The Exaltation of the Holy Cross

In the September/October 2013 issue of the now-defunct OSV's The Catholic Answer, I answered the question, "What are the feasts of the Cross and Our Lady of Sorrows?":

The feast of the Triumph of the Cross was observed in Rome in the late seventh century to commemorate the recovery of the Holy Cross by Byzantine Emperor Heraclius in 629. St. Helena, Emperor Constantine’s mother, had found the True Cross in Jerusalem in the fourth century, but the Persians had captured it and only returned it after Heraclius defeated the Persian king Khosrau II. The emperor returned it to Jerusalem, and this feast recalls that event. As he approached the holy city, dressed in fine robes and festooned with jewels, the emperor found himself unable to process further until Zacharias, Patriarch of Jerusalem, told Heraclius to humble himself by removing his imperial regalia and proceeding as a barefoot pilgrim.

But on a deeper level, of course, the feast recalls Jesus’ triumph over death and the fulfillment of His great statement, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself” (Jn 12:32, which serves as the Communion Antiphon on this feast). The liturgy of the Mass for this feast includes both triumph and sorrow in the readings and prayers, since Jesus both suffers His passion and defeats sin and death. From the Book of Numbers (21:4b-9), the first reading recalls the story of Moses and the bronze Seraph, raised on a pole — when the people of Israel, who had been grumbling against God for their sufferings, looked up to the serpent, they were healed of the serpent bites God had sent to afflict them. . . .

You may still read the article on the Our Sunday Visitor website here. 

This year, since the memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows is superseded by the celebration of Sunday in the Ordinary Form of the Latin Rite*, we won't have the liturgical celebration of that feast, but since September is traditionally devoted to Our Lady of Sorrows, it's still very appropriate to remember her:

Sept. 15 then recalls the sorrow of Our Lady at the foot of the Cross as the fulfillment of Simeon’s prophecy at the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple: “(and you yourself a sword shall pierce) so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (Lk 2:35). The Gospel for Mass that day may be either the description of “his mother and the disciple . . . whom he loved” standing by the cross of Jesus (Jn 19:25-27) or the Presentation in the Temple (Lk 2:33-35).

The sequence Stabat Mater — often sung while praying the Stations of the Cross — may be chanted after the Psalm. According to Lumen Gentium (the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church), “the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross, where she stood, in keeping with the divine plan, grieving exceedingly with her only begotten Son, uniting herself with a maternal heart with His sacrifice, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this Victim which she herself had brought forth” (No. 58).

*In the Extraordinary Form of the Latin Rite, September 15, 2019 is the Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost with the Commemoration of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which means the Collect and Post-Communion prayers from that liturgy will be prayed.

Several more of the articles I wrote for OSV's The Catholic Answer are collected here.

Persuading to Popery: Blessed George Douglas

One of the 85 Martyrs of England and Wales: In his earlier years, George Douglas, of Edinburgh, Scotland, worked as a schoolmaster in the English county of Rutland. He subsequently journeyed overseas to Paris, where he studied for the priesthood and was ordained. There are uncertainties in the biographical details of his life, including the specific year of his ordination. He may have been a member of a religious congregation, perhaps the Franciscan Order, but this cannot be established. Father Douglas came to England about ten years after his ordination to serve the country’s Catholics persecuted under Queen Elizabeth I. It was while laboring thus that he was arrested a first time, but was thereafter released. He was arrested a second time at Ripton in the northern county of Yorkshire. Father Douglas was sentenced to death for “persuading to popery,” that is, for winning converts to the Catholic faith. At York he was executed by drawing and quartering on September 9, 1587, manifesting great fortitude during his torments. He was beatified by Blessed John Paul II in 1987, more than 400 years after his martyrdom.

If Father Douglas was found guilty, not of being a Catholic priest in England, but of "persuading to popery" under the 1581 “Act to retain the Queen’s Majesty’s Subjects in their due Obedience”, authorities must not have been able or thought it not necessary to prove that their prisoner was a Catholic priest. If they had proved him guilty of the latter, he was would have been sentenced as a traitor under the 1585 "An act against Jesuits, seminary priests, and such other like disobedient persons." Finding him guilty of bringing others to Catholicism was also to find him guilty of treason and thus he was hung, drawn, and quartered in York.

Note that he was born in Scotland but served Catholics in England!

Blessed George Douglas, pray for us!

