aroused by
O'Hurley's learned manner and, after making further inquiries, he uncovered the
archbishop's true identity.
By that time, however,
O'Hurley had travelled to Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Tipperary, where he met Thomas Butler (qv),
10th earl of Ormond. O'Hurley's arrival in his lordship put Ormond in a
difficult position. Although a protestant, all of his family, tenants, and
supporters were catholic and he allowed them the freedom to worship according
to their religion. However, royal officials in Dublin, long jealous of his
favour with the queen, watched Ormond closely, eagerly awaiting the chance to
expose his covert support for catholicism. Ormond appears to have agreed to
protect O'Hurley as long as he avoided meddling in political affairs and stayed
in Co. Tipperary. After this meeting O'Hurley visited the site of Holy Cross
abbey. He wrote to the Church of Ireland archbishop of Cashel, Miler Magrath (qv),
on 20 September 1583, suggesting that they tolerate each other's activities in
their competing jurisdiction. However, Ormond, to whom O'Hurley had entrusted
the delivery of the letter, retained it as he distrusted Magrath (it is now in
the Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Carte 55, fol. 546).
In the meantime, Baron
Slane had been summoned before the lords justices in Dublin, where he was
berated for sheltering a catholic archbishop and ordered to apprehend O'Hurley.
Slane hurried to Carrick, where he and Ormond concluded that O'Hurley had to be
sacrificed: it is uncertain whether Ormond and Slane betrayed O'Hurley to the
authorities or merely persuaded him to surrender himself. If O'Hurley went
willingly, it suggests that he overestimated Ormond's ability to protect him
and underestimated the ruthlessness and anti-catholic zeal of the authorities.
In the event he was led in chains to Dublin by Slane and imprisoned at Dublin
castle on 7 October.
He was interrogated
by Edward
Waterhouse (qv), a member of the Irish council, between 8 and 20
October 1583; he admitted having met in Rome Richard Eustace, brother of the
rebel Viscount Baltinglass, but denied bringing letters to Desmond and other
rebels. The lords justices, Adam Loftus (qv),
Church of Ireland archbishop of Dublin, and Henry Wallop (qv),
vice-treasurer of Ireland, then sent to Whitehall for instructions and were
told on 10 December to use torture. They were reluctant to do so, knowing that
it would quickly become public knowledge in Ireland, and requested that he be
tortured in London instead. After receiving further orders from London, they
put O'Hurley to torture around the beginning of March 1584, dressing his feet
in boots containing boiling oil and tallow and placing them over a fire, with
the result that the flesh came away from the bones. The ordeal nearly killed
him. O'Hurley displayed great strength of will by refusing to divulge any
information or to incriminate Ormond despite being urged to do so. He was then
offered high ecclesiastical office in the Church of Ireland in return for
renouncing his faith, but remained unyielding.
On 8 March 1584 guards
discovered letters written by O'Hurley from prison to Ormond and a relative. At
this point the lords justices became very agitated and requested permission to
execute O'Hurley by martial law, believing that he would be acquitted if he
were tried by common law. Ormond was then at the royal court and they feared
that O'Hurley would alert Ormond to their efforts to implicate him in treason.
On 28 April they received instructions from Thomas Walsingham, secretary of
state to Elizabeth, tacitly authorising them to try O'Hurley by martial law.
However, they delayed, knowing that the execution would be controversial. They
waited until Sir John Perrot (qv)
arrived in Dublin in June to take up the lord deputyship of Ireland and, having
secured his approval, sentenced O'Hurley to death by martial law on 19 June. He
was hanged at Hoggins Green the next day; the execution was carried out in the
early hours of the morning to avoid attention, but a group of archers happened
to be practising on the green, thwarting the authorities’ efforts to suppress
reports of the martyrdom. O'Hurley's remains were recovered by citizens of
Dublin and interred at St Kevin's church, while his clothes were kept as
relics. In a very short time he was acclaimed throughout Ireland as a martyr
for his faith, and his burial place became a shrine for Dublin catholics.
Archbishop O'Hurley, along with sixteen other Irish martyrs, was beatified by
Pope John Paul II on 27 September 1992.
Sources
Brady, Ir. ch.
Eliz.; The analecta of David Rothe, bishop of Ossory, ed. P. F. Moran
(1884), pp. xiii–xlvi; Benignus Millet, ‘The ordination of Dermot O'Hurley,
1581’, Collect. Hib., xxv (1983), 12–21; NHI, ix, 354; William Hayes,
‘Dermot O'Hurley's last visit to Tipperary’, Tipperary Historical
Journal (1992), 163–73; J. J. Meagher, ‘The beatified martyrs of Ireland
(3): Dermot O'Hurley, archbishop of Cashel’, Ir. Theol. Quart., lxiv
(1999), 285–98
PUBLISHING INFORMATION
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3318/dib.006817.v1
Originally published
October 2009 as part of the Dictionary of Irish Biography
Last revised October 2009
This content is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution
Non Commercial 4.0 International license.
