SAINT FEAST DAY FOR EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN APRIL Saints celebrated on the 20th of April WELCOME! BLESSED ROBERT WATKINSON, PRIEST AND MARTYR Robert Watkinson was born at Hemingborough, in Yorkshire, and had his education abroad, partly in the college of Douay, and partly in that of Rome: he went through his course of philosophy in the latter; but was obliged, for his health, to return to Douay to study his divinity: but the change of air made no great alteration in the state of his health; so that his superiors thought it best to present him to holy orders, and send him over into England. He was ordained priest at Arras, and on the third of April following, began his journey for England.  Whilst he was at London, under the care of a physician, he was betrayed by one John Fewether, a false brother, apprehended, arraigned and condemned, on the 17th of April, and executed on the 20th of the same month. He suffered with great constancy, at Tyburn, in the company of Mr Tichburn and Mr Page. There ...

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN APRIL Saints celebrated on the 20th of April WELCOME! BLESSED FRANCIS PAGE, PRIEST AND MARTYR  Francis Page,  S.J. , was born, according to the bishop of Chalcedon's catalogue, of a gentleman's family, at Harrow on the Hill, in the county of Middlesex; or as some others say, at Antwerp; which it seems, he pleaded at his trial, but was not regarded. He was brought up in the protestant religion, and to the study of the law; and was. for some time, clerk to a noted lawyer in town. Here he fell in love with a young gentle-woman, a catholic; and partly upon her account, partly by the persuasion of a catholic companion, was induced to make a more serious inquiry into matters of religion. His friend brought him to Father Gerard Thomson, his own confessor, who gave him full satisfaction in his doubts, and reconciled him to the church.  But this was not all; Mr Page not only become a catholic, but, by degrees, was quite weaned from earthly affection...

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN FEBRUARY Saints celebrated on the 17th of February WELCOME! BLESSED WILLIAM RICHARDSON, PRIEST AND MARTYR Colleges at the University of Douai, 16th century   William Richardson  (alias Anderson] was the last that suffered death on account of his priestly character in this reign [Elizabeth I.] Of whom thus writes the protestant historian Howes upon Stow, (p. 812): William Anderson, a seminary priest, was drawn to Tyburn, upon the 17th of February, and there hanged, bowelled, and quartered, for being found in England, contrary to the statute of the 27th of Elizabeth.  He was born at Vales, in Yorkshire; had his education abroad, first in Douay College, during its residence at Rheims; from whence he was sent into Spain, in 1592; and then in the colleges of Valladolid and Seville, in the latter of which he was made priest.  Other particulars of his apprehension, trial, and death, I have not found Five weeks after Mr Richardson's death, the...

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY Saints celebrated on the 17th of July WELCOME! SAINT MOTHER TERESA OF SAINT AUGUSTINE AND COMPANIONS, MARTYRS Pope Francis  has officially declared the 16 Discalced Carmelite nuns of Compiègne, executed during the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution, as saints by equipollent canonization*.  As of December 18, 2024, all sixteen sisters are officially recognised as saints of the Church.  Mother Teresa of Saint Augustine and her 15 companions were guillotined in Paris as they sang hymns of praise. The Martyrs of Compiègne were beatified on May 27, 1906. They were the first martyrs of the French Revolution to be so recognized by the Holy See. Their feast day is July 17. * Equipollent, or equivalent canonization is the proclamation of a saint by the pope without the formal process of canonization. It is not new;  St Peter Faber and  St Hildegard of Bingen were canonized in this way; the latter by Pope Benedict XVI. These ar...

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST Saints celebrated on the 24th of August WELCOME! VENERABLE NICHOLAS TICHBURN AND VENERABLE THOMAS HACKSHOT, MARTYRS In 1601, I find also two other catholics put to death by the penal statutes for rescuing a priest out of the hands of an officer.  These were Nicholas Tichburn [Tichborne], gentleman, born at Hartley in Hampshire, and Thomas Hackshot, layman, born at Mursley, in Buckinghamshire.  Dr Champney, who only makes mention of the latter in his manuscript history, relates the story in this manner: Mr Hackshot, a stout young man, understanding that Mr Thomas Tichburn , priest, prisoner on account of his character, was, upon some occasion, to be conducted by one only keeper or officer, through a certain street, planted himself there, waiting for their coming, and knocking the keeper down, gave the priest opportunity to escape. However, he himself made not such haste away, but the officer, who had been stunned with the blow, coming to h...

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH Saints celebrated on the 31st of March WELCOME! BLESSED THURSTAN HUNT AND BLESSED ROBERT MIDDLETON, PRIESTS AND MARTYRS Mr Thurstan Hunt [Thurston Hunt] was a gentleman by birth, born at Carleton-Hall, near Leeds, in Yorkshire, and brought up in Douay College during its residence at Rheims, where he was ordained priest by the cardinal de Guise, April 20, 1584; and sent from Rheims upon the English mission, in 1585.  His labours seem to have been chiefly in Lancashire; where, attempting, with some others, to rescue a priest, whom the officers were carrying to prison, he himself was apprehended, and being found to be a priest, was sent up to London, together with Mr Robert Middleton, (a gentleman of the same character, who had fallen into their hands about the same time,) who was a native of York, and a priest of the college of Seville, in Spain.  They were quickly sent back to be tried and executed in Lancashire, where they had chiefly best...