English Speaking Saints And Martyrs

Supremacy and Survival: The English Reformation: 850 Years Ago Tonight: Murder in the Cathedral : Before COVID struck, there were great plans to celebrate this 850th anniversary of the martyrdom, or some might say, assassination, of the A...

Fr Dominic Robinson SJ, Parish Priest at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Farm Street, Mayfair, central London, gave this homily on Christmas Day. First of all on behalf of the Jesuit Community who have care of this church a very warm welcome to you - wherever you are joining us from, be it here in the church or at home here in London or elsewhere in our country or overseas - and may we wish you a happy Christmas. Over these last few days it's been interesting being offered Christmas greetings. I've been noticing a certain reservation in saying 'happy Christmas' - greetings, to me at least, have been prefaced by "I know it's far from happy this year" or slightly downgrading the greeting to 'a blessed Christmas' or 'a peaceful Christmas'. Midnight/ Christmas Day Mass is usually so uplifting as our church is full and we welcome people who would not normally come to church, indeed welcome people back to church. Over the years here

Supremacy and Survival: The English Reformation: First Book on 2021 Wish List : I'm going to ask Warren at Eighth Day Books to order this for me as soon as it's available next year (scheduled for release on Janu...

Supremacy and Survival: The English Reformation: Announcement: The North American Friends of the Ve... : I've been asked to help in whatever way I can in a new project with the English Martyrs of the Recusant era, specifically those who atte...

English Historical Fiction Authors: Hangings and Gibbeting : By Donna Scott Death by hanging was used as a form of capital punishment in England as early as the fifth century. Other methods of executio...

A Law unto Yourself By Br. Simon Teller, O.P. on December 7, 2020 “Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.” Ralph Waldo Emerson makes this bold—but perhaps diabolical—assertion in his essay, “Self-Reliance.” For Emerson, you cannot let your actions be shaped by someone else’s idea of the truth. You cannot submit yourself to external standards, rules, and traditions. For life only has meaning when it is lived from within, according to one’s own personal insights and convictions. The conclusion: the only ones who are truly alive are the nonconformists. An old churchman once challenged Emerson on this point: “How do you know that your own impulses are not from heaven above, but from below?” Emerson responded: “They do not seem to be to be such; but if I am the Devil’s child, I will live then from the Devil. No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature.” Emerson’s words are, ironically, perhaps truer than his rhetoric suggests. He did not invent the idea of self-re

Who Were the Puritans? - Crisis Magazine : The Pilgrims first sighted land off Cape Cod on November 9, 1620, after spending sixty-five days at sea. They rejoiced, singing Psalm 100, a traditional song of thanksgiving. But as William Bradford recorded in Of Plymouth Plantation, it was winter when, “all things stand upon them with a weatherbeaten face.” “They had no friends to welcome them, …

Myles Standish, the Catholic Pilgrim - Crisis Magazine : Amid an otherwise estimable analysis of the Pilgrims’ early years and legacy, Christopher Caldwell makes a common mistake in the Claremont Review of Books, describing Myles Standish not just as “brave, erudite, underhanded, and so diminutive that he was known (though not to his face) as Captain Shrimp”—all true—but as “a secular mercenary” to boot. …

In the footsteps of the English martyrs In spite of unprecedented restrictions, the Venerable English College remembered the 44 English martyrs in a celebration on Tuesday, 1 December, with the traditional singing of the Te Deum sung in the exact same spot as it was by their forebears whenever one of their brothers was martyred. By Joachim Teigen They have been referred to as “God’s secret agents”. Martyred in the persecutions of Catholics in post-reformation England and Wales, the 44 martyrs of the Venerable English College in Rome are remembered by their modern-day successors once a year, on 1 December, a day known as “Martyrs’ Day”. The day marks the death of the College’s first martyr, St. Ralph Sherwin. Alongside him, 43 other saints, blesseds and venerables of the English seminary are remembered. The striking number of martyrs whose priestly formation took place at this College seminary has earned the institution its name of “Venerable”. On Tuesday, amidst Covid-19 restricti

Supremacy and Survival: The English Reformation: Vespers at the Venerable English College in Rome : I received some exciting news from the Venerable English College in Rome last week: This Tuesday [Today!] marks a very important day in the...