Mathias
Tanner. Engraver Melchior Kusell. Saint Nicholas Owen being tortured in
the Tower of London in 1606,
1675, "Societas Jesu ad sanguinis et vitae profusionem militans"
Saint Nicolas Owen, martyr
Cet anglais, religieux de
la Compagnie de Jésus, fidèle à la foi de ses pères au péril de sa vie, assura
des refuges aux prêtres persécutés grâce à sa formation initiale de charpentier
et de maçon. Trois fois emprisonné, la dernière fois, sous le roi Jacques Ier,
parce qu’il se livra lui-même pour empêcher les poursuivants de saisir des
prêtres, il fut alors détenu à la Tour de Londres, torturé pour livrer des
prêtres, et enfin écartelé par le supplice du chevalet, sous le roi Jacques
Ier, en 1606.
SOURCE : http://www.paroisse-saint-aygulf.fr/index.php/prieres-et-liturgie/saints-par-mois/icalrepeat.detail/2015/03/22/14071/-/saint-nicolas-owen-martyr
Saint Nicolas Owen
Frère convers jésuite en
Angleterre (+ 1606)
Il construisait des cachettes pour les prêtres persécutés. Il ne s'écarta pas de l'Église romaine au moment où c'était une cause de mort. Emprisonné et torturé par deux fois, il fut écartelé la troisième fois pour avoir refusé de donner des renseignements au sujet de la conspiration des Poudres où les catholiques étaient accusés d'avoir voulu faire sauter le Parlement de Londres et tuer le roi Jacques Ier, en 1605.
Il fait partie des Quarante martyrs d'Angleterre et du Pays de Galles qui ont été canonisés en 1970.
À Londres, en 1606, saint Nicolas Owen, religieux de la Compagnie de Jésus et
martyr. Charpentier et maçon de métier, il fabriqua pendant trente-six ans des
cachettes pour y loger des prêtres. Trois fois emprisonné, la dernière fois,
sous le roi Jacques Ier, parce qu’il se livra lui-même pour empêcher les
poursuivants de saisir des prêtres, il fut alors détenu à la Tour de Londres,
torturé pour livrer des prêtres, et enfin écartelé par le supplice du chevalet.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/5940/Saint-Nicolas-Owen.html
Saint Nicolas OWEN
On connaît mal la
première partie de sa vie, mais on croit qu'il est né à Oxford, en Angleterre
vers 1550 dans une famille très catholique et grandit pendant des lois
scélérates.
Il devînt menuisier sans
doute par nécessité, pour gagner son pain quotidien.
Pendant de nombreuses
années, Owen travailla sous la direction du père jésuite Henry Garnet, qui le
fit admettre dans la Compagnie de Jésus en qualité de frère, et ce fut
probablement alors qu’il commença à construire dans les maisons des familles
catholiques, des cachettes pour les prêtres catholiques persécutés.
Il voyagea souvent d'une
maison à une autre, sous le nom de “Little John”, n'acceptant que le stricte
nécessaire pour survivre, en paiement de ses services, avant le départ pour un
nouveau projet. Pour minimiser le risque de trahison, il travaillait souvent la
nuit, et toujours seul. Et, malgré sa petite taille, il réussissait à percer de
grosses pierres, quand cela était nécessaire pour la cachette qu’il
construisait.
Le nombre de cachettes
qu'il construisit ne sera probablement jamais connu. Grâce à l'ingéniosité de
son artisanat, certaines restent peut-être encore inconnues. Il ne
s'écarta pas de l'Eglise romaine, même au moment où c'était une cause de mort.
Il fut arrêté une
première fois en 1582 ou 1583, après l'exécution d'Edmund Campion, pour
proclamer publiquement l'innocence de ce dernier, mais a été libéré plus tard.
Il a été arrêté à nouveau en 1594, et a été torturé, mais n'a rien révélé. Il a
été libéré après qu’une riche famille catholique ait payé une grosse somme pour
sa libération.
Il reprit son travail,
mais fut bientôt accusé d’avoir orchestré la fuite du père jésuite John Gerard
de la Tour de Londres en 1597.
Début de 1606, Owen fut
arrêté une dernière fois à Hindlip Hall dans le Worcestershire, se donnant
volontairement dans l'espoir de détourner l'attention des enquêteurs sur
certains prêtres qui se cachaient à proximité. Réalisant alors seulement la
valeur de la prise qu'ils avaient faite, le secrétaire d'État, Robert Cecil
exultait : « C'est incroyable, quelle fut la joie causée par son arrestation...
connaissant le grand talent d'Owen dans la construction de cachettes, et le
nombre incalculable de trous noirs qu’il avait construit pour cacher tant de
prêtres à travers l'Angleterre ».
Enfermé dans une prison
sur la rive sud de la Tamise, Owen fut transféré à la Tour de Londres. Il
y fut soumis à de terribles « examens » sur la grille Topcliffe, où
il fut suspendu par les deux poignets, alors que de lourds poids furent ajoutés
à ses pieds.
Cette procédure fut
pratiquée jusqu’à ce que “ses entrailles se soient répandues” et qu’il perde sa
vie.
Il fut canonisé en 1970
avec trente-neuf autres martyrs anglais et gallois.
Alphonse Rocha
(d’après plusieurs documents)
SOURCE : http://nouvl.evangelisation.free.fr/nicolas_owen.htm
Gaspar
Bouttats. Edward Oldcorne; Nicholas Owen, National Portrait Gallery: NPG
D17092
Supplices
de Edward Oldcorne et de Nicholas Owen, gravure par Gaspar Bouttats
Stampa con Martirio di san Nicola Owen e del beato Edoardo Oldcorne
Also
known as
John Owen
Little John
25 October as
one of the Forty
Martyrs of England and Wales
3 May on
some calendars
1 December on
some calendars
Profile
Son of a carpenter,
Nicholas was raised in a family dedicated to the persecuted Church,
and became a carpenter and mason.
Two of his brothers became priests,
another a printer of
underground Catholic books, and
Nicholas used his building skills to save the lives of priests and
help the Church‘s
covert work in England.
Nicholas worked
with Saint Edmund
Campion, sometimes using the pseudonym John Owen; his short stature
led to the nickname Little John. When Father Edmund was martyred,
Nicholas spoke out against the atrocity. For his trouble, he was imprisoned.
Father Henry
Garnet, Superior of English Jesuits,
employed Nicholas to construct hiding places and escape routes in the various
mansions used as priest-centers
throughout England.
By day he worked at the mansion on regular wood–
and stone-working
jobs at the mansions so that no one would question his presence; by night he
worked alone, digging tunnels, creating hidden passages and rooms in the house.
Some of his rooms were large enough to hold cramped, secretive prayer services,
but most were a way for single clerics to
escape the priest-hunters.
As there were no records of his work, there is no way of knowing how many of
these hiding places he built, or how many hundreds of priests he
saved. The anti–Catholic authorities
eventually learned that the hiding places existed, but had no idea who was
doing the work, or how many there were.
Due to the work, the
danger, and the periodic arrests of
the Jesuits,
Nicholas never had a formal novitiate,
but he did receive instruction, and in 1577 became
a Jesuit Brother.
On 23
April 1594 he
was arrested in London and
lodged in the Tower of London for his association with Father John
Gerard. Not knowing who they had, the authorities released Nicholas soon after,
and he resumed his work.
On 5 November 1605,
Brother Nicholas and three other Jesuits were
forced to hide in Hinlip Hall, a structure with at least 13 of his hiding
places, to escape the priest-hunters.
Owen spent four days in one of his secret rooms, but having no food or water,
he finally surrendered and was taken to a London prison.
There he was endlessly tortured for
information on the underground network of priests and
their hiding. He was abused so violently that on 1 March 1606,
while suspended from a wall, chained by
his wrists, with weights on his ankles, his stomach split open, spilling his
intestines to the floor; he survived for hours before dying from
the wound. Because he was under orders not to kill Nicholas, the torturer spread
the lie that Owen had committed suicide. One of the Forty
Martyrs of England and Wales.
Born
tortured to death on 2 March 1606 in London, England
8 December 1929 by Pope Pius XI (decree
of martyrdom)
15 December 1929 by Pope Pius XI
25 October 1970 by Pope Paul
VI
Additional
Information
A
Gret Deviser of Priests’s Holes, by Allan Fea
Saints
of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein
books
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
other
sites in english
images
video
sitios
en español
Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
fonti
in italiano
Dicastero delle Cause dei Santi
Martirologio Romano, 2005 edition
MLA
Citation
“Saint Nicholas
Owen“. CatholicSaints.Info. 6 October 2023. Web. 14 January 2025.
<https://catholicsaints.info/saint-nicholas-owen/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-nicholas-owen/
St. Nicholas Owen
Feastday: March 22
Birth: 1550
Death: 1606
Nicholas was born at
Oxford, England. He became a carpenter or builder and served the Jesuit priests
in England for two decades by constructing hiding places for them in mansions
throughout the country. He became a Jesuit lay brother in 1580, and was arrested
in 1594 with Father John Gerard,
and despite prolonged torture would not give the names of any of his Catholic colleagues;
he was released on the payment of a ransom by a wealthy Catholic. Nicholas is
believed responsible for Father Gerard's dramatic escape from the Tower of
London in 1597. Nicholas was again arrested in 1606 with Father Henry Garnet,
who he had served eighteen years, Father Oldcorne, and Father Oldcorne's
servant, Brother Ralph Ashley, and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Nicholas
was subjected to such vicious torture that he died of it on March 2nd. He was
known as Little John and
Little Michael and used the aliases of Andrews and Draper. He was canonized by
Pope Paul VI in 1970 as one of the Forty Martyrs of
England and Wales. His feast is March 22nd.
