William
Hart McNichols. Holy Martyr Blessed William Hart -1583
Saint William Hart
Martyr en
Angleterre (+ 1583)
Originaire de Wells en
Angleterre, il fut élevé dans la Communion anglicane au collège Lincoln
d'Oxford. Converti au catholicisme, il fait ses études au séminaire anglais de
Douai, puis à Reims et à Rome. Ordonné prêtre en 1581, il retourne dans son
pays où il est trahi par un apostat. Il fut arrêté et exécuté à York. Il a été
béatifié en 1886.
À York en Angleterre,
l’an 1583, le bienheureux Guillaume Hart, prêtre et martyr. Ordonné au collège
anglais de Rome, il revint en Angleterre et fut condamné à mort, sous la reine
Élisabeth Ière, parce qu’il avait persuadé deux anglicans de revenir à la foi
catholique. Il fut ensuite pendu et éventré.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/812/Saint-William-Hart.html
Bienheureux William
Hart, martyr
Originaire de Wells en
Angleterre, il fut élevé dans la Communion anglicane au collège Lincoln
d'Oxford. Converti au catholicisme, il fait ses études au séminaire anglais de
Douai, puis à Reims et à Rome. Ordonné prêtre en 1581, il retourne dans son
pays où il est trahi par un apostat. Il fut arrêté et exécuté à York en 1583.
15-03 bienheureux
William Hart
Prêtre et martyr (†
1583)
Ce jeune Anglais connut
de graves difficultés de santé, qui lui valurent une douloureuse opération et
une cure en belgique, à Spa et à Namur. Il n'en poursuivit pas moins ses études
sacerdotales à Douai, à Reims et à Rome. Revenu dans la mission anglaise, William
réussit à persuader deux anglicans de revenir à l'Eglise catholique et de
devenir prêtres. Il fut arrêté, jeté en prison et condamné à mort, sous
Elisabeth 1re , qui régnât de 1558 à 1603. Il mourut martyr à York. Ses
dernières paroles furent les premiers mots du psaume 122 : Vers toi, j'ai
les yeux levés.
SOURCE : http://www.foi-et-contemplation.net/amis/pretres/pretres-martyrs/pretres-martyrs-annee-2002.php
29 October as
one of the Martyrs
of Douai
1 December as
one of the Martyrs
of Oxford University
1 December as
one of the Martyrs
of the Venerable English College
Profile
Raised Protestant. Educated at
Lincoln College, Oxford. Convert to Catholicism. Studied for
the priesthood at Douai, Rheims,
and Rome, Italy. Ordained in 1581,
he returned to England to
minister to covert Catholics.
Betrayed by an apostate in
the house of Saint Margaret
Clitherow. Martyr.
Born
martyred on 15 March 1583 at
York, North Yorkshire, England
29 December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII (cultus
confirmed)
Readings
The joy of this life is
nothing; the joy of the after life is everlasting.” – Blessed William
Hart
Additional
Information
Book
of Saints, by the Monks of
Ramsgate
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
sitios
en español
Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
fonti
in italiano
Martirologio Romano, 2005 edition
MLA
Citation
“Blessed William
Hart“. CatholicSaints.Info. 6 December 2025. Web. 16 March 2026.
<https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-william-hart/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-william-hart/
Article
(Blessed) Martyr (March
15) (16th
century) A native of Somersetshire who left Oxford for Rheims and Rome,
where he was ordained priest.
As a missionary in England,
he chiefly evangelised the country round York. He was conspicuous not only for
his zeal and piety, but also for his tender kindness to the poor and
afflicted. Convicted of being a priest,
he was cruelly done to death at
York, A.D. 1583.
The chronicles of the time represent the bystanders as carefully gathering
up Relics of
the holy Martyr.
MLA
Citation
Monks of Ramsgate.
“William Hart”. Book of Saints, 1921. CatholicSaints.Info.
8 March 2017. Web. 16 March 2026.
<https://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-william-hart/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-william-hart/
New
Catholic Dictionary – Blessed William Hart
Article
Martyr (1558–1583),
born Wells, England; died York.
Educated at Oxford, and ordained at Rome, he was executed for performing his
priestly duties in York. Beatified, 1888.
MLA
Citation
“Blessed William
Hart”. New Catholic Dictionary. CatholicSaints.Info.
