This Morning: Saints Polydore Plasden and Edmund Gennings

Just a reminder that I'll be on the Son Rise Morning Show at about 7:50 a.m. Eastern/6:50 a.m. Central to continue our series on the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales. Matt Swaim and I will discuss Saints Polydore Plasden and Edmund Gennings, executed on December 10, 1591 for being priests in England not willing to swear the Oath of Supremacy.

Please listen live here on the Sacred Heart Radio website; the podcast will be archived here. 

Both men had left England to study for the priesthood on the Continent, both studying at the English College in Rheims. Father Plasden was ordained in 1586; Father Gennings in 1590. Father Plasden returned to England in 1588; Father Gennings immediately after his ordination. So Father Plasden served in the mission for about three years; Gennings for one.

Details of St. Edmund Gennings' life include that he was a convert to Catholicism, following the example of his mentor Richard Sherwood, whom he served as a page. When Father Gennings returned to England he sought out his family and found his brother John in London. Their meeting did not go well: John believed Edmund to be a traitor because of his conversion. John knew about his brother's execution on December 10, 1591 and rejoiced that Edmund would not be able to persuade him to convert to Catholicism, which would have been an act of treason for both of them. There must have been something in his brother that made him concerned that Edmund could persuade him!

But thinking about his brother's life in contrast to his own, John began to realize that he had nothing to live for except pleasure while Edmund had had something to live and to die for, and he resolved to learn more about the Catholic faith. As the older Dictionary of National Biography explains, John Gennings' life changed drastically, as he left England, became a Catholic and studied for the priesthood becoming a Franciscan Friar and priest--and a missionary to England like his brother, during the reign of King James I:

He entered the English College at Douay, was ordained priest in 1607, and was sent on the mission in the following year. In 1614 or 1615 he was admitted into the order of St. Francis. In 1616, in his capacity of vicar and custos of England, he assembled at Gravelines about six of his brethren, including novices, and within three years he succeeded in establishing at Douay the monastery of St. Bonaventure, of which he was the first vicar and guardian. In 1621, with the assistance of Father Christopher Davenport he founded the convent of St. Elizabeth at Brussels for English nuns of the third order of St. Francis. On the restoration of the English province of his order he was appointed its first provincial, in a chapter held at Brussels on 1 Dec. 1630. He was re-elected provincial in the second chapter held at Greenwich on 15 Jan. 1633–4, for another triennium, and again in the fourth chapter at London on 19 April 1640. He died at Douay on 2 Nov. (O.S.) 1660.

This just demonstrates again the impact of these English and Welsh martyrs on those who witnessed or heard of their sacrificial love. 

Perhaps those of us who have family members who have left the Catholic Church and her Sacraments should choose Saint Edmund Gennings as an intercessor for their return!

Saint Polydore Plasden, pray for us!

Saint Edmund Gennings, pray for us!