St. Thomas More

St. Thomas More ~ husband, father, lawyer, courtier and martyr

While never for a moment turning from God, he managed to remain a man of the law (nearly unbelievable in itself--particularly given the time) and a devoted Father and Husband. The image above portrays St. Thomas More's farewell to his daughter. It was painted in the nineteenth century by Edward Matthew Ward. To my mind it captures perfectly the tenderness, deep regard, and concern that St. Thomas More lavished on his family until the day of his death.

In a letter to his beloved daughter Margaret More Roper, St. Thomas More speaks quite eloquently. This is a small excerpt from his letter regarding his third interrogation which took place prior to his sentence and ultimately his execution by order of King Henry VIII.

Sir Thomas More refused to sign an oath to his acknowledement to Henry VIII's declaration of placing himself as the head of the church in England - which places him and his oath swearer's outside the church. I was reading through these letters and was struck by this specific quote:

"Whereupon I refused the oath.... I meddle not with the conscience of them that think otherwise, every man suo domino stat et cadit. I am no man's judge. It was also said unto me that if I had rather be out of the world as in it, as I had there said, why did I not speak even out plain against the statute. It ap­peared well I was not content to die though I had said so. Whereto I an­swered as the truth is, that I have not been a man of such holy living as I might be bold to offer myself to death, lest God for my presumption might suffer me to fall, and therefore I put not myself forward, but draw back. Howbeit if God draw me to it himself, then trust I in his great mer­cy, that he shall not fail to give me grace and strength.

In conclusion Master Secretary said that he liked me this day much worse than he did the last time, for then he said he pitied me much and now he thought that I meant not well; but God and I know both that I mean well and so I pray God do by me.

I pray you be, you and my other friends, of good cheer whatsoever fall be of good cheer of me, and take no thought for me but pray for me as I do and shall do for you and all them."
Your tender loving father,Thomas More, Knight.

St. Thomas More, Holy Martyr of God - Ora Pro Nobis!

Tower Hill - Site of St. Thomas More's Holy Martydom

Tower Hill execution block

St. Edmund, Martyr VI

(photo credit)


The High Altar at East Barsham Church, England, with the brightly coloured reredos depicting amongst them St. George, St Edmund King and Martyr and Our Lady of Walsingham.

From right to left: St. George, St. Winifred (?), St. Edmund, Our Lady of Walsingham, two unknown female saints and St. Thomas Becket. Anyone recognize the unnamed saints?

Henry VIII stopped here on his pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham to pray for a son and would have heard Mass from this very church. Oddly enough it was this same King, who had once been named by the Holy Father "Defender of the Faith" who through his own lust broke with Rome to form his own church. What all know what a success this has been. I think it was Martin Luther who said "Every man has a pope in his belly." Ironic...

St. Edmund, Martyr V

St Edmund the Martyr crowned by angels

from a manuscript of Bury St Edmunds circa 1130

(photo credit)

No Christian can be surprised that innocence should suffer. Prosperity is often the most grievous judgment that God exercises upon a wicked man, who by it is suffered, in punishment of his impiety, to blind and harden himself in his evil courses, and to plunge himself deeper in iniquity. On the other hand God, in his merciful providence, conducts second causes so that afflictions fall to the share of those souls whose sanctification he has particularly in view. By tribulation a man learns perfectly to die to the world and himself, a work which, without its aid, even the severest self-denial and the most perfect obedience, leave imperfect. By tribulation we learn the perfect exercise of humility, patience, meekness, resignation, and pure love of God; which are neither practiced nor learned without such occasions. By a good use of tribulation a person becomes a saint in a very short time, and at a cheap rate. The opportunity and grace of suffering well is a mercy in favour of chosen souls; and a mercy to which every saint, from Abel to the last of the elect, is indebted for his crown. We meet with sufferings from ourselves, from disappointments, from friends, and from enemies. We are on every side beset with crosses. But we bear them with impatience and complaints. Thus we cherish our passions, and multiply sins by the very means which are given us to crucify and overcome them. To learn to bear crosses well is one of the most essential and most important duties of a Christian life. To make a good use of the little crosses which we continually meet with is the means of making the greatest progress in all virtue, and of obtaining strength to stand our ground under great trials. St. Edmund's whole life was a preparation for martyrdom.