11 November 2019. Web. 16 March 2026.
<https://catholicsaints.info/new-catholic-dictionary-blessed-william-hart/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/new-catholic-dictionary-blessed-william-hart/
Bl. William Hart
Feastday: March 15
Death: 1583
Martyr of England. Born
in Wells, in Somerset, he studied at Oxford and
then at Douai, Reims, France, and Rome. After receiving ordination in 1581, he
went back to England and included among his associations Blessed Margaret
Clitherow. William ministered to Catholic prisoners
in York Prison, having several adventures in staying free. He was betrayed to
English authorities by an apostate from Clitherow's estate. He was hanged,
drawn, and quartered at York and beatified in
1886.
SOURCE : https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=2124
Bl. William Hart
Martyr of England. Born
in Wells, in Somerset, he studied at Oxford and
then at Douai, Reims, France, and Rome. After receiving ordination in 1581, he
went back to England and included among his associations Blessed Margaret
Clitherow. William ministered to Catholic prisoners
in York Prison, having several adventures in staying free. He was betrayed to
English authorities by an apostate from Clitherow's estate. He was hanged,
drawn, and quartered at York and beatified in
1886.
SOURCE : http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=2124
Bl. William Hart
Born at Wells, 1558;
suffered at York,
15 March, 1583. Elected Trappes Scholar at Lincoln College, Oxford,
25 May, 1571, he supplicated B.A.,
18 June, 1574. The same year he followed the rector, John
Bridgewater, to Douai.
He accompanied the college to Reims,
and returned thither after a severe operation at Namur,
22 November, 1578. He took the college oath at
the English
College, Rome, 23 April, 1579, whence he was ordained priest.
On 26 March, 1581, he left Rome,
arriving at Reims 13
May, and resuming his journey 22 May. On reaching England he
laboured in Yorkshire. He was present at the Mass at which Blessed
William Lacy was captured, and only escaped by standing up to his chin
in the muddy moat of York Castle. Betrayed by an apostate on Christmas
Day, 1582, and throne into an underground dungeon, he was put into double
irons. After examination before the Dean of
York and the Council of the North, he was arraigned at the Lent Assizes.
From the unprofessional
account of his trial, which states that he was arraigned on two counts, we may
be fairly certain that
he was on trial on three, namely: (1) under 13 Eliz. c. 2 for having
brought papal writings,
to wit his certificate of ordination,
into the realm; (2) under 13 Eliz. c. 3. for having gone abroad without royal
license; and (3) under 23 Eliz. c. 1. for having reconciled John Wright and one
Couling. On what counts he was found guilty does not clearly appear, but he was
certainly guilty of the second.
Sources
CAMM, Lives of the
English Martyrs, II (London, 1904-5), 600-634; GILLOW, Bibl. Dict. Eng.
Cath.; Statutes at Large, II (London, 1786-1800); CHALLONER, Missionary
Priests, I (Edinburgh, 1877), n. 19.
Wainewright, John.
"Bl. William Hart." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 15. New York:
Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 14 Mar. 2015
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15631a.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Michael T. Barrett. Dedicated to
the memory of the English martyrs.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D.,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2023 by Kevin Knight.
Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15631a.htm
Blessed William Hart M
(AC)
Born in Wells, England;
died at York, 1583; beatified in 1886. William, a Protestant, was educated at
Lincoln College, Oxford. After his conversion to Catholicism, he studied for
the priesthood at Douai, Rheims, and Rome. He returned to England following his
ordination in 1581, and was betrayed by an apostate in the house of Saint
Margaret Clitherow (Benedictines).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0315.shtml
Mementoes
of the English Martyrs and Confessors – Blessed William Hart, Priest, 1583
Article
The Apostle of Yorkshire
Born in Wells, Somerset,
of Lincoln College, Oxford, a brilliant scholar, he turned his back on the
world and embraced the faith. At Douay he was a model to the future martyrs
there by his fortitude under the most acute and almost continual pain from the
stone. After trying the Spa waters in vain, during a four days journey on foot
from Douay to Rheims he underwent violent paroxysms of the disease. Without
anaesthetics he now endured a terrible operation, which he bore unmoved, and
the result was a perfect cure. In England, Yorkshire was the field of his
priestly labours, and, though they were for little over a year, their success
was such as to earn for him the title of Apostle of that county. His special
devotion was to the Catholic prisoners in their fetid dungeons, and he visited
them daily at this period of his life. Betrayed by an apostate, he was
imprisoned underground in York Castle and doubly fettered, as he seemed so
elated. He triumphantly refuted the Protestant ministers at his trial before he
suffered. He begged his spiritual children to remain indoors on the day of his
execution unless they could assist at it with a joyous face and a tranquil
mien. He was hanged at York, 15 March 1583.
