Bathe, John, 1612-1649, Jesuit priest

Person

Bathe, John, 1612-1649, Jesuit priest

• John Bath

• Bathous

23 June 1612-11 September 1649

Born: 23 June 1612, Drogheda, County Louth
Entered: 17 May 1639, Mechelen, Belgium (BELG)
Ordained: 1637, Seville, Spain - pre Entry
Died: 11 September 1649, Drogheda, County Louth - described as Martyr

Son of Christopher Bathe and Catherine Warine
Had studied Humanities at Drogheda under Fr William Macahia for 2.5 years, and then by the Jesuits for half a year
1630 Studied 3 years Philosophy at St Hermenegildo's in Seville under Fr di Gillandi SJ, and then 4 years Theology with the Jesuits.
Ordained in Seville
1638 has been received by the Provincial Fr Robert Nugent and Entered at Mechelen.
Confessor for 1 year at Drogheda
Martyred with his brother Thomas and others, a secular priest, in Drogheda on 16 September 1649 - more likely 11 September 1649 as he was martyred the day after the “storm of Drogheda” which took place on 10 September 1649. However, that massacre lasted 5 days.

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Son of Christopher (Merchant and Mayor of Drogheda) and Catherine née Warine
He was shot odiio fidei in Drogheda with his brother, a secular Priest
Early education in Humanities was under William Macahire at Drogheda, then for a year and a half with the Jesuits, and on to St Hermenigildo’s English College Seville under Francis Gillando SJ, and was Ordained there. He then came to Drogheda as a Confessor, and was admitted to the Society by the Mission Superior, Robert Nugent, in Dublin 1638, beginning his Noviceship at Mechelen 17 May 1639.
He was a Missioner in Drogheda, where the Jesuits had long and zealously laboured, when the city was sacked by Cromwell’s rebel forces, and with his brother, a priest, was shot by the soldiers in the Market Place 16/08/1649 (cf Tanner’s “Lives of the Jesuit Martyrs”, p 138 seq; Mercure Verdier’s “Report of the Irish Mission 1641-1650, in the Archives of the English College in Rome, a copy of which is at the “Roman Transcripts” Library, Public record Office, London)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Son of Christopher Bathe, Alderman of Drogheda and Catherine née Warren
Received his early education from William Meagher, a secular priest and later at the Jesuits' school in Drogheda.
1630 After First Vows he was sent for studies to Irish College Seville, and then studied Philosophy and Theology at San Hermenegildo's Seville for seven years, being Ordained in 1637, following which he returned to Ireland and was stationed at Drogheda.
In 1638 he applied to Fr Robert Nugent to enter the Society and then Ent at Mechelen on 17 May 1639
1641-1649 Returned to Ireland and Drogheda where he worked for eight years
1649 On the fall of Drogheda to Cromwell, he and his brother Thomas were captured, examined and then tied to stakes in the market-place and blown-up with gun-powder. They died on 11/09/1649 and their names are on the list of martyrs whose cause has been submitted to the Holy See

◆ Royal Irish Academy : Dictionary of Irish Biography, Cambridge University Press online :
Bathe (Bath), John
by Robert Armstrong

Bathe (Bath), John (1612–49), Jesuit priest, was born in Drogheda on 23 June 1612, the son of Alderman Christopher Bathe, merchant, and perhaps at some time mayor, of Drogheda, and his wife, Catherine Warine; his uncle, Robert Bathe, was a Jesuit priest in the town. He had at least one brother, Thomas, later a secular priest. He studied humanities with the Jesuits in Drogheda and, probably in 1630, was admitted to the Irish College in Seville, run by the Society of Jesus, whence he studied at the Jesuit College of St Hermenegild in the city. He was ordained a priest in Spain, perhaps in 1635, and then returned to Drogheda for a year before being admitted to the Society of Jesus in 1638 in Dublin by Father Robert Nugent. He was sent for his novitiate to Mechlin in the Spanish Netherlands, arriving there on 17 May 1639. By 1641 he had returned to Drogheda, where he and his brother may have remained throughout the 1640s, until the town's capture by Oliver Cromwell (qv) on 11 September 1649. The following day (and not, as often claimed, 16 August) he and his brother Thomas were shot by Cromwellian soldiers.

Henry Foley, Records of the English province of the Society of Jesus (1882), vii, 41; G. Rice, ‘The five martyrs of Drogheda’, Ríocht na Midhe, ix (1997), 102–27

◆ Henry Foley - Records of the English province of The Society of Jesus Vol VII
BATH, JOHN, Father, was a son of Christopher Bath, a mer chant, alderman, and once mayor of Drogheda (Vadipontana). His mother was Catherine Warine: he made his humanity studies at Drogheda under the Rev. William Machaire, a Priest, for two and a half years, and for half a year with the Jesuit Fathers, and his higher course at St. Hermenigild's English College S.J. Seville, Spain, for three years under Father Francis de Gillando, S.J., and four years theology at the same College. Ordained in Spain, and, after spending a year as a Confessor at Drogheda, he was admitted to the Society by Father Robert Nugent, the Superior of the Irish Mission, in 1638, at Dublin, and sent to the Novitiace at Mechlin, where he arrived May 17, 1639. (Mechlin Album.) He was a missioner in the Residence of Drogheda, where the Fathers had long and zealously laboured, when the city was sacked by Cromwell's rebel forces, and with his brother, a secular priest, was shot by the soldiers in the Market Place, August 16, 1649. (See Tanner's Lives of the resuit Martyrs, p. 138, seq.; also Report of the Irish Mission 1641 to 1650, in the Archives of the English College, Rome, and a manuscript of it among the Roman Transcripts, Library, Public Record Office, London.)

