English - Scottish - Welsh - Irish Martyrs

+ Saint CUTHBERT MAYNE, Priest, 15 77

2007-11-29T05:29:00.000-08:00

FIRST FRUITS

Biography

WHEN Protestant chaplain at St. John's College, Oxford, he was nearly arrested on account of an intercepted letter from Douay urging him to go there. After an interval of three years he arrived there in 1573, and in 1576 was welcomed as a priest in Mr. Tregian's house in Cornwall, where he passed as his steward. On June 8, 1577, High Sheriff Greville surrounded the house with some hundred men, and in seizing the martyr struck his hand against something hard, and asked him if he wore a coat of mail. On tearing open his clothes an Agnus Dei was discovered hanging from his neck in a case of silver and crystal. In his indictment the fourth article charged him with having brought into the Kingdom a vain and superstitious thing called an Agnus Dei, blessed, as they say, by the Bishop of Rome, and having delivered the same to Mr. Francis Tregian. There was no proof in support of any of the charges against him, but he was nevertheless sentenced to death. After five months' imprisonment amongst the lowest criminals, he suffered at Launceston, November 29, 1577. On the eve of his execution a bright light filled his cell, as a harbinger of the Proto-martyr of Douay on receiving his crown.

"The first fruits to God and the Lamb."— Apoc. xiv. 4.

Shrine in Lauceston

Blessed James Thomson, Priest, 1582

2007-11-28T09:22:00.000-08:00

THE MARTYRS' SHRINES

BORN in or near York, he was a devout Catholic, and was deprived of a pension which he had, owing to his fidelity to the old religion. With the desire of consecrating his life to God he went over to Rheims in the summer of 1580, but fell so ill that his life was despaired of. He, however, begged Dr. Allen to allow him to be ordained without delay, as he believed God intended to empfoy him on the English Mission. A dispensation was therefore obtained from Rome, and he received all the Sacred Orders within twelve days, in May 1581, though he was so ill that he could scarcely stand. He regained sufficient strength to proceed to England, but was arrested in the city of York, August 11, 1582, after scarcely a year's apostolate. He confessed that he was a priest, and refused the oath of Supremacy or to fight against the Pope. He was led to the Castle prison in double irons on November 25, was tried and condemned, and on November 28 suffered at York Tyburn. In her visits to his grave and that of the other martyrs under the gallows, Margaret Clitheroe found strength for her own passion.

"And she rendered to the just the wages of their labours and conducted them in a wonderful way, and was to them" for a covert by day and for the light of the stars by night."— WISDOM x. 17.

Venerable George Errington, Layman and Companions, 1596

2007-11-27T09:35:00.000-08:00

IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING

GEORGE ERRINGTON, Gentleman, William Knight and William Gibson, Yeomen, were in prison at York Castle for recusancy. Confined there also, for some misdemeanour, was a Protestant minister, who, to reinstate himself in the favour of his superiors, took the following treacherous course. He professed to the Catholic prisoners his sincere repentance for his previous life, and his desire of embracing the Catholic faith. They believed him sincere, and directed him when he was set free to Mr. Abbott, a zealous convert, who endeavoured to procure a priest to reconcile him, and took him to Squire Stapelton's house for this purpose, but in vain. The minister, having now evidence enough to bring them within the law, accused them to the magistrate, and thus displayed his zeal for the Protestant religion. They were all arraigned for high treason in persuading the minister to be reconciled to the Church of Rome. At the bar they confessed "that they had, according to their capacity, explained to the traitor the Catholic faith, but had used no other persuasion." Upon this they were found guilty, and suffered with joy, November 29.

"Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing,, but inwardly ' they are ravening wolves."—MATT. vii. 15. 344

Coughton Court, Warwickshire

2007-11-06T01:59:00.000-08:00

"In the cold early hours of November 6th, 1605 Thomas Bates, servant to Robert Catesby, rode over the moat bridge of Coughton Court and climbed the stairs to the Drawing Room on the first floor of the Gatehouse, with its wide view of the surrounding countryside.

The group of people he found there were all closely involved in the then illegal Catholic community and were all used to danger and the fear of discovery. But what they were about to hear meant peril beyond anything they had experienced, and was to change their lives forever.

There were two Jesuit priests - Father Henry Garnet, who had celebrated a clandestine mass for the Feast of All Saints in the house just a few days before, and Father Oswald Tesimond, the confessor to Robert Catesby. There was the family of Sir Everard Digby who had rented the house, Nicholas Owen, the famous priest-hide builder, and finally the Vaux sisters who aided Father Garnet, and who were related to the Throckmorton owners of the house, to Bates' master Robert Catesby, and to several of the men they were about to hear of.

Thomas Bates did not have good news. He had to tell those gathered there of the details of the Gunpowder Plot, the plan to blow up the Houses of Parliament, of its failure, and that the conspirators included Robert Catesby, Sir Everard Digby, and the Wintour brothers among others, were now all running for their lives.

Lady Digby was overcome with distress at the danger her young husband found himself in, while Father Garnet was angered at such an action that he had warned against in principle, and in failure could only mean extreme hardship for the already beleaguered Catholic community.

+ Venerable EDWARD WATERSON, Priest, 1593

2007-01-07T10:08:00.000-08:00

BALAAM'S ASS

Biography

HE was born in London and brought up in the Protestant religion. In company with certain merchants he traveled to Turkey to see the East, and there a rich Turk, taking a fancy to him, offered him his daughter in marriage if he would renounce Christianity. Waterson, however, refused the proposal with horror, and taking Rome on his way homewards was instructed and reconciled to the Church. He was then admitted as a student at Rheims, and though he had but little learning, his zeal mastered all difficulties, and he was ordained priest in Mid-Lent 1592 and sent to England. Shortly after his arrival he was apprehended and condemned on account of his priesthood. Catholic eye-witnesses relate that, as he was being drawn to his execution, the hurdle suddenly stood still, and the officers in vain flogged the horses to move it. Fresh animals were secured, but they broke the traces, and the hurdle remained fixed. Waterson had therefore to be led on foot to the gallows; there the ladder shook violently of itself till the martyr by the sign of the Cross made it still, and ascending won his crown.

" And when the ass saw the angel standing she fell under the feet of the rider, who, being angry, beat her sides more vehemently with a staff."—NUM. xxii. 27.

Father JOHN GENINGS, O.S.F., died 1660

2007-01-06T09:59:00.000-08:00

THE PRODIGAL'S RETURN

THE news of his brother's martyrdom in December 1591 caused John Genings joy rather than sorrow, since he deemed it an escape from all Edmund's arguments and persuasions in favour of the Catholic religion, being himself strongly against the faith. But about ten days after his brother's execution, having spent all that day in sport and jollity, being weary with play, he returned home. There his heart felt heavy, and he began to weigh how idly he had passed the day. His brother's death came before him, and how he had abandoned all worldly pleasures, and for the sake of religion alone endured intolerable torments. Then the contrast of their two lives —the one mortified, fearing sin, the other spent in self-indulgence and in every kind of vice. Struck with remorse, he wept bitterly and besought God to show him the truth. In an instant joy filled his heart with a tender reverence for the Blessed Virgin and the Saints, of whom he had scarcely heard. He longed now to be of his brother's faith, and gloried in his eternal happiness. He left England secretly, was made priest at Douay, became a Franciscan, and the first Provincial of the renewed English Province.

" I will arise and go to my Father, and say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee."—LUKE XV. 8. 18

Abbot FECKENHAM, O.S.B.

2007-01-05T04:43:00.000-08:00

DEFILING THE SANCTUARIES (2)

Biography

SPEECH in the House of Lords : " My good Lords, when in Queen Mary's days your honour do know right well how the people of this realm did live in order and under law. There was no spoiling of Churches, pulling down of Altars, and most blasphemous treading down of The Sacrament under their feet, and hanging up the knave of clubs in the place thereof. There was no knocking or cutting of the face and legs of the Crucifix, and of the image of Christ. There was no open flesh-eating or shambles-keeping in the Lent and days prohibited. The subjects of this realm, and especially such as were of the honourable council in Queen Mary's days, knew the way to Church or Chapel, and to begin their daily work by calling for help and grace by humble prayer. But now since the coming of our most sovereign and dear lady Queen Elizabeth, by the only preachers and scaffold-players of this new religion all things are changed and turned upside down. Obedience is gone, humility and meekness clean abolished, virtuous, chaste, and straight living abandoned."

" Her priests have despised my law and have defiled my sanctuaries. Her princes in the midst of her are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood and destroy souls."—EZEK. xxii. 26, 27.

Blessed THOMAS PLUMTREE, Priest, 1572

2007-01-04T04:49:00.000-08:00

THE VOICE OF THE PREACHER

Biography

BORN in the Diocese of Lincoln, a scholar of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in 1546, he was made Rector of Stubton in his native county. He resigned his benefice on the change of religion under Elizabeth, and became a schoolmaster at Lincoln, but was obliged to resign the post on account of his faith. But it is as chief chaplain and priest of the army of the Northern Rising that he won the martyr's palm. His voice seems to have been like the Baptist's and to have stirred high and low alike. His call to abandon heresy and to rally to the standard of the faith ran through the northern counties, and hundreds came in response to his summons. He appears to have been celebrant of the Mass in Durham Cathedral immediately preceding F. Holmes' sermon and the public Absolution which followed. On his capture after the failure of the Rising, he was singled out as a notable example of the priests who had officiated. On the gibbet in the market-place at Durham he was offered his life if he would embrace heresy, but he refused, and dying to this world received eternal life from Christ. He suffered January 4 1572, and was buried in the market-place.

" Wherein I labour even unto bands, but the word of God is not bound."—2 TIM. ii. 9.

ABBOT FECKENHAM, O.S.B., 1585

2007-01-03T07:31:00.000-08:00

LIVING STONES (1)

JOHN HOWMAN was born at Feckenham in Worcestershire, and is known by the name of his birthplace. As a Benedictine monk he became chaplain to Bishop Bonner, and was imprisoned in the reign of Edward VI for his defence of the Faith. Under Mary he became Dean of St. Paul's, and, later, Abbot of the restored Abbey of Westminster. In spite of its late dissolution, he received the Queen on- St.Thomas' Eve, December 20, 1556, with twenty-eight other monks, all men of mature age, the youngest being upwards of forty, and all pious and learned. Some three years later, when he met Elizabeth for the opening of her first Parliament at the Abbey door, he in his pontifical robes and his monks in procession with their lighted candles, the Queen cried out, " Away with these lights ! We see very well." The Litany was sung in English, and Dr. Cox, a married priest and bitter heretic, preached against the Catholic religion and the monks, and urged the Queen to destroy them- The Abbot then knew that his fate was sealed. On July 12, 1559, Feckenham and his monks were ejected for refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy. He was imprisoned, and died at Wisbeach, 1585. His abbey was destroyed, but the stones live.

" Be ye also as living stones built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God-"—1 PETER ii. 5.

Squire William BLUNDELL, 1600

2007-01-02T08:13:00.000-08:00

PAST AND PRESENT (2)

THE time hath been men would live chaste, And so could maid that vows had past; The time is now that gift has gone, New gospellers such gifts have none.

Sweet Jesu, with thy mother mild, Sweet Virgin mother, with thy child ; Angels and Saints of each degree Redress our country's misery.

The time hath been that Saints could see, Could hear and help our misery ; The time is now that fiends alone Have leave to range—saints must be gone.

The time hath been fear made us quake To sin, lest God should us forsake ; The time is now the vilest knave Is sure (he'll say) God will him save.

The time hath been to fast and pray, And do alms deeds was thought the way ; The time is now, men say indeed, Such stuff with God hath little meed.

The time hath been, within this land, One's word as good as was his bond ; The time is now, all men may see, New faiths have killed old honesty

Squire William BLUNDELL, 1600

2007-01-01T06:33:00.000-08:00

PAST AND PRESENT (i)

Biography

THE time hath been we had one faith, And strode aright one ancient path ; The time is now that each man may See new Religions coin'd each day.

Sweet Jesu, with thy mother mild. Sweet Virgin mother, with thy child, Angels and Saints of each degree, Redress our country's misery.

The time hath been priests did accord In exposition of God's word; The time is now, like shipman's hose, It's turn'd by each fond preacher's glose.

The time hath been that sheep obeyed Their pastors, doing as they said ; The time is now that sheep will preach, And th' ancient pastors seem to teach.

The time hath been the prelate's door Was seldom shut against the poor; The time is now, so wives go fine, They take not thought the beggar kine.

The time hath been men did believe God's sacraments his grace did give ; The time is now men say they are Uncertain signs and tokens bare.

Crosby Hall, Lancashire, home of William Blundell

Saint RALPH SHERWIN, Priest, 1581

2006-12-08T14:01:00.000-08:00

THE SLEEP OF THE JUST

A NATIVE of Rodesby, Derbyshire, as a fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, he was accounted as an acute philosopher and an excellent Greek and Hebrew scholar. But grace called him to yet higher distinction. He became a Catholic, entered the English College, Rome, (also here for more history) and returned a priest to England in August 1580. After some months' zealous work he was apprehended while preaching in Mr. Roscarrock's house, and imprisoned, first in the Marshalsea and then in the Tower. He was there nearly a year, and in divers conferences with ministers won the admiration of his audience. After his first racking he was set out in great snow, and Mr. Roscarrock was kept in a dark corner hard by to hear his pitiful groans. After his second racking he lay five days and nights without food and in silence. All this time he slept, as he thought, before our Saviour on the Cross, and on coming round found himself free from pain. Tortures unavailing, the Bishops of Canterbury and London offered him the second Bishopric in England if he would but go to St. Paul's Church. After B. Campion was executed, the hangman took hold of Sherwin with his hand all bloody to terrify him, but the martyr reverently kissed the martyr's blood, and then shed his own, December 1, 1581.

"When He shall give His beloved sleep."— Ps. cxxvi. 2.

Feast of Our Lady Vulnerata

2006-12-08T12:40:00.000-08:00

The image of Our Lady Vulnerata (the Wounded One), is venerated at the Royal English College of St. Alban in Valladolid, Spain. Originally a beautiful medieval image of Our Lady and the Christ Child, it was horribly mutilated in 1596 by the swords of English soldiers during the 16th century persecution of the Catholic Church. Many of the English martyrs prayed in reparation before this image before returning to their hidden ministry and death in England. Today, the image continues to be venerated with great love, pity and devotion in a spirit of spiritual reparation for all insults to the Mother of God and her Divine Son, and for the courage of missionary evangelization.

The Feast Day is on the Sunday after today's Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

Feast of the Immaculate Conception

2006-12-08T00:16:00.000-08:00

"She shall crush thy head" GEN iii. 15

Venerable JOHN ALMOND, Priest, 1612

2006-12-07T14:18:00.000-08:00

FAITH AND WORKS

Biography

AT the scaffold one of the preachers urged that the Catholic Church taught that good works justified faith. Almond answered that faith and good works justified together. The minister said that faith alone justified. He asked what faith an infant could have ere he had the use of reason ? The minister left that question and reason and talked of something else. On the scaffold, kneeling down, he humbly begged God's mercy, not doubting that, many as his sins were, Christ, by His death and the shedding of His blood, would remit and pardon, and that He would now accept his willingness to shed his blood for His greater glory. " What," said a minister, " can you match and compare Christ's bloodshedding with yours? Cannot Christ by Himself work your salvation?" "You mistake me," replied the martyr; "my sins, though venial, deserve Christ's wrath and punishment. It is His death alone, and the shedding of His blood alone, that is not only efficient but also sufficient to save us all. I have not much more to say, one hour overtaketh another, and though never so long at last cometh death, and yet not death, for death is the gate of life unto us, whereby we enter into life everlasting, and life is death to those who do not provide for death."

" Faith without works is death."—JAS. ii. 20.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CAUSE OF THE ENGLISH AND WELSH MARTYRS

2006-12-01T13:40:00.000-08:00

The Beginnings
The first official movement for the canonization of the 'great cloud of witnesses' (cf. Hebrews 12:1) who gave their lives in defence of the Catholic religion, from the time of the schism under Henry VIII (1534) until the end of the seventeenth century, began during the pontificate of Urban VIII (1623-44). In 1643, at the request of the English Benedictines in exile, the Pope appointed the Archbishop of Cambrai in northern France (in default of the existence of Catholic Bishops in England and Wales) to set up an official process to collect and examine the evidence for the cause, fact and constancy of martyrdom of all those who were known to have suffered for the faith up to that time. Unfortunately, all attempts to collect the evidence were thwarted by the English authorities and the task had to be postponed. All the time, however, the victims of the long drawn-out persecution continued to be regarded and venerated as true martyrs, abroad as well as in secret at home (cf. Bishop Challoner's Memoirs of Missionary Priests, first published 1741-42, most recent edition 1924). When England's Catholic Hierarchy was at last restored in 1850, work on the cause of the martyrs began in earnest. The devotion and knowledge of men like Fr John Morris, Dom Bede Camm, Fr John H. Pollen and others, led to successive petitions to the Holy See by the restored English and Welsh Hierarchy, in 1859, 1866 and 1874, requesting the authorization of a process that would lead to the beatification and canonization of the martyrs. The necessary permission was eventually given, and a process was held at Westminster in 1874, to investigate the causes of 353 servants of God, to which another eight were later added. On examination of the evidence by the Sacred Congregation of Rites in Rome, forty-three of these were almost immediately postponed on the ground that the proof of martyrdom was not sufficiently cogent, while the cause of the others was further investigated.

