Last week’s list of saints should have included St. Oliver Plunkett whose feast day is July 1st. To make up for it, this is what it says in the liturgical calendar about him:
“St. Oliver Plunkett was from Irish nobility whose family supported King Charles I. Ordained in Rome in 1654, he became a professor of theology from 1654 until appointed Archbishop of Armagh in 1669. He ministered in Armagh, though forced to work in a covert way during the suppression of priests. He was arrested and tried at Dundalk in 1679 for conspiring against the state. It was seen that Oliver would never be convicted in Ireland, and he was moved to Newgate prison, London. He was found guilty of high treason ‘for promoting the Catholic faith’, and was condemned to a gruesome death. He was hanged, drawn and quartered on the 1st July 1681 at Tyburn, in London. He was the last Catholic to die for his faith at Tyburn, and the first of the Irish martyrs to be beatified in 1920. He was canonised by Pope Paul VI on the 12th October 1975. He is buried at Downside Abbey, England; his head is venerated in St. Peter’s Church, Drogheda.”