SOURCE : https://www.dib.ie/biography/ohurley-dermot-a6817
The Life and Martyrdom of
Dermot O'Hurley, Archbishop Of Cashel
by Philip O'Sullivan Beare
Dermot O'Hurley was by
birth an Irishman, the son of a gentleman, and his boyhood was, under the care
of his parents, politely brought up, and instructed in the rudiments of
letters. As he grew older he made such progress at Louvain and Paris in the
higher studies that, if confronted with men of his own age, he was second to
scarcely anyone as a grammarian: he was equal to the most eloquent as a
rhetorician; superior to most in jurisprudence; and in theology inferior to
few. Having obtained the degree of Doctor in Theology and Civil and Canon Law,
he for four years publicly taught law at Louvain. Uniting to these
accomplishments a splendid presence, dignity, and gravity of mind, he seemed to
the supreme Pontiff, Gregory XIII, after he had spent some years at Rome and
taken Holy Orders, worthy of being consecrated archbishop of Cashel. As soon as
this office was imposed upon him, he returned to Ireland, to perish in that
most doleful time for his country when its sceptre was swayed by Elizabeth
Tudor, Queen of England, who was not only infected with the stain of most foul
heresy, but was also the bitterest enemy of the Catholic faith and of holy
bishops and priests.
Our archbishop, with the
greatest pains and zeal, administered the Sacraments to the flock of his
jurisdiction, and expounded the Gospel of the Lord, confirming all in the
Faith, and for nearly two years vainly sought after by the English, being
protected by the care and devotion of the Irish, and disguising his identity
and calling by wearing secular apparel. Eventually it chanced one day while the
archbishop was staying with Thomas Fleming, an Anglo-Irish baron, at his castle
of Slane, in his own dominion, a grave question was started at dinner, in the
presence of the squint-eyed Robert Dillon, one of the Queen's judges. The
heretics, giving each his own opinion, freely proceeded to such extreme folly,
that Dermot, who was present, and long kept silent, lest he should betray
himself, could not any longer stand their rashness, and so, to the great
astonishment of all, he easily refuted the silly doctrines of the heretics,
with an air of authority, and great eloquence and learning. Hereupon Dillon was
led to surmise that this was some distinguished person who might greatly
obstruct heresy. He related the matter to Adam Loftus, Chancellor of Ireland,
and to Henry Wallop, Lord Treasurer, both Englishmen, and with whom the government
of Ireland then rested, as the Viceroy was absent. These ordered Baron Thomas,
under heavy penalties, to send them the archbishop in chains. The archbishop,
having meantime left Slane, was arrested by the baron and royalist emissaries
in the castle at Carrick-on-Suir in the month of September 1583, whilst staying
with Thomas Butler, surnamed the Black, Earl of Ormonde, who was much offended
and distressed at the arrest, and afterwards did his best to rescue the bishop
from the executioners, except that he did not take up arms as he ought to have
done in such a case, and perhaps would have done, but that he was a Protestant.
The bishop being brought
to Dublin, the chief city of the Kingdom, was kept many days in chains in a
dark, dismal, and foetid prison, until that day in the following year, which is
kept under the name of the Lord's Supper, on which day he was attacked by the
heretics in this manner first, he was brought before Adam the Chancellor, and
Henry, the Treasurer, and civilly and kindly invited to follow the tenets of
the heretics, and promised large rewards on condition of abjuring his sacred
character, relinquishing the office received from the Pope, and (O villainy!)
entering upon the archbishopric under the Queen's authority. He told them that
he was bound and resolved never to desert the Church, Faith, or Vicar of Christ
Jesus for any consideration. Then the Chancellor and Treasurer endeavoured to
deceive him by cunning arguments, straining every nerve to establish the truth
of their falsehoods. Dermot, not relishing this, especially as he was not
allowed to reply to their nonsense, bade them, stupid and ignorant men (such
was his high spirit), not to offer ridiculous and false doctrines to him, an
archbishop, and doctor of celebrated academies. Then the heretics, filled with
anger, exclaimed if we cannot convince you by argument, we will make you quit
this, your false law, and embrace our religion or feel our power. The bishop
was bound hand and foot, was thrown on the ground, and tied to a large stake.