The 'Equipollents'
During the ensuing discussions in Rome (called the 'Apostolic Process') special attention was given to the frescoes painted in 1583 in the Venerable English College, Rome, which were patently inspired by the veneration contemporaneously paid to sixty-three martyrs who had suffered in England during the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I up to that time (1535-1583): a devotion which had endured through the centuries to the extent that such veneration was judged by Pope Leo XIII to constitute a legitimate and immemorial cult. In accord with the legislation established by Urban VIII, such a confirmation of cult was the equivalent of papal approval of the fact of martyrdom;1 it resulted in the beatification of sixty-three martyrs (fifty-four on 29 December 1886, and nine more on 13 May 1895) equipollently or per viam cultus.

Two of those equipollently beatified in 1886, John Fisher and Thomas More, were perhaps the best known of all the martyrs of the Reformation because of their consistent mention in the history of the time as men of special eminence: the one a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, the other Lord Chancellor of England. After the beatifications of 1929, a massive petition from the Catholic Church in England and Wales persuaded Pius XI to authorize an exhaustive examination into the fact and cause of their martyrdom; the outcome was the canonization of these two martyrs on 19 May 1935.

Beatification of 136 Martyrs (1929)
In the light of numerous publications and intensive historical work in the first two decades of the present century, the Sacred

Congregation of Rites authorized Cardinal Francis Bourne, then Archbishop of Westminster, to resume the Apostolic Process (begun in Rome in 1880) on 15 June 1923. The process took six years to complete; and although 234 martyrs were finally cleared for formal beatification by the Promoter of the Faith (popularly known as the Devil's Advocate), only 136 were beatified. That left 116 martyrs, whose causes, the Apostolic Letter declared needed further study 'in order that their martyrdom might be more clearly manifested.'

The Canonization of Forty Martyrs (1970)
(Cf. The Canonization of the Forty English and Welsh Martyrs: Commemoration presented by the Postulators of the Cause (127 pp., with photographs of the Canonization Ceremony, Office of the Vic Postulation, London, 1971).
The outbreak of the Second World War, and the many difficulties experienced in giving fresh impetus to the historical study of the lives of the great number of the Blessed Martyrs, and stimulating devotion to them, caused a hiatus in the normal progress from beatification to canonization. Eventually the Hierarchy decide to petition the Holy See for the reassumption of the cause of small group of martyrs, according to specific criteria: firstly, the extent and quality of the devotion to certain beati amongst the whole group; and secondly, their representative nature with regard to place of origin, state in life, and so on. In 1960, the Holy See agreed that this group, when it was eventually draw up, should form one cause. From the historical point of view, was judged necessary to present documentary proof of martyrdom of those equipollently beatified (the first eleven of the forty This proved to be a very sizeable task: a fact confirmed by the publication in 1968, by the Historical Section of the newly established Sacred Congregation for the Causes of Saints, of volume of more than four hundred pages.( Cause of the Canonization of the Blessed Martyrs John Houghton, etc Official Presentation of Documents on Martyrdom and Cult (xliii -379 pp. Vatican Polyglot Press, Rome, 1968).In addition to the historical research, the Holy See required proof of widespread devotion to the group of forty, and also the presentation of two authentic miraculous interventions through the martyrs' intercession. After preliminary enquiries into a great number of alleged cures, two cases were eventually selected on the advice of the medical panel of the Sacred Congregation. Special tribunals were set up in the dioceses where they took place, and the exhaustive examination of one of the cases proved positive: it was declared to be miraculous in the strict sense. By the gracious intervention of Pope Paul VI, further investigation into the second cure was dispensed with, and in May 1970 the Pope announced that the canonization of these martyrs would take place in St Peter's on Sunday, 25 October 1970.
……..
Extensive section removed on ecumenical aspects
(The reality of their sanctity and their intercession in the heavenly courts could not be affected by ecumenical considerations, despite the reservations of the British Council of Churches which were waived on 17 December 1969 with the statement which can be judged for itself that all Christians share in “the martyr tradition as one in which all have shared and which all may draw strength”. Subsequent decisions by the Anglican Church have rendered the passage entirely redundant)

The Resumption of the Cause of Beatification of eighty-five Venerable Martyrs
(Since the rescript of St Pius X (26 August 1913), the title 'Venerable applies only to those servants of God whose virtue has been declared heroic, but are not yet beatified. Formerly, the title was conferred soon as the cause was formally introduced in Rome (the opening of Apostolic Process). It still applies to those whose causes were thus introduced before 1913, but who have not yet been beatified.)

When the cause of the Forty Martyrs was resumed, the Hierarchy simultaneously decided that the directive of the Holy See concerning these martyrs whose causes of beatification were postponed in 1929 should be implemented. This was especially opportune, seeing that the resumption of the cause of the forty was accompanied by a renewed interest in the whole field 'recusant history'. The first task was to discover whether contemporaneous documentation on the fact of martyrdom of the 116 martyrs who were not beatified in 1929 was still extant. It soon became clear that there was little hope of establishing sufficient evidence of martyrdom for ten Venerable martyrs who had suffered during the reign of Henry VIII; and gradually, as the research went forward, others had to be eliminated, either for a similar lack of documentary evidence, or because it became impossible to disentangle the true motive of martyrdom from the political involvement of the individuals concerned.

The documents concerning the cause, fact and constancy of the martyrdom of the Venerable George Haydock and his eighty-three companion martyrs, which were declared authentic by Cardinal Hume, the present Archbishop of Westminster, on September 1978, were received by the Historical Section of the Sacred Congregation for the Causes of Saints at the beginning of October. Those on Venerable George Douglas were added later (see p. 44). More accurate versions of the pertinent documents already submitted in the processes of 1874 and 1923-29 were provided, and many new documents added; whilst all likely sources in public and private archives and libraries at home and abroad— especially in Rome, Brussels, Madrid, and Valladolid—have been searched, in order to render the documentation as complete as possible.

The documentation submitted deals substantially with the martyrs' arrest, examination, trial, sentence and execution; and though official trial records are extant only in relatively few cases, equivalents have been discovered and presented. These are mainly contemporary or early accounts of martyrdom, establishing the charge on which the various martyrs were condemned, and also frequently recording the sentiments with which they received their sentence, their edifying words and courageous bearing in the scaffold.

Seventy-five of them were condemned under the statute of Elizabeth I passed in 1585, 'against Jesuits, seminary priests and such other like disobedient persons.' According to this law, Catholic priests returning to England after ordination abroad committed high treason by their very presence on English soil, whilst those who assisted them in any way were guilty of felony: the sentence in the first case was death by hanging, drawing and quartering; in the second by hanging only.

Of the ten remaining martyrs, Haydock the priest and Carter the layman were hanged, drawn and quartered for allege committing high treason under the ancient statute of 1352 (Edward III). A priest and six laymen were condemned for being reconciled or persuading others to be reconciled to the ancient Faith: acts declared to be treasonable under the Elizabeth statute of 1581. Finally the layman, John Bretton, was arraingned for allegedly uttering 'seditious words and rumours against Queen's Majesty': a felony punished by hanging.

All these eighty-five men, priests and laity, were regarded from the time of their death onwards by their fellow Catholics at home and abroad as martyrs for the Faith.
…..
James Walsh, S.J.
Vice Postulator

Feast of St Edmund Campion and his fellow-martyrs, 1978

The Eight-Five were subsquently beatified on 22nd November 1987

Feast of All Martyrs of Oxford University

2006-12-01T02:32:00.000-08:00

There are about 70 beatified or canonised Catholic martyrs associated with Oxford. Five of these were killed in Oxford and their stories are presented below. Out of the seventy, 4 were born in Oxford. Many of the martyrs studied at various colleges in Oxford:
St John's (8)
Trinity (7)
Brasenose (6)
Gloucester Hall [now Worcester] (5)
New College (4)
Exeter (3)
Oriel (3)
Corpus Christi (3)
Lincoln (2)
Hart Hall [now Hertford] (2)
St Mary Hall [now Oriel] (2)
Queen's (2)
Broadgates Hall [now Pembroke] (2)
Magdalen (2)
Christ Church (2)
Jesus (1)
St Edmund (1)
Balliol (1)
and Canterbury Hall [now Christ Church] (1)

Eight others are known to have studied in Oxford, but the exact colleges are unknown.

1. Bl Thomas Belson, layman; hanged 5 July 1589
The younger son of a well-known Catholic landowner of Buckinghamshire, Augustine Belson. Born in 1565 at Brill. His recusant father, when summoned to answer for his non-attendance at Anglican services, pleaded that he had no property to pay for fines although in the previous ten years he had defrayed the cost of sending Thomas to Exeter College, Oxford and Douai College, Rheims, to complete his education. Thomas returned to England in 1584. By June 1585 he was imprisoned in the Tower of London charged with 'conveying intelligence' for a Catholic priest, but he was released five months later on condition that he leave the country. Some time before 1589 Belson returned to Oxford, joining Fr George Nichols.

2. Bl George Nichols, Seminary priest; hanged, drawn and quartered 5 July 1589
A graduate of Brasenose College (1573), Nichols then taught at St Paul's School, London. After contacts with some Catholics in London, he was received into the Church. He went overseas, and enrolled at Douai College in 1581. Because he was known to be a pious, learned man already over thirty, he was ordained to the priesthood in September 1583, less than six months after his ordination to the diaconate. He studied for a further year at Rheims before returning on a mission to Oxford. The number of Catholics in Oxford was increasing rapidly. When a notorious highwayman, Robert Harcourt, expressed penitence, Nichols went in disguise to the prison garden on the morning appointed for Harcourt's execution and received him into the Church.

3. Bl Humphrey Pritchard, layman; hanged 5 July 1589
Humphrey Pritchard was a Welsh serving man who, by 1589, had been for twelve years in the employ of a Catholic widow, the proprietor of the Catherine Wheel Inn on St Giles', Oxford. The date and place of his birth are unknown, as is the name of the brave woman he served.

4. Bl Richard Yaxley, Seminary priest; hanged, drawn and quartered 5 July 1589 Yaxley was born in 1560 at Boston, Lincolnshire. He was enrolled at Rheims as a student on 29 August 1582 and ordained there in 1586, shortly before returning to England. He made his way to Oxford, stopping briefly at Denham to visit his college friend Bl Robert Dibdale, who was chaplain to a Catholic family until his own martyrdom at Tyburn in 1586.

Capture and martyrdomAll four men were apprehended at the Catherine Wheel Inn on St Giles', in Oxford (directly opposite the altar dedicated to St Catherine of Alexandria in the north-east corner of St Mary Magdalen church), which is now part of Balliol College. Spies had reported it to be the headquarters of Catholic activity in Oxford. Their pursuers first searched a house at Stanton St John belonging to Henry Rooke, a known priest-harbourer. Finding nothing, they returned to Oxford and at midnight, battered on the door of the Inn on St Giles', demanding admittance. The servant Pritchard was arrested when he unbarred the door, so the innkeeper requested a few minutes to dress and used the time to warn Belson, Nichols and Yaxley.

As there was no way for them to leave without being seen, they faced the intruders and answered their questions without giving grounds for suspicion. Not satisfied, the spy insisted on a search, and vestments were found. It was assumed that at least one of them must be a priest, so all three were arrested. The mistress of the inn and her servant Pritchard were also placed under arrest. By that time, friends and neighbours had congregated and obstructed the searchers by destroying some of the evidence.

The next day the five captives were interrogated by Martin Heton, Vice-Chancellor of the University, with other officials, including Lillie, Master of Balliol College, and Willis, President of St John's College. Nichols and Yaxley refused to admit their priesthood, hoping to protect their lay helpers from a charge of harbouring. When this failed, Nichols admitted his priesthood to shield the younger priest Yaxley. The lay people were confined in Oxford Castle and the priests in the old Bocardo prison at the north gate, where they were visited by Anglican clergymen who sought to engage them in theological argument. They were later taken in irons to Christ Church where they were questioned about other Catholics. When all refused to answer, the woman was bailed and the men were sent bound to London.
Pritchard was badly injured when his horse threw him, but the escort merely laughed and forced him to ride on. People living along the route came to see 'the monsters' they had been told to expect, but were amazed by their gentleness. A Magdalen postgraduate, Ellis, was so impressed by the cheerful behaviour of the prisoners that he rode beside them all the way to London. For this, and to prevent him from reporting the escort's cruelty, he was declared insane and committed to a madhouse for the rest of his life, even though many people confirmed that he was in his right mind.

Accused of being a traitor by the Privy Council, Nichols responded, 'I am here to teach the law of God, not to seduce people from their allegiance to the Queen.' He admitted his priesthood before the Council; Yaxley and Belson said only that they were gentlemen. The priests were then tortured in the Bridewell, being suspended from their hands for fifteen hours. During that time, they were identified as priests by two apostate priests.

To terrify Catholics and their sympathisers, the Council decided that the four men should be tried and executed in Oxford. They were transferred there by Sir Francis Knollys. On his arrival, Knollys summoned the innkeeper of the St Catherine's Wheel to answer her bail. She asked to be tried with the men, but he refused. Instead he confiscated all her property and sent her to prison for life. A carefully selected jury of convinced Protestants found the accused men guilty of treason. A scaffold was erected in the Town Ditch, where Broad Street now runs. On 5 July, Belson and Pritchard walked to it, but the two priests were dragged through the crowded streets tied to horse-drawn hurdles.

Fr Nichols was the first to be hanged, and was not allowed to speak. Silently he made the sign of the cross, mounted the ladder, raising the rope to his lips at each step and blessing it. Fr Yaxley, whose youth, good looks and noble bearing deeply moved the onlookers, did the same, kissed his friend's corpse and asked for his prayers. Belson followed, and lovingly clasped the two bodies before the ladder was taken away from under him.

Finally Pritchard mounted the scaffold and addressed the crowd, 'I beg all the people here present to bear witness, in this world and on the Day of Judgement, that I die because I am a Catholic, that is, a faithful Christian of Holy Church'. An Anglican minister exclaimed, 'Poor wretch, you say you die a Catholic, though in your ignorance you do not know what a Catholic means.' Pritchard replied, 'Though I may not be able to tell you in words what it means to be a Catholic, God knows my heart, and he knows that I believe all that the Holy Roman Church believes, and that which I am unable to explain in words I am here to explain and attest with my blood.'

When all four were dead, the priests' limbs were hacked off and exposed on the castle walls, where they were further mutilated with knives before being fixed to the town gates.

5. Bl George Napper, Seminary priest; hanged, drawn and quartered 9 November, 1610 Napper (or Napier) was born at Holywell Manor (now an annexe of Balliol College), Oxford in 1550, to Edward Napper (a Fellow of All Souls' College) and Anne Peto, the niece of William, Cardinal Peto. He entered Corpus Christi College in 1566, but was ejected in 1568 as a Catholic recusant. He visited Douai College eleven years later, but by December 1580 he had been arrested and imprisoned at Wood Street Counter, London. He was released in June 1589 when he acknowledged the Royal Supremacy. Napper entered Douai College in 1596, was ordained, and sent on a mission in 1603. On his return he lived for a time with his brother William at Holywell.
Early on the morning of 19 July 1610, he was arrested at Kirtlington, and a small reliquary and a pyx containing two unconsecrated altar breads were found on him. Napper was brought before Sir Francis Eure at Upper Heyford and searched thoroughly, and this further yielded a breviary, holy oils and a needle case. The possession of oils was held to be conclusive of his priesthood and he was condemned, but reprieved. Held at Oxford Castle, he reconciled a fellow prisoner named Falkner, and this was held to aggravate his crime. As he refused the Oath of Allegiance, he was condemned to death.

On 9 November, he celebrated Mass in the morning, and between one and two in the afternoon, he was hanged, drawn and quartered. His head was placed on the Tom Gateway at Christ Church, and his quarters on the four city gates. Some of the remains were removed secretly by his brother and buried in the chapel (later the barn) of Sanford Manor.

Some of the other martyrs associated with Oxford are:

Bl John Forest, priest, Franciscan o{ Greet avich Observant Friary. Studied at Greyfriars, Oxford.
Confessor to Queen Catherine of Aragon. Burned to death at Smithfield, London, 22 May 1538.

Bl Adrian Fortescue, layman, lay Dominica::. From Stonor Park, Oxford. Condemned by Bill of Attainder, untried. Beheaded at Tower Hill, London, 9 July 1539.
St Edmund Campion, priest, Jesuit. Born in London. Educated at Bluecoat School; scholar and fellow of St John's College, Oxford. After conversion, studied at Douai. Admitted to Society of Jesus at Rome in 1573. Ordained priest at Prague, 1578. Worked on the English mission June 1580-August 1581. Condemned for the fictitious plot at Rome, Rheims and elsewhere. Hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, London, I December 1581.

Bl Thomas Pilcher, seminary priest. Born at Battle, Sussex. Studied at Balliol College. Converted, and studied at Rheims. Ordained priest at Laon m 1583. Worked on the mission in Hampshire and Dorset, 1583. Condemned for priesthood. Han/ed, drawn and quartered (aged 30) at Dorchester, 21 March 1587. No executioner could be found, so a butcher was persuaded to disembowel him, but stopped halfway, alarmed. The martyr (still conscious) asked gently, 'Is this your justice?'

Bl Stephen Rowsham (alias Rouse), seminary priest. Born in Oxfordshire. Studied at Oriel College, Oxford. Vicar of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford. L.onverted, and studied at Rheims. Ordained priest in 1582 at Soissons. Imprisoned soon after his return to England and banished; returned, and arrested again. Condemned for priesthood. Hanged, draw., and quartered at Gloucester, March 1587.

Bl Robert Sutton, seminary priest. Born at Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire. Educated at Burton Grammar School and Christ Church College. Anglican minister of Lutterworth, Leicestershire. Apologised to his parishioners for having misled them for over five years, and declared his intention of becoming a Catholic. Converted, and studied at Douai and was ordained there in 1578. Worked on the mission in Staffordshire for nine years. Condemned for priesthood. Hanged, drawn and quartered at Stafford, 27 July 1588.

