A "Son Rise Morning Show" Advent Series: Benson's "Friendship of Christ"

Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson didn't use the term "a personal relationship with Jesus Christ"; instead he refers to "The Friendship of Christ" in his 1912 book of the same title. He emphasizes that Jesus wants to be our friend; indeed He is Our Savior and Redeemer, Our Lord and Our God, AND in His human nature He wants to be our friend and for us to take Him as our friend. We'll begin an Advent series on the Son Rise Morning Show--Anna Mitchell is on maternity leave--on December 1 as Matt Swaim and I look at this collection of sermons. I'll be on at my usual time, about 7:50 a.m. Eastern/6:50 a.m. Central; please listen live here or catch the podcast later here.

There are several editions of this book available and because it's out of copyright, it's also readily available on line. I have an older Scepter edition.

The book is in three parts: I) Christ in the Interior Soul (including a general overview of "the Friendship of Christ and chapters on the Purgative and Illuminative Way); II) Christ in the Exterior (seven chapters) and III) Christ in His Historical Life (Good Friday meditations on the Seven Last Words and an Easter Sunday sermon on "Christ Our Friend Vindicated). In this Advent series, we'll start with the General overview on December 1 and discuss some highlights from section two, especially "Christ in the Saint" for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception on December 8.

The book begins with a poem:

THIS IS MY FRIEND

From an old manuscript.

Let me tell you how I made His acquaintance.
I had heard much of Him, but took no heed.
He sent daily gifts and presents, but I never thanked Him.
He often seemed to want my friendship, but I remained cold.
I was homeless, and wretched, and starving and in peril every hour; and He offered me shelter and comfort and food and safety; but I was ungrateful still.
At last He crossed my path and with tears in His eyes He besought me saying, Come and abide with me.

Let me tell you how he treats me now.
He supplies all my wants.
He gives me more than I dare ask.
He anticipates my every need.
He begs me to ask for more.
He never reminds me of my past ingratitude.
He never rebukes me for my past follies.

Let me tell you further what I think of Him.
He is as good as He is great.
His love is as ardent as it is true.
He is as lavish of His promises as He is faithful in keeping them.
He is as jealous of my love as He is deserving of it.
I am in all things His debtor, but He bids me call Him Friend.

The last line seems the key to Benson's argument in the first chapter with the General overview of the Friendship of Christ, using Genesis 2:18 as the starting point "It is not good for man to be alone.":

THE emotion of friendship is amongst the most mighty and the most mysterious of human instincts. Materialistic philosophers delight in tracing even the most exalted emotions -- art, religion, romance -- to purely carnal sources; to the instincts of the propagation or sustentation of physical life; and yet in this single experience at any rate -- when we class together, as we can, all those varied relationships between men and men, women and women, as well as between men and women, under the common title of friendship -- materialistic philosophy wholly breaks down. It is not a manifestation of sex, for David can cry to Jonathan "Thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women"; it is not a sympathy arising from common interests, for the sage and the fool can form a friendship at least as strong as any between two sages or two fools; it is not a relationship based on the exchange of ideas, for the deepest friendships thrive better in silence than in speech. "No man is truly my friend," says Maeterlinck, "until we have each learned to be silent in one another's company."

Benson notes that friends can hurt us more than others because of the love and loyalty we share with them; when those friendships fail (and even when they succeed), however, that points to our one true Friend, Jesus Christ:

There is but one intelligible explanation then for the desires which it generates yet never fulfils; there is but one supreme friendship to which all human friendships point; one Ideal Friend in whom we find perfect and complete that for which we look in type and shadow in the faces of our human lovers.

