ALBAN BARTHOLOMEW ROE AND THOMAS REYNOLDS; MARTYRED 21st JANUARY 1642.

 ALBAN BARTHOLOMEW ROE

AND THOMAS REYNOLDS

MARTYRED 21st JANUARY 1642.

Bartholomew Roe was born in 1583, in Suffolk. He was brought up a Protestant. He was converted when he tried to convert an imprisoned Catholic to Protestantism, but found himself defeated in argument. The Wikipedia entry provides as follows:

“From this time, according to Richard Challoner, "Mr. Roe was very uneasy in mind upon the score of religion; nor did this uneasiness cease till by reading and confessing with Catholic Priests he was thoroughly convinced of his errors and determined to embrace the ancient faith. Having found the treasure of God’s truth himself, he was very desirous to impart the same to the souls of his neighbours.”

With his brother James, both converted to Catholicism and both became Benedictine monks.

In 1607 Roe studied for the priesthood at the English College at Douai. He had a temperament that seems to have been distinctly unsuitable for monastic life, being explosive and unpredictable. However, his entry provides that his outstanding characteristics were cheerfulness and tenacity, and that his sanctity was unquestionable.

It also provides that he was not only content to rub people up the wrong way, but to “make sure that they noticed”. When the Prior had some cupboards removed from near to his bed, Roe declared: "There is more trouble with a few fools than with all the wise; if you pull down, I will build up; if you destroy, I will rebuild.”

He was expelled from the college in 1610 due his temperament, records stating that "we consider the said Bartholomew Roe is not at all fitted for the purposes of this College on account of his contempt for the discipline and for his superiors and of his misleading certain youths living in the College and also of the great danger of his still leading others astray, and therefore we adjudge that he must be dismissed from the College.”

He did not leave quietly, but used his considerable skills to organise a campaign against the authorities. A significant body of monks seem to have seen him as some sort of hero and backed his appeal to the President. This allowed him later in 1613 to join the English Benedictine Community of St.Lawrence at Dieulouard in Lorraine, being ordained in 1615. There is no record of him being at all troublesome at Dieulouard. He became a founder member of the new English Benedictine Community at St. Edmund, Paris, hence his religious name Fr. Alban of St. Edmund.

He was professed in 1612 and after ordination in 1615 joined the missions and worked in London, being arrested and deported shortly after his arrival. He returned in 1618 and was imprisoned until 1623, whereupon his release and re-exile was organised by the Spanish Ambassador. He returned two years later and was incarcerated for 17 years without trial in the Fleet Prison - (so much for Habeus corpus - it seems that the Magna Carta did not apply to Catholics)...

However, conditions in the Fleet Street prison were relaxed and he was able to minister to souls during the day provided he was back in his cell at night. So, lacking a church, he could be found in ale houses playing cards with the customers. This was permitted under the Constitutions of the English Benedictine Congregation at the time – the stakes were not monetary but short prayers. Of course, this behaviour scandalised the Puritans, but as he was already a prisoner, there was little more they could do against him. He was also allowed to receive visitors in prison where in addition to strengthening his resolve through private prayer, he taught visitors prayers and made many converts. In 1641 he was transferred to close confinement within the strict Newgate Prison. In his trial in 1642, after 17 years’ incarceration, he was found guilty of treason under the statute 27 Eliz c.2 for being a priest.

Richard Challoner details his initial refusal to enter a plea: The chief witness against him was a fallen Catholic whom he had formerly helped. He pleaded not guilty, but objected to being tried by "twelve ignorant jurymen", who were unconcerned about the shedding of his innocent blood. The judge was intimidated by his making a mockery of the proceedings, and took him aside for a private conversation. This went badly with Roe declaring "My Saviour has suffered far more for me than all that; and I am willing to suffer the worst of torments for his sake." The judge sent him back to prison where he was advised by some whom Challoner describes as “grave and learned priests" to follow the example of those before him and consent to being tried by the court. The jury took about a minute to find him guilty. He then, in mockery, bowed low to the judge and the whole bench for granting him this great favour which he greatly desired. The judge suspended the sentence and sent him back to prison for a few days. His fame led to a constant stream of visitors, one of whom smuggled in the necessary items for him to say Mass in his cell.