SOURCE : https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=805
Nicholas Owen
A Jesuit lay-brother, martyred in
1606. There is no record of his parentage, birthplace, date of
birth, or entrance into religion.
Probably a carpenter or builder by trade, he entered the Society
of Jesus before 1580, and had previously been the trusty servant of
the missionary fathers. More (1586-1661)
associates him with the first English lay-brothers.
He was imprisoned on
the death of Edmund
Campion for openly declaring that martyr's innocence,
but afterwards served Fathers Henry
Garnett and John
Gerard for eighteen years, was captured again with the latter, escaped
from the Tower, and is said to have contrived the escape of Father
Gerard. He was finally arrested at Hindlip Hall, Worcestershire,
while impersonating Father
Garnett. "It is incredible", writes Cecil, "how great
was the joy caused by
his arrest . . . knowing the great skill of Owen in
constructing hiding places, and the innumerable quantity of dark
holes which he had schemed for hiding priests all
through England."
Not only the Secretary of State but Waade, the Keeper of the
Tower, appreciated the importance of the disclosures which Owen might
be forced to make. After being committed to the Marshalsea and thence removed
to the Tower, he was submitted to most terrible "examinations" on the
Topcliffe rack, with both arms held fast in iron rings and
body hanging, and later on with heavy weights attached to his feet, and at last
died under torture. It was given out that he had committed suicide,
a calumny refuted
by Father
Gerard in his narrative. As to the day of his death, a letter of Father
Garnett's shows that he was still alive on 3 March; the "Menology" of
the province puts his martyrdom as
late as 12 Nov. He was of singularly innocent life and
wonderful prudence,
and his skill in devising hiding-places saved the lives of many of
the missionary fathers.
[Note: In 1970, Nicholas Owen was canonized by Pope Paul VI among the Forty
Martyrs of England and Wales, whose joint feast day is kept on 25 October.]
Sources
FOLEY, Records of English Jesuits (London, 1875-82), IV, 245; VII,
561; MORE, Hist. Prov. Anglicanae (St. Omers, 1660), 322; NASH, Mansions
of England (London, 1906); TAUNTON, Hist. of Jesuits in England (London,
1901); Bibl. Dict. Eng. Cath., s.v.; POLLARD in Dict. Nat. Biog.
(London, 1909), s.v.
Parker,
Anselm. "Nicholas Owen." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol.
11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 22 Mar.
2016 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11364a.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Herman F. Holbrook. Saint
Nicholas, and all ye holy Martyrs, pray for us.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. February 1, 1911. 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/11364a.htm
St. Nicholas Owen (c.1550-1606), familiarly known as “Little John,”
was small in stature but big in the esteem of his fellow Jesuits.
Born at Oxford, this humble artisan saved the lives of many priests and
laypersons in England during the penal times (1559-1829), when a series of
statutes punished Catholics for the practice of their faith.
Over a period of about 20 years he used his skills to build secret hiding
places for priests throughout the country.
His work, which he did completely
by himself as both architect and builder, was so good that time and time again
priests in hiding were undetected by raiding parties. He was a genius at
finding, and creating, places of safety: subterranean passages, small spaces
between walls, impenetrable recesses. At one point he was even able to
mastermind the escape of two Jesuits from the Tower of London. Whenever
Nicholas set out to design such hiding places, he began by receiving the Holy
Eucharist, and he would turn to God in prayer throughout the long, dangerous
construction process.
After many years at his unusual task, he entered the Society of Jesus and
served as a lay brother, although—for very good reasons—his connection with the
Jesuits was kept secret.
After a number of narrow escapes, he himself was finally caught in 1594.
Despite protracted torture, he refused to disclose the names of other
Catholics. After being released following the payment of a ransom, “Little
John” went back to his work. He was arrested again in 1606. This time he was
subjected to horrible tortures, suffering an agonizing death. The jailers tried
suggesting that he had confessed and committed suicide, but his heroism and
sufferings soon were widely known.
He was canonized in 1970 as one of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales.
SOURCE : http://www.ucatholic.com/saints/saint-nicholas-owens/
Nicholas Owen M (RM)
Born in Oxford, England; died in the Tower of London, 1606; beatified in 1929;
canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1970 as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and
Wales; feast day formerly March 12.
Saint Nicholas was probably the most important person in the preservation of
Catholicism in England during the period of the penal laws against the faith.
He was a carpenter or builder, who saved the lives of countless Jesuit priests
in England for two decades by constructing hiding places for them in mansions
throughout the country. He became a Jesuit lay brother in 1580, was arrested in
1594 with Father John Gerard, and despite prolonged torture would not give the
names of any of his Catholic colleagues; he was released on the payment of a
ransom by a wealthy Catholic.
Brother Nicholas is believed to have been responsible for Father Gerard's
dramatic escape from the Tower of London in 1597.
Nicholas was arrested a third time in 1606 with Father Henry Garnet, whom he
had served 18 years, Father Edward Oldcorne, and Father Oldcorne's servant,
Brother Ralph Ashley. He refused to give any information concerning the
Gunpowder Plot. They were imprisoned in the Tower of London. Nicholas was
subjected to such vicious torture, which literally tore his body to pieces,
that he died of it.
Nicholas was also known as Little John and Little Michael and used the aliases
of Andrewes and Draper (Attwater2, Benedictines, Delaney).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0322.shtml
St Nicholas Owen was
born in 1562 in Oxford into a devout recusant family, and trained as a
carpenter and joiner. As a Jesuit lay brother he became the servant of
Henry Garnet SJ, the Superior of the English mission, in 1588 - a time
when the penalty for Catholic priests discovered in England was torture and
death. His carpentry skills were put to use in building priest holes or
hiding places in the houses of Catholics all over the country. Known as
“Little Jo hn”, (few of his clients knew his real name) Owen was of very short
stature and suffered ill health, including a hernia. Nevertheless he
spent eighteen years doing strenuous physical labour in cramped spaces, always
alone and at night to avoid discovery. In 1597 he helped to plan
the famous escape from the Tower of London of his Jesuit colleague John Gerard
SJ. Fr Garnet said of him:
"I verily think no
man can be said to have done more good of all those who laboured in the English
vineyard. He was the immediate occasion of saving the lives of many hundreds of
persons, both ecclesiastical and secular."
Owen was finally arrested
in 1606 in the aftermath of the Gunpowder Plot. The authorities were
delighted to have caught him, and hoped to extract valuable information under
torture. They were disappointed. Nicholas Owen was arrested and
taken away to Marshalsea Prison where he endured a great deal of torture. No
exact records of what he endured are in existence, but we do know from Fr John
Gerard, of the tortures that he endured:
They took me to a big
upright pillar, one of the wooden posts which held the roof of this huge
underground chamber. Driven into the top of it were iron staples for supporting
heavy weights. Then they put my wrists into iron gauntlets and ordered me to
climb two or three wicker steps. My arms were then lifted up and an iron bar
passed through the rings of one gauntlet. This done, they fastened the bar with
a pin to prevent it slipping, and then, removing the wicker steps one by one
from under my feet, they left me hanging by my hands and arms fastened above my
head … Hanging like this I began to pray … But I could hardly utter the words,
such a gripping pain came over me. It was worst in my chest and belly, my hands
and arms. All the blood of my body seemed to rush up into my arms and hands and
I thought that blood was oozing out from the ends of my fingers and pores of my
skin. But it was only a sensation caused by my flesh swelling above the irons
holding them. The pain was so intense that I thought I could not possibly
endure it … Sometime after one o’clock, I think, I fell into a faint. How long
I was unconscious I don’t know, but I don’t think it was long, for the men held
my body up or put the wicker steps under my feet until I came to. Then they
heard me pray and immediately let me down again. And they did this every time I
fainted – eight or nine times that day – before it struck five … The next
morning the gauntlets were placed on the same part of my arms as last time. They
would not fit anywhere else, because the flesh on either side had swollen into
small mounds, leaving a furrow between; and the gauntlets could only be
fastened in the furrow … I stayed like this and began to pray, sometimes aloud,
sometimes to myself, and I put myself in the keeping of Our Lord and His
blessed Mother. This time it was longer before I fainted, but when I did they
found it so difficult to bring me round that they thought that I was dead, or
certainly dying and summoned the Lieutenant … I was hung up again. The pain was
intense now, but I felt great consolation of soul, which seemed to me to come
from a desire of death … For many days after I could not hold a knife in my
hands – that day I could not even move my fingers or help myself in the
smallest way. The gaoler had to do everything for me.
Nicholas suffered all of
this and more, made all the worse by the injuries he had incurred through years
of manual labour. Yet he wouldn’t say anything. His two confessions stand from
those days.
Examination of Nicholas
Owen, taken on the 26th February, 1606.
He confesses that he has
been called by the name of Andrews, but doesn’t know whether he has been known
by the name Little John or Draper, or any other name other than Owen or
Andrews.
That he came to Mr
Abington’s house the Saturday before he was taken, but refuses to answer from
what place he came to the house from.
He denies that he knows
Father Garnett or that he has ever served him, or that Fr Garnett is known by
the name Mease, Darcy, Whalley, Philips,, Fermor, or any other name.
He denies that he knows a
Jesuit called Oldcorne or Hall, and also denies that he knows that Chambers
served Hall the Jesuit.
He confesses that he has
known George Chambers for six or seven years, and that he became acquainted
with him at an ordinarie in Fleet Street and that at this time he served Mr
Henry Drury of Sussex.
