Jesuit Memorial of Blessed Dominic Collins, Religious and Martyr
“The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.” (Romans 8:16-17)
Blessed Dominic was born in Ireland in 1566 as Anglicanism was beginning to be imposed there along with English rule. Leaving Ireland to find employment, he served as a soldier in France. After military successes in France, Dominic moved to Northern Spain where he left his life as a soldier behind to enter the Jesuits as a brother at the age of 32. Leaving behind any hopes of reward or worldly success in this life, he instead devoted himself to humble service of his fellow Jesuits when they were suffering from the plague. Blessed Dominic was then sent as a chaplain to Irish soldiers who were allied with Spanish forces to reestablish Irish rule. Accompanying the Irish soldiers through their defeat, tending to the wounded, he was captured and tortured. When he refused to deny his Catholic Faith, he was sentenced to death in the very town of his birth. Wearing the noose which would end his life, reports say that he climbed up to the gallows with such peace and cheerfulness that an English soldier asked, “what kind of man is this who goes to his death as eagerly as I would go to a banquet?” Blessed Dominic turned to him and said, “For this cause I would most willingly suffer not just one but a thousand deaths.” He was then martyred on 31 October 1602 at the age of 36.
Blessed Dominic Collins knew that his reward was not to be found in this world. Rather, he gave up earthly ambitions to serve the sick, to counsel those seeking to live freely in their own land, to tend to those who were wounded, and to bear the ultimate witness to Christ’s love for us and to the Catholic Faith he had received. May we too seek to be joint heirs with Christ, laboring to serve as Our Lord served, not scorning the suffering that may face us, so that we may share in the glory of the Resurrection.