Posted on 10/25/2005 8:22:36 AM PDT by Pyro7480
Originally posted on FR thread Catholic, Anglican bishops honor first English martyr of Reformation
Forty Martyrs of England and Wales
(Taken from a postcard that I got at Tyburn Convent in London, just down the street from where many of these marytrs were executed, and where the relics of many of these saints are kept.) These saints were canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1970.
It's hard to read the print on the bottom of the second image. The numbers correspond to the following:
1.)St. Edmund Gennings
2.)St. Robert Southwell
3.)St. John Kemble
4.)St. John Boste
5.)St. Margaret Ward
6.)St. Anne Line
7.)St. John Almond
8.)St. John Plessington
9.)St. David Lewis
10.)St. John Jones
11.)St. Richard Gwyn
12.)St. John Roberts
13.)St. Philip Evans
14.)St. John Lloyd
15.)St. Edmund Campion
16.)St. Alexander Briant
17.)St. Margaret Clitherow
18.)St. Augustine Webster
19.)St. Robert Lawrence
20.)St. John Houghton
21.)St. Richard Reynolds
22.)St. Luke Kirby
23.)St. Eustace White
24.)St. Polydore Plasden
25.)St. John Wall
26.)St. John Stone
27.)St. John Rigby
28.)St. Ambrose Barlow
29.)St. Henry Walpole
30.)St. John Southworth
31.)St. Philip Howard
32.)St. Alban Roe
33.)St. Edmund Arrowsmith
34.)St. Swithun Wells
35.)St. Thomas Garnet
36.)St. John Paine
37.)St. Ralph Sherwin
38.)St. Cuthbert Mayne
39.)St. Henry Morse
40.) St. Nicholas Owen
(St. Edmund's and St. John's short biographies are taken from They Died at Tyburn, published by the Tyburn Nuns. St. Margaret's short biography is excerpted from St. Margaret Clitherow: "The Pearl of York," by Margaret T. Monro.
Of all the Tyburn martyrs, St. Edmund Campion is one of the best-known. A play on his name described what he was - the Pope's C(h)ampion. Nothing could daunt his ardour or break his spirit; neither promises of worldy gain, the basest calummy, public ridicule, nor the appalling torture of the rack.
When We was fifteen, he won a scholarship to St. John's College, Oxford, and two years later became a Junior Fellow. Although he was the centre of an admiring crowd, and a brilliant career was opening out before him, he became more and more dissatisfied with his position. His Catholic tendencies were known, and in due course, he had to leave Oxford, being unable to say that he was a sincere Protestant. He was now a suspect, and soon after was forced to flee the country. He went first to Douay, but later entered the Society of Jesus in Rome, 1573. In 1579, he and Father Persons were chosen to lead the first Jesuit Mission to England, where they arrived in 1580. For a year, Campion laboured without ceasing, and it was by a series of hairbreadth escapes that he carried forward an apostolate of marvellous fruitfulness. His natural gifts stood him in good stead, for he had the wit and eloquence that he had exercised with effect in the days when he cared for a Queen's praise. Now he devoted all his talents to the Heavenly Master, hoping for no greater reward than that which granted to him at the age of forty-two.
He was so cruelly tortured in prison that his enemies feared that he rackmen had gone too far, and that the gallows would be cheated of its prey; yet they failed to wring from him any statement that might be used to convict him of treason. Finally, the Council drew up a fictitious charge against him, in which it was asserted that the preceding year, in Rome and at Rheims, Campion had connived with William Allen, Nicholas Morton, and Father Person in a conspiracy to murder the Queen....
Notwitstanding the terrible sufferings he had undergone, St. Edmund Campion was in a state of calm cheerfulness on the day of his glorious triumph at Tyburn. (He was hung, drawn, and quartered. The next martyr that day, St. Ralph Sherwin, kissed with great devotion the blood of Edmund Campion dripping from the hands of the executioners.)
About age 33, St. Margaret Clitherow was executed in York, England for inviting Catholic priests into her home to say Mass during the time of the penal laws under Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603), when this was a capital offense. She was martyred by being crushed to death under a large door loaded with heavy weights, a particularly painful style of execution, then still called by its French name - peine forte et dure ("severe and harsh punishment). The law prescribed this type of death because she refused to plead; she did this in order to save her children and her servants from being pressured to give evidence against her, and to save the jury from participating from sentencing her to death. At this time, Margaret had three children, and was likely expecting her fourth. Yet, though she was leaving her greatest human loves, Margaret - always merry in life - remained peaceful and even joyous to the end.
Trawsfynydd, Merionethshire, Wales, has its title to fame as the birthplace of St. John Roberts.... [I]n 1599, he was admitted ot the Benedictine Congregation of St. Benito de Valladolid (in Spain), and went to make his novitiate at the abbey of St. Martin Pinario, just outside the walls of Compostela.... [A] priest from England called at the monastery, bringing news of the glorious martyrdom of Blessed Mark Barkworth. He declared that the name of Benedict was still the sweetest to the English after that of Jesus and Mary, and added that he was of the opinion that the conversion of England would be reserved to the Benedictine Order. As a result of this visit, an approach was made to the Holy See, petitioning that some Benedictine monks be authorized to go and work in England. This petition was granted in 1602, and St. John was one of the first to set off and face the death for which he had been preparing himselfby his strict monastic life....
St. John was imprisoned and exiled many times, but he always found means of returning to England. When the Plague broke out in the country, he spent himself untiringly, ministering to the victims of the terrible scourge in London, at the same time, making many converts.
It was on the first Sunday in Advent of the year 1610 that he was finally arrested while he was saying Mass and taken off to prison, still wearing the sacred vestments. The trial and condemnation were not long in coming, and on December 10th, he was dragged to Tyburn on a hurdle to suffer a barbarous death. The spirit of peace and joy that had characterised him at all times was particularly manifest as his death approached, so much so that he was heard to express a certain fear, lest his joy might offend those around him. (He was executed by being hung, drawn, and quartered. It was traditional to disembowel the victims whilst still alive - but the crowd would not allow this - these were the poor folk that he had cared for during the Plague, and they remembered his kindness, therefore the executioner had to wait until he was dead.)
Prayer for England
O Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and our most gentle Queen and Mother, look down in mercy upon England, thy Dowry, and upon us all who greatly hope and trust in thee. By thee it was that Jesus, our Saviour and our hope, was given unto the world; and He has 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 brethren, that with us in the one true fold, they may be united to the Chief Shepherd, the Vicar of thy Son. Pray 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.
Our Lady of Walsingham, pray for us!
St. Edmund Campion has been one of my favorites for a long time.
I visited the Tower last summer and it struck me that there were probably countless martyrs who's names we will never know from that period.
You were at the Tower last summer? I was there last September! It was very cool to be there.
Oh, by the way, thanks for link on veiling. I ended up finding it by doing a Google search, and sent it to my lady friend of mine. I'll find out what she thought soon! :-)
Yes. I was in England for a music festival and stayed to do some sightseeing. It was very cool and at the same time rather disturbing to know all that happened inside those walls - to stand where Lady Jane Grey and Robert Devereaux were beheaded was a little weird. I did go by Tyburn, but didn't stop.
There's a pitfall of history books, IMO. It just doesn't seem real until you are there. That's part of why I like to travel.
You are welcome for the veiling essay. The points about being feminine and making that part of the persona need to be taught. Veiling or wearing a hat is part of it. For a long time, women have been trying to convince us youngin's that it really doesn't matter, but it does.
BTTT on the Memorial in England and Wales of the Forty Martyrs , 05-04-07!
bttt
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