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Here also we may commemorate the virtues and sufferings of the fathers of St. Vincent in Limerick. St. Vincent of Paul, that angel of charity, cherished a special affection for the persecuted Church of Ireland. "The sole detail of all he did and procured to be done in favor of the ecclesiastics banished from Ireland by Cromwell would exceed my limits, and wear out the patience of my readers." And the archives of Paris yet preserve many records of the untiring efforts of the saint to provide a home and a refuge for the multitude of our countrymen who, despoiled of all they possessed, and exiles from the land of their birth, were cast upon the shores of France. The Bishop of Waterford, who had been an eye-witness, gave an account to Clement XI. of the assistance in money, ornaments, and clothing sent by the saint to the suffering Catholics in Ireland, declaring at the same time that as St. Patrick and St. Malachy in earlier ages, so Father Vincent was raised up by God, in this period of persecution, to be the salvation of our country.

It was in 1646 that the first missionary fathers landed in Ireland; and, during the five years that they remained, Limerick was the chief scene of their labors. The happy fruits of their zeal were soon visible to all; and it is recorded, as a striking fact, that none of the clergy of any mission which they visited were found to abandon their spiritual charges. "All remained with the flocks entrusted to them, assisting and defending them until they were banished, or suffered death for the Catholic faith; and, in effect, it was granted to all to endure one or the other."

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As early as 1648, the Archbishop of Cashel wrote to St. Vincent that, through the zeal of his good fathers, "the people had been excited to piety, which was increasing every

Abelly's Vie de Saint Vincent, lib. iv. chap. viii., in Dr. Moran, Persec. p. 7, to whom I am indebted for all this account of the Vincentians.

day; and although these admirable priests have suffered inconveniences of every sort since their arrival in this country, they, nevertheless, have not ceased for an instant to apply themselves to their spiritual mission, and, blessed by heavenly grace, they have gloriously propagated and increased the worship and glory of God." And at the same time the Bishop of Limerick wrote that, "by the example and edifying deportment of these fathers, the greater part of the nobility of both sexes had become models of piety and virtue. It is true that the troubles and the wars of this kingdom have been a great obstacle to their functions; nevertheless, the truths of faith have been so engraven by their means upon the minds of the inhabitants of both the cities and the country parts that they bless God in their adversities equally as in prosperity."

When the storm raged with all its fury in 1657, only three priests of the order remained in Ireland, but their labors were incessant, and an abundant spiritual harvest was their reward. At that time there were 20,000 communicants within the walls of Limerick. "The whole city assumed the garb of penance, to draw down the blessings and the grace of Heaven."

In April, 1650, St. Vincent wrote to the superior of the order, encouraging the members to meet courageously the dangers which then threatened them. In his letter he says:

"You have given yourselves to God, to remain immovably in the country where you now are, in the midst of perils, choosing rather to expose yourself to death than to be found wanting in charity to your neighbors. You have acted as true children of our most admirable Father, to whom I return infinite thanks for having produced in you that sovereign charity which is the perfection of all virtues. I pray him to fill you with it to the end, that, exercising it in all cases and everywhere, you may pour it

forth into the hearts of those who want it. Seeing that your companions are in the same disposition of remaining, whatever may be the danger from war and pestilence, we are of opinion that they should be allowed to stay. How do we know what God intends in their regard? Certainly he does not bestow on them so holy a resolution in vain. My God, how inscrutable are thy judgments! Behold, at the close of one of the most fruitful missions we have ever as yet witnessed, and perhaps, too, the most necessary, thou dost stop, as it were, the course of thy mercies upon this penitent city, and dost lay thy hand still more heavily upon her, adding to the misfortune of war the scourge of pestilence; but all this is done in order to gather in the harvest of the elect, and to collect the good grain, into thy eternal granary. We adore thy ways, O Lord!"

