Oliver Plunkett

Oliver Plunkett (Irish Oilibhéar Pluincéid, * November 1, 1625 or 1629 in Loughcrew in County Meath, .. † 1 Julijul / July 11 1681greg in London) was Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland. He is regarded as a defender of Catholicism at the time of persecution of Catholics under Oliver Cromwell.

Oliver Plunkett was the son of a noble Irish family. He studied in Rome and was ordained there in 1654 as a priest. From 1657 he taught theology for twelve years at the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. On January 21, 1669 Plunkett was elevated to Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland, at a time when there were only two bishops in Ireland. 1670 he returned to Ireland. After the relaxation of the laws against Catholics, according to which this could celebrate their worship in public again, Plunkett founded in Drogheda guided by Jesuit Catholic school that already had 1671 150 students.

The 1672 re- tightened laws against Catholics forced the majority of church dignitaries, to leave the country, there were head premiums exposed to priests and bishops. However, Archbishop Plunkett remained in the country and went into hiding. In the following four years, he donated 48,000 people Confirmation, often in so-called Penal Churches or in the great outdoors.

On December 6, 1679 Plunkett was arrested near Dublin under the pretext of a Jesuit conspiracy charges of high treason, convicted and sentenced to London in a process of death. Extract from the judgment:

Archbishop Plunkett died on 1 Julijul. / July 11 1681greg. on the gallows of Tyburn. Plunkett's remains were first buried in the St. Giles Cemetery, but later his relics were kept in different places. His former friend, the abbot of the monastery Lamspringe, Maurus Corker, let Plunkett bones 1683 lead to Lamspringe where a part is to this day preserved in a reliquary and annually worshiped with divine service and procession. Another part was brought in 1881 by Lamspringe according to Downside Abbey. His head, today held in Saint Peter 's Church in Drogheda, is a relic that has become the destination of many pilgrimages. The intercession of the saint are attributed miracles.

Founded in 1910 in Dublin, Oliver Plunkett Union, a priest Association of Irish students of the Pontifical Irish College.

1920 Oliver Plunkett was beatified by the Catholic Church; Pope Paul VI. spoke to him in 1975 holy. His feast day in the liturgy is July 11.