Cuando John Henry Newman fue nombrado santo no hace mucho, fue el primer santo británico canonizado desde 1976, año en que fue canonizado el mártir escocés San John Ogilvie.
Ogilvie and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton have much in common. They are both related to Scottish nobility; they both discovered their faith in Europe; they were both early members of new religious congregations; and they both died young — Mother Seton at age 46, Ogilvie at age 35.
Ogilvie’s life ended on March 10, 1615 after living through harrowing torture and an era of enormous change.
A Calvinist in King James’ Scotland
John Ogilvie era hijo del laird escocés calvinista de Drum-na-Keith, en Banffshire, y de Lady Agnes Elphinstone, que murió cuando él tenía 3 años. Su padre, barón y seguidor de Juan Calvino cuando el reformador aún vivía, se casó después con Lady Douglas de Lochleven.
The family lived in the Scotland of King James VI (of Scotland) and I (of England), the Protestant son of the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots. During Ogilvie’s life the Church suffered the fallout from the Gunpowder Plot to blow up the Parliament building. The thwarting of the plot, which had been organized by a group of Catholics, became the basis for the centuries-long Nov. 5 celebration of Guy Fawkes Day, often marked by anti-Catholic displays.
John Ogilvie’s life also coincided with the flowering of English literature in William Shakespeare, John Donne, Ben Johnson and Francis Bacon — and the King James Version of the Bible, published a few years before Ogilvie’s death.
Su madre biológica, Agnes Elphinstone, pertenecía a una familia escocesa que aún se aferraba a la fe. Sus dos hermanos eran jesuitas y se unieron a la orden que fundó San Ignacio de Loyola 40 años antes de que John naciera. Pero aunque tenía dos tíos en una orden católica conocida por la educación, su padre se ocupó de su educación y lo envió a una escuela luterana en Alemania cuando tenía 13 años.
Irónicamente, ser enviado desde Escocia a una escuela luterana en Alemania puede haber ayudado a su fe católica. Los católicos alemanes gozaban en muchas regiones de la libertad de la que carecían los católicos en Escocia, y a John le fascinaban los debates entre católicos y calvinistas.
Two Scripture verses in particular are said to have turned him against the Calvinist belief that strict, rigorous discipline showed who was included in the small number of elect of God: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28) and “Our Savior desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4).
Back to Scotland — Twice
San Juan se unió a los jesuitas y, tras ordenarse sacerdote, fue enviado a su tierra natal para servir a la Iglesia clandestina de allí. Los católicos se escondían de la persecución avivada por el fundador de la Iglesia presbiteriana, John Knox, y otros celosos calvinistas empeñados en borrar de su tierra los restos de la Iglesia de Roma.
A menudo disfrazado de tratante de caballos llamado John Watson, Ogilvie entraba en casas particulares y decía misa. En un momento dado, intentó abandonar el trabajo y regresar a su seminario de París, pero fue devuelto. Pronto, Adam Boyd, un calvinista que se hacía pasar por católico, delató a Ogilvie y éste fue capturado.
At his trial, he refused to pledge allegiance to King James in spiritual matters. He told the judge, “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.”
Durante su cautiverio soportó nueve noches y ocho días de tortura, en los que le mantuvieron despierto y le pidieron repetidamente que divulgara los nombres de otros católicos. Si se quedaba dormido, sus captores le pinchaban con alfileres o cuchillos o le arrastraban por el pelo. Temía haber perdido la cordura y renunciado al nombre.
He never did, though. Convicted of treason, he was paraded through the streets to be hanged at Glasgow Cross. A rebel to the end, he prayed, “If there be any hidden Catholics here, let them pray for me, but the prayers of heretics I will not have.”
La historia cuenta que, al morir, arrojó su rosario a la multitud y el hombre que lo recogió era un enemigo de toda la vida que luego se convirtió en católico de toda la vida.
Una tierra bendecida por los santos
John Ogilvie was beatified in 1929 with other martyrs of the Counter-Reformation. St. Paul VI canonized him in 1976 after a working-class devotee was miraculously cured of cancer through Ogilvie’s intercession.
St. Paul VI, who a year earlier had canonized Elizabeth Ann Seton, called Ogilvie “a son of the land blessed by the history of other saints dear to the Church, like St. Columba and St. Margaret.”
St. Elizabeth Ann was well aware of her own Scottish connections through her late husband’s family. She adopted the motto “Hazard yet forward,” which comes from the Seton Clan and expresses roughly the same sentiment as, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.” She also kept in touch with the old country, including the Lady Isabella Cayley, the sister to her father-in-law.
Like Ogilvie’s parents, the Setons were lesser Scottish Nobility, and as a Protestant convert herself, Elizabeth would have loved that St. John Ogilvie came from a Calvinist and Lutheran background, and switched his allegiance to the Catholics during his education.
She spoke with delight of receiving a Dutch student of hers who personally chose the Sisters over Protestant options, saying “…Luther is Luther and Calvin is Calvin and Knox is Knox, Mammy, but I wants the church of the Apostles begun by them.”
Elizabeth herself faced the same choice when she entered the Catholic Church. She speaks of the train of concerned Protestants who tried to win her over, including Betsy the Quaker, “Mrs. T” the Anabaptist, and Mary the Methodist. One woman from the Church of Scotland invited her to hear a popular Scotch Presbyterian preacher of the day, saying, “Oh do, dear soul, come and hear our John Mason and I am sure you will join us.” She did neither.
Hoy en día, San John Ogilvie es considerado un Santo Tomás Moro escocés, un modelo de libertad religiosa.
In recent years, Catholics have pursued efforts to put a permanent memorial in Ogilvie’s honor at the site of his execution.
Archbishop Philip Tartaglia of Glasgow said St. John Ogilvie was even more important at a time when Catholics face “more subtle forms of restricting religious freedom,” which today are “limiting your freedom to say in public places what you believe and what you hold most dear in your heart and in your conscience.”
Pope Francis agreed, telling Scottish seminarians in 2016 that Ogilvie’s sacrifice “has borne fruit in your beloved homeland. We too are living in a time of martyrdom, and in the midst of a culture so often hostile to the Gospel. I urge you to have that same selfless spirit as your predecessors did. Love Jesus above all things!”
TOM HOOPES, autor más reciente de El Rosario de San Juan Pablo II, es escritor residente en el Benedictine College de Kansas, donde imparte clases. Es anfitrión de La extraordinaria Story podcast sobre la vida de Cristo. Su libro Lo que dijo realmente el Papa Francisco ya está disponible en Audible. Antiguo reportero en la zona de Washington, D.C., fue secretario de prensa del Presidente del Comité de Medios y Arbitrios de la Cámara de Representantes de los Estados Unidos y pasó 10 años como editor del periódico National Catholic Register y de la revista Faith & Family. Su trabajo aparece con frecuencia en el Register, Aleteia y Catholic Digest. Vive en Atchison, Kansas, con su esposa, April, y tiene nueve hijos.
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