Martin Glynn (priest)

Martin Glynn (10 November 1729 – 20 July 1794) was the last Rector of the Irish College in Bordeaux and became one of the Irish Catholic Martyrs for continuing his priestly ministry in nonviolent resistance to the religious persecution of the Catholic Church in France during the Reign of Terror.

Life
Glynn was born in the Diocese of Tuam, his native place given as "Boffin" (probably Inishbofin in Connemara) and his parents as Denis Glynn and Honora Hosty. He was educated for the priesthood at the Irish seminary and Jesuit college of Bordeaux. In 1753 he received the degree of master of arts (from the University of Bordeaux) and was in 1775 appointed superior of the Irish college in the city. In 1780 Dr. Glynn covertly traveled around Ireland and Britain fundraising for the College.

Martyrdom
Following the French Revolution, the college was sacked by a Jacobin mob and confiscated by the First French Republic. The seminarians returned to Ireland, but Glynn remained in Bourdeaux and, in nonviolent resistance to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, secretly continued his priestly ministry without taking an oath renouncing all allegiance to the Pope. In July 1794 he was arrested while offering Mass inside a private house and given a perfunctory trial. The judgment was " as Glynn, the non-conforming priest, has tried to escape the law of deportation, and must be ranked as an aristocrat and enemy of the Revolution, it is ordered that the death sentence be carried out in his case."

He was guillotined at Bordeaux on 20 July 1794.