Taken from Vol. III of "The Lives or the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints" by the Rev. Alban Butler

St. Edmund, Martyr IV

The Martydom of St Edmund. St Mary's Church, Bury St. Edmund, England

(photo credit)

The saint's head was carried by the infidels into a wood and thrown into a brake of bushes; but miraculously found by a pillar of light and deposited with the body at Hoxdon. These sacred remains were very soon after conveyed to Bedricsworth, or Kingston, since called St. Edmundsbury, because this place was St. Edmund's own town and private patrimony; not on account of his burial, for in the English-Saxon language signified a court or palace. A church of timber was erected over the place where he was interred, which was thus built according to the fashion of those times. Trunks of large trees were sawn lengthways in the middle and reared up with one end fixed in the ground, with the bark or rough side outermost. These trunks being made of an equal height and set up close to one another, and the interstices filled up with mud or mortar, formed the four walls, upon which was raised a thatched roof. Nor can we be surprised at the homeliness of this structure, since the same was the fabric of the royal rich abbey of Glastonbury, the work of the most munificent and powerful West-Saxon kings, till in latter ages it was built in a stately manner of stone. The precious remains of St. Edmund were honoured with many miracles. In 920, for fear of the barbarians under Turkil the Dane, in the reign of King Ethelred, they were conveyed to London by Alfun, bishop of that city, and the monk Egelwin, or Ailwin, the keeper of this sacred treasure, who never abandoned it. After remaining three years in the Church of St. Gregory, in London, it was translated again with honour to St. Edmundsbury in 923. The great church of timberwork stood till King Knute, or Canutus, to make reparation for the injuries his father Swein, or Sweno, had done to this place and to the relics of the martyr, built and founded there, in 1020, a new most magnificent church and abbey in honour of this holy martyr. The unparalleled piety, humility, meekness, and other virtues of St. Edmund are admirably set forth by our historians. This incomparable prince and holy martyr was considered by succeeding English kings as their special patron, and as an accomplished model of all royal virtues. The feast of St. Edmund is reckoned among the holidays of precept in this kingdom by the national council of Oxford in 1222; but is omitted in the constitutions of Archbishop Simon Islep, who retrenched certain holidays in 1362.

Taken from Vol. III of "The Lives or the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints" by the Rev. Alban Butler

St. Edmund, Martyr III

Beautiful icon showing St. King Edmund with the instruments of his martyrdom: the arrow and sword.

The people, relying upon the faith of treaties, thought themselves secure, and were unprepared. However, the good king raised what forces he could, met the infidels, or at least a part of their army near Thetford, and discomfited them. But seeing them soon after reinforced with fresh numbers, against which his small body was not able to make any stand, and being unwilling to sacrifice the lives of his soldiers in vain, and grieving for the eternal loss of the souls of his enemies, who would be slain in a fruitless engagement, he disbanded his troops and retired himself towards his castle of Framlingham, in Suffolk. The barbarian had sent him proposals which were inconsistent both with religion and with the justice which he owed to his people. These the saint rejected, being resolved rather to die a victim of his faith and duty to God, than to do anything against his conscience and religion. In his flight he was over taken and surrounded by infidels at Oxon, upon the Waveney: he concealed himself for some short time, but, being discovered, was bound with heavy chains and conducted to the general's tent. Terms were again offered him equally prejudicial to religion and to his people, which the holy Icing refused to confirm, declaring that religion was dearer to him than his life, which he would never purchase by offending God. Hinguar, exasperated at this answer, in his barbarous rage caused him to be cruelly beaten with cudgels, then to be tied to a tree and torn a long time together with whips. All this he bore with invincible meekness and patience, never ceasing to call upon the name of Jesus. The infidels were the more exasperated, and as he stood bound to the tree, they made him a mark wantonly to shoot at, till his body was covered with arrows like a porcupine. Hinguar at length, in order to put an end to the butchery, commanded his head to be struck off. Thus the saint finished his martyrdom on the 20th of November, in 870, the fifteenth of his reign, and twenty-ninth of his age; the circumstances of which St. Dunstan learned from one who was armour-bearer to the saint and an eye-witness. The place was then called Henglesdun, now Hoxon, or Hoxne; a priory of monks was afterwards built there which bore the name of the martyr.

