From aristocrat to archbishop and martyr to saint, Oliver Plunkett committed himself fully to follow in the footsteps of Christ.

The 17th Century in Ireland, which embraces the life of Oliver Plunkett, was one of religious persecution, the eviction of Catholics from traditional lands, and their plantation with English Protestants and Scottish Presbyterians. It was a time when many priests were executed or banished, and when most bishops were in exile.

Oliver Plunkett was born in 1625, a scion of a respected aristocratic family from Loughcrew, Co. Meath. He was connected with several noble families of the Pale through intermarriage. He was proud of his noble lineage, and would later find these family connections very useful in the cause of the Church.

He was educated at home until he was sixteen, under the guidance of his cousin Bishop Patrick Plunkett, who then encouraged him to go to Rome and study for the priesthood.

Like many other Irish students before him, Oliver got to love Rome and was very much at home there. The architectural beauty of the city, both ecclesiastical and secular, left a deep impression on him. He was to spend the next 22 years of his life in the Eternal City.

Persecution

He entered the Irish College in 1650 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1654, after an outstanding academic career. He decided that because of the terrible Cromwellian persecution, it was not possible to return to Ireland just then. So he went on to do doctorates in Canon Law and in civil law, while at the same time fulfilling several pastoral commitments. He became professor of theology in the College of Propaganda Fide, an office he held for 12 years (1657-1669).

In July of 1669 Oliver was appointed Archbishop of Armagh. He said goodbye to Rome and set out for home. In November 1669, he was secretly consecrated bishop, in the private oratory of the Bishop of Ghent in Belgium, to avoid diplomatic issues with Britain.

Shortly after his arrival (March 1670) he headed for Armagh and he immediately carried out a visitation of his diocese. He was now metropolitan of the nine dioceses of the Northern Province, which were administered by vicars-general as the episcopal sees were vacant.

The appointment of Lord Berkeley as viceroy in Ireland (May 1670) facilitated Oliver's pastoral work as Berkeley took a benign approach to the repressive religious legislation. Oliver held two synods in his diocese, and was able to tell Rome that in his first year he had confirmed 10,000 people.

He was concerned about the ignorance of the young priests whom the religious persecution prevented from enjoying the necessary education, so he set up two schools in Drogheda, one for 25 young clergy, and a second for 150 children of the dispossessed nobility. It was a measure of his organisational ability that these schools were up and running within a few months

Synod

In August of that very busy year of 1670, Oliver assembled a provincial synod in Clones at which various decrees were issued. These related to the removal of liturgical deficiencies, the sanctification of the faithful, and the celebration of the Holy Mass with decorum. These decrees show how Oliver, just six months after his appointment, had rectified a number of deficiencies with regard to clergy and laity, and was legislating to bring about a true reform of the Church in Ireland.

It was inevitable that in dioceses that lacked bishops for 20 years or more, longstanding disputes would arise. Oliver had to solve many of these disputes.

As a consequence, several complaints were made to Rome against him during his years in Armagh. Most of them were from disgruntled clerics and were totally out of character with Oliver's personality. Accusations against Oliver's good name were something he had to confront for most of the duration of his primacy.

In the period 1670-73, the first four years of Oliver's primacy coinciding with the term of Lord Berkeley as viceroy, this was a time when he had the freedom to organise the Church in the Northern Province. He was constantly on the move, not only in Armagh, but in the other northern dioceses as well. He confirmed over 40,000 people in total during his episcopate. He arranged to send students to the seminary in Rome; he held ordinations every year.

In 1673 Lord Berkeley was replaced as viceroy by Lord Essex, who renewed the persecution of Catholics. All the Catholic schools and religious houses were closed down. All bishops and vicars-general were banished. Some of bishops fled into exile but Oliver remained in hiding, moving at night from place to place. He wrote to Rome that the shepherd should stay with the flock, no matter what the dangers. The most painful news of all for him was the closing down of the two schools in Drogheda. However, the storm abated in 1675.

While an uneasy peace continued in Ireland, in England tensions grew between the king and the Protestant parliament. The king's wife and brother were Catholics, and it was known that Charles II had strong Catholic sympathies. A series of fantastic rumours were circulated about Catholic plans to undermine the government, and a number of anti-papal demonstrations were organised. These rumours were crystallised into the infamous Popish Plot. The plot suggested that an army was been organised by the Catholic Church in Ireland and that the Archbishop of Armagh had a direct involvement in the affair.

Arrested

Oliver was arrested in December 1679 and a case was brought against him in Dundalk in June 1680 which collapsed because of lack of evidence. In October, Oliver's trial was transferred to London. He was housed in Newgate prison where he was kept incommunicado for six months. Newgate had no sanitation and the prisoners had no facilities for washing themselves.

On June 8, 1681 Oliver was brought to Westminster Hall. The judges treated him like a criminal: their attitude was so biased that there was no way Oliver could get a fair trial. The chief witnesses were two renegade priests form Ireland who under questioning by Oliver contradicted themselves. Oliver, with the sharp legal mind of a canon lawyer, and coming from a family which provided some of the ablest civil lawyers in Ireland, was able to bore holes in the prosecution's case.

Hanged

However, the conviction was inevitable due to the fears and bigotry of the jury. Oliver was sentenced to being hanged, drawn and quartered.

The result of the trial caused revulsion not only in Ireland but in many European countries as well. The Holy Father asked the Catholic kings of Europe to write to Charles II asking for clemency.

Many people came to visit him in Newgate asking for his blessing, because they were convinced of his sanctity. He spoke with a great peace and came and said that he hadn't the slightest fear of his execution.

On July 1, 1681 he was executed at Tyburn where an immense crowd had gathered. He was beatified on May 23, 1920, and canonised by Paul VI on October 12, 1975.

Extract taken from Generations of Priests by Thomas McGovern (Four Courts Press), a priest of the Opus Dei prelature.