September Martyrs: Blesseds William Spenser and Robert Hardesty

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, Father William Spenser was an:

English martyr, b. at Ghisburn, Yorkshire; executed at York, 24 September, 1589. His maternal uncle, William Horn, who signed for the Rectory of Cornwell, Oxfordshire, in 1559, sent him in 1573 to Trinity College, Oxford, where he became Fellow in 1579 and M.A. in 1580. There, convinced of the truth of Catholicism, he used his position to influence his pupils in that direction; but he delayed his reconciliation till 1582, when, with four other Trinity men (John Appletree, B.A., already a priest; William Warford, M.A. and Fellow, afterwards a Jesuit; Anthony Shirley, M.A. and Fellow, afterwards a priest; and John Fixer, B.A., afterwards a priest), he embarked from the Isle of Wight, and landed near Cherbourg, arriving at Reims, 2 November. Received into the Church five days later, he was ordained sub-deacon and deacon at Laon by the bishop, Valentine Douglas, 7 April, 1583, and priest at Reims by the Cardinal Archbishop de Guise, 24 September, and was sent on the mission 29 August, 1584. He effected the reconciliation of his parents and his uncle (the latter was living as a Catholic priest in 1593), and afterwards voluntarily immured himself in York Castle to help the prisoners there. He was condemned under 27 Elizabeth, c. 2, merely for being a priest. With him suffered a layman, Robert Hardesty, who had given him shelter. 

Blesseds Spenser and Hardesty were among the 85 Martyrs of England and Wales beatified by Blessed Pope John Paul II in 1987. During the homily at the beatification Mass (on the Feast of Christ the King), the pope spoke of the role of the laity in that era:

The twenty-two laymen in this group of martyrs shared to the full the same love of the Eucharist. They, too, repeatedly risked their lives, working together with their priests, assisting, protecting and sheltering them. Laymen and priests worked together; together they stood on the scaffold and together welcomed death. Many women, too, not included today in this group of martyrs, suffered for their faith and died in prison. They have earned our undying admiration and remembrance.

These martyrs gave their lives for their loyalty to the authority of the Successor of Peter, who alone is Pastor of the whole flock. They also gave their lives for the unity of the Church, since they shared the Church’s fait, unaltered down the ages, that the Successor of Peter has been given the task of serving and ensuring "the unity of the flock of Christ". He has been given by Christ the particular role of confirming the faith of his brethren. . . .

Seventeen years ago forty of the glorious company of martyrs were canonized. It was the prayer of the Church on that day that the blood of those martyrs would be a source of healing for the divisions between Christians. Today we may fittingly give thanks for the progress made in the intervening years towards fuller communion between Anglicans and Catholics. We rejoice in the deeper understanding, broader collaboration and common witness that have taken place through the power of God.

In the days of the martyrs whom we honour today, there were other Christians who died for their beliefs. We can all now appreciate and respect their sacrifice. Let us respond together to the great challenge which confronts those who would preach the Gospel in our age. Let us be bold and united in our profession of our common Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.

September Martyrs: St. Ambrose Barlow, OSB

From the English College of Valladolid in Spain:

ST. Ambrose BARLOW OSB was born in Barlow Hall near Manchester, in the year 1595. Son of Sir Alexander Barlow and Mary Brereton, he was baptised in November of the same year in Didsbury.

He received his first academic training in the College of St. Gregory at Douai, and on the 20th of September 1610 was admitted as a pupil of the Royal College of St. Alban in VALLADOLID. On completing the second year of philosophical studies, he returned to Douai, where in 1616, in the College of St. Gregory, he made his religious profession. The following year he was ordained a priest.

On going to England, he exercised his missionary ministry mainly in the south of the county of Lancashire. His way of living was said be very simple and apostolic, and his enthusiasm for his sacred trade such that he was nonchalant about the dangers of the religious persecution.

Several times he was stopped and incarcerated. On Easter Sunday, the 25th of April 1631, at the moment of ending a mass the Protestant vicar of EccIes and his followers, armed with sticks and shields, arrested him. He was dragged before a judge, and incarcerated.

On the 7th of September, after four months of detention, he was processed in Lancaster, before Sir Robert Heath who had received orders from the government to inflict on him the maximum punishment, as a deterrent to the Catholics who were very numerous in that county.

Upon the reading of the indictment, Father Ambrose, without more ado, admitted to being a priest and having exercised his apostolate in England for more than twenty years. The following day he was formally sentenced, and on Friday 10th of September 1641 he was stripped hung and quartered.

