« The Tyburn Tree » (L'arbre de Tyburn,
gravure, 1680), appelé ainsi car le triple gibet en bois s'y dressa jusqu'en
1759. En 1571 fut
érigé le premier gibet permanent, de forme triangulaire,
sur lequel vingt-quatre personnes pouvaient être pendues à
la fois
Bienheureux Thomas Sherwood, martyr
Marchand drapier londonien, il se destina au sacerdoce au séminaire de Douai. Rentré à Londres pour assister son vieux père, il fut arrêté en pleine rue et pendu à Tyburn, en 1579.
Bienheureux Thomas Sherwood
Martyr en Angleterre (✝ 1578)
Né vers 1552, Thomas Sherwood fut arrêté, emprisonné et torturé pour avoir refusé de reconnaître la suprématie royale d'Élisabeth Iére.
À Londres, en 1578, le bienheureux Thomas Sherwood, martyr. Marchand drapier, il se destinait au sacerdoce lorsqu’il revint à Londres pour assister son père malade et âgé. Il fut dénoncé, arrêté dans la rue et condamné pour haute trahison, parce qu’il regardait le reine Élisabeth Ière comme excommuniée, et fut pendu à Tyburn.
Martyrologe romain
Blessed Thomas Sherwood
- 7 February
- 29 October as one of the Martyrs of Douai
Profile
A draper’s assistant and
a physically small man. Both parents had been arrested for clinging to their faith during a time when Catholicism was outlawed in England. Thomas aspired to the priesthood, and planned to go to Douai, France to study. Condemned to the Tower of London for his faith, he was tortured to obtain the location where
he had attended Mass; while in prison, he ministered to other prisoners. Thomas stated that he
considered Queen Elizabeth to be excommunicated from the Church, and that he denied her supremacy over
the Church; this caused his conviction for treason. Martyr.
Born
- hanged, drawn, and quartered on 7 February 1578 at Tyburn, London, England
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-thomas-sherwood/
The One Hundred and Five Martyrs of Tyburn – 7 February 1578
Blessed Thomas Sherwood,
layman
He was born in London,
and was one of a large family. He had returned from Douai in order to arrange
with his father about remaining at the seminary, and was one day talking in
Chancery Lane when the cry was raised, “Stop the traitor!” It was the unworthy son
of a Catholic lady with whom he was staying who thus betrayed him. Having
replied to the question put to him that he believed the Holy Father to be the
Head of the Church, the young seminarist was sent to prison on a charge of high
treason. In the vain attempt to force him to reveal where and by whom he had
heard Mass said, he was taken to the Tower to be cruelly racked. The only words
which escaped him were: “Lord Jesus, I am not worthy that I should suffer these
things for Thee, much less am I worthy of those rewards which Thou hast
promised to give to such as confess Thee.” He was then thrown into a dungeon
under the banks of the Thames, among the rats, where he endured hunger and cold
for three winter months.
On the Eve of Candlemas,
Sherwood was tried and found guilty of denying the royal supremacy, and the
barbarous sentence was passed. He is described as small, and he looked much
younger than his twenty-seven years; “being of his nature very meek and
gentle.”
– from The One Hundred and Five Martyrs of
Tyburn, by The Nuns of the Convent of Tyburn, 1917
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/the-one-hundred-and-five-martyrs-of-tyburn-7-february-1578/
Mementoes of the English Martyrs and Confessors – Blessed Thomas Sherwood, Layman, 1578
Article
His parents both
suffered much for the faith. His mother was a sister of Mr. Francis Tregian, in
whose house Blessed Cuthbert Mayne was taken. Their son Thomas, one of fourteen
children, followed his father’s trade of draper, intending however to cross to Douay
and become a priest. One day when walking in the streets of London he was
seized on the cry of “Stop the traitor!” raised by a youth Martin Tregony, a
virulent papist-hunter. His mother, Lady Tregony, was a pious Catholic, and
Sherwood frequently visited her, and Martin suspected him of assisting in
having Mass said in her house. At his condemnation Sherwood declared that the
Pope and not the Queen was the head of the Church in England, and was then most
cruelly racked to discover where he had heard Mass. He could not be induced,
however, to betray or bring any man into danger. After this he was cast into a
filthy, dark dungeon, swarming with loathsome and ferocious rats, and only left
it twice during three months to be again tortured on the rack. He had lost the
use of his limbs, was starving, and searched with pain, but no compromising
words passed his lips. He was executed at
Tyburn, 7 February 1578, aged twenty-seven.
MLA Citation
- Father Henry Sebastian
Bowden. “Blessed Thomas Sherwood, Layman, 1578”. Mementoes
of the English Martyrs and Confessors, 1910. CatholicSaints.Info. 21 April 2019. Web. 26
November 2020.
<https://catholicsaints.info/mementoes-of-the-english-martyrs-and-confessors-blessed-thomas-sherwood-layman-1578/>
Whitfield, Joseph Louis. "Bl.