Bl William Davies, seminary priest. Born at Croes-yn-Eirias, Denbighshire. Studied at St Edmund Hall and Rheims, where he was ordained priest in 1585. Worked on the mission in North Wales. Condemned for priesthood. Compelled to attend Evensong during which he recited Vespers loudly and protested to the crowd that he 'would rather die than take part in an heretical service.' Hanged, drawn and quartered at Beaumaris, Anglesey, 27 July 1593.

Bl John Sugar {alias Cox), seminary priest. Born at Wombourne, near Wolverhampton, Staffordshire. Educated at St Mary Hall, Oxford. Left without taking the degree, not wishing to take the Oath of Supremacy. Convert Anglican minister of Cannock. Studied at Douai, where he was ordained priest in 1601. Worked on the mission in Warwickshire, Staffordshire and Worcestershire. Condemned for priesthood. Hanged, drawn and quartered at Warwick, 16 July 1604. On the scaffold, he reminded an attendant Anglican minister that the Catholic Faith was ancient but 'the new religion crept into the country in the time of Henry VIII'.

Feast of the Douai Martyrs

2006-10-29T14:21:00.000-08:00

Our Lady of Prinknash

2006-10-20T04:28:00.000-07:00

a statue which belonged to St Thomas More was stolen this day in 2002. It has not been returned. Please pray for its return.

+ Venerable PHILIP HOWARD, Layman, 1595

2006-10-19T02:24:00.000-07:00

FROM PRISON TO PARADISE

Biography

AFTER his condemnation he rose at 5 A.M., and spent four or five hours every morning and three or four in the afternoon in prayer, so that his knees grew very hard and black. He fasted thrice a week, and on the Vigils of the great Feasts he had neither meat nor drink. In his spare time, besides a little physical exercise, he used his remarkable intellectual gifts in translating spiritual works. To the poor he gave much of his scanty allowance, and he intended, if ever it were possible, to restore all Church lands in his possession, to make his two houses monasteries, and himself to enter religion. Through his rigid confinement his body wasted while his soul waxed strong, till one day, at dinner, he was seized with a dysentery, which consumed him to skin and bone. The Queen refused his petition for a priest or for his wife and children to visit him, though this latter she had promised, but she sent word that, if he would go to church once, all would be granted, his honour and estates restored, and the fulness of her favour. He refused her offer, and after eleven years' imprisonment gave back his soul to God. He inscribed on his cell, " The more of suffering for Christ in this life, the more of glory with Christ in the next."

" The sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come."—ROM. viii. 18.

Cardinal WILLIAM ALLEN, 1594

2006-10-18T02:02:00.000-07:00

APOSTATE LAND

Biography

IN his defence of the Seminary Priests he wrote thus: " First and foremost for the clergy, it is wholly distrained and destroyed, as the world knoweth. The Chief Prelates, Bishops, and others, all spoiled of their dignities and livelihoods, thrust into prisons, forced into banishment, till by manifold and long miseries they be almost all wasted and worn away. These, then, so many, so notable, and so worthy, for whom God, nature, and their place of birth do challenge a part of that so much prized prosperity, feel none of it; but for mere conscience and confession of the truth, which their holy predecessors laid and left with them jn deposition, have lost their terrene lot, and either are dead or have passed so many years in misery, as those other good fellows, their intruders, have lived in joy and felicity ; who, indeed, are ' filii hominum qui nubunt et nubuntur,' (contrast Matthew xii, 25) that is, certain fleshly companions, unordered apostates, and contemptible ministers, who entering into the right and room of others, provided not for them, do think all fair weather in England, and have good cause to like the luck of these late years, which maketh true men mourners, while these thieves be merry."

"They have changed my delightful portion into a desolate wilderness. They have laid it waste, and it hath mourned for me."—
JER. xii. 10, 11.

Cardinal ALLEN, 1594

2006-10-17T15:24:00.000-07:00

ON ATTENDANCE AT PROTESTANT SERVICES

" NEVER teach nor defend the lawfulness of communicating with the Protestants in their prayers, or services, or conventicles where they meet to minister their untrue sacraments ; for this is contrary to the practice of the Church and the holy fathers of all ages, who never communicated nor allowed in any Catholic person to pray together with Arians, Donatists, or what other soever. Neither is it a positive law of the Church, and therefore dispensable on occasions, but it is forbidden by God's Eternal Law, as by many evident arguments I could convince, and it hath been largely proved in sundry treatises in our own tongue, and we have practised it from the beginning of our miseries. And lest any of my brethren should distrust my judgment, or be not satisfied by the proofs adduced, or myself be beguiled therein in my own conceit, I have not only taken the opinion of learned divines here, but, to make sure, I have asked the judgment of His Holiness (Clement VIII) thereon. And he expressly said that participation in prayers with Protestants, or going to their services was neither lawful nor dispensable."

" And their speech spreadeth like a canker. Let every one depart from iniquity who nameth the Name of the Lord."—2 TIM. ii. 17, 20.

Venerable THOMAS BULLAKER, OSF, 1642

2006-10-13T14:49:00.000-07:00

THE LAST GLORIA

Biography

"IN the year 1642," he writes, "on September 11, which fell on a Sunday, it pleased the Most High and Mighty God to put an end to my sufferings, and give me, His most unworthy servant, the consolation and hope that what I have so long desired and prayed for would shortly come to pass. Blessed be His Holy Name for all eternity. After having finished the Divine office on the morning of this Day, in order that I might better offer the unbloody Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, I recollected myself as was fitting and as best I could, and 1 prayed His Divine Majesty of His Infinite Goodness to grant me for love of Him to exchange life, and, knowing my own unworthiness, of His overflowing and Infinite Goodness to make up for my poverty. After having prayed thus with the greatest fervour that God granted me, I rose, and having washed my hands and said the Litany of the Blessed Virgin as usual, I began the Mass. But lo, as I was intoning the 'Gloria in Excelsis,' the apostate pursuivant Wadsworth came into the room, laid hands on me at the Altar, and took me to the Sheriff."

"Father, glorify Thy Name. A voice came from Heaven, I have glorified it and will glorify it again."—JOHN xii. 28.

Gloria in excelsis deo,
et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis
Laudamus te.
Benedicimus te.
Adoramus te.
Glorificamus te.
Gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam.
Domine Deus, Rex caelestis, Deus Pater omnipotens.
Domine fili unigenite, Jesu Christe.
Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Filius patris.
Qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Qui tollis peccata mundi suscipe deprecationem nostram.
Qui sedes ad dexteram patris miserere nobis.
Quoniam tu solus sanctus.
Tu solus Dominus.
Tu solus Altissimus, Jesu Christe.
Cum Sancto Spiritu in gloria Dei Patris. Amen.

Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to people of good will.
We praise you.
We bless you.
We adore you.
We glorify you.
We give thanks to you for your great glory.
Lord God, Heavenly King, God Almighty Father.
Lord Only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father.
You who take away the sins of the world have mercy on us.
You who take away the sins of the world hear our prayer.
You who sit at the Father's right hand, have mercy on us.
For you alone are holy.
You alone, Lord.
You alone the Most High, Jesus Christ.
With the Holy Spirit in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

Anniversary of the Canonization of St OLIVER PLUNKETT

2006-10-12T14:45:00.000-07:00

Canonization of Oliver Plunket

Biography

Dia's muire Dhíbh, a chlann Phádraig! Céad mile fáilte rómhaibh! Tá Naomh nua againn inniu: Comharba Phádraig, Olibhéar Naofa Ploinéad. (God and Mary be with you, family of Saint Patrick! A hundred thousand welcomes! We have a new Saint today: the successor of Saint Patrick, Saint Oliver Plunket). Today, Venerable Brothers and dear sons and daughters, the Church celebrates the highest expression of love-the supreme measure of Christian and pastoral charity. Today, the Church rejoices with a great joy, because the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, is reflected and manifested in a new Saint. And this new Saint is Oliver Plunket, Bishop and Martyr-Oliver Plunket, successor of Saint Patrick in the See of Armagh-Oliver Plunkett , glory of Ireland and Saint, today and for ever, of the Church of God, Oliver Plunket is for all-for the entire world-an authentic and outstanding example of the love of Christ. And on our part we bow down today to venerate his sacred relics, just as on former occasions we have personally knelt in prayer and admiration at this shrine in Drogheda.

+ Venerable THOMAS BULLAKER, OSF, 1642

2006-10-12T14:21:00.000-07:00

FIRE FROM HEAVEN

Biography

Son of a well-known Catholic physician at Chichester, he was sent to St. Omer's, and thence entered the Franciscan Order in Spain. He first offered himself for the Mission in the West Indies, but England being pointed out as a richer field for his labours, thither he went. On landing at Plymouth he was arrested and imprisoned, and his sufferings then endured affected his health for the remainder of his life. As nothing could be proved against him, he was discharged, and for eleven years laboured in the country. The heroic sufferings of Father Ward enkindled in him, however, a holy envy, and he obtained leave to remove to London. He chose that part of the city where he was most in peril, but his hope for martyrdom was constantly deferred. Pursuivants came to his house, but would not take him, though he declared himself a priest. The next day they returned, and, though his Breviary was on the table, they left without arresting him. Deeming himself unworthy of the crown, he redoubled his prayers and tears, and was arrested on Sunday, September 11, 1642, at the beginning of his Mass, and to his great joy was executed at Tyburn, October 12, 1642.

"I am come to cast fire on the earth, and what will I but that it be enkindled ?"—LUKE xii. 49 Ignem veni mittere in terram.

The motto over the High Altar of the English and Welsh College in Rome.

Venerable THOMAS BULLAKER, OSF, 1642

2006-10-11T14:34:00.000-07:00

THE IMAGE OF CHRIST

Biography

" IF you go on as you have begun, before many years," he said to the Sheriff, " the law will make it treason to believe in Jesus Christ. You must hate Him greatly since you cannot bear to behold the Statue and image which is a memorial of His Passion and our Redemption, and which the most praiseworthy piety of your forefathers erected at great cost." Hereupon those who stood around cried out," Where in the Scripture did Christ order an image of Himself to be made ?" Bullaker replied : " The precise words do not occur, yet the natural law, to which the Divine law is never opposed, approves of the practice. Reason teaches and experience proves that an injury done to a statue is done to Him whose person it represents. To make the thing clearer, if any one insulted, trampled underfoot, or broke to pieces the statue of the King, would you not say that he was guilty of treason ? And if it be so, ask yourselves, I entreat you, how much greater a crime it must be to injure and abuse the statue of Jesus Christ our Saviour, the King of kings, as you have lately done."

" Whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be made conformable to the image of His Son."—ROM. viii. 29.

Blessed RICHARD THIRKELD to Catholic prisoners

2006-10-10T14:29:00.000-07:00

also known as THIRKELL

OUR CAPTAIN CHRIST (2)

"IF the judges and commissioners have seized unjustly your goods, Christ your King will grant you to receive in this world a hundred-fold for every farthing you have lost, and in the world to come eternal life and bliss that shall never know an end. If wicked gaolers use force and cruelty, continually annoy and torment, frequently examine and persecute you, let not all these things cause you the least trouble of mind or make you remiss in the divine service. You will see that Christ will visit you the more quickly, that He will give you greater consolations day by day, and will make His throne in your hearts with the more frequency and the more pleasure. Therefore be of good cheer, beloved, clap with your hands, yea, let every member of your bodies exult with joy, in that you have a cause so noble, Christ for your Captain, the Holy Ghost for your Comforter, and for your advocates and defenders the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Angels, the Holy Apostles, the Martyrs, the Confessors, the Virgins, the blood of your fathers so freshly spilt which cries aloud to Heaven to obtain for you perseverance to the end."

"For it became Him who had brought many children into glory to perfect the Author of their salvation by His Passion."—HEB. ii. 10.

Blessed RICHARD THIRKELD to Catholic prisoners

2006-10-09T05:58:00.000-07:00

also known as THIRKELL

OUR CAPTAIN CHRIST (1)

Biography

"WHO has now cast you into prison, or who can do so without the permission of Divine Providence ? Whose cause is it that you have taken upon you to defend but that of Christ Himself? Whose soldiers are you but Christ's ? Whose is the Standard under which you serve Christ but the Holy Spirit? Who is the Captain of your warfare but Christ ? Who is it that will pay you the reward of veteran soldiers but Christ ? Who is it that will crown you as conquerors but Christ ? Who is it that will unite you to those holy men of God who have waged these battles before you but Christ? Who is it that will bring you to the glorious palms of the martyrs but Christ ? Who is He by whose help and blessing you hope to obtain for your possession the bliss of eternal glory, together with blessed Lacey, Kirkman, Thompson, and Hart, and your other fathers of happy memory, but Christ ? Be brave and faithful, then, and let no torments, crosses, or afflictions lead you to fail in courage. If the Lord Mayor should commit you to yet closer custody, Christ your Captain will grant you to roam far and wide in His royal palace of delights."

" But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour."—HEB. ii. 9.

+ Blessed RICHARD DIBDALE, Priest, 1586

2006-10-08T13:43:00.000-07:00

CASTING OUT DEVILS

Biography (also known as Robert)

BORN in Worcestershire, ordained at Rheims, he began his labours in the English Mission in 1584. He was specially renowned as an exorcist. At Sir George Peckham's, Denham, near Uxbridge, and other places, by the virtue and power which Christ has bequeathed to the ministers of His Church, the martyr showed his mastery over evil spirits. They were forced to leave the bodies of the possessed, and to bring from their mouths pieces of metal and other things which could never have entered a human body. In obedience to the prayers and exorcisms of the Church, they declared, to their own confusion, the virtue of the sign of the Cross, holy water, and relics, both of the ancient saints and of those suffering in England in those days for the Catholic faith. These manifestations were slighted indeed by some incredulous and hard-hearted heretics ; yet others who were not so biassed by passion, but more reasonable, were convinced by what they saw, and thereupon renounced their errors. Father Dibdale was condemned to die for his priestly character and functions, and accordingly was, together with BB. Lowe and Adams, driven to Tyburn, and there hanged, drawn, and quartered, October 8, 1586.

"He gave them power over unclean spirits to cast them out."—MATT. X. I.

Bishop EDMUND BONNER OF LONDON, 1569

2006-10-07T12:56:00.000-07:00

POVERTY PREFERRED

Biography

SUMMONED by the Council and requested to resign, with the assurance of a good pension if he would do so, he replied that he preferred death. "How then," they asked, "will you live?" "Nothing indeed remains to me; but I hope in God, who will not fail me, and in my friends, the more that I may be able to gain my livelihood by teaching children, which profession I did not disdain to exercise although I was a bishop. And should no one be found willing to accept my teaching, I am a doctor of law and will resume the study of what I have forgotten, and will thus gain my bread. And should this not succeed, I know how to labour with my hands in gardens and orchards, as planting, grafting, sowing, etc. as well as any gardener in the Kingdom. And should this also be insufficient, I desire no other grace, favour, or privilege from Her Majesty than what she grants to the mendicants who go through London from door to door begging, that I may do the like if necessary." When the Council heard this, his final denunciation, they said, "We have nothing more to do with you at present. Her Majesty then will provide herself with another bishop."

" Hath not God chosen the poor in this world, rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which God hath promised to them that love him?"— JAS. ii. 5.

GEORGE GILBERT, SJ, 1583

2006-10-06T12:44:00.000-07:00

THE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION

OF an old Suffolk family, possessed of a large fortune, a Puritan by profession, he followed in his youth the life of a gay cavalier. Going abroad, however, his eyes were opened to the faith, and he was reconciled by Father Parsons at Rome. Returning to England, he devoted himself to the services of the missionary priests, and formed for this purpose, with Lord Henry Howard, Lord Oxford, Mr. Southwell, Lord Paget, and other young men, a " Catholic Association," which was solemnly blessed by Pope Gregory XIII, April 14, 1580. The members promised to imitate the lives of the Apostles, and to devote themselves wholly to the salvation of souls and the conversion of heretics. They were to be content with the necessaries of their state, and to bestow all the rest for the good of the Catholic cause. They supplied the priests with altar requisites, with horses, and various changes of apparel, and disguised themselves as grooms or servants and escorted the priests through the country from house to house. To Gilbert is due the first idea of the frescoes of the English martyrs in the English College, Rome. He was admitted to the Society of Jesus on his death-bed.

" And the multitude of believers had but one heart and one soul, neither did any one say that aught of the things he possessed was his own, but all things were common unto them."—ACTS iv. 32.

Blessed WILLIAM HARTLEY, Priest, 1588

2006-10-05T02:48:00.000-07:00

A MOTHER'S SACRIFICE

Biography

BORN in the Diocese of Lichfield and brought up a Protestant, he became Chaplain and Fellow of St. John's College, Oxford, but was removed from that part by Tobie Matthew (ironically whose son, also Tobie became a priest), the president, on suspicion of his Catholic tendencies. He then went to Rheims, was reconciled, ordained, and returned to the English Mission in 1580.

Within a twelvemonth of his arrival he was arrested, in the house of Lady Stonor, and imprisoned in the Tower. In 1585, after five years' imprisonment, he, with some twenty other priests, was sent into banishment, but his zeal for souls drove him back to England, though he knew death awaited him. He laboured again amidst good report and evil report, the heretics having pretended that he had apostatised, and he converted, amongst others, a Captain Cripps, a well-known personage at that time, who subsequently entered the service of the King of Spain. Father Hartley was carried to execution with John Hewitt, who was hanged at Mile's End Green, with Robert Sutton, who suffered at Clerkenwell, and was himself finally executed at Shoreditch, having refused to ask for the Queen's forgiveness, since his priesthood had been his only offence. His mother was present at his passion, and rejoiced exceedingly that she had brought forth a son to glorify God by such a death.

"There stood by the cross of Jesus His mother."—JOHN xix. 25.