His feet and legs were encased in top boots (a kind of boot at that time
common, made of leather, and reaching above the knee) filled with a mixture of
salt, bitumen, oil, tallow, pitch, and boiling water. The legs so booted were
placed on iron bars, and horribly and cruelly roasted over a fire. When this
torture had lasted a whole hour, the pitch, oil and other mixtures boiling up,
burnt off not only the skin, but consumed also the flesh, and slowly destroyed
the muscles, veins and arteries; and when the boots were taken off, carrying
with them pieces of the roasted flesh, they left no small part of the hones
bare and raw, a horrible spectacle for the bystanders, and scarcely credible.
But the martyr, having his mind filled with thoughts of God and holy things,
never uttered a word, but held out to the end of the torture with the same
cheerfulness and serenity of countenance he had exhibited at the commencement
of his sufferings. When however, in this savage way, the tyrants had failed to
break the unconquerable spirit of the martyr by their more than Phalaric
cruelty, he was by their order, brought back to his former prison, a foul place
filled with a dense fog, ready to endure worse torments, if such could be
devised.
There was at this time in
Dublin, Charles Mac Morris, a priest of the Society of Jesus, skilled in
medicine and chirurgery, who because he was of the faith of Christ, had been
imprisoned by the English, and again discharged by them on account of curing
some difficult cases for certain noblemen. This man visited the holy bishop in
prison, and gave him such medical treatment, that on the fourteenth day he was
able to get up from his bed for a little while. The Chancellor and Treasurer,
learning of this, and that the Earl of Ormonde was coming, by whose influence
and power they feared Dermot would be saved, determined in their malign
wickedness to put him to death as soon as possible. Fearing, how ever, that the
people would raise a disturbance, and rescue their pastor from death if it were
generally known by the citizens that he was to be executed, they ordered the
dregs of their soldiers and executioners to bring out the bishop on a car,
early in the morning, before sunrise, and before the people were up, and hang
him on a gallows outside the city. Which being done, out of all the citizens,
he was met by only two, and a certain friend who had been extremely faithful to
him, and had made him his particular care from the time of his capture. These
followed him; and before he was strung up the archbishop, seizing the hand of
his friend, and strongly squeezing it, is said to have impressed on the palm in
an indelible red colour, the sign of the Cross -- a rare and holy pledge of his
gratitude to his most faithful friend. Thereupon he was hung by a halter made
of plaited osiers, and in a short time strangled, and so dying, acquired
eternal reward in Heaven in the year of our Lord, 1584, on the seventh day of
the month of June.
From Historiae
Catholicae Iberniae Compendium by Philip O'Sullivan Beare (Lisbon, 1621),
II. iv. c. 19.
Translated by M. Byrne, in Ireland under Elizabeth, Sealy, Bryers and
Walker, Dublin, 1903, and reprinted in Irish History from Contemporary
Sources, ed. Constantia Maxwell, George Allen and Unwin, London, 1923
SOURCE : https://www.exclassics.com/foxe/dermot.htm
Dermot O’Hurley
April 7th, 2018
1500s, Archbishop, Dermod
O'Hurley, Queen
Elizabeth I
Dermod O’Hurley,
Archbishop of Cashel and Catholic Martyr
Eamonn Kiely
About a quarter of a
century ago Dermod O’Hurley with sixteen other martyrs was beatified.
David Rothe Bishop of Ossory wrote about him in his
book Analecta about 360 years ago. It is clear that Ossory’s most
famous bishop held O’Hurley, an Archbishop of Cashel in the highest esteem.
They were not contemporaries – O’Hurley being of an earlier generation.
O’Hurley was from Emly in Tipperary.
He was born about the year 1530. His father was employed by the Earl of Desmond
and the family were relatively well off by the standard of the time. They moved
to Donoghmore near Limerick city at a later stage. He was later ordained a
priest for Limerick diocese.
Dermot’s early education was in his home area of Emly followed by the University of Louvain in Belgium where he graduated with a Master of Arts degree in 1551 and was appointed Professor of philosophy there. Further academic achievements followed in areas of Canon and Civil law. A stint as professor of Law at Reims University preceded his going to Rome where he worked with a cardinal. One could infer from this background that he was a genuine renaissance man.
The Sea of Cashel became vacant in 1581. Pope wished to fill it with his favourite O’Hurley. The problem was he was not even a priest. By special dispensation of the Pope the highly educated O’Hurley was ordained to Limerick diocese and appointed then to the Sea of Cashel.
This was the era of Queen Elizabeth I and the penal laws against Catholics. Sir Francis Walsingham, known as the ‘Spymaster’ was secretary to the Queen and deviser of many cruelties against her perceived enemies. O’Hurley and a companion came secretly to Ireland landing in Skerries. The companion Fr Dillon was recognised by a British agent Walter Baal. He was arrested and imprisoned for four months.
