Today is the anniversary of the martyrdom of the English Jesuit, St. Edmund Campion and his companions. Here is the text of an e-mail on the subject that I’ve just received:
On a day very much like this 530 years ago, December 1, 1581, St. Edmund Campion SJ and his priest companions, Alexander Briant SJ and Ralph Sherwin SJ, were led out from the Tower of London, dragged through the rain and mud on hurdles, up Cheapside, past St. Martin le Grand and Newgate, along Holborn to Tyburn (today’s Marble Arch), and thereupon hanged, drawn and quartered for treason, though as Campion persuasively maintained clearly they were executed for their Catholic faith.
Renowned in his day and down to the present for his brilliance, zeal, holiness and good cheer, over the years I have found prayers to St. Edmund Campion reliably answered (even if it wasn’t the answer I was hoping for!). If indeed we make a tour of Catholic England next summer we will certainly follow much of his path on the “English Mission” of 1580-81 that ended in his glorious martyrdom.
I invite you to pray to St. Edmund Campion today for any special intention you may have.
Another e-mail reminds me that today is also the anniversary of another lesser known English martyr who was put to death for resisting Henry VIII’s war against the Church. Here’s the text of that e-mail:
Today is also the day when in 1539, John Beche, abbot of Colchester was executed for resistance to Henry VIII.
[His pectoral cross was given to John Carroll when he was consecrated first bishop of Baltimore by a monk of the EBC, Charles Walmesley.]
I’d like to make two comments about this post:
First, because the Jesuit missions to England were so historically spectacular, the ordinary seminary priests are unsung in their martyrdoms–which didn’t differ from the Jesuits’ except insofar as the former were more common and less notorious. Much English revisionist history suggests that it was the Jesuits who “invaded” England and “preached sedition”, and that is why they were accused of treason. Not so. ALL Catholics were considered treasonous, and the ordinary non-Jesuit “seminary priests” suffered the same death as the Jesuit missionaries. It was only because of his extraordinary effectiveness that Campion is so singled out; and because of the sheer drama of Robert Southwell, St Edmund, etc., some people believe that it was only the Jesuits who were persecuted. That is not true. All Catholics were treated the same.
The second comment is–what pilgrimage is your email correspondent talking about? Is it open to others?????