Saint EDMUND CAMPION, Jesuit, 1581

2006-10-04T09:49:00.000-07:00

THE FINAL JUDGMENT

Biography

"IT was not our death that ever we feared, but we knew that we were not lords of our own lives, and therefore, for want of answer, would not be guilty of our own deaths. The only thing that we have now to say is, that if our religion do make us traitors, we are worthy to be condemned, but otherwise are and have been as true subjects as ever the Queen had. In condemning us you condemn all your own ancestors—all the ancient priests, bishops, and kings—all what was once the glory of England, the island of Saints, and the most devoted child of the See of Peter. For what have we taught, however you may qualify it with the odious name of treason, that they did not uniformly teach ? To be condemned with these old lights —not of England only, but of the world—by their degenerate descendants is both gladness and glory to us. God lives : posterity will live : their judgment is not so liable to corruption as that of those who are now going to sentence us to death." "Never," says Fitzherbert, "was Campion's face more noble ; his conduct had been calm and dignified, and his arguments pointed and conclusive ; but in this last speech he surpassed himself'

"And after this the judgment."—HEB. ix. 37.

The Mass the martyrs died for

2006-10-04T05:48:00.001-07:00

Venerable PHILIP POWELL, OSB, 1646

2006-10-03T10:00:00.000-07:00

ADVOCATE OF CHRIST

Biography

OF a good Welsh family, he was trained for the law in London under Father Augustine Baker, then a famous lawyer in the Temple, who became a Benedictine monk. Powel followed his example and entered the same order, and in 1622 was sent on the English Mission. He laboured for some twenty years in Devon, till this county was so overrun with Parliament soldiers that the only safe place for Catholics was with Goring's army, and Powel accompanied it till the force was disbanded. He was arrested when on a vessel bound for Wales. In his defence at King's Bench he pleaded that Henry VIII made a statute of qualification of all statutes, and that the reason of Queen Elizabeth's statute against priests was her fears and jealousies of the Queen of Scots and the Spaniards, with both of whom priests were believed to have relations. This was, however, a time of civil war, when the King's person was absent, and could not, therefore, be the object of a plot. Hence, both the person and the cause being taken away, this latter statute might receive the benefit of mitigation. He added that he was not guilty according to the letter of Elizabeth's statute, being taken not in England but at sea. He was, however, hanged, Tyburn, June 30.

"And all that heard Him were astonished at his wisdom and answers."—LUKE ii. 47.

Saint THOMAS MORE, Layman, 1535

2006-10-02T07:29:00.000-07:00

THE UNITY OF CHRISTENDOM

Biography

" SINCE I am condemned, and God knows how, I wish to speak freely of your statute for the discharge of my conscience. For the seven years that I have studied the matter, I have not read in any approved doctor of the Church that a temporal lord could or ought to be head of the spirituality. For one bishop of your opinion, I have a hundred saints of mine ; and for one Parliament of yours, and God knows of what kind, I have all the General Councils for 1000 years ; and for one kingdom, I have all the kingdoms of Christendom. I say further, that your statute is ill made, because you have sworn never to do anything against the Church, which through all Christendom is one and undivided, and you have no authority, without the common consent of all Christians, to make a law or Act of Parliament or Council against the union of Christendom. The true reason for my condemnation is my unwillingness to consent to the King's second marriage ; but I hope, in the Divine goodness and mercy, that as St. Paul and St. Stephen, whom he persecuted, are now friends in Paradise, so we, though differing here, shall be united hereafter. I pray God to protect the King and to give him good counsel."

" Every kingdom divided against itself shall be made desolate, and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand."—MATT. xii. 25 .

+ Blessed JOHN ROBINSON, Priest 1588

2006-10-01T07:20:00.000-07:00

A TRUE ISRAELITE

Biography

BORN at Fernsby, Yorkshire, he lived for some time in the world in the married state, but on becoming a widower he went over to Rheims, was ordained, and sent on the Mission. He was a man of great simplicity and sincerity, and he used to say that " if he could not dispute for the faith as well as some of the others, he could die for it as well as the best." He was apprehended in the very port where he . landed, and cast into the Clink prison. His fellow-prisoners, in respect to his age and probity, called him "Father," and he in return styled them his "bairns," and when they were sent off to be executed in different parts of the Kingdom, the good old man lamented for days exceedingly, until at last the warrant for his own execution arrived. To the bearer of the warrant he gave all his money, and on his knees gave God thanks. He was sent to suffer at Ipswich, a long journey taken on foot, but he refused to put on boots, as he said, " These feet of mine have never worn them, and they can well travel now without them, for they will be well repaid." He was executed October 1, 1588.

" Behold a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile."—JOHN i. 47.

Blessed ROGER CADWALLADOR, Priest, 1610

2006-09-30T06:23:00.000-07:00

LITTLE BELLS OF GOLD

Biography

As they had failed in their arguments, they turned to scoffing, and mocked him for having no tonsure, wearing a beard, and dressing as a layman with a silk point to his hose. Then, as he refused the oath of allegiance, the Bishop commanded him to be heavily shackled, and to wear besides a great bolt. This, by reason of his sickness, was removed, but he was sent on foot from Hereford to Leominster, still wearing his shackles, though, owing to his extreme weakness, a boy was allowed to accompany him holding up their links by a string. After his condemnation to death, for some months before his martyrdom he was chained every night to his bed-post by an iron chain. One day the keeper led him to an obscure and loathsome place, and left him there chained to a post, unable to move more than two yards; at last the keeper's wife, moved with compassion, in her husband's absence let him loose. In his sickness in prison he was subject to ill-usage and slanders, yet nothing daunted his courage or cheerfulness, and to a friend he said, shaking his shackles as he lay prostrate, "Hear, O Lord ! these are my little bells."

" He clothed him with a robe of glory, and encompassed him with many little bells of gold, that a noise might be heard in the temple for a memorial to the children of his people."— ECCLUS. xlv. 9, 10, 11.

+ Blessed WILLIAM SPENSER, Priest, 1589

2006-09-29T02:34:00.000-07:00

LOVE OF PARENTS

Biography

BORN in the Craven district of York, he was educated by his maternal uncle, Horn, a Marian priest (Priest ordained in England before Elizabeth's reign.), at his benefice near Chipping Norton. He then entered Trinity College, Oxford, and became Fellow and Master of Arts in 1580. There, though outwardly conforming, he showed such zeal for the faith as to embitter the heretics and to win many youths by his instructions in Catholic doctrine. After two years thus living with a troubled conscience, he sought peace by leaving Oxford for Rheims, and in 1584 returned as a priest to England. His first care was the conversion of his parents, whom he contrived after much difficulty to meet in a field disguised as a labourer, with the result that they were both reconciled. His uncle also by his influence resigned his benefice, which he had only held by tampering with heresy, and found a home in a Catholic household He now devoted himself to the Catholic prisoners at York, and managed to secure a hiding-place with them in the Castle. After labouring with much fruit, he was arrested when on a journey and suffered with great constancy at York, September 27, 1589, thus washing out with his blood the heretical stains of his youth.

"Honour thy father and forget not the groanings of thy mother, and make a return to them as they have done for thee."—ECCLUS. vii. 29, 30.

Blessed JOHN WOODCOCK, OSF, 1646

2006-09-28T10:08:00.001-07:00

PETITION FOR RE-ADMISSION

Biography

"THE more conscious I am that it is better to be poor in the House of the Lord than to abide in the tabernacles of sinners, so much the more the conviction of my soul still unaccomplished grows stronger in the day and night, and the former direction of my conscience, disturbed in spite of myself from its original seat and form, incessantly solicits and urges me on ; so that the desire for its reformation, no less than that sudden fall" (he had withdrawn as a postulant) " which threw both it and my whole being into confusion, inflames my soul. Wherefore, my dear Father William (I suspect this to be the head of the English Franciscans at Douai), I beseech you by our old friendship, which in this misfortune intercedes for me with you, to take pity on my miserable state, and apply yourself to obtain my pardon and the favour of my restoration. This is my desire, this I ask, this I wait for, for this I sigh and groan, and I desire it for no other motive than the pure love of God and His glory. That which you saw me previously desire lightly, strive now for Christ's sake to obtain for me more efficaciously. This will be my greatest happiness, and nothing whatever can add thereto. Farewell."

"The prayer of him that humbleth himself shall pierce the clouds."—ECCLUS. xxxv. 21.

+ Bishop THOMAS WATSON OF LINCOLN, 1584

2006-09-27T09:05:00.000-07:00

PEACEMAKER

Biography

A BRILLIANT scholar, master of St. John's College, Cambridge, he took the oath of Supremacy under Henry VIII, but maintained in all other points the Catholic faith, and for preaching in its defence was imprisoned for a time by the Protector Somerset, together with Bishop Goodman, whose chaplain he was. By order of Mary he preached before her at Paul's Cross, and refuted the contradictions of the new teaching. Promoted Dean of Durham and Bishop of Lincoln, he was imprisoned by Elizabeth for contempt and contumacy, and began a long course of suffering either in public or private custody. He writes to Cecil, October 6, 1578, that two infirmities drove him to crave for succour—blindness and lameness. He had lost one of his eyes, and the other was so weak he could scarce see the meat on the table. His lameness was due to sciatica in both his thighs. His last confinement was at Wisbeach (the Castle, used as a special prison for Catholics shown here but eighty years later)

where he used all his influence, in the strife then prevailing, to promote peace and charity, and with great success. He died September 27, 1584, having proved by twenty years of bonds his repentance for his early fall.

"I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you." —1 COR. i. 10.

Venerable OLIVER PLUNKET, Archbishop, 1681

2006-09-26T14:47:00.000-07:00

A FAIR TRIAL

Biography

AFTER his condemnation, he wrote to Father Corker, his fellow-prisoner, as follows : "I am obliged to you for the favour and charity of the 20th, and for all your former benevolences; and whereas I cannot in this country remunerate you, with God's grace I hope to be grateful in that kingdom which is properly our country. And truly God gave me, though unworthy of it, that grace to have ' fortem animum mortis terrore carentem, (Juvenal's Satire X, line 357 Your prayer must be that you may have a sound mind in a sound body. Pray for a bold spirit, free from all dread of death; That reckons the closing scene of life among Nature’s kindly boons.)' 'a courage fearless of death.' I have many sins to answer for before the Supreme Judge of the High Bench, where no false witnesses can have audience. But as for the bench yesterday, I am not guilty of any crime there objected to me. I would I could be so clear at the bench of the All-powerful. ' Ut ut sit,' there is one comfort that He cannot be deceived, because He is omniscious, and knows all secrets, even of hearts, and cannot deceive because all goodness, so that I may be sure of a fair trial, and will get time sufficient to call witnesses ; nay, the Judge will bring them in a moment if there be need of any. You and your comrade's prayers will be powerful advocates at that trial. Here none are admitted for your affectionate friend,
"OLIVER PLUNKET."

" But there is no other God but Thou who hast care of all, that Thou shouldst show that Thou dost not give judgment unjustly."— Wis. xii. 13.

The head of the Saint, preserved in Drogheda Cathedral.

Venerable OLIVER PLUNKET, Archbishop, on the Scaffold, 1681

2006-09-25T14:35:00.000-07:00

A REPROVER OF SIN

Biography

"I WAS brought to the bar here after six months' imprisonment for a crime for which before I was arraigned in Ireland; a fact almost without precedent in five hundred years. Five weeks were allowed me to bring over my records and witnesses, which, owing to many difficulties, was insufficient. I asked for five days more. This was refused, and I was exposed, with my hands tied, as it were, to these merciless perjurers. You see what position I am in, and you have heard the protestations of my innocency, and I hope you will believe the words of a dying man. In support of my credit I assure you that I was offered my life if I would accuse other conspirators, but as I know of none I could not. I admit that I endeavoured to establish a proper discipline among the clergy according to my duty, and you see how I am rewarded. By false oaths they have brought me to this untimely death. But this wicked act, being a defect of person, ought not to reflect on the Order of St. Francis or on the Roman Catholic clergy. There was a Judas among the Apostles, and a Nicholas among the seven deacons, and as St. Stephen, the holy deacon, prayed for his enemies, so do I."

And so he went to his reward.

"Them that sin reprove before all, that the rest may have fear."—1 TIM. iv. 20.

Blessed EVERARD HANSE, Priest, 1581

2006-09-24T23:55:00.000-07:00

A MARTYR'S LEGACIES

Biography

" BROTHER, I pray you be careful of my parents, see them instructed in the way of truth, so that you be careful for your own state also. Give thanks to God for all that He hath sent. Cast not yourself into danger wilfully, but pray God, when occasion is offered, to take it with patience. The comforts at the present time are unspeakable, the dignity too high for a sinner, but God is merciful. Bestow my things you find ungiven away on my poor kinsfolk. A pair of pantoffles I leave with M. N. for my mother. Twenty shillings I would have you bestow on them for me, if you can make so much conveniently ; some I have left with M. N. I owe ten shillings and two shillings. I pray you see it paid. M. N. will let you understand how and to whom. If you want money to discharge it, send to my friends, you know where and to whom. ' Summa Conciliorum (see last para for this link),' I pray you restore to M. B.: the other books, you know to whom. Have me commended to my friends. Let them think I will not forget them. The day and the hour of my birth is at hand, and my Master saith, 'Tolle crucem tuam et sequere Mei Vale in Domino."

" Well done, thou good and faithful servant, because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."—MATT. XXV. 23.

Feast of Our Lady of Ransom

2006-09-24T13:03:00.000-07:00

a double major, commemorates the foundation of the Mercedarians.
On 10 August, 1223, the Mercedarian Order was legally constituted at Barcelona by King James of Aragon and was approved by Gregory IX on 17 January, 1235. The Mercedarians celebrated their institution on the Sunday nearest to 1 Aug. (on which date in the year 1233 the Blessed Virgin was believed to have shown St. Peter Nolasco the white habit of the order), and this custom was approved by the Congregation of Rites on 4 April, 1615 (Anal. Juris Pont., VII, 136). But the calendar of the Spanish Mercedarians of 1644 has it on 1 Aug., double. Proper lessons were approved on 30 April, 1616. The feast was granted to Spain (Sunday nearest to 1 Aug.) on 15 Feb., 1680; to France, 4 Dec., 1690. On 22 Feb., 1696, it was extended to the entire Latin Church, and the date changed to 24 September. The Mercedarians keep this feast as a double of the first class, with a vigil, privileged octave, and proper Office under the title: "Solemnitas Descensionis B. Mariæ V. de Mercede". Our Lady of Ransom is the principal patron of Barcelona; the proper Office was extended to Barcelona (1868) and to all Spain (second class, 1883). Sicily, which had suffered so much from the Saracens, took up the old date of the feast (Sunday nearest to 1 Aug.) by permission of the Congregation of Rites, 31 Aug., 1805 (double major), Apparition of Our Lady to St. Peter Nolasco in the choir of Barcelona, on the Sunday after 24 Sept.

In England the devotion to Our Lady of Ransom was revived in modern times to obtain the rescue of England as Our Lady's Dowry.

Saint JOHN WALL, OSF, 1679

2006-09-23T23:53:00.000-07:00

THE NARROW WAY

BORN of a Lancashire gentleman's family, he received the habit of St. Francis at Douay in 1651, being then thirty-two years of age. He entered on the English Mission, 1656, and laboured successfully for twelve years. At the breaking out of the Oates Plot he was apprehended, and, refusing to take the oath of allegiance, was imprisoned in Worcester gaol. Of his sentiments then he writes: " Imprisonment in these times, when none can send to their friends or their friends come to them, is the best means to teach us how to put our confidence in God alone in all things, and then He will make His promise good 'that all things shall be added unto us' (Luke xii. 31), which chapter, if every one would read and made good use of, a prison would be better than a palace, and a confinement for religion and a good conscience' sake more pleasant than all the liberties the world could afford. As for my own part, God give me His grace and all faithful Christians their prayers; I am happy enough. We all ought to follow the narrow way, though there be many difficulties in it. It is an easy thing to run the blind way of liberty, but God deliver us from all broad, sweet ways."

" How narrow is the gate and straight the way that leadeth to life, and few there are that find it."—MATT. vii. 14.

Saint EDMUND ARROWSMITH, SJ, 1628

2006-09-22T23:52:00.000-07:00

LOWLY BUT BOLD

HE is described as being, like St. Paul, of mean presence, but of great innocency of life, and so zealous, witty, and fervent that his eagerness to dispute with heretics, had he not been restrained, would have brought him too soon into danger of death. A Protestant gentleman, thinking from his appearance he might be easily befooled, tried to jest upon him, but his retorts were so sharp that the gentleman swore that where he thought he had met a mere simpleton he had found a foolish scholar or a learned fool. He had such great power in freeing possessed persons, during his fifteen years of priestly labour, first as a secular then as a Jesuit, that at his last trial the judge pleaded for his death as too dangerous a seducer to be set at liberty. Dr. Bridgman, Bishop of Chester, before whom he was once brought at supper-time in Lent, excused himself for eating flesh, as being dispensed on account of- weakness. " But who dispenses your lusty ministers there, who have no such need, and all eat flesh?" As divers ministers together attacked him, he said to the Bishop, "Turn all your dogs at once against me, and let us have a loose bait."

" Now I, Paul, beseech you by the mildness and modesty of Christ, who in presence indeed am lowly among you but being absent am bold towards you."—2 COR. x. i

Saint EDMUND ARROWSMITH, SJ, 1628

2006-09-21T07:37:00.000-07:00

A HOLY YOUTH

His family were great sufferers for the faith. His maternal grandfather, Mr. Nicholas Gerard, being unable to move with the gout, was carried to the Protestant Church and placed close to the minister, but he sang Psalms in Latin so loud that the minister was inaudible, and he had to be removed. His parents and their household were driven, tied two and two, to Lancaster gaol, the four youngest children, of which Edmund was one, being left homeless and unclad until some charitable neighbours took compassion on them. After some years, to ease his now widowed mother of her burden^ a venerable priest took charge of Edmund. As the boy went to school, about a mile distant, his daily practice was to recite with his companions the little hours of Our Lady's Office, and on his way back the Vespers and Compline. After his return home he would withdraw to his oratory and there perform his customary devotions of the Jesus Psalter, the Seven Psalms, &c, and so engaging were his tempef and manners that he won the affection of even the Protestant schoolmaster. His priestly studies, though often interrupted by his bad. health, were completed at Douay, whence he went on the English Mission, 1613.

