Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
Chapters towards a History of Ireland in the reign of Elizabeth (Author: Philip O'Sullivan Beare)
Chapter 28
A Wonderful Miracle is related.
AMONGST the miracles occurring during this tyranny, some of which I have in part related, and others of which I will partly detail, although passing over many of them, yet I cannot pass over the following on account of the importance of the affair.
In Leinster an English Bishop of the Diocese of Ferns, at the head of his heretics, invaded a church dedicated to St. John the Baptist, near the village called Castle Ellis, which is in O'Murphy's country, and destroyed statues
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of the Virgin Mother and of the titular Saint, always held in great esteem by the natives, and also offerings brought thither by the Catholics and the ornaments of the church, and caused his English comrades to overturn the altars. Next he set about plotting cruelties against the Catholic Irish because they would not assist in this crime. But before he could carry out his intention, he suffered the penalty of his crime. For immediately a pain spread all over him by which he was violently racked and reduced to madness and dashing his huge body on the ground and against the stones, he put an end to his impious life. His body, buried in the holy church by his brother and comrades, was found the next day outside the church, thrown up on the walk. The English, thinking the Irish had done this, again buried the body and put guards, but again the second night the grave was opened, and the body was nowhere to be found. By the greatness of this miracle, not only did the brother of the pretended bishop and his comrades embrace the Catholic faith, but it also came about that even to this day no Englishman dares to violate that church. Daniel O'Murphy celebrated this novel and rare miracle by large gatherings of the neighbours and by sports.