+ Saint JOHN ALMOND, priest, 1612

BLOOD FOR BLOOD

ON the scaffold he flung some seven or eight pounds in silver, with his beads, his points, and his discipline, for those to get them who would, and gave to the hangman an angel, not to spare him, but to treat him as he should. He had come hither, he said, to shed his bloöd for his Saviour’s sake, who had shed His blood for his sins. In which respect he wished that every drop that he would shed might be a thousand ; that he might have St. Lawrence’s gridiron to be broiled on, St. Peter’s cross to be hanged on, St. Stephen’s stones to be stoned with, to be ript, ript, ript, and ript again. Then, being in his shirt, he kneeled down, and often repeating “In manus tuas, Domine, &c.”—“Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit ”—he waited tili the hangman was ready without any sign of fear; but, ever smiling, he protested he died chaste, but not through his own ability or worthiness, but by Christ’s special grace, and that he ever hated those carnal sins, for which the Catholic religion had been slandered. At last, the cart was drawn away, and with the words “ Jesu, Jesu,” his soul flewto Him for whom he Shed his blood, Tyburn, December 5, 1612.

“Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people by His own blood, suffered without the Gate.”— HEB. xiii 12