THE IRISH MARIYRS

New Zealand Tablet, 17 June 1915, Page 13

T HE IRISH MARIYRS

A TOUCHING RECORD. - By way of supplement to the Decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites on the Cause of the Irish Martyrs (says the Rome correspondent of the Catholic Times), I may state that one of the most interesting publications of the day is the large volume of 1500 pages called the Summary of the evidence laid before the, Sacred Congregation of Rites in favor of the Cause. It is in Latin, and is the result in its present form of the labors of six Roman advocates. The perusal of this mass of evidence, compiled over ten years ago by his Grace the Most Rev. Dr. "Walsh, Archbishop of Dublin, is very touching; for the circumstances of the deaths of those Archbishops, Bishops, priests, and lay folk who laid down their lives, for the Faith, as well as the evidence wiven by witnesses examined under oath in. Dublin, seem to bring us very near to the Penal Days. For five years it has served the Advocate of the Cause, Monsignor Salotti, as a mine from which he has drawn argument after argument in proof of the martyrdom of those champions of the Catholic Faith. Let me give a synopsis of a work that lies before me, a work which may be called a summary of the Summary mentioned above, and which, consisting as it does of three parts, 820 pages, saves one the trouble of wading through 1500. It makes sad reading. The first part of the work, covering 213 quarto pages, is the ' Informatio ' compiled by Mgr. Salotti from the great Summary, and containing the names of the alleged martyrs and the arguments adduced in favor "of their" title to martyrdom. Before, the eyes pass the persecutions of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Queen Elizabeth, James 1., Charles 1., Cromwell, William 111., and Queen Anne. And through the pages march a grand galaxy of O'Briens, O'Hurleys, O'Devanys, beatings, Laceys, Griffins, etc!, to the gallows, to-the block, to death by the sword. Well might the ' Informatio ' open by declaring that Ireland by the incredible constancy of her people in the Faith (' incredibili incolarum constantia in fide ') was celebrated among the countries of Europe and merited to be known as the Island ot Saints.' . The ' Disquisitio ' of the Promoter of the Faith. ' After this comes the second part, the -' Disquisitio ' from Mgr. Verde, Promoter of the Faith (called some-

times 4 the Devil's Advocate,’ because it is his duty to“ ; throw obstacles in the way of i Causes of Beatification -or - i. * -’’i -' -. * ' ~<c - *'w .-v*- . . - v r s ■ Canonisation), a work of 309 quarto pages in Latin. In' this Mgr. Verde takes up the name of every person ineluded in the long list of Irish martyrs and gives his opinion as to the claim : of. each to the martyr’s crown, He points out that' a case where the evidence adduced is weak cannot be taken as proving the Advocate’s assertion, and at other times he quotes authors who strengthen the Advocate’s contention., ;; Writers of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries are quoted; some of them are eye-witnesses of the death of the Catholic whose case is under discussion ; §ome of them people who merelytook down accounts from those in- a position to know the truth. , _ - , ;■ ■,' ; . • -

For instance, in the case of the execution of Cornelius O’Devany, Order of St. Francis, Bishop of Down and Connor, and of his companion, Patrick O’Loughran, a priest, a Father Conway, S.J., Rector of the Irish College, of Santiago, in the year 1612, gives an account of the martyrdom of this Bishop. And Father Conway then , adds.,;

This brief account I obtained from some Fathers in Ireland and from one person who was present and saw with his own eyes that which happened and was one of the twelve who buried the remains of the martyr. He spoke to me of it in this college of Santiago, where he is now a student.’

Not until the day when Rome raises to the honors of the altars, as we may well hope she will, those servants of God and champions of the faith, can* we recognise at its full value all that Cardinal Moran’s- painstaking labors have done to’ preserve for us facts concerning the executions of the men and women whose names are given in the Decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites. Time after time the testimony of his Eminence is quoted, both by the Advocate-of the Cause of the Irish Martyrs and by his adversary, Mgr. Verde, Promoter of the faith.

The 4 Responsio ad Disquisitionem,’

The reply of Mgr. Salotti, Advocate of the Cause of the Irish Martyrs, to Mgr. Verde, Promoter of the Faith, consists of 277 quarto pages. Again each name is patiently taken up, particularly that of anyone opposed by the Promoter of the Faith, and of the entire number — viz., 292 persons whose case has been discussed, seven divisions are made. Broadly speaking, the Advocate divides the whole number into ' those whose martyrdom may be taken as certain, those for whose case more evidence is necessary, those who died in prison and whose deaths have got to be proved to be the consequences of hardship suffered therein for the faith, and whose names Mgr. Salotti admits ought to be taken off the Catalogue of the Cause. Happily, of the last mentioned category there are only eleven. , Very shortly, as a result of the Decree, the entire mass of evidence will be returned to Dublin and his Grace the Archbishop will be asked to initiate the Apostolic Process, the second great step in the Cause.