ST POLYDORE PLASDEN, PRIEST AND MARTYR - 10 DECEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN DECEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 10th 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.

ST POLYDORE PLASDEN, PRIEST AND MARTYR

⬅️ Forty Martyrs of England and Wales

[Saint] Polydore Plasden, alias Oliver Palmer, born in 1563, was the son of a London horner. He was educated at Reims and at Rome, where he was ordained priest on December 7, 1586. 

He remained at Rome for more than a year, and then was at Reims from April 8 till September 2, 1588, when he was sent on the mission. 

HE WAS SENT ON THE MISSION

While at Rome he had signed a petition for the retention of the Jesuits as superiors of the English College, but in England he was considered to have suffered injury through their agency. 

He was captured on November 8, 1591, in London, at Swithin Wells‘s house in Gray’s Inn Fields, where Venerable Edmund Gennings was celebrating Mass. 

HE WOULD RATHER FORFEIT A THOUSAND LIVES THAN DENY THE CATHOLIC FAITH

At his execution he acknowledged Elizabeth as his lawful queen, whom he would defend to the best of his power against all her enemies, and he prayed for her and the whole realm, but said that he would rather forfeit a thousand lives than deny or fight against his religion. 

By the orders of Sir Walter Raleigh, he was allowed to hang till he was dead, and the sentence was carried out upon his body. 

(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)

➡️ Eighty-five Martyrs of England and Wales