"When he was yet a boy he began to seek the God ofhis father David."—2 PARAL. xxxiv.3

Blessed JOHN DUCKETT, Priest, 1644

2006-09-20T07:38:00.000-07:00

TO SAVE OTHERS

HE was taken, in company with two Catholic laymen, as he was going to baptize two children on the Feast of the Visitation, July 2. His captors, the Parliament soldiers, carried him before a committee of the Sequestrators at Sunderland. He declined to answer as to his priesthood and demanded proof, but was committed to prison by reason of the Holy oils and books found on him. Again examined, and again refusing to inculpate himself, he was threatened with lighted matches placed between his fingers to make him confess what he was. This availing nothing he was sent back to prison. After an hour he was again called, and found his two companions on the point of being shipped and sent away, merely because he would not confess who he was. " Seeing this," he says, " and also fearing that the Catholics of the neighbourhood who knew me might suffer, and especially those with whom I lived, I confessed myself to free them and the country." His self-sacrifice was successful, and seemed an inspiration from Heaven. No more inquiry was made after his friends, but Father Duckett was sent up to London in company with Father Corby, a Jesuit, who was taken in these parts as he was going up to the altar to say Mass.

" If therefore ye seek Me, let these go their way."—JOHN xviii. 8.

Blessed RICHARD HURST, Layman, 1628

2006-09-19T07:25:00.000-07:00

PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD

THIS is his last letter to his confessor when about to suffer : " Now I take my last leave ; now I am dying, and am as willing to die as ever I was to live, I thank my Lord and Saviour, who I trust will never fail me. I have comfort in Christ Jesus and His Blessed Mother, my good angel, and all the blessed Saints, and in the valiant and triumphant martyr, B. Arrowsmith, who is gone before me. How I have been used you will hear, and likewise what I had offered me if I would have taken the oath. I hope my friends will truly understand that my greatest desire is to suffer, and I would I had as many lives to offer as I have committed sins. Now, dear Sir, prepare yourself also to suffer, and animate your ghostly children in suffering. Once again, I desire you to say and to procure some Masses for my sinful soul, and if it please God to receive me into His kingdom, I shall not be unmindful of you and of all my good friends. I pray you remember my poor children, and encourage my friends about my debts which my chief worldly care is to satisfy. Once again, adieu. I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ Jesus:"

" He sent twelve thousand drachms of silver for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the Resurrection."—2 MACH. xii. 43.

Small break

2006-09-18T08:44:00.000-07:00

I will continue posting but some links and pictures will be added to the posts next weekend. I will also after that date be providing a list in the side bar of old posts that I update and embelish with illustrations .

Blessed RICHARD HURST, Layman, 1628

2006-09-18T07:23:00.000-07:00

STRONGER THAN DEATH

HE wrote before his death three letters to his confessor. The first is as follows : " I received your letter with news of death, at which I am not much dismayed, I thank my Lord and Saviour; the more malicious my enemies the greater my comfort, for I do constantly believe that my religion is the cause of their malice, and my greatest desire is to offer my blood in so good a cause. And although my flesh be timorous and fearful, I yet find great comfort in spirit, in casting myself upon my sweet Saviour with a most fervent love, when I consider what He hath done and suffered for me; and I had rather die a thousand deaths than possess a kingdom and live in mortal sin ; for there is nothing so hateful to me as sin, and that only for the love of my Saviour. I do most constantly believe that He hath afflicted me to save me, and I trust I shall die truly humbled, for the which I desire your good prayers, that I may persevere to the end ; for of myself I can do nothing without His grace." He left behind him six little children, and his wife with child.

" Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou know-est that I love Thee."—JOHN xxi. 17

Saint AMBROSE BARLOW, OSB, 1641

2006-09-17T07:23:00.000-07:00

ROMANS THE ONLY PRIESTS

HE was led to Lancaster gaol amidst a jeering mob, but was so weak that he had to be held on the horse's back. In prison he wonderfully recovered his health, and refused every offer of escape or of petitions for his life. At his trial, after four months' imprisonment, the judge asked him what he thought of the laws by which priests were put to death. "All laws," he answered, " made against Catholics on account of their religion are unjust and impious, and that especially which condemns priests to suffer as traitors merely because they are Roman—that is, true priests. For there are no other priests but the Roman, and if they be destroyed, what must become of the Divine law when none remain to preach God's law and administer the Sacraments ? And if, my Lord, in consequence of so unjust a law, you condemn me to die, you would send me to Heaven and yourself to Hell." He was sentenced, and brought out to suffer on Friday, September 10, carrying a wooden cross which he had made. He told the ministers who pestered him that he had something else to do than to hearken to their fooleries, and saying the Miserere he went to Heaven, September 10, 1641.

"But I chose Jerusalem that my name might be there, and I chose David to set him over my people."—2 PARAL. vi. 6.

Saint AMBROSE BARLOW, OSB, 1641

2006-09-16T07:20:00.000-07:00

HORROR OF SCANDAL

SOME months before his last apprehension, for he was several times a prisoner, he heard that some persons, dear to him as his own soul, were bent upon doing something very wicked, and which was Hke to be the ruin of many souls. The news of this scandal so strongly on a sudden affected him that he was seized with a fit of dead palsy, which deprived him of the use of one side and put his life in danger. What added very much to his cross was the fear lest his poor children whom he had begotten in Christ should now be left destitute of spiritual assistance. Moreover, he had the additional affliction that, while his convulsions and pains seemed to have brought him to death's door, no priest could be found to administer the Holy Sacraments to him. In this anguish God was pleased to comfort him, and he made an act of complete conformity to God's will, preferring that entire resignation to the use of the Sacraments or to martyrdom itself. While in these dispositions a Jesuit father arrived to assist him, as he himself had twelve years before exercised the same charity to B. Arrowsmith when in prison, at which time that confessor of Christ had foretold that he must be the next to follow.

" Who is weak and I am not weak ? who is scandalised and I am not on fire?."—2 COR.xi.29.

Saint AMBROSE BARLOW, OSB, 1641

2006-09-15T07:08:00.000-07:00

THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH

ON the eves before the principal festivals of the year, whilst Father Barlow was in health, the Catholics resorted to him from distant places and passed the night, after the manner of the primitive Church, in watching, prayer, and spiritual colloquies, whilst, for his part, he was employed almost all the night hearing confessions. On the next day he treated them all with a dinner, when he and some of the more honourable of his flock served them that were poor, and waited upon them, and then dined off their leavings. When he sent them home he gave each of them a groat in alms, and when all had dined he distributed what remained to the poor of the parish. His zeal had made him as well known in all that neighbourhood as the very parson of the parish. Some reprehended him for going about so publicly ; to whom he replied, " Let them fear that have anything to lose, which they are unwilling to part with." This was indeed not his case, as he had set his heart upon nothing in this world, and was even desirous to lay down his life for God's cause. Nor could he be persuaded to retire further from danger, desiring, were it God's will, to shed his blood at Lancaster.

" And the multitude of believers had but one heart and one soul ... all things were common unto them."—ACTS iv. 32.

Saint AMBROSE BARLOW, OSB, 1641

2006-09-14T07:06:00.000-07:00

SEPARATED UNTO THE GOSPEL

Biography

HE began his labours in his native county Lancashire, aged thirty, about 1615. There he boarded with an honest country farmer, which he preferred to living with great families, though desired by many, that the poor might always have access to him night or day. To them he devoted his labours and imparted alms, spiritual and temporal, according to his ability. He would never have a servant till forced by sickness ; never would have a horse, but made his pastoral visits always on foot. His apparel was mean ; neither would he ever wear a sword or carry a watch. He allowed himself no manner of play or pastime, and avoided all superfluous talk or conversation. He was never idle, but was always either praying, studying, preaching, administering the Sacraments, or sometimes as a diversion painting pictures of Christ or His Blessed Mother, whose beads he recited daily. He set free many possessed persons ; he had great talent in composing differences and reconciling those at variance, and was consulted as an oracle by the neighbouring Catholics in all their difficulties. He feared no dangers, and when God's honour or the salvation of souls called him forth, would face his enemies even at noonday, and pass through them unhurt.

" Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the Gospel of God." —ROM. i. 1.

Blessed ADRIAN FORTESCUE, Layman

2006-09-13T06:56:00.000-07:00

MARTYR'S MAXIMS (2)

BE not partial for favour, lucre, or malice, but according to truth, equity, justice, and reason.

Be pitiful to poor folk and help them to thy power, for then thou shalt greatly please God.

Give fair language to all persons, and especially to the poor and needy.

Also be diligent in giving of alms.

In prosperity be meek of heart, and in adversity patient.

And pray continually to God that you may do what is His pleasure.

Also apply diligently the co-operations of the Holy Ghost whatever thou hast therein to do.

Pray for perseverance.

Continue in dread, and ever have God before thine eyes.

Renew every day thy good purpose.

What thou hast to do, do it diligently.

'Stablish thyself always in well-doing.

If by chance you fall into sin, despair not, and if you keep these precepts, the Holy Ghost will strengthen thee in all other things necessary, and thus doing you shall be with Christ in Heaven, to whom be glory, laud, honour, and praise everlasting.

" She conducted the just through the right ways and showed him the kingdom of God, and gave him the knowledge of holy things."— WlS. x. 10.

Canonised Martyrs under Henry VIII

2006-09-12T09:17:00.000-07:00

St John Houghton 1535
St Robert Lawrence 1535
St Augustine Webster 1535
St Richard Reynolds 1535
St John Fisher 1535
St Thomas More 1535
St John Stone 1539

The Lancashire Martyrs and dates of execution

2006-09-12T09:11:00.000-07:00

Blessed James Bell - 1584
Blessed John Finch - 1584
Blessed Robert Nutter - 1600
Blessed Edward Thwing - 1600
Blessed Thurstan Hunt - 1601
Blessed Robert Middleton - 1601
Venerable Lawrence Bailey - 1604
Blessed John Thules - 1616
Blessed Roger Wrenno - 1616
Saint Edmund Arrowsmith - 1628
Blessed Richard, Hurst - 1628
Saint Ambrose Barlow - 1641
Blessed John Woodcock - 1646
Blessed Thomas Whittaker - 1646
Blessed Edward Bamber - 1646

And these men of Lancashire, Westmorland and Cumberland who were executed outside the county and beatified in 1929 or 1987 and some canonised in 1970

Blessed Thomas Cottam - 1582
Blessed Thomas Sprott - 1600
Blessed John Nutter - 1584
Saint John Rigby - 1600
Blessed James Duckett - 1602
Blessed George Haydock - 1584
Blessed Thomas Somers - 1610
Blessed William Marsden - 1586
Blessed Thomas Tunstall - 1616
Blessed John Sandys - 1586
Blessed William Ward - 1641
Blessed George Beesley - 1591
Blessed John Duckett - 1644
Blessed John Mason - 1591
Blessed John Pickering - 1679
Saint John Boste - 1594
Saint John Wall - 1679
Blessed Christopher Robinson - 1597
Saint John Plessington - 1679

Blessed ADRIAN FORTESCUE, Layman

2006-09-12T07:24:00.000-07:00

A MARTYR'S MAXIMS (1)

Biography

ABOVE all things love God with all thy heart.

Desire His honour more than the health of thine own soul.

Take heed with all diligence to purge and cleanse thy mind with oft Confession, and raise thy desire or lust from earthly things.

Be you houseled (that is receive Holy Communion) with entire devotion.

Repute not thyself better than any other person, be they never so great sinners, but rather judge and esteem yourself most simplest.

Judge the best.

Use much silence, but when thou needs must speak.

Delight not in familiarity of persons unknown to thee.

Be solitary as much as is convenient with thine estate.

Banish from thee all judging and detraction, and especially from thy tongue.

Pray often.

Also enforce thee to set thy house at quietness.

Resort to God every hour.

Advance not thy words or deeds by any pride.

Be not too much familiar, but show a serious and prudent countenance with gentleness.

Show before all people a good example of virtues.

" The Wisdom from above is first chaste."— JAS. iii. 17.

ROBERT DYMOKE, Layman., 1580

2006-09-11T04:10:00.000-07:00

HEREDITARY CHAMPION OF ENGLAND

Biography

SCRIVELSBY COURT (demolished 1961), Lincolnshire,

the home of the Dymokes, was one of the centres of the Rising in that county. The " articles of grievance " devised by the insurgents were drawn up by the Dymokes. Robert had so far conformed as to attend the Protestant service, while he harboured a priest, B. Kirkman, in his house disguised as a schoolmaster to his sons. This act of hospitality, with the risks it involved, seems to have procured for him the grace of complete conversion. On July 24, 1580, Robert and his wife, Lady Bridget, were indicted for hearing Mass and for non-attendance at the Protestant service. Though helplessly paralysed, he was carried to Lincoln, and in a miserable prison there fell dangerously ill. Even when dying he was not left in peace. " They come," writes Father Persons, "when he is wrestling with the pangs of death. Even then the ministers do not permit him to die, as he desires, a Catholic death. They urge him to pray such sorry prayers of their own making as in health he contemned, in sickness with open voice he rejected, and now dumb and half dead, by his countenance, by signs and tokens, and by gesture of his body, he did utterly contemn and abhor."

" Who by faith conquered kingdoms, wrought justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions."—HEB. xi. 33.

Bishop GILBERT BOURNE OF BATH AND WELLS, 1569

2006-09-10T14:24:00.000-07:00

PRESSED OUT OF MEASURE

Biography and Hhis Diocese

HE held, besides his sees at Elizabeth's accession, the important secular office of President of the Council of Wales. From this he was removed by the Queen in furtherance of her plan of depriving all Catholics of positions of trust. On his refusal to consecrate Parker, and again to take the oath of Supremacy, he was sent to the Tower, June 18, 1560. There he remained till the plague broke out in 1563, when he was quartered on Nicolas Bullingham, Bishop intrusive of Lincoln. He died in charge of Dr. Carew, Dean of Exeter, who at Elizabeth's coronation had sung the Mass without elevating either the Sacred Host or chalice.

Bishops in charge of these Protestant dignitaries were to be kept in safe custody, to have their diet alone in their chamber, and that in no superfluity. They were to see only their attendant, never to take the air save accompanied with his custodian. They were to have sound books lent to them, and be persuaded to hear sermons, and attend the Protestant services. Thus deprived of Mass, the Sacrament, Catholic books, or the sight of a Catholic, wearied by heretical arguments, and worn by the continual pressure of their heretical keepers, the confessors bore witness till death.

" We would not have you ignorant, brethren, of our tribulation. We were pressed out of measure, so that we were weary even of life."— 2 COR. 1. 8.

Venerable RALPH CORBY, SJ and Venerable JOHN DUCKETT, Priest, 1644

2006-09-09T06:20:00.000-07:00

THE KISS OF PEACE

HAVING each refused to be spared at the cost of the other's life, they were sentenced to death, and returned with joy to prison, there to wait. V. Corby wrote: " For that holy and happy Saturday (September 7), which is the vigil of her glorious Nativity, by whose holy intercession I hope to be born again to a new and everlasting life." Their last day and the whole ensuing night was spent in prayer, fasting, watching, and in spiritual conferences with those who came to confess and to hear their last Mass. Amongst these were the Duchess of Guise and the French envoy. Father Corby in his last Mass appeared to be overwhelmed with an agony of sadness and fear. At length the cloud passed, and his joy returned. They went out to suffer with their tonsures shaved, the one in his Jesuit's habit, the other in his priest's cassock. At the gallows Father Duckett made no speech, but told an heretical minister that he had not come hither to be taught his religion, but to die for it. After a short discourse from Father Corby, the two confessors turned to each other. Together they had been arrested, supported each other by their mutual courage and self-sacrifice, and with a last most loving embrace they together received their eternal crown.

" Salute one another in a holy kiss; all the saints salute you."—2 COR. xiii. 12.

Venerable RALPH CORBY, SJ and Venerable JOHN DUCKETT, Priest, 1644

2006-09-08T01:06:00.000-07:00

HOLY RIVALRY

Biographies of Ralph Corby and John Duckett

RALPH CORBY, alias Darlington, was born near Dublin of English parents, natives of Durham, who had gone over to Ireland for the free exercise of their religion. The piety of the family is sufficiently attested by the fact that both parents and children entered into religion : the father and his three sons into the Society of Jesus, the mother and her daughters into the Order of St. Benedict. After twelve years' hard work, notwithstanding continuous ill-health, among the poorer Catholics in Durham, he was arrested and sent up to London with Father Duckett. They were escorted from Westminster to Newgate by a company of Parliament soldiers, with a captain at their head, beating drums and firing off their muskets through the crowded streets, as if they had been the enemy's generals taken in war as in the old Roman battles. In prison the life of one of them could have been saved by an exchange made for a prisoner in the hand of the Emperor of Germany. The offer was first made to Father Corby, who declined it on the ground that Father Duckett, being younger, could do more work than himself; but he in his turn refused it with thanks, as Father Corby's life, on account of his experience, was of greater value.

" Behold what manner of charity the Father hath bestowed upon us."—1 JOHN iii. 1.