Benson suggests that Catholics can rely too much on their own efforts in practicing their faith and miss this fulfillment of the friendship and companionship they crave:

They pray, they frequent the sacraments, they do their utmost to fulfil the Christian precepts; and, when all is done, they find themselves solitary. They adore Christ as God, they feed on Him in Communion, cleanse themselves in His precious Blood, look to the time when they shall see Him as their Judge; yet of that intimate knowledge of and companionship with Him in which the Divine Friendship consists, they have experienced little or nothing. They long, they say, for one who can stand by their side and upon their own level, who can not merely remove suffering, but can himself suffer with them, one to whom they can express in silence the thoughts which no speech can utter; and they seem not to understand that this is the very post which Jesus Christ Himself desires to win, that the supreme longing of His Sacred Heart is that He should be admitted, not merely to the throne of the heart or to the tribunal of conscience, but to that inner secret chamber of the soul where a man is most himself, and therefore most utterly alone.

James Tissot (1836-1902), “Jesus in Bethany”

"Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister Mary, and Lazarus." (John 11:5)

Benson cites various examples from the Gospels to prove that Jesus wanted friends during His time with us: John 11:5; Mark 10:21; Matthew 26:41, 28:20, etc. These examples, Benson writes, demonstrate that this remains true now:

If then there is anything clear in the Gospels it is this -- that Jesus Christ first and foremost desires our friendship. It is His reproach to the world, not that the Saviour came to the lost, and that the lost ran from Him to lose themselves more deeply, not that the Creator came to the Creature and that the Creature rejected Him; but that the Friend "came unto His own, and that His own received Him not." (John 1:11)

While we can use the model of human friendship to some extent, the Friendship of Christ is something much greater:

Now it must be remembered that while this friendship between Christ and the soul is, from one point of view, perfectly comparable to friendship between man and man, from another point of view it is incomparable. Certainly it is a friendship between His Soul and ours; but that Soul of His is united to Divinity. A single individualistic friendship with Him therefore does not exhaust His capacities. He is Man, but He is not merely A Man: He is The Son, rather than A Son of man. He is the Eternal Word by whom all things were made and are sustained. . . .

He approaches us therefore along countless avenues, although it is the same Figure that advances down each. It is not enough to know Him interiorly only: He must be known (if His relation with us is to be that which He desires) in all those activities and manifestations in which He displays Himself.

And Benson concludes this introduction:

Let us then consider the Friendship of Christ under some of these aspects. Truly we cannot live without Him, for He is the Life. It is impossible to come to the Father except by Him who is the Way. It is useless to toil in pursuit of truth, unless we first possess It. Even the most sacred experiences of life are barren unless His Friendship sanctifies them. The holiest love is obscure except it burns in His shadow. The purest affection -- that affection that unites my dearest friend to myself -- is a counterfeit and an usurper unless I love my friend in Christ -- unless He, the Ideal and Absolute Friend, is the personal bond that unites us.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!

Jesu, Jesu, Jesu, be to me a Jesus! 

Preview: 1880: Cardinal Newman Attends the Trinity College "Gaudy"

When Pope Leo XIII named the Oratorian Father John Henry Newman a Cardinal Deacon of the Church in 1879, the recipient remarked that “The cloud is lifted from me forever.” Even after the Apologia pro Vita Sua had clarified his reasons for becoming a Catholic, he had felt the distrust of certain members of the hierarchy; there had been an uncommunicated "delation for heresy" to Rome after he wrote "On Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine". Projects like an Oratory of Saint Peter Neri in Oxford to serve Catholics finally able to attend the colleges there without swearing an Oath to the 39 Articles of the Church of England had been thwarted because of his personal involvement. He was still "The Most Dangerous Man in England" as Monsignor George Talbot had written in 1867. 

Two years before in 1877, he'd been elected the first honorary fellow of Trinity College, his alma mater, and in 1880 he was invited to the Gaudy of that college. This 145th anniversary of Newman going back to Oxford again will be the next Son Rise Morning Show Anniversary on Monday, November 24--I'll be on at my usual time, about 7:50 a.m. Eastern/6:50 a.m. Central to discuss this anniversary and its importance. Please listen live here or catch the podcast later here.

This will be the last 2025 Anniversary to examine as Advent begins Sunday, November 30!

What is a "Gaudy"? and why was Newman invited? If you've read Dorothy L. Sayers' Gaudy Night, a Wimsey-Vane mystery novel, you might recognize the word. 