The Motive of a Missioner
The judge asked him why
he had left his native country to go beyond the seas. He answered: “For no
other reason, my Lord, than to acquire virtue and learning, and whereas I found
religion and virtue flourishing in those countries, I took Holy Orders (to
which I perceived myself called by a Divine vocation) to the end that
renouncing the world I might be more at liberty to serve my Master.”
They asked him how he had
employed his time since he had returned to England. He answered: “Everywhere I
have been I have tried, as far as I could, to instruct the ignorant, in order
that they might be more prepared to give an account of the faith that is in
them. I have also fed them with heavenly food, in order that, being confirmed
in good, they might strive to keep their conscience pure, and by their pious
and religious life stop the mouths of those who calumniate us.”
Being found guilty of
treason for leaving the country without the Queen’s leave, and for seducing her
subjects by reconciling them to the Church, he replied that “the obedience
which he taught men to give to the Sovereign Pontiff increased the allegiance
due to their Prince.”
Blessed William
Addressing Catholic Prisoners –
“You are a holy nation, a
people specially dedicated to God, that you maybe partakers of His eternal
inheritance; ye are safe in the Ark of Noe, in a most happy condition, placed
on a mountain which is subject to no evil chance. Therefore proceed as ye have
begun in the ranks of God’s army, remain firm in your holy vocation, fight to
the very end; and heaven heaven, I say, in which is joy and bliss never to be
put into words shall be yours for ever. Let this be your one and only study, to
worship God and to fear Him, and nothing will be wanting to you. He is Almighty
who will defend you; merciful who will rule over you; rich who will feed you;
sweet and loving who will console and strengthen you. You will find Him in your
doubts a skillful doctor, in danger a faithful guide, in labours an ever
present help, in all other troubles whatsoever a speedy Comforter. You then who
are in bonds for Christ and separated from the world are not subject to these
temptations by which the children of this world are harassed. Take account of
time and do not let a day pass without fruit.
“Let all your thoughts
and meditations be on Heaven and heavenly things. Let your prayers be ardent,
but your actions discreet and well considered; bear trials with patience. I
pray you, for Christ’s sake, that you so live and so bear yourselves in all
things that the enemies of the faith may be forced to account you, not as
relaxed, but as modest and religious. But before all things, carefully preserve
the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, loving each other with fraternal
charity; let there be no dissensions among you, no discords; for thus will God
embrace you with His love, and the angels proclaim your praises. And I beseech
you, for Christ’s sake, most beloved brethren, daily, nay, every hour, to pray
for me, a wretched sinner, that I may finish my course to God’s glory, and I
will pray for you here and in Heaven, if God grant me that grace. Fare well, my
most beloved sons, I beseech you to pardon me whatsoever wrong by chance or negligence
I may have done you. This I have written to you in the greatest haste, when
almost overcome with sleep and greatly wearied.”
Before leaving Rome he
made the following address to Gregory XIII, March 1583:
“Of all the monuments
which your virtues have raised to themselves throughout Christendom, none are
more glorious than the provision made by you for the salvation of the souls of
our country men who are being dragged down to perdition. By your fatherly
tenderness and care those who were children of wrath have now become heirs of
God, fellow-heirs with Jesus Christ. You have opened up the way of return to
the faith and practice of our ancestral religion by opposing to the barbarous
rage of the heretics those schools of virtue and learning, the Seminaries of
Rome and Rheims. Remit not, most Blessed Father, your efforts to aid the
afflicted and comfort the wretched, nor withhold that fostering care for our
dear England, which spontaneously was yours, though events prove contrary and
the times evil. This is the prayer addressed to you by the cries of helpless
infants, the moanings of mothers, the tears of our nobles, the earnest en
treaties of the clergy, the loyalty to this Holy See of which so many of our
countrymen have given proof. What they, being absent, are unable to say may not
be suppressed by us who are privileged to behold your fatherly countenance.”