O’Hurley was sheltered by the Baron of Slane. This soon became known and he went to stay with Black Tom Butler 10th Earl of Ormond who was deemed sympathetic to his Catholic countrymen although a Protestant himself. The Baron of Slane was in difficulty for harbouring O’Hurley, so the Archbishop decided to surrender himself to the authorities at Carrick on Suir.
He was put in chains and brought to Kilkenny jail. Some Kilkenny citizens got to meet him and secretly received the sacraments from him. He was brought to Dublin city dungeon on 7th Oct 1583. He was brought before the Lord Justices. O’Hurley was charged with being a party to an international conspiracy against Queen Elizabeth I. He was tortured in an appalling manner – his legs were encased in special boots, oil poured into them and then heated over a fire. The flesh fell off the bones. This historical fact is alluded to in the coat of arms of Dr Clifford – to-days Archbishop of Cashel.
The Dublin Castle authorities had no evidence that would convict O’Hurley and
so he was sentenced to death under the cover of martial law and without a
trial. He was hanged the next day with a straw rope to add further ignominy to
his torture. The place of execution was just outside the city of Dublin – what
is now St Stephen’s Green. He was buried in the nearby cabbage garden – a
Dublin corruption of Capuchin gardens. The man who signed his death warrant was
Sir Harry Wallop. Add to that the baleful influence of Baal and Walsingham and
you see the Archbishop’ fate was sealed. The canonisation of the martyred
Archbishop is awaited.
SOURCE : https://kilkennyarchaeologicalsociety.ie/dermot-ohurley/
Memorial
plaque at St. Kevin's Church, Camden Row,
Dublin
Beato Dermot
(Dermizio) O’Hurley Vescovo e martire
Festa: 20 giugno
>>> Visualizza la
Scheda del Gruppo cui appartiene
Emly, Irlanda, 1530 –
Dublino, Irlanda, 20 giugno 1584
Nato da nobile famiglia
irlandese, Dermot O'Hurley si distinse per il suo acume intellettuale
conseguendo il titolo di "Dottore in utroque iure" e ricoprendo la
carica di decano presso l'Università di Lovanio. Consacrato Arcivescovo di
Cashel da Papa Gregorio XIII, O'Hurley fece ritorno in Irlanda in segreto per
esercitare il suo ministero cattolico in un clima di accesa repressione
religiosa. Catturato dalle autorità protestanti, fu sottoposto a torture e ad
un processo sommario che lo condannò a morte per presunto alto tradimento.
Nonostante le sofferenze e le pressioni, O'Hurley rimase fedele alla sua fede,
rifiutando di abiurare il cattolicesimo e riconoscere la supremazia spirituale
della regina Elisabetta. Il 20 giugno 1584 fu impiccato a Dublino.
Martirologio
Romano: A Dublino in Irlanda, passione del beato Dermizio O’Hurley,
vescovo e martire, che, avvocato laico, divenne vescovo di Cashel per volontà
di papa Gregorio XIII; sotto la regina Elisabetta I, interrogato e torturato
per mesi, respinse fermamente ogni accusa e professò davanti al patibolo issato
ad Hoggen Green di essere pronto a morire per la fede cattolica e per il suo
ministero episcopale.
Dermot O’Hurley nacque nel 1530 nel distretto di Emly, contea di Tipperary, in Irlanda. Suoi genitori erano Guglielmo O’Hurley ed Onoria O’Brien, famiglia assai benestante. Frequentate nella sua patria le scuole elementari, proseguì gli studi nella prestigiosa università di Lovanio, ove divenne “Doctor Utriusque iuris” e decano della facoltà di legge. Dopo quindici anni, passò ad insegnare a Rheims per altri quattro. Dal 1570 si trasferì a Roma, ove undici anni dopo Papa Gregorio XIII lo consacrò Arcivescovo di Cashel, sebbene fosse a quel tempo ancora laico. Il 27 novembre fu dunque ordinato e gli venne imposto il pallio.
Nell’agosto seguente a Rheims organizzò il suo viaggio per raggiungere in segreto l’Irlanda. Le autorità protestaanti erano venute a conoscenza del suo rientro in patria ed egli si trovò dunque costretto a vestire abiti borghesi per passare inosservato.Esercitò il suo ministero a Waterford, poi nel castello di Slane ed ancora presso Carrikc-on-Shannon, ospite del conte Tommaso Butler di Ormone, simpatizzante cattolico seppur egli stesso apostata. Venuto a sapere i guai in cui era incorso il barone di Slane per averlo precedentemente ospitato, decise di consegnarsi spontaneamente agli agenti governativi venuti per arrestarlo.