A Trinity College Gaudy is for "Old Fellows"--a festive college reunion for alumni. The current Trinity College website posts this information: "Gaudy reunions are held two or three times a year, and we usually invite three or more matriculation years to return to Trinity at a time for a dinner and stay in College. Invitations will be sent automatically to those who are eligible . . ." Matriculation refers to the date the alumni entered the college. In the USA, our high school or college reunions are based on the year of graduation and are usually just for one year.

So this was another honor for Newman and coming from his college it meant much to him. When he had been invited to receive the honorary fellowship, he'd written to his Bishop, Dr. Ullathorne:

My old College, Trinity College, where I was an undergraduate from the age of 16 to 21, till I gained a Fellowship at Oriel, has made me an Honorary Fellow of their Society. Of course it involves no duties, rights or conditions, not even that of belonging to the University, certainly not that of having a vote as Master of Arts, but it is a mark of extreme kindness to me from men I have never seen, and it is the only instance of their exercising their power since it was given them.

Trinity College has been the one and only seat of my affections at Oxford, and to see once more, before I am taken away, what I never thought I should see again, the place where I began the battle of life, with my good angel by my side, is a prospect almost too much for me to bear.

So it's not Oriel College, where he'd served as Fellow (and Tutor for a time) but Trinity, that he held most dear in his memory. He had been confirmed and received his first Anglican communion in the Trinity College Chapel, on Sunday November 30 1817 and he wrote in the Apologia pro Vita Sua that "Trinity had never been unkind to me."

After receiving the Cardinal's hat, Trinity honored him again! Some details about this Gaudy from Ward's Life of Newman:

Trinity College, Oxford, invited the new Cardinal to dine at the College Gaudy on Trinity Monday 1880. The Cardinal accepted, and preached on Trinity Sunday at the Jesuit Church in Oxford [now the Oxford Oratory] to a crowded congregation. The dinner on the Monday was a far more stately function than that which he had attended in February 1878, after his election as Honorary Fellow. There were numerous guests, and ladies were invited to a reception in the evening. These were presented in turn to the Cardinal, who received them in semi-royal state. The late Sir Richard Jebb was at the dinner, and told the present writer that Newman's informal speech on the occasion was a model of perfect tact and grace. For half an hour or so, sitting in his chair, he talked to the table of Oxford memories—of Whately, Pusey, Blanco White, Hawkins, and many another, not forgetting his old Trinity tutor Thomas Short, who had passed away since his visit of 1878.

These functions were physically exhausting to the Cardinal, but they were the outward symbols of work done for the good cause and were intensely grateful to him. . . .

As to the lasting significance of this anniversary: Trinity College has a page dedicated to Saint John Henry Newman and his career there, including this detail about the College Dining Hall:

Trinity’s dining hall includes a portrait of John Henry Newman painted by Bessie Johnson, daughter of John Percival (President of Trinity from 1878-87) as a gift to the College when the family left Oxford. It is a copy of a portrait by Walter William Ouless, which hangs in Oriel College. Newman wears his Cardinal’s robes, and a golden Cardinal’s hat that adorns the frame. [You can see the portrait on the right wall in this picture.]

There's also a bust of Newman in the Trinity College Gardens by the French artist Léon-Joseph Chavaillard.

Oriel College, while perhaps second in his affections, has also honored Saint John Henry Newman, with statements here and here about his being named both a Doctor of the Church and co-Patron of Catholic education with Saint Thomas Aquinas! The College chapel has an oratory and stained glass window dedicated to Newman.

Finally, as devotion to Saint John Henry Newman has increased, at least as evidenced by his canonization and proclamation as a Doctor and Patron (and more and more books!), there might be signs of a "Catholic revival in Oxford" although some Anglican authorities are still a little uncertain about how to receive all this news about one who "poped" 180 years ago  . . . 

Saint John Henry Newman, pray for us!