The confession of
Nicholas Own, taken on the 1st March 1606.
He confesses that he has
known and sometimes attended Henry Garnett, the Provincial of the Jesuits for
around four years.
He confesses that he was
at the house of Thomas Throgmorton called Coughton at the beginning of November
last year, when the Lady Digby was there and by the watch that was in town they
knew that Robert Catesby, Thomas Percy, and the rest of the gun powder plotters
were up in arms.
That on All Saints Day
last year, Garnett said Mass at Coughton House, and that at that Mass there
were around half a dozen people.
That Henry Garnett was at
Henlipp, the house of Thomas Abington some six weeks before he was apprehended
and Hall the Jesuit was there about three days before the house of Mr Abington
was searched.
That while he was staying
with Garnett, he made his fire and served him and that both he and Garnett hid
in a secret room below the dining room.
There was no new
information in these confessions and the authorities lost patience. The
tortures became more violent and on the next day, despite a plate they had
fitted around Nicholas to prevent the torture further damaging his pre-existing
injuries, Nicholas died, quite literally broken apart by the torture.
The authorities were now
in an awkward position. Not only had they been torturing illegally an already
injured man, but they had murdered him before extracting a confession. A cover
up was swiftly arranged with an inquest returning a verdict of suicide.
Many of the martyrs of
England died very public deaths on the scaffold of Tyburn, but Nicholas died as
he had lived; in secret. We have no memorable saying of his to meditate on –
his priest holes, which are his wordless prayers, are all that remain. Nicholas
in his agonised, furtive death had finished with all concealment and disguises
and was welcomed by Campion and all the martyrs into a fellowship where there
is no use for human language.
SOURCE : http://www.jesuit.org.uk/st-nicholas-owen-sj-biography-and-last-confession
A Great Deviser
of “Priests’ Holes”
During the deadly feuds
which existed in the Middle Ages, when no man was secure from spies and
traitors even within the walls of his own house, it is no matter of wonder that
the castles and mansions of the powerful and wealthy were usually provided with
some precaution in the event of a sudden surprise, viz. a secret means of
concealment or escape that could be used at a moment’s notice; but the majority
of secret chambers and hiding-places in our ancient buildings owe their origin
to religious persecution, particularly during the reign of Elizabeth, when the
most stringent laws and oppressive burdens were inflicted upon all persons who
professed the tenets of the Church of Rome.
In the first years of the
virgin Queen’s reign all who clung to the older forms of the Catholic faith
were mercifully connived at, so long as they solemnised their own religious
rites within their private dwelling-houses; but after the Roman Catholic rising
in the north and numerous other Popish plots, the utmost severity of the law
was enforced, particularly against seminarists, whose chief object was, as was
generally believed, to stir up their disciples in England against the
Protestant Queen. An Act was passed prohibiting a member of the Church of Rome
from celebrating the rites of his religion on pain of forfeiture for the first
offence, a year’s imprisonment for the second, and imprisonment for life for
the third. (In December, 1591, a priest was hanged before the door of a house
in Gray’s Inn Fields for having there said Mass the month previously.) All
those who refused to take the Oath of Supremacy were called “recusants” and
were guilty of high treason. A law was also enacted which provided that if any
Papist should convert a Protestant to the Church of Rome, both should suffer
death, as for high treason.
The sanguinary laws
against seminary priests and “recusants” were enforced with the greatest
severity after the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot. These were revived for a
period in Charles II’s reign, when Oates’s plot worked up a fanatical hatred
against all professors of the ancient faith. In the mansions of the old Roman
Catholic families we often find an apartment in a secluded part of the house or
garret in the roof named “the chapel,” where religious rites could be performed
with the utmost privacy, and close handy was usually an artfully contrived
hiding-place, not only for the officiating priest to slip into in case of
emergency, but also where the vestments, sacred vessels, and altar furniture
could be put away at a moment’s notice.
It appears from the
writings of Father Tanner that most of the hiding-places for priests, usually
called “priests’ holes,” were invented and constructed by the Jesuit Nicholas
Owen, a servant of Father Garnet, who devoted the greater part of his life to
constructing these places in the principal Roman Catholic houses all over
England.
“With incomparable
skill,” says an authority, “he knew how to conduct priests to a place of safety
along subterranean passages, to hide them between walls and bury them in
impenetrable recesses, and to entangle them in labyrinths and a thousand
windings. But what was much more difficult of accomplishment, he so disguised
the entrances to these as to make them most unlike what they really were.
Moreover, he kept these
places so close a secret with himself that he would never disclose to another
the place of concealment of any Catholic. He alone was both their architect and
their builder, working at them with inexhaustible industry and labour, for
generally the thickest walls had to be broken into and large stones excavated,
requiring stronger arms than were attached to a body so diminutive as to give
him the nickname of ‘Little John,’ and by this his skill many priests were
preserved from the prey of persecutors. Nor is it easy to find anyone who had
not often been indebted for his life to Owen’s hiding-places.”
How effectually “Little
John’s” peculiar ingenuity baffled the exhaustive searches of the
“pursuivants,” or priest-hunters, has been shown by contemporary accounts of
the searches that took place frequently in suspected houses. Father Gerard, in
his Autobiography, has handed down to us many curious details of the mode of
procedure upon these occasions – how the search-party would bring with them
skilled carpenters and masons and try every possible expedient, from systematic
measurements and soundings to bodily tearing down the panelling and pulling up
the floors. It was not an uncommon thing for a rigid search to last a fortnight
and for the “pursuivants” to go away empty handed, while perhaps the object of
the search was hidden the whole time within a wall’s thickness of his pursuers,
half starved, cramped and sore with prolonged confinement, and almost afraid to
breathe lest the least sound should throw suspicion upon the particular spot
where he lay immured.
After the discovery of
the Gunpowder Plot, “Little John” and his master, Father Garnet, were arrested
at Hindlip Hall, Worcestershire, from information given to the Government by
Catesby’s servant Bates. Cecil, who was well aware of Owen’s skill in
constructing hiding-places, wrote exultingly: “Great joy was caused all through
the kingdom by the arrest of Owen, knowing his skill in constructing
hiding-places, and the innumerable number of these dark holes which he had
schemed for hiding priests throughout the kingdom.” He hoped that “great booty
of priests” might be taken in consequence of the secrets Owen would be made to
reveal, and directed that first he should “be coaxed if he be willing to
contract for his life,” but that “the secret is to be wrung from him.” The
horrors of the rack, however, failed in its purpose. His terrible death is thus
briefly recorded by the Governor ot the Tower at that time: “The man is dead –
he died in our hands”; and perhaps it is as well the ghastly details did not
transpire in his report.
The curious old mansion
Hindlip Hall (pulled down in the early part of the last century) was erected in
1572 by John Abingdon, or Habington, whose son Thomas (the brother-in-law of
Lord Monteagle) was deeply involved in the numerous plots against the reformed
religion. A long imprisonment in the Tower for his futile efforts to set Mary
Queen of Scots at liberty, far from curing the dangerous schemes of this
zealous partisan of the luckless Stuart heroine, only kept him out of mischief
for a time. No sooner had he obtained his freedom than he set his mind to work
to turn his house in Worcestershire into a harbour of refuge for the followers
of the older rites. In the quaint irregularities of the masonry free scope was
given to “Little John’s” ingenuity; indeed, there is every proof that some of
his masterpieces were constructed here. A few years before the “Powder Plot”
was discovered, it was a hanging matter for a priest to be caught celebrating
the Mass. Yet with the facilities at Hindlip he might do so with comfort, with
every assurance that he had the means of evading the law. The walls of the
mansion were literally riddled with secret chambers and passages. There was
little fear of being run to earth with hidden exits everywhere. Wainscoting,
solid brickwork, or stone hearth were equally accommodating, and would swallow
up fugitives wholesale, and close over them, to “Open, Sesame!” again only at
the hider’s pleasure.
– text taken from Secret Chambers and Hiding Places, by Allan
Fea, London, England, 1904
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/a-great-deviser-of-priests-holes/
MAR 22 – ST NICHOLAS
OWEN, SJ, (D. 1606) – MARTYR, ARTIST, BUILDER OF HIDING PLACES FOR PRIESTS
Nicholas, familiarly
known as “Little John,” was small in stature but big in the esteem of his
fellow Jesuits. Born at Oxford, this humble artisan saved the lives of
many priests and laypersons in England during the penal times (1559-1829), when
a series of statutes punished Catholics for the practice of their faith.
Over a period of about 20
years he used his skills to build secret hiding places for priests throughout
the country. His work, which he did completely by himself as both architect and
builder, was so good that time and time again priests in hiding were undetected
by raiding parties. He was a genius at finding, and creating, places of safety:
subterranean passages, small spaces between walls, impenetrable recesses. At
one point he was even able to mastermind the escape of two Jesuits from the
Tower of London. Whenever Nicholas set out to design such hiding places, he
began by receiving the Holy Eucharist, and he would turn to God in prayer
throughout the long, dangerous construction process.
Nicholas enrolled as an
apprentice to the Oxford joiner William Conway on the feast of the Purification
of Blessed Mary, February 2nd, 1577. He was bound in indenture and as an
apprentice for a period of eight years and the papers of indenture state that
he was the son of Walter Owen, citizen of Oxford, carpenter. Oxford at the time
was strongly Catholic. The Statute of artificers determined that sons should
follow the profession into which they were born. If he completed his
apprenticeship it would have been in 1585. We know from Fr. John Gerard, SJ, a
biographer of Nicholas’, that he began building hides in 1588 and continued
over a period of eighteen years when he could have been earning good money
satisfying the contemporary demand for well-made solid furniture.
