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!

Preview: Two More on Gray's Inn Road

On Monday, August 10, Matt Swaim and I will discuss two more of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales, Saint Edmund Gennings (portrait on the right) and Polydore Plasden on the Son Rise Morning Show (about 7:50 a.m. Eastern/6:50 a.m. Central) broadcast on Sacred Heart Radio from Cincinnati, Ohio.

The execution of two priests and three laymen at a specially built gallows at Gray's Inn Road on December 10, 1591 drew a crowd and some special spectators: Richard Topcliffe was there, as was Sir Walter Raleigh, one of Elizabeth I's favorite courtiers.

These priests were being execution simply because they were English subjects who had gone to the Continent to study and be ordained and had returned to England. Parliament had passed a new law in 1584, 27 Elizabeth Cap 2 (Act Against Jesuits, Seminary Priests and Other Such Disobedient Subjects). Unless these returning priests were willing to leave England within 40 days of arrival or accept the queen's supremacy over the Church in England, they were considered traitors. Anyone who harbored these recusant priests, the "other such disobedient subjects", were guilty of a felony: thus Saint Swithun Wells, and the Blesseds John Mason and Sidney Hodgson were hanged to death as felons that day.

But the presence of Richard Topcliffe (as demonstrated by his dialogue with Saint Swithun Wells described last week) and Sir Walter Raleigh also made these executions notable. Their presence also made a difference in the way the two priests suffered their executions.

St. Polydore Plasden and Sir Walter Raleigh (portrait on the left), according to the "Relation of Fr. James Young" included in Father Philip Caraman SJ's The Other Face: Catholic Life Under Elizabeth I discussed the priest's prayers for the queen. Raleigh was willing to have Plasden's execution stayed when he swore that he would defend Elizabeth's life against any threat of assassination. But then Topcliffe intervened and asked if Father Plasden would fight to assist Philip II of Spain in reasserting Catholicism in England. He said as a priest he could not, but that he would argue against any attack on the queen in such a cause. But Topcliffe pressed the argument further and Plasden said he would not counsel anyone else not to fight to reestablish the Catholic Church in England (in other words that he would support military action if necessary to replace the Church of England with the Catholic Church)--and Raleigh agreed that he was indeed a traitor to England because of his loyalty to the Catholic Church. Father Plasden said that he could not deny his faith in Christ and His Church. "O Christ" saith he, looking up to heaven and kissing the rope. "I will never deny thee for a thousand lives." And so he was hanged--but Raleigh ordered that he be allowed to hang until dead, so that he didn't suffer the agonies that followed.

He was 28 years old.

Father Gennings was not so fortunate in his conversation with Topcliffe. As the website of the Dominicans in England and Scotland recounts:

“If to return to England a Priest, or to say Mass be a Popish treason, then I confess I am a traitor. But I think not so. And therefore I acknowledge myself guilty of those things, not with repentance, but with an open protestation of inward joy.” Topcliffe, the notorious priest-hunter, was enraged with the attitude of St Edmund Gennings. He then ordered that Edmund be hanged and immediately cut down. When the hangman began his butchery, St Edmund was still alive when his heart was ripped from his chest. With his last breath he cried out, Saint Gregory: Pray for me. The hangman swore, “Zounds! See, his heart is in my hand, and yet Gregory is in his mouth. O egregious Papist!”. 

Caraman's entry for Gennings in The Other Face supplies the detail that he was cut down so quickly from the gallows that he was standing up and had to be toppled down by the hangman to begin the torture. 

He was 24 years old.

Saint Edmund Gennings, pray for us.

Saint Polydore Plasden, pray for us.

The Forty Martyrs of England, Day by Day

The Catholic Truth Society, which used to offer a little booklet on the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, has been counting down to the Feast of the English Martyrs of England and Wales, which is on May 4. Their blog posts  in honor of the martyrs who have been beatified and canonized began with this prayer:

To you, Holy Martyrs of England and Wales, we commend our prayers and our needs in these difficult times.

As you laid down your lives for Christ and His Church, we ask that we may emulate your sacrifice in our daily lives, living as true and humble disciples of Christ.

May His Gospel so penetrate our minds and hearts that we may become what He urges us to be: salt of the earth and light of the world, making Him present through holy lives to the men and women of our time.

Sustain us with your loving presence, be our companions on our earthly journey.

Defend us in moments of trial, console us in sorrows and remind us of that joy which Christ implants into the souls of His devoted servants.

Intercede that we may truly be servants of mercy and reconciliation.

Watch over us and guide us in our Christian lives so one day we may merit to be with you in the Kingdom of our Heavenly Father.

Amen.

Today's saints are the priests Edmund Gennings and Polydore Plasden, who were executed on December 10, 1591. Fr John Hogan, a CTS author, has prepared reflections for each day. Since today is Sunday, our weekly Holy Day of Obligation, this reflection on the Holy Mass and the priesthood is most appropriate:

It was as he was saying Holy Mass for the faithful, assisted by his brother priest, St Polydore, that St Edmund was arrested. Clothed in the sacred vestments, the Holy Sacrifice hurriedly completed, he was led out to captivity and martyrdom. These two dedicated priests, Edmund and Polydore, would offer their bodies as a sacrifice in union with the Masses they had offered in their priestly ministry. It is the call of a priest to offer gift and sacrifice (Heb 8:3), to lay down his life for his brothers and sisters in imitation of the Divine Master, there is no greater love (Jn 15:13). The mystery of a priest’s suffering and martyrdom is immersed in the mystery of his offering the holy Eucharist.

The martyrs rejoiced in the Holy Mass – it was their strength and joy in the midst of affliction. The graces and blessings which emanated from the Eucharist sustained them and helped them endure their sufferings, as it revealed the significance of their martyrdom. Like them, may we never take this Sacrifice for granted, but rather seek enter more deeply into it; to lose ourselves in the great mystery that is being unveiled before us so we may find ourselves again in our union with the Eucharistic Lord.

According to the blog, during the "last ten days of this journey, there will be a series of invocations and a Litany to the Martyrs of Wales." Furthermore, CTS will post the daily reflections on their Facebook page and Twitter profile.