Taken from Vol. III of "The Lives or the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints" by the Rev. Alban Butler

St. Edmund, Martyr II

The holy king had reigned fifteen years when the Danes infested his dominions. Hinguar and Hubba, two brothers, the most barbarous of all the Danish plunderers landing in England, wintered among the East-Angles; then, having made a truce with that nation, they in summer sailed to the north, and landing at the mouth of the Tweed, plundered with fire and sword Northumberland, and afterwards Mercia, directing their march through Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, and Cambridgeshire. Out of a lust of rage and cruelty, and the most implacable aversion to the Christian name, they everywhere destroyed the churches and monasteries; and, as it were in barbarous sport, massacred all priests and religious persons whom they met with. In the great monastery of Coldingham, beyond Berwick, the nuns, fearing not death but insults which might be offered to their chastity, at the instigation of St. Ebba, the holy abbess, cut off their noses and upper lips, that appearing to the barbarians frightful spectacles of horror, they might preserve their virtue from danger; the infidels accordingly were disconcerted at such a sight, and spared their virtue, but put them all to the sword. In their march, amongst other monasteries, those of Bardney, Crowland, Peterborough, Ely, and Huntingdon were levelled with the ground, and the religious inhabitants murdered. In the Cathedral of Peterborough is shown a monument (removed thither from a place without the building) called Monks'-Stone, on which are the effigies of an abbot and several monks. It stood over the pit in which fourscore monks of this house were interred, whom Hinguar and Hubba massacred in 870. The barbarians, reeking with blood, poured down upon St. Edmund's dominions, burning Thetford, the first town they met with, and laying waste all before them.

Taken from Vol. III of "The Lives or the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints" by the Rev. Alban Butler

St. Edmund, Martyr - Ora Pro Nobis!

St. Edmund Martyr I

St. Edmund is the third from the left in armor. Photo credit - aisle of St. Andrew's Church, Kimbolton, Cambridgeshire England

I know I did a series on this saint before, but can you learn too much about the lives of the saints? I don't think so...My own devotion to this saint grows stronger with each passing day and so I here wish to honor him. All my searching for a medal, picture or holy card of St. Edmund Martyr have proven fruitless. If you know of any, please contact me!

ST EDMUND, KING of ENGLAND AND MARTYR—A.D. 870
Feast: November 20

Though from the time of King Egbert, in 802, the Kings of the West-Saxons were monarchs of all England, yet several kings reigned in certain parts after that time, in some measure subordinate to them. One Offa was King of the East-Angles, who, being desirous to end his days in penance and devotion to Rome, resigned his crown to St. Edmund, at that time only fifteen years of age, but a most virtuous prince, and descended from the old English-Saxon kings of this isle. The saint was placed on the throne of his ancestors, as Lydgate, Abbo, and others express themselves, and was crowned by Humbert, Bishop of Elman, on Christmas Day, in 855, at Burum, a royal villa on the Stour, now called Bures, or Buers. Though very young, he was by his piety, goodness, humility, and all other virtues, the model of good princes. He was a declared enemy of flatterers and informers, and would see with his own eyes and hear with his own ears, to avoid being surprised into a wrong judgment, or imposed upon by the passions or ill designs of others. The peace and happiness of his people were his whole concern, which he endeavoured to establish by an impartial administration of justice and religious regulations in his dominions. He was the father of his subjects, particularly of the poor, the protector of widows and orphans, and the support of the weak. Religion and piety were the most distinguishing part of his character. Monks and devout persons used to know the psalter without book, that they might recite the psalms at work, in travelling, and on every other occasion. To get it by heart St. Edmund lived in retirement a whole year in his royal tower at Hunstanton (which he had built for a country solitude), which place is now a village in Norfolk. The book which the saint used for that purpose was religiously kept at St. Edmundsbury till the dissolution of abbeys.

Taken from Vol. III of "The Lives or the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints" by the Rev. Alban Butler

Catholic England III - St. Edmund, Martyr

This is by far my favorite image of St. Edmund martyr from the famous "Wilton Diptych" This post will focus on this beautiful and moving piece of art. If you are a total nerd like me who loves the Catholic church and her saints, medieval English history and art - this post is for you! :)

From Wikipedia: "The Wilton Diptych (c.1395-1399) is a small portable altarpiece of two panels. It is an extremely rare survival within England of late Medieval religious painting.
The diptych was painted for King Richard II of England who is depicted kneeling before the Virgin and Child in what is known as a "votive portrait".
The painting is considered an outstanding example of the International Gothic style and possibly of English art. It belongs to the National Collection and is currently housed in the National Gallery, London."

