OLIVER PLUNKETTS LETTER

New Zealand Tablet, 7 February 1918, Page 13

OLIVER PLUNKETTS LETTER

;.,:.. ■. In the ■ year 1646 a young Celtic nobleman named' Oliver Plunkett came to Rome and entered the Irish College to study for the. priesthood. .At.the; end of; . eight, years he was ordained ! a priest r and r. set c about preparing to leave Rome 7 for Ireland/ But circumstances rendered this impossible. i Spies all over the continent dogged his footsteps. Accordingly Father Oliver; Plunkett penned the following letter for a dispensation : _ '. , ."- $ "I, Oliver Pluhkett, your most tumble petitioner, student of the Irish College, - having completed my philosophical and theological studies, considering the impossibility of now returning to Ireland (as your paternity well knows), in accordance . with the rules' of the College and the oath which I have taken, humbly request of you, Very Reverend .Father, that I may be allowed to continue in Rome and dwell with the Fathers of S. Girolamo delta Carita. I promise, how 7 ever, and declare that I will, ever be ready to return to Ireland whensoever you, reverend Father, or my superiors, shall" so command. . Rome, June 14, 1654." The original of this letter is kept framed in the students' oratory in the college as a touching reminder of their great martyr, Oliver Plunkett, Primate/ of Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh. But there is another souvenir of interest not only to men related to the race of the O's and the Mac's whether in Australia, Canada, America, or Europe, but also to all lovers of liberty in every country. This N is the heart of Daniel O'Connell, the Irish Liberator. When O'Connell heart was removed from his body at Genoa it was embalmed and 6ent to Rome, to which by his dying breath he had willed it. Concluding no place more appropriate than the Church of S. Agatha, which is attached to the Irish College, the Pope ordered the urn containing it to be conveyed there. The heart lies within a magnificent mural monument near thealtar of the Blessed Sacrament, which O'Connell's friend and admirer, Charles Bianconi, erected to hold the precious urn. This monument is made of pure Carrara marble, exquisitely sculptured, and. stands about 20 feet high. The upper part represents the "Angel of Liberty" bidding Erinwho sits chained with her Irish harp and wolf-dog, in an attitude of melancholy— arise, for hope has come. The lower part represents O'Connell at the Bar of the British House of Commons refusing to take the anti-Catholic, declaration then imposed upon members of Parliament. His words, "I at once reject this declaration: part of it I believe to be untrue, and the rest of it I know to be false," are chiselled underneath. To Irishmen from all parts of the world the Church of S. Agatha is a place of pilgrimage by reason of the possession of the heart of him who won Catholic Emancipation. ',' ... ;.,-: . ■ r