William
Hart McNichols. Holy
Martyr Blessed William Hart -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 en 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
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
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.
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.
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
Blessed William Hart
- 15 March
- 29 October as one of the Martyrs of Douai
- 1 December as one of the Martyrs of Oxford
University
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
Readings
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
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
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
Beato Guglielmo Hart Sacerdote
e martire
Wells, Inghilterra, 1558 - York, Scozia, 15
marzo 1583
Beatificato nel
1886.
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.