St Henry Garnet, SJ,
Jesuit Superior in England at the time, in a letter dated 1596 writes of a
carpenter of singular faithfulness and skill who has traveled through almost
the entire kingdom and, without charge, has made for Catholic priests hiding
places where they might shelter the fury of heretical searchers. If money is
offered him by way of payment he gives it to his two brothers; one of them is a
priest, the other a layman in prison for his faith.
Owen was only slightly
taller than a dwarf, and suffered from a hernia caused by a horse falling on
him some years earlier. Nevertheless, his work often involved breaking through
thick stonework; and to minimize the likelihood of betrayal he often worked at
night, and always alone. The number of hiding-places he constructed will never
be known. Due to the ingenuity of his craftsmanship, some may still be
undiscovered.
After many years at his
unusual task, he entered the Society of Jesus and served as a lay brother,
although—for very good reasons—his connection with the Jesuits was kept secret.
After a number of narrow escapes, he himself was finally caught in 1594.
Despite protracted torture, he refused to disclose the names of other
Catholics. After being released following the payment of a ransom, “Little
John” went back to his work. He was arrested again in 1606. This time he was
subjected to horrible tortures, suffering an agonizing death. The jailers tried
suggesting that he had confessed and committed suicide, but his heroism and
sufferings soon were widely known.
Why should priests need
hiding places? From 1585 it was considered treason, punishable by a traitor’s
death, to be found in England if a priest had been ordained abroad. Of Owen,
the modern edition of Butler’s Lives of the Saints says: “Perhaps no single
person contributed more to the preservation of Catholic religion in England in
penal times”.
The Gunpowder Plot of
1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the
Jesuit Treason, was a failed assassination attempt against King James I of
England and VI of Scotland by a group of provincial English Catholics led by
Robert Catesby. The last hope for the Catholics collapsed when peace was
made with Spain. They had hoped that Catholic Spain, as part of the bargain,
would have secured freedom for them to practice their religion. Relief of
Catholics was discussed, but James said that his Protestant subjects wouldn’t
stand for it. So there was to be no relief. In fact the screw was
tightened again.
Anglican bishops were
ordered to excommunicate Catholics who would not attend Anglican services –
this meant that no sale or purchase by them was valid, no property could
be passed on by deed or by will. The level of persecution was higher than
ever it had been under Elizabeth.
In the aftermath of the
Gunpowder Plot, 1605, the result of the frustration of a group of young
Catholics when, after dropping hints of toleration, James I made it clear that
there would be no relaxation of anti – Catholic legislation, the hunt for
priests accused of complicity centered on Hindlip House. This had been provided
with hiding places by Nicholas Owen which proved undetectable. He himself was
there and when he emerged after four days of hiding he was arrested.
At daybreak on Monday,
20th November, 1605, Hindlip House was surrounded by 100 men. They began to rip
the house to pieces. In the dark, early on Thursday morning, two men,
Owen and Bl Ralph Ashley, SJ, another lay-brother and cook, were spotted
stealing along a gallery. They said they were no longer able to conceal
themselves, having had but one apple between them for four days. They would not
give their names.
It was hardly likely that
Nicholas Owen, of all people, would not have been better provided. They
had twice been tipped off during the previous week that a search was imminent.
Possibly they hoped that in giving themselves up they would distract attention
from the two priests still in hiding, Fr Garnet, SJ, and Fr Oldcorne, SJ, still
hiding in Hindlip House, even to being mistaken for them. It was a ruse
that had worked before. It didn’t work now. The search was
intensified. The priests were in a hide which had been supplied with a
feeding tube from an adjoining bedroom, but the hiding place had not been
designed to be lived in for a week. After 8 days they emerged, were arrested
and identified. All four were taken to London.
Nicholas Owen, SJ, had
been in prison before; he had been tortured before. He was now taken to
the torture room, for the first time, on the 26th of February 1606. His
identity as a hide-builder seemed to have been betrayed. “We will try to get
from him by coaxing, if he is willing to contract for his life, an excellent
booty of priests”. Realizing just whom they had caught, and his value,
Secretary of State, Robert Cecil exulted: “It is incredible, how great was the
joy caused by his arrest… knowing the great skill of Owen in constructing
hiding places, and the innumerable quantity of dark holes which he had schemed
for hiding priests all through England.”
On March 2nd it was
announced that Nicholas Owen had committed suicide. People were simply
incredulous. It would have been impossible for one who had been tortured as he
had. The Venetian Ambassador reported home: “Public opinion holds
that Owen died of the tortures inflicted on him, which were so severe that they
deprived him not only of his strength but of the power to move any part of his
body”.
It seems certain that the
suicide story was a fiction concocted by a Government deeply embarrassed to
find itself with a corpse in its custody as a result of torture.
For those few grim days
in February, writes a historian, as the Government tried to break him, the fate
of almost every English Catholic lay in Owen’s hands.
In life he had saved
them, in death he would too: not a single name escaped him.
In opposition to English
law, which forbade the torture of a man suffering from a hernia, as he was, he
was racked day after day, six hours at a time. He died under torture without
betraying any secret – and he knew enough to bring down the entire network of
covert Catholics in England.
“Most brutal of all was
the treatment given to Nicholas Owen, better known to the recusants as Little
John. Since he had a hernia caused by the strain of his work, as well as a
crippled leg, he should not have been physically tortured in the first place.
But Little John, unlike many of those interrogated, did have valuable
information about the hiding places he had constructed; if he had talked, all
too many priests would have been snared ‘like partridges in a net’. In this
good cause the government was prepared to ignore the dictates of the law and
the demands of common humanity. A leading Councillor, on hearing his name, was
said to have exclaimed: “Is he taken that knows all the secret places? I am
very glad of that. We will have a trick for him.”
The trick was the
prolonged use of the manacles, an exquisitely horrible torture for one of
Owen’s ruptured state. He was originally held in the milder prison of the
Marshalsea, where it was hoped that other priests would try to contact him, but
Little John was ‘too wise to give any advantage’ and spent his time safely and
silently at prayer. In the Tower he was brought to make two confessions on 26
February and 1 March.
In the first one, he
denied more or less everything. By the time of the second confession, long and
ghastly sessions in the manacles produced some results (his physical condition
may be judged by the fact that his stomach had to be bound together with an
iron plate, and even that was not very effective for long). Little John
admitted to attending Father Garnet at White Webbs and elsewhere, that he had
been at Coughton during All Saints visit, and other details of his service and
itinerary. However, all of this was known already. Little John never gave
up one single detail of the hiding places he had spent his adult life
constructing for the safety of his co-religionists.
The lay brother died
early in the morning of 2 March. He died directly as a result of his ordeal and
in horrible, lingering circumstances. By popular standards of his day, this was
a stage of cruelty too far. The government acknowledged this in its own way by
putting out the story that Owen had ripped himself open with the knife given
him to eat his meat – while his keeper was conveniently looking elsewhere –
rather than face renewed bouts of torture. Yet Owen’s keeper had told a
relative who wanted Owen to make a list of his needs that his prisoner’s hands
were so useless that he could not even feed himself, let alone write.
The story of the suicide
was so improbable that neither Owen’s enemies nor his friends, so well
acquainted with his character over so many years, believed it. Suicide was a
mortal sin in the Catholic Church, inviting damnation, and it was unthinkable
that a convinced Catholic like Nicholas Owen should have imperiled his immortal
soul in this manner.”
Father Gerard wrote of
him: “I verily think no man can be said to have done more good of all
those who laboured in the English vineyard. He was the immediate occasion of
saving the lives of many hundreds of persons, both ecclesiastical and
secular.” -Autobiography of an Elizabethan
http://www.marysdowryproductions.org/Saint_Nicholas_Owen.html
http://www.medieval-castle.com/architecture_design/medieval_priest_hole.htm
-St Nicholas Owen, SJ,
being tortured in the Tower of London, 1606. Engraver Melchior Kusell – “Societas
Jesu ad sanguinis et vitae profusionem militans”
-engraving, “Torture of
Blessed Edward Oldcorne, SJ & St Nicholas Owen, SJ, by Gaspar Bouttats,
National Portrait Gallery, London. The Jesuit hanging from his wrists
with weights tied to his feet is suffering the “Topcliffe rack”. This
method of torture was ultimately what killed Nicholas Owen, as due to his
hernia, “his bowels gushed out with his life”.
Catholic stage magicians
who practice Gospel Magic, a performance type promoting Christian values and
morals, consider St. Nicholas Owen the Patron of Illusionists and Escapologists
due to his facility at using “trompe l’oeil”, “to deceive the eye”, when
creating his hideouts and the fact that he engineered an escape from the Tower
of London. Many Catholic builders, if they are familiar with him, may say
a prayer of intercession to St Nicholas Owen prior to beginning a new project.
“May the blood of these
Martyrs be able to heal the great wound inflicted upon God’s Church by reason
of the separation of the Anglican Church from the Catholic Church. Is it not
one — these Martyrs say to us — the Church founded by Christ? Is not this their
witness? Their devotion to their nation gives us the assurance that on the day
when — God willing — the unity of the faith and of Christian life is restored,
no offence will be inflicted on the honour and sovereignty of a great country
such as England.”
–from the Homily
of Pope Paul VI at the canonization of Forty Martyrs of England and
Wales, including St. Nicholas Owen, SJ, 25 October 1970.