+ Blessed JOHN DUCKETT, Priest, 1644

2006-09-07T15:54:00.000-07:00

THE CONTEMPLATIVE WAY

Biography

OF an old Yorkshire family, he entered Douay and was so much addicted, the Diary says, to mental prayer, that while he was yet a student he was known to pass whole nights in those heavenly communications. Being both humble and discreet, before going on the English Mission he conferred at Paris with some very spiritual persons on his way of prayer, of which they approved, though what passed between his soul and God was so sublime that they owned it was above their comprehensions. For further security against delusions, to which contempla-tives are often exposed, he placed himself under the direction of the Prior of the Carthusians at Newport (for the earlier history of this house), and spent two months in preparing himself by spiritual exercises for the conversion of souls. His mission was in the diocese of Durham, where he had been about a year when he was arrested, tried, and condemned. On hearing his sentence his countenance, which was naturally pale, became in a manner angelical, and his cheeks a beautiful colour, which continued till death. That this expression of outward joy proceeded from his heart, we learn from his letters. " Ever since I was a priest," he writes, " I did much fear to live, but nothing fear to die."

" This is my rest for ever and ever ; here will I dwell, for I have chosen it."—Ps. cxxxi. 14.

One Frances DRURY

2006-09-07T14:43:00.000-07:00

was prosecuted in 1584 for hearing Catholic Mass said by Father Monford Scott on this day 1583.

Venerable EDWARD AMBROSE BARLOW, OSB, 1641

2006-09-06T15:46:00.000-07:00

AN EASTER OFFERING

Biography

HE was beginning to recover from his illness, but was still very weak, when he was apprehended on Easter Day 1641. A neighbouring minister proposed to his congregation that, instead of their service, they should show their zeal by capturing the noted popish priest, whom they would surely now find in the midst of his flock, but would lose when church time was over. Some four hundred went therefore with clubs and swords, the parson marching at their head in his surplice. Father Barlow had finished Mass, and was making a discourse to his people on the subject of patience, when the house was found to be surrounded by armed men. He refused to hide himself in any of the secret places provided in the house for that purpose, or leave his sheep, as he said, to the mercy of the wolves. He exhorted them to constancy, and reminded them that these light and momentary tribulations worked an eternal weight of glory, and telling them that he was ready to offer all things for Christ, he bid them open the door. The mob rushed in, shouting, "Where is Barlow? he is the man we want," and laying hands on him they secured him and let the rest go, upon giving caution for their appearance. He suffered at Lancaster, September 10, 1641.

"For Christ our Pasch is sacrificed."—1 COR.v. 7.

Bishop EDMUND BONNER OF LONDON, 1569

2006-09-05T14:39:00.000-07:00

FAITHFUL IN THE END

Biography

HE was a native of Worcestershire, educated at Broadgates Hall, Oxford (very long pdf file, page 50 onwards for the history of Broadgates Hall, 102 onwards for the times of Bishop Bonner), became chaplain to Henry VIII, was very zealous in promoting the divorce, and behaved, as he tells us himself, insolently to the Pope. He accepted the Bishopric of London from the King, and was consecrated April 4, 1540, but never received the necessary Bull from Rome. For refusing to accept Edward VI's changes in religion he was deposed and imprisoned. He was set free by Mary, and canonically reinstated. Under Elizabeth he was the first to whom the oath was proffered, and had the honour of being the first to refuse it. He was specially detested by the Protestants on account of his supposed severity to heretics, but Mr. Gairdner expressly states that to the prisoners in his hands he was kind, gentle, and considerate, and always strove by gentle suasion to reconcile them to the Church before handing them over to the civil power. When ordered by the Council to remove the service of the Mass and the Divine office from St. Paul's, the one church where the Catholic rites still existed, he replied, " I possess three things—soul, body, and property. Of the two last you can dispose at your pleasure."

" Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation, and strengthen me with a perfect spirit."—Ps. l.14.

Blessed THOMAS ABEL, Priest to Blessed JOHN FOREST, OSF

2006-09-04T14:26:00.000-07:00

PERSEVERANCE

"COUNT not your tortures, my son, for that is to add pain to pain; but rather, as St. Paul says, ' Reckon the sufferings of this time not worthy to be compared with the glory to come.' Romans viii, 16.To which may well be added what the Prophet says to our Lord : ' For a thousand years in Thy sight are as yesterday which is past.' (in fact, Psalm 89:4) If you bear patiently the tortures that are inflicted on you, doubt not of your reward. O blessed and thrice happy reward which God gives to those who fear Him ; hence we pray, ' Lord, reward Thy servant.' But only on the condition, ' I have kept Thy words.' If, therefore, there is a reward for keeping the words of the Lord, keep them, my son. But you will ask, 'How long?' To the end! For our Saviour says, ' He that shall endure unto the end, he shall be saved.' Therefore, neither the tortures of thirty-seven days, nor of a thousand years, but the last end will crown your combat. Think you, my son, that we shall run together, and drink of the same chalice ? A greater combat awaits for me ; but for you lighter sufferings remain. Whatever they be, act manfully, our Lord supporting you. Farewell."

" He that shall endure to the end, he shall be saved."—MARK xiii. 13.

Blessed THOMAS ABEL, Priest to Blessed JOHN FOREST, OSF

2006-09-03T14:13:00.000-07:00

HOW LONG, O LORD?

Biographies of Thomas Abel and John Forest

"ALTHOUGH human nature is terrified by the intensity of tortures, yet our faith demands and requires us to bear them. I said, ' My foot is moved because Thou hast turned away Thy face from me. Thou turnest away Thy face from me, and I became troubled ; troubled, I say, because the pain of the tortures which I desire is prolonged, and at the same time I am humbled ; humbled, and not raised up, because not drawn to my Saviour ; not drawn, because I am burdened with the weight of my sins* burdened and not refreshed by Him. What, then, profits my condemnation, if there be longer to wait ? Wherefore, I ask ? Because you have not availingly implored the mercy of God. For I know how much the prayer of the just man weighs before God. Because with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him plentiful redemption. In Thee have our fathers hoped; they have hoped, and Thou hast delivered them for the sake of David, Thy servant. Why, then, is there not an end put to these tortures ? I have now suffered seven and thirty days, and I find no rest. But my hope is that we shall die together by the same punishment."

" He that shall endure to the end, he shall be saved."—MARK xiii. 13.

Saint THOMAS MORE, Layman, 1535

2006-09-02T14:02:00.000-07:00

TIME AND ETERNITY

Biography

WHEN his wife came to see him she reproached him roundly for preferring to stay among the rats and mice in a close, filthy prison, when he might be enjoying his liberty, the goodwill of the King, and the company of his family in his " right fair" house at Chelsea. " I muse what a God's name you mean here still thus fondly to tarry," she cried. Sir Thomas said cheerfully, "I pray thee, good Mistress Alice, tell me one thing : is not this house as near Heaven as mine own?" " Tilly vally, tilly vally," quoth she, in her homely fashion. " Bone Deus, man, will this gear never be left ? " " Well, then," quoth he, " I see not why I should much joy in my house, when, if I arose after being seven years dead, the new owner would bid me get out of doors, or why should I like a house so soon forgetful of his master? How long do you think we may live and enjoy it ? " " Some twenty years," said she. " Truly," replied he, "if you had said some thousand years it had been somewhat; and yet he were a bad merchant that would risk Eternity for a thousand years ; how much the rather, if we are not sure to enjoy it one day to an end."

"One day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."— 2 PET. iii. 8.

Venerable JOHN GOODMAN, Priest, 1645

2006-09-01T12:47:00.000-07:00

A LIFE OFFERING FOR THE PEOPLE

Biography

OF Bangor, Wales, and Oxford University, he became a Protestant minister, but being dissatisfied with the religion was received into the Church abroad, and returned as a priest on the English Mission. His zeal for souls was soon well known, and in 1635 and again in 1639 he was apprehended, but each time discharged. In 1640 he was again taken, and tried, and condemned. Charles I, however, interfered, and changed the death sentence into that of perpetual banishment, or imprisonment, on the ground that none had been condemned fot merely being a priest, nor had Goodman been before condemned for perverting the people in their belief. To this message of the King the Lords and Commons replied by a vehement remonstrance, urging the sentence of death to be carried out. Charles made answer that, being pressed by both Houses, he would leave the case to their decision, and so washed his hands of the matter. Goodman, however, petitioned the King that, since the suspension of his execution caused such discontent, the law might take its course. In consequence, apparently, of this magnanimity, he was allowed to linger in prison, and died in Newgate 1645.

"And he said, Take me up and cast me into the sea, and the sea shall be calm to you ; for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you."—JONAS i. 12.

Venerable Thomas Felton, Layman, 1588

2006-08-31T14:20:00.000-07:00

THE TABERNACLE OF KORE

A MARTYR himself and the son of a martyr, his father having suffered for putting up St. Pius V's Bull of excommunication, he was apprehended as a suspected Papist for the third time, though but a layman, when only twenty years of age. Tortured in the "Little Ease," starved, hanged up by the hands till the blood sprang from his finger ends, he remained steadfast. Upon a Sunday he was violently taken by certain officers and carried betwixt two, fast bound in a chair, into the chapel at Bridewell to their service. He, having his hands at first at liberty, stopped his ears with his fingers that he might not hear what the minister said. Then they bound down his hands also to the chair ; but being set down to the ground, bound in the manner aforesaid, he stamped with his feet, and made that noise with his mouth, shouting and hallowing, and crying oftentimes, " Jesus, Jesus," that the minister's voice could not be heard. Asked by the judge if he acknowledged the Queen's supremacy, he made answer that " he had read divers chronicles, but never read that God ordained a woman should be supreme head of the Church." For this speech he was condemned, and hung the next day near Hounslow, Middlesex.

" Depart from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be involved in their sins."—NUM. xvi. 26

+ Saint MARGARET WARD, 1588

2006-08-30T11:25:00.000-07:00

VISITING THE PRISONER
Biography

WILLIAM WATSON, a secular priest, being apprehended, through force of torment went to the Protestant Church once. Struck with remorse in the midst of the Protestant congregation, he repaired the scandal he had there given by recanting his conformity, and declaring that theirs was not the service of God, but was in truth the service of the devil. For this he was again imprisoned, and was continually plied with threats and promises to urge him to go again to church. The Catholics feared for his constancy, but dared not, for their own safety, approach him, till a gentlewoman, Margaret Ward, determined to make the attempt. Disguised and carrying a basket of provisions, she for a month visited the prison, being always closely searched. At length she managed to convey him a cord, and with this he effected his. escape ; but in his haste and danger he left the cord hanging from the window of his prison. Margaret, being his only visitor, was therefore apprehended, hung up by the hands, and cruelly scourged. On her trial she admitted her part in the prisoner's escape, and rejoiced " in having delivered an innocent lamb from the hands of bloody wolves." Offered her pardon if she would go to church, she refused, and was executed, showing to the end great constancy, August 30, Tyburn,

" I was in prison, and you visited me."— MATT. XXV. 36.

+ Blessed RICHARD HERST, Layman, 1628

2006-08-29T11:10:00.000-07:00

MURDER FOR EXAMPLE

Biography

A CONVICTED recusant, he was ploughing his field when one Dewhurst came to serve him with a warrant. Herst fled, and Dewhurst, following in pursuit, received a blow from Herst's maid, and afterwards in the heat of the pursuit fell and broke his leg. From that wound in the leg he died, yet Herst, who had never been within thirty yards of him, was charged with his death. Herst's pardon was offered him if he would take the oath, but he refused, and he declined also to go to church, so he was trailed there by his legs and much hurt. In the church he stopped his ears, not to hear false doctrine, and, on returning, said, " They have tortured my body, but, thank God, they have not hurt my soul." At his trial at Lancaster, though his innocence of Dewhurst's death was evident, the judge told the jury that he was a recusant, had resisted the Bishop's authority, and that they must find it murder for an example, which was done. At the gallows he said to the hangman, who was bungling with the rope, " Tom, I think I must come and help you." Then, after repeating the holy names of Jesus and Mary, he passed to immortality, Lancaster, August 29.

" Cursed shalt thou be upon the earth, which hath opened her mouth and received the blood of thy brother at thy hand."—GEN. iv. II, 12.

+ Venerable Edmund Arrowsmith, SJ, 1628

2006-08-28T10:59:00.000-07:00

STRIKING THEIR BREASTS
Biography

HE was sentenced at Lancaster for being a priest, a Jesuit, and a persuader of religion, and the judge ordered that he was to be hung at noon, when most men would be at dinner ; but as it fell out the whole place of execution was covered with great multitudes of people of all sorts, ages, sexes, and religions, expecting the end of the tragedy. As he was carried through the castle yard, Father Southworth, his fellow-prisoner under reprieve, appeared at the prison window and received his absolution. He was then bound on the hurdle, with his head towards the horse's tail, " for greater ignominy." Most of his friends were prevented to approach him, and the executioner went before the horse and hurdle with a club in his hand in a kind of barbarous triumph. On the scaffold he refused to save his life by taking the oath, professed that he died for the Catholic faith, and prayed for the conversion of England. His last words, as he was cast off the ladder, were "Bone jesu." Divers Protestants, beholders of this bloody spectacle, wished their souls with his. Others wished they had never come there. Others said it was a barbarous act to use men so for their religion.

"And all the multitude of them that were come together to that sight, and saw the things that were done, returned striking their breasts." —LUKE xxiii. 48.

See also Arrowsmith House.

Venerable ROGER CADWALLADOR, Priest, 1610

2006-08-27T10:48:00.000-07:00

GLORIFYING GOD

Biography

When he was near his crown he wrote, "Comfort yourselves, my friends, in this that I die in an assurance of salvation ; which, if you truly love me as you ought to do, should please you better than to have me alive a little while among you for your content, and then to die with great uncertainty either to be saved or damned. If this manner of death be shameful, yet not more than my Saviour's was : if it be painful, yet not more than was His. Only have you care to persevere in God's true faith and charity, and then we shall meet again to our greater comfort that shall never end." On the morning of his execution, having spent some five hours in prayer, he took some broth and claret, to make himself strong, he said, like Bishop Fisher, to suffer for God, and dressed himself in a new suit of clothes as his wedding garment. On the scaffold, asked to give his opinion as to the oath, he replied that his opinion mattered little; they should regard rather the sentiments of the Church, for his swearing would neither diminish the Pope's authority nor increase the King's. His constancy under the terrible butchery which attended his end confirmed the faith of the Herefordshire Catholics.

" But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief . . . but if as a Christian let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in His Name." —1 PET. iv. 15, 16.

+ BISHOP THIRLBY OF ELY, 1570 ,

2006-08-26T15:25:00.000-07:00

CHEERFUL IN ADVERSITY

Biography

HE was absent on an Embassy in France on Elizabeth's accession. On April 2,1559, he concluded the treaty of Cateau Cambresis, and on his return to England he at once joined the other Bishops in opposition to the Bill of Royal Supremacy. He refused the oath and was deposed July 5,1559, was committed to the Tower June 3, 1560, and endured there the miseries of close and separate confinement until September 1563, when the plague was raging. Elizabeth was then at Windsor Castle, and there was set up, Stowe writes, in the market-place of Windsor a new gallows to hang up all such as came there from London, so that no person might come from London upon pain of hanging without judgment. With this panic at Court the Protestant Bishops were naturally uneasy at receiving orders to house the illustrious prisoners from the town. Thirlby was allotted to Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, and wrote to him cheerfully that he was an unbidden guest, who, according to the proverb, " wotteth not where to sit," and that he doubted how to travel without danger because of the plague. Yet" need maketh the old wife trot." Dr. Thirlby remained unshaken in Parker's custody for seven years, when, stricken by grave illness, he was released by death.

"According to the multitude of the sorrows of my heart thy comforts have given joy to my soul."—Ps. xciii. 19.

Matthew Parker first protestant Archbishop of Canterbury. It is often said that the term "nosey Parker" comes from him, as he was always making inquiry into business that was not his own.

Feast of Blessed Thomas Percy

2006-08-26T13:48:00.000-07:00

In November 1569, Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland, and Charles Neville, 6th and last Earl of Westmoreland, rebelled against Queen Elizabeth.

In November 1569, Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland, and Charles Neville, 6th and last Earl of Westmoreland, rebelled against Queen Elizabeth. Their aim was to reestablish the Catholic Religion. After an initial success in which the earls took Durham, the Rising of the Earls was subdued. In December 1569, both earls fled over the border into Scotland. Westmoreland was alone, Northumberland was accompanied by his wife Anne, a daughter of Henry Beaufort-Somerset, 2nd Earl of Worcester.

Northumberland was soon betrayed by his Scottish hosts and sold to the English. He was subsequently put to trial and executed in York in August 1572. He is considered to be a martyr by the Catholic Church and was officially beatified in the 19th century.

In the Summer of 1570, the earl of Westmoreland, fearing that the same betrayal might also happen to him, left Scotland for Flanders. There he would remain in exile until his death in November 1601. He lived in great poverty and would never see his wife (d. 1593) and four daughters again. The eldest daughter, Margaret Neville (b. 1564), was herself tried in 1594 and sentenced to death for having been found in the company of a Catholic priest. She was, however, pardoned.

Anne, the Countess of Northumberland, also left Scotland and travelled to Flanders. She had given birth to a baby in Old Aberdeen on 11 June 1570 and on 23 August boarded a ship, arriving with her baby at Bruges on 31 August 1570. In Flanders, she was to live in various places, i.a. Malines (1572), Brussels (1574), Liege (1575). She died at Namur on 17 October 1596.

