English Speaking Saints And Martyrs

Supremacy and Survival: The English Reformation: A Great Book; A Tragic Story : When studying the long history of the English Reformation and its aftermath, one thought the student may have is, when so many priests an...

29th March - Saints Gwynllyw and Gwladys; Saint Berthold of Carmel - Independent Catholic News : These sixth century saints were the parents of St Cadoc, one of the early founders of monasticism in South Wales. They are also one of very few married couple to be canonised. Gwynllyw was a chieftain. His wife Gwladys also came from an aristocratic family. Much of their life was spent fighting neighbouring tribes, but their son Cadoc converted them to Christianity and they became devout followers of Christ.

Supremacy and Survival: The English Reformation: Blessed John Hambley, Pray for Us! : Just a reminder that I'll be on the Son Rise Morning Show during the EWTN hour this morning (5:00 to 6:00 a.m. Central Daylight Savin...

Supremacy and Survival: The English Reformation: The Silence of St. Nicholas Owen : St. Nicholas Owen, SJ, the Jesuit lay brother and carpenter extraordinaire, died under torture on March 22, 1606. The Jesuits in Britain ...

22nd March - 

Saint Nicholas Owen - Independent Catholic News : Jesuit lay-brother, martyr. There is no record of his family, birthplace, date of birth, or baptism. Nicholas had been a servant of the Society of Jesus and joined the order around 1580. At the execution of St Edmund Campion he openly declared him innocent and was imprisoned. After his release he served the priests Henry Garnett and John Gerard for eighteen years. He was captured again with with Fr John, escaped from the Tower, and helped the escape of Father Gerard.

21st March - Saint Enda - Independent Catholic News : Abbot. Born in Co Meath, during the 6th century, Enda was a boy soldier who became a monk. He was trained at St Ninian's monastery in Whithorn, Galloway and then returned to Drogheda and founded monastic communities in the Boyne valley, before settling in Inishmore in the Aran Islands. This became his base. Many monks came to to join him there including Ciaran of Clonmacnoise.

Supremacy and Survival: The English Reformation: Book Review: The She-Apostle by Glyn Redworth : Book Description by OUP: Before dawn one morning in June 1612, an elderly Frenchman took charge of a carriage carrying a precious cargo near...

Supremacy and Survival: The English Reformation: Blesseds Pilchard, Pike, and Flathers at Dorcheste... : Both of these priestly martyrs had been arrested and banished, but returned to England and suffered martyrdom when arrested again, one d...

20th March - Saint Cuthbert - Independent Catholic News : Monk and bishop. Born in 634 on the tiny island of Farne, St Cuthbert was most likely a Northumbrian Englishman. As a young shepherd boy by Leader Water he saw a vision, Bede writes, of angels taking the soul of St Aiden to heaven. Later he became a monk under St Eata at Melrose. For years he undertook long journeys on horseback and on foot, ministering to the remotest parts of the country between Berwick and Galloway, and keeping the spirit of Christianity alive in them. In 664 he accompanied St Eata to Lindisfarne and extended his work south to Durham.

18th March - Saint Edward the Martyr - Independent Catholic News : King. Edward was born in 862, the son of the English King Edgar and his first wife. He succeeded his father in 965. Three years later, when he was just 15 or 16, he was assassinated at Corfe in Dorset, in 978 and quietly buried at Wareham. It is said that he was on his way to visit his half brother Etheldred, when he was set upon by Etheldred's retainers and stabbed before he could dismount from his horse.

18th March - Saint Edward the Martyr - Independent Catholic News : King. Edward was born in 862, the son of the English King Edgar and his first wife. He succeeded his father in 965. Three years later, when he was just 15 or 16, he was assassinated at Corfe in Dorset, in 978 and quietly buried at Wareham. It is said that he was on his way to visit his half brother Etheldred, when he was set upon by Etheldred's retainers and stabbed before he could dismount from his horse.

17th March
 - Saint Patrick - Independent Catholic News : Fifth century bishop. Patron of Ireland. St Patrick was a Roman Briton, born somewhere on the west coast, between the Clyde and the Severn estuary. His father Calpurnius, was a civil official and a deacon. His grandfather was a priest. When Patrick was 16, he was captured by slave traders, and taken to Ireland where he was used as a herdsman, traditionally at Slemish in Antrim.

Supremacy and Survival: The English Reformation: From The Reformation to the Present Day : AN Wilson reviews Roy Hattersley's The Catholics: The Church and its People in Britain and Ireland, from the Reformation to the Prese...

English Historical Fiction Authors: The Abbot’s Kitchen at Glastonbury Abbey : by Mary F. Burns Nearly all the information is this post taken from a printed pamphlet displayed for public education in the Abbot’s Ki...