Statua
di San Nicola Owen
San Nicola Owen Gesuita,
martire
>>>
Visualizza la Scheda del Gruppo cui appartiene
Oxfordshire, Inghilterra,
1550 circa - Londra, Inghilterra, 22 marzo 1606
Tra i quaranta martiri
inglesi canonizzati il 25 ottobre 1970 da Paolo VI figura un’abile falegname,
Nicholas Owen, non l’unico del mestiere ad avere scalato l’onore degli altari
in duemila anni. Il lavoro nobilita l’uomo e vissuto in unione con Dio lo eleva
alle vette della santità. La sua vicenda si colloca sotto il regno di Giacomo I
e la sua arte gli consentì, da religioso gesuita, di realizzare per molti anni
rifugi per nascondervi i sacerdoti perseguitati, come ricorda il Martirologio
Romano. Nicholas, nato ad Oxfordshire verso il 1550, era uno dei quattro figli
di Walter Owen, un carpentiere di Oxford, che gli trasmesse una straordinaria
abilità manuale. Uno dei fratelli divenne editore di libri cattolici, mentre
gli altri due divennero sacerdoti. Nicholas lavorò a stretto contatto con i
gesuiti per parecchi anni prima di entrare nel 1597 egli stesso, ormai adulto,
nella Compagnia quale fratello converso. Era un ometto piccolino e rimase zoppo
da quando un cavallo da soma gli cadde addosso rompendogli una gamba. Il nome
di Nicholas Owen compare la prima volta in relazione al più celebre confratello
gesuita Sant’Edmondo Campion, del quale pare fu servitore e ne prese le difese
quando questi venne accusato di tradimento. Erano infatti gli anni delle persecuzioni
anticattoliche, suscitate in Inghilterra dall’avvento dello scisma anglicano e
fomentate dagli stessi sovrani inglesi, interessati a salvaguardare l’unità
religiosa della nazione. John Gerard ebbe a scrivere di Owen: “Davvero penso
che nessuno abbia fatto più bene di lui tra tutti quelli che lavorarono nella
vigna inglese”. Fu crudelmente torturato per giorni sempre allo scopo di
estorcergli informazioni circa le case che ospitavano sacerdoti ed in cui si
celebrava la Santa Messa cattolica. Infine venne appeso ai polsi, con dei pesi
alle caviglie, e dopo sei il suo corpo si squarciò per la trazione. Non rivelò
mai nulla di compromettente, limitandosi a ripetere i nomi di Gesù e Maria.
Morì dopo una terribile agonia il 22 marzo 1606.
Martirologio Romano: A
Londra in Inghilterra, san Nicola Owen, religioso della Compagnia di Gesù e
martire, che per molti anni costruì rifugi per nascondervi i sacerdoti e per
questo sotto il re Giacomo I fu incarcerato e crudelmente torturato e, messo
infine sul cavalletto, morì seguendo gloriosamente l’esempio di Cristo
Signore.
Nicholas, nato ad Oxfordshire verso il 1550, era uno dei quattro figli di Walter Owen, un carpentiere di Oxford, che gli trasmesse una straordinaria abilità manuale. Uno dei fratelli divenne editore di libri cattolici, mentre gli altri due divennero sacerdoti. Nicholas lavorò a stretto contatto con i gesuiti per parecchi anni prima di entrare nel 1597 egli stesso nella congregazione quale converso. Era un ometto piccolino e rimase zoppo da quando un cavallo da soma gli cadde addosso rompendogli una gamba.
Il nome di Nicholas Owen compare la prima volta in relazione al più celebre Sant’Edmondo Campion, del quale pare fu servitore e ne prese le difese quando questi venne accusato di tradimento. Erano infatti gli anni delle persecuzioni anticattoliche, suscitate in Inghilterra dalla nascita della Chiesa Anglicana e fomentate dagli stessi sovrani inglesi, interessati a salvaguardare l’unità religiosa della nazione. Anche Nicholas venne arrestato nel 1581 ed incarcerato in condizioni assai dura. Quando fu liberato, sparì per un certo periodo, ma pare che poi dal 1586 al 1606 fu al servizio del padre provinciale gesuita, Henry Granet, con il quale viaggio molto, ospitato dai cattolici inglesi e costruendo rifugi per i missionari ricercati, opera quest’ultima in cui adoperò ogni sua energia ed in cui poté dimostrare tutto il suo ingegno.
John Gerard ebbe a scrivere di lui: “Davvero penso che nessuno abbia fatto più bene di lui tra tutti quelli che lavorarono nella vigna inglese”. Nel 1594 Nicholas andò a Londra con padre Gerard per l’acquisto di una casa, ma furono traditi da un tale che già aveva tentato di incastrarli. John Gerard e Nicholas Owen furono così arrestati e poi incarcerati separatamente. Nicholas fu torturato per ore insieme ad un suo compagno di prigionia, ma ostinandosi a non voler rivelare nulla fu rilasciato dietro il pagamento di cauzione. Continuò allora a frequentare Gerard e questi di conseguenza nel 1597 fu imprigionato nella Torre di Londra. Il suo discepolo fu però complice della sua spettacolare fuga e probabilmente fu anche lui a trovargli un sicuro nascondiglio.
Dalla fine del 1605, con la Congiura delle polveri, si accrebbero in Inghilterra i sentimenti di opposizione verso i cattolici, ma il segretario di stato venne a conoscenza del luogo ove Owen e tre confratelli si erano rifugiati, Hindlip Hill nel Worcestershire. Dopo una settimana di ricerche, Nicholas decise di uscire allo scoperto e consegnarsi volontariamente per tentare in tal modo di salvare la vita ai sacerdoti, ma i ricercatori lungi dal demordere scovarono comunque il nascondiglio. Padre Oldcorne ed Ashley vennero impiccati, sventrati e squartati nel 1606 a Worcester, mentre padre Garnet ed Owen vennero condotti a Londra.
Quest’ultimo fu crudelmente torturato per giorni sempre allo scopo di estorcergli informazioni circa le case che ospitavano sacerdoti ed in cui si celebrava l’Eucaristia. Infine venne appeso ai polsi, con dei pesi alle caviglie, e dopo sei il suo corpo si squarciò per la trazione. Non rivelò mai nulla di compromettente, limitandosi a ripetere i nomi di Gesù e Maria. Morì dopo una terribile agonia il 22 marzo 1606 presso Londra. Nicholas Owen fu beatificato nel 1929, insieme ad una folta schiera di martiri della medesima persecuzione, ed infine canonizzato il 25 ottobre 1970 da Papa Paolo VI insieme ai Quaranta Martiri d’Inghilterra e Galles.
Autore: Fabio Arduino
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/Detailed/93218.html
CANONIZZAZIONE DI
QUARANTA MARTIRI DELL’INGHILTERRA E DEL GALLES
OMELIA DEL SANTO PADRE
PAOLO VI
Domenica, 25 ottobre l970
We extend Our greeting first of all to Our venerable brother Cardinal John Carmel Heenan, Archbishop of Westminster, who is present here today. Together with him We greet Our brother bishops of England and Wales and of all the other countries, those who have come here for this great ceremony. We extend Our greeting also to the English priests, religious, students and faithful. We are filled with joy and happiness to have them near Us today; for us-they represent all English Catholics scattered throughout the world. Thanks to them we are celebrating Christ’s glory made manifest in the holy Martyrs, whom We have just canonized, with such keen and brotherly feelings that We are able to experience in a very special spiritual way the mystery of the oneness and love of .the Church. We offer you our greetings, brothers, sons and daughters; We thank you and We bless you.
While We are particularly pleased to note the presence of the official
representative of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Reverend Doctor Harry Smythe,
We also extend Our respectful and affectionate greeting to all the members of
the Anglican Church who have likewise come to take part in this ceremony. We
indeed feel very close to them. We would like them to read in Our heart the
humility, the gratitude and the hope with which We welcome them. We wish also
to greet the authorities and those personages who have come here to represent
Great Britain, and together with them all the other representatives of other
countries and other religions. With all Our heart We welcome them, as we
celebrate the freedom and the fortitude of men who had, at the same time,
spiritual faith and loyal respect for the sovereignty of civil society.
STORICO EVENTO PER LA
CHIESA UNIVERSALE
La solenne canonizzazione dei 40 Martiri dell’Inghilterra e del Galles da Noi or ora compiuta, ci offre la gradita opportunità di parlarvi, seppur brevemente, sul significato della loro esistenza e sulla importanza the la loro vita e la loro morte hanno avuto e continuano ad avere non solo per la Chiesa in Inghilterra e nel Galles, ma anche per la Chiesa Universale, per ciascuno di noi, e per ogni uomo di buona volontà.
Il nostro tempo ha bisogno di Santi, e in special modo dell’esempio di coloro che hanno dato il supremo testimonio del loro amore per Cristo e la sua Chiesa: «nessuno ha un amore più grande di colui che dà la vita per i propri amici» (Io. l5, l3). Queste parole del Divino Maestro, che si riferiscono in prima istanza al sacrificio che Egli stesso compì sulla croce offrendosi per la salvezza di tutta l’umanità, valgono pure per la grande ed eletta schiera dei martiri di tutti i tempi, dalle prime persecuzioni della Chiesa nascente fino a quelle – forse più nascoste ma non meno crudeli - dei nostri giorni. La Chiesa di Cristo è nata dal sacrificio di Cristo sulla Croce ed essa continua a crescere e svilupparsi in virtù dell’amore eroico dei suoi figli più autentici. «Semen est sanguis christianorum» (TERTULL., Apologet., 50; PL l, 534). Come l’effusione del sangue di Cristo, così l’oblazione che i martiri fanno della loro vita diventa in virtù della loro unione col Sacrificio di Cristo una sorgente di vita e di fertilità spirituale per la Chiesa e per il mondo intero. «Perciò - ci ricorda la Costituzione Lumen gentium (Lumen gentium, 42) – il martirio, col quale il discepolo è reso simile al Maestro che liberamente accetta la morte per la salute del mondo, e a Lui si conforma nell’effusione del sangue, è stimato dalla Chiesa dono insigne e suprema prova di carità».
