The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-12-27
xoznMa STAR AND CATHOLIC ,rzssEHeER.
NEW ORLEANS. SUNDAY. DEcEMBER q. 1864


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NEW ORLEANS. SUNDAY. DECEMBER a. 1863
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Sufferers for the Catholic Faith in Ireland.
It has often been said that there is net ar
acre of Irish ground unwatered with tho blood
readers, even in Ireland, have any adequate
knowledge of what this amounts to, or of the
vast treasures laid up for their country by the
intercession of what may be fairly called
numbered host, or, agais, how long this more
than Diocletian persecution lasted. We think
of Queen Elizabeth and the Hays War;" but
are apt to forget that the seventeenth or eight
eenth centuries equally show their goodly
roll of acta sanctorum. Mr.. O'Reilly has done an
excellent work in collecting his memorials of
Z. Sufferers in Ireland for the Catholic Faith, y
in which we find an abundant variety Of name
and race. as well as of religious orders and
states of life. Among the sufferers are recorded
bishops and archbishops, the secular clergy,
Carnelites, Cistercians, Dominican and Fran
ciscan Friars, Jesuits, Vincentian and Trinitari-
an Brothers, Tertiaries, with q crowd of devout
lay folk, men and women. And all these-we
may say with equal courage-professing their
faith and accepting their certain doom of cap
tivity, torture, and often most barbarous death,
with the mistaken constancy, nay, with the
eager joy of the martyrs under imperial Rome.
Beginning in the sixteenth century, with the
crusade against all Catholics as "rebels" the
persecution gradually embraced every other
element of animosity; or, as Mr.. O'Reiliy Justly
observes, " the differences of race, of conquest,
and of government, all added their elements of
bitterness to intensity and prolong those suffer-
1ngs, and that shedding of blood which We're
singularly absent from the first conversion of
Ireland"
The first step was taken by Henry VIII in
= 1885, on the death of Allen, Archbishop of Dub
lin, when DIR. Browne, an Augustinian fiar,
nnhappily allowed himself to be consecrated by
Granmer, and to receive the .pallium from him.
He was upheld by man still more blamewor-
thy, the real but faithless Bishop of Meath, DIR.
Staples, who had CONFIRMED to the Parliament
airy opinions. 1t is worth while to keep these
two names in mind. as o record that they were
the only two Irish bishops who fell. As one of
Henry's chief aims was to possess himself of the
Church wealth, the next act was the seizure of
the religious houses, and in 1886 we find the
$40 monasteries, and in 1888 all the religious
houses in Ireland. Those who like to imagine
that separate representation would ensure
national freedom, should study the acts and
spirit OF the Irish Parliament in its palmy days
It Is also remarkable that as there were but two
bishops who fell, there is record only of one
abbot-the last Of Thurles-who opposed the
royal command to surrender his monastery to |
the commissioners. The same ruin which then
came upon this country was, of course, bitterly
felt in Ireland, singularly fertile in religious
houses. The monks, canons regular, nuns, and
Brothers of the Cross, and also the four mendi- |
cant orders, Franciscans, Dominicans-..Preach-
ers "-Carmelites, and Augustinians, We're all
thrown houseless on the country. The famous |
image of Our Lady of Atl-Trium, where all |
manner of diseases were healed, was burnt ; |
and the still more veneratcd Bacul Jesu-or
Staff of Jesus, preserved with the utmost care
shared the same fate
During the too brief reign of Mary. DIR. Sta
pies was eXtruded from Meath, and DIR. Walsh
Il Clsterclan, was consecrated Bishop. His four
years useful rule was cut short by Elizabeth's
accession, who ordered conformity to the Com
mon Prayer" Throughout Ireland; and, upon
Bishop Walsh's inti gnant refusal the royal vi |
rago sent her commands that hs should be |
ciapt up in prison. Not in the luxurious
cleanliness and comfort of Millbank or Cold
hafh a., I,,t III.
dark and noisome," where not Il ray of light
eonl penetrate, and this for thirteen years
There, so manacled that he bore the scars of his
chains to the grave, Tins brave prelate made
prayer his sole occupation and delight, when it
is said that the abundance of Divine consola-
t1on so overwhelmed his soul that his prison
cell gave him the foretaste of heaven. And
wisely judging, also, that manual labor was the
best alternative to prayer, the captive bishop
obtained leave for n bed of knottcd or plated
rope, which he united and knottcd up again
till he was heartily tired. Finding that Dr. |
Nalsh's consistency of mind was accompanied by
an inconvenient persistency of life, his persecu-
tors resolved to condonc his flight, and he was
eilowed to escape from Dublin Castle in small
vessel to the coast of France. He passed from
Nantes and Paris to Alcala, in Spain, where n
noble lady, genuine daughter of Spain, WAS
nurse and tend him, and dress his wounds
Thence he retired to the Cistercan Monastery
in the town, and there closed that checquered
life which crowd of witnesses attested had
Aever been stained by a mortal sim His body
lies in the Collegiate Church. where the epi-
taph inscribed by the Bishop of Granada may
be read at this day.
Imprisonment in noisome' dens was gentle u
discipline compared with what shortly followed
In 1865, some soldiers attacked a convent of
harmless Franciscan Friars in Armagh, and
sruelly logged all who refused to acknowledge
The Queen as the Head of the Church and from
that day till 1898, Irish Catholics. were com
monty logged to deathrfor not renouncing their
religion. The persecution spread from the sim
pie Franciscans>to the leading men in the Irish
Church. In>1560 Father Wolf, Jesuit, had
been sent from Rome as Apostolic Commissary,
Of Nuncio, with full powers to fill up the va ]
With great judgment and discretion. The in {
tructions given to him, which, as sent to the I
Cardinal Protector of Ireland were preserved in t