Rinchiuso dapprima nelle prigioni di Kilkenny, venne trasferito il 7 ottobre 1583 nelle carceri di Dublino insieme a Margaret Ball. Fu qui sottoposto a varie torture, fra cui quella detta degli “stivali”: i suoi piedi, messi in scarponi di metallo pieni di olio, furono così riscaldati sopra il fuoco auspicando che il vescovo rivelasse il complotto escogitato dal Papa e dalla Spagna ai danni dell’Inghilterra. Egli sopportò tutto con fermezza eroica, non cedendo all’invito dei giudici ad abiurare la sua fede cattolica ed a riconoscere la supremazia spirituale della regina sulla Chiesa Anglicana.
Dermot O’Hurley, considerato reo di alto tradimento, il 19 giugno 1584 fu infine condannato senza però un regolare processo. All’alba del giorno seguente fu dunque impiccato alla periferia di Dublino. Papa Giovanni Paolo II ha beatificato questo glorioso martire il 27 settembre 1992, insieme ad altre sedici vittime della medesima persecuzione.
Autore: Fabio Arduino
SOURCE : https://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/93358
CREAZIONE DI VENTUNO
NUOVI BEATI
OMELIA DI GIOVANNI PAOLO
II
Piazza San Pietro -
Domenica, 27 settembre 1992
1. “Loda il Signore,
anima mia!” (Sal resp.).
L’invito della Liturgia
trova oggi in noi, raccolti nel solenne scenario di questa piazza, una risposta
particolarmente pronta e gioiosa. Come non lodare il Signore davanti allo
spettacolo esaltante dei nuovi Beati? Di questi uomini e di queste donne, che
hanno reso coraggiosamente la loro testimonianza a Cristo, meritando di essere
proposti dalla Chiesa all’ammirazione e all’imitazione di tutti i fedeli?
Ciascuno di loro può ripetere con Isaia: “Lo spirito del Signore Dio è su di
me” (Is 61, 1): lo Spirito del Cristo risorto, che, nel succedersi dei
secoli, continua a vivere e a operare nei credenti, per sospingerli verso la
piena attuazione del messaggio evangelico. “Lo spirito del Signore è su di me”:
consapevoli di ciò, i nuovi Beati hanno sempre contato sull’aiuto di Dio,
sforzandosi di “tendere alla giustizia, alla pietà, alla fede, alla carità,
alla pazienza, alla mitezza” (1 Tm 6, 11), così da “conservare senza
macchia e irreprensibile il comandamento” (1 Tm 6, 14). Hanno offerto se
stessi a Dio e al prossimo nel martirio e nella verginità consacrata. La Chiesa
è oggi lieta di riconoscere che questi suoi figli “hanno combattuto la buona
battaglia della fede” ed “hanno raggiunto la vita eterna” (1 Tm 6, 12).
2. “My soul, give
praise to the Lord”.
And how can we fail to
sing the praises of the seventeen Irish Martyrs being beatified today? Dermot
O’Hurley, Margaret Bermingham Ball, Francis Taylor and their fourteen
companions were faithful witnesses who remained steadfast in their allegiance
to Christ and his Church to the point of extreme hardship and the final
sacrifice of their lives.
All sectors of God’s
people are represented among these seventeen Servants of God: Bishops, priests
both secular and religious, a religious brother and six lay people, including
Margaret Bermingham Ball, a woman of extraordinary integrity who, together with
the physical trials she had to endure, underwent the agony of being betrayed
through the complicity of her own son.
We admire them for their
personal courage. We thank them for the example of their fidelity in difficult
circumstances, a fidelity which is more than an example: it is a heritage of
the Irish people and a responsibility to be lived up to in every age.
In a decisive hour, a
whole people chose to stand firmly by its covenant with God: “All the words
which the Lord has spoken we will do”. Along with Saint Oliver Plunkett,
the new Beati constitute but a small part of the host of Irish Martyrs of Penal
Times. The religious and political turmoil through which these witnesses lived
was marked by grave intolerance on every side. Their victory lay precisely in
going to death with no hatred in their hearts. They lived and died for Love.
Many of them publicly forgave all those who had contributed in any way to their
martyrdom.
The Martyrs’ significance
for today lies in the fact that their testimony shatters the vain claim to live
one’s life or to build a model of society without an integral vision of our
human destiny, without reference to our eternal calling, without transcendence.
The Martyrs exhort succeeding generations of Irish men and women: “Fight the
good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called
. . . keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing
of our Lord Jesus Christ”.
To the Martyrs’
intercession I commend the whole people of Ireland: their hopes and joys, their
needs and difficulties. May everyone rejoice in the honour paid to these
witnesses to the faith. God sustained them in their trials. He comforted them
and granted them the crown of victory. May he also sustain those who work for
reconciliation and peace in Ireland today!
Blessed Irish Martyrs,
intercede for the beloved Irish people!
Ecco le parole del Papa
in una nostra traduzione in lingua italiana.