Here is entire left side of the diptych:

"... the kneeling King Richard II is presented by the Saints John the Baptist, Edward the Confessor and Edmund the Martyr. In the right hand panel the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child in her arms is surrounded by eleven angels, against a golden background and field of delicately coloured flowers."

Interpretation: The identity of the kneeling king is known because the angels surrounding the Virgin are wearing the livery of Richard II, the White Hart, which also appears in the brocade of the left panel and the outside of the diptych. As Richard kneels, the Christ Child reaches towards him in benediction and also reaches towards the pennant held by an angel, and significantly placed between them. This pennant is the symbol of Richard's kingship and of the Kingdom of England as a whole, It bears the Cross of St. George, the symbol of England and furthermore surmounting the staff is an orb on which is tiny map of England.

All three saints who present the kneeling Richard to the Virgin and Child are believed to have been venerated by the king, as each has his own chapel in Westminster Abbey. Each saint holds the symbollic attribute by which they are recognised in art. Edmund the Martyr, who stands to the left, holds the arrow which killed him in 869, while Edward the Confessor, at the centre, holds the ring he gave to a pilgrim who transpired to be the disguised John the Evangelist. John the Baptist (right) holds his symbol, the Lamb of God.

The image on the left makes reference to King Richard's birth on 6th January. This is the feast day that Christians celebrate Epiphany, when Christ was adored by three kings and also the baptism of the adult Christ with John the Baptist shown touching Richard's shoulder.
John the Baptist was Richard's Patron Saint, and Saint Edward and Saint Edmund had both been English kings. Richard had a special devotion to Edmund, who with St. George is one of the patron saints of England.
The painting is indicative of both Richard's belief in his divine right to rule and his genuine Christian devotion. It also importantly symbolises (in the form of the Pennant), Richard II giving his kingdom into the hands of the Holy Virgin, thereby continuing a long tradition by which England was known as "Our Lady's Dowry" and was thought to be specially under her protection
(source)

Catholic England II - St. Edmund, Martyr

The Story of the martyrdom of King. St. Edmund:

In the year 869, the Danes who had wintered at York, marched through Mercia into East Anglia and took up their quarters at Thetford. Edmund engaged them fiercely in battle, but the Danes under their leaders Ubbe Ragnarsson and Ivar the Boneless had the victory.

According to Abbo of Fleury, Edmund's earliest biographer, the story came to Abbo by way of St Dunstan, who heard it from the lips of Edmund's own sword-bearer. In Abbo of Fleury's version of events Edmund refused to meet the Danes in battle himself, preferring to die a martyr's death, with conscious parallels to the Passion of Christ:

"King Edmund stood within his hall of the mindful Healer with Hinguar (Ivar), who then came, and discarded his weapons. He willed to imitate Christ's example, which forbade Peter to fight against the fierce Jews with weapons. Lo! to the dishonorable man Edmund then submitted and was scoffed at and beaten by cudgels. Thus the heathens led the faithful king to a tree firmly rooted in Earth, tightened him thereto with sturdy bonds, and again scourged him for a long time with straps. He always called between the blows with belief in truth to Christ the Saviour."

"The heathens then became brutally angry because of his beliefs, because he called Christ to himself to help. They shot then with missiles, as if to amuse themselves, until he was all covered with their missiles as with bristles of a hedgehog, just as Sebastian was. Then Hinguar, the dishonorable viking, saw that the noble king did not desire to renounce Christ, and with resolute faith always called to him; Hinguar then commanded to behead the king and the heathens thus did. While this was happening, Edmund called to Christ still. Then the heathens dragged the holy man to slaughter, and with a stroke struck the head from him. His soul set forth, blessed, to Christ."

The king's body was ultimately interred at Beadoriceworth, the modern Bury St Edmunds. The shrine of Edmund soon became one of the most famous and wealthy pilgrimage locations in England and the reputation of the saint became universal.

(photo credit)

Shrine of St. Edmund prior to its desecration and destruction during the wicked and misguided Catholic persecution of Henry VIII in the 1500's.

The date of Edmund's canonization is unknown, although Hermann's Life of Edmund, written in the late eleventh century, states that it happened in the reign of Athelstan (924–939). Edmund's popularity among the English nobility was lasting. It is known that his banner was borne in the Irish expedition of the Anglo-Normans and also when Caerlaverock Castle was taken in 1300. A banner with Edmund's crest was also carried at the battle of Agincourt. Churches dedicated to his memory are found all over England, including St Edmund the King and Martyr in London. There are a number of colleges named after St Edmund. His shrine at Bury St Edmunds was destroyed in 1539, during the English Reformation. His feast day is 20 November.