Sir Cuthbert Sharp in his 1840 account of « The Rising in the North ; The 1569 Rebellion » mentions Thomas Percy and his wife as having one son, « Thomas, died young (1560) », and four daughters : « Elizabeth, m. Richard Woodroffe, of Wolley, co. York », « Lucy, m. Sir Edward Stanley, of Eynsham, co. Oxon. », « Jane, m. Lord Henry Seymour », and « Mary, who on the authority of a MS belonging to the English Benedictine Dames (formerly at Bruxelles, now at Winchester) printed in the Catholic Magazine for August 1838, was born on the 11th of June 1570. After the death of the Countess, she came into the low countries, to take possession of what was left her by her mother, but more by her desire to dedicate herself to the service of God, in Holy religion. She became the founder of the Benedictine Dames, at Bruxelles.
» (Sharpe, pp 349-350)

If this is true - Mary, being born on 11 June 1570 and coming to Flanders after the death of her mother in 1596 - it means that her mother must have left her newborn child behind in Scotland when she departed for Flanders in August 1570. However, all sources indicate that she took her child along with her.

The Earl and Countess of Northumberland in November 1569 had left a number of their toddlers behind in their house in Topcliffe in Yorkshire. The rebellious earls, moving in from the North had hoped to take Yorkshire very easily and the Earl and Countess of Northumberland had planned to join their children there. But events turned out otherwise and the rebels fled to Scotland. The children were captured in Topcliffe by their uncle, Henry Percy, the later 8th Earl of Northumberland. To the surprise of his brother, Henry sided with Queen Elizabeth during the rebellion and moved his soldiers against the rebels. He was afterwards rewarded for this loyalty with his brother's earldom. Henry Percy wrote to the Earl of Sussex on 9 January 1570 that « Passing by the younge ladys, I founde them in harde case. They wolde gladly be removyde ». He took them along and raised them within his own family, which soon moved to the Percy castle at Petworth.

Edward Barrington de Fonblanque writes in his book « Annals of the House of Percy » that four daughters survived the 7th Earl of Northumberland. Fonblanque mentions five children (p. 125) : 1. Elizabeth, the eldest (b. 1559), m. Richard Woodruffe of Wolley 2. Thomas (b. 1560, d. 1560) 3. Mary (b. 1563, d. 1643), founder of the Benedictine Dames at Brussels 4. Lucy, m. Sir Edward Stanley of Eynsham 5 . Jane, the youngest daughter, m. Lord Henry Seymour He does not mention a sixth child, born in Old Aberdeen on 11.6.1570, and explicitly states Jane to be « the youngest daughter », while Mary, founder of the English convent in Brussels, is the second daughter, born in 1563.

Fonblanque, who had access to the family archives of the Percies at Syon House and Alnwick Castle, wrote his book in 1887. The genealogical annex of the book, however, gives a totally different version than the text. Here, Mary, second daughter, is stated to have married Sir Thomas Grey of Wark, while there is a sixth child, a second Mary (« Maria »), born on 11.6.1570, who is said to have been the founder of the Brussels Benedictine convent.

In 1902 Gerald Brenan published his « History of the House of Percy ». Brenan complains that he was denied access to the Percy archives : « The present Duke of Northumberland objected to further search among the documentary collection of Alnwick Castle and Sion House as unnecessary » (Brenan, vol. 1, p. XVI), causing Brenan to rely heavily on Fonblanque's Annals, « a work prepared practically under the eye of the late Duke of Northumberland, and largely from original sources. » (ib.) Brenan also mentions two Marys, one married to Thomas Grey of Wark, the other becoming a Benedictine nun in Brussels. However, he notices that something must be wrong there and states that Fonblanque and others often confuse the first « Mary » with the second « Maria ».

I am told that Burke in his older editions also mentions a « Mary » married to Thomas Grey of Wark, as well as a « Maria », founder of the Brussels convent. In later editions, however, Burke omits the first Mary (b. 1563) and retains only the latter, which then becomes Northumberland's youngest daughter.

In September 1591, Charles Paget, an English Catholic exile in Antwerp, writes a letter to the Percy family in London, to announce that the Countess of Northumberland has died and that her youngest daughter Jane is urgently requested to come to Flanders in order to collect her mother's belongings. The Countess only died in 1596. Paget's letter is a ruse to get the youngest daughter, Jane, over to Flanders. Brenan does not know what to make of this letter, thinking that the youngest daughter, Mary, is already in Flanders. He writes : « Paget appears to have forgotten lady Maria. The latter had been her mother's companion and solace from the time, twenty years before, when they left Old Aberdeen together. Lady Mary had surely the best right to what little the Countess left ».

But in reality, lady Mary (b. 1563), had not left Scotland with her mother in 1570. She came to Flanders many years later, as is stated on her epitaph in Brussels : « hic jacet domina Maria Percy filia Thomae Percy Northumbriae comitis, quae fidei confessione in Anglia carceribus diu toleratis in Belgio exul hoc nobilium virginum coenibium sub regula S. Patris Benedicti, propriis amicorumque, ejus instinctu, denariis struxit. Obiit XIII september anno MDCXLII R.I.P. » « Here lies lady Mary Percy, daughter of Thomas Percy, Earl of Northumberland. Because of her faith she suffered imprisonment in England for a long time and came as an exile to the Netherlands where she founded this convent for noble women under the rule of St. Benedict, which convent was founded on her initiative and with her money and that of her friends. She died 13.9.1642. May she rest in peace. »

According to some sources, she was 80 years old when she died, which is correct if she was born in 1562-63. The « long imprisonment in England » which the epitaph mentions (« in Anglia carceribus diu toleratis »), probably refers to the unhappy period of her life that she lived in her uncle's household in Petworth. After her mother's death, Mary Percy in 1599 founded the English Benedictine convent in Brussels. She was chosen as abbess of the convent and never returned to England. In « Gallia Christiana », vol. V, pp. 59-60, we read : « Haec abbatia ord. S. Benedicti initia sua debet nobili domicellae Mariae Percy filiae Thomae comitis de Northumberland in Anglia Martyrio coronati, quae cum ob fidem catholicam e domo paterna fugisset. » : « This abbey of St. Benedict was founded by lady Mary Percy, daughter of Thomas, Earl of Northumberland, who died in England as a martyr. She fled her paternal home because of her Catholic faith. » Here again, we have to conclude that Mary (Maria) Percy, founder of the English Benedictine Dames at Brussels, was raised in her uncle's household at her father's house in Petworth, and that she can not have been the child born on 11.6.1570 in Old Aberdeen.

As far as I know, there are no documents (unless maybe in the Percy family archives in Alnwick or Sion House ?) stating who this mysterious child is. When the child was baptised, its sex was not mentioned on the certificate. This could have been done on purpose, which makes sense if the baby was a boy and an heir to the 7th Earl of Northumberland. That would also explain why the Countess of Northumberland felt unsafe in Scotland and almost immediately after its birth left for Flanders. It also explains why in 1902 the Duke of Northumberland was reluctant to open the Percy family archives to Brenan when he wanted to investigate the confusion surrounding the two Marys, and why Fonblanque, being under scrutiny of the Duke of Northumberland in 1887 inserts a genealogical annex to his book that is totally different from his book's account.

On 13 August 1620, a certain John Percy receives an official recognition of his nobility from the Spanish authorities in Brussels. He claims to be « fils de Jean Piercy, d'extraction angloise, et de Judoca Reygers » : « son of John Percy, of English origin, and Judoca Reygers ». An abbreviated copy from ca 1675 of this document can be found in the Royal Library in Brussels. The original was lost in 1695 in the great fire of Brussels, when the French army bombarded the town and the whole city center was demolished. According to his descendants, this Jean (John) Piercy, who married Judoca Reygers, was the son of Thomas Percy and came with his mother to Flanders. He married a daughter of the wealthy Reygers family. It was the same Brussels family that financially helped to sponsor the English Benedictine convent, founded by Mary Percy. One of the patrons of the convent was lady Agatha Reygers.

Around 1670, one of the grandsons of Percy-Reygers, Don Carlos Piercy, a knight in the service of the Spanish King, left for England to defend his family's claim to the earldom of Northumberland, but he failed in his duties. In his book « Armorial General de la Noblesse Belge » Baron de Rijckman de Betz writes : « Charles Percy fut envoye en Angleterre, vers 1670, pour veiller aux droits de sa famille et negligea tout, sauf de dissiper en folles depenses les sommes dont-on l'avait muni. » Today, members of the Percy (or « Persy ») family still live in the Aarschot region, between Malines, Louvain and Brussels. They are lower middle class people, but claim to be direct descendants in the male line of the great Harry Hotspur and of the Blessed Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland.

Venerable Charles Baker, SJ, 1679

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REPROACHED FOR CHRIST

Biography

Born of Protestant parents in Monmouthshire, he was reconciled at the age of nineteen, when a law student in London. Ordained at the English College, Rome, he entered the Society, and was sent on the English Mission in 1648. For thirty-one years he toiled for souls, fearless in dangers, patient in suffering, till his apprehension, November 19, 1678. While in the hands of his captors he was summoned to a dying priest, Father Ignatius Price, who was sinking from hunger and cold and the hardships of a hunted life, but he could only send him his best wishes for eternity, and after three days Father Price died. At Monmouth Father Baker, in spite of a brilliant defence, was condemned and sent up to London, where Lord Shaftesbury suggested to him to save his life and improve his fortune by revealing something of the plot or conforming in religion ; but he refused, for of the plot he knew nothing, and to conform would be against his conscience. On the scaffold he forgave his persecutors, and to the Catholics he said : " Fear God, honour the King. Be firm in your faith ; bear patiently persecutions, always remembering St. Peter's words, that reproach borne not for any evil thing, but for Christ's sake, is a blessing." He suffered at Usk, August 27, 1679."

If you be reproached for the name of Christ you shall be blessed : for that which is the honour of God resteth on you."—1 Pet. iv. 14.

Venerable JOHN WALL, OSF, 1679

2006-08-24T02:44:00.000-07:00

A VOLUNTARY OFFERING

Biography

ON hearing his sentence he made a bow, and said aloud, " Thanks be to God. God save the King. I beseech God to bless your Lordship and all this honourable bench." The judge answered, " You have spoken very well. I do not intend that you should die, at least not for the present, until I know the King's further pleasure." Father Wall writes : " I was not, I thank God for it, troubled with any disturbing thoughts, either against the judge for his sentence, or the jury that gave in such a verdict, or against any of the witnesses; for I was then of the same mind, as by God's grace I ever shall be, esteeming them all the best friends to me, in all they did or said, that ever I had in my life. And I was, I thank God, so present with myself whilst the judge pronounced the sentence that without any concern for anything in this world I did actually at the same time offer myself and the world to God." After five months' delay he was executed at Worcester, and was much rejoiced at being, as he was, the first martyr in that city. He had been arrested on the Oates Plot after twenty-two years on the Mission, and was offered his life if he would apostatise.

"He was offered, because it was His own will."—ISA. liii. 7.

Venerable JOHN KEMBLE, Priest, 1679

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THE CROWN OF DIGNITY

HE was eighty years old, and had toiled on the Mission for fifty-four years, when he was taken at Pembridge Castle, Herefordshire, by Captain Scudamore.

Disguised altar used at Pembridge Castle

Though warned of his coming seizure, he said, "As he had but a few years to live he would gain by suffering for the faith, and therefore would not abscond. He was committed to Hereford gaol, ordered up to London, and thence back to Hereford. In this last journey he suffered terribly from a painful malady, which necessitated him riding sideways. In prison he was frequently visited by Captain Scudamore's children, and he gave them many good things, their father being, he said, his best friend. On the scaffold he said, " It will be expected I should say something; but as I am an old man it cannot be much. Not having any concern in the plot, neither believing there is any, I die only for the old Roman Catholic religion, which first made England Christian, and whosoever would be saved must die therein. I beg pardon of all I have offended, and forgive those that have caused my death." From the local tradition that he smoked on his long walk to the gallows, the last pipe of the evening has been called the "Kemble pipe."

" Old age is a crown of dignity when it is found in the ways of justice."—PROV. xvi. 31.

More background including a modern pilgrimage.

+ Blessed WILLIAM LACY, Priest, 1582

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THE HOLY HOUSE OF LORETO

DRIVEN from York, where he held a high judicial post, hunted from place to place, penniless through fines for recusancy, as an aged widower he was ordained priest at Rome. At Loreto, on his way to England, he wrote, " I wish to take my leave of you once more with this letter, as I do not know whether it may be the last. We arrived on Tuesday at this holy house, where my companions and I served the Lord in his own home, and at the shrine of His most holy Mother. At this we all experienced an extraordinary consolation, though indeed we felt much spiritual joy throughout the journey. I am particularly charmed with the devotion and zeal of my companions, and with the holy communings in which we pass our days. Indeed, it seems to me that I take my part with them in that sweet harmony. I frequently exclaim in my heart, ' Is Saul also amongst the prophets?' and I remind myself of the disciples' words : ' Was not our hearts burning when He spoke with us upon the way ?'" On being sentenced, the aged confessor said, " It is only paying the common debt a little sooner ; we will go into the house of the Lord." He suffered at York, August 22, 1582.

"This is no other but the house of God and the gate of Heaven."—GEN. xxviii. 17.

Blessed THOMAS PERCY, Layman., 1572

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THE FRIDAY ABSTINENCE

Biography

TORN from his friends and followers, from his wife and his four little girls, and betrayed into the hands of a declared enemy, B. Thomas in his captivity at Lochleven had indeed " sunk into deep waters among them that hated him " (Ps. Ixviii.). But he found strength from above in his continual fasts and watchings and pious meditations, and proved himself a true champion of the faith. His Calvinist keeper, the Lord of Lochleven, brought many of his sect to try and persuade him, by cunning argument and speeches or by threats and promises, to embrace their errors, but he could never be persuaded to depart in the smallest matter from the Communion of the Catholic Church. When, as often happened, meat was brought to him on days which Catholics observe as a fast, he contented himself with bread alone ; and by his example moved some of those attending on him to repent of their apostasy. The fortitude he thus acquired found a witness in Lord Hunsdon, who reported "that he is readier to talk of hawks and hounds than anything else, though very sorrowful and fearing for his life."

"Eleazer, one of the chief of the scribes, was pressed to eat swine's flesh. But he, choosing rather a most glorious death than a hateful life, went forward voluntarily to the torment."—2 MACH. vi. 18, 19

Blessed THOMAS PERCY, Layman, 1572

2006-08-20T14:45:00.000-07:00

Biography

20 THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER

A GALLANT sight must have been the men of the Rising on the march. Nobles, knights with their tenants equipped for war, labourers and peasants unarmed but stout of heart, all wearing the Red Cross, their Standard the Five Sacred Wounds ; its bearer, the grey-haired Richard Norton, late High Sheriff of Yorkshire. Among their chaplains, B. Thomas Plumtree, and heading the force the Earl and his brave-hearted Countess. They advanced as far south as Clifford Moor, near Wetherby, but their divided counsels and want of supplies forced them to retire, and at the advice of the Earl, anxious to avoid useless bloodshed, they dispersed. The cold-blooded revenge of Elizabeth displayed at once her avarice and cruelty. The gentlemen and yeomen were allowed to escape with a fine, but the peasants were hung by hundreds. The Earl fled to Scotland, and, consenting to meet an envoy from the Regent, was treacherously captured and confined in Lochleven. Thence after two years and a half imprisonment he was handed over to Elizabeth, who thirsted for his blood, for 2000 pounds. He was conveyed to York, where, after refusing to save his life by apostasy, he won his crown, August 22, 1572.

"But they appointed him thirty pieces of silver, and from thenceforth he sought opportunity to betray Him."—MATT. xxvi. 16.

+ Venerable HUGH GREEN, Priest, 1642

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A LAMENTATION FULFILLED

Biography

"AFTER he was cut down he came to his perfect senses," writes Dame Willoughby, " and sat upright. Then the people pulled him down by the rope which was about his neck ; then did the butcher cut him open, and turned the flap upon his breast, which the holy man feeling put his hand upon his bowels, and looking on his bloody hand laid it down by his side, and lifting up his right hand crossed himself, saying three times, * Jesu, Jesu, Jesu mercy !' The which, although unworthy, I am a witness of, for my hand was on his forehead, and many Protestants heard him and took great notice of it; for all the Catholics were pressed away by the unruly multitude except myself, who never left him until his head was severed from his body. Whilst he was thus calling upon Jesus, the butcher did pull a piece of his liver out instead of his heart, then with his knife raked on the body of the blessed martyr, who even then called on Jesus, and his forehead sweat, then it was cold, presently again burned ; his eyes, nose, and mouth ran with with blood and water. His patience was admirable, though his inward groans gave signs of those lamentable torments which for more than half-an-hour he suffered."

" My eyes have failed with weeping, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured out upon the earth."—-LAM. ii. 11.

Venerable ROGER CADWALLADOR, Priest, 1610

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THE ETERNAL PRIESTHOOD

A NATIVE of Herefordshire, very learned and a noted Greek scholar, he began his priestly labours in England about 1594, and during sixteen years won many souls to the Church. Apprehended on Easter Day, in the house of Mrs. Winefride Scroope, near Hereford, he acknowledged to the Protestant Bishop that he was a priest, and added that he supposed that this would not be against him with the Bishop, whose special concern it was to maintain the sacerdotal dignity. " For, my Lord, either you must admit yourself to be a priest, or I can prove you to be no Bishop." The Bishop insisted that Christ was the only sacrificing priest of the New Testament, in that sense of the word, which is not common to all Christians, and hoped thus to free himself from being a priest. On which the Martyr replied, " Make that good, I pray you, my Lord, for so you will prove that I am no more a priest than other men, and consequently no traitor or offender against your law"; on which one, Holkins, to cover the Bishop's disgrace, said that the King himself had said that these kind of men were so numerous that he should never have done if he put them all to death.