13th March - Saint Gerald of Mayo - Independent Catholic News : Abbot. St Gerald was an Englishman who became a monk at Lindisfarne in the 8th century. He then travelled to Inishbofin in Galway with St Colman of Lindisfarne and was later made abbot of the English part of the monastery at Mayo. The community became known as the Mayo of the Saxons. It flourished and was known as a great centre of study.

12th March - Saint Paul Aurelian - Independent Catholic News : Bishop. Patron of Paul in Cornwall. He is also known as Saint Pol de Leon. According to his Life written by Wrmonoc, a 10th century monk from Landevennec, he was the son of a Welsh chieftain who was educated at the monastery of St Iltyd. He became a monk, and together with 12 companions migrated to Brittany where they built a number of churches and monasteries.

11th March - Saint Oengus the Culdee - Independent Catholic News : Monk and writer. Oengus was the author of the earliest Irish Martyrology, called the Felire. Born of a royal Ulster family, he was educated at the monastery of Clonenagh (Co Laois). He lived as a hermit at Disertbeagh where he practised a life of austerity, reading the psalter daily while submersed in cold water, fasting and many genuflections. In later life he joined the monastery of Tallacht near Dublin.

Supremacy and Survival: The English Reformation: The Martyr's Beads II: Blessed Thomas Atkinson : Coming the day after St. John Ogilvie's feast, and with another connection to the Rosary, I wanted to highlight Blessed Thomas Atkinso...

Supremacy and Survival: The English Reformation: The Martyr's Beads: St. John Ogilvie : In honor of St. John Ogilvie, SJ, I'll be on the Son Rise Morning today and tomorrow with Annie Mitchell to discuss the life and death...

10 March - Saint John Ogilvie - Independent Catholic News : Jesuit priest and martyr. St John was born at Drum na Keith in Banffshire, Scotland, in 1580 and brought up as a Calvinist. His parents sent him to France for his education and at the age of 16 he decided to become a Catholic. He was received into the church at Louvaine and joined the Society of Jesus in 1599. For ten years he worked in Austria, He was then assigned to the French province and ordained in Paris in 1610. He longed to return to his native Scotland but had to wait until 1613 until he was granted permission.

Bl. John Larke - Saints & Angels - Catholic Online Bl. John Larke, Roman Catholic Priest and English Martyr. He served as a pastor in Bishopgate, Woodford, Essex, and then Chelsea until his arrest for opposing the religious supremacy of King Henry VIII of England . He was executed at Tyburn with John Ireland and Jermyn Gardiner. Feastday Mar. 7

Bl. John Ireland - Saints & Angels - Catholic Online Bl. John Ireland, Roman Catholic Priest and English Martyr. Chaplain to St. Thomas More. He became a pastor at Eltham, Kent, prior to his arrest for resisting the supremacy of King Henry VIII of England over the Church of England. Executed at Tyburn, he died with Blesseds Jermyn Gardiner and John Larke.Feastday Mar.7

6th March - Saints Baldred and Bilfrith - Independent Catholic News : Hermits. St Baldred lived during the 6th century in Northumberland, as a hermit, first at Tyningham and then on the Bass Rock. According to legend, it was thanks to his prayers that a dangerous reef was removed between the rock and the mainland. All that is left of it is St Baldred's Rock. The saint's supposed relics were discovered with those of St Bilfrith in the 11th century and removed to Durham.

3rd March - Saint Katharine Drexel - Independent Catholic News : Nun and foundress. Katharine Drexel was the daughter of a millionaire banker. Born in Philadelphia in 1858, she had an excellent education and travelled widely. Her unusual family had their own railway car and were used to every luxury. But her mother also opened the door of their home to the poor three days each week and her father spent half an hour each evening in prayer. As a young woman Katherine nursed her stepmother through a three-year terminal illness.

2nd March - 

Saint C : Bishop. St Chad was the first bishop of Mercia and Lindsay at Lichfield. Born in Northumbria in the 7th century, he was a pupil of St Aidan at Lindisfarne, who sent him to Ireland for part of his education. He later became abbot of Lastingham in Yorkshire, but was then called to be bishop of York. In 669 St Theodore of Canterbury judged him to have been irregularly consecrated. Chad accepted the decision and humbly went back to his monastery. Theodore was so impressed by his character he made him bishop of Mercia with his see at Lichfield.

1st March - Saint David - Independent Catholic News : Monk. patron saint of Wales. Not a great deal is known about St David. The oldest written evidence about him come from Ireland, but there are legends about him as far afield as Brittany, Cornwall and Herefordshire. He was born some time in the 6th century, probably Henfynw in Cardiganshire. According to legend he was the son of a local chieftain and founded twelve monasteries from Croyland to Pembrokeshire.