This is an image of what remains today of the Shrine of St. Edmund. Here is the caption to this photo (photo credit):
The Abbey of St Edmund at Bury

"The remains of the once great Abbey of St Edmund at Bury, ruined following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539, provide a striking contrast to the glories of Ely, which escaped destruction because it had become an episcopal cathedral in 1109. Today at Bury, bare, partly built-over ruins - mostly rubble cores from once great walls and supporting pillars - are all that is left of what was one of the richest Abbeys in England. Originally founded circa 633 by the first East Anglian martyr-king, Sigeberht (Liber Eliensis, I, 1), it later became the burial-place and shrine of the last East Anglian martyr-king, Edmund, one of the patron saints of England."

Next posts will be about the famous Wilton image and the fascinating "Legend of St. Edmund"

Virgin and Martyr

This is the effigy of St. Maria Goretti which is situated directly upon the spot where Allesandro Serinelli killed her. She was found my Serinelli's father upon the floor, right here. Maria was unconscious, but still alive following 14 stab wounds inflicted upon her as she resisted being raped. Her murderer had been harassing Maria for months prior to this event, trying to get Maria to give into his impure desires. She always and unfailingly resisted. Finally Alessandro would have his way and would not take no for an answer. As she resisted, he wrestled this 12 year old girl to the floor, with the knife poised over her head, she was given a choice, death or sin. She chose the better part.

At times in prayer, in spirit I go this place and kneel upon the cold stone floor. Here beside the place of Maria's triumph, I try to give honor to this heroic virgin martyr and beseech her prayers on my behalf. I entrust my and my family's purity to her prayers. I pray that given the same choice, death or sin, that her prayers will enable us to make the same choice.

Saint Maria Goretti - Ora Pro Nobis! Amen+

Persecution & Martyrdom, Part VII

Blessed John Nelson

1534-February 3, 1578

English Jesuit martyr

executed during the reign of Elizabeth I.

Nelson was from Skelton, near York. He was nearing 40 when he left for Douai in 1573 for training as a priest. Two of his four brothers would later follow him there to become priests. He was ordained at Binche in Hainaut by Monsignor Louis de Berlaymont, Archbishop of Cambrai, on June 11, 1576. The next November, he left for his mission, which appears to have been in London. He was arrested on December 1, 1578, "late in the evening as he was saying the Nocturne of the Matins for the next day following", and put in Newgate prison.

When interrogated about a week or so later, he refused to take the oath recognizing the Queen's supremacy in spiritual matters, and was induced by the commissioners to declare the Queen a schismatic. Under the Legislation of 1571, this was high treason and punishable by death. He was condemned a few weeks later on Saturday February 1, 1578 and was confined after the trial in an underground dungeon in the Tower of London, the so called Pit of the Tower. While in prison he subsided on bread and water and was able to say Mass and confess.

On his execution day, he refused several Protestant ministers after meeting family members. Taken to Tyburn and was allowed to speak before the bystanders, who were mostly hostile in the historically Protestant London. He refused to ask pardon of the Queen and asked any Catholics in the crowd to pray with him as he recited several common prayers in Latin.
He was hung and cut down alive, then quartered. As the executioner plucked out his heart, his last words were reportedly "I forgive the queen and all the authors of my death." (source)

Look at the Catholic witnesses in England and pray, for our time is approaching.

Act of Resignation

O Lord, my God, from this day I accept from your hand willingly and with submission, the kind of death that it may please you to send me, with all its sorrows, pains, and anguish. Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit. Do with me what You will. Amen+

Persecution & Martyrdom, Part VI

Saint Edmund Campion, S.J.

January 24, 1540 – December 1, 1581

English Jesuit priest and martyr.

Committed to the Tower of London, he was questioned in the presence of Queen Elizabeth, who asked him if he acknowledged her to be the true Queen of England. He replied in the affirmative, and she offered him wealth and dignities, but on condition of rejecting his Catholic faith, which he refused to accept.
He was kept a long time in prison, twice racked (by order of the Council but certainly with Elizabeth's consent), and every effort was made to shake his defiance. Despite the effect of a false rumour of retraction and a forged confession, his adversaries summoned him to four public conferences (September 1 18, 23 and 27 1581). Although still suffering from his ill treatment, and allowed neither time nor books for preparation, he reportedly conducted himself so easily and readily that he won the admiration of most of the audience. Tortured again on October 31, he was indicted at Westminster on a charge of having conspired, along with others, in Rome and Reims to raise a sedition in the realm and dethrone the Queen.