Writing to Afflicted
Catholics
“This is the first, the
last, the only request I make, and have yet made or ever shall. Fulfill these
my desires, hear my voice, keep to my counsel. But why do I, a miserable and
unhappy sinner, beg of you, that in this age, most poisoned and most dangerous
to the good, you should persevere firm and constant in your confession, where
angels, archangels, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors,
virgins, the whole world beseech it, when the salvation of your souls and the
good God Himself make the same entreaty, that you. should remain firm in the
faith you have once received and in your confession of the truth? May God of
His infinite mercy help you to do so, and I, your spiritual father, though weak
and loaded with sins innumerable, will never cease to pray for you, both in
this life and the next. Wherefore I entreat you, in every way I can, to be
mindful of me as often as you offer your devout prayers to God, lest I be like
a melting candle, which gives light to others and itself consumes. Again and
again farewell, my much desired ones. The servant of all and every one of you.”
Writing to Afflicted
Catholics
“Stand fast, brethren,
stand steadfast, I say, in that faith which Christ planted, the Apostles
preached, the Martyrs confirmed, the whole world approved and embraced. Stand
firm in that faith which, as it is the oldest, is also the truest and most
sure, and which is most in harmony with the Holy Scriptures and with all
antiquity. Stand constant in that faith which has a worship worthy of all
honour and reverence, Sacraments most holy, abounding in spiritual consolation.
For if ye have remained constant in this faith, that is, in the Catholic
Church, in the Ark of Noe, in the house of Rahab, with what joy and consolation
of the soul will ye not be flooded: yours will be the Sacrament of penance for
the cleansing of your souls; yours the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our
Saviour for the refreshing of your souls; you will be partakers of all the
satisfaction and merits of Christ, of the fellowship of the Saints, of the
suffrages, prayers, fasts, and alms-deeds of all the just whom the Catholic
Church throughout the world holds in her bosom. O blessed they, yea, and thrice
blessed, who in this deplorable world stand firm in the faith of Christ.”
MLA
Citation
Father Henry Sebastian
Bowden. “Blessed William Hart, Priest, 1583”. Mementoes
of the English Martyrs and Confessors, 1910. CatholicSaints.Info.
22 April 2019. Web. 15 March 2020.
<https://catholicsaints.info/mementoes-of-the-english-martyrs-and-confessors-blessed-william-hart-priest-1583/>
Blessed William Hart, A
Martyr with Connections
From this account,
taken from the old Catholic Encyclopedia, Blessed William Hart travelled widely
to fulfill his vocation as priest after returning to the Catholic faith. The
Catholic college and seminary had to move from Douai to Reims because of
religious wars in the Spanish Netherlands (where Douai then was). He has that
fascinating connection to St. Margaret Clitherow and her household. The Trappes
scholarship was established at Lincoln College by Joyce or Jocosa Frankland,
who also established fellowships at Brasenose
College, where she is remembered in one of the College Graces:
Qui nos creavit, redemit
et pavit, sit benedictus in aeternum. Deus, exaudi orationem nostrum. Agimus
tibi gratias, Pater caelestis, pro Gulielmo Smyth episcopo, et Ricardo Sutton
milite, Fundatoribus nostris; pro Alexandro Nowel, Jocosa Frankland, Gulielmo
Hulme, Elizabetha Morley, Mauritio Platnauer aliisque benefactoribus nostris;
humiliter te precantes ut eorum numerum benignissime adaugeas.
Ecclesiam Catholicam, et
populum Christianum custodi. Haereses et errores omnes extirpa. Elizabetham
Reginam nostram et subditos eius defende. Pacem da et conserva, per Christum
Dominum nostrum.
(May he who hath created,
redeemed and provided for us be blessed forever. Hear our prayer, Lord. We give
thee thanks, Heavenly Father, for William Smyth, Bishop and Richard Sutton,
Knight, our Founders. For Alexander Nowel, Joyce Frankland, Elizabeth Morley,
Maurice Platnauer and for our other benefactors, humbly beseeching thee that
thou wilt add to their number in goodness.
Safeguard the catholic
Church and all Christian people. Root out all heretical waverings. Defend
Elizabeth our Queen and her subjects. Grant peace and preserve it, through
Christ our Lord. Amen.)
The other martyr
mentioned in this entry is Blessed
William Lacy who was executed on August 22, 1582 in York. He also had
been held in irons. Being held in irons was a form of torture leading to
weakness and open sores. Since both priests were held in the underground
dungeon, that certainly meant they were neglected, left in filth and darkness,
without adequate food and water.
