Mosaic of the Martyrdom of St. John Ogilvie
Image Courtesy: Jesuits of Britain
(CNA) John Ogilvie was born in 1579 and was the son of a respected Calvinist family who came home to the Catholic Church subsequent to receiving his education from the Benedictines and Jesuits. In 1599 he entered the ‘Society of Jesus’ subsequent to extensive study and training, John became a Jesuit Priest in Paris in 1610
Fr. John Ogilvie greatly wanted to return back home to Scotland to encourage its return to the Catholic Church. John met two Jesuits who had just previously returned from Scotland, according to Franciscan Media after suffering arrest and imprisonment for their faith–they saw little hope for any successful work there in view of the tightening penal laws but a fire had been lit with Fr. Ogilvie and for the next two years he pleaded to be a missionary there.
Sent by his Superiors, Fr. Ogilvie secretly entered Scotland as a horse trader. Being unable to do any significant work amongst the few Catholics there, he made his way back to Paris to consult his Superiors–Rebuked for having left his assignment in Scotland, Fr. Ogilvie was sent back and had some success in his missionary work and in secretly serving Scottish Catholics but soon was betrayed, arrested and brought before the court.
Fr. Ogilvie’s trial dragged on and he was deprived of food and sleep for 8 days and nights he was dragged around, prodded with sharp sticks and his hair pulled out in an effort to betray the names of other Catholics in Scotland, yet he refused to reveal the names of others and acknowledge the jurisdiction of the King despite his distress–he was put on trial a second and third time but held firm in his convictions.
At Fr. Ogilvie’s third and final trial. he assured his persecutors:
“In all that concerns the King, I will be slavishly obedient. If any attack his temporal power, I will shed my last drop of blood for him but in the things of spiritual jurisdiction which a King unjustly seizes, I cannot and must not obey.”
Condemned to death as a traitor, Fr. Ogilvie was faithful to the end, even when on the scaffold, he was offered his freedom and a fine living if only he would deny his faith.
Fr. John Ogilvie’s last words before he was martyred for Jesus Christ were: “If there be any hidden Catholics let them pray for me but the prayers of heretics, I will not have.”
After Fr. Ogilvie was pushed from the stairs hanging, he threw his concealed rosary beads into the crowd according to the Jesuits of Britain and it’s claimed, that one of his enemies caught them and became a devout lifelong Catholic–subsequently his followers were rounded up and imprisoned, while they incurred heavy fines, none were executed.
Fr. John Ogilvie was Beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1929 and subsequently Canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1976
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