Venite Prandete

ST CATHERINE LABOURE 28th NOVEMBER St Catherine Laboure related the request of Our Lady for the striking of the Miraculous Medal at the convent in which she had seen the apparition in Rue du Bac in Paris in 1830. She was born the ninth of 11 children in the Burgundy region of France. Her mother died when she was nine years old, after which she was reported to have picked up a statute of the Blessed Virgin, kissed it and said, “Now you will be my Mother.” After her mother’s death she lived with her aunt about 9 kilometres from their home. She was a devout and romantic young girl, and joined the Daughters of Charity at a young age after she had a dream about St Vincent de Paul. She reported that, on 19 July 1830, on the eve of the feast of St Vincent de Paul, she was awakened by a child calling her to the chapel. When she arrived at the chapel, she experienced a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who said to her, “God wishes to charge you with a mission. You will be contradicted, but do ...

SHAKESPEARE’S COUSIN ROBERT SOUTHWELL ONE OF THE FORTY MARTYRS 25th OCTOBER Robert Southwell was born in 1561 in Protestant England. He was a cousin of William Shakespeare through Shakespeare’s mother’s family, the Ardens – a recusant family who were active in the underground Catholic resistance during the reign of Elizabeth I; Edward Arden, cousin of Shakespeare’s mother, was hanged, drawn and quartered at Smithfield in December 1583 for harbouring a Catholic priest. Arden’s head was set up on London Bridge beside the head of the Earl of Desmond. Though his family was Catholic, Southwell’s family fortune came from a monastery seized by Henry VIII, and Robert's father and grandfather both wavered between Catholicism and Protestantism. Robert, however, was catechised in the Catholic faith and was sent to Europe for a Catholic education when he was 15.* There, after matriculation, he petitioned the Jesuits to accept him. When this was denied, he walked to Rome to petition. His req...

SHAKESPEARE AND ANNE LINE THE CATHOLIC RESISTANCE Anne Line is one of the Forty Martyrs of the Reformation whose collective feast day is 25th October. Her individual feast day is the date of her execution - 27th February. She was executed for the crime of harbouring priests, an offence of treason under legislation of 1585. Her story is set out in a previous post. Martin Dodwell, in his biography of Anne Line, “The Neat-herd’s Daughter Anne Line: Shakespeare’s Tragic Muse”, observed that she was considered to be “in the words of the Jesuit Henry Garnet, ‘both the Martha and the Mary’” of the clandestine and dangerous Catholic mission. She dedicated her life and her meagre resources to supporting the underground network of Catholic clergy in England, protected and assisted by aristocratic Catholic families, until her arrest at a Mass and her subsequent execution. Sonnet 74 is a memorial to Anne Line and her execution, where, before being hanged, she borrowed the executioner's knife ...

ANNE LINE ONE OF THE FORTY MARTYRS INDIVIDUAL FEAST DAY 28th FEBRUARY As a response to the training of priests at Douai and other seminaries that had developed in Europe and their effective mission in England, in 1585 legislation was passed by Parliament, under the rule of Elizabeth I, by which harbouring, maintaining or sheltering priests was deemed high treason and, as such, punishable by death and forefeiture of all property to the Crown.* Anne Line was executed by hanging on 27th February 1601 for harbouring Catholic priests. She was canonised as one of the Forty Martyrs on 25th October 1970. Martin Dodwell, in “The Neat-Herd’s Daughter, Anne Line, Shakespeare’s Tragic Muse” * introduces us to Anne Line: “The story of Anne Line, at least as it was passed on by the Jesuit John Gerard who knew her well, starts with her marriage to Roger Line of Ringwood. Both husband and wife were from Protestant families of minor landed-gentry, and Roger Line, the eldest son, was heir both to his fa...

OLIVER PLUNKETT ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH CANONISED 12th OCTOBER 1975 - FEAST DAY 1st JULY Oliver Plunkett was born in 1625. Descended from James Plunkett, 8th Baron Killeen, he was related to the Earls of Roscommon, Fingal, Lords Louth and Dunsany. By 1605, the Plantations had been established in Ireland by the English Crown as a means to subdue the native Catholic Irish by populating the counties with protestant Lowland Scots and Northern English - Loyalists to the (Protestant) Crown. From the time of Elizabeth I, under the Penal Laws, Catholics had been barred from education or holding public office, ensuring that the Irish Privy Council and the Lords Justice who composed the benches hearing and applying the laws of Ireland would always be Anglicans. Oliver Plunkett’s education was initially entrusted to his cousin, Patrick Plunkett, Abbot of St Mary’s Dublin. Afterwards, because of the dearth of educational opportunities in Ireland for Catholics, he journeyed to Rome to study. In 1652, ...