Center picture: view of Trinity College through the college gates, copyright Stephanie A. Mann, 2025 (taken in 2003).

"The Choral" and "The Dream of Gerontius"

I made a presentation on the First Friday of October at Mary, Seat of Wisdom, a classical high school here in Wichita on Saint John Henry Newman and "the Wichita Connection", tracing the history of the the programs, events, topics, and speakers presented at different venues here since 1979 and my memories of them. This was after Pope Leo XIV had approved the Cause for Saint John Henry Newman to be named the 38th Doctor of the Church. 

I noted that Newman was indeed in the news, not only for that proclamation but for other reasons: King Charles III visiting the Birmingham Oratory, Newman being the co-patron of Catholic Education with Saint Thomas Aquinas by Pope Leo XIV--and the ongoing attention paid to Sir Edward Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius based on Newman's poem of the same name. I also mentioned that more and more books and studies will be published about Newman and I just finished reading one of the latest, The Most Dangerous Man in England: Newman & the Laity by Paul Shrimpton, published by Word On Fire (review to come).

I highlighted Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius because yet another CD had been announced, a live performance from the 2022 BBC Proms--and now there's yet another announced by Hyperion. And those two on the heals of one from Finland!

Not only that but now there's a film, The Choral, which features a performance of that great work in an English village during the crisis of World War I. As the young men of the village, the basses, baritones, and tenors who sing in the Church of England's choir, enlist for military service--including the chorus master himself--how will the traditions of the community survive?

By hiring a new chorus master and performing Elgar's Dream of Gerontius! In spite of the fact the chorus master's been working in Germany (the enemy) and the work is all about a Soul destined for Purgatory, which Anglicans don't believe in!

Presto Music has posted a summary of the film and reactions of several men who have conducted or performed in the work (no mezzo-soprano Angels!?!?):

Starring Ralph Fiennes as a brilliant, controversial conductor, Roger Allam as an enthusiastic but overparted amateur tenor and Simon Russell Beale* as an irascible Edward Elgar, Alan Bennett and Nicholas Hytner's The Choral centres on a Yorkshire choral society's ambitious quest to perform Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius in 1916 - with their tenor and bass sections depleted by conscription, a Palm Court trio standing in for Elgar's vast orchestra, and a traumatised young soldier newly returned from the Front in the daunting title-role.

* Coincidentally, I had just re-watched God's Composer (Music by Tomás Luis de Victoria from the Church of San Antonio de los Alemanes, Madrid (Single DVD) Presented by Simon Russell Beale; Featuring Harry Christophers & The Sixteen)!

The new release from Hyperion of yet another Dream has a tie-in with the movie in a way because it features a village choral society, from a village much like the one featured in the film, as the Huddersfield Choral Society website emphasizes:

There are just so many parallels between the fictitious choral society in the film and HCS: The Choral is set in a mill town called Ramsden; and the choir is set to perform Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius. Well, we thought, we’re known as The Choral by those who love us; Huddersfield was owned by the Ramsden estate until the 1920s; and we’re the choral society that made the first recording of Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius. And we’ve just made another!

Choir member and social history enthusiast, Gaynor Haliday, decided to delve deeper into the archives and uncover the experiences of HCS during the First World War. And with the season of Remembrance upon us we’d like to share this with you. It’s longer than our usual posts, so you might want to settle down with a cuppa . . .

If you click on that link, there's another link to a document describing how the village of Huddersfield endured the losses of World War I. Hyperion Records--the CD will be released in January, 2026--also provides a .pdf of their booklet with the same article, and notes the strong connection between the society and the Dream:

It was the Huddersfield Choral Society which made the first complete recording of ‘Gerontius’ on 8-12 April 1945; this latest chapter in the Society’s ties to the work was recorded eighty years later, virtually to the day, on 5 April 2025 and displays as deep an affinity for Elgar’s masterpiece as ever, especially with a conductor of Martyn Brabbins’s Elgarian credentials.

The Huddersfield Choral Society were featured on two mid-20th century recordings by Sir Malcolm Sargent, in 1945 and 1955, according to this comparative review.

