Blessed Patrick O'Hely

Patrick O'Hely (Irish: Pádraig Ó hÉilí) (born between 1543 and 1546, died 31 August 1579) was an Irish Franciscan priest from Creevelea Abbey, near Dromahair, County Leitrim, and illegal and underground Bishop of Mayo, who was tortured and executed as part of the Elizabethan era religious persecution of the Catholic Church in Ireland. Bishop O'Hely was Beatified, along with his fellow Franciscan Friar and companion in martyrdom, Conn Ó Ruairc, by Pope John Paul II along with 15 other Irish Catholic Martyrs on 27 September 1992. Their martyrdom is commemorated every year on 20 June. Although little or nothing is known of his early life, Patrick O'Hely is believed to have been born between 1543 and 1546. He later described himself in a letter dated 24 June 1575, and which survives in the Archivo General de Simancas as fray Patricio Oheli de Petra. Petra is believed by some historians to be a shorthand rendering of Petra Patricii, the usual Hiberno-Latin rendering of (Irish: Carraig Phádraig), the name in Connaught Irish for the hill upon which stood Creevelea Abbey (Irish: an Mainistir na Craoibhe Léithe), the Franciscan Friary at Dromahair, County Leitrim. If so, it would suggest that O'Hely was a native of the region, an alumnus of the Friary, or both. English Franciscan Thomas Bourchier roomed from 1578 to 1579 with Patrick O'Hely in Paris and became his late friend's first biographer. According to Bouchier, O'Hely received a classical Christian education during his youth in Ireland and was sent, due to his great intellectual brilliance, four years after his profession to Rome. In 1562, O'Hely arrived in Rome and presented himself to Francisco Zamora de Cuenca Minister General of the Franciscan Order. Zamora was very impressed with O'Hely and arranged for him to continue his education in the Franciscan Province of Cartagena.