Ok. I’ve have it up to here (imagine me standing on tiptoe with my hand WAY over my head and I am not short) with hearing how “tolerant” Elizabeth I (and other English Protestants) were and then reading about all of the Catholic martyrs in England and in places controlled or influenced by England. After all didn’t Elizabeth say that she didn’t want to “open windows into men’s souls”? She did indeed say that, but the truth is that it was damn dangerous to life and limb and property and livelihood to be a Catholic in England during Henry XVIII (1491-1537), Elizabeth I (1533-1603) and for a long time afterwards. Victors write the history and in the case of history written in the English language, the vast majority of it is written from the Protestant perspective. I’ve heard a LOT about Bloody Mary and the Spanish Inquisition but when was the last time anyone sat down and said to themselves “You know it wasn’t Catholic intolerance that the Pilgrims to New Englad were fleeing.” and I am guessing that the Quakers (and others that were persecuted in New England) would be the first to stand up and point out that our Second Ammendment rights to Freedom of Religion were not something that the Pilgrims would have been in favor of. No I am not arguing that Catholics were always perfect and that Bloody Mary didn’t make her share of martyrs. My POINT here is that I have always been taught that the English Protestants were “tolerant” and the facts (in my opinion) paint a very different picture.

And so I offer the first two Catholic Martyrs to the Protestant Reign of Religious Tolerance and I will be adding to their number over time as I learn their stories:

Blessed Bishop O’Devany and Blessed Patrick O’Loughran (from Magnificat an EXCELLENT publication. I highly recommend subscribing.):

A native of the Country Tyrone, Ireland, Father Patrick O’Loughran administed the sacraments to exiled Irish noblemen living in Belgium. When in June of 1611 he returned to Ireland, he was arrested by agents of Protestant English regime occupying the country. Under questioning, Father O’Loughran admitted that he had given sacraments to the exiled noblemen, and that he had assisted the Irish bishop, Blessed Conor O’Devany. Father O’Loughran was thereupon consigned to a dungeon. In January of 1612, he and Bishop O’Devany were condemned to death. When on February 1 the two had reached the place of execution, the bishop asked to die last so that he could give Father O’Loughran moral support in his death agony, but this request was refused. Father O’Loughran reassured him: “Aid me by your prayers with God, by whose help I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor anything else, will separate me from the love of Christ or from my companionship with you.” Bishop O’Devany then knelt to pray for his fellow martyr. Both were drawn and quartered.