SAINT FEAST DAY 15 MARCH: BL. WILLIAM HART

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH

Saints celebrated on the 15th of March

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

 BL. WILLIAM HART, PRIEST AND MARTYR

⬅️ The English Martyrs

Raised a Protestant in Wells, in Somerset, Blessed William Hart became Catholic. Following his education at Lincoln College, Oxford, he went abroad to study for the priesthood at Douai, Reims, France, and Rome. 

HE WENT TO BECOME A PRIEST

After being ordained a priest in 1581, he returned to England and was assigned to Yorkshire. Among his associations back at home was Saint Margaret Clitherow, and he was present at the Holy Mass when William Lacy was captured and evaded arrest himself by hiding outside, in the muddy moat of York Castle, submerged in water. 

HE MINISTERED TO THE PRISONERS

For quite some time, Blessed William ministered to Catholic prisoners in York Prison. Eventually he suffered betrayal to the English government by an apostate from Clitherow's estate. Arrested on Christmas Day 1582, he was thrown into a dungeon and was hanged, drawn, and quartered at York on March 15, 1586.

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that we who celebrate the anniversary of the death of your holy martyr William Hart may by his intercession be delivered from all evils that threaten us. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.