He was sentenced to death as a traitor, which he answered with the prophetic words "In condemning us, you condemn all your ancestors, all the ancient bishops and kings, all that was once the glory of England" and with the Te Deum laudamus, and, after spending his last days in prayer, was led with two companions to Tyburn and hanged, drawn and quartered on December 1, 1581, aged 41.

The ropes used in his execution are now kept in glass display tubes at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire; each year they are placed on the altar of St Peter's Church for mass to celebrate Campion's feast day.
(source)

Look at the Catholic witnesses in England and pray, for our time is approaching.
Act of Resignation

O Lord, my God, from this day I accept from your hand willingly and with submission, the kind of death that it may please you to send me, with all its sorrows, pains, and anguish. Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit. Do with me what You will. Amen+

Persecution & Martyrdom, Part V

Blessed Thomas Abel (c. 1497 – 30 July 1540)

Imprisoned in the Tower of London, in the Beauchamp Tower, he carved the above rebus, or visual pun, on the wall: a play on his name, 'A-bell'

Thomas was an English priest who was martyred during the reign of Henry VIII. His place and date of his birth are unknown.

He was educated at Oxford and entered the service of Queen Catherine of Aragon as her chaplain some time before 1528 and appears to have taught the queen modern languages and music. Catherine sent him to Spain in 1528 to the emperor Charles V on a mission relating to the proposed divorce. On his return she presented him with the parochial benefice of Bradwell, in Sussex,and remained to the last a staunch supporter of the unfortunate queen in the case of the validity of her marriage with Henry VIII.

In 1532, he published his Invicta Veritas, an answer to the determination of the most famous Universities, that by no manner of law it may be lawful for King Henry to be divorced from the Queen's grace, his lawful and very wife (with the fictitious pressmark of Luneberge, to avoid suspicion). The work contained an answer to the numerous tracts supporting Henry's ecclesiastical claims. For this he was thrown into Beauchamp Tower, and after a year's liberation again imprisoned, in December, 1533, on the charges of disseminating the prophecies of the Maid of Kent, encouraging the queen "obstinately to persist in her wilful opinion against the same divorce and separation", and maintaining her right to the title of queen. He was kept in close confinement until his execution at Tyburn, two days after the execution of Thomas Cromwell. There is still to be seen on the wall of his prison in the Tower of London a rebus consisting of the symbol of a bell with an A upon it and the name Thomas above, which he carved during his confinement. He was beatified by Pope Leo XIII as one of a group of fifty-four English Martyrs on 29 December 1886.

There is extant a very pious Latin letter written by him to a fellow-martyr, and another to Cromwell, begging for some slight mitigation of his "close prison"; "license to go to church and say Mass here within the Tower and for to lie in some house upon the Green". It is signed "by your daily bedeman, Thomas Abell, priest". His act of attainder states that he and three others "have most traitorously adhered themselves unto the bishop of Rome, being a common enemy unto your Majesty and this your Realm, refusing your Highness to be our and their Supreme Head of this your Realm of England" (source)

Look at the Catholic witnesses in England and pray, for our time is approaching.

Act of Resignation

O Lord, my God, from this day I accept from your hand willingly and with submission, the kind of death that it may please you to send me, with all its sorrows, pains, and anguish. Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit. Do with me what You will. Amen+

Persecution & Martyrdom, Part IV

St. Margaret Clitherow (1556 – 1586)

English saint and martyr.

She is also known as"the Pearl of York".

In 1586, Margaret was arrested and called before the York assizes for the crime of harbouring Roman Catholic priests. She refused to plead to the case so as to prevent a trial that would entail her children being made to testify, and she was executed by being crushed to death – the standard punishment for refusal to plead. On Good Friday of 1586, she was forced to strip naked, laid out upon a sharp rock, her hands tied out straight from her body, and a door was put on top of her and loaded with an immense weight of rocks and stones. Death occurred after fifteen minutes. St. Margaret was approximately 14 weeks pregnant.

"God be thanked, I am not worthy of so good a death as this" ~St. Margaret Clitherow

Look at the Catholic witnesses in England and pray, for our time is approaching.

