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Franciscan Archbishop of Armagh, Aodh MacAingil (St Isidore's Rome)
The 20th June is the Memorial of the Irish Martyrs – seventeen in all – four of whom were Franciscan friars. The 17 Irish martyrs (Beatified by St John Paul II in 1992) suffered and died for their Catholic faith between 1574 and 1654.
The Franciscan martyrs were Patrick O’Healy (Bishop of Mayo) who was hanged in Kilmallock in August, 1593 and Conn O’Rourke who was killed on the same day; Connor O’Devany (Bishop of Down and Conor) who was put to death in February 1612, and John Kearney, killed in March 1653. Another Irish Franciscan martyr, Blessed Charles Meehan was executed in Ruthin, North Wales in 1679 and was beatified by St John Paul II, along with 84 martyrs of England and Wales, in 1987.
During these turbulent centuries many friars were leaving Ireland to be trained in colleges founded by Franciscans in Louvain, Rome, and Prague, and other places in Europe. They returned to almost certain danger and persecution.
As the Franciscan Archbishop of Armagh, Aodh MacAingil wrote in the 17th century: “Jesus has called many from our own country to this office (pastors and teachers of the faith) in the present time, and has drawn many of them in their innocent youth to embrace religious life in foreign lands … But when we return to our own country we are soon accused of being spies, and the messengers of the Lord are proclaimed traitors. My thousand sorrows that the successors of the saintly clergy are unable to visit the Island of Saints, Ireland, without being accounted traitors”. It must have seemed at times that all was lost for the Catholic Church in Ireland.
Many others, apart from the Franciscans, helped to preserve the Catholic faith in Ireland during these hard days. The 17 Irish martyrs include a variety of men and women, religious, clerics, and laity, young and old.
One of our links with these times is Saint Isidore’s Irish Franciscan College, Rome. Saint Isidore’s was founded exactly four hundred years ago by Fr Luke Wadding, a friar from Waterford. In the historic heart of Rome, it is a symbol of remarkable endurance and hope, and a link with generations of Irish friars who answered the call to live the Gospel as Franciscan friars.
Becoming a Franciscan in any historical period means embracing the ‘folly of the Cross’. Whether that ‘folly’ involves persecution and physical danger, or the misunderstanding or family and friends, it is always a road less travelled and a ‘setting out into the deep’ (Luke 5: 4). Looking back, we see the value of those who had the courage to embrace the ‘folly of the Cross’ and who, today, urge us on to do something beautiful with our lives, for Christ.
If you are interested in the Franciscan way of life please contact:
Friar Liam Kelly OFM
Phone: 087 396 0262
Email: irishfranciscansofm@gmail.com
Postal address: Franciscan Friary, Ennis, Co Clare.
