Bienheureux Henri Heath
Prêtre et martyr en
Angleterre (+ 1643)
Né en 1600 dans le comté de Northampton en Angleterre, Henri Heath étudie à l'université de Cambridge avec assiduité. Converti à la religion catholique il part étudier au collège anglais de Douai et avant d'y entrer il rencontre les Récollets de cette ville et y reçut l'habit de Saint François et prit le nom de Paul de Sainte Madeleine. Il devient maître des études, lecteur de théologie morale puis en théologie scolastique. Plusieurs années plus tard en 1643 il désire retourner en Angleterre pour y annoncer sa foi et s'embarque à Dunkerque pour Douvres. Il marcha jusqu'à Londres où il fut arrêté, condamné à être pendu le 17 avril.
(d'après 'Memoires pour servir a l'histoire litteraire des dix-sept provinces des Pays-Bas, de la principauté de Liege, et de quelques contrées voisines' page 225)
À Londres, en 1643, le bienheureux Henri Heath, prêtre de l'Ordre des Mineurs
et martyr, condamné à mort et livré au bourreau, uniquement à cause de son
sacerdoce, sous le roi Charles Ier.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/11609/Bienheureux-Henri-Heath.html
Also
known as
Paul of Saint Magdalene
29 October as
one of the Martyrs
of Douai
22 November as
one of the Martyrs
of England, Scotland, and Wales
Profile
Raised in a Protestant
family, Henry became a minister in the Church of England. Convert to Catholicism.
Joined the Franciscan Friars
Minor Recollects, taking the name Paul of Saint Magdalene. Priest. Imprisoned, tortured and
eventually executed in
the persecutions of King Charles
I for the crime of being a priest. Martyr.
Born
c.1599–1600 in
Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England
hanged on 17 April 1643 in
Tyburn, London, England
10 November 1986 by Pope John
Paul II (decree of martyrdom)
22 November 1987 by Pope John
Paul II
Additional
Information
Mementoes
of the English Martyrs and Confessors, by Father Henry
Sebastian Bowden
The
One Hundred and Five Martyrs of Tyburn
books
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
other
sites in english
images
video
sitios
en español
Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
fonti
in italiano
Martirologio Romano, 2005 edition
MLA
Citation
“Blessed Henry
Heath“. CatholicSaints.Info. 17 October 2022. Web. 17 April 2023.
<https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-henry-heath/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-henry-heath/
Saint of the Day: Bl.
Henry Heath
Franciscan Martyred
during the English Reformation
Franciscan Priest and
Martyr (1599-1643)
His life
+ Henry was born in
Peterborough, England. After completing his studies at Corpus Christi College
in Cambridge, he was named librarian for the college.
+ In 1622, Henry was
received into the Catholic Church and entered the Franciscans in 1625. His
religious name was “Paul of St. Magdalen.”
+ Henry obtained
permission to return to England in 1643. He hoped to serve the country’s
persecuted Catholics.
+ On the night he arrived
in London, as he was resting in a doorway, he arrested and accused of being a
thief. Papers found in his cap revealed that he was a religious and priest and
he was subsequently tried and convicted after he confessed to being a priest.
+ As he was being taken
to the place of execution, he reconciled to the Catholic Church one of the
criminals who was to be executed with him.
+ On April 17, 1643, he
was hanged, drawn, and quartered; the executioners showed mercy and allowed him
to hang until he was dead.
+ Blessed Henry Heath was
beatified with 84 other martyrs of England and Wales in 1987.
For prayer and reflection
“Rejoice in the measure
that you share Christ’s sufferings. When his glory is revealed, you will
rejoice exultantly. Happy are you when you are insulted for the sake of Christ,
for then God’s Spirit in its glory has come to rest on you.”—1 Peter 4:13-14
Prayer
God our Father,
you have honored the Church with the victorious witness of Blessed Henry,
who died for his faith.
As he imitated the sufferings and death of the Lord,
may we follow in his footsteps and come to eternal joy.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God for ever and ever. Amen.
(from The Liturgy of the Hours: Common of One Martyrs [During the Easter
Season])
Saint profiles prepared
by Brother Silas Henderson, S.D.S.
