ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN NOVEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 30th of November
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.
ST CUTHBERT MAYNE, PRIEST AND MARTYR
Martyr, born at Yorkston, near Barnstaple, Devonshire (baptised March 20, 1543-4); died at Launceston, Cornwall, November 29, 1577.
He was the son of William Mayne; his uncle was a schismatical priest, who had him educated at Barnstaple Grammar School, and he was ordained a Protestant minister at the age of eighteen or nineteen.
He then went to Oxford, first to Saint Alban’s Hall, then to Saint John’s College, where he took the degree of M.A. in 1570.
AT OXFORD
He there made the acquaintance of Blessed Edmund Campion, Gregory Martin, the controversialist, Humphrey Ely, Henry Shaw, Thomas Bramston, O.S.B., Henry Holland, Jonas Meredith, Roland Russell, and William Wiggs. The above list shows how strong a Catholic leaven was still working at Oxford.
Late in 1570 a letter from Gregory Martin to Cuthbert fell into the Bishop of London’s hands.
He at once sent a pursuivant to arrest Blessed Cuthbert and others mentioned in the letter.
HE WENT ABROAD
Blessed Cuthbert was in the country, and being warned by Blessed Thomas Ford, he evaded arrest by going to Cornwall, whence he arrived at Douai in 1573.
Having become reconciled to the Church, he was ordained in 1575; in February 1575-6 he took the degree of S.T.B. at Douai University; and on April 24, 1576 he left for the English mission in the company of Blessed John Payne.
BACK IN CORNWALL
Blessed Cuthbert took up his abode with the future confessor, Francis Tregian, of Golden, in St Probus’s parish, Cornwall. This gentleman suffered imprisonment and loss of possessions for this honour done him by our martyr.
At his house our martyr was arrested June 8, 1577, by the high sheriff, Grenville, who was knighted for the capture. He was brought to trial in September; meanwhile his imprisonment was of the harshest order.
HIS IMPRISONMENT WAS OF THE HARSHEST ORDER
His indictment under statutes of 1 and 13 Elizabeth was under five counts: first, that he had obtained from the Roman See a "faculty", containing absolution of the queen’s subjects; second, that he had published the same at Golden; third, that he had taught the ecclesiastical authority of the pope in Launceston Gaol; fourth, that he had brought into the kingdom an Agnus Dei and had delivered the same to Mr Tregian. fifth, that he had said Mass.
LACK OF PROOF
As to the first and second counts, the martyr showed that the supposed "faculty" was merely a copy printed at Douai of an announcement of the Jubilee of 1575, and that its application having expired with the end of the jubilee, he certainly had not published it either at Golden or elsewhere. As to the third count, he maintained that he had said nothing definite on the subject to the three illiterate witnesses who asserted the contrary. As to the fourth count, he urged that the fact that he was wearing an Agnus Dei at the time of his arrest was no evidence that he had brought it into the kingdom or delivered it to Mr Tregian. As to the fifth count, he contended that the finding of a Missal, a chalice, and vestments in his room did not prove that he had said Mass.
HE WAS FOUND GUILTY
Nevertheless the jury found him guilty of high treason on all counts, and he was sentenced accordingly.
His execution was delayed because one of the judges, Jeffries, altered his mind after sentence and sent a report to the Privy Council. They submitted the case to the whole Bench of Judges, which was inclined to Jeffries’s view. Nevertheless, for motives of policy, the Council ordered the execution to proceed.
A STRANGE BRIGHT LIGHT
On the night of November 27 his cell was seen by the other prisoners to be full of a strange bright light. It is enough to say that all agree that he was insensible, or almost so, when he was disembowelled.
(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)
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