Born: 29 July 1810, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 29 October 1828, St Andrea, Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)
Died: 16 March 1833, Dublin City, County Dublin

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
CARTAN, JAMES, a most promising Scholastic, who died in Dublin on the 17th of March, 1832. Soc. 4. aet.22

Born: 1541/2, County Limerick
Entered: 11 September 1561, Professed House, Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)
Died: 25 October 1572, Cork - Hanged drawn and quartered. Described as "Martyr"

Alias O'Donnell

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica”
Was sent by Pope Gregory XIII to confirm and propagate the faith in Ireland at the time when Campion and Parsons were proceeding to England on a similar mission. He was seized upon soon after his arrival, kept in Limerick Gaol for some time in close custody, and then removed to Cork, where he was hanged drawn and quartered for the faith 30 January 1581 (cf Matthias Tanner’s “Martyrs SJ; Drew’s “Fasti”; Hogan’s Ibernia Ignatiana)

◆ Francis Finegan SJ
Sent to Flanders before July 1564 - is to go to Ireland (Poll 1339)
Was sent by Wolf to Rome. As the climate did not suit him he was sent to Flanders in July 1564, and Wolf told the Flemish Provincial to send him and F Good to Ireland as companions of Dr Creagh, who was returning there. (Layeez’ letters to Fr Everard - Mercurian 11th & 27 July 1564. Dr Creagh found Good and O’Donnell at Louvain. When Creagh and Wolfe were imprisoned O’Donnell escaped and then returned in 1575 (Hogan’s Cat Chrn - and ref to Dr Arthur’s journal)
Fr Clayson 22 June 1564 writes from Augusta to Rome “I leave tomorrow for Mainz with Peter of Cologne and Edmund the Irishman. Fr Canisius has given me funds for our journey. Edmund is in very delicate health at present (Epist B Canisi)
10 July 1564 Fr General writes to Canisius, “We had heard about Edmund the Irishman, also from Flanders. Let him remain in one of the Colleges in Germany to see if he will get better health. If not he is to leave Germany (Epist B Canisi)
David Dinnis, Maurice Halley and Edmund Daniel were received in the Roman Novitiate 11 September 1561
Described as "Martyr"

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Scholastic Edmund Daniel 1541/2-1572
Edmund Daniel was remarkable for the fact that he was the first Jesuit martyr of the West. His name is also given as O’Donnell and McDonnell. He was a native of Limerick. Not yet twenty years of age, he entered the Society in Rome. Being of delicate health, he was sent to Northern Italy to teach, but his health not improving, he was sent to Ireland in 1564 to his native air.

The scene of his labours was the first Jesuit school opened in Ireland, namely that of Fr David Wolfe in Limerick. Here he taught for four years. On the suppression of the school, Edmund fled to the continent, where he laboured for the Irish Mission, mainly to raise funds for the ransom of Fr Wolfe, then imprisoned in Dublin Castle. In 1572 he returned to Ireland. Almost immediately, he was arrested in Limerick, through the instrumentality of the Catholic Mayor, Thomas Arthur.

He was removed, a prisoner, to Cork, where he was housed in Shandon Castle, afterwards to house another illustrious Jesuit Martyr, Br Dominic Collins. Here, on October 25th 1572, Edmund was hanged, disembowelled alive and his body cut into quarters.

He was not a priest. The Mayor of Limerick, Thomas Arthur, in later years petitioned the Pope for a pardon for his part in Edmund’s execution, and refers to him as a clerk in orders.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
DONNELL, or DONNELLY,EDMUND, of Limerick. He probably joined the Order at Rome. Pope Gregory XIII sent him to confirm and propagate Catholicity in Ireland, at the time that FF. Campian and Persons, were proceeding on the same work to England. Apprehended soon after his arrival, this good Jesuit was detained for some time in close custody at Limerick; but was afterwards removed to Cork, where he was hanged, drawn and quartered for the Faith, 30th of January, 1581. See his Life by F. Tanner; also Drews Fasti.

◆ Interfuse

Interfuse No 95 : Easter 1998

THE GOOD YOUNG MAN : EDMUND DANIEL

Stephen Redmond

In the group of Irish martyrs beatified in 1992 Jesuits were represented by Brother Dominic Collins, executed in Youghal in 1602. At present the cause of a second group (Richard Creagh, Archbishop of Armagh, and Companions 1572 - 1655: forty-two persons in all) is under scrutiny in Rome. It includes three Jesuits: Edmund Daniel, scholastic; William Boyton, priest; John Bathe, priest. Here is something about Daniel. I hope to write on Boyton and Bathe in a future issue of Interfuse.