SOURCE : https://aleteia.org/daily-prayer/monday-april-17-2/
Blessed Henry (Paul)
Heath
Dates: 1600 – 1643
John was born into the
noble Forest family, probably in Oxford, in 1471. At seventeen years of age he
joined the Observant Friars Minor in Greenwich. He completed his studies at
Oxford at the age of 26 and was ordained priest in Greenwich. Cardinal Wolsey gave
him the task of preaching in St. Paul's Cross Church and Queen Catherine of
Aragon chose him as her chaplain and then confessor. (The Greenwich friary was
attached to the Royal Palace of Greenwich). In this role he opposed the divorce
that King Henry VIII wanted to obtain from the Queen. In 1532, as Guardian of
the Greenwich friary, he spoke to the Friars of the plans the King had to
suppress the Order in England and denounced from the pulpit at St. Paul's Cross
Henry's plans for a divorce. In 1533 he was imprisoned in Newgate prison and
condemned to death.
In 1534 Henry did indeed
suppress the Observant Friars and ordered them dispersed to other friaries.
John was released from prison and by 1538 was in confinement in a Conventual
Franciscan friary, his death sentence having been neither commuted nor carried
out. From this confinement he could correspond with the Queen and he also wrote
a tract against Henry entitled: De Auctoritate Ecclesiae et Pontificis Maximi
(On the Authority of the Church and the Supreme Pontiff), defending the papal
primacy in the Church. He was denounced to the King for this tract and also for
refusing to swear the oath of loyalty demanded by Thomas Cromwell. When he
refused to admit that his resistance to the King was an error John was burned
over a slow fire on 22nd May 1538 in Smithfield Market. He died praying for his
enemies.
John Forest was the only
Catholic martyr to be burned at the stake, all the others were hanged. His cult
was approved by Pope Leo XIII on 9th December 1886. [1]
[1] F. Bracci and A.
Pozzebon. Frati Minori Santi e Beati. Rome: Postulazione Generale Ordine dei
Frati Minori, 2009. p. 228-229. Cf. Thaddeus. The Life of Blessed John Forest.
London: 1888.
SOURCE : https://www.friar.org/blessed-henry-paul-heath/
Ven. Henry Heath
English Franciscan and martyr, son of John
Heath; christened at St. John's, Peterborough, 16
December, 1599; executed at Tyburn, 17 April, 1643. He went to Corpus Christi
College, Cambridge, 1617, proceeded B.A. in 1621, and
was made college librarian. In 1622 he was received into the Church by George
Muscott, and, after a short stay at the English College at Douai, entered St.
Bonaventure's convent there
in 1625, taking the name of Paul of St. Magdalen. Early in 1643, he with much
trouble obtained leave to go on the English mission and crossed from Dunkirk to
Dover disguised as a sailor. A German gentleman paid for his passage and
offered him further money for his journey, but, in the spirit of St. Francis,
Heath refused it and preferred to walk from Dover to London, begging his way.
On the very night of his arrival, as he was resting on a door step, the master
of the house gave him into custody as a shoplifter. Some papers found in his
cap betrayed his religion and he was taken to the Compter Prison. The next day
he was brought before the Lord Mayor, and, on confessing he was a priest, was sent to
Newgate. Shortly afterwards he was examined by a Parliamentary committee, and
again confessed his priesthood.
He was eventually indicted under 27 Eliz. c. 2, for being a priest and into the
realm. At Tyburn he reconciled in the very cart one of the criminals that were
executed with him. He was allowed to hang until he was dead.
Sources
CHALLONER, Missionary
Priests, II, 175; COOPER, in Dict. Nat. Biog., s.v.; GILLOW, Bibl. Dict. Cath,
III, 239.
Wainewright,
John. "Ven. Henry Heath." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol.
7. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 17 Apr.
2023 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07169a.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Joseph P. Thomas. Dedicated to
Fr. George Kanatt M.C.B.S.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. June 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D.,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2021 by Kevin Knight.
Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07169a.htm
Mementoes
of the English Martyrs and Confessors – Venerable Henry Heath, O.S.F., 1643
Article
Born at Peterborough,
1600, a Protestant, educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, as librarian
of that college he studied religious questions. In comparing the Patristic
quotations of the Protestant Whitaker with those of the Catholic Bellarmine, he
found the latter so much more true and correct that he was drawn to the faith.
He now exposed the errors of Protestantism with such publicity and force that
the College authorities resolved on his expulsion and imprisonment. He fled
therefore to the Spanish embassy in London, then the asylum of distressed
Catholics, but was refused admittance. He next applied to Mr. George
Jerningham, a well-known Catholic, who, taking him for a spy, rejected him with
bitter reproaches. Thus destitute of friends and repulsed on all sides, he
bethought him of the devotion of Catholics to our Blessed Lady, in whom he had
hitherto but little faith. Turning to her as the Morning Star of the wanderer
and the hope of the afflicted, he besought her to take pity on him, and vowed in
return to devote himself to her service. When on a sudden the same Mr.
