Preview: The Canonization of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales

We'll take another detour Monday morning, October 23, in our Son Rise Morning Show series on Father Henry Sebastian Bowden's Mementoes of the English Martyrs and Confessors For Every Day in the Year. This time, Matt Swaim or Anna Mitchell and I will remember the canonization of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales by Pope St. Paul VI on October 25, 1970, 53 years ago.

So I'll be on the air about 6:50 a.m. Central/7:50 a.m. Eastern, the last segment in the second national hour on EWTN Radio. Please listen live here and/or catch the podcast later here.

I did consult the index prepared by Sophia Institute Press for Father Bowden's book and discovered that he does not include six of the Forty Martyrs in his daily reflections: Saints Thomas Garnet, SJ; Richard Gwyn; John Jones, OSF; David Lewis, SJ; Nicholas Owen, SJ; Polydore Plasden. Why didn't Father Bowden include them? I don't know. We should remember that he was writing in the early Twentieth century to English Catholics, trying to inspire them spiritually and morally to be as true to their Faith in Christ and His Church as these English martyrs and confessors had been. He wasn't writing a comprehensive history/biography of the martyrs and confessors.

In 1910 when this book was published, 20 of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales had only been declared Venerable, and one of those canonized in 1970, John Lloyd, is only mentioned in the memento of Saint Philip Evans, SJ (then Venerable) on July 22, page 237. Please note that Evans and Lloyd were executed together on July 22, 1679 in Pwllhalog, near Cardiff in Wales at a site known as the "Death Junction", in the throes of the so-called "Popish Plot" and they are two of the six Martyrs of "and Wales" in the title.

We must remember that the Causes of the English and Welsh Catholic martyrs of the Reformation and Recusant eras did not start until after the Restoration of the Hierarchy in 1850. After that process Pope Leo XIII beatified 54 in 1886 and nine more in 1895. Pope Pius XI beatified 136 more in 1929 and canonized Fisher and More on May 19, 1935. Then, after World War II, the Cause began again and these 40 were canonized. Pope St. John Paul II beatified 85 more in 1987.

There are many, many resources on-line (not to mention my blog!) and in print describing the processes of beatification and canonization of the English and Welsh martyrs. Here's one about the Forty Martyrs focused on Lancashire. Here's another from the Archdiocese of Southwark.

But for Monday's discussion, I'd like to focus on Pope Paul VI's comments about the martyrs he declared saints on October 25, 1970. The Vatican website does not translate all of his homily into English, just the introductory and closing sections; a Jesuit website (ten of those canonized that day were Jesuits) provides another portion.

In the English sections of his homily, Pope Paul VI welcomed not only the English Catholic hierarchy in attendance at the Mass but the Anglican dignitaries present--assuring the latter that the canonization of these martyrs was not meant to be a point of division between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion, which had just begun ecumenical talks:

We extend Our greeting first of all to Our venerable brother Cardinal John Carmel Heenan, Archbishop of Westminster, who is present here today. Together with him We greet Our brother bishops of England and Wales and of all the other countries, those who have come here for this great ceremony. . . . Thanks to them we are celebrating Christ’s glory made manifest in the holy Martyrs, whom We have just canonized, with such keen and brotherly feelings that We are able to experience in a very special spiritual way the mystery of the oneness and love of the Church. We offer you our greetings, brothers, sons and daughters; We thank you and We bless you.

While We are particularly pleased to note the presence of the official representative of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Reverend Doctor Harry Smythe, We also extend Our respectful and affectionate greeting to all the members of the Anglican Church who have likewise come to take part in this ceremony. We indeed feel very close to them. We would like them to read in Our heart the humility, the gratitude and the hope with which We welcome them.

And he closed his comments with words of hope about the day when "the unity of the faith and of Christian life is restored": "Perhaps We shall have to go on, waiting and watching in prayer, in order to deserve that blessed day. But already We are strengthened in this hope by the heavenly friendship of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales who are canonized today. Amen."

Obviously we are still waiting and watching for that day, for various reasons.

About the martyrs themselves, he offered this praise:

. . . it is perfectly clear that they are worthy to stand alongside the greatest martyrs of the past; and this is not merely because of their fearless faith and marvellous constancy, but by reason of their humility, simplicity and serenity, and above all the spiritual joy and that wonderously radiant love with which they accepted their condemnation and death. 

The high tragedy in the lives of these martyrs was that their honest and genuine loyalty came into conflict with their fidelity to God and the dictates of their conscience illumined by the Catholic faith. 

Faced with the choice of remaining steadfast in their faith and of dying for it, or of saving their lives by denying that faith, without a moment’s hesitation and with a truly supernatural strength they stood for God and joyfully confronted martyrdom. 

The 40 Martyrs of England and Wales canonized 53 years ago are: Alban Roe, Alexander Bryant, Ambrose Barlow, Anne Line, Augustine Webster, Cuthbert Mayne, David Lewis, Edmund Arrowsmith, Edmund Campion, Edmund Gennings, Henry Morse, Henry Walpole, John Almond, John Boste, John Houghton, John Jones, John Kemble, John Lloyd, John Payne, John Plessington, John Rigby, John Roberts, John Stone, John Southworth, John Wall, Luke Kirby, Margaret Clitherow, Margaret Ward, Nicholas Owen, Philip Evans, Philip Howard, Polydore Plasden, Ralph Sherwin, Richard Gwyn, Richard Reynolds, Robert Lawrence, Robert Southwell, Swithun Wells, and Thomas Garnet.

In England, their feast is celebrated on May 4, the date of the first martyrs at Tyburn. In Wales, their feast is celebrated on October 25, highlighting the Six Welsh Martyrs.

Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, pray for us!