ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST
Saints celebrated on the 8th of August
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. JOHN FELTON, MARTYR
Blessed John Felton, martyr, date and place of birth unknown, was executed in St Paul’s Churchyard, London, August 8, 1570, for having, about eleven o’clock at night on the previous May 24, affixed a copy of the Bull of Saint Pius V excommunicating the queen to the gates of the Bishop of London’s palace near St Paul’s.
SHE GIVES US THE PARTICULARS
His daughter, Frances Salisbury, says that this exploit actually took place between two and three on the morning of the next day, on which that year the feast of Corpus Christi happened to fall.
The manuscript which preserves her narrative contains a blank where the age of her father should be recorded, but she gives us other particulars fully.
He was a wealthy gentleman of Norfolk extraction, and lived at Bermondsey Abbey near Southwark. He had married a lady who had been maid of honour to Queen Mary and playmate of Queen Elizabeth, and who was the widow of an auditor of the former queen. He himself "was a man of stature little and of complexion black".
THE COPY WAS DISCOVERED
Of the copies of the Bull which he had received at Calais he had given one to William Mellowes of Lincoln’s Inn, a special friend of his.
This copy was discovered on May 25, and Mellowes on the rack confessed to having received it from him.
HE UTTERED THE HOLY NAME OF JESUS
On May 26 he was arrested and taken to the Tower, where he was thrice racked, though he from the first confessed and gloried in his deed.
He was condemned on August 4 and executed four days later. He was cut down alive, and his daughter says that he uttered the holy name of Jesus once or twice when the hangman had his heart in his hand.
(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913 - 📷 St Paul's)
Comments
Post a Comment