Molto si è detto e si è scritto su quell’essere misterioso che è l’uomo : sulle
risorse del suo ingegno, capace di penetrare nei segreti dell’universo e di
assoggettare le cose materiali utilizzandole ai suoi scopi; sulla grandezza
dello spirito umano che si manifesta nelle ammirevoli opere della scienza e
dell’arte; sulla sua nobiltà e la sua debolezza; sui suoi trionfi e le sue
miserie. Ma ciò che caratterizza l’uomo, ciò che vi è di più intimo nel suo
essere e nella sua personalità, è la capacità di amare, di amare fino in fondo,
di donarsi con quell’amore che è più forte della morte e che si prolunga
nell’eternità.
IL SACRIFICIO NELL’AMORE
PIÙ ALTO
Il martirio dei cristiani è l’espressione ed il segno più sublime di questo amore, non solo perché il martire rimane fedele al suo amore fino all’effusione del proprio sangue, ma anche perché questo sacrificio viene compiuto per l’amore più alto e nobile che possa esistere, ossia per amore di Colui che ci ha creati e redenti, che ci ama come Egli solo sa amare, e attende da noi una risposta di totale e incondizionata donazione, cioè un amore degno del nostro Dio.
Nella sua lunga e gloriosa storia, la Gran Bretagna, isola di santi, ha dato al mondo molti uomini e donne che hanno amato Dio con questo amore schietto e leale: per questo siamo lieti di aver potuto annoverare oggi 40 altri figli di questa nobile terra fra coloro che la Chiesa pubblicamente riconosce come Santi, proponendoli con ciò alla venerazione dei suoi fedeli, e perché questi ritraggano dalle loro esistenze un vivido esempio.
A chi legge commosso ed ammirato gli atti del loro martirio, risulta chiaro, vorremmo dire evidente, che essi sono i degni emuli dei più grandi martiri dei tempi passati, a motivo della grande umiltà, intrepidità, semplicità e serenità, con le quali essi accettarono la loro sentenza e la loro morte, anzi, più ancora con un gaudio spirituale e con una carità ammirevole e radiosa.
È proprio questo atteggiamento profondo e spirituale che accomuna ed unisce questi uomini e donne, i quali d’altronde erano molto diversi fra loro per tutto ciò che può differenziare un gruppo così folto di persone, ossia l’età e il sesso, la cultura e l’educazione, lo stato e condizione sociale di vita, il carattere e il temperamento, le disposizioni naturali e soprannaturali, le esterne circostanze della loro esistenza. Abbiamo infatti fra i 40 Santi Martiri dei sacerdoti secolari e regolari, abbiamo dei religiosi di vari Ordini e di rango diverso, abbiamo dei laici, uomini di nobilissima discendenza come pure di condizione modesta, abbiamo delle donne che erano sposate e madri di famiglia: ciò che li unisce tutti è quell’atteggiamento interiore di fedeltà inconcussa alla chiamata di Dio che chiese a loro, come risposta di amore, il sacrificio della vita stessa.
E la risposta dei martiri fu unanime: «Non posso fare a meno di ripetervi che
muoio per Dio e a motivo della mia religione; - così diceva il Santo Philip
Evans - e mi ritengo così felice che se mai potessi avere molte altre vite,
sarei dispostissimo a sacrificarle tutte per una causa tanto nobile».
LEALTÀ E FEDELTÀ
E, come d’altronde numerosi altri, il Santo Philip Howard conte di Arundel asseriva egli pure: «Mi rincresce di avere soltanto una vita da offrire per questa nobile causa». E la Santa Margaret Clitherow con una commovente semplicità espresse sinteticamente il senso della sua vita e della sua morte: «Muoio per amore del mio Signore Gesù». « Che piccola cosa è questa, se confrontata con la morte ben più crudele che Cristo ha sofferto per me », così esclamava il Santo Alban Roe.
Come molti loro connazionali che morirono in circostanze analoghe, questi quaranta uomini e donne dell’Inghilterra e del Galles volevano essere e furono fino in fondo leali verso la loro patria che essi amavano con tutto il cuore; essi volevano essere e furono di fatto fedeli sudditi del potere reale che tutti - senza eccezione alcuna - riconobbero, fino alla loro morte, come legittimo in tutto ciò che appartiene all’ordine civile e politico. Ma fu proprio questo il dramma dell’esistenza di questi Martiri, e cioè che la loro onesta e sincera lealtà verso l’autorità civile venne a trovarsi in contrasto con la fedeltà verso Dio e con ciò che, secondo i dettami della loro coscienza illuminata dalla fede cattolica, sapevano coinvolgere le verità rivelate, specialmente sulla S. Eucaristia e sulle inalienabili prerogative del successore di Pietro, che, per volere di Dio, è il Pastore universale della Chiesa di Cristo. Posti dinanzi alla scelta di rimanere saldi nella loro fede e quindi di morire per essa, ovvero di aver salva la vita rinnegando la prima, essi, senza un attimo di esitazione, e con una forza veramente soprannaturale, si schierarono dalla parte di Dio e gioiosamente affrontarono il martirio. Ma talmente grande era il loro spirito, talmente nobili erano i loro sentimenti, talmente cristiana era l’ispirazione della loro esistenza, che molti di essi morirono pregando per la loro patria tanto amata, per il Re o per la Regina, e persino per coloro che erano stati i diretti responsabili della loro cattura, dei loro tormenti, e delle circostanze ignominiose della loro morte atroce.
Le ultime parole e l’ultima preghiera del Santo John Plessington furono appunto
queste: «Dio benedica il Re e la sua famiglia e voglia concedere a Sua Maestà
un prospero regno in questa vita e una corona di gloria nell’altra. Dio conceda
pace ai suoi sudditi consentendo loro di vivere e di morire nella vera fede,
nella speranza e nella carità».
«POSSANO TUTTI OTTENERE
LA SALVEZZA»
Così il Santo Alban Roe, poco prima dell’impiccagione, pregò: «Perdona, o mio Dio, le mie innumerevoli offese, come io perdono i miei persecutori», e, come lui, il Santo Thomas Garnet che - dopo aver singolarmente nominato e perdonato coloro che lo avevano tradito, arrestato e condannato - supplicò Dio dicendo: «Possano tutti ottenere la salvezza e con me raggiungere il cielo».
Leggendo gli atti del loro martirio e meditando il ricco materiale raccolto con
tanta cura sulle circostanze storiche della loro vita e del loro martirio,
rimaniamo colpiti soprattutto da ciò che inequivocabilmente e luminosamente
rifulge nella loro esistenza; esso, per la sua stessa natura, è tale da
trascendere i secoli, e quindi da rimanere sempre pienamente attuale e, specie
ai nostri giorni, di importanza capitale. Ci riferiamo al fatto che questi
eroici figli e figlie dell’Inghilterra e del Galles presero la loro fede
veramente sul serio: ciò significa che essi l’accettarono come l’unica norma
della loro vita e di tutta la loro condotta, ritraendone una grande serenità ed
una profonda gioia spirituale. Con una freschezza e spontaneità non priva di
quel prezioso dono che è l’umore tipicamente proprio della loro gente, con un
attaccamento al loro dovere schivo da ogni ostentazione, e con la schiettezza
tipica di coloro che vivono con convinzioni profonde e ben radicate, questi
Santi Martiri sono un esempio raggiante del cristiano che veramente vive la sua
consacrazione battesimale, cresce in quella vita che nel sacramento
dell’iniziazione gli è stata data e che quello della confermazione ha
rinvigorito, in modo tale che la religione non è per lui un fattore marginale,
bensì l’essenza stessa di tutto il suo essere ed agire, facendo sì che la
carità divina diviene la forza ispiratrice, fattiva ed operante di una
esistenza, tutta protesa verso l’unione di amore con Dio e con tutti gli uomini
di buona volontà, che troverà la sua pienezza nell’eternità.
La Chiesa e il mondo di oggi hanno sommamente bisogno di tali uomini e donne, di ogni condizione me stato di vita, sacerdoti, religiosi e laici, perché solo persone di tale statura e di tale santità saranno capaci di cambiare il nostro mondo tormentato e di ridargli, insieme alla pace, quell’orientamento spirituale e veramente cristiano a cui ogni uomo intimamente anela - anche talvolta senza esserne conscio - e di cui tutti abbiamo tanto bisogno.
Salga a Dio la nostra gratitudine per aver voluto, nella sua provvida bontà, suscitare questi Santi Martiri, l’operosità e il sacrificio dei quali hanno contribuito alla conservazione della fede cattolica nell’Inghilterra e nel Galles.
Continui il Signore a suscitare nella Chiesa dei laici, religiosi e sacerdoti che siano degni emuli di questi araldi della fede.
Voglia Dio, nel suo amore, che anche oggi fioriscano e si sviluppino dei centri di studio, di formazione e di preghiera, atti, nelle condizioni di oggi, a preparare dei santi sacerdoti e missionari quali furono, in quei tempi, i Venerabili Collegi di Roma e Valladolid e i gloriosi Seminari di St. Omer e Douai, dalle file dei quali uscirono appunto molti dei Quaranta Martiri, perché come uno di essi, una grande personalità, il Santo Edmondo Campion, diceva: «Questa Chiesa non si indebolirà mai fino a quando vi saranno sacerdoti e pastori ad attendere al loro gregge».