Jerningham, who had rejected him, came up and accosted him with kindness, took
him to a priest, Father Muscot, who confessed him and reconciled him to the
Church.
* * *
Father Heath’s own
conversion was a remarkable effect of Mary’s intercession, but more striking
yet was that of his aged father. A bigoted Protestant, he seemed proof alike
against arguments and prayers, and was now on the brink of the grave. To Our
Lady Father Heath turned, beseeching her aid for his father in his extreme
peril, when suddenly the old man, now fourscore, crossed the sea, arrived at
Douay, and was reconciled to the Church. Again, during Father Heath’s
guardianship, when his com munity was dying of want and disease, through Our
Lady’s prayers the sick recovered and their needs were relieved. And now, to
obtain the Superior’s consent to his going to England, he started on a
pilgrimage to her shrine at Montaigu in Brabant. At Ghent he found his petition
refused, but still completed his pilgrimage, and on the way back the same
Superior who refused now granted his request. From that time till his death
Father Heath seemed a changed man. His anxieties and fears were succeeded by a
holy calm, and supernatural joy manifested itself in his whole conduct, but
especially at Mass. He constantly extolled the glory of the Martyrs, as if he
had already a foretaste of their reward. Thus did Our Lady answer his prayers.
* * *
“Whereas I have learnt by
certain experience that all human consolation is subject to vanity, therefore I
determine to have alone most sweet Jesus in my mind and in all things to
meditate on His sweetness. O how sweet is Jesus, who for me, so vile a worm,
hath suffered so many things, and of such a sort! Sweet house, in which Jesus
doth vouchsafe to dwell with me! Sweet cell, in which I may always contemplate
Sweet Jesus! Sweet drink, sweet bread, which most Sweet Jesus hath provided for
my refreshment! Sweet Brothers, who have given them selves up so absolutely to
the service and love of Sweet Jesus! Sweet consolation, sweet dis course, by
which Sweet Jesus doth ease my afflictions! Sweet abjection, sweet
mortification, by which I may suffer something for Sweet Jesus! Sweet
afflictions, sweet pain, sweet chastisement, by which I am forced to call for
the help of Jesus! O how sweet are all the creatures who so exceedingly extol
the wisdom and power of my Sweet Jesus! Never, therefore, will I admit through
all toils and trials other than that sweet word. Thy will be always done, Lord
Jesus. Amen.” – Blessed Henry
* * *
“The very house and walls
of thy enclosure cannot but put thee in mind where and how thou hast lived
these many years, as if thou hadst been long already dead and buried in thy
habit from the world. How sweetly now canst thou say to thyself, O happy time, O
blessed years, that I have now passed in my Redeemer’s service! O blessed
prison! O happy chains and bonds of my vows which I have borne for sweet Jesus!
Here I have daily carried my cross, which has taught me the way of true
humility and patience. Here have I been broken of my own proper will and
judgment, which would have hindered me from being wholly resigned and obedient
to the will of God. Here have I been trained up in virtue, in the fear of God,
in the way to Heaven. Here I sweetly sing the praises of my Redeemer. Here have
I followed Him through every step of His passion. Here have I spent many a
groan to come to Jesus when He has hid Himself from me. And now my whole
pilgrimage is to be ended! Now I go to my sweet Beloved, no more trouble or temptation,
never to be separated from Him.” – Blessed Henry to a nun
MLA
Citation
Father Henry Sebastian
Bowden. “Venerable Henry Heath, O.S.F., 1643”. Mementoes
of the English Martyrs and Confessors, 1910. CatholicSaints.Info.
30 November 2020. Web. 17 April 2023.
<https://catholicsaints.info/mementoes-of-the-english-martyrs-and-confessors-venerable-henry-heath-o-s-f-1643/>
Blessed Paul (Henry)
Heath
Martyr, First Order
The son of a Protestant
family, Henry Heath was born at Peterborough, Northamptonshire, England, in
1599. Endowed with unusual gifts of the mind, he was sent at eighteen to the
University of Cambridge; and four years later he received the degree of bachelor
of arts and was placed in charge of the university library. Because of
religious misgivings, which became graver as he advanced in his studies, Henry
began to investigate the teaching of the Catholic Church. He soon saw how
utterly untenable Protestantism was on logical and historical grounds and
decided to embrace the old faith. Leaving Cambridge secretly, he went to a
Catholic nobleman in London; but, at first, he was taken for a spy. After
seeking the aid of the Blessed Virgin, however, he was well received and
introduced to a priest, who admitted him into the Church. The young convert
then left England and went to the English College at Douai.
