The Feast Day of St. John Ogilvie

(The following is excerpted from March 10, St. John Ogilvie – Noble Scot.)

"Ogilvie, the son of a wealthy noble, was born into a Calvinist family near Keith in Banffshire, Scotland and was educated in mainland Europe where he attended a number of Roman Catholic educational establishments...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 Roman church at Louvain, Belgium by Father Cornelius a Lapide. He joined the Society of Jesus in 1608 and was ordained a priest in Paris in 1610."...

"He returned to Scotland in November 1613 disguised as a soldier, and began to preach in secret, celebrating [M]ass clandestinely in private homes, mostly among his fellow nobility. However, his ministry was to last less than a year. In 1614, he was betrayed and arrested in Glasgow and taken to jail 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, after a biased trial, he was convicted of high treason for refusing to accept the King's spiritual jurisdiction. On 10 March 1615, aged 36 years, John Ogilvie was paraded through the streets of Glasgow and...hanged 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.'..."

"As a martyr of the Counter-Reformation he was beatified in 1929 and canonized in 1976. He is the only post-Reformation saint from Scotland."

"Saint John Ogilvie is commemorated 10 March in the Roman Catholic Church."