BL. ARTHUR BELL, PRIEST AND MARTYR - 11 DECEMBER

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN DECEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 11th of December

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. ARTHUR BELL, PRIEST AND MARTYR

⬅️ The Holy Martyrs of England and Wales

(alias Francis) Friar Minor and English martyr, born at Temple-Broughton near Worcester, January 13, 1590; died at London, December 11, 1643. 

When Arthur was eight his father died and his mother gave him in charge of her brother Francis Daniel, a man of wealth, learning and piety, who sent him at the age of twenty-four to the English college at Saint-Omer; thence he went to Spain to continue and complete his studies.

PROFESSOR OF HEBREW

Having been ordained priest, he received the habit of the Franciscan Order at Segovia, August 8, 1618, and shortly after the completion of his novitiate was called from Spain to labour in the restoration of the English province. 

He was one of the first members of the Franciscan community at Douai, where he subsequently fulfilled the offices of guardian and professor of Hebrew. 

HE WAS APPREHENDED BY THE GOVERNMENT TROOPS

In 1632 Bell was sent to Scotland as first provincial of the Franciscan province there; but his efforts to restore the order in Scotland were unsuccessful and in 1637 he returned to England, where he laboured until November, 1643, when he was apprehended as a spy by the parliamentary troops at Stevenage in Hertfordshire and committed to Newgate prison.

HE BROKE FORTH INTO A SOLEMN "TE DEUM"

The circumstances of his trial show Bell’s singular devotedness to the cause of religion and his desire to suffer for the Faith. When condemned to be drawn and quartered it is said that he broke forth into a solemn Te Deum and thanked his judges profusely for the favour they were thus conferring upon him in allowing him to die for Christ. 

The cause of his beatification was introduced at Rome in 1900. He wrote "The History, Life, and Miracles of Joane of the Cross" (St.-Omer, 1625). He also translated from the Spanish "A brief Instruction how we ought to hear Mass" (Brussels, 1624).

(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)