"Although the three fathers who had labored in Limerick during the siege escaped the fury of Ireton on its surrender, one of them resolved to remain in the city to assist with his sacred ministry the remnant of its Catholic citizens, and after awhile consummated there his holocaust of charity. The two others, Brien and Barry, escaped with about 120 other priests and religious, in various disguises, mixed up with the garrison of the place, who by the terms of the capitulation obtained their lives and permission to retire from the city. As there was no quarter allowed for any ecclesiastics, these holy men, sure that death awaited them, passed the night preceding their escape in prayer and preparation for their martyrdom. They were not, however, recognized; and after escaping from the city they separated, Father Brien taking the road toward his native district in company with the VicarGeneral of Cashel, while Father Barry went toward the mountains, where a charitable lady received him, and concealed him for two months. A bark freighted for France appearing on the coast, he availed himself of the

opportunity thus presented, embarked in the vessel, and happily landed in Nantes. This caused indescribable joy to St. Vincent, who had already given up these two fathers as lost, believing them to have been involved in the general massacre of Limerick. Although these good priests escaped from that general massacre, the congregation paid its tribute to the persecution, and a lay-brother of the order, named Lee, being discovered by the heretics, was brutally put to death by them before the eyes of his own mother; his hands and feet were first amputated, and his head was then bruised to atoms."

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Father Abelly, the author of the Life of St. Vincent, mentions another martyr, whose name, however, is not given. He writes as follows:

It happened that one of these heroic pastors, having gone to a missionary father (who lived in a cabin at the foot of a mountain) to make his annual retreat, was on the following night discovered in the act of administering the sacrament to some sick persons, and cut to pieces on the spot by the heretical soldiery. His glorious death crowned his innocent life, and fulfilled the great desire he had to suffer for our Lord, as he himself had declared in the preceding year at a mission given by the Vincentian fathers in Limerick."

Here also we may hand down the names of those martyrs of charity who are known to have perished of the plague while attending the sick in this disastrous year.

Of these there are enumerated by De Burgo, of the Dominican order alone, in the year 1651: Fathers Michael O'Clery, Prior of Waterford, at Waterford, and Gerald Bagot; Thaddeus O'Caholy,† William Geraldine, and John Geraldine, of Limerick; and Donald O'Brien, in county Clare; and of the Jesuits, Father Francis White, at Waterford.

Act. of the order, and a letter of St. Vincent, ap. Moran.

↑ Or O'Cahasi.

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My readers will, I am sure, be glad here to read the account of their noble devotion given by O'Daly :*

"The first who earned this crown was the Reverend Father Michael O'Clery, an alumnus of our college of Lisbon, and prior of our convent of Waterford. When the plague raged in the town of Waterford, the bishop of the place called together all the priests and monks of the place, and laid before them how great a work of charity and how acceptable to God it would be to devote themselves to administer the sacraments to those of their Catholic brethren who were perishing of the plague. All the others held their peace; but our prior, and a worthy priest, Patrick White, a canon of Waterford, of a very good Waterford family, and his brother, Father Francis White, of the Society of Jesus, and minister of the college of St. Patrick of Lisbon, offered themselves for this duty. They prepared themselves for three days by a general confession of their sins and the reception of the Blessed Sacrament, and then entered on their labors in the pest-house, where they diligently discharged the duty of physicians of souls. After having heard the confessions of almost all, they were themselves seized with the disease and perished together.

"The second was Father Gerald Bagot, also of our college of Lisbon, a man of good family and talents. Having come into Limerick from the country, he was asked to step out of his way to hear the confession of a man who was at the point of death from the plague. The pious father immediately consented, and purchased the man's salvation with his life, for no sooner had he completed that work of charity than he felt himself attacked, and, not daring to enter the city, in three days after, having made his confession and communion, he died outside the walls.

* A Rosario, Persec., p. 222, in Father Meehan's translation; but he has abridged it. See P 367 of original, and ap. Hib. Dom. p. 570.

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