John Ogilvie (saint)

For lexicographer of the same name, see John Ogilvie (disambiguation).

Saint John Ogilvie
John Ogilvie
Born	1579 Keith in Banffshire, Scotland
Died	10 March 1615
Honored in	Roman Catholic Church
Beatified	1929
Canonized	1976
Feast	10 March

Saint John Ogilvie (1579 – 10 March 1615) was a Scottish Roman Catholic Jesuit martyr.

Biography

Ogilvie, the son of a wealthy laird, was born into a respected Calvinist family at Drum-na-Keith near Keith in Banffshire, Scotland and was educated in mainland Europe where he attended a number of Roman Catholic educational establishments, under the Benedictines at Regensburg in Germany and with the Jesuits at the University of Olomouc and Brno in the present day Czech Republic. In the midst of the religious controversies and turmoil that engulfed the Europe of that era he decided to become a Roman Catholic. In 1596, aged seventeen, he was received into the Catholic Church at Louvain, Belgium. He joined the Society of Jesus in 1608 and was ordained priest in Paris in 1610. After ordination he served in Rouen in Normandy where he made repeated entreaties to be sent to Scotland to minister to the few remaining Roman Catholics in the Glasgow area (after 1560 it had become illegal to preach, proselytise for, or otherwise endorse Roman Catholicism).

It was his hope that some Catholic nobles there would aid him given his lineage. Finding none, he went to London, then back to Paris, and finally returned to Scotland in November 1613 disguised as a horse trader named John Watson. Thereafter he began to preach in secret, celebrating mass clandestinely in private homes.

The hanging of Saint John Ogilvie SJ

This ministry was to last less than a year. In 1614, he was betrayed and arrested in Glasgow and taken to gaol in Paisley. He suffered terrible tortures, including being kept awake for eight days and nine nights, in an attempt to make him divulge the identities of other Roman Catholics. Nonetheless, Ogilvie did not relent; consequently he was convicted of high treason for refusing to accept the King's spiritual jurisdiction. On 10 March 1615, aged thirty-six years, he was paraded through the streets of Glasgow and hanged and disembowelled, according to the penalty of the time, at Glasgow Cross.

His last words were "If there be here any hidden Roman Catholics, let them pray for me but the prayers of heretics I will not have". After he was pushed from the stairs, he threw his concealed rosary beads out into the crowd. The tale is told that one of his enemies caught them and subsequently became a devout lifelong Roman Catholic. After his execution Ogilvie's followers were rounded up and put in gaol. They suffered heavy fines, but none was to receive the death penalty.

As a martyr of the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation he was beatified in 1929 and canonised in 1976. He is the only post-Reformation saint from Scotland. His feast day is celebrated on 10 March in the Roman Catholic Church.

See also

Saints portal

• Forty Martyrs of England and Wales

References

• American Catholic.org
• Patron Saints Index

Persondata
Name	Ogilvie, John
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1579
Place of birth	Keith in Banffshire, Scotland
Date of death	10 March 1615
Place of death