Born at Wells, 1558;
suffered at York, 15 March, 1583. Elected Trappes Scholar at Lincoln College,
Oxford, 25 May, 1571, he supplicated B.A., 18 June, 1574. The same year he
followed the rector, John Bridgewater, to Douai. He accompanied the college to
Reims, and returned thither after a severe operation at Namur, 22 November,
1578. He took the college oath at the English College, Rome, 23 April, 1579,
whence he was ordained priest. On 26 March, 1581, he left Rome, arriving at
Reims 13 May, and resuming his journey 22 May. On reaching England he laboured
in Yorkshire. He was present at the Mass at which Blessed William Lacy was
captured, and only escaped by standing up to his chin in the muddy moat of York
Castle. Betrayed by an apostate on Christmas Day, 1582, and throne into an
underground dungeon, he was put into double irons. After examination before the
Dean of York and the Council of the North, he was arraigned at the Lent
Assizes.
From the unprofessional
account of his trial, which states that he was arraigned on two counts, we may
be fairly certain that he was on trial on three, namely: (1) under 13 Eliz. c.
2 for having brought papal writings, to wit his certificate of ordination, into
the realm; (2) under 13 Eliz. c. 3. for having gone abroad without royal
license; and (3) under 23 Eliz. c. 1. for having reconciled John Wright and one
Couling. On what counts he was found guilty does not clearly appear, but he was
certainly guilty of the second.
So this brief entry,
properly read, reveals a great deal about Blessed William Hart's endurance and
faithfulness in pursuing his vocation and serving the Catholic minority in
England. Like all of the Catholic martyrs of this era, his story is both unique
and the same: the same pattern of exile, danger, torture, and death but with
individual details that are so wonderful to contemplate.
SOURCE : http://supremacyandsurvival.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/blessed-william-hart-martyr-with.html
Blessed William Hart 1558
15 March 1583
Diocesean Priest And Martyr
(On Asking Our Dear Brother In Heaven For A Commitment Not To Give Up And To Continue To Try And Live In God/Love)
“Everybody looks so ill at ease, so distrustful, so displeased, running down the table I see a borderline...”
Joni Mitchell, from the song, “Borderline” 1994
“As a hart longs for flowing streams, so longs my soul for you, my God.
My soul thirsts for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God ?”
Psalm 42
“The joy of this life is nothing; the joy of the afterlife is everlasting.”
Blessed William Hart
William Hart was born in Wells, Somerset, he studied at Oxford, and there
became a convert to Catholicism. He then studied for the priesthood at Douai,
Reims, and Rome. After receiving Ordination in March 1581, he went back to
England and ministered to Catholics in hiding, such as the family of St
Margaret Clitherow, also to Catholic prisoners in York Prison. He was betrayed
to English authorities by an apostate on Christmas Day, in 1582, at St
Margaret’s estate. He was hanged, drawn and quartered, at York on March 15,
1583 and beatified by Pope Leo XIII In December 1886.
Taken from :
The Lives of the English Martyrs, volume 2, by Dom Bede Camm, OSB, London, 1905.
(There are more “wonders” you can read about William on the Internet.)
I was supposed to be named William Henry after my grandfather, Billy and Uncle Bill.
My Mother Marjory Hart McNichols told me the story, that after I was born her Mother ,Mimi Hart (who died in 1950, a year after I was born)called Mom and asked her to name me William Hart instead. That name has affected me positively all my life in such wonderful and mysterious ways. In fact, it led to my deeply loving, supportive and lasting friendship with my cousin Kathi Hart. We used to write each other letters and on the envelope we’d put, “from a Hart-to a-Hart.” We also talked on the phone almost everyday from age 9 until 17. I can’t imagine how I would have gotten through grade school or high school without her tremendous God-given gift of humor making me laugh, (even at myself - up to this very day) and unconditional love.
I learned much later , that a hart was an old English term for a deer. And so the thirsting deer became a symbol of my soul, and our souls, longing continually for the touch of God. St.John of the Cross was also fond of the symbol of the thirsting deer. My friend Christopher Summa made a film about my icons in 2015-16 called “The Boy Who Found Gold” (based partly on the great Jungian writer, Robert A. Johnson’s ideas in his book “Inner Gold”) and Chris uses the symbol of the deer to tell his story of my soul’s “journey in art so far” - but I know that all our stories are very similar, in that we are all in love with the God, know it or not, who gives us life everyday. We can feel this presence inside of us and with age ...... this longing grows stronger and stronger.