"But this (Jesus) for that He continueth for ever hath an everlasting priesthood."—HEBR. vii. 24

Venerable THOMAS HOLFORD, Priest, 1588

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A HUNTED LIFE

THE son of a Protestant minister in Cheshire, he was reconciled by Father Davis, and ordained, and his life as a priest seems to have been a fulfilment of the Gospel precept of flight under persecution. " He was first searched for," says Father Davis, "in the house where I lay, on All Souls' Day, but escaped. Again, after being nearly taken in the search for Babington, he repaired again to a house where I was staying, but we escaped to a hay-barn, through a secret place at the foot of the stairs. He then laboured for souls in his own county, Cheshire, was apprehended, sent to London, and lodged in an inn at Holborn. Then, rising early, he managed to pass the pursuivants, who had drunk hard and were asleep. On Holborn Viaduct he met a Catholic gentleman, who, seeing him half-dressed, thought him a madman. Pulling off his yellow stocking and white boot-hose, he walked barefoot by unfrequented paths till he arrived, late at night, at a house where I lay, about eight miles from London. He had eaten nothing, and his feet were bleeding and torn with briars and thorns. My hosts and their daughters tended him and put him to bed. The next year he was apprehended, and executed, August 28, at Clerkenwell."

" They wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, being in want, distressed, afflicted, of whom the world was not worthy."—HEB. xi.37, 38.

Venerable HUGH GREEN, Priest, 1642 on the Scaffold

2006-08-16T13:22:00.000-07:00

FOUR THINGS MORE

"THERE be four things more: one God, one faith, one baptism, one Church. That there is one God we all acknowledge, in whom, from whom, and by whom all things remain and have their being. That there is one faith appears by Christ's praying that St. Peter's faith (He said not faiths) should never fail; and He promised to be with it to the end of the world. That there is one baptism : we are all cleansed by the laver of water in the Word. That there is one Church, holy and sanctified : doth not St. Paul say that it is a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing? Now the marks of this Church are sanctity, unity, antiquity, universality, which all of us in all points of faith believe. But some will say we are fallen off from this Church of Rome, but in what pope's time, in what prince's reign, or what are the errors, none can discover. No, this holy Church of Christ did never err. By the law I am now to die for being a priest. Judge you, can these new laws overthrow the authority of God's Church ? Nevertheless, I forgive you, and pray God for all."

"That they may be one, as we also are one."—JOHN xvii. 22.

Venerable HUGH GREEN, Priest, 1642 on the Scaffold

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THE FOUR LAST THINGS

"THERE be four principal things which all men ought to remember : death, judgment, Heaven and Hell. Death is a horror to nature, but that which followeth is much more terrible, viz. judgment, if we die not as we ought; and as we dispose ourselves to good or evil in this life, so shall the measure of our punishment or glory succeed. I am here condemned to die for my religion and for being a priest: we know there must be priests, for God, foretelling of the Church by the prophets, saith, 'Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech' (Ps. cix.). 'And from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof, there shall be a clean sacrifice offered in My Name (Mai. i.11). Now'four things are to be considered : a God, a sacrifice, a priest, a man : such am I, and therefore I must die. Wherefore do we receive holy unction and are made priests but to offer sacrifice to God ? But I am condemned for -being ordained by the See of Rome. St. Paul saith, 'the Romans have the Catholic faith' and gives God thanks that their faith and his were one, of which Catholic faith I am."

"In all thy works remember thy last end and thou shalt never sin."—ECCLUS. vii. 40

Venerable HUGH GREEN, Priest, 1642

2006-08-14T12:58:00.000-07:00

ABSOLVED FROM AFAR

BORN in London, and a convert from Cambridge, he was arrested in attempting to leave England, in consequence of King Charles I's banishment of priests, and sentenced after five months' imprisonment. Dame Bridgette Willoughby, an eye-witness, says, that "his devotion on his way to death was most edifying. He was taken from the hurdle and kept on the hill at some distance from the scaffold until three poor women were hanged. Two of them had sent him word the night before that they would die in his faith. This comforted him much, for he had done his utmost to speak with them, but failed. They therefore sent again to desire him that when they had made a confession of their sinful lives at the foot of the gallows, on their making the sign he should absolve them. This with great joy iin his heart, and much benefit (as it is hoped) on theirs, was performed. They then turned their faces towards us, and throwing forth their arms cried out to him, ' God be with you, sir,' and so died. But the third woman turned from us towards the press of people, her face or speech never tending towards us."

" The Spirit breatheth where He will."—JOHN iii. 8.

Feast of St Eusebius

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Protector of the Icon of our Lady of Consolation, long venerated in England.

Cardinal Manning on

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"Hindrances to the Spread of the Catholic Church in England

In a series of autobiographical Notes, written in the summer of 1890, Cardinal Manning entered into a most searching inquiry into the 'Hindrances' which stand in the way of the spread of Catholicism in England. In these Notes Cardinal Manning relates, with admirable force and directness, the difficulties which he had to encounter, not so much from opposition on the part of the people of England, as from apathy, ignorance, and prejudice on the part of Catholics themselves. Although written more than a century ago, the essence of what he says could be applied today and for that reason it merits an attentive reading.

July 19th 1890.
A still greater obstacle to the spread of the Faith is the shallowness of our preaching. This appears to me to come - first, from a want of wise choice of the subjects we preach upon; and, secondly, from a shallow mode of treatment.
As to the choice of subjects: compare the Epistles of St. Paul with a volume of modern sermons. The chief and prominent topics of St. Paul are - God, the Incarnation, the Holy Ghost, that is, the Eternal Truths from which all other truths descend. These are always present. Whatever details follow, they are as consequence from the theology, which is always present as the sun at noonday.
St. Paul tells the Corinthians that he knew nothing among them but ' Jesus Christ and Him crucified.' This truth contains and justifies the whole faith and piety of the Gospel. But how often do we hear it preached upon? If the great Truths are not perpetually held up, all consequent truths seem to be arbitrary and mere assertion; e.g. the title 'Mother of God' is incomprehensible without the explicit knowledge of the Incarnation, and the Incarnation itself without the explicit knowledge of the Holy Trinity.

A French priest of Pontigny published a book on " The Deified Soul " of our Lord, because he had found the Apollinarian heresy so widely held by pious Catholics. The articles of the Apostolic Creed ought to be so continually held up before the intelligence of the faithful that all other subjects, such as the dignity and sanctification of the Blessed Virgin, the real and substantial presence of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, may be seen to be direct and evident consequences.

There is also a majesty and greatness in these divine and eternal realities that subdue and attract the intellect and conscience. It would seem inevitable that our preachers should preach the Gospel in all its length and truth and depth and height.

The confraternities of the Sacred Heart and the Most Precious Blood, the devotion of the Five Sacred Wounds, the mysteries of the Rosary and the Crucifix, all are the Gospel in its fullness. So also the work of the Holy Ghost, the Sanctifier and the Absolver, with the Sacrament of Penance, enable us to preach and to out-preach all Evangelists, Methodists, and Salvationists that were made. Why then do we not draw men as Spurgeon and "General" Booth or Hugh Price Hughes? I am afraid that there are two obvious reasons. We choose topics unwisely, and we are not on fire with the love of God of souls.

Nevertheless, when we give retreats or missions our priests preach the Eternal Truths and the Gospel as fully and as powerfully as anybody. But why reserve these vital and sovereign Truths to once a year? Surely they ought to be proclaimed "upon the housetops." If they were, the English people would feel that we are more scriptural and more evangelical than their own preachers. When we preach pieties and controversies it does not touch their souls. They are neither won nor moved by us. But surely we ought to win and move, and draw and soften the souls of men as our Lord did, and by the same truths. His preaching of the Eternal Truth was "as fire, and as the hammer that breaketh the rocks in pieces."

So also was the preaching of the Apostles, when they preached in the name of Jesus. This preaching converted the world, and no other will convert England. The English people as a whole, still believe in our Lord, His love, His passion, His absolution, His most Precious Blood - and also in repentance, grace, and conversion. Why do not we meet these Truths in their minds and the needs of their souls, by offering to them all these things in greater freshness and beauty? They come to hear us hoping for these things, and they go empty away, saying that our preaching does not come home to them, and is not what they need. When we have got them to confession we can teach them Rosaries and the use of Holy Water.

The other cause of our shallowness is our shallow treatment of the subject we have chosen. No doubt overwork is the reason with some. But a priest who is overworked in the saving of souls can never be much at a loss to preach the Gospel. He is always habitually speaking of God, His will, His kingdom, and he has only to think aloud. Our difficulty is in ourselves. It is what we are that preaches, and we are not only what we know but what we feel, what we realise, what by experience has become a part of ourselves.

Every man speaks readily of that which chiefly fills his mind. If we lived more for God, with God, and in God, we should have little difficulty of speaking about Him. But is this true of us? Even good priests preach daily: and choose dogmatic or moral subjects rather than mystical or ascetic. By mystical I do not mean in the sense of St. Teresa’s visions – but on such texts as Quam magna multitudo, etc., or Gustate et videte quonium suavis est Dominus. Is not this because our wells are shallow, or dry?

Another cause is hurry and haste. I have known men who have not even chosen their subjects or their text until they are on their way to the church. Surely this is tempting God; if not doing His work deceitfully. Others again take the first subject that comes to their mind, or that comes most easily to them because they have so often talked about it. But surely we ought first to think about what our people most need."

Prayer to Our Lady of Walsingham

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for the Conversion of England.

The conversion of England was long dreamed about by St. Paul of the Cross. We too should pray daily for the return of England to the One True Church.

"O Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and our own most gentle Queen and Mother, look down in mercy upon England, thy Dowry, and upon us all who greatly hope and trust in thee. Through thee it was that Jesus our Saviour and our Hope was given unto the world; and he hath given thee to us that we might hope still more. Plead for us thy children, whom thou didst receive and accept at the foot of the Cross, O sorrowful Mother. Intercede for our separated English brethren, that they may be united with us in the one true Fold. Pray for us all, dear Mother, that by faith fruitful in good works, we may all deserve to see and praise God together with thee in our heavenly home. Amen."

Other prayers for the Conversion of England.

O MERCIFUL God, let the glorious intercession of Thy saints assist us, particularly the most blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Thy only-begotten Son, and Thy holy Apostles, Peter and Paul, to whose patronage we humbly recommend this country. Be mindful of our fathers, Eleutherius, Celestine, and Gregory, bishops of the Holy City; of Augustine, Columba, and Aidan, who delivered to us inviolate the faith of the Holy Roman Church. Remember our holy martyrs, who shed their blood for Christ: especially our first martyr, Saint Alban, and Thy most glorious bishop, Saint Thomas of Canterbury. Remember all those holy confessors; bishops, and kings, all those holy monks and hermits, all those holy virgins and widows, who made this once an island of saints, illustrious by their glorious merits and virtues. Let not their memory perish from before Thee, O Lord, but let their supplication enter daily into Thy sight; and do Thou, who didst so often spare Thy sinful people for the sake of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, now, also, moved by the prayers of our fathers, reigning with Thee, have mercy upon us, save Thy people, and bless Thy inheritance; and suffer not those souls to perish, which Thy Son hath redeemed with His own most Precious Blood, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, world without end. Amen.

Let us pray.
O most loving Lord Jesus, Who, hanging on the Cross, didst commend us all in the person of Thy disciple John, to Thy most sweet Mother, that we might find in her our refuge, our solace, and our hope; look graciously upon our beloved country, and on those who are bereaved of so powerful a patronage; that, acknowledging once more the dignity of this holy Virgin, they may honour and venerate her with all affection of devotion, and own her as Queen and Mother. May her sweet name be lisped by the little ones, and linger on the lips of the aged and the dying; and may it be invoked by the afflicted, and hymned by the joyful; that this Star of the Sea being their protection and their guide, all may come to the harbour of eternal salvation. Who livest and reignest, world without end. Amen.

Blessed THOMAS PERCY, Layman, 1572

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CLEANSING THE TEMPLE

THE first act of B. Thomas with his companions and followers on entering Durham was to seize the Cathedral and purge it of every heretical token. The Communion table was broken up, the Protestant Bible and Book of Common Prayer were burnt. The Catholic revival spread far and wide with marvelous speed.

Altars were erected, holy water-stoups replaced, and everything prepared for the Holy Sacrifice. On Sunday, St. Andrew's Day 1569, the first High Mass was sung, the whole official choir assisting in the thronged Cathedral, and the reconciliation of Durham to the Church was crowned on December 4, then the second Sunday in Advent, by the priest F. Holmes bearing special faculties from Rome. Mounting the pulpit after preaching on the state of heresy and schism in the religion established by law, he exhorted his hearers to submit once more to the Holy See and to kneel down in proof thereof. He then publicly absolved the prostrate crowd, from their censure, and reconciled them to the Catholic Church. Holy Mass was then offered in reparation and thanksgiving.

"In the same day wherein the heathen had defiled it was it dedicated anew with canticles and harps and lutes and cymbals. And all the people fell upon their faces and adored and blessed up to Heaven Him that had prospered them." 1 MACH. iv. 54, 55.

We even know the identity of the organist at these Masses, one John Brimley.

His gravestone in the Galilee Chapel says:

John Brimleis body here doth li
Who praysed God with hand and voice
By musickes heavenlie harmonie
Dull myndes he maid in God rejoice
His soul into the heavens is lyft
To prayse him stil that gave the Gyft
Obiit Ao.Dni.1576 Octo.13.

List of monasteries

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dissolved by Henry VIII

Blessed THOMAS PERCY, Layman, 1572

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THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION

THE freedom to practise their religion, which Catholics had regained under Mary, was rudely swept away by Elizabeth. By the Act of Supremacy the authority of the Pope was abolished, and his jurisdiction transferred to the Crown. By the Act of Uniformity the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was prohibited, and in alj churches the Protestant Book of Common Prayer was alone to be used. Transgression of the above Acts incurred for the first offence forfeiture of property, for the second perpetual imprisonment, for the third death. Thus the sanctuaries revered for ages became empty sepulchres. The Royal Arms were substituted for the Crucifix, the images of Our Lady and the Saints were torn down, and the innumerable altars overturned and desecrated. Non-attendance at the Protestant Church was punishable with a fine ; the exercise of any priestly office with imprisonment—if repeated, with death. This sacrilegious usurpation of religious authority by the Crown, the privation of the Sacraments even at the hour of death, the absolute hopelessness of obtaining any constitutional redress, led to the Northern Rising, in which B. Thomas Percy, Earl of Northumberland, laid down his life for the faith.

"And behold our sanctuary and our beauty and our glory is laid waste, and the Gentiles have defiled them. To what end, then, should we live any longer?"—1 MACH. ii. 12.

LETTER OF POPE ST. PIUS V

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THE NORTHERN RISING

Biography of the Pope St Pius V

To the leaders of the Rising, the Earls of Westmorland and Northumberland, who sought his advice, the Pope replied as follows : "Our Lord Jesus Christ has inspired you with this resolution (which is worthy of your zeal for the Catholic faith) to endeavour, by delivering yourselves and your kingdom from a woman's passion, to restore it to its ancient obedience to the Holy Roman See. And if in maintaining the Catholic faith and authority of this Holy See your blood should be shed, it is far better to pass quickly to Eternal life than to live on in shame and ignominy to the loss of your souls, subject to a feeble woman's passion. For think not, beloved sons in Christ, that those Bishops or other leading Catholics of your country whom you mention have made an unhappy end; who for their refusal to give up their confession of the Catholic faith have been either cast into prison or unjustly visited with other penalties. For their constancy, which has been encouraged by the example (still, as we believe, effective) of the B. Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, can be praised by none as much as it deserves. Imitate this constancy yourselves. Be brave and firm in your resolve, and abandon not your undertaking through fear or threat of danger."

" Behold, He shall neither slumber nor sleep that keepeth Israel."—Ps. cxx. 4.

Venerable JOHN WOODCOCK, OSF, 1646

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FORWARD TO THE MARK

BORN in Lancashire of a Protestant father, through his mother, a pious Catholic, he was educated at St. Omer's and the English College, Rome. There he conceived the desire for a higher penitential life, and found admission with the Capuchins in Paris. "I have put on the habit,I praise sweet Jesus, almost three months," he wrote ; but his joy was short. Owing to the opposition of his relatives in England to his entering religion, and his weak health, in spite of his extraordinary piety he was dismissed the Order. He felt these reasons to be insufficient, and his aim never slackened to be a religious, and, further, to go on the English Mission. Eventually, after many difficulties, through the advocacy of his old friend Father William Anderton, a Recollect, he obtained admission into that Order. His illnesses were now frequent and grave, and he was sent to Spa for the waters. There he met with the Commissary General of his Order, and obtained at last leave to sail to England. H e had scarcely landed when he was apprehended, and, owing to the Civil War, remained for two years in Lancaster gaol, till he was sentenced and executed, and his perseverance was rewarded.

" One thing I do : forgetting the things that are behind, I press forward to the mark, to the prize of the supernal vocation of God in Christ Jesus."—PHIL. iii. 13

+ Venerable THOMAS PALASOR, Priest, 1600

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POISON DETECTED

A YORKSHIRE man by birth, he was apprehended as a priest in the house of Mr. John Norton in that county, with his host and Mr. John Talbot, and all three were confined in Durham gaol. There at dinner some broth was set before Mr. Palasor, and, on his preparing to taste it, the bone of mutton in the dish ran blood in the form of crosses, and of O's in the broth. He therefore abstained from taking it. The maid, noticing this, carried the broth back to her mistress, who spiced it over and sent it by the same maid to Mr. Talbot and Mr. Norton, when the same phenomenon was repeated. The maid, by name Mary Day, seeing this, came to Palasor, confessed that the broth had been poisoned by the malice of her mistress, the gaoler's wife, and on her knees begged his forgiveness, and asked him to make her one of his faith. She was instructed and reconciled, and became servant to a Catholic gentlewoman, Eleanor Forcer, who bore testimony to the above occurrence. Palasor was condemned to death for returning to England as a priest, contrary to the statute, and Mr. Norton and Mr. Talbot received the same sentence for harbouring and assisting him, and all three together were executed at Durham.

"They shall take up serpents, and, if they shall drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them."—MARK xvi. 18.