** SAINT JOHN OGILVIE OF GLASGOW, Jesuit priest, righteous defender of the faith, martyr ** John Ogilvie was born into a noble Presbyterian family in 1579 loyal to the tenets of John Calvin. Owing to his family’s wealth he was largely educated in mainland Europe and there as a youth began to experience grave doubts about John Calvin’s interpretation of scripture – especially his very strange teachings about predestination. Little by little Ogilvie began to see the glory of Catholic teaching and converted in 1596 at the age of 17. He immersed himself in his new found Catholic faith and three years later became a novice in the Jesuit order .. determined to do whatever he could to help recapture lost lands for the Church and souls for Christ. 11 years later .. in 1610 John Ogilvie was ordained to the priesthood as a Jesuit and worked for three years as a priest in France .. all the while begging and pleading to return here to his native Scotland despite warnings from his fellow Jesuits. Scotland had thrown off the ancient faith in 1560 and was now officially Calvinist .. under the flavor of Presbyterianism. It was illegal to offer or attend Mass and preach the Catholic faith or try to convert people to it. None of this bothered Ogilvie and despite the warnings .. he managed to secure a first short assignment in his native country. He found things much as his superiors had said. The attitude against the faith was violent and there was little interest among his fellow nobles of re-converting to Catholicism. He returned to France, served there a little while longer and then was re-dispatched to Scotland to minister to the small underground church there. He was arrested less than a year later by an informer pretending to be interested in converting. John was accused of offering Mass within the King’s Realm. He refused to answer the charge and was imprisoned for two months with an iron bar attached to his feet which prevented him from moving about in his cell. Because he would not give up the names of other Scottish Catholics he was tortured severely. His fingernails and hair were ripped out and at one point he was kept awake for nine days and nights by non-stop stabbing with sharp stakes. He was beaten .. kicked .. smashed about the head .. endured loud screaming in his ears yet none of these made renounce the faith or betray his fellow Catholic Scots. St. John actually used to joke quite often with his jailers and torturers about his pains and their tortures .. which deeply impressed them. Nonetheless, they were charged with beating and torturing a confession out of him which he steadfastly refused to do. He was eventually convicted on a charge of high treason. Even as he was being led up the gallows right here on this spot .. the crowd was shouting to him to return to his Protestant roots. The king would give him anything he wanted .. money, land, women, anything. His last words in support of the faith delivered from the gallows were that for it he would "willingly and joyfully pour forth even a hundred lives. Snatch away that one which I have from me, and make no delay about it, but my religion you will never snatch away from me!" St. John Ogilvie was executed by hanging on March 10, 1615 and was disembowled. A few moments before his hanging, St. John threw his Rosary into the crowd where it was caught by Baron John ab Eckersdorff a Calvinist nobleman – who later converted to Catholicism, attributing his conversion to witnessing the martyrdom and St. John’s rosary. youtu.be/ioh63VL6U8M
Posted on: Wed, 17 Jul 2013 17:43:37 +0000
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