Bienheureux Jacques
Bird, martyr
Né à Winchester et élevé
dans la foi protestante, il rejoint l'Église catholique à l'âge de 19 ans. Il
va au collège de Douai mais rentre en Angleterre où il refuse de participer à
la liturgie anglicane et de reconnaître la suprématie spirituelle royale. Il
est condamné à mort et pendu en 1592.
Bienheureux Jacques Bird
Martyr en
Angleterre (+ 1592)
Né à Winchester et élevé
dans la foi protestante, il rejoint l'Église catholique à l'âge de 19 ans. Il
va au collège de Douai mais rentre en Angleterre où il refuse de prononcer le
serment de suprématie et est martyrisé dans sa ville natale. Il a été béatifié
en 1929.
À Winchester, en
Angleterre, l’an 1592, le bienheureux Jacques Bird, martyr. Sous la reine
Élisabeth Ière, jeune homme de dix-neuf ans récemment devenu catholique, il
refusa de participer à la liturgie anglicane et fut condamné aux supplices du
gibet.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/11535/Bienheureux-Jacques-Bird.html
Also
known as
James Byrd
James Beard
Profile
Lay
man in the apostolic vicariate of England,
raised as a Protestant and converting to Catholicism at
age 19. Considered entering the Douai seminary in Rheims, France,
but decided against it and returned to England.
He refused to take the Oath of Sumpremacy and was executed for
his loyalty to the Church.
Born
1574 at
Winchester, Hampshire, England
hanged, drawn and
quartered on 25 March 1592 at
Winchester, Hampshire, England
8 December 1929 by Pope Pius XI (decree
of martyrdom)
15 December 1929 by Pope Pius XI
Additional
Information
Mementoes
of the English Martyrs and Confessors, by Father Henry
Sebastian Bowden
Roman Martyrology
Saints
of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein
books
A
Calendar of the English Martyrs of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
other
sites in english
images
sitios
en español
Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
fonti
in italiano
Martirologio Romano, 2005 edition
MLA
Citation
“Blessed James
Bird“. CatholicSaints.Info. 1 April 2023. Web. 25 March 2025.
<https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-james-bird/>
Bl. James Bird
Feastday: March 25
Death: 1593
English martyr. Born in
Winchester and raised as a Protestant, he embraced the Catholic Church
at the age of nineteen. James visited Douai College in
Reims, but he returned to England. There he refused to take the Oath of
Supremacy and was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Winchester in his native
city. He was beatified in
1929.
SOURCE : https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=3885
A Winchester Martyr on
Lady Day
Blessed James Bird or
Byrd or Beard was hung, drawn, and quartered for the crime of converting
to Catholicism and denying the ecclesial supremacy of Elizabeth I on March 25
in 1593--when he was about 19 years old. He was born and he died in
Winchester.
He had traveled to Reims
in France after his conversion in his 19th year to attend the seminary but had
decided that he didn't have a vocation to the priesthood after all. Returning
to England, the authorities suspected what he'd been up to and presented him
with the Oath of Supremacy (which by statute requiring certain officials to
take the oath, he would normally not have been ask to do). When he refused to
take the Oath or even attend an Anglican service--even after his father begged
him to--he was condemed to death.
This blog tells
a rather charming--or horrible--story of his father seeing his head still on
the pole upon the gates of Winchester:
BORN at Winchester of a
gentleman's family and brought up a Protestant, he became a Catholic and went
to study at Rheims. On his return he was apprehended and charged with being
reconciled to the Roman Church, and maintaining the Pope under Christ to be the
Head of the Church. Brought to the bar he acknowledged the indictment and
received sentence of death as for high treason, though both life and liberty
were offered him if he would but once go to the Protestant Church. When his
father solicited him to save his life by complying, he modestly answered that,
as he had always been obedient to him, so he would obey him now could he do so
without offending God-After a long imprisonment he was hanged and quartered at
Winchester, March 25, 1593. He suffered with wonderful constancy and
cheerfulness, being but nineteen years old. His head was set upon a pole upon
one of the gates of the city. His father one day passing by thought that
the head bowing down made him a reverence, and cried out: "Oh, Jemmy my
son, ever obedient in life, even when dead thou payest reverence to thy father.
How far from thy heart was all treason or other wickedness."
He was beatified in 1929
by Pope Pius XI.
SOURCE : http://supremacyandsurvival.blogspot.ca/2013/03/a-winchester-martyr-on-lady-day.html
Blessed James Bird M (AC)
Born in Winchester,
England; died 1593; beatified in 1929. James Bird was just 19, when he was
hanged, drawn, and quartered in his native city for having been reconciled to
the Church (Attwater2, Benedictines).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0325.shtml
Bl. James Bird
English martyr. Born in
Winchester and raised as a Protestant, he embraced the Catholic Church
at the age of nineteen. James visited Douai College in
Reims, but he returned to England. There he refused to take the Oath of
Supremacy and was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Winchester in his native
city. He was beatified in
1929.
SOURCE : http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=3885
Mementoes
of the English Martyrs and Confessors – Venerable James Bird, Layman, 1593
Article
Born at Winchester of a
gentleman’s family and brought up a Protestant, he became a Catholic and went
to study at Rheims. On his return he was apprehended and charged with being
reconciled to the Roman Church, and maintaining the Pope under Christ to be the
Head of the Church. Brought to the bar he acknowledged the indictment and
received sentence of death as for high treason, though both life and liberty
were offered him if he would but once go to the Protestant Church. When his
father solicited him to save his life by complying, he modestly answered that,
as he had always been obedient to him, so he would obey him now could he do so
without offending God. After a long imprisonment he was hanged and quartered at
Winchester, 25 March 1593. He suffered with wonderful constancy and
cheerfulness, being but nineteen years old. His head was set upon a pole upon
one of the gates of the city. His father one day passing by thought that the
head bowing down made him a reverence, and cried out: “Oh, Jemmy my son, ever
obedient in life, even when dead thou payest reverence to thy father. How far
from thy heart was all treason or other wickedness.”
