Preview: Blesseds Duckett and Corby in "Holy Rivalry" and with "The Kiss of Peace"

On Monday, September 18, we'll continue our series on the Mementoes of the English Martyrs and Confessors by Father Henry Sebastian Bowden on the Son Rise Morning Show. I'll be on the Son Rise Morning Show at my usual time: about 6:50 a.m. Central/7:50 a.m. Eastern: please listen live here and/or listen to the podcast later here.

As of today, the book is still on sale for $10.00! You cannot say I haven't told often enough!

Father Bowden offers four mementoes of Blessed John Duckett and three of Blessed Ralph Corby, SJ during the month of September. The two martyrs share three mementoes, because although they came to England as missionary priests by separate paths, served in the missionary field in vastly different durations (Duckett for about a year; Corby for 14 years), and were arrested separately, they shared imprisonment in London and went to Tyburn together for execution on September 7, 1644--during the English Civil War. They were both arrested and executed under Parliamentary authority.

For Blessed (then Venerable) John Duckett, on page 300 (September 20) in the book, Father Bowden offers an example of a Catholic priest as an Alter Christus (Another Christ), echoing the scene in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus says "If therefore ye seek Me, let these go their way." (John 13:8) in a memory explaining how Father Duckett admitted he was a Catholic priest "To Save Others":

He was taken, in company with two Catholic laymen, as he was going to baptize two children on the Feast of the Visitation, July 2. His captors, the Parliament soldiers, carried him before a committee of the Sequestrators at Sunderland. He declined to answer as to his priesthood and demanded proof, but was committed to prison by reason of the Holy oils and books found on him. Again examined, and again refusing to inculpate himself, he was threatened with lighted matches placed between his fingers to make him confess what he was. This availing nothing he was sent back to prison. After an hour he was again called, and found his two companions on the point of being shipped and sent away, merely because he would not confess who he was. "Seeing this," he says, "and also fearing that the Catholics of the neighbourhood who knew me might suffer, and especially those with whom I lived, I confessed myself to free them and the country." His self-sacrifice was successful, and seemed an inspiration from Heaven. No more inquiry was made after his friends, but Father Duckett was sent up to London in company with Father Corby, a Jesuit, who was taken in these parts as he was going up to the altar to say Mass.

So Father Duckett did not admit immediately to his priesthood, even enduring some torture, but when the two laymen were threatened and he also became concerned for others in the Durham area where he was captured--especially the family or families of the children who were to be baptized--he confessed to save their lives.

The Catholic Encyclopedia offers some details about his life before his arrest, imprisonment, and execution: He was probably a grandson of Venerable [Blessed] James Duckett [a layman executed on April 19, 1601, also at Tyburn], born at Underwinder, in the parish of Sedbergh, Yorkshire, in 1603; died 7 September, 1644. He was ordained priest in 1639 and afterwards went to Paris where he studied three years in the College of Arras. He had an extraordinary gift of prayer, and while yet a student would spend whole nights in contemplation. On his way to the English mission, he spent two months in spiritual exercises, under the direction of his uncle, the Carthusian prior at Nieuport.

Then, when Fathers Duckett and Corby are in prison and are offered an opportunity for one of them to escape, Father Bowden offers the story of their "Holy Rivalry":

RALPH CORBY, alias Darlington, was born near Dublin of English parents, natives of Durham, who had gone over to Ireland for the free exercise of their religion. The piety of the family is sufficiently attested by the fact that both parents and children entered into religion: the father and his three sons into the Society of Jesus, the mother and her daughters into the Order of St. Benedict. After twelve years' hard work, notwithstanding continuous ill-health, among the poorer Catholics in Durham, he was arrested and sent up to London with Father Duckett. They were escorted from Westminster to Newgate by a company of Parliament soldiers, with a captain at their head, beating drums and firing off their muskets through the crowded streets, as if they had been the enemy's generals taken in war as in the old Roman battles. In prison the life of one of them could have been saved by an exchange made for a prisoner in the hand of the Emperor of Germany. The offer was first made to Father Corby, who declined it on the ground that Father Duckett, being younger, could do more work than himself; but he in his turn refused it with thanks, as Father Corby's life, on account of his experience, was of greater value.

He cites a verse from the First Letter of John for this scene: "Behold what manner of charity the Father hath bestowed upon us." (3:1) I wonder what the Puritan authorities thought of them, both rejectiing a chance to be freed, in exile of course (but probably to return).

In describing their executions at Tyburn Tree, Father Bowden offers these details ("The Kiss of Peace"):

They went out to suffer with their tonsures shaved, the one in his Jesuit's habit, the other in his priest's cassock. At the gallows Father Duckett made no speech, but told an heretical minister that he had not come hither to be taught his religion, but to die for it. After a short discourse from Father Corby, the two confessors turned to each other. Together they had been arrested, supported each other by their mutual courage and self-sacrifice, and with a last most loving embrace they together received their eternal crown. ("Salute one another in a holy kiss; all the saints salute you." 2 Cor. 13:12)

With these three mementoes, Father Bowden offers poignant examples of these martyrs' camaraderie in the midst of danger and suffering as they prepared for their executions. They were both beatified in 1929 by Pope Pius XI.

Blessed John Duckett, pray for us!

Blessed Ralph Corby, pray for us!

September Martyrs: Blesseds Corby and Duckett

From the Salford Liturgy Roman Martyrology: Blessed Ralph Corby, SJ, priest and martyr and Blessed John Duckett, priest and martyr

Martyred at Tyburn under Charles I in 1644. Ralph originated in the northeast and ministered in County Durham after his ordination, enjoying a lengthy ministry of 12 years until his arrest in July 1644. He was condemned at the Old Bailey and executed at Tyburn. John Duckett, executed with him, also worked in County Durham after his conversion to Catholicism and ordination.

