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Saint Oliver Plunkett (September 30, 1629 - July 1, 1681) is an Irish saint. He was Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland
Born in Loughcrew, County Meath, Ireland, from well-to-do parents Oliver Plunkett was sent to Rome to finish his education. He was admitted to the Irish College in 1646 and was ordained a priest in 1654. Because of the violent persecution of Catholics it was impossible for him to return to Ireland for many years. Plunkett petitioned to remain in Rome, and in 1657 became a professor of theology. In 1669 he was appointed Archbishop of Armagh and eventually set foot on Irish soil again in March 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 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. Tried at Dundalk for conspiring against the state by plotting to bring 20,000 French soldiers into the country, and for leveling a tax on his clergy to support 70,000 men for rebellion.
Lord Shaftesbury knew that Oliver 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 in England when he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, he was the last Catholic to die for his faith at Tyburn. He 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. His body initially buried in two tin boxes next to five Jesuits who had died before; his head is in Saint Peter's Church at Drogheda, Ireland; most of his body is at Downside Abbey, England.
Nevertheless, his ministry during its time was most successful and he confirmed over 48,000 people over a four year period.
External links and references
- Brief biography on Louth Online (http://www.louthonline.com/html/oliver_plunkett.html)
- Loughcrew gardens, site of Plunkett family church (http://www.loughcrew.com/st_oliver_plunkett.htm)
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