Thomas Sherwood." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 26 Nov. 2020 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14697b.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Thomas M. Barrett. Dedicated to those souls who are suffering for their Faith.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. July 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
1579:
Thomas Sherwood, Catholic martyr
February 7th, 2012 Headsman
On this date in 1579, young Catholic layman Thomas
Sherwood was hanged at Tyburn, cut down while still alive, disemboweled, and
quartered.
This casualty of the Elizabethan era’s dangerous struggle
for the soul of
Britain had popped across to the continent to begin his studies under the
church’s auspices.
He had not yet completed them when, on a return trip,
a Protestant recognized him and got him locked up in the Tower, where Sherwood
was tortured for information about the whereabouts of the underground Catholic
Mass — but “he was brave beyond his years, no racking, no cross-examination
could make him name any one.”
Sherwood had the distinction during his confinement of
being one of the last earthly creatures to receive the (attempted) aid of
octogenarian fellow-Catholic William
Roper, Sir
Thomas More‘s son-in-law and first biographer. (Roper’s attempts to send
money to the imprisoned Sherwood were intercepted, however.)
Sherwood’s brother recalled of
the martyr,
He was of small learning, scarcely understanding the
Latin tongue, but had much read books of controversies and devotion, and had
used much to converse among Catholic priests, and by reason thereof, having a
good wit and judgment, and withal being very devout and religious, he was able
to give good counsel, as he did to many of the more ignorant sort, being much
esteemed for his virtuous life and humble and modest behaviour: besides God did
give a special grace in his [conversation] , whereby together with his good
example of life, he much moved and edified others. He was a man of little
stature of body, yet of a healthful and good constitution, and very temperate
in his diet.
After his first racking in the Tower (which was said
to be rigorous), being visited by a Catholic gentlewoman, he showed himself of
that joyful and comfortable spirit as she was astonished thereat. As also his
keeper with compassion giving him warning that he was to be racked again, he
was so little moved therewith, as merrily and with a cheerful countenance he
said these words: ‘ I am very little, and you are very tall; you may hide me in
your great hose and so they shall not find me; ‘ which the keeper did
afterwards report to divers, much marvelling at his great fortitude and
courage. He was about the age of twenty-seven years when he was martyred.
SOURCE : http://www.executedtoday.com/2012/02/07/1579-thomas-sherwood-catholic-martyr/
Beato Tommaso Sherwood Martire in Inghilterra
>>> Visualizza la Scheda del Gruppo cui
appartiene
m. Londra, 7
febbraio 1578
Etimologia: Tommaso = gemello,
dall'ebraico
Emblema: Palma
Martirologio Romano: A Londra
in Inghilterra, beato Tommaso Sherwood, martire, che, mercante di abiti, si era
già avviato verso il sacerdozio a Douai, quando, recatosi a Londra per
assistere il padre vecchio e malato, arrestato mentre passeggiava per strada,
fu condotto al martirio sotto la regina Elisabetta I.
Salita al trono d’Inghilterra nel 1558, succedendo alla sorellastra Maria la Cattolica, la regina Elisabetta I reintrodusse nel regno la religione scismatica dell’anglicanesimo, instaurato da suo padre Enrico VIII; scomunicata dal papa Pio V nel 1570, rispose con persecuzioni ai cattolici, facendo mettere a morte quanti non aderivano al suo ordine, vittima più illustre fu Maria Stuart regina di Scozia, cattolica.
Fra i tanti fedeli a Roma che morirono in quel periodo vi è anche il beato Thomas Sherwood, nato a Londra intorno al 1550, fu messo quindicenne ad aiutare il padre nel suo commercio di stoffe, finché ottenne dai genitori, ferventi cattolici, il permesso di recarsi nel collegio inglese di Douai in Francia, per studiare e divenire sacerdote.
Ma ancora a Londra in attesa di trovare i mezzi economici per andare in Continente, incontrò per strada il giovane Giorgio Martin, figlio della cattolica Lady Tregonwell, il quale all’opposto della madre era fanaticamente contrario al cattolicesimo, questi riconosciutalo si mise a gridare “al traditore! Fermate il traditore!”. Subito arrestato, fu condotto davanti al giudice Fteetwood, accanito anticattolico, che lo sottopose a lungo interrogatorio circa la sua religione.
Tommaso argomentò che essendo Elisabetta stata scomunicata dal papa non era più da considerarsi regina; tanto bastò per essere rinchiuso prima nelle prigioni di Gatehouse a Westminster e poi trasferito nelle terribili prigioni della Torre, ove fu spesso torturato per estorcergli i nomi di altri cattolici.
Processato a Westminster fu condannato alla pena capitale per aver negato la supremazia spirituale della regina. La sentenza fu eseguita nel famigerato Tyburn di Londra il 7 febbraio 1578.
Anche la madre, dopo la sua esecuzione, fu imprigionata per 14 anni morendovi
di stenti.
Beatificato da papa Leone XIII nel 1886.
Autore: Antonio Borrelli
