Preview: Saint Edmund Arrowsmith, SJ

After two segments featuring martyrs during the reign of King James I of England, we're already moving on in our survey of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales on the Son Rise Morning Show to the reign of Charles I, who succeeded his father in 1625. Matt Swaim and I will discuss the life and death of St. Edmund Arrowsmith, SJ, a martyr from Lancashire on Monday, October 5.

Arrowsmith suffered hanging, drawing, and quartering on August 28, 1628 in Lancaster. His feast is celebrated in the Diocese of Lancaster and his mission in southern Lancashire is well documented, with sites of his last Mass, his capture, imprisonment, etc. A family has maintained the house in which he said that last Mass for two generations. He is certainly a saint whose memory has remained alive through the centuries.

Baptized Bryan Edmund Arrowsmith, he was born during the reign of Elizabeth I in 1585. His parents and their families were faithful Catholic recusants. His mother Margery (nee Gerard) was related to Father John Gerard, SJ and Blessed Miles Gerard, who was executed during Elizabeth's reign in 1590 and beatified in 1929. His parents, Robert and Margery, were arrested for recusancy when he was child. Bryan used his middle name Edmund because he had an uncle who trained men for the priesthood at Douai.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia:

He entered Douai College in 1605, but ill-health compelled him to interrupt his studies; he was, however, ordained priest in 1612. Lancashire was the scene of his missionary labours and he was eminent for "fervour, zeal and ready wit." Apprehended, probably in 1622, he was brought before Bridgeman, Protestant Bishop of Chester, and had a lively discussion with him and his ministers. Regaining his liberty he entered the Society of Jesus in 1623, and made his noviceship on the Mission, retiring to Essex for a spiritual retreat. He was eventually betrayed by false brethren, tried at Lancaster in 1628, and was found guilty of high treason for being a Jesuit priest and a seducer in religion. His fellow-prisoner, Father John Southworth, afterwards a martyr, absolved him as he went forth to undergo the usual butchery.

The old Dictionary of National Biography offers these details about his execution:

He was drawn to the place of execution on a hurdle, and after having been hanged, his body was cut down, dismembered, embowelled, and quartered. His head was also cut off, and with the quarters boiled in the cauldron; the blood, mixed with sand and earth, was scraped up and cast into the fire. Lastly, his head, as the sentence directed, was set up upon a pole amongst the pinnacles of Lancaster castle, and the quarters were hung on four several quarters of the building.

In spite of all those efforts to prevent any gathering of relics from his execution (mixing his blood with sand and earth, etc.), someone managed to cut off one of his hands which has been kept as a relic called "The Holy Hand" and is venerated at the Church of St. Oswald and St. Edmund Arrowsmith.

In 1630 an anonymous pamphlet describing Arrowsmith's arrest, trial, and execution, along with that of Blessed Richard Hurst, a lay recusant martyr, was published: A True and Exact Relation of the Death of Two Catholicks, who suffered for their religion at the Summer Assizes, held at Lancaster in 1628 and it is the source of much of the information we know of this saint.

Dom Bede Camm in his Forgotten Shrines told the story of Saint Edmund Arrowsmith with many photos. The Catholic Truth Society has published a booklet on his life, drawing upon these resources.

The Catholic Church of St. Oswald and St. Edmund Arrowsmith honored him on Sunday, August 30 this year, celebrating the Baptisms, Confirmations, and First Holy Communions that should have occurred on the Easter Vigil, postponed because of COVID-19. 

Saint Edmund Arrowsmith, pray for us!