The Smack of the Rosary was an Amazing Grace

Father John Ogilvie was condemned as a traitor, but during a long imprisonment no tortures could force him to name any Catholics. Under probing examinations, his patience, courage and gaiety won the admiration of his very judges. He was hanged on March 10, 1615 after renewing his fidelity to the King in the temporal field and declaring that he would die for his fidelity to the Pope. Suddenly, he took his rosary and threw it into the crowd. His rosary smacked a Hungarian Calvinist, who was passing through Glasgow, right in the middle of his chest. He was the notable Johann von Echesdoff who converted to Catholicism following this incident. The smack of the rosary was an amazing grace. The customary beheading and quartering were omitted in John’s case owing to undisguised popular sympathy, and his body was hurriedly buried in the churchyard of Glasgow cathedral. John Ogilivie was declared venerable in the seventeenth century and canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1976. Adapted from the Account of Imprisonment and Martyrdom of Fr. John Ogilvie, (Douai, 1615; London, 1877); Forbed-Leith, Narratives of Scottish Catholics (Edinburgh, 1885).