Venerable Charles Mahony

Ven. Charles Mahony

Irish Franciscan martyr; b. after 1639; d. at Ruthin, Denbighshire, 12 August, 1679. The British Museum has a copy of a single sheet entitled "The Last Speeches of Three Priests that were Executed for Religion, Anno Domini 1679", from which the following transcript is made:—

"An Account of the words spoken by Mr. Charles Mahony, an Irish Priest of the holy Order of St. Francis, who was Executed in his Habit at Ruthin in North Wales, August 12, 1679.

Now God Almighty is pleased I should suffer Martyrdom, his Holy Name be praised, since I dye for my Religion. But you have no Right to put me to death in this Country, though I confessed myself to be a Priest, for you seized me as I was going to my Native Country Ireland, being driven at Sea on this Coast, for I never used my Function in England before I was taken, however God forgive you, as I do and shall always pray for you, especially for those that were so good to me in my distress, I pray God bless our King, and defend him from his Enemies, and convert him to the Holy Catholick Faith, Amen.

His Age was under Forty, He was tryed and Condemned at Denby [i.e. Denbigh] Confessing himself to be a Priest."

Bishop Challoner bases his account of our martyr on the above-mentioned single sheet, but appears to have hold access to another authority now lost, for he writes: "He suffered with great constancy, being cut down alive and butchered according to the sentence, as I remember to have read in a manuscript, which I could not since recover." Subsequent writers add nothing to Bishop Challoner's narrative.

CHALLONER, Memoirs of Missionary Pnests, II, no. 205; GILLOW, Bibl. Dict. Eng. Cath. IV, 392; STANTON, Menelogy of England and Wales (London, 1887); HOPE, Franciscan Martyrs in England (London, 1878), 240; OLIVER, Collections illustrating the History of the Catholic Religion (London, 1857), THADEUS, Franciscans in England (London and Leamington, 1898), 52, 71, 101.

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT