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!

The Passion of St. John the Baptist

From the Prado:

The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist and Herod’s Banquet
1630 - 1633. Oil on canvas

This work depicts the martyrdom of Saint John the Baptist due to the perfidy of Salome, who asked for his head after seducing King Herod with her dancing. Strobel, a painter of Polish origin, tells the story on an enormous stage that represents to moment of the martyrdom on the far right, where we can see the saint´s decapitated body. On the other side of the large column, the figure of Salome shows a platter with John´s head to Herod, who is terrified. The rest of the painting to the left shows the banquet, which the painter depicts with innumerable figures, in the manner of a court celebration. The left end of the painting includes various portraits of contemporaneous figures, including Emperor Fernando II and Imperial General Wallenstein. The figures´ strong expressionism and the singularity of this highly horizontal composition are this work´s salient characteristics. As is a taste for precisely rendered details, sumptuousness, and a use of light that was customary in the works of this artist. In 1746, this work was in Queen Isabel Farnesio´s collection at La Granja Palace.

Image source/public domain

You will have to click on one of those links to see the detail, especially the Prado's site. The way the artist updated Herod's banquet to show all the contemporary detail of luxury and worldly splendor made the viewer at that time part of the story. The Emperor Fernando II and General Wallenstein were among those Herod could not disappoint, having sworn to do whatever Herodias' daughter asked in exchange for her dancing for him and his guests. The contrast between St. John the Baptist's exsanguinated, half-naked body (and his executioner's) and the sumptuous clothing of the guests is most effective.

Today is the Feast of the Passion of St. John the Baptist (which I remember being called the Beheading of St. John the Baptist). As the great forerunner of Our Savior, St. John suffered martyrdom for the sake of the holiness of marriage, denying that Herod could commit adultery with impunity.

In 1529, John Fisher, the Bishop of Rochester, started making comparisons between his own stand in the Convocation of Bishops, at the Legatine Court, and as one of Queen Katherine of Aragon's counselors, to uphold the validity of her marriage to Henry VIII--and of the pope's authority to declare a sacramental marriage valid--to St. John the Baptist's.

From the Catholic Encyclopedia: "When the question of Henry's divorce from Queen Catherine arose, Fisher became the Queen's chief supporter and most trusted counsellor. In this capacity he appeared on the Queen's behalf in the legates' court, where he startled his hearers by the directness of his language and most of all by declaring that, like St. John the Baptist, he was ready to die on behalf of the indissolubility of marriage. This statement was reported to Henry VIII, who was so enraged by it that he himself composed a long Latin address to the legates in answer to the bishop's speech. Fisher's copy of this still exists, with his manuscript annotations in the margin which show how little he feared the royal anger."

Also today: Blessed Richard Hurst.

St. John the Baptist, pray for us!

St. John Fisher, pray for us!

Blessed Richard Hurst, pray for us!

Blessed Richard Herst

This martyr, a farmer with a family, was a public recusant in Lancashire. He was executed on August 29 in 1628 after a rigged trial. 

According to this blog: 

A CONVICTED recusant, he was ploughing his field when one Dewhurst came to serve him with a warrant. Herst fled, and Dewhurst, following in pursuit, received a blow from Herst's maid, and afterwards in the heat of the pursuit fell and broke his leg. From that wound in the leg he died, yet Herst, who had never been within thirty yards of him, was charged with his death. Herst's pardon was offered him if he would take the oath, but he refused, and he declined also to go to church, so he was trailed there by his legs and much hurt. In the church he stopped his ears, not to hear false doctrine, and, on returning, said, "They have tortured my body, but, thank God, they have not hurt my soul." At his trial at Lancaster, though his innocence of Dewhurst's death was evident, the judge told the jury that he was a recusant, had resisted the Bishop's authority, and that they must find it murder for an example, which was done. At the gallows he said to the hangman, who was bungling with the rope, "Tom, I think I must come and help you." Then, after repeating the holy names of Jesus and Mary, he passed to immortality, Lancaster, August 29. 

He corresponded with his confessor while in prison awaiting his execution: 

THIS is his last letter to his confessor when about to suffer : "Now I take my last leave; now I am dying, and am as willing to die as ever I was to live, I thank my Lord and Saviour, who I trust will never fail me. I have comfort in Christ Jesus and His Blessed Mother, my good angel, and all the blessed Saints, and in the valiant and triumphant martyr, B. Arrowsmith, who is gone before me. How I have been used you will hear, and likewise what I had offered me if I would have taken the oath. I hope my friends will truly understand that my greatest desire is to suffer, and I would I had as many lives to offer as I have committed sins. Now, dear Sir, prepare yourself also to suffer, and animate your ghostly children in suffering. Once again, I desire you to say and to procure some Masses for my sinful soul, and if it please God to receive me into His kingdom, I shall not be unmindful of you and of all my good friends. I pray you remember my poor children, and encourage my friends about my debts which my chief worldly care is to satisfy. Once again, adieu. I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ Jesus." 

The B. Arrowsmith he refers to is, of course, St. Edmund (Bryan) Arrowsmith, SJ who had been executed the day before. 

According to this blog, Blessed Richard Hurst reflected on the martyrdom of St. John the Baptist before his execution:

He kissed the gallows on reaching the place of execution, and disregarding the ministers present, recommended himself to God, and begged the prayers of the Blessed Virgin, his angel guardian, and all the saints, especially St. John the Baptist, it being the day of his decollation. Ascending the ladder, he repeated the names of Jesus and Mary, and so was put to death.

Image: The Beheading of St John the Baptist by Jan Rombouts. You might note that St. John is baptizing Jesus in the Jordan in the upper right hand corner with the Holy Spirit pictured as a dove above them.

Blessed Richard Hurst, Executed on the Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist

This martyr, a farmer with a family, was a public recusant in Lancashire. He was executed on August 29 in 1628 after a rigged trial.

According to this blog:

A CONVICTED recusant, he was ploughing his field when one Dewhurst came to serve him with a warrant. Herst fled, and Dewhurst, following in pursuit, received a blow from Herst's maid, and afterwards in the heat of the pursuit fell and broke his leg. From that wound in the leg he died, yet Herst, who had never been within thirty yards of him, was charged with his death. Herst's pardon was offered him if he would take the oath, but he refused, and he declined also to go to church, so he was trailed there by his legs and much hurt. In the church he stopped his ears, not to hear false doctrine, and, on returning, said, "They have tortured my body, but, thank God, they have not hurt my soul." At his trial at Lancaster, though his innocence of Dewhurst's death was evident, the judge told the jury that he was a recusant, had resisted the Bishop's authority, and that they must find it murder for an example, which was done. At the gallows he said to the hangman, who was bungling with the rope, "Tom, I think I must come and help you." Then, after repeating the holy names of Jesus and Mary, he passed to immortality, Lancaster, August 29.

He corresponded with his confessor while in prison awaiting his execution:

THIS is his last letter to his confessor when about to suffer : "Now I take my last leave; now I am dying, and am as willing to die as ever I was to live, I thank my Lord and Saviour, who I trust will never fail me. I have comfort in Christ Jesus and His Blessed Mother, my good angel, and all the blessed Saints, and in the valiant and triumphant martyr, B. Arrowsmith, who is gone before me. How I have been used you will hear, and likewise what I had offered me if I would have taken the oath. I hope my friends will truly understand that my greatest desire is to suffer, and I would I had as many lives to offer as I have committed sins. Now, dear Sir, prepare yourself also to suffer, and animate your ghostly children in suffering. Once again, I desire you to say and to procure some Masses for my sinful soul, and if it please God to receive me into His kingdom, I shall not be unmindful of you and of all my good friends. I pray you remember my poor children, and encourage my friends about my debts which my chief worldly care is to satisfy. Once again, adieu. I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ Jesus."

The B. Arrowsmith he refers to is, of course, St. Edmund (Bryan) Arrowsmith, SJ who had been executed the day before.

According to this blog, Blessed Richard Hurst reflected on the martyrdom of St. John the Baptist before his execution:

He kissed the gallows on reaching the place of execution, and disregarding the ministers present, recommended himself to God, and begged the prayers of the Blessed Virgin, his angel guardian, and all the saints, especially St. John the Baptist, it being the day of his decollation. Ascending the ladder, he repeated the names of Jesus and Mary, and so was put to death.


More on the Lancashire Martyrs here.