 

Blessed Ralph Corby was born into a devout Irish Catholic family in Maynooth, Ireland, on March 25, 1598. All of Ralph's family took religious vows, including his parents who decided to do so after their children had alljoined various orders. Ralph's father became a Jesuit lay brother and his mother a Benedictine nun.

Ralph joined the Jesuits, along with his two brothers and volunteered for the perilous mission to minister in England at a time when it was illegal to be a Catholic priest.

He ministered covertly in the north of England, near Durham, for 12 years before he was discovered and subsequently sentenced to death.

Blessed Ralph was hanged, drawn, and quartered on September 7, 1644 at Tyburn, England. He was beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1929.

 

Blessed John Duckett was probably a grandson of Blessed James Duckett, born at Underwinder, in the parish of Sedbergh, Yorkshire, in 1603; died 7 September, 1644. He was ordained priest in 1639 and afterwards went to Paris where he studied three years in the College of Arras. He had an extraordinary gift of prayer, and while yet a student would spend whole nights in contemplation. On his way to the English mission, he spent two months in spiritual exercises, under the direction of his uncle, the Carthusian prior at Nieuport. He laboured for about a year in Durham and was taken near Wolsingham on his way to baptize two children, 2 July, 1644. The place which tradition declares to be that of his arrest is now marked by a tall stone cross. Carried to Sunderland, he was examined by a Parliamentary Committee of sequestrators, and placed in irons. He confessed his priesthood and was thereupon sent up to London with Father Ralph Corbie, S. J. (q. v.), who had been arrested about the same time near Newcastle-on-Tyne. They were committed to Newgate, and edified the crowds of Catholics who flocked to see them by their joyousness, their sanctity, and their longing to suffer for Christ. A reprieve for one of them having been obtained, each refused to take it for himself. On his way to execution, Duckett astonished all by his supernatural joy; comforting those who wept for him, he said smiling: "Why weep you for me who am glad at heart of this happy day?" His jailers even were so struck by his gladness that they exclaimed "assuredly this man dies for a good cause". He suffered with Father Corbie, at Tyburn. In a farewell letter to the Bishop of Chalcedon, he wrote on the eve of his martyrdom: "I fear not death, nor I contemn not life. If life were my lot, I would endure it patiently; but if death, I shall receive it joyfully, for that Christ is my life, and death is my gain. Never since my receiving of Holy Orders did I so much fear death as I did life, and now, when it approacheth can I faint?"

Caroline Martyrs of 1644

 

From the Salford Liturgy Roman Martyrology: Blessed Ralph Corby, SJ, priest and martyr and Blessed John Duckett, priest and martyr

Martyred at Tyburn under Charles I in 1644. Ralph originated in the northeast and ministered in County Durham after his ordination, enjoying a lengthy ministry of 12 years until his arrest in July 1644. He was condemned at the Old Bailey and executed at Tyburn. John Duckett, executed with him, also worked in County Durham after his conversion to Catholicism and ordination.

 

Blessed Ralph Corby was born into a devout Irish Catholic family in Maynooth, Ireland, on March 25, 1598. All of Ralph's family took religious vows, including his parents who decided to do so after their children had all joined various orders. Ralph's father became a Jesuit lay brother and his mother a Benedictine nun.

Ralph joined the Jesuits, along with his two brothers and volunteered for the perilous mission to minister in England at a time when it was illegal to be a Catholic priest.

He ministered covertly in the north of England, near Durham, for 12 years before he was discovered and subsequently sentenced to death.

Blessed Ralph was hanged, drawn, and quartered on September 7, 1644 at Tyburn, England. He was beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1929.

 

Blessed John Duckett was probably a grandson of Blessed James Duckett, born at Underwinder, in the parish of Sedbergh, Yorkshire, in 1603; died 7 September, 1644. He was ordained priest in 1639 and afterwards went to Paris where he studied three years in the College of Arras. He had an extraordinary gift of prayer, and while yet a student would spend whole nights in contemplation. On his way to the English mission, he spent two months in spiritual exercises, under the direction of his uncle, the Carthusian prior at Nieuport. He laboured for about a year in Durham and was taken near Wolsingham on his way to baptize two children, 2 July, 1644. The place which tradition declares to be that of his arrest is now marked by a tall stone cross. Carried to Sunderland, he was examined by a Parliamentary Committee of sequestrators, and placed in irons. He confessed his priesthood and was thereupon sent up to London with Father Ralph Corbie, S. J. (q. v.), who had been arrested about the same time near Newcastle-on-Tyne. They were committed to Newgate, and edified the crowds of Catholics who flocked to see them by their joyousness, their sanctity, and their longing to suffer for Christ. A reprieve for one of them having been obtained, each refused to take it for himself. On his way to execution, Duckett astonished all by his supernatural joy; comforting those who wept for him, he said smiling: "Why weep you for me who am glad at heart of this happy day?" His jailers even were so struck by his gladness that they exclaimed "assuredly this man dies for a good cause". He suffered with Father Corbie, at Tyburn. In a farewell letter to the Bishop of Chalcedon, he wrote on the eve of his martyrdom: "I fear not death, nor I contemn not life. If life were my lot, I would endure it patiently; but if death, I shall receive it joyfully, for that Christ is my life, and death is my gain. Never since my receiving of Holy Orders did I so much fear death as I did life, and now, when it approacheth can I faint?"

More on these Caroline martyrs, arrested and executed while Parliament was in power.