Edmund Daniel was born in Limerick about 1542. He was a relative of David Wolfe, that key figure in the Irish Counter-Reformation and the first Irishman to become a Jesuit. He grew up in a time of important religious and political developments: the recently proclaimed Head of the Church and King of Ireland Henry VIII with his suppression of monasteries and policy of surrender and re-grant with the Irish chiefs, the new Prayer Book of Edward VI and Cranmer, the brief Catholic restoration and first plantation under Mary Tudor; the swing-back to Protestant monarchy with Elizabeth.

In 1561 Wolfe, by now papal commissary (nuncio) in Ireland, sent Daniel and two companions to the noviciate in Rome. The Roman archives possess his signed record of entry dated 11 September. He studied at Florence, Loreto and Padua and was sent to Flanders because of ill-health (probably tuberculosis). The ill-health persisted and it was decided to send him back to Ireland: “the good young man”, as Polanco, secretary of the Society called him, could breathe his native air (doctors seem to have had great faith in native air) and help Wolfe in the business of teaching. His companion was to be an English Jesuit, Father William Good.

With some help in staffing and funded for a while by Wolfe, Daniel and Good conducted a school in Limerick (the first Jesuit school in Ireland) for most of 1565. They had to close it when material support failed and their house was raided and looted. They opened a school in Kilmallock. It lasted until Easter 1566. They returned to Limerick and re-opened the school there.

In his letters (he was a great letter-writer) Good conveys the events and atmosphere of three extraordinary years: teaching Latin and English and forming the pupils in Catholic belief and practice; allowed to teach only if they distanced themselves from Wolfe (which they did with his consent); forbidden to teach papal primacy and the importance of the Mass and Sacraments and ignoring the ban; their house raided and looted; their ill health; the kindness of Helena Stackpool, widow of a Mayor of Limerick and mother of David who became a Jesuit; the penalising of those celebrating or attending Mass.

We get a sense of Jesuits and citizens trying to combine fidelity to the faith and loyalty to the crown. The Limerick situation is in keeping with the report of Da Silva, Spanish ambassador to England, to Philip II (25 March, 1568): “It is true that for the sake of peace Catholics in certain parts of Ireland are tolerated, but there is a great vigilance used to prevent the exercise of any authority by bull or order of his Holiness”. It was a difficult assignment for a young man of timid temperament (according to Wolfe) and weak health and uncertain rating in the other half of the community (Good both praised and criticised him).

By mid-1568 the Limerick mission had ended. Daniel went to Portugal and Spain to raise ransom money for Wolfe who was a prisoner in Dublin Castle. He also became a messenger for James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald, the leader of the first Desmond rising. By so doing he earned the dubious distinction of being (so far as I know) the only Irish Jesuit scholastic to appear in English State Papers.

He was arrested in Limerick about midsummer 1572 as hostile to the queen on the warrant of Thomas Arthur, recorder of Limerick and a Catholic. (Three years later Arthur was papally absolved from censure for thus proceeding against a cleric. His involvement in the story of Daniel illustrates the Faith - Crown tension referred to above). He was brought to Cork and put on trial before Sir John Perrot who had been appointed Lord President of Munster to deal with the Desmond rising, extend English law and promote the Protestant cause - a cause dear to his heart as his long public career testifies.

No official record of the trials is extant. Early in November 1572 Perrot reported to London that he had just executed twenty for treason in Cork. Daniel was surely one of these. Wolfe gives an exact date: 25 October 1572. He was hanged, drawn and quartered: the horrific mode of execution accorded to those convicted of treason. So died “the good young man” who in his only extant letter asked the General Francis Borgia to pray “that I may be constant and persevering in my vocation even unto death”.

There are, I believe, good reasons for thinking that hostility to the Catholic faith was a key motive for those who put him to death. He was a member of a society perceived as specially pledged to the Pope, a teacher of forbidden doctrines, an associate and relative of the Pope's representative in Ireland. His judge was a very committed Protestant who saw the religious supremacy of the queen as intimately linked to her political sovereignty and saw himself as her representative and mandated champion of her religious interests. Regnans in Excelsis, the bull whereby the Pope had claimed to outlaw the queen both religiously and politically, must have been large in his mind.

Daniel's Jesuit contemporaries and near-contemporaries were quick to recognise him as a martyr. His standing as one is constant, especially in the Irish Jesuit tradition. But of course the final word rests with Rome. If he is beatified, he will be the “official” proto-beatus and proto-martyr of the Society in Ireland: our contribution, as it were, to that inspiring company of Jesuit scholastics honoured by the Church as being in heaven.

