ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN DECEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 22nd 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. THOMAS HOLLAND, PRIEST AND MARTYR
[Blessed Thomas Holland was] an English martyr, born 1600 at Sutton, Lancashire; he was martyred at Tyburn, December 12, 1642. He was probably son of Richard Holland, gentleman, was educated at Saint Omer’s and subsequently in August 1621 went to Valladolid, where he took the missionary oath on December 29, 1633.
When the abortive negotiations for the spanish match were taking place in 1623, Holland was sent to Madrid to assure Prince Charles of the loyalty of the seminarists of Valladolid, which he did in a Latin oration.
HE WAS SENT ON THE ENGLISH MISSION
In 1624 he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus at Watten in Flanders and not long after was ordained priest at Liege. After serving as minister at Ghent and prefect at St Omer’s he was made a spiritual coadjutor at Ghent (May 28, 1634) and sent on the English mission the following year.
HE WAS AN ADEPT IN DISGUISING HIMSELF AND HE SPOKE SEVERAL LANGUAGES
He was an adept in disguising himself, and could speak French, Spanish, and Flemish to perfection but was eventually arrested on suspicion in a London street on October 4, 1642, and committed to the New Prison.
HE REFUSED TO SWEAR THAT HE WAS NOT A PRIEST
He was afterwards transferred to Newgate, and arraigned at the Old Bailey, December 7, for being a priest. There was no conclusive evidence as to this; but as he refused to swear he was not, the jury found him guilty, to the indignation of the Lord Mayor, Sir Isaac Pennington, and another member of the bench named Garroway.
On Saturday, December 10, Sergeant Peter Phesant, presumably acting for the recorder, reluctantly passed sentence on him.
HE WAS ALLOWED TO SAY MANY PRAYERS
On his return to prison great multitudes resorted to him, and he heard many confessions. On Sunday and Monday he was able to say Mass in prison, and soon after his last Mass was taken off to execution. There he was allowed to make a considerable speech and to say many prayers, and when the cart was turned away, he was left to hang till he was dead.
(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)
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