Dermot O'Hurley
Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cashel
Feast: 20 June (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Dermot O'Hurley was born in 1530 in the district of Emly, County Tipperary, to a well-off family. He studied at Louvain, became a doctor of both laws and dean of its law faculty. A layman and lawyer, he was made Archbishop of Cashel at the wish of Pope Gregory XIII.
Under Elizabeth I he was interrogated and tortured for months, but firmly rejected every charge. Condemned for high treason without a proper trial on 19 June 1584, he declared on the scaffold at Hoggen Green that he was ready to die for the Catholic faith and his office as bishop.
The miracles
Beatified as a martyr with sixteen other victims of the same persecution in Ireland, without a miracle.
Why that counted as sanctity
A lawyer made archbishop who went to the scaffold rather than deny the Catholic faith.
The cause
The cause continues. No postulation address is published here yet. Favours received through this person’s intercession, and offers of help, are best sent to the religious order or congregation they belonged to, or to the diocese where the cause was opened; either will pass them to the postulation.
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - biography: Dermot O'Hurley
- Wikidata Q5262837 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Dermot O'Hurley (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.