2. “Loda il Signore,
anima mia!” (Sal 145, 1). Come potremmo non lodare i pregi dei diciassette
Martiri Irlandesi che oggi vengono beatificati? Dermot O’Hurley, Margareth
Bermingham Ball, Francis Taylor e i loro quattordici compagni furono fedeli
testimoni e rimasero saldi nella loro devozione a Cristo e alla sua Chiesa a
costo di atroci sofferenze e del sacrificio estremo della vita.
I diciassette Servi di
Dio rappresentano tutti i settori del popolo di Dio: Vescovi, sacerdoti
secolari e religiosi, un fratello religioso, sei laici e Margareth Bermingham
Ball, una donna di straordinaria integrità morale che oltre alle torture
fisiche dovette sopportare il tradimento del proprio figlio.
Noi ammiriamo i nuovi
Beati per il loro coraggio. Li ringraziamo per la loro fedeltà in circostanze
difficili, una fedeltà che è più di un esempio: è un’eredità per il popolo
Irlandese e una responsabilità che va vissuta in ogni epoca”.
In un momento decisivo,
tutte queste persone scelsero di rispettare il loro patto con Dio: “Tutti i
comandi che ha dati il Signore, noi li eseguiremo!” (Es 24, 3). Insieme a
S. Oliver Plunkett, i nuovi Beati sono solo alcuni della moltitudine di Martiri
Irlandesi dell’Epoca Penale. L’epoca di confusione religiosa e politica in cui
vissero questi testimoni fu caratterizzata da gravi intolleranze da più parti.
La loro vittoria consiste proprio nell’aver affrontato la morte senza rancore
nel cuore. Vissero e morirono per Amore. Molti di loro perdonarono
pubblicamente tutte le persone che avevano in qualche modo contribuito al
martirio.
Il significato dei
Martiri oggi sta nel fatto che la loro testimonianza vanifica la pretesa di
vivere egoisticamente o di costruire un modello di società priva di una visione
integrale del nostro destino umano, senza riferimento alla nostra eterna
chiamata, senza trascendenza. I Martiri esortano le future generazioni di
uomini e donne Irlandesi: “Combatti la buona battaglia della fede; cerca di
raggiungere la vita eterna alla quale sei stato chiamato . . . conserva senza
macchia irreprensibile il comandamento, fino alla manifestazione del Signore
nostro Gesù Cristo” (1 Tm 6, 12-14).
Affido all’intercessione
dei Martiri tutto il popolo d’Irlanda: le sue speranze e le sue gioie, le sue
necessità e difficoltà. Che ognuno possa gioire dell’onore offerto a questi
testimoni della fede. Dio li ha sostenuti nelle sofferenze, ha offerto loro il
conforto e la corona della vittoria. Possa Dio sostenere coloro che oggi
operano per la riconciliazione e la pace in Irlanda! Beati Martiri d’Irlanda,
intercedete per l’amato popolo Irlandese!
3. La liturgie de ce
dimanche nous fait aussi entendre une nouvelle fois l’appel du prophète Isaïe:
“Aller porter la bonne nouvelle aux pauvres”. Cet appel, Mère Françoise
de Sales Aviat l’a reçu et elle a consacré sa vie à l’éducation de jeunes ouvrières
de France, en se mettant au service de son prochain, comme l’Église le lui
avait appris. Elle l’a fait dans un esprit de détachement exemplaire, selon sa
devise: “M’oublier entièrement”.
Sa Congrégation peut être
heureuse d’avoir eu pour fondatrice une femme qui, à l’école de saint François
de Sales, sut remettre sa vie quotidienne entre les mains de Dieu, dans une
confiance sereine, en disant qu’il fallait “tout faire avec Dieu et rien sans
Lui”. Cette confiance lui permit de traverser les épreuves qui ne lui furent
pas épargnées. Comment ne pas rendre grâce pour le témoignage qu’elle nous
laisse? L’union au Sacrifice rédempteur du Christ par la pratique quotidienne
du renoncement à soi-même, telle est l’orientation centrale de Mère Aviat au
cours de son existence. Son seul désir: être, comme elle dit, “le petit
instrument de Dieu”.
Puisse-t-elle nous
remplir d’ardeur et de courage, chacun de nous et vous surtout, les Oblates de
saint François de Sales, ses filles spirituelles, pour le témoignage que le
Christ demande aujourd’hui!
Ecco le parole del Papa
in una nostra traduzione in lingua italiana.
3. La liturgia di questa
domenica ci ha fatto anche ascoltare ancora una volta l’appello del profeta
Isaia: andate “a portare il lieto annuncio ai poveri” (Is 61, 1). Questo
appello è stato accolto da Madre Françoise di Sales Aviat che ha consacrato
tutta la sua vita all’educazione delle giovani operaie della Francia,
mettendosi al servizio del suo prossimo, come le aveva insegnato la Chiesa.
