Flannan Hogan
Mount Saint Joseph Abbey.

In 1905 Archbishop William Walsh of Dublin submitted to Rome the names of 292 alleged Irish martyrs of the 16th and 17th centuries whose cause had been examined in an Ordinary Process de fama Martyrii in 1904. In 1915 Pope Benedict XIV authorized Archbishop Walsh to introduce formally the cause of 260 martyrs. These included twelve monks of the Cistercian Order. Finally, after long delays, several postponements, much research and hard work, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, in May 1989, unanimously approved for beatification the first short list of seventeen martyrs--an archbishop, three bishops, six priests, a religious brother, five laymen and one woman. Four of the seventeen were members of the Franciscan Order, and the Dominicans, Augustinians and Jesuits had one martyr each in the first group to be beatified. The historic ceremony of beatification, performed by Pope John Paul II, duly took place in Rome on Sunday the 27 September 1992. St. Oliver Plunkett had, of course, been beatified in 1921 and canonised in 1975, and another Irish martyr, Fr. Charles Meehan, OFM, who was put to death in England, was beatified with English martyrs in 1987.

Even before the beatification of the seventeen took place in 1992, a second group of Irish martyrs was drawn up, and most of the necessary research and preparation of the Positiones preliminary to beatification has already been done. It is hope dthat the martyrs whose names are in this second group--and they include two Cistercians, Gelasius O'Cullenan and Luke Bergin--may soon be beatified.

Gelasius O'Cullenan, or Glaisne O Cuilleanain, as he was known by his original Irish name, was abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Boyle, Co. Roscommon. He was one of the very first Irish martyrs of the Elizabethan era, and probably the most outstanding of the Cistercians who gave their lives for the Catholic Faith in Reformation and Counter-Reformation times.

The O'Cullenan Family
Glaisne's was quite a remarkable family. The O'Cullenans came originally from Munster, and numbered among their ancestors Cormac Mac Cullenan, the early 10th century bishop-king of Cashel.¹ The father of the family, Donnchadh O'Cullenan, was a close associate of the O'Donnell chiefs, who were fosterers to his children. His wife, the mother of the O'Cullenan family, was Inion Dhubh Ni Dhuibhir (O'Dwyer).²

Donnchadh and Inion Dhubh resided at Mullaghashee, near Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal, and it was here that Glaisne was born about the year 1554.³ He was the eldest of seven sons, and he had at least one sister. Six of the seven brothers became ecclesiastics; four, or perhaps five, joined the Cistercian Order, and one became a bishop. After Glaisne, in order of seniority came Eoghan (Eugene), who became a Cistercian monk at Rome, and was appointed to succeed his brother Glaisne as abbot of Boyle, but died before he could leave Rome for Ireland.⁴ The third son, Seamas, beame the Cistercian abbot of Assaroe, and died on the 15 September 1637, greatly respected, we are told, by all who knew him, including Protestants, for his personal character and sanctity of life.⁵ Cormac, the next eldest was a layman. He succeeded his father, and fought under Red Hugh O'Donnell in the Nine Years War.⁶ Brian (Bernard) was the fifth son, and he also was a Cistercian, and became abbot of Boyle about the year 1605.⁷ Due to the religious circumstances of the time, Abbot Bernard was compelled to live for most of his life with his Cistercian brethren in the Netherlands, and died in London in November 1639 while on his way to Ireland.⁸ The second youngest brother was Niall, who likewise became a monk, and also, perhaps, an abbot.⁹ Eoin (John), the youngest son, was born a few years after Glaisne's death. He got his earlier education at home in Ireland, and then completed his studies for the priesthood at the Irish College in Salamanca, which he entered on the 1 August 1605.¹⁰ He was appointed vicar-apostolic of the vacant diocese of Raphoe by a brief dated the 1 December 1621, was named as bishop of the diocese on the 9 June 1625, and got episcopal ordination in 1629.11 Bishop Eoin was still living more than seventy-five years after his brother's martyrdom.¹² The only girl that we know of in the O'Cullenan family married one of the O'Clearys. Her son was Fr. Philip O'Clery, who was the agent in Rome of his uncle, Bishop Eoin, from 1636 to 1639.