Meeting the sons of St
Francis at Douai, Blessed Paul Heath was filled with the desire of joining
their ranks, but was discouraged by his confessor. Once more he implored the
help of the Blessed Virgin; and in May, 1624, he was clothed with the
Franciscan habit and received the name of Friar Paul of St Magdalene. Four
years later he was ordained a priest. Father Paul was highly esteemed for his
virtue as well as his learning. He held the important offices of professor of
moral and later dogmatic theology, spiritual director of the student clerics,
vicar, and then guardian. At the same time Blessed Paul Heath devoted himself
to the care of souls, making sinners and heretics the special object of his
priestly zeal. Many conversions were brought about through the prayers and
labors of Father Paul. Father Peter Marchant, who presided at the chapter of
1637, described Father Paul as “a mirror of meekness, integrity, and sincerity,
a beacon light of holiness, a model of religious observance among the brethren,
and in the science of theology a shining and glowing star among the luminaries
of the Douai University.
From the beginning of his
conversion Father Paul distinguished himself by his devotion to Our Lady.
Through his father had remained a bitter Protestant, Father Paul begged the
Blessed Mother to lead him into the fold of the Church, and a most remarkable
conversion followed. The eighty-year-old man crossed the sea to hunt up his son
at Douai; and not only did he make his peace with the old faith, but he joined
the Franciscans there as a lay brother.
In 1641 the Puritan
persecution of the Catholics in England broke out. It was directed particularly
against priests. Five Franciscans won the martyr’s crown, and Father Paul was
the third among these. In December, 1642, Blessed Paul Heath left Douai for
Dunkirk. There he had a sailor’s suit made out of his habit, and crossed the
channel to Dover. On the way to London, he was apprehended. After admitting
that he was a priest and making a fearless profession of faith, he was thrown
into Newgate prison. There he devoted much time to the spiritual comfort of his
fellow prisoners and of the many Catholics who came to visit him.
Several months Blessed
Paul Heath spent in prison, and in April he was condemned to be executed at
Tyburn. When the final preparations were made for his hanging, Father Paul
again and again invoked the names of Jesus and Mary. His last words were:
“O Jesus forgive me my
sins! Jesus, convert England! Jesus, have mercy on this country! O England, be
converted to the Lord thy God!”
Blessed Paul Heath died a
martyr’s death on April 27, 1643. At the moment of his death, the aged lay
brother at Douai, who was his father, saw a brilliant light ascending into
heaven and told his brethren that his son had just then died for the faith.
*from The Franciscan Book
of Saints, by Fr. Habig, OFM
SOURCE : https://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/blessed-paul-heath.html
The One Hundred and Five Martyrs of
Tyburn – 17 April 1643
Article
Venerable Henry
(Paul of Saint Magdalen) Heath, priest, O.F.M.
He was born at
Peterborough, of Protestant parents, and studied at
Oxford. His love for books, especially for those written by
the Fathers of the Church, proved the means by which he found the true Faith.
For a while he remained at Douai seminary before entering the Convent of the
Franciscans in that town, being attracted by their fervour and poverty. Here
for nineteen years he led a life of great penance, obedience and meekness, and
it was here that his old father, for whose conversion he had so much prayed,
came to seek admission to the fold of Christ and became a lay brother in this
convent of which his son was twice guardian.
Father Heath had long
been consumed by an ardent desire for martyrdom, and craved permission to
return to his country. This he at length obtained through the intercession of
Our Lady of Montagu, near Louvain. Having begged his way to London, he was immediately
arrested and his sentence promptly pronounced. From his dungeon he wrote to his
Superior: “What other thing can I desire than to suffer with Christ, to be
reproached with Christ, to die a thousand deaths that I may live for ever with
Christ….” On the way to Tyburn, having said his “Nunc Dimittis,” he ever
invoked the Name of Jesus. He died with intense joy and sweetness. “Jesus,
convert England, Jesus have mercy on this country; oh, England, be converted to
the Lord thy God!” were the words with which he breathed out his soul.
MLA
Citation
The Nuns of the Convent
of Tyburn. “17 April 1643”. The
One Hundred and Five Martyrs of Tyburn, 1917. CatholicSaints.Info.