Act of Resignation

O Lord, my God, from this day I accept from your hand willingly and with submission, the kind of death that it may please you to send me, with all its sorrows, pains, and anguish. Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit. Do with me what You will. Amen+

Persecution & Martyrdom, Part III

Image: The first three Carthusian Martyrs who died by order of King Henry VIII. They were: Sts. John Houghton, Robert Lawrence and Augustine Webster, priors of the charterhouses of London, Beauvale and Axholme respectively.

"Lo! Dost thou not see, Meg, that these blessed fathers be now as cheerfully going to their deaths as bridegrooms to their marriage?"

~St Thomas More to his daughter as he witnessed from the window of his cell the first three Carthusian martyrs.

"The Carthusian Martyrs were a group of monks of the London Charterhouse, the monastery of the Carthusian Order in central London, who were put to death by the English state from June 19, 1535 to September 20, 1537. The method of execution was hanging, disembowelling while still alive and then quartering. The group also includes two monks who were brought to that house from the Charterhouses of Beauvale and Axholme and similarly dealt with. The total is of 18 men, all of whom have been formally recognized by the Catholic Church as true martyrs."

"At the outset of the King's Great Matter (his divorce from Queen Catherine of Aragon so he could marry his mistress, Anne Boleyn), the government was anxious to secure the public acquiescence of the monks of the London Charterhouse, since for the austerity and sincerity of their mode of life they enjoyed great prestige. When this attempt failed in this, the only alternative was to annihilate the resistance, since a refusal engaged the prestige of the monks in the opposite sense." (source)

Look at the Catholic witnesses in England and pray, for our time is approaching.

Act of Resignation
O Lord, my God, from this day I accept from your hand willingly and with submission, the kind of death that it may please you to send me, with all its sorrows, pains, and anguish. Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit. Do with me what You will. Amen+

Persecution & Martyrdom, Part II

St. John Fisher, by Hans Holbein the Younger

"...a public outcry was brewing among the London populace who saw a sinister irony in the parallels between the conviction of John Fisher and that of his patronal namesake, Saint John the Baptist, who was executed by King Herod for challenging the liceity of Herod's marriage to his brother's widow, Herodias. For fear of John Fisher's living through his patronal feast day, that of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist on June 24, and of attracting too much public sympathy, King Henry commuted the sentence to that of beheading, to be accomplished before June 23, the Vigil of the feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. His execution on Tower Hill on June 22, 1535, had the opposite effect from that which King Henry VIII intended. John Fisher's beheading created yet another ironic parallel with that of the martyrdom of St John the Baptist whose was also beheaded."

"Bishop John Fisher's last moments were thoroughly in keeping with his previous life. He met death with a calm, dignified, courage which profoundly impressed all who were present. His body was treated with particular rancour, apparently on King Henry VIII's orders, being stripped and left on the scaffold till evening, when it was taken on pikes and thrown naked into a rough grave in the churchyard of Allhallows, Barking. There was no funeral prayer. A fortnight later, his body was laid beside that of Sir Thomas More in the chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula in London. The bishop's head was stuck upon a pole on London Bridge, but its ruddy and lifelike appearance excited so much attention that, after a fortnight, it was thrown into the Thames, its place being taken by that of Sir Thomas More, whose martyrdom occurred on July 6."

(Source)

Look at the Catholic witnesses in England and pray, for our time is approaching.

Act of Resignation

O Lord, my God, from this day I accept from your hand willingly and with submission, the kind of death that it may please you to send me, with all its sorrows, pains, and anguish. Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit. Do with me what You will. Amen+

Persecution & Martyrdom, Part I

St. Thomas More comforting his daughter, Margaret on his way to the scaffold 6 July 1535 (aged 57), London, England. More's body was buried at the Tower of London, in the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula. His head was placed over London Bridge for a month after which it was rescued by his daughter, Margaret, before it could be thrown in the River Thames. His skull is believed to rest in the Roper Vault of St. Dunstan's, Canterbury.

Look at the Catholic witnesses in England and pray, for our time is approaching.