I have always been attracted to the English Martyrs and one night, up in my house covered deep in snow, in Arroyo Seco, New Mexico in 2011, after I’d been given my first iPad by my friend Maya Sharp, I stumbled across the name of Blessed William Hart. I did drawings for his icon then, but could only get the chance to paint him after I moved to Albuquerque in 2013.
Dear Blessed William,
Give us some of your strength and faithfulness in following your vocation, as it was given to you; in the way you understood it and lived it with such youthful Wisdom.
Dear heavenly friend, help us wade through what we see as sometimes impossibly divisive and angry times. You know what it felt like to be on one side of a division so vitriolic and hateful, that it led to murders of Protestants and Catholics - all in the name of God.
Bring us out of this dangerous blindness by your loving heart. We don’t seek perfection, we can start anew each day - if that’s what it takes. But we do need the courage to find your way to keep an open and loving life inside of God in whom we live and move and have our very being. Maybe it’s a way in which we look at this life and all the turmoil, as fleeting and temporary, (“Dust in the Wind ...” as the song goes...) and yet we know how we try to continue to love each other lasts forever.
Amen, and “thank God (and you)ahead of time” as Blessed Solanus Casey used to say!
Fr Bill McNichols
March 2019
SOURCE : http://frbillmcnichols-sacredimages.com/blogs/blessed-william-hart-1558-.html
Beato Guglielmo Hart Sacerdote
e martire
Festa: 15 marzo
>>> Visualizza la
Scheda del Gruppo cui appartiene
Wells, Inghilterra, 1558
- York, Scozia, 15 marzo 1583
Nato a Wells nel 1558 e
giustiziato a York nel 1583, William Hart era un prete cattolico inglese
beatificato nel 1886. La sua storia rappresenta la resistenza all'oppressione
religiosa durante il regno di Elisabetta I. Studiò a Oxford e a Roma, dove fu
ordinato sacerdote. Tornato in Inghilterra, svolse il suo ministero nello
Yorkshire, assistendo i cattolici imprigionati. Tradito da un apostata, fu
imprigionato e torturato. Condannato a morte per aver portato scritti papali e
per essere rientrato in Inghilterra senza licenza, Hart divenne un martire
della sua fede.
Martirologio
Romano: A York in Inghilterra, beato Guglielmo Hart, sacerdote e martire,
che, ordinato nel Collegio Inglese di Roma, fu impiccato e sventrato durante il
regno di Elisabetta I per avere convinto alcuni ad abbracciare la fede
cattolica.
Guglielmo (William) Hart
era un prete cattolico inglese nato a Wells nel 1558. Fu giustiziato a York il
15 marzo 1583 per la sua fede, diventando un martire cattolico e beatificato
nel 1886.
Istruzione e formazione
Hart ottenne una borsa di studio al Lincoln College di Oxford, dove si laureò
nel 1574. Nello stesso anno, seguì il rettore John Bridgewater al Douai
College, un'istituzione cattolica fondata per gli esuli inglesi. In seguito, il
college si trasferì a Reims, dove Hart rimase fino al 1579.
Sacerdote e missionario
Nel 1579, Hart si recò a Roma per completare gli studi e fu ordinato sacerdote.
Ritornò in Inghilterra nel 1581, svolgendo il suo ministero nello Yorkshire. Si
dedicava con coraggio alla cura dei cattolici perseguitati, visitandoli nelle
prigioni e offrendo loro conforto e assistenza.
Cattura e martirio
Il giorno di Natale del 1582, Hart fu tradito da un cattolico apostata e arrestato.
Fu imprigionato in una cella sotterranea e sottoposto a pesanti torture.
Processato per eresia, fu condannato a morte e giustiziato a York il 15 marzo
1583.
Eredità
William Hart è ricordato come un martire della fede cattolica. La sua beatificazione nel 1886 conferma la sua santità e il suo esempio di coraggio e dedizione ispira ancora oggi i cristiani.
Autore: Franco Dieghi
SOURCE : https://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/93347
~ Martyrs of England and
Wales († 1535-1680) ~ (II) : http://newsaints.faithweb.com/martyrs/England02.htm#Hart
