.jpg)
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 AlmondSaint 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.
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!
No comments:
Post a Comment