Saint Oliver Plunkett, Bishop and Martyr – Readings

Commentary on Ezekiel 34:11-16 or 1 Peter 3:8-18; John 10:11-16

The Gospel reading appropriately is from the Gospel of John where Jesus speaks of himself as the Good Shepherd. And one of the signs of a good shepherd is that he is ready to lay down his life for his sheep. In this he is totally different from a hired man who, as soon as he senses danger, takes to his heels and abandons the sheep. He has no real concern for the sheep; he is doing it for the money he can earn.

The good shepherd, on the contrary, has a very special relationship with his sheep. To the outsider, they all look the same, but the shepherd knows each one individually and they know him. And, if necessary, the good shepherd is ready to lay down his life for his sheep. And, he not only cares for his own sheep, but he will also be on the lookout for other wandering sheep he can bring into his flock.

Of course, this image matches perfectly the life and work of Jesus himself, the Good Shepherd. But it also should be the image of every good pastor in the Church and certainly applied totally to Oliver Plunkett, who took great risks to pastor his sheep and in the end, gave his life for them.

There is a choice of two First Readings. The first is from Ezekiel’s wonderful parable of the shepherds, addressed to the spiritual leaders of Israel. Here, too, God calls himself the Shepherd of his people:

As shepherds sort out their flocks when they are among scattered sheep, so I will sort out my sheep…I will bring them into their own land, and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel…I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture…I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God.

And he says:

I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strays, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak…

This picture of God as the Good Shepherd was brought to life in the person of Jesus who, in turn, expected his followers to be cared for by shepherds with the same caring spirit. And again, we can see in Oliver Plunkett such a shepherd. Let us pray that we may never be short of such shepherds in our communities.

The alternative First Reading is from the First Letter of Peter. In the first part it speaks of how the Christian should behave—be of one mind, sympathetic, loving towards one another, compassionate, humble, not returning evil for evil, insult for insult, but instead, a blessing. In fact, Oliver Plunkett was being described as a person of great gentleness.

In the second part of the reading, we are told not to be afraid of suffering where the living of our Christian faith is concerned. And, if we are criticised or abused for our beliefs, let us be ready to give an explanation, but with gentleness and reverence:

…so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame.

In all of this, we have the example of Jesus Christ who also suffered for sin, “the righteous for the unrighteous”. As Paul reminds us elsewhere, we do need to remember that Jesus died for us not because we were good, but because we were sinners! We are called to do the same. And, of course, it was what Oliver Plunkett did when he offered his life on the gallows at Tyburn. No wonder it is a specially holy place!

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Saint Oliver Plunkett, Bishop and Martyr

Oliver Plunkett was born in Loughcrew, County Meath, Ireland in 1629 of well-to-do Anglo-Norman parentage. He was related by blood to a number of landowning families, such as the Earl of Fingall, Earl of Louth and Lord Dunsany. Until the age of 16, he was educated by his cousin, Patrick Plunkett, Abbot of St Mary’s in Dublin. Patrick was a brother of the first Earl of Fingall and later became bishop in turn of Ardagh and Meath.

In 1645, he set out for Rome under the care of Father Scarampo of the Roman Oratory and stayed at the Irish College where he had a brilliant academic career. The Rector later said that Plunkett:

“…devoted himself with such ardour to philosophy, theology, and mathematics, that in the Roman College of the Society of Jesus he was justly ranked amongst the foremost in talent, diligence, and progress in his studies…and was a model of gentleness, integrity, and piety.”

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, as a result, it was impossible for Plunkett to return to Ireland for many years. He asked to stay on in Rome and, in 1657, became a professor of theology at the College of Propaganda Fide. He also pleaded successfully the case of the Irish Church. On 9 July, 1669, he was appointed Archbishop of Armagh, the Irish primatial see, and was consecrated on 30 November at Ghent by the Bishop of Ghent, assisted by the Bishop of Ferns and another bishop. He finally landed in Ireland in March 1670, just as the English Restoration of 1660 was becoming more tolerant.

On his return to Ireland, he began to rebuild a ravaged Church and to build schools and seminaries. The clergy he found very weak in moral theology and in their ability to deal with religious controversies. There were also drinking problems among them. As the Penal Laws had been relaxed in accordance with the Declaration of Breda in 1660, a Jesuit school was set up in Drogheda in 1670. Within a year it had 150 students. However, three years later when the Test Act, which Plunkett refused to accept, was enacted, the school was demolished.

Plunkett now had to travel in disguise and refused to register with the authorities for deportation. In 1678, the Titus Oates plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament led to further repression of Catholics. The Privy Council in London was also told that Plunkett was plotting a French invasion of Ireland. He had a price on his head, but refused to abandon his flock.

He took refuge in a Clogherhead parish church, about 10 km outside Drogheda. He was finally arrested in Dublin in December, 1679 and held in Dublin Castle, where he gave absolution to the dying Archbishop Peter Talbot of Dublin, who had also been arrested. He was tried at Dundalk for conspiring against the state by plotting to bring thousands of French soldiers into the country, and for levying a tax on the priests to support a local force for rebellion. This was not proved, but there were fears that another rebellion was being planned. Because Lord Shaftesbury knew Plunkett would never be convicted in Ireland, he had him moved to Newgate prison in London. After two very dubious trials, Plunkett was found guilty of high treason “for promoting the Catholic faith” and condemned to death.

On 1 July 1681, Plunkett became the last Catholic martyr to die in England when he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn. His body was initially buried next to five Jesuits, who had died earlier, in the courtyard of St Giles. Two years later the remains were moved to the Benedictine monastery at Lamspringe, near Hildesheim in Germany. His head was brought to Rome, and from there to Armagh and eventually to Drogheda where, since 29 June, 1921, it has rested in Saint Peter’s Church. Most of the other remains are now in Downside Abbey, England, with some still at Lamspringe. There are also other relics in different locations.

Oliver Plunkett was beatified in 1920 and canonised in 1975, the first new Irish saint in almost 700 years and the first Irish martyr to be beatified. He has since been followed by 17 other Irish martyrs who were beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1992. During his short and difficult ministry, Oliver Plunkett confirmed more than 48,000 people over a period of four years.

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