Act of Resignation
O Lord, my God, from this day I accept from your hand willingly and with submission, the kind of death that it may please you to send me, with all its sorrows, pains, and anguish. Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit. Do with me what You will. Amen+

Lesser Known Martyr Saints: Sts Faustinus & Jovita

Martyrs(†122)

Faustinus and Jovita were brothers, nobly born, and were zealous professors of the Christian religion, which they preached without fear in their city of Brescia in Lombardy, during the persecution of Adrian. Their remarkable zeal excited the fury of the heathens against them, and procured them a glorious death for their faith.
Faustinus, a priest, and Jovita, a deacon, were preaching the Gospel fearlessly in the region when Julian, a pagan officer, apprehended them. They were commanded to adore the sun, but replied that they adored the living God who created the sun to give light to the world. The statue before which they were standing was brilliant and surrounded with golden rays. Saint Jovita, looking at it, cried out: “Yes, we adore the God reigning in heaven, who created the sun. And you, vain statue, turn black, to the shame of those who adore you!” At his word, it turned black. The Emperor commanded that it be cleaned, but the pagan priests had hardly begun to touch it when it fell into ashes.
The two brothers were sent to the amphitheater to be devoured by lions, but four of those came out and lay down at their feet. They were left without food in a dark jail cell, but Angels brought them strength and joy for new combats. The flames of a huge fire respected them, and a large number of spectators were converted at the sight. Finally sentenced to decapitation, they knelt down and received the death blow. The city of Brescia honors them as its chief patrons and possesses their relics, and a very ancient church in that city bears their names.

Source: Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on Butler’s Lives of the Saints and other sources by John Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894

Sts. Faustinus and Jovita, holy Martyrs of God, Ora pro nobis. Amen+

Martyrdom of St. Justine

by Paolo Veronese

St. Justine, also called Justina, together with her spiritual father St. Cyprian were christians of Antioch who suffered martyrdom during the persecution of Diocletian. This occured at Nicomedia, 26 September, 304, the date in September being afterwards made the day of their feast.

Cyprian was a heathen magician of Antioch who had dealing with demons. By their aid he sought to bring St. Justina, a Christian virgin, to ruin; but she foiled the threefold attacks of the devils by the sign of the cross. Brought to despair Cyprian made the sign of the cross himself and in this way was freed from the toils of Satan. He was received into the Church, was made pre-eminent by miraculous gifts, and became in succession deacon, priest, and finally bishop, while Justina became the head of a convent.

During the Diocletian persecution both were seized and taken to Damascus where they were shockingly tortured. As their faith never wavered they were brought before Diocletian at Nicomedia, where at his command they were beheaded on the bank of the river Gallus. The same fate befell a Christian, Theoctistus, who had come to Cyprian and had embraced him. After the bodies of the saints had lain unburied for six days they were taken by Christian sailors to Rome where they were interred on the estate of a noble lady named Rufina and later were entombed in Constantine's basilica.

St. Charles Borromeo dedicated a college at Pavia to her.

St. Justina ~ Ora pro nobis! Amen+

The Coming Persecution

The following is an excerpt from the blog of Mark Mallet. This deserves to be read in its entirety here.

I have said at other times that I believe the world who knows not God, chomps at the bit to persecute those who do. We MUST be willing to give our lives as the early Christians did. This is not about raising calls of panic, it is about the salvation of souls. Do you not hear the cry to persecute those who believe in the absolute Truth of the gospel? These truths that are held in the fullest in the only church on earth founded by Jesus Himself - the Holy Catholic Church.

BEWARE THE WOLVES!

"Errant theologians have watered this down. Misguided clergy have failed to preach it. Modernist philosophies have replaced it. This is why the Sacrifice of the Mass has been reduced to a "community celebration." Why the word "sin" is rarely used. Why confessionals have cobwebs. They are wrong! The Gospel, the message of Jesus, is that Salvation comes through repentance, and repentance means turning from sin and following in the bloody footsteps or our Master, to the Cross, through the Tomb, and toward an everlasting Resurrection! Beware of those wolves in sheep’s clothing who preach a different Gospel than the one Christ has given us. Beware of those false prophets who try to douse the flames of Hell, and attempt to line the Way of the Cross with daisies and padded cushions. Stay away from those who remake the narrow road to Heaven into a superhighway, paved with the comforts of this world."

"The engagement ring of the Bride of Christ in this life is suffering. But the wedding ring in the next is eternal joy in the Kingdom of God, given to those Blessed who endured persecution (Matt 5:10-12). Pray, then, brothers and sisters, for the grace of final perseverance."

Those who are like Me in the pain and contempt they suffer will be like me also in glory. And those who resemble Me less in pain and contempt will also bear less resemblance to Me in glory. —Jesus to St. Faustina, Diary, n. 446