The movie--which I hope will come to Wichita, Kansas--is scheduled to be released in the USA on Christmas Day this year! 

That is a picture of me giving my presentation at the first First Friday Tea at the top of the post. The second in November featured the story of Whittaker Chambers, given by the headmaster, Dr. Susan Orr Traffas, and the third in December will feature a lecture by John Traffas (her husband) on "Pope Benedict XVI and his teaching on political life": 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. with tea, coffee, treats, and other libations! It's my new First Friday tradition!

Preview: The 420th Anniversary of The Gunpowder Plot

Why do people in England still "Remember, remember, the fifth of November?" Why do they still shoot off fireworks and light up bonfires? This year is the 420th anniversary of the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot--that's almost 14 generations ago! We'll discuss these issues in our 2025 Anniversary Series on the Son Rise Morning Show on Monday, November 17. 

I'll be on at my usual time, about 7:50 a.m. Eastern/6:50 a.m. Central to discuss this anniversary and its importance. Please listen live here or catch the podcast later here.

Of course, it was a fiendish, horrible, and murderous plot! Blow up Parliament with King James VI and his family and the members of Parliament, kidnap the Princess Elizabeth to make her a figurehead monarch, orchestrate a violent uprising to overthrow the government! Who knows how horrible it could have been? Well, we do know as the French Revolution offers us an example. So yes, in some way there is "no reason/Why the Gunpowder treason/Should ever be forgot!"

One of the lessons, however, of the context of the Gunpowder Plot was highlighted by Father Paolo Molinari, S.J., postulator of the cause of 40 Martyrs of England and Wales 55 years ago: the government of England was forcing religious compliance and church attendance: it was violating its subjects' freedom of conscience. How many bonfire night celebrators in England on November Fifth today accept that? Even in Lewes and other parts of Sussex, where there are still wild celebrations of Bonfire Night?

Until 1859 the Church of England remembered the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot in the liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer, expressed as God's protection of the Church of England against the "Church of Rome"! The Act establishing the commemoration required attendance:

II. Be it therefore enacted by the King’s most excellent majesty, the lords spiritual and temporal, and the commons, in this present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That all and singular ministers in every cathedral and parish church, or other usual place for common prayer, within this realm of England and the dominions of the same, shall always upon the fifth day of November say morning prayer, and give unto Almighty God thanks for this most happy deliverance: (2) and that all and every person and persons inhabiting within this realm of England and the dominions of the same, shall always upon that day diligently and faithfully resort to the parish church or chapel accustomed, or to some usual church or chapel where the said morning prayer, preaching, or other service of God shall be used, and then and there to abide orderly and soberly during the time of the said prayers, preaching, or other service of God there to be used and ministred.

III. And because all and every person may be put in mind of this duty, and be then better prepared to the said holy service, be it enacted by authority aforesaid, That every minister shall give warning to his parishioners publickly in the church at morning prayer, the Sunday before every such fifth day of November, for the due observation of the said day; and that after morning prayer or preaching upon the said fifth day of November, they read publickly, distinctly and plainly this present act.

There were no penalties, however, for not attending, because the remembrance did not replace the regularly scheduled Sunday liturgy, when there were penalties.

Since like some other holidays, officially recognized or not, some of the cultural, historical, and religious significance of the Fifth of November/Bonfire Night has deteriorated and in most parts of the country it's just a party with fireworks--with concerns every year about dogs being scared or humans with PTSD being affected--what about the tradition of burning the Pope (Saint Paul V) in effigy--or any living or dead figure? 

The BBC reported some of the trouble at this year's Bonfire Night in Lewes (Loo-is) with the comment: "Sussex Police said the Lewes Bonfire event was "both unique and challenging"." With 40,000 people in the streets, bonfires and torches being lit, etc., only seven going to hospital and a few arrests isn't that bad. 

