1639. JOHN MEAGH,[1] S.J.
(From Alegamb’eS MorteS lllustreS, p. 538)
JOHN MEAGH was a native of Cork, in the province of Munster.
To remove him from the persecution of the heretics, he was taken by his father first to France, and then to Naples.
After his father’s death, he entered the service of the Duke of Ossuna, the Viceroy.
But disliking the frivolous amusements of the Court, he began to think of leaving it; and he would have done so if the Viceroy had not been recalled just then to Spain.
ln this way John found the means of going there, and asking for some favour from the King.
He was received in so kindly a way that he obtained very soon an annual pension; with this he returned to Naples.
But mark by what wonderful ways God draws men to Him.
The young man prayed to God to make known to him when he opened a book, the manner of life which he should enter on.
He opened it, and found there the Life of St. Dympna,[2] a maiden of royal birth, who fled from Ireland to avoid her father’s fury, and was afterwards slain by him.
John thought the history of a woman unsuited to him for imitation, and was thinking of looking for some other; but in the mean time he went on reading it; again and again he deliberated about turning over the leaves, and searching for another, and yet he hesitated to turn them.
‘What if God wishes me to leave the world,’ said he, ‘and to flee from all occasions of sin, as that royal maiden did when she left her native country.’
Wherefore, he determined to enter the religious state without further delay; and whilst he was yet hesitating somewhat, he was wrongfully accused of a grievous crime, and taken into custody.
Seeing in the prison a statue of St. Ignatius, he consoled himself with the thought that he too, was thrown into prison though free from all guilt.
Wherefore, he placed himself under this Saint’s protection, and asked his aid.
Soon after he was released.
This occurred during the year of the Jubilee.
Through devotion he set off from Rome.
On the way his leg was hurt somehow, and he was hospitably entertained by our Fathers, and nursed until he recovered.
Full of gratitude for their kindness,
and remembering that St. lgnatius too had broken his leg, he determined to enter the Society.
He was ordained a priest, and set back to Naples with letters from the General to the Provincial.
There he entered the noviciate, and having gone through it in a blameless manner, he was sent to Bohemia for a short time, in order to acquire some experience before he returned to Ireland to be employed in the saving of souls.
His zeal and earnestness were specially remarked, his great piety while offering the sacrifice of the Mass, which was often witnessed by those who assisted thereat, and his great eagerness to divert the conversation to divine things.
He was about to depart for Ireland, and he had prepared himself for the journey by make the spiritual exercises.
Indeed, he had a sort of presentiment that he should be called onto offer up his life for the faith.
John Pauer, who after the death of Gustavus Adolphus
commanded the Swedish army that harassed Germany so long,
made an incursion into Bohemia in 1639 and laid siege to Prague, its capital city.
The Fathers who were then in the College of Cattemberg,
terrified at the approach of such a powerful enemy, looked for some safe place where they might take refuge.
The College of Neuhaus seemed better suited to their wants than any other place.
Several were told to go there by different roads; these were best with robbers, whom the hardship of times or the hope of booty induced to arm themselves, to the ruin of travellers.
Moreover, many of the people were still infected with wicked doctrine, and though it had been preached against some years before throughout the whole of Bohemia, yet the consequences of that evil teaching remained deeply fixed in the minds of many, and induced these rude men to assail those who strove to root out such principles by their preaching.
Many of these were robbed and forced to fly.
Three of them were slain, namely, John Meagh, Martin Ignatius, and Wenceslaus Trnoska.
There are two reasons for asserting that they were put to death through hatred of the Catholic faith.
One is the hatred which the heretics have for the very name of Jesuit, because they find them to be among the most active and zealous defenders and teachers of the faith.
The second is, that they did no harm whatever to the other persons who were travelling with ours, nay, even they bade them put away all fear and take courage; this is a certain fact.
John received one wound in the breast from a small leaden bullet.
Martin was wounded in the breast, and received a deadly blow on the head from an axe.
Wenceslaus was shot through the temples.
The place where they were murdered is one mile from Guttenberg, on the road to Neuhas.
The date was May 31st, 1639.
Their bodies were taken away by the nobleman Bernard De Gerschoff, and buried in the church of the Holy Trinity, in the village of Litz.
On June 3rd following they were transferred to the church of St. Barbara, at the Rector’s request.
F. John Meagh was put to death in his 39th year, thirteen of which he has passed in the Society of Jesus.
See also Rothe, Tanner, and Bruodin.
[1] Probably a native of Cork. Several of the named were Mayors of Cork between 1379 and 1437.
[2] Her feast is o May 15”. See OHanlons Lives of the Irish Sa,ntS, v. 264
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