Voglia il Signore concederci la grazia che in questi tempi di indifferentismo
religioso e di materialismo teorico e pratico sempre più imperversante,
l’esempio e la intercessione dei Santi Quaranta Martiri ci confortino nella
fede, rinsaldino il nostro autentico amore per Dio, per la sua Chiesa e per gli
uomini tutti.
PER L’UNITA DEI CRISTIANI
May the blood of these Martyrs be able to heal the great wound inflicted upon God’s Church by reason of the separation of the Anglican Church from the Catholic Church. Is it not one-these Martyrs say to us-the Church founded by Christ? Is not this their witness? Their devotion to their nation gives us the assurance that on the day when-God willing-the unity of the faith and of Christian life is restored, no offence will be inflicted on the honour and sovereignty of a great country such as England. There will be no seeking to lessen the legitimate prestige and the worthy patrimony of piety and usage proper to the Anglican Church when the Roman Catholic Church-this humble “Servant of the Servants of God”- is able to embrace her ever beloved Sister in the one authentic communion of the family of Christ: a communion of origin and of faith, a communion of priesthood and of rule, a communion of the Saints in the freedom and love of the Spirit of Jesus.
Perhaps We shall have to go on, waiting and watching in prayer, in order to
deserve that blessed day. But already We are strengthened in this hope by the
heavenly friendship of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales who are canonized
today. Amen.
Copyright © Dicastero per
la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
SOURCE : https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/it/homilies/1970/documents/hf_p-vi_hom_19701025.html
i martiri
Elenco dei martiti con
relativa ricorrenza:
John Houghton, Sacerdote
certosino, 4 maggio
Robert Lawrence,
Sacerdote certosino, 4 maggio
Augustine Webster,
Sacerdote certosino, 4 maggio
Richard Reynolds,
Sacerdote brigidino, 4 maggio
John Stone, Sacerdote
agostiniano, 23 dicembre
Cuthbert Mayne,
Sacerdote, 30 novembre
Edmund Campion, Sacerdote
gesuita, 1 dicembre
Ralph Sherwin, Sacerdote,
1 dicembre
Alexander Briant,
Sacerdote gesuita, 1 dicembre
John Paine, Sacerdote, 2
aprile
Luke Kirby, Sacerdote, 30
maggio
Richard Gwyn, Laico, 17
ottobre
Margaret Clitherow,
Laica, 25 marzo
Margaret Ward, Laica, 30
agosto
Edmund Gennings,
Sacerdote, 10 dicembre
Swithun Wells, Laico, 10
dicembre
Eustace White, Sacerdote,
10 dicembre
Polydore Plasden,
Sacerdote, 10 dicembre
John Boste, Sacerdote, 24
luglio
Robert Southwell,
Sacerdote gesuita, 21 febbraio
Henry Walpole, Sacerdote
gesuita, 7 aprile
Philip Howard, Laico, 19
ottobre
John Jones, Sacerdote dei
Frati Minori, 12 luglio
John Rigby, Laico, 21
giugno
Anne Line, Laica, 27
febbraio
Nicholas Owen, Religioso
gesuita, 2 marzo
Thomas Garnet, Sacerdote
gesuita, 23 giugno
John Roberts, Sacerdote
benedettino, 10 dicembre
John Almond, Sacerdote, 5
dicembre
Edmund Arrowsmith,
Sacerdote gesuita, 28 agosto
Ambrose Edward Barlow,
Sacerdote benedettino, 10 settembre
Alban Bartholomew Roe,
Sacerdote benedettino, 21 gennaio
Henry Morse, Sacerdote
gesuita, 1 febbraio
John Southworth,
Sacerdote, 28 giugno
John Plessington,
Sacerdote, 19 luglio
Philip Evans, Sacerdote
gesuita, 22 luglio
John Lloyd, Sacerdote, 22
luglio
John Wall (Gioacchino di
Sant’Anna), Sacerdote dei Frati Minori, 22 agosto
John Kemble, Sacerdote,
22 agosto
David Lewis, Sacerdote
gesuita, 27 agosto
SOURCE : https://www.causesanti.va/it/santi-e-beati/40-martiri-di-inghilterra-e-galles.html
HOMILIA DO PAPA PAULO VI
Domingo, 25 de Outubro de
1970
Dirigimos a Nossa
saudação, em primeiro lugar, ao venerado Irmão, Cardeal Dom John Carmel Heenan,
Arcebispo de Westminster, aqui presente, e também aos Nossos Irmãos, Bispos da
Inglaterra, de Gales e de outros Países, que vieram a Roma para assistir a esta
grandiosa cerimónia, juntamente com muitos sacerdotes, religiosos, estudantes e
fiéis de língua inglesa. Sentimo-Nos feliz e comovido por os ter hoje à Nossa
volta. Representam, para Nós, todos os católicos ingleses, espalhados pelo
mundo e levam-Nos a celebrar a glória de Cristo nos Santos Mártires, que
acabámos de canonizar, com um sentimento tão vivo e tão fraterno que Nos
permite saborear, com singularíssima experiência espiritual, o mistério da
unidade e da caridade da Igreja. Saudamo-vos, Irmãos e Filhos, agradecemo-vos e
abençoamo-vos.
A Nossa saudação, cheia
de respeito e de afecto, também se dirige aos membros da Igreja Anglicana,
presentes a este rito. De modo particular, apraz-Nos sublinhar a presença do
representante oficial do Arcebispo de Canterbury, Reverendo Doutor Harry
Smythe. Como os sentimos perto! Gostaríamos que eles lessem no Nosso coração a
humildade, o reconhecimento e a esperança com que os acolhemos. E, agora,
saudamos as Autoridades e as Personalidades que aqui vieram representar a Grã-
Bretanha e, com elas, todos os Representantes de outros Países e de outras
Religiões. Associamo-los, de bom grado, a esta celebração da liberdade e da
fortaleza do homem, que tem fé e vive espiritualmente, ao mesmo tempo que
mantém respeitosa fidelidade à soberania da sociedade civil.
A solene canonização dos
Quarenta Mártires da Inglaterra e de Gales, que acabámos de realizar,
proporciona-Nos a agradável oportunidade de vos falar, embora brevemente, sobre
o significado da sua existência e sobre a importância que a sua vida e a sua
morte tiveram, e continuam a ter, não só para a Igreja na Inglaterra e no País
de Gales, mas também para a Igreja Universal, para cada um de nós e para todos
os homens de boa-vontade.
O nosso tempo tem
necessidade de Santos e, de modo especial, do exemplo daqueles que deram o
testemunho supremo do seu amor por Cristo e pela sua Igreja: «Ninguém tem maior
amor do que aquele que dá a sua vida pelos seus amigos » (Jo 15, 13).
Estas palavras do Divino Mestre, que se referem, em primeiro lugar, ao
sacrifício que Ele próprio realizou na cruz, oferecendo-se pela salvação de
toda a humanidade, são válidas para as grandes e eleitas fileiras dos mártires
de todos os tempos, desde as primeiras perseguições da Igreja nascente até às
dos nossos dias, talvez mais veladas, mas igualmente cruéis. A Igreja de Cristo
nasceu do sacrifício de Cristo na cruz, e continua a crescer e a desenvolver-se
em virtude do amor heróico dos seus filhos mais autênticos. Semen est
sanguis christianorum (Tertuliano, Apologeticus, 50,
em: PL 1, 534). A oblação que os mártires fazem da própria vida, em
virtude da sua união com o sacrifício de Cristo, torna-se, como a efusão do
sangue de Cristo, uma nascente de vida e de fecundidade espiritual para a
Igreja e para o mundo inteiro. Por isso, a Constituição sobre a Igreja
recorda-nos: «o martírio, pelo qual o discípulo se assemelha ao Mestre que
aceitou livremente a morte pela salvação do mundo e a Ele se conforma na efusão
do sangue, é considerado pela Igreja como doação insigne e prova suprema da
caridade » (Lumen
Gentium, n. 42)-
Tem-se falado e escrito
muito sobre este ser misterioso que é o homem: sobre os dotes do seu engenho,
capaz de penetrar nos segredos do universo e de dominar as realidades
materiais, utilizando-as para alcançar os seus objectivos; sobre a grandeza do
espírito humano, que se manifesta nas admiráveis obras da ciência e da arte;
sobre a sua nobreza e a sua fraqueza; sobre os seus triunfos e as suas
misérias. Mas o que caracteriza o homem, o que ele tem de mais íntimo no seu
ser e na sua personalidade, é a capacidade de amar, de amar profundamente, de
se dedicar com aquele amor que é mais forte do que a morte e que continua na
eternidade.
O martírio dos cristãos é
a expressão e o sinal mais sublime deste amor, não só porque o mártir se
conserva fiel ao seu amor, chegando a derramar o próprio sangue, mas também
porque este sacrifício é feito pelo amor mais nobre e elevado que pode existir,
ou seja, pelo amor d'Aquele que nos criou e remiu, que nos ama como só Ele sabe
amar, e que espera de nós uma resposta de total e incondicionada doação, isto
é, um amor digno do nosso Deus.