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father John Bathe 1610-1649
John Bathe was the son of Christopher Bathe, Mayor of Drogheda, in the ealy seventeenth century. He was educated at Seville in Spain, where he was ordained priest in 1630.

Returning to Ireland in 1638, he spent a year working as a priest in Drogheda, and then applied to Fr Robert Nugent for admission to the Society.

His noviceship in Mechelen completed, he then spent the rest of his life as a Jesuit in Drogheda. He lost his life during the sack of Drogheda by the Cromwellians. The following is a contemporary account of his martyrdom :

“The following day (August 16th) when the soldiers were searching among the ruins of the city, they discovered one of our Fathers, named John Bathe, with his brother, a secular priest. Suspecting they were religious, they examined them, and finding that they were priests, and moreover one of them a Jesuit, they led them off in triumph, and accompanied by a tumultuous crowd, conducted them to the market place, and there, as if they were at length extinguishing the Catholic faith and our Society, they tied them both to stakes fixed in trhe ground, and pierced their bodies with shot, until they died”.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
BATH, JOHN. This Father was living in Drogheda, when the Town was stormed by the Cromwellian Forces. His house was given up to plunder, and the good Jesuit, with his Brother, a worthy Secular Clergyman, was conducted into the Market place, and both were deliberately shot by the Soldiers on the 10th of August, 1649. See Mat. Tanner’s Lives, pp. 138-9.

◆ Our Martyrs
A record of Those Who Suffered for the Catholic Faith Under the Penal Laws

Denis Murphy SJ
Fallon & Co, 16 Lower Sackville Street, Dublin 1896

(SJ Martyrs Extracts)

1649 John Bathe SJ and Thomas Bathe

(From Bruodin's Propugnaculum, p 766.)

The 16th of August, 1649, was a day of sorrow for the Catholic inhabitants of Drogheda. (1) Among others, F John Bathe SJ, and his brother Thomas, a secular priest, were seized by a crowd of rebel heretics and hurried along to the market-place. There they had to listen to scoffs against the Pope, the Papists, and the Jesuits. They were beaten cruelly with sticks, and at last pierced with shots, and so they earned (as we may well believe) that heavenly crown which has been promised to those who combat to the end for Christ..

See also Tanner, Alegambe, and Arsdeken.

(1) For a detailed account of the massacre at Drogheda, see Cromwell in Ireland, p 97.

(2) In 1642 they had been imprisoned by the Puritans. Hogan's Dist Irishmen, p 303.

◆ Menology of the Society of Jesus: The English Speaking Assistancy

August 16

At Drogheda, on the i6th of August, 1649, died Father John Bath, a glorious martyr for the Faith. He was a son of Christopher Bath, at one time Mayor of Drogheda, and was ordained as a secular priest in Spain.

Having discharged his sacred functions for a year in Drogheda, he was admitted into the Society at Dublin in 1638, by Father Robert Nugent, the Superior of the Irish Mission, and was sent to make his novitiate at Mechlin. On his return, he was appointed to the Residence of Drogheda, where he laboured for several years with great zeal, amid many and terrible privations. What the Irish Jesuits had to suffer at this period may be inferred from the following passage contained in a letter addressed by the .Superior of the Mission to Rome, in 1642. “No pen”, he writes, “could describe the miseries of this kingdom ; nothing is seen or heard of but depredations, murders of women and mere children, burning of property, and utter ruin of families and homes”. Later on in the same year, he writes that, “up to the previous May, no event was more common than the promiscuous murder of innocent Cathlics of every sex, rank, and age, for the Puritans were well armed and greatly enraged. They burned villages, hamlets, and whole towns, together with the mansions and castles of the nobles and country gentlemen ; and even set fire to barns and cornfields, being determined to destroy everything and leave no trace of an Irishman behind. . . . Several Religious and other clergymen have already been put to death. No Jesuit has as yet received that honour; but Fathers Robert Bath, John More, and John Bath, who lived in the Drogheda Residence, have been imprisoned by the Puritans for a whole month, and their future fate remains uncertain”. In a postscript he adds: “I have just heard that the two Fathers Bath are still hidden in Drogheda, and that Father More has escaped ; but Father Lattin has been taken and imprisoned. We have lost all our property here for the present."

When Drogheda was sacked by Cromwell's soldiers, Father John Bath and his brother Thomas, a secular priest, were seized by the heretics and hurried along to the market-place. Here they were greeted with scoffs, while every kind of vile language was directed against the Pope, the Papists, and the Jesuits. They were then cruelly beaten with sticks, and at length, pierced with bullets, gained the glorious palm of martyrdom. Father Bath spent more than ten years in the Society.

Belgicae Province of the Society of Jesus

Irish Mission of the Society of Jesus, 1542-1773 (1542-1773)

IE IJA J/910

Irish Jesuit Archives

IE IJA