22 January 2020. Web. 17 April 2023. <https://catholicsaints.info/the-one-hundred-and-five-martyrs-of-tyburn-17-april-1643/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/the-one-hundred-and-five-martyrs-of-tyburn-17-april-1643/
HEATH, HENRY (1599–1643), Franciscan, son of John
Heath, was baptised at St. John's Church, Peterborough, on 16 Dec. 1599 (Tablet,
22 Jan. 1887, p. 152). His parents were protestants, who sent him
in 1617 to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1621 (Masters, List
of Members of C. C. C. C. p. 26). He resided in the university for about
five years, and was appointed librarian of his college. The perusal of
controversial works inclined him to Roman catholicism, and coming to London he
obtained an introduction to George Muscott, a priest, who received him into the
Roman communion. Muscott sent him to the English College at Douay, where Dr.
Kellison, the president, admitted him as a convictor. Afterwards entering the
Franciscan convent of St. Bonaventure at Douay, he received the habit of St.
Francis in 1623, when he assumed the name of Paul of St. Magdalen, and at the
end of that year he became a professed member of the order. He was an inmate of
the convent for nearly nineteen years, leading a life of exceptional austerity.
He was appointed vicar or vice-president of his house in December 1630; its
guardian in October 1632, and again on 15 June 1634 for three years longer;
custos custodum, with the office of commissary of his English brethren and
sisters in Belgium in 1637, and on 19 April 1640, guardian and also lector of
scholastic theology (Oliver, Catholic Religion in Cornwall, p. 554). He
next obtained leave to come on the English mission, and after landing at Dover
proceeded to London on foot. Being penniless he lay down to rest at the door of
a citizen, who suspected that he was a shoplifter, and handed him over to the
custody of a constable. The discovery of some catholic writings concealed in
his cap revealed his character. He was convicted under the statute of 27 Eliz.
as a returned priest, and was executed at Tyburn on 17 April 1643.
He was the author of: 1.
‘Soliloquia seu Documenta Christianæ Perfectionis,’ Douay, 1651, 12mo;
translated into English ‘out of the sixth and last Latin edition,’ Douay, 1674,
24mo, reprinted, London, 1844, 12mo. 2. Thirty treatises on various religious
subjects, said to have been preserved in 1743 in St. Bonaventure's convent at
Douay.
An engraved portrait of
him in Mason's ‘Certamen Seraphicum Provinciæ Angliæ’ is reproduced in the
English translations of his ‘Soliloquies.’
His father, when a
widower and nearly eighty years old, went to Douay, was reconciled to the
catholic church in St. Bonaventure's convent, and became a lay brother in the
community. He died on 29 Dec. 1652.
[Addit. MS. 5871, f. 173;
Challoner's Missionary Priests, 1743, ii. 243; Dodd's Church Hist. iii. 118;
Gillow's Bibl. Dict.; Granger's Biog. Hist. of England, 5th ed. ii. 385; Harl.
MS. 7035, p. 190; Hope's Franciscan Martyrs in England; Lamp, 1858, i. 201;
Marsys, Hist. de la Persécution des Catholiques, iii. 117; Mason's Certamen
Seraphicum, p. 63; Rambler, August 1857, pp. 119, 120; Stanton's Menology, p.
163; Stevens's Hist. of Abbeys, i. 106–8.]
Dictionary of National
Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 25 « Heath, Henry » by Thompson Cooper
SOURCE : https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Heath,_Henry
Beato Enrico Heath (Paolo di Santa Maddalena) Sacerdote
e martire
>>> Visualizza la
Scheda del Gruppo cui appartiene
Peterborouyh,
Inghilterra, 1599/1600 - Tyburn, Londra, Inghilterra, 17 aprile 1643
Nacque nel 1599 da
famiglia protestante. Lui stesso divenne ministro del culto e rimase convinto
nella fede fino a quando una folgorante conversione lo portò al cattolicesimo.
Decise quindi di diventare sacerdote ed entrò a far parte dell’Ordine di San Francesco
(Frati Minori Recolletti) col nome di Paolo di Santa Maddalena. Condusse anche
una vita molto austera, ricca di privazioni e di penitenze, dedito alla
preghiera e alla predicazione. Il 7 aprile 1642 venne arrestato e si cercò di
farlo tornare alla sua antica fede. Enrico rimase fermo nella sua scelta e
rifiutò senza esitare di abiurare. Venne quindi condannato a morte e la
sentenza venne eseguita barbaramente, fu prima impiccato e poi straziato al
Tyburn nel 1643. Beatificato il 22 novembre 1987 da Papa Giovanni Paolo II.
Martirologio
Romano: A Londra in Inghilterra, beato Enrico Heath, sacerdote dell’Ordine
dei Frati Minori e martire, consegnato al carnefice a Tyburn sotto il re Carlo
I solo perché sacerdote.