Essa l’ha fatto con un spirito di distacco esemplare, secondo il suo motto
“dimenticarmi completamente”.
La sua Congregazione può
essere felice di aver avuto come fondatrice una donna che, sull’insegnamento di
San Francesco di Sales, ha saputo mettere la sua vita quotidiana nelle mani di
Dio, con serena fiducia, dicendo che bisognava “fare tutto con Dio e niente
senza di Lui”. Questa fiducia le permette di superare le prove che non le
furono risparmiate. Come non rendere grazie per la testimonianza che essa ci
lascia? L’unione al Sacrificio redentore di Cristo attraverso la pratica
quotidiana della rinuncia a se stessa, questo è l’orientamento centrale della
vita di Madre Aviat. Il suo unico desiderio: essere, come diceva, “il piccolo
strumento di Dio”.
Che Madre Aviat possa
colmare di ardore e coraggio ciascuno di noi e voi soprattutto, le Oblate di
San Francesco di Sales, sue figlie spirituali, per la testimonianza che Cristo
ci chiede oggi.
4. “Combate el buen
combate de la fe”, nos exhorta la segunda lectura, y añade: “Conquista la vida
eterna a la que fuiste llamado, y de la que hiciste noble profesión ante muchos
testigos”.
Con gran gozo podemos
proclamar hoy que los tres nuevos Beatos, nacidos en España, encarnaron en su
vida estas palabras de san Pablo.
Las encarnó el Beato
Rafael Arnáiz Barón, en su vida monástica breve pero intensa como Trapense,
siendo ejemplo, sobre todo para los jóvenes, de una respuesta amorosa e
incondicional a la llamada divina. “¡Sólo Dios!”, repite con frecuencia en sus
escritos espirituales.
Las encarnó, igualmente,
la Beata Nazaria Ignacia de Santa Teresa March Mesa, como atraída en su
interior por el mensaje del profeta Isaías, que hemos escuchado: “El Señor . .
. me ha enviado . . . para vendar los corazones desgarrados”. Movida por
esta ansia apostólica, fundó en Bolivia las Misioneras Cruzadas de la Iglesia,
con las cuales se propuso “bajar a la calle” para encontrar a los hombres,
solidarizarse con ellos, ayudarles, sobre todo si esos hermanos estaban
cubiertos por las llagas de las necesidades materiales, como el pobre Lázaro
del Evangelio, pero principalmente para llevarlos a Dios.
Finalmente, encarnó estas
mismas palabras la Beata María Josefa del Corazón de Jesús Sancho de Guerra.
Tocada íntimamente por la afirmación del Señor: “Estuve enfermo y me
visitasteis . . . Cuanto hicisteis a uno de estos hermanos míos más pequeños, a
mí me lo hicisteis”, fundó las Siervas de Jesús de la Caridad,
confiándoles la misión de descubrir el rostro de Cristo en tantos hermanos y
hermanas, solos y enfermos, y aliviándolos con el ungüento del amor fraterno.
La beatificación de estos
tres hijos predilectos de la Iglesia de España es motivo de profunda acción de
gracias a Dios. La vida del Hermano Rafael es ejemplo de fidelidad para
vosotros, queridos Monjes Trapenses, y para las almas llamadas a la vida
contemplativa. En la vigilia del V Centenario de la Evangelización de América
son muy expresivas, no sólo para sus Hijas sino para todos, las palabras de la
Madre Nazaria Ignacia: “En amar y cooperar con la Iglesia en su obra de
predicar el Evangelio a toda criatura, está nuestra vida, el ser lo que somos”.
El amor preferencial de la Iglesia por los que sufren en el cuerpo o en el
espíritu es el carisma que la Madre María Josefa ha dejado a las Siervas de
Jesús de la Caridad, pero también a cuantos quieran dedicar su vida a enjugar
las lágrimas de nuestros hermanos más necesitados.
Ecco le parole del Papa
in una nostra traduzione in lingua italiana.
4. “Combatti la buona
battaglia della fede”, ci esorta la seconda lettura, e aggiunge: “Cerca di
raggiungere la vita eterna alla quale sei stato chiamato e per la quale hai
fatto la tua bella professione di fede davanti a molti testimoni” (1 Tm 6,
12).
È con grande gioia che
possiamo proclamare oggi che i tre nuovi Beati nati in Spagna incarnarono nella
loro vita queste parole di San Paolo. Le incarnò il Beato Rafael Arnáiz Barón,
nella sua vita monastica breve ma intensa come Trappista, essendo un esempio,
soprattutto per i giovani, di una risposta amorosa e incondizionata alla
chiamata di Dio. “Solo Dio!”, ripete spesso nei suoi scritti spirituali.