MLA
Citation
Father Henry Sebastian
Bowden. “Venerable James Bird, Layman, 1593”. Mementoes
of the English Martyrs and Confessors, 1910. CatholicSaints.Info.
22 April 2019. Web. 25 March 2025.
<https://catholicsaints.info/mementoes-of-the-english-martyrs-and-confessors-venerable-james-bird-layman-1593/>
Blessed
JAMES BIRD Layman, 1593
FILIAL REVERENCE
BORN at Winchester of
a gentleman's family and brought up a Protestant,
he became a Catholic and went to study at Rheims. On his return he was
apprehended and charged with being reconciled to the Roman Church, and
maintaining the Pope under Christ to be the Head of the Church. Brought to the
bar he acknowledged the indictment and received sentence of death as for high
treason, though both life and liberty were offered him if he would but once
go to the Protestant Church.
When his father solicited him to save his life by complying, he modestly
answered that, as he had always been obedient to him, so he would obey him now
could he do so without offending God-After a long imprisonment he was hanged
and quartered at Winchester,
March 25, 1593. He suffered with wonderful constancy and cheerfulness, being
but nineteen years old. His head was set upon a pole upon one of the gates of
the city. His father one day passing by thought that the head bowing down made
him a reverence, and cried out: "Oh, Jemmy my son, ever obedient in life,
even when dead thou payest reverence to thy father. How far from thy heart was
all treason or other wickedness."
Honour thy father in work
and word, and all patience, that a blessing may come upon thee from him. ECCLES.
iii.9, 10.
SOURCE : http://englishmartyrs.blogspot.com/2006/03/venerable-james-bird-layman-1593.html
Beato Giacomo Bird Martire
>>> Visualizza la Scheda del Gruppo cui appartiene
Winchester, Inghilterra, 1574 – 25 marzo 1593
A quindici anni, abbracciò la Fede cattolica e praticò la religione in segreto. A 19 anni, sospettato di essere sacerdote, fu condannato e ucciso a Winchester, in Inghilterra. Beatificato nel 1929 da Papa Pio XI.
Martirologio Romano: A Winchester sempre in Inghilterra, beato Giacomo Bird, martire: sotto la stessa regina a diciannove anni, fattosi da poco cattolico, si rifiutò di partecipare a una liturgia che sentiva come estranea e meritò così di pervenire alla celebrazione della liturgia celeste.
Giacomo Bird nacque a Winchester nel 1574, in Inghilterra, da famiglia aristocratica, il cui padre era stato magistrato della città. Il piccolo fu educato nel Protestantesimo, che, all’età di 15 anni abbandonò per entrare nella Chiesa Cattolica. Durante la perquisizione nella casa di un certo Hathe, dove si era recato per cercare il sacerdote Norton, venne arrestato come persona sospetta e condotto davanti al giudice. Venne interrogato e gli fu chiesto da quanto tempo fosse cattolico, egli rispose che lo era da quattro anni e per tale ragione venne condannato a morte come traditore. Tuttavia gli fu data un’opportunità: se rinunciava alla Chiesa cattolica sarebbe stato graziato; ma il giovane rifiutò categoricamente, così come si rifiutò di partecipare ad una liturgia anglicana, meritando così di «pervenire alla celebrazione della liturgia celeste», come recita il martirologio romano.
Il santo Padre Benedetto XVI il 18 settembre 2010, nell’omelia tenuta in Westminster, ha spiegato l’importanza della Santa Messa come Santo Sacrificio e per la quale molti hanno scelto di morire, piuttosto che di vederla profanata e oltraggiata: «La realtà del sacrificio Eucaristico è sempre stata al cuore della fede cattolica; messa in discussione nel sedicesimo secolo, essa venne solennemente riaffermata al Concilio di Trento, nel contesto della nostra giustificazione in Cristo. Qui in Inghilterra, come sappiamo, molti difesero strenuamente la Messa, sovente a caro prezzo, dando vita a quella devozione alla Santissima Eucaristia che è stata una caratteristica del cattolicesimo in queste terre.
Il sacrificio Eucaristico del Corpo e Sangue di Cristo comprende a sua volta il mistero della passione di nostro Signore che continua nei membri del suo Corpo mistico, la Chiesa in ogni epoca. Il grande crocifisso che qui ci sovrasta, ci ricorda che Cristo, nostro eterno sommo sacerdote, unisce quotidianamente i nostri sacrifici, le nostre sofferenze, i nostri bisogni, speranze e aspirazioni agli infiniti meriti del suo sacrificio».
Suo padre insistette, ma egli rispose: «Ti ho sempre ubbidito volentieri e ubbidirei volentieri anche adesso se potessi farlo senza offendere Dio». Si trovava sul patibolo e Giacomo volle sapere la ragione vera della sua condanna, gli fu detto: «Prometti piuttosto di frequentare la chiesa [anglicana] e allora avrai la grazia della regina». Il diciannovenne rispose: «Vi sono riconoscente: se posso salvarmi la vita entrando in una chiesa protestante, è segno che sono ucciso unicamente per la causa della religione e della fede».
Il martire venne così impiccato e squartato il 25 marzo 1593, 58 anni dopo il
martirio di san Tommaso Moro, e fu beatificato da Pio XI il 15 dicembre 1929.
Autore: Cristina Siccardi
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/47090
~ Martyrs of England and Wales († 1535-1680) ~ (III) : http://newsaints.faithweb.com/martyrs/England03.htm