Born: 17 March 1804, Cork City, County Cork
Entered: 19 October 1822, Naples, Italy - Neapolitanae Province (NAP)
Died: 05 September 1832, Naples, Italy - Neapolitanae Province (NAP)

in Roman College 1826
not in 1829 or 1834 Cat

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
An interesting letter from him to Father Kearney, dated Roman College 08 March 1829, is bound in a volume of Generals’ letters at BRI Archives. It related principally to the death of Pope Leo XII, a sincere friend to the Restored Society. “The English province received the last proof of his love towards the Society, as Father Glover’s business and all the variances o this point were terminated by his Holiness in the most satisfactory manner some weeks before his death. The instrument written with the pope’s own hand has been forwarded to the Propoganda”.

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
This pious Scholastic died at Naples 05 September 1832, where he had gone to pursue his studies.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
DRINAN, PATRICK ALOYSIUS, this Scholastic and most fervent Religious died at Naples in September, 1832, Soc.10.

Born: 1559, Leuven, Belgium
Entered: 29 December. 1578, Leuven, Belgium - Flanders Province (FLAN)
Died: 12 November 1590, Milan, Italy - Venetae Province (Vem)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronolgica” :
Died 12 November 1590 (Biblioth. de Bourg. Ms. 6397, lib i - Defunct in variis Provinciis)

Entered: 15 December 1655, St Andrea, Rome - Romanae Province (ROM)
Died: 13 March 1668, Prague, Czech Republic - Bohemiae Province (BOH)

◆ CATSJ A-H has 1658 In Irish College Rome - 2nd year Philosophy

◆ Catalogus Defuncti 1641-1740 has P Joannes Guntherus (hibern.) RIP 13 March 1668

◆ In Old/15 (1) and Old/17 (Guntero)

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
GUNTER, EDWARD. This excellent Scholar finished his course of Theology in the English Province : then made his third year of Probation in the Province of the Lower Rhine. He died in Dublin, in the course of the year 1671

Born: 31 October 1835, Carrickbeg, County Waterford
Entered: 04 February 1859, Beaumont, England - Angliae Province (ANG)
Died: 01 January 1866, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

Older brother of William Hayden RIP 1919

2nd year Novitiate at Tullabeg
by 1865 at Rome Italy (ROM) studying Theology 1

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Older brother of William Hayden RIP 1919

1862 Sent to teach at the newly opened school in Limerick.
1864 Sent to Rome for Philosophy, but he was sent back to Dublin due to failing health, and he died in a mental home 01 January 1866.

Born: 1605, Derry City, County Derry
Entered: 31 December 1622, Naples, Italy - Neapolitanae Province (NAP)
Died: 15 October 1633, Graz, Austria - Romanae Province (ROM)

Older brother of Bryan - RIP 1648

1633 Was in 4th year Theology at Graz (ASR)
Had been “Praeses Congreg et Catechista”
Prefect of Students in Roman College - Repetitor Logicae and Physicorum”

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Brother of Bryan MacDavet
A letter from Dr Magennis, Bishop of Down and Connor in 1620, asking the General to send both to their Theological studies

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Older brother of Brian (Bryan or Bernard)
1624-1628 After First Vows he was transcribed to ROM and made studies in Rhetoric and Philosophy at the Roman College
1628-1630 Then he was sent to for two years Regency to Ancona.
1630 Sent to Austria for Theology, but he died at Graz 15 October 1633 before realising his desire for Ordination and to return to work in Ireland

Born: 1586, County Meath
Entered: 17 May 1609, St Andrea, Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)
Died: April 1612, Roman College, Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)

Educated Irish College Douai; Age 23 on Ent a Theologian
1617 Given as Meath man, Age 33 Soc 9. This year in Ireland

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
In Ireland 1617

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Two very similar entries, probably the same person??
2nd had studied at Douai before Ent 17 May 1609
2nd After First Vows went to study at the Roman College and died there 22 April 1612
1st was reputed to be a priest on the Irish Mission in the CAT 1617, but that there is no trace of his Entry in any of the Irish or European Catalogues

Born: 25 April 1644, London, England
Entered: 18 January 1667, English College, Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)
Died: 15 June 1667, English College, Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)

Alias William Gore
Son of Hugh

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
James O’Neale alias William Gove
His parents were Irish Catholics of position.
He “fell” from the Church and was reconciled again by Father Thomas Harvey in 1644.
Ent the English College Rome in January 1667 and died six months later there 15 June 1667, having been allowed to take First Vows “in articulo mortis”.

◆ In Chronological Catalogue Sheet

Born: 17 June 1811, County Kerry
Entered: 06 December 1830, St Andrea, Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)
Died: 14 November 1834, Novara, Italy

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
O’RYAN, GEORGE, of Kerry. This Scholastic died at Novara, on the 14th of November, 1834, aet. 23, Soc.4. “Piam laetus animam reponat Sedibus Christus”.