On Sunday 31st August 2025, during a Memorial Mass for the four Columban Missionaries martyred 80 years ago in Manila, Philippines, Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh and Dromore delivered the following homily in St Patrick’s Church, Banbridge, Co Down.
Brothers and sisters, when our late Holy Father, Pope Francis, was announcing the Jubilee Year of Hope for 2025, he said that the most convincing testimony to Christian Hope is provided by the martyrs.
He explained that “(the martyrs were) steadfast in their faith in the risen Christ, (the martyrs) renounced life itself here below, rather than betray their Lord”. That is why, he added, “we need to treasure their testimony, in order to confirm our hope and allow it to bear good fruit”.
Our gathering here today is to “treasure the testimony” of Fr Joe Monaghan sscc, baptised in 1907 here in St Patrick’s Church, Banbridge, who served and died as a martyr, 80 years ago. Fr Monaghan gave his life for Christ in Malate, Philippines, as a Columban missionary priest, alongside Frs Patrick Kelly from Tullamore, John Henaghan from Louisburgh, Co Mayo, John Lalor from Cork, and Peter Fallon from Galway.
They died with thousands of their parishioners and other Malate residents – as innocent victims of the massacre in Manila between the Japanese Imperial Forces and US forces in February 1945.
Thanks to Fr McMahon for speaking to us earlier about Father Monaghan’s life. Sometimes we think of saints and martyrs as people who lived centuries ago in faraway places. But Fr Joseph Monaghan, one of our own, was similarly a powerful witness to faith, and he grew up here, in Scarva Street Banbridge; he went to our parish school and on to St Colman’s College, in Newry.
He was one of the “souls of the virtuous” we read about in the Book of Wisdom at Mass today, who: “If they experienced punishment as men see it, their hope was rich with immortality; slight was their affliction, great will their blessings be.”
Dear brothers and sisters, this Jubilee Year has been providing us with so many examples of how to live our lives as pilgrims of hope in this troubled world. Fr Monaghan and his priestly companions tried to spread light into the darkness and evil of wartime. From their parish centre they organised humanitarian help for prisoners and those who are suffering, collecting what food medicines and clothing they could find in order to bring the love and compassion of Christ to those who needed it most.
The example of saints and martyrs like them calls us to change our lives, to deepen our love for our crucified and risen saviour. Fr Monaghan and his friends act as witnesses for us to be able to better hear God’s call to holiness that’s springs from our baptism; to accept the challenges of taking up whatever daily crosses and sacrifices come our way; to reach out as they did to the suffering, the poor and the marginalised, and to do want we can to transform our own lives, and our world, with peace and reconciliation.
The Columban martyrs of Malate exercised their baptismal calling and priestly vocation at great risk and danger to their own lives. They made sacrifices for Christ. I remember Pope Benedict XVI once asked (General Audience in August 2010) the question: “On what is martyrdom founded?”…
“The answer”, he said, “is simple: on the death of Jesus, on His supreme sacrifice of love, consummated on the Cross, that we might have life (cf. Jn 10:10).”
And, he added: “where does the strength to face martyrdom come from?” His answer: “From deep and intimate union with Christ, because martyrdom, and the vocation to martyrdom, are not the result of human effort but the response to (a project and) a call of God, they are a gift of his grace that enables a person, out of love, to give his (or her) life for Christ and for the Church, hence for the world.”
Jesus himself said in today’s Gospel reading: ‘If anyone declares himself for me in the presence of men, I will declare myself for him in the presence of my Father in heaven”.
And the same point was made in our second reading from the letter to the Hebrews: “Remember all the sufferings that you had to meet after you received the light…(of Christ) …sometimes by being yourselves publicly exposed to insults and violence … you happily accepted being stripped of your belongings, knowing that you owned something that was better and lasting. Be as confident now, then, since the reward is so great”.
Fr Joe Monaghan was completely aware of this. He was calm and courageous in accepting suffering and death, because he placed his hope and trust in the Lord. He had no hesitation in taking up his own cross every day and freely following Christ along the path of total love of God, and of neighbour.
He was prepared to accept the supreme test of his love and faith and hope – accepting death – following his Lord to the very end. No doubt he often prayed those words in today’s psalm: ‘Lord, Be a rock of refuge for me, a mighty stronghold to save me”.
We have gathered here today not just to remember our a faithful and courageous missionary, but also to renew our own faith commitment – so that we, in our turn can let the light of Christ shine through us in the darkness of today and be a sign of hope for those in need.
Back in 1997, a Pieta memorial, was erected in Malate in memory of those who were killed there during the massacre of the Second World War. It is a sculpture of our Blessed Mother Mary (Nuestra Señora de los Remedios; Our Lady of Healing), holding the crucified body of Jesus. It commemorates the parents, grandparents, children, babies – born and unborn – as well as religious sisters, and the five Columban priests, including our own Father Joe Monaghan, who stayed with them and died with them. As the Book of Wisdom says:
“God has put them to the test
and proved them worthy to be with him;
…. those who are faithful will live with him in love; for grace and mercy await those he has chosen.” Amen
(With thanks to the Catholic Communications Office and Archbishop Eamon Martin.)