St. John Ogilvie was born in 1579 to a noble Scottish family. Though raised as a Calvinist, John had doubts about the compatibility of this system with Scripture. In particular, he could not reconcile Calvin's theology of predestination with Biblical passages teaching that God loves all people and wills each of them to be saved. Gradually, John came to understand that the Catholic Church embraced people from diverse backgrounds. He decided to become Catholic and was accepted into the Church at Louvain, Belgium, in 1596 at the age of 17. In 1599, he became a novice in the Society of Jesus. After extensive study and training, he was ordained a Jesuit priest in Paris in 1610.
John was eager to return home to do missionary work, but Scotland was then too dangerous for a Catholic Priest. The young Jesuit worked in Rouen, France, for three years before he was granted permission to begin his apostolate in Scotland. He had considerable success in making converts and in secretly serving Scottish Catholics. John was arrested when someone posing as a Catholic betrayed him. After his arrest, he was tortured in prison to get him to reveal the names of other Catholics, but he refused. After three trials, John was convicted of high treason because he converted Protestants to the Catholic Faith and denied the king's spiritual jurisdiction by upholding the Pope's spiritual primacy. At his final trial, he proclaimed before his judges: "In all that concerns the king, I will be slavishly obedient; if any attack his temporal power, I will shed my last drop of blood for him. But in the things of spiritual jurisdiction which a king unjustly seizes, I cannot and must not obey." St. John Ogilvie was executed by hanging on March 10, 1615.
St John Ogilvie, pray for an ever greater harvest of faith, hope, and love in the Catholic Church.
Prepared and updated by:
Jonathan Fabian Ginunggil,
Penampang, Sabah Malaysia.
No comments:
Post a Comment