Have a scroll through Bashing Secularism for reflections that Richard Marsden has been posting on the 40 English and Welsh Martyrs canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1970. He is humbly contrite about not posting all of them during Lent but I think we can all forgive him for that - they form an excellent series and he has promised continuing posts during Eastertide.The English and Welsh martyrs are far too little known among Catholics in their own countries. If you don't know much about the martyrs, reading the reflections on Bashing Secularism is a good way to catch up.
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Hear Hear! I shall be popping over to see what he has to say about my patroness!
I try to post about them at our group blog as the feasts come up.
It is very difficult to find paintins or illustrations of most of them. Any suggestions?
My first stop nowadays is google image search. (Click on "images at the top of the normal google page.)
And I wonder what the Martyrs would think of what the Church has done to the Mass they risked their lifes for, replaced as it is more or less with the Anglican book of Common Prayer by the Church Herself.
The martyrs didn't risk their lives for "the Mass" they died as martyrs refusing to leave The Church.
Have you actually read the live's of the Martyrs?
They were largely all executed for been involved in providing the English Catholics with the sacraments, the Mass been one of these.
Saint John Almond was martyred for trying to provide English Catholics with the Mass. He could have quite safely refused to leave the Church while staying in Rome.
Saint John Kemble was martyred for trying to provide English Catholics with the Mass. He could have quite safely refused to leave the Church while staying in Douai.
Saint John Roberts Saint John Kemble was martyred for trying to provide English Catholics with the Mass. He could have quite safely refused to leave the Church while staying in various places in Europe.
I could do this for nearly all the forty but that would get tedious, I trust you get the picture. It was not simply about refusing to leave the Faith they could have all quite easily escaped to Europe and kept the Faith, or not been involved with the sacraments and avoided execution.
That they did not shows us just how highly we should value the sacraments which some sadly take for granted. The sacraments are worth dying for.
The martyrs did risk their lives for the Mass, and for the priests... Anne Line was martyred for harbouring a priest - the evidence was that the vessels and vestments for Mass were in her house. St. Margaret Clitherow was also arrested for having Mass in her house, and was pressed to death for refusing to plead...
I have just posted the story of the Mass of St Edmund Gennings that was interrupted by Topcliffe. Those guys died for the Mass.
Yes John, I have actually read the lives of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales. I will do you one better and Point out that I have actually written about them in my blog.
Additinally I am excited to report that I have had some folks send me photographs they have taken of statuary and paintings of the martyrs that as yet I cannot find online. I am excited to post those as feast days roll around...
That being said, no one disputes - at least I don't - that they often were caught because they were celebrating the Mass.
But they did not go to the gallows out of shear allegiance to a specific liturgical rite. Does anyone fancy that had they been offered the chance to use the Roman Missal but had to deny the Pope of Rome they would have jumped for that? I certainly would not.
So as much as some folks with certain attachment to a specific form of the Mass like to cast these martyrs as proto-traditionalists (with the obvious inference that the Pauline Rite is akin to Cramner's BCP) I simply won't play along with that. They deserve far better than to be used and exploited in that fashion.
They didn't die to become poster boys for a rite, they died for Christ and His Church.
"That being said, no one disputes - at least I don't - that they often were caught because they were celebrating the Mass."
I don't how familiar you are with this period SS, but simply holding the Catholic Faith was not punishable by death, that was only punishable by huge fines. It was only helping Catholics to have Mass available that was punishable by death whether this be been a priest or aiding a priest. The heretics knew that once the Mass was suppressed the Faith would also eventually go. It seems they understood the power of the Mass only to well.
"But they did not go to the gallows out of shear allegiance to a specific liturgical rite."
No one claimed that, [u]but it was part of the reason.[/u]
Catholics were also severely punished for refusing to so much as step foot in a Anglican church, compare that the ecumenical prayer meetings we have today and tell me they don't dishonour the mempoy of our Catholic ancestors who suffered so much for the Faith.
"Does anyone fancy that had they been offered the chance to use the Roman Missal but had to deny the Pope of Rome they would have jumped for that?"
This is a weak argument based on mere supposition. The point I made is that they could have practiced their faith in Europe quite safely, they choose to stay or in many cases return to England and work to keep the Mass available to Catholics, that is how highly the valued it, it is a fact that they could have remained loyal to the Pope all their lifes and never suffered martyrdom, the crimes for which they were executed were all related to the Mass.
"So as much as some folks with certain attachment to a specific form of the Mass like to cast these martyrs as proto-traditionalists"
No one is claiming that we all know that was Jesus and the Apostles ;)
"with the obvious inference that the Pauline Rite is akin to Cramner's BCP) I simply won't play along with that."
Then you are denying what a reading of the texts with your own eyes would show.
"They deserve far better than to be used and exploited in that fashion. "
Those who harsh accusations and in my opinion unwarranted, they deserve far better than to have their heroic sacrifice downplayed as you are doing, martyrdom was not forced upon them simply for holding the Catholic Faith they knew very well they would be killed for making available or attending the saying of the Mass, they did it anyway gladly for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.
They could have saved themselves by giving up the Mass while still remaining Catholic, they choose death instead.
No they could not have saved themselves and given up the Eucharist and remained practicing Catholics. To have the faith, you need the Eucharist and confession and for those you need priests...
Again we seem to be coming back to this leit motif that the martyrs of England and Wales died for a specific liturgical rite. It wasn't like that had multiple Catholic rites from which to choose - the only one they had is the only one they could use and remain Catholics.
I am well aware of them.
I am well aware of what they could have done to save their skin.
I am at a loss to understand how I can be construed as downplaying their sacrifice. Please illustrate to me with my own writing how you think I have done that.
You want to depict them as having an attachment to a liturgical rite above and beyond their Catholic faith. They were celebrating an approved Eucharistic liturgy of the Catholic Church (and there have always been more than one) and were insistent on doing just that.
To propose ""it is a fact that they could have remained loyal to the Pope all their lifes and never suffered martyrdom, the crimes for which they were executed were all related to the Mass." is a false dichotomy - as though it is possible to remain a Catholic without going to a Mass offered by a priest under a bishop in full union with the Holy See.
They died for celebrating the sacraments in a manner approved by the Church - not for a specific liturgical rite that was an accident of their time and place - it would have been altogether different, though just as valid and true if not the TLM if they had been Maronites during the period or Italo-Greek Catholics.
I am a Greek Catholic and we have as many martyrs from just the 20th century who are recently beatified with many more still in the process. Some were caught in the course of having underground Divine Liturgies outdoors and while it would be accurate to say they were martyr confessors of the Catholic Faith caught and then persecuted for celebrating the sacraments, it would be an ill-considered and inaccurate reduction to say they died for "The Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom". They died for confessing the faith, and they did so by practicing their faith according to the rites approved for them.
The English Catholics did the same. They didn't die for "the true rite", they died for The True Faith.
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