But there's a spirit of disorder and anarchy in the celebration even in Lewes which not only recalls the discovery of Guy Fawkes checking on the explosives under Parliament and the Protestant martyrs executed there during the reign of Mary I, as this commentary notes: "Elsewhere, people might say it’s a tricky occasion to parse from the outside: full of fire and hollering, vaguely Pagan, expansively anti-establishment, sometimes intimidating in press photos — more so than it is in real life" and still very anti-Catholic, because "(Pope Paul V, the leader of the Catholic church during the Gunpowder Plot, remains a popular effigy today, and gets blown up in Lewes most years; some bonfire societies still march beneath signs reading ‘No Popery’)"! At least the Lewes Bonfire nights remain a localized celebration: "trains from London won’t stop at the stations nearest to Lewes, and roads in the vicinity will close" every year.

Can you imagine Catholics marching on May 4 near the site of Tyburn Tree burning Henry VIII, the head and governor of the Church of England at the time, in effigy while remembering the protomartyrs of 1535? Or, even more congruently, of James VI while remembering Saint Nicholas Owen, tortured to death, Saint Thomas Garnet, and Blesseds Edward Oldcorne and Ralph Ashley, martyred in 1606 and 1607? Of course you can't. Catholics in England wouldn't do it and shouldn't do it. As Father Paolo Molinari, S.J also emphasized in his article about the Canonization of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales: "Right from the first announcement of the Re-opening of the Cause of the 40 Martyrs, decreed by Pope John XXIII on 24 May 1961, the Hierarchy of England and Wales let it be clearly understood that nothing was further from the intentions of the Bishops than to stir up bad feelings and quarrels of the past."

I wonder what it's like to be a Catholic in Lewes on Bonfire Night. Here's a story about how the consecration of Saint Pancras Catholic Church was greeted in the 19th century (not well!):

When the Church was opened, there was a crowd estimated at between 2000 and 3000, reaching some distance above Ireland’s Lane and down below The Pelham Arms, the pavements and road being completely lined with people who were singing bonfire songs, howling and jeering. Then some of the bonfire boys were let out of a window of The Pelham Arms into the passage between the latter and the Church, and made such a disturbance that scarcely anything could be heard, and the service was brought to a rather abrupt conclusion. . . .

As a result of the disturbance in the passage, eight persons were arrested and sentenced to six weeks imprisonment each, the Magistrates threatening to take away the licence of The Pelham Arms, which used to be the meeting place of the Borough Bonfire Society, which is now the Brewers’ Arms. After this came a comparative calm, only the door now and then being sharply rapped and the windows in the front of the Church broken by stones until they were covered by wire . . .

These are just some reflections on how we remember history and how we commemorate or celebrate certain events. I look forward to discussing them with Matt or Anna on Monday and of learning what you think about them!

Pope Saint Pius V, pray for us!

Holy Catholic Martyrs of England and Wales, pray for us!

Preview: 55th Anniversary of the English and Welsh Martyrs' Canonization

As we wind down these 2025 Anniversaries before we start an Advent series on the Son Rise Morning Show, we can't skip the 55th anniversary of the canonization of the Forty (40) Martyrs of England and Wales on October 25, 1970. So on Monday, November 10 I'll be on at my usual time, about 7:50 a.m. Eastern/6:50 a.m. Central to discuss this anniversary and its importance. Please listen live here or catch the podcast later here.

The Catholic Answers on-line Magazine updated a previous article of mine about this event:

[October 25] was the fifty-fifth anniversary of the canonization of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales by Pope St. Paul VI, more than 435 years after the first martyrs suffered on May 4, 1535.

Why such a delay? And what do the martyrs teach us today about the Reformation era and the modern ecumenical era? Looking back at the history of their martyrdoms and the progress of their cause for canonization provides some answers.

The Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, canonized on October 25, 1970, are a group of men and women, priests and laity, who suffered and died for the Catholic faith in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (1535-1679). . . .