Le ha incarnate anche la
Beata Nazaria Ignacia di Santa Teresa March Mesa, attratta interiormente dal
messaggio del profeta Isaia che abbiamo ascoltato: “Il Signore . . . mi ha
mandato . . . a fasciare le piaghe dei cuori spezzati” (Is 61, 1). Mossa
dall’ansia apostolica, fondò in Bolivia le Missionarie Crociate della Chiesa,
con cui si propose di “scendere in strada” per incontrare gli uomini,
solidarizzare con essi, aiutarli, soprattutto se quei fratelli erano affetti
dalle piaghe dei bisogni materiali, come il povero Lazzaro del Vangelo
(cf. Lc 16, 21), ma principalmente per avvicinarli a Dio.
Infine incarnò queste
stesse parole la Beata Maria Josefa del Corazon de Jesus Sancho de Guerra.
Toccata nell’intimo dall’affermazione del Signore: “Ero . . . malato e mi avete
visitato . . . ogni volta che avete fatto queste cose a uno solo di questi miei
fratelli più piccoli, lo avete fatto a me” (Mt 25, 36-40), fondò le Serve
di Gesù della Carità, affidando loro il compito di riscoprire il volto di
Cristo in tanti fratelli e sorelle, soli e malati, alleviandoli con l’unguento
dell’amore fraterno.
La beatificazione di
questi tre figli prediletti della Chiesa di Spagna è motivo di un profondo atto
di ringraziamento a Dio. La vita del fratello Rafael costituisce un esempio di
fedeltà per voi, cari Monaci Trappisti, e per le anime chiamate alla vita
contemplativa. Alla vigilia del V Centenario dell’Evangelizzazione dell’America
le parole di Madre Nazaria Ignacia acquistano un significato particolare, non
solo per le sue Figlie, ma per tutti: “nell’amare e cooperare con la Chiesa
nella sua opera di predicare il Vangelo a ogni creatura, sta la nostra vita,
l’essere ciò che siamo”. L’amore preferenziale della Chiesa per coloro che
soffrono nel corpo o nello spirito è il carisma che Madre Maria Josefa ha
lasciato alle Serve di Gesù della Carità, ma anche a quanti desiderano dedicare
la propria vita ad asciugare le lacrime dei nostri fratelli più bisognosi.
5. “Il Signore è fedele
per sempre, rende giustizia agli oppressi” (Sal. resp.): questo proclamano
oggi, davanti a noi, i Beati Martiri irlandesi, invitandoci alla fiducia in
ogni circostanza.
“Il Signore ridona la
vista ai ciechi, il Signore rialza chi è caduto” (Ivi): è la certezza che ha
confortato la Beata Françoise, spingendola a farsi “strumento di Dio” per
riaccendere la luce della speranza in tanti cuori sfiduciati e stanchi.
“Egli sostiene l’orfano e
la vedova, ma sconvolge le vie degli empi” (Ivi): non ne hanno mai dubitato le
Beate Nazaria Ignacia e Maria Josefa nel loro generoso spendersi per il
sollievo del prossimo più povero e abbandonato.
“Il Signore regna per
sempre, il tuo Dio, o Sion, per ogni generazione” (Ivi): è lo speciale
messaggio che consegna a tutti noi il Beato Rafael, che nella contemplazione
amorosa di Dio ha trovato e attuato il senso pieno della propria vita.
“Il Signore regna per
sempre . . .”.
Regna, o Signore, sui
popoli che si onorano di aver dato i natali ai nuovi Beati! Regna su tutti i
popoli della terra!
Per la preghiera di
questi celesti intercessori, fa’ che le nuove generazioni sappiano emularne
l’esempio e portare la luce del tuo Vangelo oltre la soglia del nuovo millennio
cristiano.
Amen!
© Copyright 1992 -
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Copyright © Dicastero per
la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Tutti i comandi che ha
dati il Signore, noi li eseguiremo! (Es 24, 3)
Dermot O’Hurley
(1530-1584)
BEATIFICAZIONE:
- 27 settembre 1992
- Papa Giovanni Paolo
II
RICORRENZA:
- 20 giugno
Vescovo e martire, che,
avvocato laico, divenne vescovo di Cashel per volontà di papa Gregorio XIII;
sotto la regina Elisabetta I, interrogato e torturato per mesi, respinse
fermamente ogni accusa e professò davanti al patibolo issato ad Hoggen
Green di essere pronto a morire per la fede cattolica e per il suo ministero
episcopale
SOURCE : https://www.causesanti.va/it/santi-e-beati/dermot-o-hurley.html
Voir aussi : http://newsaints.faithweb.com/martyrs/Ireland01.htm
