From: trudie.Miller@cox.net   
      
   March 10th - St. John Ogilvie, Martyr   
      
   Born in Banffshire, Scotland, c. 1579; died at Glasgow, Scotland, March 10,   
   1615; beatified in 1929; canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1976 (the first Scottish   
   saint since Margaret in 1250). John Ogilvie, son of the Calvinist baron of   
   Drum-na-Keith and Lady Douglas of Lochleven, returned to the faith of his   
   fathers and forsook his heritage in this world as the result of a passionate   
   course of theological studies and ardent prayers for light. The laird of   
   Drum-na-Keith had sent his eldest son abroad so that his 13-year-old John could   
   have the full benefit of French Calvinism as he studied for a few years at   
   Louvain.   
      
   This is characteristic of the violent religious turmoil of the age: the boy of   
   15 was entirely absorbed by an interest in religion-and wanted to be clear   
   about   
   which faith was the 'true' one. He himself explained later that what decided   
   the   
   question for him-and for me-was his experience that the Roman Catholic Church   
   included all kinds of people-emperors and kings, princes and noblemen, as well   
   as burghers, peasants, and beggars-but that it overtopped them all-no man was   
   above the Church.   
      
   John had also seen that the Church could impel people of all classes to   
   renounce   
   the whole world to devote themselves entirely to God. And the final reason, the   
   one which in the end led to his conversion, was his having seen that the men   
   who   
   gave their lives and their blood for Christ, those who had died to spread   
   Christianity among mankind, had been martyrs for the Christianity of Rome and   
   not for that of Geneva or Wittenberg.   
      
   At the age of 17 (1596), John Ogilvie returned to Catholicism, because he   
   wished   
   to belong to the Church of the martyrs. Twenty years later, he himself suffered   
   the death of a martyr.   
      
   After his reception into the Catholic church at the Scots College at Louvain,   
   John continued his studies at Ratisbon (Regensburg) and Olmütz. In 1600, he   
   joined the Jesuit novitiate at Brünn (Brno), where he enjoyed the Jesuit   
   education in the liberal arts and sciences as well as religious studies and   
   spiritual formation. For ten years he worked in Austria, mainly at Graz and   
   Vienna, before he was assigned to the French province. Ogilvie was ordained at   
   Paris in 1610 and stationed in Rouen, where he learned of the persecution of   
   Catholics in his homeland. In 1613 received permission to go to Scotland to   
   minister to the persecuted Catholics there.   
      
   Using the alias John Watson, purportedly a horse trader and/or a soldier back   
   from the wars in Europe, he worked in Edinburgh, Renfrew, and Glasgow. He found   
   that most of the Scottish Catholic noblemen had conformed, at least outwardly,   
   and were unwilling to help a proscribed priest. Unable to make much of an   
   impression, he went to London to contact one of the king's ministers and then   
   to   
   Paris for consultation. He was sharply told to return to Scotland, which he   
   did.   
      
   In Edinburgh Ogilvie stayed at the house of William Sinclair, a lawyer whose   
   son   
   he tutored. He ministered to a congregation and visited imprisoned Catholics.   
   Eventually Ogilvie was successful in winning back a number of converts to the   
   Church. Soon he attracted the attention of Archbishop Spottiswoode, once a   
   Presbyterian but now carrying out in Scotland the religious policies of King   
   James.   
      
   He was betrayed by a man named Adam Boyd, who trapped him by pretending to be   
   interested in the faith. He was imprisoned, treated to the French torture of   
   "the boot," and forcibly kept from sleep for eight days to compel him to reveal   
   the names of other Catholics-which he refused. Steadfastly, he remained loyal   
   to   
   the crown in temporal matters. After months of torture he was found guilty of   
   high treason for refusing to acknowledge the supremacy of the king in spiritual   
   matters and for refusing to apostatize. He managed to write an account of his   
   arrest and treatment in prison, which was smuggled out by visitors.   
      
   When Saint John appeared in court at Edinburgh in December 1613, he questioned   
   why Catholics were persecuted. He claimed the right to the faith that had not   
   only shown itself compatible with the order of society, but had been the main   
   factor in the creation of that order and in the birth of the nation. He said,   
   "Neither Francis [of France] has forbidden France, nor does Philip [of Spain]   
   burn for religion but for heresy, which is not religion but rebellion."   
      
   Heir of Drum-na-Keith, who had forsaken his family, his home, and his estate to   
   become a Jesuit and a priest, says to Spottiswoode and the other reformed   
   clergymen who owed their position and all they possessed to the favor of King   
   James:   
      
   "The King cannot forbid me my own country, since I am just as much a natural   
   subject as the King himself. . . . What more do we owe him than our ancestors   
   to   
   his ancestors? If he has all his right to reign from his ancestors, why does he   
   ask for more than they have left him by right of inheritance? They have never   
   had any spiritual jurisdiction, nor have they ever exercised any; nor held any   
   other faith than the Roman Catholic."   
      
   Finally, John Ogilvie was hanged at Glasgow (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney,   
   Farmer, Moore, Undset).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "But some one may say, 'What harm is there in reading [and clearly also   
   watching/listening on TV and radio] romances and profane poetry when they   
   contain nothing immodest? Do you ask what harm?   
      
   "Behold the harm: the reading of such works kindles the concupiscence [desires]   
   of the senses, and awakens the passions [emotions: irrational but irresistible   
   motives for a belief or action]; these easily gain the consent of the will, or   
   at least render it so weak that when the occasion of any dangerous affection   
   occurs the devil finds the soul already prepared to allow itself to be   
   conquered.   
      
   "By the reading of such pernicious books heresy has made, and makes every day,   
   great progress; because such reading has given and gives increased strength to   
   libertinism [Libertarianism: belief/opinion, that it is good for people to   
   practice in their lives complete freedom of thought and speech and whatever   
   these lead to].   
      
   "The poison of these books enters gradually into the soul; it first makes   
   itself   
   master [the basis] of the understanding, then infects [becomes taken up by] the   
   will, [the consent of which leads to grievous/mortal sin and thus] in the end   
   kills the soul.   
      
   "The devil finds no means more efficacious and secure of sending a young person   
   [people] to perdition [often to mortal sin and condemnation to Hell by God]   
   than   
   the reading of such poisoned works."   
   -St. Alphonsus de Liguori (Doctor, 1696-1787)-"The True Spouse Of Jesus Christ"   
      
   Bible Quotes:   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)