Na sua longa e gloriosa
história, a Grã-Bretanha, Ilha de Santos, deu ao mundo muitos homens e
mulheres, que amaram a Deus com este amor franco e leal. Por isso, sentimo-Nos
feliz por termos podido incluir hoje, no número daqueles que a Igreja reconhece
publicamente como Santos, mais quarenta filhos desta nobre terra, propondo-os,
assim, à veneração dos seus fiéis, para que estes possam haurir, na sua
existência, um vívido exemplo.
Quem lê, comovido e
admirado, as actas do seu martírio, vê claramente e, podemos dizer, com
evidência, que eles são os dignos émulos dos maiores mártires dos tempos
passados, pela grande humildade, simplicidade e serenidade, e também pelo
gáudio espiritual e pela caridade admirável e radiosa com que aceitaram a
sentença e a morte.
É precisamente esta
atitude de profunda espiritualidade que agrupa e une estes homens e mulheres,
que, aliás, eram muito diversos entre si em tudo aquilo que pode diferenciar um
grupo tão numeroso de pessoas: a idade e o sexo, a cultura e a educação, o
estado e a condição social de vida, o carácter e o temperamento, as disposições
naturais, sobrenaturais e as circunstâncias externas da sua existência.
Realmente, entre os Quarenta Mártires, temos sacerdotes seculares e regulares,
religiosos de diversas Ordens e de categoria diferente, leigos de nobilíssima
descendência e de condição modesta, mulheres casadas e mães de família. O que
os une todos é a atitude interior de fidelidade inabalável ao chamamento de
Deus, que lhes pediu, como resposta de amor, o sacrifício da própria vida.
E a resposta dos Mártires
foi unânime. São Philip Evans disse: « Não posso deixar de vos repetir que
morro por Deus e por causa da minha religião. E sinto-me tão feliz que, se
alguma vez pudesse ter mais outras vidas, estaria muito disposto a
sacrificá-las todas por uma causa tão nobre ».
E, como aliás também
muitos outros, São Philip Howard, conde de Arundel, afirmou igualmente: «Tenho
pena de ter só uma vida a oferecer por esta nobre causa». Santa Margaret
Clitherow, com simplicidade comovedora, exprimiu sintèticamente o sentido da
sua vida e da sua morte: « Morro por amor do meu Senhor Jesus ». Santo Alban
Roe exclamou: «Como isto é pouco em comparação com a morte, muito mais cruel,
que Jesus sofreu por mim ».
Como muitos outros dos
seus compatriotas, que morreram em circunstâncias análogas, estes quarenta
homens e mulheres da Inglaterra e de Gales queriam ser, e foram até ao fim,
leais para com a própria pátria que eles amavam de todo o coração. Queriam ser
e foram, realmente, fiéis súbditos do poder real, que todos, sem qualquer
excepção, reconheceram até à morte como legítimo em tudo o que pertencia à
ordem civil e política. Mas consistia exactamente nisto o drama da existência
destes mártires: sabiam que a sua honesta e sincera lealdade para com a
autoridade civil estava em contraste com a fidelidade a Deus e com tudo o que,
segundo os ditames da sua consciência, iluminada pela fé católica, compreendia
verdades reveladas sobre a Sagrada Eucaristia e sobre prerrogativas
inalienáveis do sucessor de Pedro que, por vontade de Deus, é o Pastor
universal da Igreja de Cristo. Devendo escolher entre a perseverança na fé e,
portanto, a morte por ela, e a conservação da própria vida, renegando a fé,
eles, sem um momento de hesitação e com uma energia verdadeiramente
sobrenatural, puseram-se da parte de Deus e enfrentaram alegremente o martírio.
O seu espírito era tão magnânimo, os seus sentimentos tão nobres, e a
inspiração da sua existência tão cristã, que muitos deles morreram a rezar pela
sua querida pátria, pelo Rei ou pela Rainha e, até, pelos responsáveis directos
da sua prisão, dos seus tormentos e das circunstâncias ignominiosas da sua
morte atroz.
As últimas palavras e a
última oração de São John Plessington foram exactamente estas: « Que Deus
abençoe o Rei e a sua família e queira conceder a Sua Majestade um reinado
próspero nesta vida e uma coroa de glória na outra. Que Deus conceda a paz aos
seus súbditos, permitindo-lhes que vivam e morram na verdadeira fé, na
esperança e na caridade ».
Santo Alban Roe, pouco
antes de ser enforcado, implorou: « O meu Deus, perdoa as minhas inumeráveis
ofensas, como eu perdoo os meus perseguidores ». E São Thomas Garnet, depois de
ter nomeado e perdoado aqueles que o tinham traído, encarcerado e condenado,
dirigiu uma súplica a Deus, dizendo: «Que todos eles possam obter a salvação e
chegar ao céu comigo».
Ao ler as actas do
martírio deles e ao meditar sobre o abundante material, recolhido com tanto
cuidado, sobre as circunstâncias históricas da sua vida e do seu sofrimento,
ficamos impressionado, de modo particular, com o que inequívoca e luminosamente
refulge na sua existência, e que, pela sua própria natureza, transcende os
séculos, conservando, portanto, toda a sua actualidade, e evidentemente,
sobretudo nos nossos dias, uma importância capital. Referimo-Nos ao facto de
estes filhos e filhas da Inglaterra e Gales terem vivido a sua fé com
seriedade, o que significa terem-na aceitado como regra única da sua vida e do
seu comportamento, haurindo nela uma grande serenidade e uma profunda alegria
espiritual. Com a simplicidade e a espontaneidade, aliadas ao precioso dote do
humor, tipicamente próprio do seu povo, com dedicação ao cumprimento dos seus
deveres, sem qualquer ostentação e com a franqueza característica de quem vive
com convicções profundas e bem radicadas, estes Santos Mártires são um exemplo
radioso do cristão, que vive realmente a sua consagração baptismal, crescendo
na vida que lhe foi dada no sacramento da iniciação, e que o da Confirmação
robusteceu tanto, que a religião, para ele, não é um facto marginal, mas a
própria essência de todo o seu ser e das suas acções, ao ponto de fazer com que
a caridade divina se torne a força inspiradora, efectiva e operante de uma
existência, totalmente dedicada à união de amor com Deus e com todos os homens
de boa-vontade, que encontrará a sua plenitude na eternidade.
A Igreja e o mundo de
hoje têm suma necessidade destes homens e destas mulheres, de todas as
condições e estados de vida: sacerdotes, religiosos e leigos, porque só pessoas
com tanta envergadura e santidade serão capazes de transformar o nosso mundo
atormentado e de lhe dar de novo, juntamente com a paz, aquela orientação espiritual
e verdadeiramente cristã a que todos os homens intimamente aspiram, embora
algumas vezes inconscientemente, e de que todos temos tanta necessidade.
Elevamos a nossa prece de
gratidão a Deus, por ter querido, com a sua próvida bondade, suscitar estes Santos
Mártires, cuja operosidade e sacrifício muito contribuíram para conservar a fé
católica na Inglaterra e no País de Gales.
Que o Senhor continue a
suscitar, na Igreja, leigos, religiosos e sacerdotes, que sejam émulos dignos
destes arautos da fé.
Queira Deus, com o seu
amor, que também hoje floresçam e se desenvolvam centros de estudo, formação e
oração, capazes, nas actuais circunstâncias, de preparar santos sacerdotes e
missionários, como fizeram, naqueles tempos, os veneráveis Colégios de Roma e
Valladolid e os gloriosos Seminários de Saint Omer e Douai, dos quais saíram
muitos dos Quarenta Mártires, porque, como disse um deles, Santo Edmund
Campion: « Esta Igreja nunca se enfraquecerá enquanto houver sacerdotes e
pastores que se preocupem com a própria grei».
Queira o Senhor
conceder-nos a graça de fazer com que, nestes tempos de indiferentismo
religioso e de materialismo teórico e prático cada vez mais difundidos, o
exemplo e a intercessão dos Quarenta Santos Mártires nos fortifiquem na fé,
robusteçam o nosso autêntico amor a Deus, à Igreja e a todos os homens.
E que o sangue destes
Mártires possa curar a grande ferida, aberta na Igreja de Deus, pela separação
da Igreja Anglicana da Igreja Católica. Não é só uma, dizem-nos estes Mártires,
a Igreja que Jesus Cristo fundou? Não foi este o testemunho que eles deram? O
seu amor à própria pátria dá-nos a certeza que, no dia em que for
restabelecida, com a graça de Deus, a unidade da fé e da vida cristã, a honra e
a soberania deste grande País, que é a Grã-Bretanha, não sofrerão qualquer
ofensa, assim como o devido prestígio e o grande património de piedade e de
bons costumes, próprios da Igreja Anglicana, não serão diminuídos quando esta
Igreja Católica Romana e este humilde « Servo dos Servos de Deus » puderem
abraçar a sempre dilectíssima irmã, na única e autêntica comunhão da família de
Cristo: comunhão de origem, comunhão de fé, comunhão de sacerdócio, comunhão de
regime e comunhão dos Santos, na liberdade e na caridade do Espírito de Jesus.
Talvez ainda tenhamos que
esperar e velar para merecer aquele dia feliz. Mas esta esperança agora é
confortada com a amizade celeste dos Quarenta Mártires da Inglaterra e do País
de Gales, hoje canonizados.
Assim seja!
Copyright © Dicastero per
la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
SOURCE : https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/pt/homilies/1970/documents/hf_p-vi_hom_19701025.html
Voir aussi : http://www.stnicholasowen.co.uk/LifeofNichOwen.htm
http://www.stnicholasowen.co.uk/articles.php?action=fullnews&id=10
http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/saint.aspx?id=1321
http://storage.canalblog.com/65/66/935152/73374012.pdf
