Oliver Plunkett
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| Saint Oliver Plunkett | |
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| Martyr, Archbishop and Primate of All Ireland | |
| Born | November 1, 1629, Loughcrew, County Meath, Ireland |
| Died | July 1, 1681, Tyburn, London England |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Beatified | 1920 |
| Canonized | 1975 |
| Major shrine | St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church, Drogheda, Ireland |
| Feast | July 11 |
| Patronage | Peace and reconciliation in Ireland |
 Saints Portal |
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St. Oliver Plunkett (1 November 1629 – 1 July 1681) was Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland. He maintained his duties in Ireland in the face of English persecution and was eventually arrested and tried for treason at a kangaroo court after lawful courts had failed to convict him. He was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn on July 1, 1681, and became the last Catholic martyr to die in England. Oliver Plunkett was beatified in 1920 and canonised in 1975, the first new Irish saint for almost seven hundred years.
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[edit] Life
Oliver Plunkett was born in Loughcrew, County Meath, Ireland in 1629 from well-to-do parents related to families recently ennobled, such as the Earls of Roscommon and Fingall, as well as Earls of Louth and Earls of Dunsany. Till his sixteenth year, the boy's education was entrusted to Patrick Plunket, Abbot of St. Mary's, Dublin, and brother of the first Earl of Fingall who later became bishop, successively, of Ardagh and Meath. As an aspirant to the priesthood, he set out for Rome in 1645, under the care of Father Pierfrancesco Scarampi, of the Roman Oratory. At this time, the Irish Confederate Wars were raging in Ireland -essentially a conflict between Catholics and Protestants. Scarampi was the Papal envoy to the Catholic movement - Confederate Ireland. Many of Plunkett's relatives were involved in this organisation. Plunkett could not have known that, as a result ofthe outcome of this war, he would not return to Ireland for 15 years.
He was admitted to the Irish College in Rome in 1646 and there proved an able pupil. He was ordained a priest in 1654, and deputed by the Irish bishops to act as their representative in Rome. Meanwhile, the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland (1649-53) had defeated the Catholic cause in Ireland and in the aftermath, the public practice of Catholicism was banned and Catholic clergy were executed. As a result it was impossible for Plunkett to return to Ireland for many years. He petitioned to remain in Rome, and in 1657 became a professor of theology. Throughout the period of the Commonwealth and the first years of Charles II's reign he successfully pleaded the cause of the Irish Church, serving also as theological professor at the College of Propaganda Fide. At the Congregation of Propaganda Fide on July 9, 1669 he was appointed Archbishop of Armagh the Irish primatial see, and was consecrated on November 30 at Ghent, by the Bishop of Ghent, assisted by the Bishop of Ferns and another bishop. He eventually set foot on Irish soil again in March 1670 - the English Restoration having made the political climate there less hostile. The pallium was granted him in the Consistory of July 28, 1670.
After arriving back in Ireland 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'. The Penal Laws had been somewhat relaxed and he was able to establish a Jesuit College in Drogheda in 1670. A year later 150 students attended the College.
With the onset of new persecution in 1673 and the college being levelled to the ground, Plunkett went into hiding travelling only in disguise, 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 Peter Talbot of Dublin was arrested, and Plunkett again went into hiding. The Privy Council in London was told he had plotted a French invasion.
Despite being on the run and a price on his head he refused to leave his flock. He was arrested in Dublin in December 1679 and imprisoned in Dublin Castle, where he gave absolution to the dying Talbot. At some point before his final incarceration, he took refuge in a church that once stood in the townland of Killartry in County Louth, in the parish of Clogherhead, seven miles outside of Drogheda. He was tried at Dundalk for conspiring against the state by plotting to bring 20,000 French soldiers into the country, and for levying a tax on his clergy to support 70,000 men for rebellion.
Lord Shaftesbury knew that Oliver Plunkett would never be convicted in Ireland, and had him moved to Newgate prison, London. The first grand jury found no true bill, but he was not released. The second trial was a 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 on June, 1681 "for promoting the Catholic faith," and was condemned to a gruesome death.
On July 1, 1681, Plunkett became the last Catholic martyr to die in England when he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn - the last Catholic to die for his faith at Tyburn. His body was initially buried in two tin boxes next to five Jesuits who had died before in the courtyard of St Giles. The remains were exhumed in 1683 and moved to the Benedictine monastery at Lamspringe, near Hildesheim in Germany. The head was brought to Rome, and from there to Armagh and eventually to Drogheda where, since June 29, 1921 it has rested in Saint Peter's Church. Most of the body was brought to Downside Abbey, England, where the major part is located today, with some parts remaining at Lamspringe. Some relics were brought to Ireland in May 1975, while others are in England, France, Germany, the United States, and Australia.
Oliver Plunkett was beatified in 1920 and canonised in 1975, the first new Irish saint for almost seven hundred years, and the first of the Irish martyrs to be beatified. He has since been followed by 17 other Irish martyrs beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1992. Among them were Archbishop Dermot O'Hurley, Margaret Ball, and the Wexford Martyrs.
Nevertheless, his ministry during its time was most successful and he confirmed over 48,001 people over a four year period. Since 1997 he is the patron saint, adopted by the prayer group, campaigning for peace in Ireland, namely, 'St. Oliver Plunkett for Peace and Reconciliation'.
[edit] Timeline of events
- 4 March 1651 - tonsure & minor orders
- 20 December 1653 - ordained as subdeacon
- 26 December 1653 - ordained as deacon
- 1 January 1654 - ordained as priest in Rome
- November 1657 - appointed Professor of Theology at Propaganda college, Rome
- 23 November 1669 - consecrated as archbishop
- 7 March 1670 - landed at Ringsend, Dublin, ending 23 years of exile abroad
- 6 December 1679 - arrested
- 23 July 1680 - trial
- 24 October 1680 - transfer from Ireland to London
- 8 June 1681 - trial
- 15 June 1681 - sentenced to death
- 1 July 1681 (O.S) = 11 July (N.S.) 1681 - hanged, drawn, quartered, beheaded
- 17 March 1918 - declaration of martyrdom
- Whitsunday, 1920 (May 23) - beatified
- 12 October 1975 - canonized
[edit] References
- In Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party, McCann asks Stanley "What about the blessed Oliver Plunkett?"
- In J. P. Donleavy's The Ginger Man, Sebastian Dangerfield repeatedly calls on the name of "the Blessed Oliver" and, towards the end of the book, receives a wooden carving of the saint's head.
[edit] Works Cited
- Blessed Oliver Plunkett: Historical Studies, Gill, Dublin, 1937.
- Desmond Forristal, Oliver Plunkett in his own words, Veritas Publications, Dublin, 1975.
- John Hanley (ed.), The Letters of Saint Oliver Plunkett, Dolmen Press, Dublin, 1979.
- This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.
