BL. EVERALD HANSE, PRIEST AND MARTYR - 31 JULY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY

Saints celebrated on the 31st of July

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. EVERALD HANSE, PRIEST AND MARTYR 

⬅️ Forty Martyrs of England and Wales

Blessed Everald Hanse, Martyr, was born in Northamptonshire, educated at Cambridge, and his brother William, who had become a priest in April, 1579 tried to convert him, but in vain until a sharp attack of illness made him enter into himself. 

HIS FOREIGN SHOES GAVE HIM AWAY

He then went over to Reims (1580-1581), was ordained, and returned but his ministry was very short. In July he was visiting in disguise some Catholic prisoners in the Marshalsea, when the keeper noticed that his shoes were of a foreign make. He was closely examined, and his priesthood was discovered. 

HE SAID HE BELIEVED THAT THE POPE HAD THE SAME AUTHORITY NOW AS HE HAD A HUNDRED YEARS AGO

As yet there was no law against priests, and to satisfy the hypocritical professions of the persecutors, it was necessary to find some treason of which he was guilty. He was asked in court at the Newgate Sessions, what he thought of the pope's authority, and on his admitting that he believed him "to have the same authority now as he had a hundred years before", his words were at once written down as his indictment, and when he was further asked whether he wished others to believe as he did, he said "I would have all to believe the Catholic faith as I do." A second count was then added that he desired to make others also traitors like himself. 

"O HAPPY DAY!"

He was at once found guilty of "persuasion" (high treason). He was therefore in due course sentenced and executed at Tyburn on July 31, 1581. 

The martyr's last words were "O happy day!" and his constancy throughout "was a matter of great edification to the good". 

(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)