As you, dear readers of this blog surely know, Anna and/or Matt (and Brian Patrick, years ago) and I have discussed so many of these martyrs' stories in the past 15 years on the Son Rise Morning Show! Continuing to quote myself:

None of the martyrs of the English Reformation era—not even Thomas More and John Fisher—was even beatified until late in the nineteenth century. The first cause did not begin until 1874, almost a quarter-century after the hierarchy was re-established in England by Pope Pius IX. His successor Pope Leo XIII beatified fifty-four in 1886 and nine more in 1895. Pope Pius XI beatified 136 more in 1929 and canonized Fisher and More on May 19, 1935.

The selection of the Forty Martyrs was presented in 1960 and approved in 1961: they were chosen on the basis of their popularity and the devotion shown to them in England and Wales. Miracles attributed to their intercession were investigated and documented (Pius XI had canonized More and Fisher equipollently without verification of medical miracles); their canonization was announced by Pope Paul VI and approved by the hierarchy present at the consistory of May 18, 1970. . . .

This EWTN story by the postulator for the cause, Paolo Molinari, S.J., quotes Pope Saint Paul VI's words on May 18:

We greatly rejoice that unanimously you have asked that these blessed Martyrs of England and Wales be canonized; this is also our desire. It is our intention to enroll them among the saints and to declare them worthy of the honours that the Church attributes to those holy persons who have obtained their heavenly reward. With God's help, we will do this on the twenty-fifth day of October of this year in the Vatican Basilica.

That story also provides details about the miracles attributed to the intercession of these martyrs, and brief sketches of their efforts, sufferings, and deaths. The martyrs (13 priests of the secular clergy, 3 Benedictines, 3 Carthusians, 1 Brigittine, 2 Franciscans, 1 Augustinian, 10 Jesuits and 7 members of the laity, including 3 mothers) canonized on October 25, 1970 are:

Saint John Almond
Saint Edmund Arrowsmith, S.J.
Saint Ambrose Barlow, O.S.B.
Saint John Boste
Saint Alexander Briant, S.J.
Saint Edmund Campion, S.J.
Saint Margaret Clitherow
Saint Philip Evans, S.J.
Saint Thomas Garnet, S.J.
Saint Edmund Gennings
Saint Richard Gwyn
Saint John Houghton, O.Cart.
Saint Philip Howard
Saint John Jones, O.F.M.
Saint John Kemble
Saint Luke Kirby
Saint Robert Lawrence, O.Cart.
Saint David Lewis, S.J.
Saint Anne Line
Saint John Lloyd
Saint Cuthbert Mayne
Saint Henry Morse, S.J.
Saint Nicholas Owen, S.J.
Saint John Payne
Saint Polydore Plasden
Saint John Plessington
Saint Richard Reynolds, O.Ss.S.
Saint John Rigby
Saint John Roberts, O.S.B.
Saint Alban Roe, O.S.B.
Saint Ralph Sherwin
Saint Robert Southwell, S.J.
Saint John Southworth
Saint John Stone, O.E.S.A.
Saint John Wall, O.F.M.
Saint Henry Walpole, S.J.
Saint Margaret Ward
Saint Augustine Webster, O.Cart.
Saint Swithun Wells
Saint Eustace White

The three Carthusians and one Brigittine are the protomartyrs and the date of their executions in 1535 is the now the Feast of the Catholic Martyrs of England and Wales (May 4) in England. In Wales, October 25 is the Feast of the Welsh Martyrs [St Richard Gwyn (1537–1584), St John Jones (1530–1598), St John Roberts (1577–1610), St Philip Evans (1645–1679), St John Lloyd (1645–1679) and St David Lewis (1616–1679)] and their English companions.

On October 25, 1970, Paul VI summarized the sacrifice and greatness of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales:

To all those who are filled with admiration in reading the records of these martyrs, 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.

At the same time such was the greatness of their spirit that many of them died with prayers on their lips for the country they loved so much, for the King or Queen, and not least for those directly responsible for their capture, their sufferings, and the degradation and ignominy of their cruel deaths.

May our thanksgiving go up to God who, in his providential goodness, saw fit to raise up these martyrs.

Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, pray for us!