On the morning of 21 January 1642, Roe and fellow priest, Thomas Reynolds, were drawn on hurdles from Newgate Prison to the place of execution at Tyburn. His brother priest, Thomas Reynolds, nearly eighty years of age, was by his nature, very different in personality to St Alban Roe, being a timid person and somewhat infirm.

Father Reynolds, upon being sentenced to execution by hanging, drawing and quartering, had confided his fears of facing the execution and how he would undergo the ordeal of torture which he knew he would have to face. He had spent his final couple of days in prayer and had requested prayers of those priests imprisoned with him. On the morning of his execution, Father Reynolds found that he had a sense of serenity and a knowledge that he could manage what lay ahead. Using supplies that had been smuggled in to him, he said Mass before being summoned to his execution.

At Tyburn, Roe preached to the crowd about the meaning of his death. He turned to the Sheriff, asking him whether he could save his life by turning Protestant. The Sheriff agreed that he could. Roe then turned to the crowd declaring "see then what the crime is for which I am to die and whether religion be not my only treason?" His remark to one of his former gaolers was, "My friend, I find that thou art a prophet; thou hast told me often I should be hanged."

Then Father Reynolds addressed the assembled crowd for nearly half an hour. He pointed out that in nearly forty years work as a priest, no-one could testify to him having uttered a word of treason and that his sole aim was 'to reduce strayed souls to the fold of the Catholic Church.' He added that he had no desire to criticise or meddle with the actions of Parliament, but rather that God would bless them and teach them what to do best for the kingdom; he extended his prayers to the King and Queen and all the kingdom which he hoped would flourish. He concluded by asking forgiveness to any who sought it for actions against him, particularly in regard to his death. Turning to the Sheriff overseeing his execution, he thanked him for his patience whilst he addressed the crowd and prayed that God would reward him for that one day by making him a saint in heaven. The Sheriff in turn commended himself to Reynolds and was heard to remark to one of those present that he had never seen a man die like him. Having finished his address Father Reynolds knelt to pray.

Father Reynolds and St Alban Roe were placed in the cart with the nooses around their necks. They embraced one another and recited the Miserere, (Psalm 51), each in turn, until the cart was pulled away.

The Sheriff allowed the martyrs to hang till they expired to spare them the suffering of being drawn and quartered while they were still alive. Instead, they were drawn and quartered after they had died. When their remains were quartered there was a scramble, by the Catholic crowd present, to dip handkerchiefs into their blood and to pick up straws covered in blood as relics.

St Alban Roe and Thomas Reynolds were declared Venerable on December 1929 by Pope Pius XI and beatified one week later on 15 December. Blessed Alban Roe was canonised nearly 40 years later on 25 October 1970 by Pope Paul VI as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, with a common feast day of 25 October. Both individual feast days are celebrated today, on 21 January, the day of their martyrdom.

Perhaps an appropriate means of celebrating the lives of these wonderful defenders of the Faith, (and especially considering the ebullient, larger-than-life personality of St Alban Roe), is by toasting their memories with a glass of Ampleforth Abbey Beer - a beer brewed by the Yorkshire monks with techniques developed by the Dieulouard monastery in France.

(1) Wikipedia entry - from which this post is predominantly taken.

(2) Dr Francis Young, "Remembering St Alban Roe."

The Image is a painting of St Alban Roe in the church of St Sebastien, Dieulouard, France, which is taken from the post of Dr Francis Young at the above site, who states as follows:

“Alban Roe is today commemorated in the church of St Sebastien at Dieulouard with a painting executed shortly after his beatification in 1929, which shows the saint with a noose around his neck, holding a martyr’s palm in his left hand while offering his heart to Christ with his right; a banner under the image of Christ reads ‘My Saviour suffered for me, I want to suffer for him’. Behind the saint is a depiction of St Laurence’s on the left and Tyburn on the right. At the base of the painting is the seal of the English Benedictine Congregation, accompanied by a tankard of beer (representing the famous beer brewed at Dieulouard, but also perhaps Roe’s reputation as something of a bon viveur) and the grid iron of St Laurence. On the right side of the picture are two shields representing the Abbey of Saint-Mansuy at Toul, originally dedicated to St Peter (Dieulouard was in the Diocese of Toul until 1824) and Westminster Abbey, likewise dedicated to St Peter.”