Mass in Loughcrew for St Oliver Plunkett 400th anniversary

A special Mass takes place in Loughcrew this Sunday, June 29, to mark the start of celebrations of the 400th anniversary of the birth of St Oliver Plunkett, and the 50th anniversary of his canonisation.

St Oliver – martyred at Tyburn, London on July 1, 1681 – was born at Loughcrew on November 1, 1625, and the Mass is in the open air in the grounds of the Loughcrew estate (A82X4Y1). The saint was the last Catholic martyr to die in England.

“We have it every year, on the last Sunday of June – but we expect it to be a bit bigger than usual,” Fr Mark Mohan of Oldcastle, told the Westmeath Examiner this week.

The chief celebrant is to be Bishop of Meath, Most Reverend Dr Tom Deenihan, and the homilist is to be Most Reverend Archbishop Eamon Martin, Primate of All Ireland – who is the 13th successor to St Oliver.

The saint’s head and some bone relics are preserved in a shrine at St Peter’s Church in Drogheda, and a weekend of festivities is to take place there on July 4-6. St Oliver suffered a horrific death for his faith, having been falsely convicted of treason. His sentence was that he be hanged, drawn and quartered.

His entry to the religious life was influenced by his cousin, Patrick Plunkett of the Killeen Castle family, a Cistercian monk who was appointed Abbot of St Mary’s Abbey in Dublin. Later, he was parish priest of Kilcloon in Meath, and taught the young Oliver at Killeen Castle.

At age 16, Oliver was smuggled to France, and then to Rome, where he was ordained in 1654. Patrick was consecrated Bishop of Ardagh in the summer of 1647, during a period of religious persecution, and he was forced to live in woods and the cabins of the ordinary people, emerging at night to administer the sacraments. Despite his best efforts, the bishop had to go into exile, in Portugal, France and Holland.

He returned after seven years, and was for several years the only bishop in Ireland. He became bishop of Meath in 1669.

In March 1670, Oliver Plunkett returned to Ireland as primate, and Bishop Plunkett and his brother, the Earl of Fingall, greeted him on his arrival from Rome after a seven-month journey.

During the 1670s, Oliver Plunkett confirmed some 10,000 people in the seclusion of woods and mountains, and was often on the run, staying at Killeen and Dunsany castles. In 1679, he heard that Bishop Patrick Plunkett was dying and went to Dublin to see him. Oliver was seized and charged with refusing to ‘quit the realm’. When a jury in Dundalk (of Protestants) refused to find him guilty of high treason, he was transferred to Newgate Gaol in London. He was condemned to be hung, drawn and quartered at Tyburn on July 1, 1681. Patrick had died and was buried at Killeen Abbey.

Pope Benedict XV declared Oliver Plunkett a martyr in 1918, and beautified him in May 1920. He was canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1975, at a ceremony in Rome attended by the 12th Earl of Fingall and the Countess, and Lord and Lady Dunsany, the late Randal and Sheila Plunkett. His travelling crozier, episcopal ring and watch are in the possession of the Plunketts of Dunsany Castle. His vestments were in the possession of the Earl of Fingall until 1963, when they were presented to the Bishop of Meath.

In 1979 Pope John Paul II visited the Drogheda end of the Archdiocese, as the North was deemed dangerous due to the Troubles and the assassination of Lord Louis Mountbatten. The Pope’s plea for peace from Drogheda cited St Oliver.