Venite Prandete

  CATHOLIC MARTYRS OF THE REFORMATION- DIED THIS DAY: THOMAS SCRYVEN – CARTHUSIAN; DIED 15th JUNE 1537 THOMAS REDYING – CARTHUSIAN; DIED 16th JUNE 1537 RALPH GRIMSTON – LAYMAN; DIED 15th JUNE 1593 PETER SNOW – PRIEST; DIED 15th JUNE 1593 THOMAS SCRYVEN AND THOMAS REDYING – CARTHUSIAN MONKS: Their biography is taken completely from Wikipedia: The Carthusian Martyrs of London were the monks of the London Charterhouse, the monastery of the Carthusian Order in central London, who were put to death by the English state, under the rule of Henry VIII in a period lasting from the 4 May 1535 till the 20 September 1537. The method of execution was hanging, disembowelling while still alive and then quartering. Others were imprisoned and left to starve to death. The group also includes two monks who were brought to that house from the Charterhouses of Beauvale and Axeholme and similarly dealt with. The total was 18 men, all of whom have been formally recognized by the Catholic Church as martyr...

THOMAS FORDE, ROBERT JOHNSON, JOHN SHERT, PRIESTS MARTYRED 28th MAY 1582. Bishop Challoner’s report of these martyrs is as follows: THOMAS FORDE was born in Devonshire and educated at Trinity College, Oxford, where he took the degree of Master of Arts in 1567 and was soon after admitted fellow of that college: but, not liking the protestant religion, he quitted his fellowship, and all other temporal hopes and went over to the college or seminary lately instituted at Douay, where he arrived in 1571; and after having for some time there seriously applied himself to the study of divinity, he was made priest in 1573 at the same time with those two eminent divines, Richard Bristow and Gregory Martin; these being the three first that were presented to holy orders from Douay college. He took his degree in bachelor of divinity in 1576; and soon after returned to England upon the mission where he laboured for some years with great fruit in the conversion of many souls. He was apprehended on the...

THE DRYBURNE MARTYRS – RICHARD HOLIDAY, EDMUND DUKE, RICHARD HILL & JOHN HOGG, PRIESTS, EXECUTED AT DRYBURNE 27th MAY 1590 These priests were part of the English mission, having studied at Rheims and the various colleges by reason of the interdiction against Catholic education in England under Elizabeth I. As it was a capital offence to be a priest under Elizabeth, they suffered death by hanging, drawing and quartering. Their story is set out in “Memoirs of Missionary Priests, and other Catholics of both Sexes, That have suffered Death in England on Religious Accounts, from the Year 1577 to 1684” by Bishop Challoner, Volume 1: (1) “EDMUND DUKE was born in Kent and was first a student in the English College, then residing at Rheims, where I find him promoted to minor orders, September 23, 1583; from thence he was sent to Rome, where he finished his studies and was made priest. RICHARD HILL, JOHN HOGG AND RICHARD HOLIDAY were all born in Yorkshire, all students of the college then re...

  ST DERFEL: 6th Century saint Feast Day 5th April (This post ties in to St John Forest whose feast day is 22nd May).      The Remains of the Statue to St Derfel - the Stag Derfel Gadarn (“mighty”, “valiant”, “strong”) was a 6th century Welsh monk. His story reads like the mythical tales of the ancient Celts such as the Ulster cycle, and the qualities with which he is described, bravery, valour, chivalry, strength in battle, are those that were particularly prized by the ancient pagan Celts, but in this context, they were coupled with the additional qualities of the Christian code of chivalry: gentleness and grace. His Feast Day is 5th April, and he was reputedly born around 566 AD. He was said to be one of the 7 warriors who survived the Battle of Camlann –the legendary final battle of King Arthur against Mordred in the 6th century, which is argued by some scholars to have been a genuine battle based on a cattle raid (in similar terms to the Irish legends of Ulste...

  BLESSED JOHN FOREST – MARTYRED 22nd MAY 1538                               Blessed John Forest, nave statue – St Etheldra, Ely Place, London. John Forest was a Franciscan Friar. Confessor to Queen Catherine of Aragon under King Henry VIII, he was burned to death for heresy by refusing to acknowledge King Henry VIII as the head of the Church. He was born in 1471 and became a Franciscan Friar Minor of the regular Observance in 1491. He studied at Oxford University and became provincial of the Observant Friars in England, situated at Greenwich friary, which was attached to the Royal Palace at Greenwich. He thus became confessor to Queen Catherine of Aragon. In November 1532, as Guardian of the Greenwich friary, Forest spoke to the friars of the plans King Henry had to suppress the Franciscan Order in England. He denounced from the pulpit Henry’s plans for a divorce. In 1533 he was imprisoned in...