Pope Paul VI, on the 25th of October 1970, solemnly canonised him [among the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales].

 

Some of the background on his family is particularly interesting:

 

Ambrose was born at Barlow Hall, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, near Manchester in 1585. He was the fourth son of the nobleman Sir Alexander Barlow and his wife Mary, daughter of Sir Uryan Brereton. The Barlow family had been reluctant converts to the Church of England following the suppression of the Church of Rome in England and Wales. Ambrose's grandfather died in 1584 whilst imprisoned for his beliefs and Sir Alexander Barlow had two thirds of his estate confiscated as a result of his refusing to conform with the rules of the new established religion. On 30 November 1585, Ambrose was baptised at Didsbury chapel and went on to adhere to the Anglican faith until 1607, when he converted to Roman Catholicism.

In 1597, Ambrose was taken into the stewardship of Sir Uryan Legh, a relative who would care for him whilst he served out his apprenticeship as a page. However, upon completing this service, Barlow realised that his true vocation was for the priesthood, so he travelled to Douai in France to study at the English College there before attending the Royal College of Saint Alban in Valladolid, Spain.

I am thrilled to see that the Catholic church in Barlow, named for their local martyr, is celebrating a St. Ambrose Barlow Festival this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday!

September Martyrs: Blessed George Douglas

One of the 85 Martyrs of England and Wales: In his earlier years, George Douglas, of Edinburgh, Scotland, worked as a schoolmaster in the English county of Rutland. He subsequently journeyed overseas to Paris, where he studied for the priesthood and was ordained. There are uncertainties in the biographical details of his life, including the specific year of his ordination. He may have been a member of a religious congregation, perhaps the Franciscan Order, but this cannot be established. Father Douglas came to England about ten years after his ordination to serve the country’s Catholics persecuted under Queen Elizabeth I. It was while laboring thus that he was arrested a first time, but was thereafter released. He was arrested a second time at Ripton in the northern county of Yorkshire. Father Douglas was sentenced to death for “persuading to popery,” that is, for winning converts to the Catholic faith. At York he was executed by drawing and quartering on September 9, 1587, manifesting great fortitude during his torments. He was beatified by Blessed John Paul II in 1987, more than 400 years after his martyrdom.

If Father Douglas was found guilty, not of being a Catholic priest in England, but of "persuading to popery" under the 1581 “Act to retain the Queen’s Majesty’s Subjects in their due Obedience”, authorities must not have been able or thought it not necessary to prove that their prisoner was a Catholic priest. If they had proved him guilty of the latter, he was would have been sentenced as a traitor under the 1585 "An act against Jesuits, seminary priests, and such other like disobedient persons." Finding him guilty of bringing others to Catholicism was also to find him guilty of treason and thus he was hung, drawn, and quartered in York.

Blessed George Douglas, pray for us!

September Martyrs: A Franciscan Friar and Two Laymen

Franciscan Thomas Palaser or Palasor and two laymen, John Norton and John Talbot who had assisted him were executed on September 8, 1600, near the end of Elizabeth I's reign/life. According to the Royal English College of Valladolid, Spain:

BLESSED Thomas PALASER OSF was probably born in Ellerton-upon-Sway, near Richmond in the County of Yorkshire. He was seminarian at Rheims (France) and in VALLADOLID, where he was ordained a priest the year 1596. He was arrested shortly after returning to England, but escaped. He exercised his Mission in the north of the Country. Condemned for being a priest, he was stripped, hung, drawn and quartered in Durham, on the 8th of September 1600 (the same day as the Image of the Virgin "The Vulnerata" was solemnly received into the Chapel, before the wife of the King Philip III, Margarita Lady of Austria). More about "The Vulnerata" here.

He was beatified by Pope Saint John Paul II, on the 22nd of November 1987.

His two lay companions, Blessed John Norton and Blessed John Talbot, were also beatified that day, just as they shared the day of execution. Father Palaser was arrested in the home of John Norton, whose wife Margaret was also arrested. Norton, Mrs. Norton and Talbot were all found guilty of the felony of assisting a traitor, a Catholic priest. Mrs. Norton was not executed because she was pregnant at the time.

The College Prayer to Our Lady:
May our Lady Vulnerata and all our Martyr Saints intercede for us with the Lord, that our students and benefactors, past and present, may be helped and saved by him. Amen.

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?"