Bl. Conor O’Devany

On February 2, 1583, the feast of Candlemas (the Presentation of the Lord), the Irish Franciscan priest, Father Conor O’Devany, then in Rome, was consecrated bishop of the Irish dioceses of Down and Connor. Twenty-nine years later, in the early evening of February 1, 1612, the eve of Candlemas, Bishop O’Devany was taken by the English authorities to a scaffold in Dublin to be executed on a trumped-up charge of treason. Having been offered a pardon at his trial if he would deny his faith, he had answered that he was resolved to die in defense of the Catholic faith. On the way to the scaffold, the bishop said to a priest facing martyrdom together with him (Blessed Patrick O’Loughran), “Come, my brave comrade, noble soldier of Christ, let us imitate as best we can the death of him who was led to the slaughter as the sheep before the shearer.” As the bishop passed through Dublin’s streets, Catholics emerged from their homes to kneel in reverence to their prelate. Following Bishop O’Devany’s execution, a paralytic who had crawled to the scaffold to venerate his body was instantaneously cured.